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Anthony Bourdain’s New Video Series Dives Into LA’s Dining Enclaves

From Taste of Tehran to LASA, he’s everywhere

Bourdain dining at LASA
Parts Unknown

Anthony Bourdain is showing off Los Angeles again, this time in a series of videos produced for his Parts Unknown website, in partnership with car brand Land Rover. The sub-10-minute episodes explore a variety of LA neighborhoods, from Tehrangeles to Chinatown and well beyond.

The overall six-episode micro-series is dubbed Little Los Angeles, and is meant specifically to be an exploration of communities (and their food) across the city, with a particular focus on places and cuisines that may not get a lot of national love. Everyone knows and has been extolling the virtues of greater Southern California’s Chinese food and Mexican food — rightfully so — but here Bourdain spends time in Little Armenia, Santa Monica (where the British expats live), and at Westlake’s bustling street food bazaars.

The Tehrangeles episode focuses mostly on the restaurant Taste of Tehran, while in Chinatown Bourdain dines on lumpia and more at progressive Filipino spot LASA inside Far East Plaza. There’s a Land Rover branding element underpinning the whole series, of course, but don’t let that deter from the gorgeous shots of some of LA’s most unsung areas.

Street vendor in Sixth and Bonnie Brae, Los Angeles.
A street vendor off Bonnie Brae
Wonho Frank Lee

Of course, this is far from the first time Bourdain has spent time in Los Angeles, eating and smiling. He’s a well-documented lover of all things Koreatown, and last year fell for LA’s modern Mexican food at Broken Spanish.

He loves the smaller stuff too, as evidenced by this latest series. As Bourdain says himself, sitting in the back of a vehicle en route to Sahag’s Basturma, where old Counter Intelligence articles hang under dusty frames on the walls, “This is Jonathan Gold country.” Check out the full series over at Parts Unknown.

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