Southern California natives don’t realize how lucky they are. From the mountains, to the desert, to the ocean. Hollywood, Orange County, and Beverly Hills. Almost everything to see or do is about an hour away, without traffic. The movie industry was born here, California car-culture of the 1950s transformed the global automotive industry, and the laid-back California lifestyle inspired groups like the Beach Boys and the Eagles to create a whole genre of music. Disneyland and McDonald’s are American Icons known across the globe, and both are products of Southern California. Millions of people come from the four corners of the earth every year to visit this oasis that we call home. They come here to experience a place and a culture that is definitively American, but at the same time uniquely Southern Californian.
The great majority of tourists and many SoCal Natives don’t realize that Southern California, itself, is an international theme park, that a single tank of gas is all you need to take a trip around the world, right here in our own backyard. We’re not talking about tourist spots, such as Chinatown and Little Tokyo, or the Americanized versions of world culture you find in Downtown Disney or Universal CityWalk. We’re talking ethnic neighborhoods hiding in plain sight, where first, second, and even third generation immigrants congregate and keep their cultures alive and almost untouched.
A word of caution. Truly experiencing another country’s culture requires going native, and that takes a lot more time than the average American “tourist” can afford to commit. Some of us have actually traveled around the world and done the “tourist” trip, which is a sanitized (a five-star resort in a Third World country is definitely not going “native”) version of travel that exposes us to none of the actual culture that makes other countries unique. This is NOT that kind of trip.
Some of these places will shock the uninitiated (think huge, decapitated fish heads gulping spasmodically on a table in the middle of a market). Maybe even seem unwelcoming (many local restaurants don’t even have English signage or menus), but this is a true peek into foreign cultures. These are places that cater specifically to people of a singular culture. They do not operate with the average American as their consumer, and that is what makes them so enlightening, enjoyable, and authentic. After 10 minutes in most of these places, you forget that you are still in California.
So, leave the international food courts behind, and savor the cultures of foreign lands — like a native — by hitting these SoCal ethnic enclaves. This is as close as you’re going to get to actually traveling the world without hopping on a plane, and you can drink the water.
