Actress and native Angeleno Troian Bellisario is here to spill all her best Los Angeles secrets. From Erewhon to In-N-Out, Troian shares her recommendations on where to eat, what to do, and how to speak the local lingo in the City of Angels.
Check out Troian's podcast, AD LUCEM. Listen to all nine episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon or wherever you get your pods.
Check out Troian's podcast, AD LUCEM. Listen to all nine episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon or wherever you get your pods.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Ripley's, believe it or not, when I was 10,
00:02 I was like on a Ripley's tear.
00:03 I made my parents take me there every weekend.
00:05 I'm such a nerd.
00:06 This is what you're discovering.
00:07 This is a chart of my cool factor.
00:09 It's like, just flooring.
00:12 Hi, I'm Troyen Bellisario,
00:14 and I'm gonna show you around LA.
00:15 We're gonna taste some of LA's iconic food.
00:17 I'm gonna give you a few tips about parking.
00:19 I'm gonna tell you some fun places to go,
00:22 and I'm also gonna teach you a little bit
00:23 of California lingo along the way.
00:25 (upbeat music)
00:28 LA has so much great food, and I'm gonna try some.
00:37 We have an insane spread here.
00:39 These are tacos from Leo's Tacos.
00:41 I have the vegetarian.
00:42 You've got the avocado on top, the shredded cabbage,
00:45 and lettuce.
00:46 You've got the tomatoes, the radish on the side.
00:49 Don't sleep on the radish.
00:50 I know a lot of people are gonna do that.
00:52 All of the tacos that you're gonna wanna be into
00:55 are gonna have the double mini tortilla under here,
01:00 and you're just gonna wanna get in there
01:02 and just shove it in your pie hole.
01:04 So,
01:05 yep.
01:09 Yep.
01:10 You're gonna wanna get some of that.
01:11 Generally, every neighborhood is gonna have
01:13 their classic taco truck that's gonna be central
01:16 to their neighborhood.
01:17 There is a taco stand in my neighborhood called Yucca's,
01:21 which actually has a James Beard Award.
01:23 And here's the weirdest part about Yucca's.
01:25 It has burgers, and the burgers apparently are,
01:29 and I say apparently because I don't eat meat,
01:31 but my husband does.
01:32 I always know when he's a little bit late
01:34 picking up our daughter because he stopped at Yucca's.
01:37 He calls it a gentleman's burger.
01:38 That just means it's not a part of a meal,
01:40 it's not a part of lunch, it's not a part of dinner.
01:41 It's just a gentleman's burger midday,
01:44 and he'll stop for that.
01:45 - So next up is, I mean, the words right here, it's Air One.
01:50 What is in this smoothie?
01:52 Does it cost maybe the mortgage of your home?
01:55 I'm gonna guess that there's some kind of spirulina in here,
01:58 like blue-green algae, probably like a coconut cream.
02:00 We're gonna have to taste this.
02:02 Wow, I'm gonna take a moment for this smoothie.
02:07 Because this smoothie, it's gonna set you back
02:09 a pretty penny, but it's gonna take you
02:10 really far in this town.
02:12 Next up, you have my personal favorite.
02:16 Some people will say it's Maru.
02:18 Some people will say it's Maru.
02:20 I couldn't tell you.
02:21 But it's Maru.
02:23 This is a matcha latte.
02:24 What mama likes is an iced oat milk matcha latte.
02:27 It's basically what got me through both of my pregnancies.
02:31 I'd say my children are like 80% matcha latte.
02:34 They also have the best chocolate chip cookie.
02:37 Did you okay?
02:41 Wait a minute.
02:42 They also have the best chocolate chip cookie,
02:45 and so what you're gonna wanna do,
02:48 especially if you're pregnant,
02:50 is just get yourself one of these every day.
02:53 It's lowering caffeine, that's why I say that.
02:57 But then you're gonna wanna not sleep on this cookie
03:00 the size of your head.
03:03 It's so good.
03:04 Now, you also see a number of baked goods on this tray.
03:07 And these are from one of the most incredible
03:10 market restaurants in LA.
03:12 These are from Giusta, and they've got every kind of bread
03:15 that you could imagine.
03:15 They've got bagels, they've got lox,
03:16 they've got whipped burrata.
03:18 Are you kidding me?
03:19 You could probably bathe in it,
03:21 and you wouldn't need to do any sort of plastic surgery
03:23 or like Botox.
03:24 Like, it's just gonna keep you young forever.
03:26 All of these baked goods are available for you.
03:28 I don't know what these are.
03:29 Let me guess for you.
03:30 You got like some marbled pound cake here.
03:32 I don't know what this is, but it's as pretty as a bow.
03:34 And then like, this is some kind of crumb thing.
03:37 When you come to LA, we can go to Giusta,
03:40 and we'll probably just do a repeat of this,
03:42 'cause it's definitely worth the whole trip.
03:44 It's worth the whole trip.
03:46 The last thing that you have is the classic In-N-Out.
03:49 You're gonna wanna get anything animal style.
03:52 And animal style is when they chop up the grilled onions,
03:56 and they mix it in with their secret sauce.
03:58 This is a chocolate milkshake.
03:59 I actually tend to get vanilla,
04:01 but I'm trying new things today, so.
04:04 Oh, it's so thick, I can't even suck it up with a straw.
04:07 Wow, I might have to change my milkshake order.
04:11 So you can see the animal fries.
04:13 It's like, holy, there's even cheese on them.
04:18 This is my face, these are animal fries.
04:20 This is my face, these are animal fries.
04:23 And then you have a classic In-N-Out cheeseburger.
04:26 This is a grilled cheese?
04:28 Animal style grilled cheese?
04:31 Oh, Lord.
04:31 All right, well, now I'm gonna make another mess,
04:33 so hold on.
04:34 By the way, if anybody wants to hire me
04:39 for burger commercials,
04:41 this is basically my audition tape for that.
04:44 Mm.
04:45 Uh-oh.
04:46 You got the onions, you got the secret sauce,
04:48 you got the pickles, and you have the tomatoes.
04:50 Right, you have a double-double,
04:51 which is two patties, two cheese.
04:53 Four by four, six by six, eight by eight,
04:55 16 by 16, wherever your gut leads you.
04:57 It's your gastric journey, you're on it.
04:59 Basically senior year,
05:02 when we were supposed to be on free period,
05:04 my friends and I would just be at In-N-Out
05:05 seeing who could eat the bigger burger.
05:11 This is the greater Los Angeles area.
05:14 Here's the Channel Islands.
05:15 If you have a day, don't sleep on going to Catalina.
05:18 It's just a ferry ride away.
05:19 There's some excellent camping.
05:20 There's a town called Avalon.
05:22 There it is, down there.
05:24 This nerd went to marine biology camp there.
05:27 I grew up in the valley,
05:29 which is going to be right around here.
05:31 I love it.
05:33 There's nothing here.
05:34 Don't worry about it.
05:35 It's just strip malls.
05:36 I now live east side.
05:38 So east side is gonna be kind of in here.
05:41 It's where the cool people are.
05:41 There's a lot of great stuff to do here.
05:43 Griffith Park is going to extend
05:45 from the east side to the west side,
05:47 and it's where the Hollywood sign is.
05:49 There's actually horseback riding.
05:51 My mom was an equestrian,
05:54 or as you might know it, horse lady.
05:55 She was a horse lady.
05:56 We liked to go horseback riding growing up,
05:58 and there's a lot of stables right along Griffith Park.
06:02 Great hiking in Griffith Park,
06:03 and in Malibu there's actually some really famous,
06:06 I think Jim Morrison once has a crazy cave up there.
06:10 If you really wanna go into the hills,
06:12 you're gonna get into some Charles Manson territory,
06:15 which is pretty trippy if that's for you.
06:17 I'm big into that.
06:18 Not killing people, not at all.
06:20 But the history of it, don't make this weird.
06:23 Hollywood and Highland is gonna be your epicenter
06:26 for the Chinese theater.
06:28 Ripley's, believe it or not,
06:29 when I was 10, I was on a Ripley's tear.
06:31 I made my parents take me there every weekend.
06:33 I'm such a nerd.
06:34 This is what you're discovering.
06:35 This is a chart of my cool factor.
06:37 It's like, mew, just flooring.
06:40 You also can see live performances here in LA.
06:44 I know that a lot of people think
06:45 that we just make TV and film here,
06:47 but there's a lot of great theater.
06:48 So some of the biggest places that you can go
06:50 in Culver City is the Kirk Douglas Theater,
06:53 which has some great stuff.
06:54 Downtown LA, that's where the Center Theater Group is,
06:58 and they have the Amundsen, and they have the opera,
07:01 the ballet, the Walt Disney Music Hall.
07:03 They have the Broad Theater, they have the MoCA,
07:05 like everywhere that you're gonna wanna go
07:07 to see great art.
07:08 Sort of towards Beverly Hills, a little bit further,
07:10 in a place called Westwood, is the Geffen Theater,
07:12 which is also a really wonderful little theater.
07:15 It's where I met my husband.
07:16 So if you ladies are out there
07:18 looking to meet your husbands, I don't know,
07:20 get a job at the Geffen Theater.
07:22 That's my advice to you.
07:23 When you are in California, you might be,
07:29 or in LA, probably, you might be in some restaurants
07:33 and some cafes, walking down Venice Boulevard,
07:36 and you might hear some of these terms,
07:37 and you might wonder to yourself,
07:38 what does it mean to be California sober?
07:41 So California sober is when you don't drink,
07:44 but you do smoke the weed.
07:46 June gloom.
07:47 June gloom is when you get to summer,
07:49 generally the month of June, and it is so gloomy.
07:53 It is like gray skies.
07:55 It might even be a little bit drizzly,
07:57 and a lot of people that are coming to LA for the summer
08:00 are like, what the hell is this weather?
08:01 I was told it would be bright sunshine,
08:03 and we're like, oh, it's June gloom,
08:05 and they're like, that's dumb.
08:07 It'll kinda get a little bit muggy.
08:08 It'll kinda get a little bit gray,
08:10 but don't worry, it'll totally pass.
08:12 Oh.
08:13 Oh yeah.
08:14 So, this is really important for you to know.
08:16 This is a whole California thing.
08:18 This is NorCal, this is SoCal, this is not just LA,
08:20 so it's really gonna serve you.
08:21 This is an affirmative, no yeah.
08:24 So when you say like, oh my God,
08:27 this whole semester's been so exhausting,
08:30 it's like no, yeah, I've been so tired.
08:32 Yeah, no is not the affirmative.
08:35 This is not, this is a negative.
08:37 Yeah, no, I'm not doing that.
08:39 Yeah, no.
08:40 Yeah, no.
08:41 Oh no, yeah, for sure.
08:43 That's an affirmative.
08:44 So if somebody's inviting you out for the weekend
08:46 and you're so excited, you're like,
08:47 oh no, yeah, for sure, I'm gonna be there.
08:49 Yeah, for sure.
08:50 Yeah, no, yeah.
08:51 You guys, it's pilot season.
08:55 Oh no.
08:56 Pilot season is this time,
08:58 it doesn't really exist anymore
09:00 since the advent of streamers,
09:01 but all of these different networks
09:05 that have these major shows would have pilot season.
09:08 And pilot season is when they take one script
09:11 and they decide we're gonna try to make the pilot,
09:14 which is the first episode of a show.
09:16 Depending on how that pilot would test,
09:18 the pilot would then be made into a series.
09:21 This is what happened with me with a pilot that I was on.
09:24 But generally, pilot season is really for actors.
09:28 And that's when you are going out on
09:32 sometimes three auditions a day.
09:33 And not all of these pilots will be made.
09:38 Definitely not all of them will go to series.
09:40 So you are memorizing generally 10 pages of dialogue
09:45 for each of these three different auditions.
09:47 And you're just running all over town
09:49 between the different studios.
09:51 Then you're going into the bathroom
09:53 and changing into dress like a lawyer.
09:55 And then you're changing into dress like a cop.
09:57 And then you're coming out and you're like,
09:59 "I'm a firefighter now, believe me."
10:00 And then at the end of the day, you get an email
10:03 and it's like, "You didn't get any of those,
10:04 "but here's five more auditions for the rest of the week."
10:07 Happy pilot season.
10:08 Around the first of the year, really kicks in February.
10:12 And then it'll end around May.
10:14 But now that streamers are happening,
10:18 pilot season's just all year round, guys.
10:20 So enjoy.
10:21 Ah, California roll.
10:24 So this is really fun.
10:26 California roll, because it's actually two different things.
10:29 The California roll is, this is really gross.
10:31 It's imitation crab with mayo.
10:34 And it's just wrapped up pretending to be sushi.
10:37 But what you might not know about a California roll
10:40 is that it's also a driving technique in California
10:44 that's illegal.
10:44 So I'm not advising you to do it.
10:46 But a California roll is when you don't stop at a stop sign.
10:51 You slow down and then you keep going.
10:54 You might get pulled over if there's a cop on the street
10:57 and he's like, "You didn't stop.
10:59 "You California rolled it."
11:01 There you go.
11:02 [upbeat music]
11:05 Oh!
11:06 Wow!
11:08 This is, did you just Photoshop this or is this real?
11:13 - No, that's a real sign.
11:14 That's a real sign.
11:15 - Oh my God.
11:17 We have notoriously confusing street signs.
11:19 We are working on our transportation system.
11:21 There's great buses you can take.
11:23 We do have a tiny bit of a metro.
11:25 You can get some places,
11:26 but you're probably gonna need to park your car.
11:28 So come with me on a journey of the senses.
11:31 This top one, it's pretty simple, straightforward.
11:34 This is no parking, 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. on weekdays
11:37 'cause there's street cleaning.
11:38 I think you guys get that.
11:39 Let's go down to the next one.
11:40 Tow away on school days.
11:42 So there's no stopping.
11:44 Additionally, Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
11:48 which is also weekdays.
11:50 Like why couldn't you just say that?
11:52 Okay, now there's a school days exemption.
11:54 This is fun.
11:55 Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
11:57 Culver City United School District permits.
12:00 We're gonna have permits.
12:01 So that's probably if you go to school here,
12:03 if you've applied for a permit,
12:04 if you work here, don't not display your permit.
12:07 They will take your car straight up.
12:09 I can't believe you guys didn't Photoshop this.
12:11 This is absolutely ludicrous.
12:12 So on school days again,
12:14 one hour parking from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
12:16 So that means that for those two hours,
12:18 if you park here longer than one hour,
12:21 your ass is gonna get towed.
12:23 District permits exempt.
12:24 That means that not only if you have a CCUSD permit,
12:27 but if you have a permit for this district,
12:30 you can have your car parked here during this time
12:33 for longer than one hour.
12:35 That's probably the full two hours.
12:37 And you won't get your car towed.
12:38 Tow away for one hour on non-school days,
12:41 which are Sunday at midnight through Friday.
12:45 That doesn't make any sense.
12:47 There's even more.
12:49 No stopping Friday through Sunday,
12:51 6 p.m. through 12 midnight.
12:54 Just don't park here.
12:55 Just don't.
12:57 Come here, stay away, don't come to L.A., or park here.
13:00 Enjoy what you're doing for an hour in Culver City.
13:03 So that's how you should make your way around L.A.
13:05 Hope you have a great time.
13:07 [upbeat music]
13:09 (upbeat music)