Day 19: To Live & Die (Laughing) In L.A.
Eager to escape the depressing Morro Bay, I started toward Hearst Castle for a tour, but discovered that tickets started at $24 and, since I am notoriously cheap when it comes to such things, decided not to spend what relatively meager cash I had on that excursion. Also, the weather was terrible, so the exterior wouldn’t look nearly as attractive as it does in the photos on their website. So I pointed the car south again, en route to La Tolteca Tortilla Factory in Santa Barbara, an utterly fantastic Mexican place recommended by my friend Brad, who I didn’t get a chance to hook up with in San Francisco due to my general illness.
The people working at La Tolteca were some of the friendliest I’ve encountered on this trip, and the tacos were one of the best meals. Nothing more than expertly cooked meats chopped and presented simply on soft corn tortillas, with a bowl of chopped onion and parsley on the side to compliment the simple yet rich flavors of the al pastor (BBQ pork), carne asada (grilled steak), and grilled chicken.
Sated, I pressed on down the 101 toward Los Angeles, arriving smack in the middle of rush hour, but, miraculously, wasn’t delayed more than 10-15 minutes on my way to my hotel. After sorting out the lack of Internet connectivity in my room, I hit the road in search of dinner.
I’ve been following a few rules on this trip, the primary being that I won’t eat or drink at a national chain restaurant unless there are no other options available. I’ve been successful so far—I don’t count using wifi at Starbucks, nor visiting In-N-Out Burger or Peet’s Coffee & Tea, because I can’t get them within several states of my home—with one exception, when I was in Price, Utah, on my way to Salt Lake City, and since it was already late, the only alternative to McDonald’s was Sonic.
A few tools have aided me in this endeavor; some kind soul created Saved Searches for the Dash Express GPS of all the restaurants visited on the Food Network’s “Feasting On Asphalt“—my favorite food show ever—and “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives“—a show to which I am indifferent, but which has good tips occasionally. I also subscribed to Roadfood.com, the site owned by Jane and Michael Stern, authors of the book of the same name.
Armed with that wealth of information, I decided that I’d trust Alton Brown more than the others, as he—and Masaharu Morimoto—is my culinary spirit guide, so a quick search turned up Fosters Freeze and Dino’s Hamburgers closeby.
At Fosters, I ordered a chocolate malt, then headed to Dino’s for a cheeseburger, which, as it turns out, is bigger than a Burger King Whopper (but infinitely better) and comes with a huge order of french fries and a small drink for $3.50. Unbelievable.
The only other thing I had planned for the evening was a show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, a venue for comedy and improv. I didn’t care what the show was; I just wanted to visit the theatre, since so many of the podcasts I listen to either record there, have special shows there, or have some involvement with the theatre, like Never Not Funny, I Love Movies (iTunes link), Comedy & Everything Else and more. Lucky for me, the 11PM show was The Benson Interruption, hosted by Doug Benson, most famous for his appearances on VH1’s talking heads shows (Best Week Ever, I Love The WhateverDecadeItIs), and the cover was only $5.
What did I get for my $5? Doug Benson, Jimmy Dore, Paul Scheer, Sarah Silverman, Graham Elwood and Paul F. Tompkins, pictured below.
Prior to this show, the only one of these people I’d seen live was Paul F. Tompkins, who was part of the Comedy Death-Ray show I attended during SXSW. It was 90 minutes of funny, funny stuff, and I won copies of the DVD and CD soundtrack to season 2 of Weeds for knowing that “One Toke Over The Line” was performed by Brewer & Shipley. See, all that music trivia stuck in my head isn’t totally useless.
Since it was nearly 1AM, I was spent, and instead of cruising Sunset Boulevard or something, I headed back to Manhattan Beach to my hotel and got some much-needed sleep.
