Andrew Zimmern's Guide to L.A. Farmers Market

What's up, guys? Leslie Robbins here for Young Hollywood. Joined by TV personality, chef, writer, teacher, adventurer, Andrew Zimmern. You have many, many titles, my friend.

I do. There were like seven or eight that we didn't get to. It's the world famous original LA Farmers market. Yes, and and one of my favorite places in Los Angeles, simply because this is not a tourist trap, despite the fact that lots of tourists come here, it's worthwhile and it is a slice of LA culture that's very, very real.

Everything kind of makes me hungry and it's it's I'm glad that I'm here with another person because then we get to eat twice as much because you can share and you don't feel bad about over-ordering. Not too crowded, like you said, the lines are not going to be

Perfect. Although there's always a line at Bob's Donuts. Two coffees, small, one cream and sugar, one black. This is TY Bakery. Yep. It smells up the entire farmer's market. Delicious.

Here's the issue I have.

What's that?

I'm gluten-free. What do I do?

Uh, go back to the store and get an apple. If you're willing to take a tiny little nibble,

Friend, for you, I will nibble all day. You have cabbage, beef, and potato. We'll do a cabbage. Thank you. There's cabbage in a pastry?

Absolutely. Savory pastries are dynamite.

Fearful to eat this. And this is what you do every day. So, I'm going to do this for you. So, you like this pastry? Mm-hm. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty. You taste food from around the world. You go to corners of the globe. Most people only dream about.

Mm-hm.

Most bizarre thing you've eaten from this planet? Um, worst thing? Let's go with worst.

Sure. Um, I forgot the cameraman's name. Grant. Grant. Two nights ago, the pork chops at Grant's house. Overcooked, leathery, literally inedible. Truly. As nice a guy as he is, one of the worst cooks. Why would I savage poor Grant? That's awful. Grant has been nothing but nice to me and look at how I'm sorry, Grant. Um, we're in the South Pacific. Hundreds of miles off the coast of Samoa in the middle of nowhere. A mile below the surface, the coral releases a worm, uh, that they call Pololo. They die when they hit the surface in the sun and then they sink back down and repopulate and, uh, enrich the reefs.

And you ate that?

Yeah, they scoop it off the surface of the water. It's like a blue paste. It tastes like a cross between sea urchin, pig bile, and, uh, Mr. Clean. But the experience was amazing.

I can't That's disgusting. That's bad. So Andrew,

Mhm. Yeah. I see you're stopping doing a little window shopping at Light My Fire. It just confuses the heck out of me. So, the people who make hot sauce think they're gonna sell more of it naming it, uh, Doctor At Burns Buttpucker, Flam and Flatchlens. Oh, here's one, Submission, Gagged, Bound and Blistered, in the Tub. Um, when it gets to a certain point and everyone's making the same joke, it's not so funny. But I I I'm clearly, I'm turning into my grandfather.

So, Andrew, I have taken you to Greenhouse Produce. Ooh, fresh turmeric. Talk about a hot food right now. Oh, and look at this. Kambucha on topper. Are you a Kambucha person?

Never had it.

Really? Yeah. Cheers. Oh, it's so refreshing, so good. Very good for you. Has a lot of natural occurring probiotics and stuff like that. It's wonderful.

We buy Kambucha in Growlers in Minnesota. We have some great local Kambucha makers that I love.

Since you brought it up, you're in Minnesota for a very important reason. You're from New York. Your past took you to Minnesota and now you stayed there.

I got dropped there 25 years and three weeks ago today. Um, and I, you know, went to treatment, you know, I was a homeless drug addict and alcoholic and barely made it there alive and my life just kept getting better and better every day. So I stayed and things got pretty good.

Hey, how you doing?

Sure.

He watches your show all the time.

I love that. What's your name?

Brian.

Nice to meet you, man. Who's the best cook in your family? Dude, dude, let me tell you something. Even if it's a lie, always point to mom. Serious. One, two

Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Ooh, Look at these guys. Meat plus bread equals good. And I happen to be into very simple things. And there are very few places that actually have rare roasted big top rounds of beef, you know, just put it onto a roll or some bread and a little dunk and just period. So I and I happen to love that. And also, I'm a history buff. This is their hundredth year. Correct. This is McGee's. Yep. 100th year. Yep. And they were the first uh food vendor here at the market.

You know what looks really, really good?

What's that?

That sandwich is ready for you.

Thank you very much. Oh, look at this. We got the whole setup. All right. So you ready? I You dip first. Oh, you're going the whole thing in. That's why I did it. Okay. Now don't eat it right away. Right now, that juice is going down through my bread. So I can now take a bite of it. It's not going to explode everywhere. Ready? It's just so good. Great bread. Great drippings for a nice juice. Really good roast beef. I mean, You good juice. You good.

Does that mean next year at Seder, I have to bring the kugel?

I'll bring the kugel to your house. You're cooking. All right. Really good.