Book excerpt: An intimate culinary portrait of Los Angeles today—a city now recognized among food lovers for its booming, vibrant, international restaurant landscape—with 100 recipes from its restaurants, juice bars, coffee shops, cocktail lounges, food trucks, and hole-in-the-wall gems. Once considered a culinary wasteland, Los Angeles is now one of the most exciting food cities in the world. Like the multi-faceted, sprawling city itself, the food of Los Angeles is utterly its own, an amalgam of international influence, disposable income, glamour, competition, immigrant vitality, health consciousness, purity, and beach-loving, laid back, hip, unrestrained creativity. With 100 recipes pulled from the city's best restaurants but retooled for the home cook—like Charred Cucumber Gazpacho, Roast Chicken with Spicy Harissa, Vietnamese Coffee Pudding, Blackberry Mint Mojito Ice Cream and Thai Basil Margaritas—EAT. COOK. L.A.; Notes and Recipes from the City of Angels is both a culinary roadmap and a sophisticated insider's look at one of America’s most iconic and fascinating cities.