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CHINESE

Sure, you’ll find kung pao this and General Tso’s that but if you can, indulge in dim sum. A small army of servers stroll around cavernous rooms for up to 800 diners filled with circular tables, pushing carts loaded with dumplings like har gao (shrimp) and shu mai (pork). Regional cuisines of China, such as Hunan and Szechuan, are well represented.

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SMALL BUT MIGHTY

One of the hottest trends these days is ‘small plate’ dining, in which diners order a number of diverse appetizer-sized dishes of food, allowing everyone at the table to share. It’s not unlike Spanish tapas, but in SoCal you’re just as likely to find small plates in Japanese or French restaurants.

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KOREAN

The signature dish is beef ribs (kalbi), marinated in soy, sesame and garlic and grilled before you at the table – vents above each table whisk away the smoke. Bibimbap is a large bowl of mixed Korean vegetables and rice (meat optional) and hot chili sauce. All dishes are served with a variety of healthy side dishes including kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage).

VIETNAMESE

Vietnam’s national dish is pho (pronounced ‘fuh’), rice noodles in beef broth, topped with meat and served with a plate of bean sprouts and Vietnamese basil, which you add to the soup along with chili sauce or hoison sauce to taste. Also look for grilled meats and sausages over rice.

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Some species of seafood are being overfished, causing environmental degradation. To find out what’s safe to eat (and what’s not), check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch List at www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp.

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California Cuisine

The cardinal rule of California cuisine is that the ingredients should be extremely fresh, minimally processed and prepared so that the flavors speak for themselves. Locally grown and organic foods are increasingly used. Chefs generally rely on flavor-packed reduction sauces rather than fatty gravies. Apart from that, there are few rules, and influences may come from Europe, Asia or Latin America.

Fresh Fruits & Vegetables

Make all the jokes you want about Southern California being the land of fruits, nuts and flakes. It’s true, and locals couldn’t be prouder. Avocado, citrus, dates, berries and all manner of greens are just some of the crops grown between Santa Barbara County and the border.

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California produces more than 17 million gallons of wine annually.

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In salads, forget iceberg lettuce (although that too is grown here): a SoCal salad is likely to include endive, radicchio, arugula and other greens that won’t pass your spell checker. Other classics: the Cobb salad (invented in Hollywood), the Caesar salad (invented in Tijuana, Mexico) and the Chinese chicken salad – sliced Napa cabbage with slivered carrot, green onion and grilled chicken, with a sweet and tangy soy-based dressing.

Meat & Fish

People associate SoCal with vegetarianism, but locals love meat; new, trendy steakhouses are opening all the time. Many print on the menu the names of the farms that supply their produce, meats and cheeses.

With hundreds of miles of coastline, fishing is not only a huge industry, but a popular sport. As you travel between Santa Barbara and San Diego, spring through fall, you’ll often see halibut and tuna on restaurant menus, some of it locally caught. Salmon is especially popular, though much of it comes from elsewhere.

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Famed culinary writer MFK Fisher’s posthumously published memoir, To Begin Again: Stories and Memoirs 1908-1929 (1994), addresses the ‘art of living well gastronomically.’ It also describes Southern California before it was all built up.

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DRINKS

California produces excellent wines up and down the state, with the largest SoCal growing regions in Santa Barbara County (known for pinot noirs and Rhône-style wines like Syrah, Morvedre and viognier) and Temecula, near San Diego. Many wineries have tasting rooms, and their wines are served at nearby