California is renowned for its delicious and diverse cuisine. From the Animal Fries of Los Angeles to the Santa Maria Tri Tip and Cioppino of the San Francisco Bay Area, there's something for everyone. Lodi is known for its Grilled Pork Chop and Cherry Sauce, while San Francisco is famous for its Sourdough bread. Boudin Bakery has been making Sourdough bread for more than 175 years and you can take a tour of them making bread at Disneyland California Adventure.
The French Dip sandwich was invented in Los Angeles, not France, and it's a classic California kitchen dish. The sandwich is served with a double-dipped Philippes French sauce and spicy mustard. Smash Burgers, a California version of the hamburger, originated as far back as the 1940s by Don Phillips. The Frozen Banana is another classic California food that originated at Bluth's original Banana Stand on Balboa Island.
You can find frozen bananas dipped in chocolate in Newport Beach, as well as at ice cream parlors, fruit stands across California, and at Disneyland and California Adventure. Balboa bars are named after the place where they originated, on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. Sugar n' Spice and Dad's Donut & Bakery Shop are two classic places to try Balboa Bars when you visit them. The Cioppino was invented by an Italian fisherman at the end of the 19th century and it used to be better known as “peasant food”.
In the 1930s, new restaurants in Fisherman's Wharf began serving the dish and its popularity grew. Nowadays, you'll find Cioppino on the menus of every seafood restaurant in California. Cobb salad is another California food invented in the 1930s at The Brown Derby in Hollywood by Robert Cobb himself. Makoto Hagiwara invented the modern fortune cookie in San Francisco at the Japanese Tea Garden in the 1890s.
The California Roll is a type of sushi invented in the 1960s in Los Angeles and it's made with avocado, cucumber, crab meat rolled with seaweed paper, and sticky rice. California produces 81% of American wine and there are more than 4,200 consolidated wineries in California. Traditional Mexican food is still widely prepared and is abundant in Mexican-American border communities of San Diego, Los Angeles metropolitan area, San Francisco Bay Area, and Mexican-American enclaves of California.
