Eating healthy is very much part of the California lifestyle, which gave birth to California cuisine in the mid-1980s. Pioneers like Berkeley-based Alice Waters and LAs own star chef Wolfgang Puck created gourmet concoctions revolving around fresh seasonal ingredients, unusual flavor fusions and artistic presentations. A typical dish would be a serving of grilled mahi mahi with a side of sauteed spinach greens and wild rice pilaf. A good place to try classic California cuisine is Puck's own Spago Beverly Hills.

An offshoot of California cuisine is California Asian (Cal-Asian). Its focus is on the blending of local ingredients with Chinese or Japanese seasonings and cooking methods. Meats and fish are seasoned with adventurous combinations of turmeric, cilantro (fresh coriander), ginger, garlic, chili paste and fresh fruit juices (usually citrus), and served with Asian staples like rice, sweet potatoes or udon (buckwheat noodles). Try it at such places as Chaya Brasserie in Beverly Center District, Traxx in Downtown LA, Chinois on Main in Santa Monica or Mum's in Long Beach.

Another variation of California cuisine is California French (Cal-French), which is a slimmed down version of Gallic fare, banishing much of the butter and cream and instead relying on the flavors produced by top quality vegetables and other ingredients. Good places to sample this kind of food are Citrus on Melrose Ave, JiRaffe in Santa Monica and Joe's in Venice.

With nearly 50% of LA's population being Latino, it's not surprising that south-of-the-border food - especially Mexican - is ubiquitous. For the budget traveler, it's a godsend: It's cheap, delicious and filling.

A fairly recent trend in LA is the upscale version of Latin food commonly referred to as Nuevo Latino cuisine. Long popular on the East Coast, it combines the food culture from numerous Latin American countries - from Panama to Patagonia. Dishes are veritable flavor bombs blending exotic produce like jicama, plantains, yucca and mango with chiles, epazote and other spices in bold combinations. Ciudad in Downtown LA, the Border Grill in Santa Monica and Alegria in Long Beach all specialize in Nuevo Latino fare.

Fish and shellfish figure big on menus in Los Angeles from the lowly, but delicious, fish taco to oysters on the half-shell and seared ahi tuna. What is served at most restaurants often depends on the day's catch, which has the obvious advantage of complete freshness. You'll find some good seafood restaurants in the coastal communities; Ocean Avenue Seafood in Santa Monica comes to mind, although the Water Grill in Downtown reigns supreme.

Because LA is the quintessential ethnic cauldron, you'll find cuisines from just about every other country: from Ethiopia (Nyala in the Fairfax District), Cuba (Versailles in Culver City, El Floridita in Hollywood) to China (Ocean Star in Monterey Park, Empress Pavilion in Chinatown). Thai and Italian are other prevalent cuisines.

Predictable, unexciting and certainly not healthy, fast food chains are cheap, reliable standbys any time of the day. For hamburgers, the California chain is the venerable In-N-Out Burger, which has a short menu and a die-hard clientele.