Meet the author Andrea Richards in Los Angeles

What Andrea loves most about Los Angeles

“Oh my, there’s so much to like about LA! I work from home, so I get to enjoy all of LA’s bounty without playing the price of a horrific commute. I like that LA is mostly underappreciated by the rest of the U.S., which thinks of the city as being the center of the entertainment world and not much else. Lately people in New York and elsewhere are starting to catch on to what a cultural center LA is and it’s driving up the real estate prices. Even though I wrote this book, I sort of want to stay quiet about how wonderful the city is - so I can keep living here!

Also, it might sound cliché but I’ll never get over the fruit trees here! Picking a ripe fig or orange off a tree and eating it immediately is the best. So much grows here: citrus of course, but also pomegranates, persimmons, pineapple guavas. A friend recently taught me to cook up the blooms from the yucca palm tree in our backyard—it’s like living in the Garden of Eden.”

Andrea's perfect day in the city might look like this

“First off, there are so many ways to have a perfect day in LA that you should have to determine what kind of perfect day you want. There are factors: what time of year is it (in summer, everything is about finding somewhere cool)? Are there kids coming along? The beach or the mountains? Tacos or pho? For me, the game changer mostly is whether I feel like being solitary or big city, because the incredible thing about Los Angeles is that you can travel quickly between being totally alone on a hillside or beach to being somewhere vibrant and crowded."

"If I’m longing for alone time, I’m waking up, getting a coffee and treat at Trails, and taking a hike in our massive Griffith Park, which has 26 miles of trails and its very own mountain lion (his name is P-22 and you won’t see him). I don’t do rigorous hiking, and the West Observatory Trail is a nice walk with great views of the city and Griffith Observatory. It’s a popular trail so if there are too many people, I might go farther in the park to another walk I like, a fire road just right of the ‘Toon town’ tunnel.

Post hike, I’m hungry and getting two combo tacos (shrimp and fish) from Ricky’s Fish Tacos along with an agua fresca. He’s usually parked not far outside the main entrance of Griffith Park. After tacos, I’m likely in the mood to see people again and so will head downtown. If it’s still early enough, I’ll take one of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s walking tours - they know LA’s history like no one else and always have a unique angle that even locals can learn from. If I missed that, I’ll head to one of several art museums (Moca or the Broad).

After a museum, I’d head to the Arts District for dinner and drinks on the patio at Everson Royce Bar (I’ll try not to order the cheeseburger but I probably will) and if my husband is with me we are for sure going to Eightytwo, a bar filled with vintage arcade games, afterwards. He’s a Missile Command addict, so he’ll happily play for hours while I try to improve my pinball game.”