Plaza Mexico

When you step into the mall that is Plaza Mexico, it's a little like stepping into Mexico itself, although I imagine you'll see more Caucasians in Mexico than we did at the Plaza. At first, I thought it was amazing to have something like this in the greater LA metropolis, but then the more I thought about it, the more weirder it seems that there aren't more places like this. After all, LA has a sizable Mexican community. After all, this area was Mexico not too long ago. But I don't suppose Americans like to think of that. Native Americans seem to get more respect than Mexicans these days.

So what's Plaza Mexico like? The courtyard is fancy, with a fountain and a carousel. There are several buildings, but the main one is a cavernous mall with stall after stall of tiny shops, most of them selling food or, strangely, children's clothing. The food stuff was pretty diverse, from cactus tortillas to all kinds of pickles. I think you'd have to spend a week inside to get a true feel for what's there. Unfortunately, we'd just had lunch so the only thing we tried was an ice cream bar at La Michoacana, a small ice cream store. It was all very interactive because you choose the flavor of the bar, which, I think, was made from milk: mango, vanilla, chocolate, etc. The bar then gets dipped into melted chocolate and rolled around in your choice of dipping mix, like peanuts, coconut flakes, or sprinkles. It was a nice break from frozen yogurts.

I wish the Plaza was a bit closer to L.A. Here are the vitals.

ADDRESS

3100 E. Imperial Highway Lynwood, California 90262 Tel. (310) 631-6789 (310) 631-4989

HOURS OF OPERATION

Monday through Saturday, 10:00am - 8:00pm and Sunday, 10:00am through 7:00pm

LA puzzles

There are certain things I just don't get about L.A.

Like why do restaurants close so early? Some close at 4 p.m., others at either 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. And this even on a Saturday. Is there just too many restaurants? Do people in L.A. really eat dinner that early? Or do they skip dinner and just go straight to bars and night clubs? This is true even in Koreatown, where restaurants close at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. In NYC, Korean restaurants don't close until midnight -- quite a few are open 24 hours a day.

And what's with the curbs? Every time I get out of the passenger side of a car, I have to make sure there's enough room for the door to open. About 40% of the time, the curb is way too high for the door. What's with that?

And where are all those missing dots over the "i"s? Angelenos, have you noticed that many of the street signs are missing the dots over the "i"s? And there's no pattern. Like the signs for Pico. One sign will have the dot, while the sign a block away doesn't have one. So what gives?