After spending a week in isolation in Northern California, I was excited to get back into the swing of things here in Los Angeles. The weather decided to take a turn in the hot direction, but that wasn't going to stop me from heading out to The Farmer's Market on 3rd and Fairfax for some good ol' fashioned people watching to go with my Korean food.

I didn't plan on eating at La Korea when I left the house, it just sounded perfect. The cold, crisp veggies helped counteract the heat, and La Korea offers pretty good quality, even if the tourists don't realize it. I ordered the beef bibimbap and enjoyed the crisp juliennes of carrot and white radish to go with the barbecued meat.

I decided to skip out on eating the warm rice underneath, because if there's anything that you should do at the Farmer's Market, it's visit multiple vendors. La Korea was actually my second stop of the day -- I first ducked into Cost Plus to clean them out of their '04 Bennett Lanes that they had on sale. I tasted the '05 while in Calistoga and as far as I'm concerned, I committed grand wine larceny by getting them at the 50% discount that Cost Plus offered.

After La Korea, I began drifting toward the ice cream stand, figuring that it made sense in this heat. It wasn't until I noticed that Tusquellas had fish tacos that I paused.

As far as fish tacos go, I'll admit that I'm okay with the Rubio's version. My favorite is at Brigantine in Del Mar, but that's a few hundred miles away, and Tusquellas is right here. Ice cream would have to wait -- a fish taco craving struck and struck hard.

While waiting for my order, I overheard tourists remark how exotic fish tacos sounded and that they should try them. A little while later, I overheard a little boy exclaim to his mother, "I want sushi!" I love the the mass of humanity that accumulates at the Farmer's Market. To me, it's a microcosm of the city, and while a few chains like Starbucks (and soon Pinkberry) have penetrated the walls of 3rd and Fairfax, it's still a delight to see whole horseradish being sold at Magee's. It's especially funny to see elderly ladies next to their green carts dozing off at the picnic tables.

The tacos themselves were decent enough. The crema tasting right, the fish was fried well, and while the abundance of tomatoes had to be corrected (I poked them off of the top), it was fine. At $5 for two, it might seem a bit of overpriced, but it's right in line with the Farmer's Markup.

After consuming my daily caloric intake in a span of forty-five minutes, I figured it was time to leave. The tourists decided against the fish taco and instead went with a tostada filled with krab-with-a-k. The heat was starting to irritate me, and worse, the summer sun would do a number on the bottles of wine. Plus the old lady was starting to snore.