L.A. Flea Market

The latest L.A. area open-air market debuted yesterday in the blistering summer sun. Calling itself the L.A. Flea Market, the monthly event, located outside Dodger Stadium in parking lot 8, features not only the usual vendors (new as well as vintage wares), but also live music, kiddie rides, and—best of all!—a food truck food court (yay!). Early bird entrance is at 7AM with general admission two hours later.

We, of course, love Dodger Stadium with its unmatched view of the city; but it can be brutally hot in the summer, so we decided to get there as early as humanly possible for a Sunday morning.

We arrived at 7:45AM and stood on the shortest of several disorganized ticket lines. We then stood on another long line to get inside. We apparently weren’t allowed in until 8AM, despite paying the more expensive early bird rate.

When we finally did get inside, we were amazed to find at least a third of the vendors just starting to set up. The rest was pretty standard flea market stuff, even though promoters had promised a higher grade of merchandise. Still I managed to find a cute lemonade pitcher, while Tim scoured the booths for a broad-brimmed lifeguard hat—which, truly, should have been included as part of everyone’s admission, since it was so damn hot! He ultimately found what he wanted at the appropriately named Hat Guy. Hands on hips with his face completely in the shade, Tim triumphantly proclaimed, “I could stand in the Mojave desert all day and not get sunstroke!”

With Tim's shopping mission now accomplished, we could, at last, turn our attention toward the food trucks—the main reason we were there, after all! I insisted I was too hot to eat . . . that is, until Tim brought over some scrumptious pork potstickers from Ahn Joo and, miraculously, my appetite perked right up. I ran over and got my own potstickers, plus a cone-shaped container of tasty potatoes from Fresh Fries. Tim also sampled tacos from the Border Grill truck. By 10AM we had already eaten both breakfast and lunch!

Our verdict: Parking lots are too hot to shop during the summer, so we probably won’t go back till November, even though the lure of so many food trucks in one place will be tempting. Hopefully the market will be far more organized and have better vendors when we return in the fall.