The Lure of LA's Melting Pot

Welcome everyone!

This is the new blog for Melting Pot Tours, and I am Diane Scalia, its esteemed blogmaster. On behalf of my brilliant sister Lisa Scalia, I'd like to thank you for visiting our website and reading our blog often!

I will do my best to keep these posts relatively short...if any of you have met me you know how much I have to say! There is the hope that if I keep them short I will post more often!

In this first post, it is my joy and pleasure to share just a little about why I am so excited to be the primary Tour Maestra for our walking tours. I love my city, Los Angeles. I love meeting new people. I love our tour stop merchants with a passion. I love the incredibly delicious food our tour guests get to enjoy. Above all, I love that my work is about meeting the angels in LA, then introducing them to each other. There was once a pop song that wondered, "If this is Los Angeles, then where are the angels?" How sad for that artist who didn't meet them on a daily basis like I do.

Our website mentions that at least 140 diverse ethnicities call LA home. I say, how fabulous is that?! Millions of immigrants came here with hope in their hearts for a better life, and how lucky for us, that they brought their food with them! At least their recipes! They didn't just arrive and say, "Yeah, we're good! We're OK with PB&J from now on!" Granted, I love PB&J myself and, I adore ethnic foods, sometimes the more exotic the better. The intention of Melting Pot Tours includes inviting you to join us, as we explore the rich collection of ethnic neighborhoods that contribute to our tremendous culinary landscape. We will love sharing with you, those foods that define each diverse culture; usually the foods these lovely people grew up with a passion for.

I also invite you to post comments here when you can, so we can perhaps extend the fun of the walking tours you have experienced. Maybe it will entice you to experience tours in the future!

For now, let me just close by saying that in the attendance of our tours alone, we have a spectacular Melting Pot to celebrate each and every week. One of my favorite parts of leading the tour is getting to know you, and here is a list of where our guests have hailed from, many of whom live right here - naturally - in the city of Angels:

Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Korea, Japan, Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Holland, Italy, Greece, Sweden, England, Scotland, Canada, Philippines, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, East Africa, Dominican Republic, Cuba, India.

If you were our guest and I missed your country, you must let me know!

Until next time, thank you for enjoying our tours and for reading our new blog.

Ciao for now!
Diane Scalia
Tour Maestra