Ever wished you could try top places in each foodie destination across America in one epic foodie road trip, but didn’t want to (or couldn’t) actually go through the hassle?  Thanks to Thrillist, the Culinary Road Trip made a stop at Siren Studios at Orange in Hollywood to give us Angelenos a taste of notable bites around America by top purveyors.

Portland’s Lardo served a meaty, well-balanced Griddled Mortadella sandwich with provolone and peppers.

Here’s a rundown of what was served at the media preview… check out the video above for all the tasty action!

• Chicago’s Gino’s East served their ‘Meaty Legend’ with Canadian bacon, Italian sausage and pepperoni; the ‘Chicago Fire’ with hot & spicy Italian sausage, fire roasted red peppers and red onions; and the ‘Spinach Margherita’ with spinach, cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and basil. – All pies were perfectly succulent, had great bite, and were hearty but not overly stuffed to the point of sogginess. The best deep dish I’ve tried, including when I went to Chicago!

• DC’s Georgetown Cupcake served their Red Velvet, Salted Caramel, Peanut Butter Fudge, Lava Fudge, Cookies & Creme, Vanilla Birthday and PB Banana Fudge – Moist cupcakes with either a cream cheese or buttercream frosting. My personal favorite is a cream cheese frosting, and I love how they fill some of their cupcakes as well!

• DC’s Sweetgreen served their ‘Rad Thai’ with organic arugula and mesclun, sprouts, carrots, shredded cabbage, spicy sunflower seeds, cucumbers, basil and spicy cashew dressing – Great flavors and textures, and best of all, this salad added a pop of light, freshness at this indulgent event.

• New England’s Luke’s Lobster served their Maine Lobster Roll with Maine lobster in a split-top New England style bun with mayonnaise, butter, lemon and secret seasoning – Another crowd favorite for those lobster lovers out there.

• NYC’s Black Seed Bagel served their Lox & Dill Cream Cheese and their Cucumber and Caper Salad bagels – Great crisp and chew to the bagel, and since they wood-fire their bagels, it adds great depth of flavor. Very fresh tasting!

• Philly’s Tony Luke’s served their Cheesesteak with rib-eye steak, American cheese and Italian bread and their Roast Pork Italian with slow roasted pork, au jus, sauteed broccoli rabe, sharp provolone and Italian bread – Great layers of flavor packed into these bad boys.

• Philly’s Insomnia Cookies served their Chocolate Chunk, M&M, Snickerdoodle and Double Chocolate Chunk cookies – Loved that they were wrapped, so I totally enjoyed this cookie later in the night… and it was just as tasty!

• Portland’s Lardo served their Griddled Mortadella Sandwich with thinly sliced mortadella, provolone, Mama Lil’s peppers and mustard aioli – My personal favorite, with a lot of my blogger friends in agreement. Love mortadella, and the griddling just brings out the flavors. The provolone and peppers added more texture and heat, and really made the entire thing a well-balanced, hearty sandwich.

• Nekter Juice Bar’s cold pressed juice (classic greens, advanced greens, skinny lemonade, ginger lemonade and raspberry slimmer) – Sadly, I didn’t get to try this one but I love a good cold pressed green juice. Gotta stay balanced, right? 😉

• Stumptown Coffee of Portland served their cold brew coffee on nitro and their chocolate cold brew coffee with milk – I’m not a coffee person, but I always hear good things about the quality of their coffee.

• Spindrift Seltzer & Soda served sparking raspberry lime seltzer, fresh pressed cucumber seltzer, fresh ginger beer, sparkling orange mango soda and sparkling grapefruit soda – Tried the cucumber seltzer and it was super refreshing… just what I needed to wash down the other bites!

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Quick Tanaya’s Table update: It’s been a bit crazy on this end lately with a lot of great opportunities coming my way (very grateful for that!), so posts had slowed down for a while… but I’ve kept my social media and content creation game going strong!

As I get back to posting more regularly and prepare for my trip to Hong Kong and India and officially launching Tanaya’s Travels, you can follow all the latest culinary adventures and get more tips on new openings, chef interviews and behind-the-scenes action over at @TanayaG on Twitter, and also on the Tanaya’s Table Instagram page.

I’m also on Periscope by the same handle, so let’s connect! Thanks for all the love and support as Tanaya’s Table continues to grow and bring you more amazing insight and scoop on the best bites, products and events around LA and beyond.

More foodie fun to come in the next few days! Cheers 🙂