2017 Tesla Model 3

MARK TAKAHASHI: In my life I have a lot of different passions and pursuits. Cars and motorcycles are a big part of that, but so is food. Today I've paired with my Buddy, Rich, who's known on Instagram as come_to_cheesus. He's a cheese fanatic, obviously, and a food fanatic, like me. We're going to do a Foodie Tour all over L.A. And we're going to do it with one charge in our long-term all-electric Tesla Model 3. RICH KURAS: Mr. Takahashi. MARK TAKAHASHI: Hey, Rich. How's it going, buddy? RICH KURAS: Good. Number one, I hope you brought alternative clothes. Did you bring like a muumuu or a cape or something? Because this is about to get gluttonous. I brought a nice speckled red shirt, so when I spill the inevitable ketchup on it, it's just going to blend in like a cheetah. MARK TAKAHASHI: All right, I'm going to take that as a challenge to spill different colored stuff on you. RICH KURAS: Let's see if we can get a tapestry of color on us by the end of the day. MARK TAKAHASHI: Gravy. RICH KURAS: Are you ready to go? MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, where are we starting? RICH KURAS: We're going to go right here. Let's have a donut. MARK TAKAHASHI: Right on. RICH KURAS: So Mark, this is the vanilla glaze. MARK TAKAHASHI: That's fantastic, and it's really nice and warm. That's perfect. RICH KURAS: What I like about this is that it's never too sugary. It's nice and cakey. There's this like, rich, but it's not overly sweet. MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah and the vanilla, it's there. But it tastes like vanilla bean, not vanilla extract. RICH KURAS: Breakfast, to me, is like two courses. You have your donut and coffee, then you have to have, like, eggs. So let's go to Venice. We're going to go to Eggslut. MARK TAKAHASHI: All right. We're going to be tooling around all day in this, which is the Tesla Model 3, which was intended to be the affordable Tesla. The plan, originally, was to have a starting price of $35,000. But as of our taping now, that car doesn't exist. What do I need to know about Eggslut? RICH KURAS: The original one was established at Grand Central Market, and this is kind of its satellite location. I think they also have one in Las Vegas. Breakfast is served. We got ourselves a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. MARK TAKAHASHI: Mm, that's a tasty burger. RICH KURAS: And a little ketchup, a little chipotle ketchup. Not a big fan of ketchup and eggs together, but this is one of the exceptions I like. MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, I think you can get over it with this. That's a good way to start the day. RICH KURAS: Oh, [BLEEP]. Mission accomplished, I've already got ketchup on me. MARK TAKAHASHI: Rich, you're two for two. What's next? RICH KURAS: I don't think people think there's a lot of good Chinese food here. MARK TAKAHASHI: (INCREDULOUSLY) What? RICH KURAS: That's what I hear. So we're going to go to Rosemead and Chengdu Taste. MARK TAKAHASHI: Right on. We're on the infamous 10 freeway in L.A., and it's not the best pavement you can find. There's a lot of concrete seams, and I'm honestly feeling every single one of them. This rides pretty stiff. RICH KURAS: Yeah, it does definitely feel bumpy, even on a crappy road like this. It's not a game breaker for me. MARK TAKAHASHI: I can see that too. Because how often or are we actually driving 60 miles an hour on the 10 freeway? RICH KURAS: I got us some toothpick lamb with some cumin. How spicy do you like your food, by the way? MARK TAKAHASHI: Moderately. BOTH: Woo! MARK TAKAHASHI: That's good stuff. RICH KURAS: Yeah. MARK TAKAHASHI: It's not super hot but, man, it gives you the tingles. RICH KURAS: That spice definitely has a presence, but it's not owning the party. MARK TAKAHASHI: We're in Rosemead, which is in San Gabriel Valley. The best pastrami in the world. I think. Is a place called The Hat. It's been there forever. It's a little shack on the corner. It's going to be fantastic. You're going to love it. RICH KURAS: Going from lamb to pastrami, it sounds like a natural progression. MARK TAKAHASHI: It really does. RICH KURAS: Do you want us to stay awake for the rest of the day? This is ridiculous. MARK TAKAHASHI: This is a marathon, not a sprint. RICH KURAS: You know, my knock against pastrami, usually, is that people over pepper it. It's usually too thick, a little gamey. This is nice and tender, just light, too. And that's not something I usually associate with pastrami. This is just a nice sandwich. This interior's so crazily simplistic, and yet it's not-- it's not cheap. MARK TAKAHASHI: The drawback is everything has to be run through this giant touchpad here. RICH KURAS: Yes. MARK TAKAHASHI: And that can be a little clunky, a little inconvenient, especially if you just want to do some minor things like turn up the volume as a passenger or adjust the climate control. You have to take your eyes off the road to find that spot on the screen. Now, we're heading into East L.A., Boyle Heights, pretty much. It's a place called Manuel's El Tepeyac It's been there forever. To put it in context, my parents used to go there. My grandfather used to hang-- you know, get a burrito or something there too. It's just a landmark. RICH KURAS: And while we're going there, I'm just going to take a quick nap. Oh boy, just don't touch me on my stomach. MARK TAKAHASHI: So this is the world-famous hollenbeck burrito from Manuel's El Tepeyac in Boyle Heights. [VOCALISING] RICH KURAS: Good God, man. Got a nice tomato-y guac meaty bite. MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, it's just everything you can imagine stuffing into a tortilla. RICH KURAS: I can see the L.A. Skyline from here. Downtown, there's a place called Baco Mercat that I'd like to take you to. There's a great thing called the toron. I caught myself a second wind. And I also caught myself a toron. If you see, is basically oxtail hash. It's got cheddar tater, which I have no idea what that is, and some horseradish yogurt. MARK TAKAHASHI: Oh, yeah. That does not taste of oxtail. That's got-- that just tastes like beef. And it's almost like a lamb actually. RICH KURAS: Yeah exactly, like a lamb. And to me, it's like where a taco and maybe like a gyro intersect. This was voted L.A.'s number one sandwich. MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, I mean, you can make an entire lunch out of just one of those. RICH KURAS: One of those, you're going to be fine. MARK TAKAHASHI: We're close enough to one of my favorite Chinese places. Well, it's Cantonese. They make something called almond duck. RICH KURAS: Ooh. MARK TAKAHASHI: It is a pressed duck that's fried. It's such a delight. Welcome to the almond duck. Go ahead and grab a cube. Make sure you get some sauce on there, though. RICH KURAS: It tastes like Thanksgiving. MARK TAKAHASHI: Really? RICH KURAS: Yeah, because it's almost like-- it feels like your turkey with mashed potatoes. You kind of got that carby and the gravy going. It certainly feels like, man-- MARK TAKAHASHI: [GROAN] RICH KURAS: We've done a couple Chinese place. Why not some Thai food? MARK TAKAHASHI: Well, why not? Thai Town? RICH KURAS: Thai Town it is. MARK TAKAHASHI: Woohoo! RICH KURAS: Jitlada! It looks like the freeway is a parking lot. That's fine. MARK TAKAHASHI: Well, the good thing-- if we're in heavy traffic, autopilot is where it really shines. RICH KURAS: It is weird how that works. You'd think the system would be better with less traffic. It actually works better with traffic around it. MARK TAKAHASHI: It stays in its lane by itself. It maintains a gap. And one of the things I've discovered as I use adaptive cruise and some of these low-level automated driving systems is I'm just not stressed anymore in traffic. I don't care if someone cuts me off. Yeah, I feel like I'm a passenger at that point. And life just gets a lot better. Some crispy duck spring rolls, right here. RICH KURAS: Ooh, I like duck. MARK TAKAHASHI: Let's have a bite. Not spicy at all. RICH KURAS: This spring roll has good structural integrity-- MARK TAKAHASHI: And on a hot day, something like this, where it's something nice and cool-- RICH KURAS: Yeah, kind of hits the spot. MARK TAKAHASHI: Still has a little-- yeah. I could deal with a little more sauce on the duck, though. RICH KURAS: I could deal with a little more chewing. I think the really cool thing about this car is it's like-- not only is it just quick 0 to 60, but if I'm going 55 and I want to zip up to 70, [SNAPS FINGERS] it's that. It's always there. there MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, that's a great thing about electric motors is you have all the torque instantly. It doesn't have to spool up. We haven't had a burger today. This is going to be Astro Burger. The one thing I get there is a pastrami burger because we haven't had enough pastrami today. It's thick-cut pastrami. It's more like bacon compared to The Hat, which was almost cut paper-thin. But I think you'll like it. It's hardy. RICH KURAS: You haven't had enough hearty food today. That's just a full bite. You kind of have a lot going on. MARK TAKAHASHI: Oh, yeah. RICH KURAS: Once you get past the texture of all the meat, then still have a burger and you still have everything else, the bun in it included. It has a very-- for lack of a better comparison-- very Burger King-y kind of vibe to it. MARK TAKAHASHI: It's charbroiled. RICH KURAS: Yeah. MARK TAKAHASHI: I'm going to pick a cheese, you're going to pick a cheese, then we'll hit the road. RICH KURAS: All right, so you're going with a triple cream-- MARK TAKAHASHI: With black truffle. RICH KURAS: --with black truffle. MARK TAKAHASHI: Because I'm fancy. RICH KURAS: Cheers. MARK TAKAHASHI: Go, go, go. Salty, creamy, truffley? RICH KURAS: light. Is that the malvarosa? So it's summer. We can literally go with 1,000 different cheeses. But because it's like a nice, light-- puts you in, like, a place in the Mediterranean. Oh, that's good choices. Opposite but good. So now we have to hit the road again. I think we've eaten enough, but I think we need some dessert. MARK TAKAHASHI: I have a place for you. Saffron & Rose Persian Ice Cream, Westwood, really different flavors, unique, exotic flavors for ice cream. RICH KURAS: What better way to end the journey than with a little dessert? MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, so this is Saffron & Rose. It's Persian ice cream. RICH KURAS: Mine has rosewater in it. And basically, it's a really intense vanilla. It's almost like a tea, an herbal tea, but somehow in ice cream form. MARK TAKAHASHI: And I went with my favorite, which is the orange blossom ice cream. RICH KURAS: And which I tried, and I actually like that a little bit better than this one. But that's-- MARK TAKAHASHI: There's something about-- RICH KURAS: This is good but that's damn good. MARK TAKAHASHI: Cheers, Rich. It's been a hell of a journey. Clink. RICH KURAS: We're-- we are spent. But the car isn't. MARK TAKAHASHI: We have a ton of range left. RICH KURAS: And with the exception of us cranking the air conditioning, we have about 200 miles left of range. MARK TAKAHASHI: And I thought we'd end up with a lot less. Stop and go traffic, it really helps having an EV. You're not idling. You're not blowing through all the range on the highway. It just works. RICH KURAS: Now we just need to go rest after this. MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, I can use a nap for a few days. But hell of a good tour of food and culture and scenery in L.A. RICH KURAS: And I think we need to do this again. And next time, let's do burgers. MARK TAKAHASHI: [SIGH] If you want more information on the Tesla Model 3 or any of its competition, head on over to edmunds.com. If you want to see more videos like this, hit subscribe.