Restaurants
It’s amazing what you can learn sitting at your friendly neighborhood sushi bar. Back in 1999, when we were still living in the greater Los Angeles area, I took on a consulting gig here in …
Who says there’s no more new food to create? Last big food invention I can remember around here happened a century ago, when Caesar Cardini accidentally invented the Caesar Salad. But, hey, how about Michael …
Of all the world’s adult beverages, beer offers the widest range of flavors for pairing with food. The vast number of taste combinations attained through mixing malt, hops, water, and yeast with an endless list …
Whew. Walking, walking... North up Mission Boulevard. I’m in P.B. Looking for breakfast, dammit. Okay, so it’s lunchtime. Need a place that doesn’t cut off at 11:00 a.m. I come up on this guy in …
My buddy John turned me on to Landini’s. He works at Caffe Italia, farther down India Street, here in Little Italy. It was a couple of months back. Friday evening. Spotted John and his buddy …
It’s been ten years since I last ate at Top of the Market. Back then, the menu was similar to the downstairs Fish Market (plus a few luxury bites), with higher prices for identical upstairs-downstairs …
It was a dark and rainstormy night. Marvel as our hero tramps undaunted through the dripping streets of Grant Hill. Crosses 26th, 27th, 28th, ever searching for his Shangri-La. Aha! Suddenly, lights! Camera! ¡Acción! A …
The sun glinted off oak trees. Golf carts waddled down the fairway. A dry, light breeze signaled an impending Santa Ana. I gazed upon this glorious scene, sipping Stella Artois, happy to be alive and …
It’s no longer difficult to find a restaurant serving Thanksgiving dinner, in part because, in these hard times, it’s a good opportunity (like Valentine’s Day) for a restaurant to reap a little profit and possibly …
If I were more of a man, I’d actually do this. I’m looking at a sign on an artist’s easel: “McGonagle’s Cheesesteak Challenge: Eat 3 and Win $50!...Three double-meat cheesesteaks in 30 minutes.” Hmm…double-meat. Meaning …
Nothing gets my Vietnamese friends’ blood boiling more than when some foodie calls bun bo hue “spicy pho.” They tell me, “Bun bo is about as close to pho as chicken noodle soup is to …
Call it the next best thing to Mexico. I’m in Barrio Logan, walking down Beardsley, past the Logan Heights Family Health Center Clinic. What I like — apart from the clinic and the half-dozen apartment …
‘"She gives me everything…and tenderly…” Her voice rings out loud, clear, and beautiful. She’s singing along with the Beatles tune on the sound system, “And I Love Her,” looking at the tiny baby in her …
“Once, I had a secret love/ That lived within the heart of me./ All too soon, my secret love/ Became impatient to be free.” So sang Doris Day in the Eisenhower-era film Calamity Jane. My …
Last month, I made my way down to Offshore to meet Tommy Gomes face-to-face, drawn to a culinary-education phenomenon called Collaboration Kitchen. I’d heard Gomes’s name before, most often from chefs on their way to …