Javier Cabral

Chia seed–encrusted Baja sea bass; Credit: Anne Fishbein

A Touch of Gastronomic Magic Spices Up Voltaggio's ink.well

Javier Cabral
Michael Voltaggio wore a T-shirt that read "People Hate Me on Yelp" at the Gold Standard food event in 2012 as he served beef tongue dunked in liquid nitrogen. This was post–Top Chef fame, during the tail end of L.A.'s molecular-gastronomy heyday as diners were moving on from Jose Andrés'......
Credit: Danny Liao

Best Old-School Shop Still Holding It Down in Highland Park

Javier Cabral
What does it take to stay open as an O.G. Latino boutique shop specializing in handmade clothing and accessories in some of the most sought-after real estate in all of Los Angeles? According to Noelle Reyes, the power Latina behind Mi Vida, one of the last standing pregentrification locales on......
Credit: Javier Cabral

Best Vegan Tacos

Javier Cabral
A 100 percent vegan street taco that can hold its own against even the tastiest in L.A.? Yes, it exists, and it can be found in a sky-blue trailer with the words Plant Food for People, every Tuesday morning and afternoon in Highland Park. It's OK to be a skeptic......
Credit: Javier Cabral

Best Old-School Punk Rock Club

Javier Cabral
Punk rock in L.A. never died; it just moved to Boyle Heights and has stayed steadily buzzed off cheap beer in the tiniest bar imaginable on Whittier Boulevard. If you're tired of going to the same old venues in downtown and Echo Park to catch local punk acts, try the......
Angela Flores

How Eastside Café Fought Gentrification and Won

Javier Cabral
This Zapatista-inspired community space in El Sereno recently came under threat of encroaching development. Then community members banded together and came up with a plan to fight gentrification with their own secret weapon: money....
Fishbone's Angelo Moore; Credit: Photo by Julio Aguirre

Fishbone Is Still Fighting a 2010 Stage-Diving Lawsuit

Javier Cabral
You are at a music festival. The lights fade out and the annoying background music suddenly stops playing. The headlining band comes forward and starts playing immediately. Not wasting any time, they erupt into their fastest, bounciest hit that everybody came to hear. The crowd is immediately riled up. You’re......
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ridicule

The Return of Ridicule, Boyle Heights' Skate Punk Legends

Javier Cabral
The punk rock that comes out of Boyle Heights and other East L.A. backyard communities is usually an extremely fast and boisterous one: street punk. Two-minute scratchy anthems that are often about some kind of political oppression and that consist of repetitive unrelenting power chords, the same rolling drumbeat and raspy flat vocals......
Taco experts; Credit: Javier Cabral

5 Taco Facts We Learned From LeáLA's La Tacopedia Panel

Javier Cabral
`La Tacopedia is out. Well, kind of. If you can find it here in the States. And it's exactly what the title infers: an epic, thoroughly researched encyclopedia about regional Mexican tacos. Five years of research to be exact. And in an attractive, very contemporary Lucky Peach-ish layout. If you......