Chile Peppers

10 Best Moles in Los Angeles

Let's count the reasons we love mole. It's rich and intense. Warm and comforting. Spicy, yet sweet and often savory. A seamless blend of 20 to 40 (or more) ingredients that have been toasted, roasted, ground, blended and cooked. Radiant and colorful. A mix of Old World spices with New World chiles a ... More >>

Feria de los Moles This Weekend: Puebla vs. Oaxaca

Last year's Feria de los Moles (or Mole Fair) at L.A.'s Olvera St. drew 30,000 people -- and with good reason. The annual event, now in its fifth year and happening this Sunday, Oct. 7 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., celebrates this classic Mexican dish with food, music, dance, workshops, and even a friendl ... More >>

10 Best Tamales in Los Angeles

At L.A.'s Mexican restaurants, the classic combination plate -- you know, the #5 or the "Macho Combo" or the "Pancho Villa Platter" that serves up a burrito, taco, tamale and chile relleno topped with yellow cheese along with refried beans, rice and flour tortillas -- tends to be ridiculed in this e ... More >>

Cooking With Farmers: Coastal Organics' Epazote Susana Leyva's Frijoles de la Olla Recipe

Welcome to a new series on cooking with farmers. Not just farmers, but also the farm stand workers who patiently calculate your erratic "one bunch of this/two of that" weekly tab. And the guy whom you've likely never seen because he's stationed in the back of a truck, trying not to smash the basil a ... More >>

Playa Debuts John Sedlar's Super-Secret Rooftop Garden A Rooftop-to-Table Party

Strange things have been afoot on the rooftop at John Sedlar's Playa. For the past couple of months, the restaurant has been installing and planting a rather large rooftop garden (you may have noticed a crane doing some heavy lifting along Beverly Blvd. back in March) meant to provide Sedlar's kitch ... More >>

Are You Crazy Enough for Chichen Itza's Habanero-Eating Contest?

We're not sure if this would be considered a treat or torture for Dad, but on June 17 Chichen Itza Restaurant is hosting their second annual habanero-eating contest as part of Mercado La Paloma's Father's Day celebration. Chichen Itza specializes in cuisine from the Yucatán Peninsula (we're big fan ... More >>

Planet Dailies and Mixology101 Opens Today A Recipe for the Spicy Fifty

You've shopped the Grove till your brain can't tell boots from a bra. You've pushed your way through the Original Farmers Market too. Let's face it. You need a drink. Starting today, you can get it at Planet Dailies and Mixology101. You'll climb a long flight of stairs (let's hope you don't have ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Coni'Seafood

Best Crispy Catfish: Ganda Siamese Cuisine

Most good fried food is crispy. But crispy catfish at Ganda Siamese Cuisine is an entirely different fried animal: not really crispy at all. The fish is sliced up and fried past an inch of its life and covered in a fiery red paste full of galangal, chiles and Kaffir lime leaves, becoming a chewy, cr ... More >>

Chicken Mole at Los Poblanos

Los Poblanos is easy to miss. The tiny Mexican restaurant hides on Jefferson Boulevard in between a hardware shop and a narrow alleyway. Walk in and find three tables -- the 'dining room' seats 10, maybe 12, people. They don't even have a Yelp page. But, as evidenced by the painted words on the outs ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Guisados

Jonathan Gold Recommends Elvirita's Cemitas

Farmer Recipes: Coastal Organic's Grilled Salsa, Or How To Spice Up Your Tomato Relationship

jgarbeeSusana Leyva (Left) And Maryann Carpenter Know Their Tomato Recipes​Even if Coastal Organics isn't a vendor at your local farmers market, you've likely had their veggies at an L.A. restaurant. That Lucques heirloom tomato salad is often built from their beautiful Cherokee and green zebr ... More >>

Hatch Chile Report: If Not New Mexico, Then Ralphs

Frieda's ProduceHatch chiles​ If you're the sort of person who annually packs the car and heads to New Mexico, driving endless ribbons of highways, through the wind farms and burnt deserts of California and Arizona, living on roadside enchiladas and anticipation, to pilgrimage to the town of H ... More >>

Top Thai Chef Comes to L.A. A Recipe for Duck Larb

Barbara Hansenchef McDang​Royalty just left Los Angeles. Now it's coming again. The royal personage arriving this week is chef McDang (real name ML Sirichalerm Svasti) of the Thai royal family. Not content to rest on regal laurels, McDang has become a culinary celebrity in Thailand, appearing ... More >>

Heat Seekers Aaron Sanchez and Roger Mooking Visit L.A. via the Food Network

Via the Food Network blog.Chefs Roger Mooking and Aarón Sanchez.​If you were to take yourself on a spicy foods tour of Los Angeles, where would you go? There'd certainly be no shortage of options; hell, that tour could probably last a decade. But for the sake of TV, the Food Network narrowed ... More >>

Cookbook Review: Truly Mexican A Pipián Verde (Green Pumpkin Seed Sauce) Recipe

​Mexico City-born (now New York City based) chef Roberto Santibañez's latest cookbook. Truly Mexican: Essential Recipes and Techniques for Authentic Mexican Cooking with JJ Goode is truly exactly what the subtitle describes -- something that is not as common in the cookbook world as it should ... More >>

Q & A With Sang Yoon: Lukshon's Test Kitchen, Issues of Heat Ghetto Fish Sauce

A. ScattergoodSang Yoon outside Lukshon​ Sang Yoon is not an easy man to pin down. He moves quickly. He doesn't like interviews, or at least so it's always seemed to us. But when he actually sits down and starts talking, he often doesn't stop. Which is very cool, since he's got a lot of intere ... More >>

Recipe: Birria de Borrego Estilo Sinoloa y Norte Africano

Medardo WinklerBirria de Borrego​ This birria de borrego, or lamb birria, comes from Test Kitchen Assistant and master of dried chile sauces, Medardo Winkler. His education in birria comes directly from his family, who run birria stands in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Winkler is also entrusted wi ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Playa

John Sedlar continues to reinvent the tortilla

Weekend Deal: Corkbar Toasts 2 Years with $2 Tasting Plates

Courtesy of Corkbar.​ This Saturday night from 5 to 10 p.m., downtown L.A. wine bar Corkbar celebrates two successful years by offering a small menu of $2 tasting plates. The anniversary menu from chef Albert Aviles includes pork sausage sliders on a pretzel bun, mac 'n cheese with pasilla ch ... More >>

Food Truck Friday: Jogasaki, the Sushi Burrito Truck

Guzzle & NoshThe Jogasaki Burrito Truck (left) and the jalapeno bomb​ Since it launched in mid-January, we've heard the steadily building hype about the Jogasaki Burrito truck (@jogasakiburrito), a clever mashup of Japanese sushi and Los Angeles street food. The buzz runs the gamut, everything ... More >>

Cookbook Review: The Sriracha Cookbook, Released Today, For Your Red Rooster Fix

​Sriracha fans, if you measure your favorite condiment's success according to its cookbook credits, your Tabasco moment is finally here. The Sriracha Cookbook: 50 Rooster Sauce Recipes That Pack A Punch by Randy Clemens, released today, is the first cookbook dedicated entirely to the garlicky ... More >>

The Twelve Days Of Cookies: Elizabeth Belkind's Mexican "Hot" Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Cake Monkey BakeryChocolate Chile de Arbol Cookies With Chipotle-Chocolate Ganache​If you've been keeping up with our Twelve Days of Cookies, you've already made Alice Medrich's peanut butter meringues, Evan Kleiman's Italian taralli, Sherry Yard's canine-friendly cookies, and Richard Ruskell' ... More >>

The Brothers Launch a Cookbook Their Filet Mignon Crispy Tacos Recipe

B. HansenMatt and Jeff Nichols, with their new book​Brothers Matt and Jeff Nichols weren't in the kitchen, and their popular restaurant, Brothers at Mattei's Tavern in Los Olivos, was closed on a recent Sunday afternoon. Then why was it full of people eating great food and drinking local wines ... More >>

Thanksgiving Dining: 6 Holiday Dishes With A Global Spin

Cham Korean Bistro​ You eat kimchi pizza, Filipino adobo burritos and Japanese rice patty burgers. So when it comes to Thanksgiving, the most traditional of American food holidays, boring old stuffing won't do. Here are six Thanksgiving options that will make your globetrotting palate sing wi ... More >>

A Recipe From the Chef: Alex Moreno's Turduckenizo Albondigas

courtesy of CASATurduckenizo Albondigas at CASA.​ As a huge football fan, CASA owner Mario del Pero and executive chef Alex Moreno were inspired by John Madden's annual turducken cookout to make a turducken of their own. Only this one is made in meatball form with a blend of Mexican spices. ... More >>

Snook Attack: La Chente

Beware the dangerous, cult-forming Pescado Zarandeado

Must-Stops on a Spicy-Food Marathon

Heated discussion

Top 10 Dishes of 2007

Hummus replaced foie gras, Southern Thai was hot and cheese shredded

Mac Daddy: Las Nuevas and Cemitas Poblanas Elvirita

The big tastes of Puebla on a sesame-seed bun

Lenchita's: Corn Star

Making masa magical

Low and Slow

That is the tempo. Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu’s La Casita Mexicana

Red Dawn

The second coming of Chung King

Ask Mr. Gold

Ask Mr. Gold

Ask Mr. Gold

Green With Envy

Ask Mr. Gold

Ask Mr. Gold

A Winning Lotería

Chile Scenes of Summer

Spicy With Spicy

Cinnamon, Cloves and Cardamom

The biryanis of Hyderabad

Super Bowls

Recapping next season

Holy Moles

Thick as gruel, black as night

Welcome to La La Land

But not a lotus in sight

Return of the Mole People

Santa Monica's Tlapazola Grill

North of Old Town

South of the border

Hot Stuff

Incendiary Sichuan in Pasadena