Gustavo Arellano

Trader Joe's Mexican Chocolate How to Make Mexican Hot Chocolate

Trader Joe's is known for traveling the globe to find a wide and ever-changing variety of foods. They recently went next door to bring back Organic Stone-Ground Mexican-Style Dark Chocolate, which has the shape, taste and paper packaging of traditional south-of-the-border chocolates. There are two ... More >>

Los Poblanos Cemitas: More Fun With Tacos Arabes

If there's a better way to spend a warm evening sunset than cruising down East L.A.'s Whittier Boulevard, armed with an appetite and a pocketful of dollar bills, I haven't found it. The night might start with a few suadero tacos served on freshly made tortillas and end with crunchy churros fried to ... More >>

Twitter Feud of the Week: The Great Squash Blossom Debate

This week's Twitter war began innocuously enough: On May 8, Portland-based food blogger and restaurateur Nick Zukin, who owns a Mexico City-style snack shop called Mi Mero Mole in PDX, inquired via Twitter where to find jarred flor de calabaza (squash blossoms) on a recent trip to Orange County. Wh ... More >>

The Wednesday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

You can't replace the feeling of lounging on the couch with a scrunched-up newspaper. But with the web, at least you don't need to worry about getting ink on your hands and bagel. Here's a roundup of some food-related stories from our country's newspapers this week. Lucky for us, it's mostly free. F ... More >>

Q & A with Gustavo Arellano: Taco USA, Mexican Authenticity Food Writing

You might suspect Gustavo Arellano, the brain and wit behind the popular syndicated and OC Weekly column ¡Ask a Mexican!, as one of those Mexican food sticklers who bristles at ideas of yellow nacho cheese, the chimichonga, the chicken fajita pita, enchilada combination plates and Taco Bell's 50th ... More >>

Our Tacos, Ourselves: How Southern California Reinvented the Taco

How Southern California discovered, gave birth to, reinvented and loved the taco for more than a century

Gustavo Arellano Considers the Taco: From Mitla Café to Taco Bell to the Cuatro de Asada He's Eating Right Now

Sure, you may think you know a lot about tacos, but do you really? Because however knowledgable you may be, Gustavo Arellano knows more than you do. Arellano -- OC Weekly editor, author of ¡Ask a Mexican! and of the forthcoming book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, etc. -- has written ... More >>

Public Radio Deathmatch: KPCC vs. KPFK

If you've driven anywhere in Los Angeles lately there is no way you've been able to miss the ubiquitous orange KPCC 89.3 FM billboards bearing slogans like "ideas not ideology," and "no rant, no slant." Back in January, OC Weekly's own Gustavo Arellano noticed that one of these billboards was inst ... More >>

The Thursday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

Flickr/dubh​ What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections mid-week. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is free), it's where most of ... More >>

Eat Real Fest: Photo Gallery

Round up the usual suspects. Anyone who's been to a certain Los Angeles food festival can be forgiven for feeling a certain déjà vu at this weekend's Eat Real Fest, held at the Helms Bakery complex in Culver City. The vendor list read like it was cribbed from Artisanal LA: Cast Iron Gourmet, C ... More >>

The New AP Stylebook Food Guidelines: More Fun With Locavore Ghee

Flickr/toddmundtamuse-bouche​ Thanks to Gustavo Arellano for this one. (We just forwarded your post, Gustavo, to our own overworked and much-appreciated copy editor. All in italics.) Just in time for a whole summer of writing about new Food Network shows, the AP has come out with a new Food Gu ... More >>

Last Night: Top 10 Quotes from KCRW's Global Street Food Panel

Guzzle & NoshCrowds wait in fron of the Nom Nom Truck (left); a taco from Mariscos Jalisco (right).​If you've been to some of the apallingly oversold food truck festivals of the past couple years, the sight of lines snaking around food trucks outside the Broad Stage on Sunday morning should ha ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Bourdain on Beard, Questions for Roy Choi The Online World of Cannibals

-- Anthony Bourdain on the James Beard awards ("I would sooner attend a Renaissance Fair in Hell"). [No Reservations, via The New York Times.] -- The Great Mayonnaise Debate. [Food Republic] -- Two words: Absinthe Cake. [Food Gal] -- A cup of coffee & illegal immigration. [Los Angeles Times] ... More >>

Evan Kleiman Talks Global Street Food - Tickets on Sale Tomorrow

​Street food existed long before the myriad of Twittering food trucks took over Los Angeles. Evan Kleiman (chef/owner of Angeli Caffe, host of KCRW's Good Food) reminds us of that on May 1st, when she moderates the Global Street Food event featuring OC Weekly Managing Editor and food contribut ... More >>

'Law & Order Los Angeles' Gets Some Inspiration From Orange County

NBC'Law & Order' hits 'Ballona Creek'​We're proud to finally have our own Law & Order in the town that still rules television production. But - memo to the Law & Order Los Angeles' producers - this isn't Orange County, 'mkay? Gustavo Arellano at sister publication OC Weekly points out that ri ... More >>

(Video) 'Ask A Mexican' Vs. The Anti-Mexican: Who Won The Debate Between Gustavo Arellano And Tom Tancredo?

Nick LucchesiRandom thought: If these guys would marry and combine their names, Antonio Villaraigosa-style, they could claim the surname Tancrellano. Just sayin.'​Gustavo Arellano is the original "¡Ask a Mexican!" guy. Former Congressman Tom Tancredo is the original anti-Mexican guy. Tuesda ... More >>

(Video) SoCal's 'Ask A Mexican,' Gustavo Arellano, Debates Anti-Mexican Tom Tancredo Live

Gustavo Arellano: Go ahead, ask him.​Fireworks in red, white, blue and green are on tap Tuesday night as Southern California's own Gustavo Arellano, a Mexican immigration historian known for his "¡Ask a Mexican!" column at sister paper OC Weekly, will take on notorious illegal-immigrant bashe ... More >>

Red O: Back to Bayless

Bringing Mexican to L.A., With Mixed Results

Texas Kill 'Em

WHO'S YOUR TIA?

Some UCLA Students Rally Against Latino Author As Commencement Speaker

Gustavo Arellano.​A few UCLA students have started a Facebook page to campaign against the university's choice of OC Weekly writer and author Gustavo Arellano as the College of Letters and Science's commencement speaker next month. So far the "Bruins Against Gustavo Arellano for UCLA 2010 comm ... More >>

Web Surfing: A Roundup of Posts from L.A. Food Blogs

-- Santa Monica bar The Joker gets raided after employees and customers sold coke to undercover agents. [Grub Street] -- Playing Maj Jongg, with a little wine and cheese. [Food, she thought] -- Pat Saperstein stops by the preview party for Private Chefs of Beverly Hills. [Eating L.A.] -- OC Weekl ... More >>

Gustavo Arellano To Deliver UCLA Keynote Speech

UCLA​Gustavo Arellano, author and columnist at LA Weekly's sister newspaper OC Weekly, was announced Thursday as the keynote speaker at the UCLA College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony in June. Arellano is a UCLA alumnus who earned a master's degree in Latin American studies from ... More >>

The Thursday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

SapphireBlue22stack of newspapers​What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections mid-week. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is free ... More >>

Chinese Girls and Fat Mexican Kids

Insults Across the Divide

Finish School — and Shut Up During the Mariachi

Don't Mix Tequila With Irish Stout

Habla Ingles, por favor

And while you're at it, show up on time!

Wife-Beating and Ethnic Slurs: A Deeper Look

web hed required

Where Are All the Homeless Hispanics?

Plus, do Mexicans really say "Ay, caramba"?

Mexican Tampon Conspiracy

"Illegal" Is a Label of Pride, not Prejudice

Plus, stay-at-home Mexican dad gets flack from extended family

Mexicans: Intellectually Lazy Walking Greenhouses?

web hed required

Guerilla in the Myth: Juan Flores

Just when you think you have a legend figured out, that old anti-deconstructionist Gustavo Arellano throws a change-up that leaves you swinging at thin air. Punning off the title of a Brad Pitt Western, Arellano's O.C. Weekly piece, The Assassination of Sheriff James Barton by the Mexican Juan Flore ... More >>

The Answer Man

L.A. Times Layoffs and Stupid Sam Zell

What person would choose to lay off the excellent Jesus Sanchez, one of the most rational, intelligent newspapermen in Los Angeles, when making the big, ugly cuts of up to 150 writers, editors, photographers and others that began today at the Los Angeles Times? Jesus is not just a multi-talented ... More >>

¡ask a Mexican! Special Día De Los Impuestos Edition

Social Security, identity theft and why the Feds couldn't care less

Christmas in April

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Feb. 23. 2007

The Town the Law Forgot by JEFFREY ANDERSON. No Peace in the Valley by STEVEN MIKULAN. Li'l Dickens Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Make Love to the Vice President by JERRY STAHL

Feb. 2, 2007

Moz the Cat by Kate Sullivan and Chest of Lies by Joshuah Bearman

Jan. 26, 2007

The End of Murder by David Zahniser

Line-Cutters and Illegals

May 1, 2006 Si Change

¡Ask a Mexican! Does L.A.

His Grand Majistery

Burning Questions

Sandblasted Standards