Philippines

Petty Cash Taqueria Opens Tonight

There was a lot of speculation about what would become of the space formerly known as Playa on Beverly Boulevard when the restaurant closed earlier in March. About a week and a half ago, restaurant partners Bill Chait and chef Walter Manzke -- with assists from food blogger Bill Esparza and chef Gui ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Summer Be Gone!

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.] September is upon us. In its final weeks, August was staggering crookedly, profusely bleeding ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Markets: Oro Blanco and Mellow Gold Grapefruit

Are you ready for your Trese Klase? Roughly translated to "13 types," the annual new year's practice in the Philippines requires collecting 13 different types of round fruit -- one for each month of the new year plus one in the next -- and putting them on the family table to be eaten on New Year's ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Markets: California Grown Jicama

Felicia FriesemaJicama from Yang Farms at the Hollywood market.​It has one of our favorite species names. Pachyrhizus erosus (erotic root elephant?), or the jicama which comes from the Aztec Nahuatl word xicamatl, is an ancient native root vegetable from Mexico, but it is very common in much o ... More >>

Inquiry Towards the Practice of Secular Magic

A live documentary and more at multimedia event

Los Angeles Ex-Soldier Mike Bruggink Split From U.S. Army, Posed as Boar Hunter to Stalk Osama Bin Laden (and $25 Million) With AK-47

Mike BrugginkBruggink left no Afghani cave unturned.​Patriotic nutjob Gary Faulker wasn't the only Angeleno to strike out alone on a mission to find Osama bin Laden before last weekend's big Navy SEAL takedown. Marina del Rey resident Mike Bruggink was hot on his trail -- the $25 million prize ... More >>

The Real Meaning of Tricky Dick

The Manila Machine: Off the Streets

Manila MachineMarvin Gapultos and Nastassia Johnson​ The Manila Machine, this city's first Filipino food truck, parked for the last time this past Friday and went on indefinite hiatus. The announcement, which was not, sadly, an April Fool's Joke, was made by Marvin Gapultos and Nastassia Johns ... More >>

Spooner

New York Times Takes Aim At L.A. Times, Calls Paper a 'Unifying Force of Complaint'

L.A. NoireThe L.A. Times gets critiqued by cross-country rival.​The Los Angeles Times is becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of local media. Not only does it get no respect, but its cross-country rival, the paper it once aspired to challenge for American journalistic supremacy, has reached out a ... More >>

Adam Carolla Rips L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa In Latest Issue Of 'Los Angeles' Magazine

adamcarolla.comAdam Carolla with Dr. Drew Pinsky.​Podcast blowhard and onetime Dancing With The Stars loser Adam Carolla is no fan of the Philippines, same-sex parents, and Hawaiians, as his would-be assassins listeners know. L.A.'s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, is also on that list, apparently ... More >>

Ode to the Slimy Hagfish

Battleground Jae Bu Do

Flavors of the Archipelago: Curated Tasting Dinners At The Fowler Museum

Fowler Museum at UCLAMuseum Sunday Suppers: Do Your Homework While You Eat​In today's bottomless pit of L.A. tasting events, with food festivals, beer crawls, and restaurant tasting dinners on just about every freeway exit, it can feel like a crap shoot deciding between that 5-course anchovy/s ... More >>

Taste of FPAC: The Oinkster Manila Machine

Cathy Dahn/GastronomyBlogsisig from Manila Machine​ Filipino cuisine is finally entering the mainstream, thanks to a handful of high profile chefs, the rise of food trucks, an interest in street food and ethnic home cooking, increased attention in the media, and, well, some really good food. ... More >>

'Fake Nursing School' In Koreatown To Pay Half-Million Settlement

PoramapornN via Flickr​ A "fake nursing school" in Koreatown agreed to pay a half-million-dollar settlement to students who authorities say were tricked into paying thousands of dollars in tuition to become registered nurses, according to a statement from the office of California Attorney Gene ... More >>

Quan Mien Trung: Not Your Mother's Noodle Soup

Unless she happens to be from Central Vietnam

Worlds Apart

Federal law gives gay citizens with foreign partners tough choices: Leave the U.S.A. Lose your love. Break the law

Today In WTF: Man Allegedly Poses As U.S. Agent, Deports Relative's Wife

Hemet policeGreg Raymond Denny Jr..​We couldn't make this up if we tried. In a story first reported in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, a man is alleged to have dressed and identified himself as a U.S. Marshal, kidnapped the wife of a distant cousin under the guise of an immigration arrest, and ... More >>

WALKING IN A MANILA WONDERLAND

Manny Pacquiao: A Little Flat But Very Sharp

Manny Pacquiao: A Little Flat, but Very Sharp

Would He Fight Tyson? World-class Boxer Manny Pacquiao Makes Pre-Fight Appearance, Sings Duet @ Montalban

From left: Alex Ariza, Manny Pacquiao, Freddie Roach, Buboy Fernandez​World-class boxer Manny Pacquiao can't sing to save his life -- but then, he wouldn't have to, would he? The cantatory low point of the Filipino superstar's appearance at Hollywood's Ricardo Montalban Theatre on Saturday, a ... More >>

Social Media for Social Good: The Geeks That Keep on Giving

Last week I attended a tech event... what else is new, you ask? Well, despite the barrage of silliness that has seemingly enveloped the L.A. tech community as of late (you know who you are Francisco Dao - congrats on Twiistup, by the way), this event did not involve the word "karaoke" and the only c ... More >>

Rated "G" For Globalization

As earlier noted, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival opened with a Hollywood movie (The International), directed by Germany's own Tom Tykwer and filmed in a half-dozen countries around the world, then continued with a French movie (In the Electric Mist) made in the U.S.A. with dialogue spoken in regional ... More >>

Berlin Film Festival: Rated "G" For Globalization

As earlier noted, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival opened with a Hollywood movie (The International), directed by Germany's own Tom Tykwer and filmed in a half-dozen countries around the world, then continued with a French movie (In the Electric Mist) made in the U.S.A. with dialogue spoken in regional ... More >>

Movie Reviews: Zombie Strippers, Floating Life, Lost in Beijing

Also, Flight of the Red Balloon, Dark Matter and more

Pacific Heights

Jazz picks around L.A.

Back to War

PBS’ marathon man Ken Burns returns

Grindhouse Gang

Quentin Tarantino summons the masters to historic summit

Rock Picks

For the week of Jan 18 – 25

Rock Picks

For the week of Jan 12 – 18

Film Reviews

Including this week's pick, Cavite

Cavite

The War Is the Question

ANSWER is not the answer

A Decent and Simple Home

The Impossible Dream

A map to the most buried of cinematic treasures

U.S. of Amnesia

Gore Vidal looks past the election

As the World Burns

The national idea as soap opera

When Shelley Met Harold

Aurelito & Shakespeare, Aural Tradition

George Won’t Be Reading This

The president prefers spin to news

Liars and Shakers

Searching for peace in a furious world

An Oklahoma Mystery

New hints of links between Timothy McVeigh and Middle Eastern terrorists

Mission Creep

Bush finds his Vietnam

Next Time, They Might Be Women

The Last Movie

Apocalypse Now Redux

All-In-One Redux

Meals cheap, fast and with a past

Burning Man

Getting in Touch with One's Inner Churl

Music Reviews

Weapons of Mass Distraction

U.S. arms dealing leads Project Censored’s list of the Top 10 underreported stories of 1997