Rowland Heights

Top 4 Weekend Events: Food Truck Fest, Top Chef Pig Roast, Wine Dinner Food Truck Beer Dinner

Diamond Plaza Food Truck Fest Waffles de Liege, Slummin Gourmet and Dogzilla are among the food trucks gathering at the Rowland Heights plaza -- a convenient location given nearby options like Ten Ren's Tea Time, Tokyo Shabu Shabu and New Capital Seafood. WHAT: Diamond Plaza Food Truck Fest WHEN: S ... More >>

Have You Seen Molly? Cops Say SGV Gangsters Denis Lam And Ruoyu Mike Dong Have

Madonna last year famously asked, "Have you seen Molly?" The L.A. County Sheriff's Department might have just answered that question. Deputies say they broke up a deal involving 1,000 molly-style ecstasy pills. Two members of an Asian American gang in the San Gabriel Valley were arrested in connect ... More >>

2012 San Gabriel Valley Food Trends

The end of the year marks a time to re-evaluate, a time to step back and try to figure out exactly what the heck it was all about. Take for example, the food trends of 2012 in the San Gabriel Valley. We got word out through social media, message boards and e-mail asking those familiar with goings on ... More >>

2012 in the San Gabriel Valley: A List of Restaurant Openings Closings

As the calendar prepares to turn the page on yet another year, it's tradition time here at Squid Ink. A time for us to look back on the year and note restaurant openings and closings. When attempting to do this with the San Gabriel Valley, where an estimated 600 Chinese restaurants make up a vibran ... More >>

Family Fun Arcade Prepares to Close, After Four Decades as a Grenada Hills Hangout

Bathed in the glow of the flashing CRT screen, Jon "Jesus" Lemerand yanks his joystick back and slaps a button, letting loose a 2-D punch. A handful of onlookers hoots and claps. It's Friday night at Family Fun Arcade, or FFA, and a motley group has gathered to play Street Fighter III: 3rd Strik ... More >>

Taiwanese Pork Chop Rice 3 Places In The SGV To Get It

In April, Squid Ink published a list of 10 Classic Taiwanese Dishes. Controversy immediately ensued over the exclusion of another traditional Taiwanese dish: pork chop rice (pai gu fan). Comments flew from some noted food bloggers, some expressing their incredulity over what they felt was a glaring ... More >>

10 Best Sweet Treats in Los Angeles

As you may have noticed, this year's Best Of issue dropped on your doorstep, metaphorically if not actually, last week. There are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of listings, of spas and hikes and cocktails and grottos (yes, grottos), so many that you might get lost -- so many that we thought we'd pull out ... More >>

Chuan Ma Noodle House: No. 1 Noodle House's Offspring

If you were to head eastward along the Pomona Freeway, about two dozen miles or so from downtown, eventually you would find yourself in the vast hinterlands of Rowland Heights, a strange land where the parking lots seem to stretch for miles and the shoebox-sized stores, specializing in any type of i ... More >>

Off the Menu: Mustard Cabbage at Beijing Restaurant

Trying to find a particular Chinese regional or local specialty can be quite an adventure, even among the hundreds of restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley. The search for these items, be it Datong-style braised rabbit heads or Tianjin-style earhole cakes, can produce tales worthy of an explorer. ... More >>

Tempest in a Teacup: Cup Controversy at Half & Half Tea House

To call the tea bar scene in the San Gabriel Valley vibrant is a vast understatement. Dozens of perpetually crowded small cafés across the 626 serve teas and boba drinks while providing socializing and studying spots for those not old enough to drink alcohol or those not so inclined. It's precisely ... More >>

Earthen's Green Onion Pancake: The Joys of Flatbread

The green onion pancake is one of the most common items on Chinese menus around the San Gabriel Valley. Yet whenever the popular appetizer comes up, one restaurant is invariably mentioned first and foremost: Earthen. For one place to be singled out as having the best of something so common speaks ... More >>

10 Restaurants for Mardi Gras

We think Paul Simon must have accidentally left out a few lyrics from "Take Me to the Mardi Gras." Sure, we love the "music in the street both night and day" and the chance to "jingle to the beat." But what about the celebratory New Orleans-style food and drinks? Jambalaya, gumbo, crawfish and etouf ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Westfield Culver City Food Court

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 11/7-11/11

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "In true Bourdain fashion, he gave us an straight answer. 'You know, I don't really care.'" Anthony Bourdain on The Layover, L.A. and Jonathan Gold. "The first thing you need to know about Attari ... More >>

Japanese Curry House CoCo Ichibanya Opens in Rowland Heights

ProfessorSalt.comCoco Ichibanya's Katsu-curry​Do you love Japanese curry and need to fix that jones in the eastern San Gabriel Valley? We told you this summer that CoCo Ichibanya was coming to Rowland Heights, and we just found out that location opened two months sooner than we expected, on Se ... More >>

Fake iPhone Parts Alleged to be Worth $250,000 Seized in San Gabriel Valley: Three Arrested

AppleThe real deal.​Does anyone remember when the hot part to steal was the rim off a car or its air bag? Old school, we know. Well, here in 2011, the new contraband of the criminal realm, it seems, is iPhone parts. (Another sign of nerds triumphant). Authorities in the San Gabriel Valley ... More >>

Mid-Autumn Festival: Time for Mooncakes

Jim ThurmanPlate of assorted mooncakes.​ Today marks the Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival, an important holiday in China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and the time of mooncakes. Over the past few weeks in the San Gabriel Valley, bakeries have been busy cranking out tray after tray of mooncakes, with many o ... More >>

Green Tea Shaved Snow Food Fight: Salju Dessert vs. Fluff Ice

Jim ThurmanMatcha green tea shaved snow with red bean & mochi at Salju Dessert​ Taiwanese shaved ice has been featured before at Squid Ink, and with good reason. It's perhaps the perfect summer dessert. However, as good as shaved ice is, it's just so 2010. This year, it's all about the next le ... More >>

Stinky Tofu Food Fight: Tofu King vs. Lee's Garden

Jim ThurmanTaiwan style stinky tofu, Tofu King​ Let's get it out of the way. Stinky tofu is, for many, an acquired taste. It's simply outside of the food comfort zone of westerners. We'll admit the smell can be off putting to the uninitiated, but its bark is much worse than its bite. And rea ... More >>

CoCo Ichibanya: Japanese Curry X 10 ( 2 More Locations Coming)

ProfessorSalt.comTonkatsu curry at Coco Ichinbanya​Just as every American kid grows up eating grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup, children in Japan eat karei raisu, curry and rice. On any given day, school cafeterias, company shokudos, casual restaurants and home cooks across th ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 3/7-3/11

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "You're the porteño with the Ph.D. in literature. You tell me." Ask Mr. Gold: In Search of Salteñas, Revisited. "And the drink is named The Bitter End 'because we all know this isn't going to be ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Lucky Noodle King: Many Spicy Returns

A Sichuan staple resurfaces

Best Shaved Ice: Class 302

R. Brown​If having a fellow food blogger diss your favorite dessert as boorish ain't fighting words, they at least are eating ones. So when a certain blogger read our Squid Ink story on Korean patbingsu and commented that the Taiwanese shaved snow dish baobing was so far superior, we suddenly ... More >>

Asian-on-Asian Hate Crime Alleged as Four Arrested in Connection With a Takeout-Food Beat-Down in San Gabriel Valley

YouTube / LAPDAsian-on-Asian hate crime is alleged in the SGV.​Asian-on-Asian hate crime? In L.A., yes. And over a man's heritage as he tried to get takeout food of a different culture, no less. The victim was beaten, had his car pummeled, and was robbed because, authorities say, he is Chines ... More >>

Chinese New Year: Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit -- By Eating Rabbit in the SGV

With today marking the beginning of Chinese New Year, and 2011 being The Year of the Rabbit, we thought it only appropriate to sample a variety of dishes featuring the honored animal. While Americans generally consign rabbit to the mantle of "exotic meats," the use of rabbit is not uncommon in som ... More >>

R.I.P. Shu Feng Garden in San Gabriel

Jim ThurmanSteamed pork belly with mixed flour at Shu Feng Garden in San Gabriel.​An already dreary December day became downright bleak for lovers of Sichuan cuisine with the news, tweeted by food blogger Sinosoul, that Shu Feng Garden had closed their San Gabriel location. Just 14 months ago ... More >>

Around the Blogs: Shu Feng Garden Closes, Daily Dose to Open, Best Burrito in Echo Park

Guzzle & NoshPigs' ears at Shu Feng Garden in San Gabriel.​--Sinosoul tweets that the San Gabriel outpost of Sichuan restaurant Shu Feng Garden, a Jonathan Gold favorite, has closed. (Rowland Heights location still open.) --Yesterday was officially Burrito Day in LA. Vote for your fave. Echo P ... More >>

For Prop 19 Fans: 5 Best L.A. Leftovers to Dip in Hummus

California Grill's loroco pupusa dipped in hummus​ Perhaps it's not a discovery worthy of the Harvard Kitchen Lab, but just in time for the possible passage of Proposition 19, there's been a recent breakthrough in late night snacking -- extensive research shows that most restaurant leftovers ... More >>

L.A. Suburbs Get What's Coming To Them: West Nile Virus Has Been Detected in Mosquitos

​West Nile virus has been found in mosquitoes who can transmit to humans in Cerritos, Whittier, Rowland Heights, Encino and Reseda, making 47 cases in Los Angeles County in 2010. Of people who get West Nile, one in five get symptoms. Of those, one in 150 end up in the hospital. Hopefully the su ... More >>

Web Surfing: A Roundup of News from L.A. Food Blogs & Beyond

-- Patt Saperstein eats hoppers and other Sri Lankan treats at Angeli Caffe's most recent Street Food Monday. [Eating L.A.] -- A visit to Izayoi in Little Tokyo, jack of all trades but master of none. [Exile Kiss] -- No fuss, good service, and solid food at Golden China Restaurant in Rowland Heigh ... More >>

Pangs of Industry: Earthen

Where to eat in a city without residents

Ask Mr. Gold: Pangs Of Industry. Where to Eat in a City Without Residents?

Photo credit: Anne FishbeinMr. Gold, with dim sum menu​Dear Mr. Gold: I'm in the City of Industry. And I'm starving. --Evan K., Los Angeles Dear Evan: There are worse places to be hungry than Industry. But while there are a lot of decent restaurants in the area, it's generally too f ... More >>

Restaurant Roll Call for 2009

Last year was rough and many restaurants in Los Angeles could not weather the financial storm. After 28 years of business, Orso closed in November, and just last month Gardens on Glendon, a Westwood staple for 21 years put out a For Lease sign. But while some eateries folded, others such as Bouchon ... More >>

The Best Dishes of 2009

Pig's ears and cocktails and tacos that tweet

The Green Village Preservation Society

Open to new members in Rowland Heights

Ask Mr. Gold: Pimp My Rib -- Caught Red-Handed

Anne FishbeinProof that they do exist: The elusive Sichuan spare ribs at Chung King Dear Mr. Gold: Where can you get really good Chinese barbecued spareribs? I'm in Silver Lake, but I'm willing to travel. --Susanna, Silver Lake

Pimp My Rib: Caught Red-handed

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

This Property Is Condemned As had been predicted following massive fourth-quarter losses, Mereulo Maddux Properties, the largest owner of downtown L.A. properties, is seeking bankruptcy protection. L.A. TimesHate Is Enough Progressive radio station KPFK 90.7 FM has temporarily suspended its "La Caus ... More >>

Bagels in the Dustbin: And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl

Josh Kun and Roger Bennett's secret history of Jewish-American music

Until the Green Door Opens Again, Where to Find Fish Beignets

Shanghaied Village

Looking for Curry Laksa: Penang in West Covina

Happiness is a bowl of coconut broth and noodles

Terrorizing Villaraigosa

Animal-rights zealots target his sister and suggest he should die

Return of the Hairy Crab

Green Village comes back to San Gabriel

Shanghaied Again

Green Village

Capital News

Scenes from a Mall

Ask Mr. Gold

Ask Mr. Gold

Letters

From Spaetzle to Saimintosoda

The world on a string