Styrofoam

5 Great Places to Drink at Lunch

It is often the case that the good old days weren't nearly as good or even as old as they seem. In fact, those days were once the crappy, boring, degenerate present, and many relics of the supposed good old days became relics for good reason. Then again, there are plenty of habits from yesteryear ... More >>

10 Best Carne Asada Fries in Los Angeles

Carne asada fries don't travel well, practically and ideologically speaking. They're increasingly hard to locate as you drive north from San Diego county, and surprisingly rare in Los Angeles, a city teeming with Mexican food, college students and medical marijuana cards. Piles of freshly fried spud ... More >>

71: Hunan-Style Preserved Pork with Tofu at Hunan Chilli King

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 71: Hunan-Style Preserved Pork with Tofu at Hunan Chilli King. Walking up to San Gabriel's Hunan Chili, located in a nondescript section of strip mall along Va ... More >>

Rico's Tacos: A Look at Mid-City's New Al Pastor Specialist

Following the ever-changing taco beat in Los Angeles is often an exercise in both triumph and trepidation. Take for example Tacos Leo, the truck that swept the taco-loving loving community into a mad al pastor fervor two years ago, serving gorgeous chile-imbued swaths of seared pork garnished with a ... More >>

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including the End of Pacific Standard Time

Pacific Standard Time, that half-year, regionwide paean to L.A.'s art history, officially ends on March 31. A show of vintage photographs and one last performance event send it off. Everything else on this week's list is forward-looking. 5. Rebel with a camera When MOCA staged its big Dennis Hopper ... More >>

Five Artsy Things to See This Week, from Wallace Berman Films to Anti-Cute to a Show Inspired by a Bigelow Tea

Courtesy Regen Projects and MOCA Los AngelesSue Williams' 1992 painting "The Art World Can Suck My Proverbial Dick"​ Most exhibitions on this week's list are the work of youngish artists, but not the one by Sue Williams, who's been around since the 1980s. It's her first solo show in this city ... More >>

The Hat vs. Johnnie's Pastrami: 30 Sandwiches in 30 Days (Day 11)

Like the burger, pastrami cuts across a number of class lines and within its genus contains a multitude of high and lowbrow options. Different kinds of pastrami for different kinds of people. Johnnie's Pastrami and The Hat are both, in their own way, Southern California fast food essentials, one a ... More >>

The Pie Hole: Love At First Crust

Guzzle & NoshCoffee and lemon meringue pie at The Pie Hole.​Opened just last week in a gritty-chic corner of downtown L.A., The Pie Hole hopes to do for pies what nearby Wurstkuche did for sausages. That is, reinvigorate a staple dish, make it feel hip and modern, and, hopefully, fill the plac ... More >>

DIY Food Mashups: Falafel Arax Spicy BBQ Thai

G. SnyderLaap Thawt Lenbi Sandwich​ The rules of D.I.Y. Food Mashups are simple: Pair two dishes from two distinct restaurants located less than a half mile apart and then sample the subsequent mishmash of cuisines, for better or worse. In a crowded strip mall in East Hollywood, literally ... More >>

What Happens When Six Canadian Musicians Canoe the L.A. River?

L.A. River.​Among the sounds the musicians of the Canadian band Twin heard while canoeing the Los Angeles River were chirping birds, lapping waves, rustling trees and the screeching of a police department helicopter siren. Musically speaking, the LAPD's Loud Hailer airborne siren leaves someth ... More >>

Giant Donut Fight, Part 1: Randy's Vs. Kindle's

N. GalutenRandy's Donuts​Back in the 1940s, a donut machine salesman named Russell C. Wendell created a chain of Big Donut Drive-Ins. He opened nine total locations, with each one featuring an enormous donut perched on the roof (a quintessential example of programmatic architecture). Wendell t ... More >>

Portable Thai Fish Custard at Silom Supermarket

K. Robbins​ Love fish custard, but wish it didn't keep you saddled to the table? Silom Supermarket, the grocery store in Hollywood's Thailand Plaza, may have the answer you've been looking for: ho mok. This popular Northern Thai street food, which slightly resembles a cupcake, combines bite-s ... More >>

Birth of a Notion

West Hollywood plays key role in Making Paradise

F Yeah Fest: An Effing Food Nightmare

E. CourtlandStill early, this is a shorter line at Lee's Philly​ For those at this year's F Yeah Fest, an annual concert held last Saturday in Los Angeles State Historic Park, time existed only in musical signatures, dictating the tempo of their collective movements, willing them to dance or ... More >>

Baby Ain't Got Back (Yet)

Mike Kelley and Baby Ikki wander the desert of the real

Nothing But Truffle: The Truffle Brothers, LA's Italian Truffle Connection

Some people grow up around sports, academics, or the arts. For Michael and Marco Pietroiacovo--two brothers from Campobosso, Italy--their upbringing was around truffles. As children, their grandfather showed them how to forage for the elusive tuber in the hills around Abruzzo, Italy. As teens they s ... More >>

Meet Your Food Blogger: Rickmond Wong of Rameniac

Alhambra native Rickmond Wong considers himself a ramen shaman. According to Jonathan Gold, when Wong was in high school he was already emailing our food critic to brag about his superiority in the field of the often understated noodle. Wong's food blog, Rameniac, pays homage to the history and trad ... More >>

Doh! National Doughnut Day With Grace: "We can offer the fanciest doughnuts... but we're still all Homer Simpson"

Shannon CottrellWhen most of us think of doughnut shops, we picture dinky dives, places where men all over America stop off on their way to work for the breakfast their wives won't let them eat and a Styrofoam cup of crappy coffee. Doughnut shops are landmarks for truck drivers, and travelers, and p ... More >>

Seven John Smiths, a Bob and a Bamford

What to do in L.A., May 29-June 4

Alter Eco's Eco-MacGyver, Peter Fonda and Anna Getty on the Green Carpet for Josh Tickell's Oil Doc FUEL

Eco and Narcissus

The Pavilion

On Closer Observation: Janine Jansen at Disney Hall

Plus, more on Messiaen and the marvelous Met

Max Maven Thinking in Person

A Week in the Life of Jonathan Gold's Stomach

Dear Diary

Theater Reviews: The Drawer Boy, Hollywood Hellhouse, Max Maven

Also Jim Morrison's Swimming to the Moon and this week's pick, Innocent When You Dream.

Tarmac Rage

Getting an earful from millionaires’ jets at Santa Monica Airport

Dancing in Tropical Snow

Ashley Huizenga: She comes in colors everywhere

Hey, Ladies!

The girls go wild west at Bergamot

Looking for Mr. Begley

Earth Day in L.A.

Ask Mr. Gold: Gumbo

Everything but the Bird

Chicken Madness

Dhaba Dhaba Do

Titty Titty Bang Bang

Edited by Kateri Butler

P.O.’d

On MOCA’s “Public Offerings”

Peripheral Visions

The edge of L.A. in three dimensions

Escape From New Bushland

Bump, Set, Spike

South Bay Volleyball with the Best of ’em

The Chai Life

In search of real Indian tea

Shafted!

A Where's Where of dead meat on a stick

Looks Like Chicken, Tastes Like Chicken . . .

Okay, it is chicken.

Venice Biennale,Vegas Style

The Casino Report, part II

Mad Cow

Where's the beef? Right here, baby

Art For God's Sake

The Gospel According to Reverend Ethan Acres

Futurama

Post-millennial déjà vu at Luckman Fine Arts

Dance With A Stranger

Falling in love at 40 cents a minute

Music 1998:

The good, the bad and the combusticated

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Around this time of year, we start to yearn for restaurants that put their smoke in the meat, not in the street . . .

Hole

Dizie With Anticipation