Trader Joe's Co. Inc.

LYFE Kitchen Review, The Condensed Version

This week, we turn our reviewing pen to LYFE Kitchen, the new health-conscious would-be chain in Culver City. We urge you to read the full review here, or look after the jump for a condensed version, plus some extras.

10 Best Crab Cakes in Los Angeles

Recipes for delicate cakes of minced and bound seafood are as old as, well, maritime cooking. The crab version we mostly eat today -- crab, mayonnaise, breadcrumbs, eggs, seasoning and some onion, gathered up and pan-fried or broiled -- is a colonial American recipe that hasn't changed much since it ... More >>

Kellogg's Recalls Special K Due to Glass Pieces

Special K comes in flavors including blueberries, red berries, "chocolatey delight," "chocolately strawberry," cinnamon pecan, fruit & yogurt, oats & honey, and vanilla almond. And now you can add a new ingredient to the mix -- glass fragments. Coming right on the heels of Nestle's recall last week ... More >>

Lean Cuisine Recalled Due to Glass Shards

Lean Cuisine is recalling ravioli dinners because of glass fragments found in the pasta, the Food and Drug Administration reports. The voluntary recall of Lean Cuisine Culinary Collection Mushroom Mezzaluna Ravioli comes after three consumers reported they "found small fragments of glass in the ra ... More >>

Asa From Shahs of Sunset: Rapping at Elat Market L.A.'s Persian Food Culture

If you're following the L.A.-based reality show Shahs of Sunset, (and we're certainly not judging you if you aren't) you've probably become acquainted with Asa Asa Soltan Rahmati. And if that's the case, you've probably noticed that her favorite things are music, gold and Persian food. In what we gu ... More >>

Smoked Salmon Recalled for Listeria

Put down that lox. It might be loaded -- with bacteria. A Seattle-based company is recalling 371 cases of ready-to-eat smoked salmon because the fish may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, Food Safety News reports. Ocean Beauty Seafoods LLC issued a voluntary recall of its Nathan's Brand ... More >>

Top 10 Marijuana News Stories For 2012, LA Weekly-Style

If you like drama and marijuana together, then 2012 was the year for you: It was jam-packed with topsy-turvy cannabis news. As the Obama administration cracked down on medical marijuana dispensaries in California, the president himself said pot users in marijuana-legal states shouldn't be prosecut ... More >>

Trader Joe's Wine Thief Takes Fire From LAPD

A wine thief at the Sherman Oaks Trader Joe's nearly lost his life after cops shot at him last night. We hope he wasn't just boosting a case of Two Buck Chuck. Two LAPD officers were outside the store investigating a traffic incident when out comes Senor Boost-A-Vino with a case in-hand, according ... More >>

Urban Farming: Or, How to Start a Farmers Market Stand With Your Backyard Citrus Trees, or Not

There's a wheelbarrow in the kitchen. How it got there doesn't bear thinking about. The moment for thought is long gone. With every bang of my shin on the barrow, it dawns on me that this is only the first load of many of oranges, lemons and tangerines that needs picking, trimming, washing, dryi ... More >>

5 Condiments to Spice Up Your July 4th Holiday

The Fourth of July is the perfect egalitarian holiday. Everyone is invited, and you don't have to bring a gift, dress up or sing any particular songs. It happens in summer when the weather is beautiful, there's nothing religious about it, you're not compelled to be with family to celebrate unless yo ... More >>

Comments: Aliens Among Us

Top 6 Tacos in the San Fernando Valley

Following up on our list of the 10 Best Tacos in Los Angeles, we decided to look onwards and upwards, towards the San Fernando Valley in search of even more great tacos. And find them we did, especially in Sylmar and Reseda. While you're never too far from a taco truck or taqueria on any given jaun ... More >>

10 Best Tacos in Los Angeles

Los Cincos Puntos, one of our favorite places for a taco, is located right near a cemetery. This is fitting, in a way: After all, in Los Angeles, nothing can be said to certain, except death and tacos. Indeed, we're willing to bet that if you peeked in backyards across town during Memorial Day week ... More >>

Fresh & Easy Closing Seven SoCal Stores, and The Best Cloth Grocery Bags

Fresh & Easy is closing seven Southern California stores citing sluggish sales, reports the Los Angeles Times. Not that it's much of a dent in the El Segundo-based company's 184 retail grocery outlets in California, Arizona and Nevada, as the company is reportedly rolling out two dozen more stores i ... More >>

Top 5 Weekend Food Events: Boxing Match, Eat My Blog, Food of the Jews of France, Breakfast with Santa, Artisanal LA

It's a bake sale!​Boxing Match Boxed wine: scourge of snooty oenophiles, emblem of populist wine drinkers, re-embraced by thrifty contrarians. The stuff has, supposedly, improved by leaps and bounds since Trader Joe's cleverly repackaged the it in bottles and sold it as Two Buck Chuck. Decide ... More >>

Sqirl to Open in Silver Lake: Q&A with Jessica Koslow

Margy RochlinTomato and coriander jam (left), sauerkraut (right).​This Wednesday, what was fleetingly Gus' Lunch Box will officially become Sqirl (pronounced "squirrel"), where you can buy over 15 varieties of owner Jessica Koslow's small-batch jams and preserves. Produced in custom-made coppe ... More >>

Hollywood Boulevard's Costumed Characters: How I Became One For a Night...as a Stripper Bunny

Hollywood Boulevard stripper bunny​Those people who stand outside of Mann's Chinese Theater in costumes, taking photos with tourists for tips -- do they have a union? Is there some kind of street performers license they need? Are there a bunch of unspoken rules about territory? What it I bec ... More >>

4:20 Yoga Class in Atwater Village: Getting Bendy While Baked

Elizabeth McDonaldLiz McDonald practices yoga on a beach in Brazil while smoking a fat cartoon joint. ​ Take a nice deep inhale, press the feet, elongate the neck and allow any sort of tension to just drop out of the head, but don't think about food. We'll be needing to relax the booty muscles ... More >>

85°C Bakery-Café Opens in Hacienda Heights

Jim ThurmanLine at grand opening of 85°C Bakery-Café, Hacienda Heights​ The number of international chains with outlets in Los Angeles County grew by one when 85°C Bakery-Café opened in Hacienda Heights on Saturday. The Taiwanese chain, with nearly 500 stores in Taiwan, China and Australia ... More >>

Food Gadgets for Hipsters: The Bicycle Wine Rack

designed by oopsmark​If there is one thing hipsters love more than cheap wine (read: irony), it is expensive gadgets for transporting cheap wine on their bicycles (read: elaborate irony). Thus, the bicycle wine rack. Just in time for Cinespia's summer screening series and other seasonal hipnik ... More >>

Chilled Cucumber Summertime Soup: A Recipe

J. Kelleychilled cucumber soup​ Simple, elegant and slightly old fashioned, this chilled puree of cucumbers could be just the recipe for adding a little polish to casual summertime meals. Cold and smooth, cucumber-clean with hints of garlic and green onion, it's a versatile refresher that gets ... More >>

Dear Gazpacho: It's Over Between Us

Dear Gazpacho, By the time you read this, I'll be long gone. I'm sorry for doing this, but it's for the best. I know it might come as a bit of a surprise to you, but take an honest look at our relationship. It hasn't been good for a long time. It's been years of emotional isolation, lowered stand ... More >>

Potluck Purpose: New Hollywood Chapter Of Dining For Women Launches Tomorrow

Michael Sears, www.jsonli.jpgAfghani Culinary Themed Potluck At A Milwaukee Dining For Women​Charity dinners at restaurants are great presuming you can afford the high dollar price tag that comes along with them. For the rest of us, or at least half of us, Dining for Women's first L.A. chapter ... More >>

LG Smart Appliances: Could Be Smarter

​On January 3rd, LG Electronics unveiled a sparkling new arsenal of smart appliances at the 2011 International CES--the world's grandest consumer technology tradeshow. According to a press release, the company's refrigerators have an LCD display with removable food icons and a voice recogniti ... More >>

Yes, Georgio's!

New York's Robins Takes a Turn at Studio City Cucina

Top 10 Wine And Band Pairings: Or, How About Some Air Supply With That $2 Chuck?

Flickr user 1808wineThe Vintage Cadillac Essentials​Heavy metal drinking is really the only excuse for naming a wine Sledgehammer. Either that, or you're a mega-millions corporate exec type trying to hook us on cheap inexpensive wine (see #2 when you turn the page). And so begets a Top Ten lis ... More >>

Plate Spinning: Listings From the Past Week

Some food for thought from local, national and international news sources from this past week: -- Marion Nestle's overview of the White House Obesity Report. [The Atlantic Food Channel] -- People dropping cakes: the video. [The Amateur Gourmet via Daily Dish] -- The cheesesteak pretzel. Stop t ... More >>

Stinkers Bar to Re-Open as Thirsty Crow A Look at Their Bourbon Menu

1933 GroupThirsty Crow's Scotch menu​By now you probably already know that Stinkers bar in Silver Lake will re-open on April 23 as Thirsty Crow, a thematic shift that moves the venue from Ironic Truck Stop Chic to Grampy's Neighborhood Bourbon Bar. Named after one of Aesop's Fables -- in whic ... More >>

Pay Less, Work Less, Eat Better: Moms Agree on Carniceria Sanchez

If you walk into Carniceria Sanchez, generally considered the best Mexican meat market on the west side, you will probably not see any white, upper-middle class moms pushing strollers down the aisle and ordering three wheels of chorizo and a block of queso fresco. But you should. Here's the thing: w ... More >>

Silverlake Scene Girl Porn or New Bishop Allen Video?: YOU Be the Judge!

To promote "True of False," the latest single from their months-old Grrr... album, Bishop Allen did what any clever bunch of average-looking, expensively-educated beardos from Brooklyn with Calexico-style horns and a stand-up drummer would do: draft your Bobbie-Gentry-lookalike girlfriend (now wife) ... More >>

Street Cred

At her new Hollywood restaurant, Susan Feniger puts the cart before the hors d’oeuvre

Flower Power: Bend It, Don’t Break It

Glendale City Council: No to 710 Tunnel

One of L.A.'s great communal imbroglios is the extension of the Long Beach Freeway, also known as State Route 710. Years ago construction ended at its Alhambra terminus, so that it currently connects Long Beach directly to -- Valley Boulevard. Caltrans wants to complete it so that the highway will c ... More >>

LA to Double as L.A.

Talk about runaway production -- L.A. can't even land a role to play itself in the movies these days. A news item working through the pipeline today notes that Battle: Los Angeles (no, it's not about budget fights), will be filmed in Baton Rouge and elsewhere in Louisiana. The Associated Press descr ... More >>

Where Are Our Landmarks?

A new L.A. Conservancy report card (actually, an update to its 2003 survey) scolds San Gabriel Valley cities -- not only for not having ordinances to protect historical landmarks, but for not even having any landmarks to protect. While giving A's to Pasadena, South Pasadena, Long Beach and Whittier ... More >>

Drive In, Sit Out, Rock On

What to do in L.A., September 12-18

Garbanzos!

Hummus Bar finds beauty in the humble chickpea

The 'Stache

From Teddy to Magnum — facial hair makes a comeback

Clitoris Envy, or What I Learned in Female-Orgasm Class

Welcome to Inglewood — Leave Your Aspirations Behind

For Erin Aubry Kaplan, coming home has been a labor of tough love

Last Chance Is Your Best Chance

To Speak or Not To Speak

A mixed week for free-speech rulings

Experimental Jet Set & a Few Stars

Edited by Kateri Butler

Chief of Police — It’s Never Been My Total Identity

Web exclusive: the L.A. Weekly’s interview with Bernard Parks, candidate for the 8th Los Angeles City Council District

Pushing the Envelopes

The Artists of Gruyère

Frankenfoods

Should genetically modified produce frighten you?

So Close, so Far Away

Holy grounds for the urban camper

Hollywood Babble-On