Barbara Hansen

China Cafe The venerable China Cafe rivals the trendiest hot spots in L.A. — if not in the food, definitely in the competition for a seat. Would-be diners crowd around salivating as they wait their turn to tuck into old-fashioned wonton soup, chop suey or chow mein — the sort......

The cuisine of Yucatán may seem remote and exotic, but you can become pretty good at it in just four short classes. These will take place in August at the Mercado La Paloma, which is celebrating the month of Yucatán in partnership with Chichén Itzá restaurant. Gilberto Cetina of Chichén Itzá......

Hang onto your hat-ch. New Mexico’s famous Hatch chiles are almost here. The season is short, from early August to the end of September, so you’ll want to get your share before they’re gone. If you’re a Hatch fanatic, you’ll line up with your stash at a chile roasting —......

Want to be insanely gorgeous or drop-dead handsome? Then eat as much chueotang as you can. This Korean fish soup is said to be a beautifier, and it's super healthy too. It's full of calcium, proteins and vitamins that Koreans believe make the complexion sparkly, smooth and fresh. This is......

This Wednesday, May 21, Beverly Hills will glow red, but not from a wild fire or gaudy sunset. The warm hues will come from Crustacean, which launches its Red Hour, a color-coded happy hour, from 4 to 8 p.m. Don't try to get in if you don't have an invitation. Only......

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2014 issue. Check out our entire People 2014 issue. All his life, Jesse Gomez wanted to be a lawyer, until one semester in law school cured that. Now he's into restaurants, not courtrooms. By the end of this year, he'll......

If you've already bought Sabores Yucatecos, the cookbook from Chichén Itzá in the Mercado La Paloma, you may want to buy it again.  This doesn't mean getting two of the same thing - well not exactly. The new version contains the same 140 recipes from Yucatán, but this time they're in......

If you have The Great Pepper Cookbook from Melissa's, you can cook your way up the Scoville heat scale from zero (bell peppers) to "insanely hot" (bhut jolokia and scorpion chiles). As a major distributor of peppers and chiles, Melissa's/World Variety Produce has put into this book all the info......

Buy extra virgin olive oil off a supermarket shelf, and chances are that it's extra virgin in name only. "Unfortunately, in the United States, many of the companies that have sold olive oil have done so without having to comply with any standards for many, many years," says Paul Vossen,......

Burmese food is getting so hot in L.A. that even Anne Willan, our doyenne of French cuisine, is cooking it. Well, not every day but one time, for a cookbook launch at her home in Santa Monica. What lured her into the kitchen was The Burma Cookbook: Recipes from the Land......