Barbara Hansen

Would you call this heaven or hell for a wine lover? Getting forty-three Cabernets to taste but not drink, 27 Viogniers to sample and spit out -- and so on, through some 3,200 entries in this year's Los Angeles International Wine Competition. More than 70 judges willing to take on......

If you're missing The Manila Machine, a jaunty orange truck that once roamed L.A. dispensing Filipino food, there's good news. You can still have the truck's top sellers, including sticky glazed carabao wings, lumpia, a spicy sizzling pork dish called sisig, and pork belly and pineapple adobo. The catch is,......

Newly opened Tapenade is already staging an ambitious chefs' dinner -- well, actually, a buddy party. Set for Feb. 27, it will showcase dishes created by pals of Tapenade chef Ressul Rassallat. The pals are Andre Guerrero, with whom Rassallat worked at Maximiliano, and David Feau, who just ended his......

Want to fantasize that you're Anthony Bourdain, slurping up the same boat noodles that he did when No Reservations explored Hollywood's Thai Town? Now you can, because the same guide who took Bourdain around will take you, too. L.A. chef Jet Tila, long the go-to person for visiting chefs wanting......

Where would you show off an elite variety of beef? Not in some flashy high-end dining spot but in the most beef-centric part of Los Angeles -- Koreatown. There, it's hard to find a place that doesn't serve bulgogi and galbi, and the buzz words are grass-fed, Wagyu, Kobe and......

Rodolfo Guzmán was hacking away at something you're not likely to find in an L.A. market -- tepu wood from Chile. He had brought it for a dinner at Playa, John Sedlar's Beverly Blvd. restaurant, that would show how he works indigenous Chilean ingredients into stunning modernist dishes. Guzman, 34,......

A roaring fire lit up the Hollywood Hills the other night, but the fire department didn't respond. Turns out it was a backyard barbecue with Francis Mallmann working the grills, just as he does in South America. This superstar chef with three restaurants in Argentina, another set to open in......

If you're a Día de los Muertos -- or Day of the Dead -- fanatic, head to Mercado La Paloma this Sunday to celebrate with non-stop music, dance, theatrical performances and food from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The program has been arranged in collaboration with Xamanism. (Admission is free.)......

There wasn't a drop of wine in that giant bottle of Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon at San Antonio Winery's 95th anniversary party. It was a cake -- Black Forest, with cherries inside instead of grapes. Beside it were two other mammoth cakes created for the celebration, one of them frosted with......

Small plates Taiwanese style is what you get at the new restaurant Monja in City of Industry. Eating there is like browsing in a night market in Taipei, picking up noodles at one stall, fried squid balls at another, a soup with rice dumplings, wonton and vegetables somewhere else. These......