Christine Chiao

You pick up a few lessons when you pack away bowls and bowls and bowls of noodles — often one right after another — in the name of Asian noodle research. You quickly discover the elasticity, or lack thereof, of your stomach. You learn to bring at least one buddy along......

Chances are that much of your knowledge of Irish food is informed by classics you've come across at a neighborhood pub: Guinness stew, shepherd’s pie and corned beef. It's a tidy collection, commonplace enough to mask the fact that we don't know that much about Irish cooking, particularly compared to......

Jackfruit probably doesn't show up as much - if at all - in your meatless meals. It's rarely stocked at grocery stores in Los Angeles unless there's an emphasis on South Asian goods. It's not even consumed as much in countries where they're commonly grown, according to a recent NPR post......

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2014 issue. Check out our entire People 2014 issue. Valerie Gordon has a work schedule that would confound even the most seasoned L.A. commuter. "There are many days now where I'm going to three different kitchens in the same day,"......

It's not hard to find a vegetarian sandwich at most gastropubs in Los Angeles, but it's less common to come across a vegan version, unless someone on the team behind the menu advocates for it.  "When I was creating the lunch menu, I made the sandwich as vegetarian at first......

The neighborhood of Glassell Park will have a weekly farmers market to call its own today. After the grand opening hours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the market will set up every Thursday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Goodwill Community Enrichment Center. It will be the latest member......

If you've had a couple of veggie burgers at restaurants, you'll start to notice a handful of the ingredient standards that go in a patty. There's grated carrots, rice, and maybe oats. Some versions call for portobello mushrooms. And there's almost always a legume, like black beans or chickpeas.  Louisa......

Like sister restaurant Cafe Gratitude, the menu at  Gracias Madre, the newish vegan Mexican restaurant in West Hollywood, is pretty concise. There's a handful of savory snacks, such as local Mazanilla olives coupled with less than a dozen each of appetizers and mains that include spicy mole enchiladas. If anything,......

An emphasis on freshness isn't the sole domain of Vietnamese cuisine, but you could be persuaded that it's made quite the art of market-to-table cooking as you thumb through Luke Nguyen's The Food of Vietnam (Hardie Grant Books). It's a compendium of regional recipes across the Southeast Asian country in......

A bowl of bhel puri is unlike any popular American snack you're used to enjoying, activating no less than three taste sensations and two textural contrasts with each bite at a time. A member of the savory snack family known as chaat, its origin is Gujarati, or so goes a......