Jonathan Gold

The Arsenal Good steak houses are basically of two kinds: the ones that pass along the $15-plus per pound they pay for prime meat wholesale, and the ones that use less expensive grades but make up for it with low prices, friendly service, strong old-fashioneds and plenty of atmosphere. Among......

Seven years ago, when the first Tlapazola Grill opened on the site of a former Santa Monica New Age coffee shop in Santa Monica, Oaxacan food was as exotic in Los Angeles as the cooking of northern Sumatra; it was a faraway cuisine, one of rumor and traveler’s legend, its......

photo by Kathleen ClarkEVEN IN LOS ANGELES . . . WHERE IT IS possible to eat not only wood-fired goat-cheese pizza with duck sausage and sun-dried fennel, but also reasonably authentic Merida-style cochinita pibil and properly made Cambodian catfish amok, hand-ground of course, steamed to a fine fluffiness and garnished......

Kim Chuy The basic deal at a Chiu Chow -- Thai-Chinese, that is -- noodle shop is, of course, Chiu Chow noodles: slippery rice noodles the width of your little finger, or firmer, square-cut egg noodles that resemble bouncy linguine, submerged in broth, garnished with things like boiled duck legs......

The Apple Pan Here is the homey plaid wallpaper; the worn wooden walls; the clean, warm funk of frying meat. Here is Coca-Cola poured into paper cones snug in plastic holders. Here are the long, thick French fries that are customarily served with a separate cardboard plate for the ketchup......

Photo by Anne FishbeinWE CAN BE PROUD OF MANY THINGS, WE AMERIcans, from the Declaration of Independence to Elliot Carter's string quartets, from quantum physics to the interstate highway system, from Martha Stewart to the . . . Spamburger. Which is to say, an inch-thick slab of Spam, seared on......

The Arsenal Good steak houses are basically of two kinds: the ones that pass along the $15-plus per pound they pay for prime meat wholesale, and the ones that use less expensive grades but make up for it with low prices, friendly service, strong old-fashioneds and plenty of atmosphere. Among......

Ensenada has always been a world capital of Lost Weekends: popular with sport fisherman who measure out their afternoons in spent cases of Corona, the center of the universe for aficionados of stuffed armadillos and illegal fireworks, a major crossroads for vendors of polyester serapes (made in Taiwan), a final......

Photo by Anne FishbeinENSENADA HAS ALWAYS BEEN A WORLD CAPITAL of Lost Weekends: popular with sport fisherman who measure out their afternoons in spent cases of Corona, the center of the universe for aficionados of stuffed armadillos and illegal fireworks, a major crossroads for vendors of polyester serapes (made in......

Chu‘s Mandarin Cuisine There is a photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the window of Chu’s Mandarin Cuisine. Arnold has one arm around Frank Chu‘s shoulders, one beefy hand upon a pillow of dough. He has presumably just watched Mr. Chu transform a similar pillow of dough into a thick coil......