Linda Burum

In the bright, innocent days of Gidget, when there really was a Bob at Bob’s Big Boy, cruisin’ the drive-ins was part of every West Coast baby boomer’s lifestyle. "After club meetings or Friday-night games, we’d pile into someone’s car and drive by Bob’s on Van Nuys Boulevard to see......

"Do many people order the Escargots de Casa?" I wonder as I peruse the all-American classic menu at the Smoke House in Burbank. Probably not. The three regulars in the booth next to me have just requested the famous cheese-laden garlic bread and a round of dry martinis with two......

Illustration by Patricia Lanquedoc For years I thought the only place to get authentic Japanese food in L.A. was in Gardena, or maybe on the third floor of Little Tokyo’s Yaohan Plaza. The food snob in me lived to drive at least 50 miles to find obscure places with hand-cut......

Smoke drifts from the mouths of several tandoors set up in Artesia Park for the annual Diwali Mela. This Hindu New Year Fair is one giant schmooze fest for the Indian community. Parents gossip, kids race around, people wander from booth to booth, where cooks turn out fragile dosas and......