Tien Nguyen

XLB at Din Tai Fung; Credit: Clarissa Wei

Watch This Now: Tom Cruise Making Xiaolongbao

And here now is a video of Tom Cruise making soup dumplings, in exactly the same way you'd imagine Tom Cruise would make soup dumplings: With determination. Cruise was in Taiwan earlier this month to promote his latest film, Oblivion, and stopped by Din Tai Fung's Taipei 101 branch to......
Credit: courtesy: Yummi Yogi

Yoga-Inspired Cookie Cutters: Strike, Then Eat, a Pose

What does your collection of cookie cutters say about you? Or, to put this another way, are your cookie cutters shaped like Stormtroopers and X-Wings, or did you leave your yoga class this morning wishing you could bake some cookies that accurately captured your Crescent Lunge pose? If it's the......
Alma; Credit: Anne Fishbein

What Your Favorite Restaurant Says About You

We all have our favorite things that, implicitly or otherwise, reveal a little bit of ourselves. Thus it makes sense that Fraulein Maria would love whiskers on kittens and bright copper kettles, and that Oprah would have many, many favorite things. Which brings us to restaurants that you may consider......
Sushi at Urasawa; Credit: G. Snyder

Urasawa Cited for Labor Violations

California Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su has issued citations to restaurants across the state for violating various state labor laws. Urasawa, the famed sushi restaurant in Beverly Hills, was among those cited. According to the Commissioner, the government's investigation found that Urasawa's kitchen staff often worked 10.5 hours a day......
Latte at Tierra Mia's new downtown shop; Credit: T. Nguyen

Opening Soon: Tierra Mia Coffee in Echo Park

Because surely you could use a horchata frappe on a warm winter day: Tierra Mia Coffee, the specalty coffee shop and roastery that started in South Gate, is expanding into Echo Park. It will take over Echo Lake Coffee Company's space, so if driving up Alvarado towards the 2 freeway......
Ricky's Fish Tacos; Credit: Tien Nguyen

Ricky Piña Confirms That Ricky's Fish Tacos Will Reopen

"This is temporary." That would be the very, very welcome words directly from Ricky Piña, whose much beloved Ricky's Fish Tacos -- and one of our 99 Essential Restaurants in L.A. -- was shut down by the health department last week. Piña says he's very grateful for the flood of......
Credit: PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Bludso's: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

Kevin Bludso is a fourth-generation Texan pit master from a long line of pit masters — he learned to barbecue from his grandmother. So maybe it's not all that surprising that his BBQ is the best in the city, especially if you're partial to the long-cooked, smoky Texan type. At......