Tien Nguyen

The Photorito lens wrap; Credit: Photojojo

Wrap Up Your Camera Lens Like a Burrito With Photorito

If you have a separate lens for your nice, pretty camera, you probably carry it in a special case. And if you do have such a special case, it probably is generic, bulky, and decidedly unfashionable. And if it is indeed generic and bulky and decidedly unfashionable, surely you have......
A Umami Burger; Credit: Yogma/Flickr

The Sixth Taste: Or, Why We Love Fat

Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, savory (or umami) and... fat? For better or worse, most of us have an affinity for fatty foods, and if scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are correct, that affinity may have less to do with the texture, smell, and overall greatness......
If you're playing the Guy Fieri Drinking Game

A Rawkin' Guy Fieri Drinking Game

Sometimes there are things that are out of your control. What the office orders for lunch, say, or what you're forced to watch when you're at Uncle Bob's house, trying to fulfill your New Year's resolution to Visit the Relatives More. If your Uncle Bob, like a startling large number......
Handsome Coffee Roasters's coffee; Credit: R.E.~/Flickr

Handsome Coffee Roasters Officially Opening Next Month

Handsome Coffee Roasters hoped to open their Downtown coffee bar right before the holidays, but what was supposed to be an early holiday present to coffee fiends is now a Valentine's Day gift to their fellow coffee lovers instead. According to Handsome Coffee's press release, their coffee bar will officially......
Stone crabs at Hawaii Supermarket; Credit: T. Nguyen

Best Asian Grocery That's Not 99 Ranch: Hawaii Supermarket

"Let's go the aquarium!" my uncle said to me once, when I was 6. Off we went, into an amazing display of enormous crabs, colorful fish, and slimy eels. We bought a crab, which they were nice enough to steam for us before we left. As it turned out, this......
Clockwise: Pourover coffee at Coffee Tomo; an espresso from Handsome Coffee Roasters; siphon filters at Demitasse Cafe; a cappuccino from Broome St. General Store; Credit: T. Nguyen

The Year in Coffee: The Revolution Will Be Caffeinated

Like National Coffee Day, summing up the Year in Coffee compels a certain knee-jerk response: every year is the year in coffee. But, then again, not every year is a year in great coffee. With over a dozen new coffee shops, several new homegrown coffee roasters, and customers willing to......
Caffe Luxxe in Brentwood; Credit: T. Nguyen

10 Best Coffee Shops in Los Angeles

It used to be that you just needed one hand to count all the truly outstanding coffee shops in Los Angeles. Now, thanks to a recent surge of brave coffee geeks-turned-entrepreneurs, you need both hands to tick off all the stellar shops in the city, and maybe that isn't quite......