Best of

  • “Snap, Crackle & Pop” Indian Street Snacks

    (Gerry Furth-Sides) Who doesn’t love eating by texture? And both savory South Indian street snacks and Bangladeshi sweets are perfect for this.  Crackly, sensuous, intensely seasoned, whimsically shaped, gloriously colorful, Indian snacks are irresistible.  They provide the same “snap, crackle and pop” as the...

  • Five Outdoor Asian Winners California-ize the German “Biergarten”

    (Gerry Furth-Sides) Leave it to fun-loving Bavarians in Germany to solve a problem with a precise, practical party solution.  Munich breweries early in the 19th century added to open-air dining and beer-drinking with “Biergartens” as a way to use planted gardens above cellars to keep their lagers cool enough to ferment und...

  • Ten New Historical Outdoor Dining Spots

    (Gerry Furth-Sides) Food tastes so much better when enjoyed in the fresh air, so it is natural that different cultures over the centuries have fashioned and adapted their own fascinating ways of dining al fresco. This summer, Angelenos can experience ten new outdoor spots, worthy of “destination dining” featuring an...

  • South City Fried Chicken: the Best of Americana

      (Gerry Furth-Sides, photos courtesy South City Fried Chicken except noted).  We love everything about the phenomenally talented and hospitable team at Preux & Proper, so we were eager to try sibling South City Fried Chicken, an easy walk of a block or so apart on Spring Street DTLA. The FOOD HALL has a daunting n...

  • Masterpiece Mezze Theatre at Jordanian OASIS MEDITERRANEAN Restaurant

    (Gerry Furth-Sides)  “Oasis” is defined as a fertile spot in a desert where water is found,” and it fits Oasis (Mediterranean) Restaurant on a corner of La Cienega so unremarkable in the flow of traffic you can easily drive right by this culinary treasure. This does not bother affable chef-owner, Ahmad Abulfeilat, whose...

  • Save the (Jewish) Deli Month (Aug 1 -31)

    (Gerry Furth-Sides) The third annual, nationwide National Deli Month returns to celebrate the dwindling number of New York style delis with special menus and a reason to put the spotlight on them.  The idea is to bring renewed attention to their unique and truly American businesses for the month of August. National Deli Month r...

  • A Summer Must Ethnic Read: Atlas of Empires

    (Gerry Furth-Sides) In Atlas of Empires: The World’s Civilizations from Ancient Times to Today, author Peter Davidson, presents a broad historical overview of how empires rise and fall.   It provides a wonderful backdrop for cultural history as well, and how ethnic cuisines have been created in each empire, and how the...

  • A Must Attend: Angeleno’s Live & Dine LA 2018

    (Gerry Furth-Sides)  Angeleno‘s annual Live & Dine LA honors the city’s most distinguished chefs and restaurateurs that continue to shape and evolve L.A.’s ethnic culinary scene. With the luxe Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows at the foot of Wilshire across from the ocean as a background, the even...

  • Moroccan -Japanese, French-Trained Chef Danny Elmaleh

    Executive Danny Elmaleh’s food is perfect for both the spiffy, high-end Cleo international sbe restaurants, including new establishments in the Bahamas and in Kuwait and in a more casual atmosphere, such as Mizlala.  His intriguing, bold menus feature sharing plates that also work alone to beautifully combine for a meal ...

  • Must Visit: Genghis Khan Exhibit at Ronald Reagan Library

    When we were growing up, my dad would tease us at the dinner table: if you don’t think the meat is tender enough, put it under the saddle, like your ancestors did!  Little did we know that not only did the galloping Mongol armies actually cook their meat this way as they conquered great swathes […]...