(photo The Raymond 1998) Executive Chef Tim Guiltinan goes all out in his regular menu at our favorite The Raymond 1886 in Pasadena.  He celebrates Taco day  all day long with Suckling Pig Tacos Al Pastor, rich with pineapple, avocado and salsa rosa. Pair these elevated tacos with any one of 1886 Bar’s extraordinary mez...
(Roberta Deen and Gerry Furth-Sides) Sensuous, intensely seasoned, crackly, whimsically shaped and in gloriously color, Indian snacks are irresistible. Is it because these technicolor beauties are actually elevated (although somewhat ancient) savory versions of onion rings, pancakes, fried chicken and dough...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) Thai people own a reputation for open-door hospitality plus a love of pomp and circumstance.  They boast of their brilliant, colorful, balanced and varied cuisine.  After all, they are a country that has never been conquered by outside forces – they seem simply to invite potential invadersÂ...
Executive Chef Jeff Lustre’s menu, just in time for new full dinner service at  Demitasse Roastery & Kitchen in Hollywood, brings with it unusual ethnic dishes. Lustre is inspired by his own use of French techniques  and the flavors he experienced firsthand during his extensive travels in China, Southeast Asia, Ital...
As if the Market Table choices were not difficult enough to resist at the  Fogo de Chão churrascaria party, chefs have just added brand new fall menu dishes to the array (spring on this southern continent!)(//fogodechao.com) Each dish, such as the textured Pear & Endive Salad, highlights the rich tradition o...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) Tiato Kitchen + Garden Venue tucked into a tree-filled Santa Monica neighborhood has no rival as the prettiest, liveliest garden indoor-outdoor eatery in the city – let alone as the city’s biggest outside dining spaces.  Indoors, the soaring ceilings and polished concrete floors, reclaimed wo...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) Every so often a cookbook comes along and takes you by surprise. Â Elizabeth Howes’Â Modern Salad Cookbook is one, filled with “innovative new American and International recipes inspired by Burma’s iconic tea leaf salad.” Â Recipes are so innovative, Â refreshing and just layered with ...
The popular phrase “Holy Cow!” now describes the best of the best BBQ in town.  We know; we ate it and the trays above were the divine food laid out in rows for us  above).  Turns out this is the Holy Cow style.  It’s “best” because Rob Serritella, founder and BBQ Aficionado, traveled and sam...
Pancakes in Paris is billed as the story of Craig Carlson “the last person anyone would expect to open an American diner in Paris.”  And  for good reason.  Craig is not French. He had no experience running any sort of business, no idea how to navigate the notorious French bureaucracy.  But the Franco-phile eventuall...
(Gerry Furth-Sides) Meg and Mary drive in from Malibu to Brentwood Pressed Juicery    (www.pressedjuicery.com) for their Freeze snacks at least twice a week they told me.  The “Freeze” (above) is the “vanilla” and “fruit” with raspberries (which replaced the mochi dots. The Fr...
Gerry Furth-Sides 
Barbara Hansen 
Chef-owner Alain Cohen 
Roberta Deen 
Jose Martinez 
Nivedita Basu 