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Brodard Restaurant: Hidden Vietnamese Food & CHEAP Macarons
Vietnamese food is one of those unsung Southeast Asian cuisines that LA is missing out on. I've eaten in Little Saigon, Westminster throughout high school and my earlier undergrad years in Irvine....
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Afghani Cuisine: Downtrodden but Unforgotten
Afghani food is a rather incognito cuisine that draws from its Oriental neighbors. Afghanistan is a smallish country with a long history of invasion, lying at the intersection of dominant Middle...
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Snotty & Nice: Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes with Red Bean Filling
Just a spoonful of matcha raises any ordinary dessert to a level of unparalleled sexiness. Matcha is a fine ground, powdered, high quality green tea. It tastes slightly nuttier than loose leaf green...
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Noodles & Balut in Little Saigon
Little Saigon in Westminster and Garden Grove is the heart of Vietnamese culture in Southern California. It's embarrassing to admit that it wasn't until after years of cheap haircuts and trusty auto...
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800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria: My Favorite Fastfood Joint
It's 9:30 PM, I'm at NineThirty Bar & Lounge at the W in Westwood, starving. Whoa, I didn't even realize that the time and the location coincided. But anyway, DineLA's traditional kick-off party at...
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Dean Sinful World: Damnation via Dumpling
Northern Chinese cuisine is known for dumplings, stuffed breads, fried dough, and pork. Downright sinful stuff. "Dien Xin" means "snack" in Chinese, so I guess they roughly translated the name of this...
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Ah-Ma vs. Capital Seafood
Happy Chinese New Year! My grandmother, who is kind of the sticky rice of the family, was MIA this year as of her 80th-birthday trip to Taiwan. Typically, she cooks up a multicourse meal on her...
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When Luck is Edible and Eating is Lucky
On Chinese New Year, luck comes fried, wrapped, baked, and steamed. Many Chinese dishes are eaten on the big holiday because they mean something, sound like something, or look like something lucky. For...
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dineLA at Playa
My first taste of Chef John Sedlar's cooking was this warm corn flan sprinkled with black quinoa and squash blossoms, at a large food event where Playa was one restaurant stall among many others. Weeks...
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Lusting after Lukshon
There's something about Lukshon that keeps me coming back for more. I'll blame it on the explosive flavors that they somehow inject into all of their food; lusty, exotic ingredients that lurk behind...
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Cuban Food is Not for Snobs
I always pass Versailles and its rather garish red-and-yellow awning on my way to grander destinations like oh, The Bazaar by Jose Andres or something up in WeHo. Versailles Cuban Restaurant sits...
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Feeling Our Way through Persian Food
This is my friend, Chart. I was hastening to the campus mailbox to ship back an unnecessarily purchased coursebook when I saw him walking a few paces ahead. I stalked him for a good five minutes as he...
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The Less-Traveled Passage to India: Streetfood in Artesia
I've had Indian restaurant food, like curry and basmati rice, but never the day-to-day snacks that are found on supermarket shelves and on street vendor carts. Fried, fermented, and filled, the street...
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Ludobitten and Itching for More (8.0)
After you've been to one Ludobites dinner, you've officially been Ludobitten. You know, it's kind of like a mosquito bite. Saying this from firsthand experience, you know you've been bitten by a...
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Marilyn Had A Little Lamb
...Whose flesh was delicious as hell. And everywhere that lamb went, Marilyn was sure to go.Now that I've injected your ears with that annoying refrain, here's a roundup of my favorite bites of baa-baa...
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Foiellandaise, Blood Sausage, and Mustard Ice Cream, Oh My
I met Chef Dan at The Taste in September. Ever since then, he's been teasing me about Mapo Kkak Doo Gee. Then, just when I thought I was getting another Mapo Kkak tweet, he messages news about his...
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Pigging Out at Umamicatessen
Umami Burger is kind of THE burger restaurant of LA. As of tonight, it is also trying to become the delicatessen of LA. Fail or success? I would say that Umami still does burgers best, but I welcome...
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Baltimore: Cross Street Market
To this day, people will misspell my name as Maryland. It still bemuses me; what idiot would name his or her daughter after a state? Um, not my parents. It used to piss me off like crazy. But after my...
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Baltimore: Lexington Market
When in Baltimore, eat as the Baltimoreans eat. And I don't mean the king-crab-hammering, raw-oyster-slurping, beer-slinging tourists and college students. I'm referring to the locals, the people who...
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The Creation of a Camera Cake
I went into it only wanting to make cookies. Ass cookies, to be exact. But as I began to plan it out, one thought led to another and by April 2nd, I ended up with 40 donkey-shaped cornmeal cookies, an...
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New York: A Bagel A Day
They say that the best bagels come from New York, and you can't forget that timeless, almost whimsical image of the coat-clad New Yorker, hastening along on brisk, booted feet, coffee cupped in one...
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New York: Street Eats at Halal Guys and Biryani Cart
"Did you poop?"Sophia posed the question flatly and none too quietly, as I emerged from the public bathroom at McDonald's somewhere near 53rd and 6th Street in Midtown Manhattan. It took me a...
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Indianapolis: Haggis, BBQ Rib Tips, and White Castle
Don’t walk around downtown by yourself. Don’t go to the rag row area of an unfamiliar city. Don’t get into a car with a stranger. Don’t skip class. Don’t cave for fast food. Don’t overdose on...
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We Goat Way Back
Black goat stew, not your go-to first-date spot.  Oddly enough, it was over this gamey, sinewy, seedy, and mustardy red swamp that a casual meeting somehow boiled itself into a surprisingly flavorful -...
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The Big-ass Blogpost of my 2nd Blogversary
Yep, I am about 3 weeks late with this blogversary post, but here it is. Â Blogging's been a little patchy lately, but I've been faithfully lugging that DSLR around and continuing to aggravate friends,...
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