East Asia

There's A Ramen Burger, You Guys

This was bound to happen someday, and of course, it happened in Japan. Burger joint Lotteria teamed up with ramen restaurant Menya Musashi to create a--you guessed it--ramen burger. Two burger buns sandwich a pork cutlet, mayo and a bed of lightly fried ramen noodles. The concoction is served wit ... More >>

OC Punk Community Launches a Benefit Concert to Help China White Guitarist Frank Ruffino

Frank Ruffino, the guitarist for China White, is in serious trouble. Recently released from the hospital after months in intensive care, the Huntington Beach axeman braces for a miracle. About four years ago, the 51-year-old was diagnosed with liver problems, a biproduct of years of hard drinking, ... More >>

New Korean Taco Joint Serves Short Rib Arepas and Kimchi Quesadillas at Diamond Jamboree

Remember the time Kogi, at the height of its popularity, decided to descend upon the Diamond Jamboree shopping center in Irvine, an Asian food Mecca that already has 85 Degrees screwing up the parking situation?

KFC Japan Offers A Trip To Osaka To Eat All-You-Can-Eat Chicken

About this time, every year, someone out there like me writes an article about how the Japanese have made eating KFC a Christmas tradition as we have made eating roast turkey and stuffing. I know this because I tried to write one last year only to be informed by our web editor that she already wrote ... More >>

U.S. Innovation, Chinese Start-Up Money and Death by China Mix at UC Irvine

UC Irvine Economics Professor Peter Navarro famously authored with Greg Autry the book Death by China, which argues the People's Republic's "ruthless and corrupt" Communist government threatens global economic stability. (Navarro also appears prominently in the recent documentary based on and with t ... More >>

Jenna Milburn-DiPasquale, OC Cybersitter Marketer, Sees Red Thanks to China's Hackers

Jenna Milburn-DiPasquale was working on the computer in her Orange County home office in June 2009 when she received an email from her father. There's nothing strange about that since she does all the marketing for her Santa Barbara-based dad's eight-person company, Solid Oak Software, best known fo ... More >>

Peking Gourmet's Chachiang-Cha-Changes

The Garden Grove staple's Korean-style Chinese noodle dishes remain old-school Little Seoul

Another Concept/Name Change At "Tustin's Most Cursed Restaurant Location"

If you've read this blog for the past couple of years, you'd know of my fascination about a particular shack on Newport & Walnut in Tustin. Every time there's a change in ownership and/or concept, I write about it. I am the unofficial historian of what comes and goes in what I joking referred to ... More >>

The "World's 50 Best" List Is Published, Is Usual Steaming Pile of Irrelevance

Oh, look, this year's edition of "The World's 50 Best Restaurants", sponsored by San Pellegrino and its subsidiary Acqua Panna, has come out. Cue the precious online debates and the bored yawns from the rest of the world.Ranked lists of the best anything are patent bollocks: they necessarily reflec ... More >>

VIDEO: Ramen Gets Set on Fire at Kyoto Restaurant

I just returned from an awesome trip to Japan, home of sakura blossoms, crazy vending machines, maid cafes, kawaii adorableness, Pocky and ramen--so much ramen. I slurped my weight in noodly goodness. Oh, pork broth and soft-boiled soy sauce egg, how I love thee. The most unique ramen experienc ... More >>

5 Reasons To See Jiro Dreams of Sushi, in Theaters TODAY

​​​Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the exquisite documentary about Jiro Ono, the 85-year-old chef at the famed Tokyo sushi restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro. (Read a Q&A with director David Gelb here.) Need a reason to drive out to L.A. to catch the film, which opens today? Here are five delicious ones. ... More >>

Shonen Knife's Naoko Yamano: 'I'm Ashamed to Write Songs About Love'

Shonen Knife​It's been three decades since beloved all-female Japanese pop-punk trio Shonen Knife formed, and although they have only one remaining original member, singer/guitarist Naoko Yamano, they still pump out an endearing mixture of pop, punk, food and fantasy that has attracted fans all ov ... More >>

Japan Has More Top Restaurants Than France Says Michelin Guide

​In the battle of sushi versus foie gras, sushi wins. Or so says the Michelin Guide, which has decreed that Japan has more top restaurants than France for the first time since the book started rating restaurants in The Land of The Rising Sun in 2008.

Report: Contaminated Chinese Honey Continuing to Illegally Invade U.S. Stores

Photo by Anne Marie PangorianGet the real stuff at your local farmers market...​The big story about honey these past couple of years is colony collapse disorder, the disturbing phenomenon of mass die-offs of bees. But one I learned about years ago that doesn't get enough play is that what is sold ... More >>

[UPDATED: Recall Effort Dropped] Residents Petition to Recall Hacienda School Board Members for Supporting a Language Program Funded by the Chinese Government

Flickr user cleverCl@i®ê ​UPDATE, JUNE 7, 1:46 P.M.: Opponents of the Confucius Classroom, a Chinese culture and language school program, have stopped their efforts to recall the four members of the Hacienda La Puente Unified School Board who voted to implement it. A small group of resident ... More >>

[UPDATED: Family Celebrates His Release] Man With OC Ties Detained in North Korea; Family Pleads For His Release

Flickr user kalleboo​UPDATE, May 31, 1:24 P.M.: Detained for several months in North Korea, Eddie Yong Su Jun was finally released at the request of the U.S. He was escorted out of the country on Saturday by U.S. human rights envoy Robert King.  Jun's family wrote in ... More >>

Record Price For Tuna

Flickr user 4-6​The Tsukiji fish market auction grabs headlines this time of year, almost every year. Last year, the story was on a 513 pound bluefin tuna that netted $177,000. This year's catch blew that one out of the water.

In Memoriam: Bassist Mick Karn Dead at 52

Myspace.com​Mick Karn, long-time bassist for Japan and then Dalis Car, has lost his battle with cancer. Karn was born Andonis Michaelides to Greek Cypriot parents in Nicosia, Cyprus. His family moved to London, England when he was a young boy. He met the other members of what would become Japan as ... More >>

A Chopstick Tree Grows in Brooklyn--Err, Beijing

Flickr user Dan4th​Now that I think of it, Little Saigon restaurants are much better at offering plastic, reusable chopsticks than local Korean and Chinese eateries. I've never noticed a quantitative difference between those and fresh chopsticks--if anything, the reusable ones never kept stray spl ... More >>

Rep. Loretta Sanchez Blasts North Korea and Backs Vietnam Human Rights Sanctions Act

​Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) has issued a statement condemning North Korea for firing dozens of artillery shells at South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, killing two South Korean soldiers and wounding 15.The freshly reelected congresswoman, who is the ranking female member on the House Armed ... More >>

So, How's Mexican Food in Japan?

Flickr user marshallkiyoshihigaHappy person enjoying a meal at El Pancho.​Maybe you have some preconceived notion of what it would be like to work in the same office as Gustavo Arellano. Maybe you imagined that whenever you announce you're leaving the country for a vacation, Gustavo says something ... More >>

Wacky Snacks: Sanh Yuan Chien Cha Slice - Preserved Fruit

Edwin GoeiName: Sanh Yuan Chien Cha Slice - Preserved Fruit Origin: Taiwan Found at: 99 Ranch, Irvine Cost: $1.99 Ingredients: Dried Fruit, Sugar, Salt, Licorice

Both Cheese

VIento y Agua Gallery

A Sign of Good Things To Come? Or Not?

Photo by Craig Medici​Sometimes a sign can say it all. The photo above was taken by our friend Craig, who has been quietly observing the remodel of China Palace in Newport Beach on PCH for months. 

Far East Movement at Lollicup in Irvine Today

​Far East Movement, the Asian-American hip-hop outfit that Lady Gaga handpicked to open her Japan dates, will be in Irvine today, doing a meet and greet before their Galaxy show tonight, which we previewed in the print issue of OC Weekly. Writer Paul Saitowitz said, "while a certain amount of cul ... More >>

Exquisite Corpses at the Bowers

The multicultural mummies of 'Secrets of the Silk Road' don't disappoint

Exhibition Games at Local Art Galleries

[Summer Guide] Exercise your mind at these art shows this summer

Ethnic Eating 101: Chinese, Part 6

Despite the fact that we could go on for years about the variations and nuances of Chinese cuisine, we are going to close this week with a visit to Taiwan, because after Cantonese, the single most available regional cuisine in the Southland is Taiwanese, due in part to the great number of Taiwanese ... More >>

Chinese, Part 5

The cuisine of Northern China--Tianjin, Shandong, and Beijing--is shocking to someone who assumes that all Chinese people eat bowls of rice with sauce-laden stir-fry ladled on top. Rice doesn't grow in the northern reaches of China; the climate is more like Chicago than Atlanta. While Shandong food ... More >>

Kasugai Konpeito Candy

Edwin Goei​Name: Kasugai Konpeito Candy Origin: Japan Found at: Freshia, Tustin Cost: $2.49 Ingredients: Sugar, FD & C Yellow No. 5, FD & C Yellow No. 6, FD & C Blue No. 1. Why I Bought It: Moth balls. They first looked like moth balls. Further research revealed that these cand ... More >>

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Do Mexican Muchachos Like Asian Muchachas?

Art of the Samurai

Bowers Museum

Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival

Bowers Museum

Kung Fu Monks

Bowers Museum

[This Hole-in-the-Wall Life] Pay Teriyaki Forward at Tokyo Teriyaki

Rockin' Like a 6.0

NASCAR Pepsi 500

Darkness and Light

Shadow Magic

Soldier On

Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor

!Ask a Mexican!

Special Rip-Off Edicion

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

It Takes a China Village

Steaming Art

Tea, Korea-style, at 419 Cafe Veronese

Editors Picks

Garden of Eating

Calling the dim sum races at Irvine China Garden

Piggie Porn

Fetishizing hog at Seoul Soondae

Where Bread Is King

Make a Pilgrimage to Jamillah Garden

Domo Arigato, Mr. Natto

Learning to love Japans stinky weapon of culinary destruction

Suzie Wong Meets Lazy Susan

Peking Restaurants wheels of fortune

Seoul Kitchen

What, me cook?