Lebanon

Knafeh Cafe's 99 Ways of Sweet

[Hole In the Wall] This Anaheim bakery sells the best Middle Eastern pastries in Orange County

Maz Jobrani Explains Why Its Way Harder to Tell a Joke in the Middle East

When it comes to supplying laughs, Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani enjoys his share of racial banter. Born in Iran and raised in CA, he delivers jokes rooted in his own heritage, mixing in jabs at his family, upbringing, even audience members. Before he headlines the Brea Improv February 21st ... More >>

Physician, Heal Thyself

The bracing 'Yossi' lays bare the soul of a closeted doc

The Agonists of 'The Gatekeepers'

Shin Bet vets ponder the Israeli state they've protected

OC-based Tea Party: Impeach Obama Over Gun Control Executive Orders ... or Benghazi

Before President Barack Obama just announced 23 executive orders he will issue and a $500 million package and changes in law he will seek from Congress in the wake of the mass shooting in Connecticut that killed 20 elementary schoolchildren, the Laguna Woods-based California Tea Party called for hi ... More >>

Ex-Orange County Cop Who Headed U.S. Embassy Security in Libya Resigns

A former Orange County police officer who became an acclaimed, high-ranking officer in the U.S. Department of State is one of three senior government officials to resign today in the wake of an unflattering report about management and security errors leading to the Sept. 11 Benghazi, Libya attacks t ... More >>

Straight Outta Syria

Orange County is home to growing numbers of refugees from that country's growing civil war

FYF Fest 2012: A Complex Punk Portrait of the SoCal Music Scene

See Also:*FYF Fest Two-Day Line-up Announced*The Growlers Announce New Album Release* Pacific Festival: The Dunes AnnouncedFYF Fest creator Sean Carlson would've been all of 12-years-old when Hawthorne natives Red Kross made their last album in 1997. Still, he cites some of the band's early releases ... More >>

FYF Fest 2012 Two-Day Lineup Announced

FYF Fest 2012 just announced its lineup, including performances by Refused, M83 and Beirut. Not only does it look a hell of a lot like this year's Coachella lineup, it's also the first time in nine years that the indie-rock festival has cloned itself for a two-day event. In addition to other to ... More >>

Rapper Omar Offendum to Perform at UCI's 'Sounds for Syria' Fundraiser

Friday's massacre of 108 people, including dozens of children, in the Syrian town of Houla, has been roundly condemned by world powers as fears of a protracted civil war take hold. This weekend's horrific violence is the latest episode since a 14-month long uprising openly challenged the regime of B ... More >>

OC Bookly in Little Armenia and West Covina: Not Orange County. Elsewhere. (But Close!)

This modest blog's ostensible focus is OC reading, writing, literary people and generally what the highly-opinionated Mr. Bib deems bookly about our benighted, beatific and beloved county but, of course, no county is an island entire of itself, every county is a piece of the continent, a part of the ... More >>

The Best Of Coachella: Sunday, April 22, 2012

See also: Our Complete Coachella CoverageBy the third day of Coachella's second weekend -- the sixth and final day of this year's festival -- folks had more or less learned to ignore the dust and the heat. Here are our intrepid writers' favorite things about the final hours of the 2012 event.

BalletX

Laguna Playhouse

Through Adeela OC Filmmakers Explore Islamophobia

As the possible hate crime killing of Iraqi Muslim Shaima Alawadi in El Cajon has ignited discussions on Islamophobia, Adeela an Orange County-based film in pre-production seeks to explore the dialogue further on the silver screen. The story centers around a young Arab-American Muslim woman who mov ... More >>

Little Arabia Grows Up

Can one of the country's largest Middle Eastern neighborhoods patch up its rivalries to become OC's next famous ethnic enclave?

Octomom Nadya Suleman Account of Flight from Hell Disputed by Actress Kristen Johnston

​Kristen Johnston, who starred in NBC's Third Rock From the Sun, recently appeared on The Wendy Williams Show to promote her new sitcom, The Exes on TV Land. But besides talking about appearing on the new program with Seinfeld's Wayne Knight, Scrubs' Donald Faison and Three Sisters' David Alan Bas ... More >>

Ten Great Middle Eastern Restaurants in Orange County

Kareem's​Over the weekend, I attended an art reception where the featured snacks were hummus and falafels. I still remember the days where the two (with tabbouli, natch) were staples of any left-of-center gathering, placed by conscious hosts who were attuned to the needs of vegetarians and wanted ... More >>

'Bombay Beach' Has a California Fading

Life on the shores of the Salton Sea

Souhair Khatib Can Sue County of Orange for Having to Remove Her Hijab: U.S. Supreme Court

​The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld an Orange County woman's right to sue the County of Orange for its jailers making her remove her hijab, or traditional Islamic headdress, in a Santa Ana courthouse holding cell in 2006. The high court essentially rejected an appeal by the county of a March ruli ... More >>

Verdun in Laguna Beach: A Jewelry Box Filled With Chocolates

            A jewelry box filled with chocolates arrived in Laguna Beach directly from Portland when Verdun Fine Chocolates & Gifts owner Hamoody Houdroge opened the second location for the elegant Lebanon-based dessert shop last spring. He drove along Pacifi ... More >>

[UPDATED with UCI Nixing Meeting:] Dr. Hazem Chehabi Urged to Cut Ties With Syria's Brutal Regime or Step Down From UC Irvine Foundation Board

​UPDATE, JULY 8, 5:25 P.M.: Syrian freedom activists say that when they protested at UC Irvine the morning of June 9, a campus official promised a future meeting with an associate chancellor to discuss what they consider a troubling relationship between Syria's brutal regime and Dr. Hazem Chehabi, ... More >>

[UPDATED with UCI Promising Meeting:] Dr. Hazem Chehabi Urged to Cut Ties With Syria's Brutal Regime or Step Down From UC Irvine Foundation Board

​UPDATE, JUNE 9, 4:31 P.M.: This morning's rally at UC Irvine targeting Dr. Hazem H. Chehabi--the UCI Foundation's president-elect, Syria's honorary consul general in Newport Beach and a prominent Orange County philanthropist and nuclear medicine specialist--went "smooth," according to an organize ... More >>

Al Wadee Bakery: As American As Manakeesh

[Hole in the Wall] Our future Muslim overlords make really tasty flatbreads, so it won't be all bad

[UPDATED] Souhair Khatib, Who Had Her Hijab Removed in OC Jail, Wins Appeal, Can Sue County

​UPDATE, MARCH 16, 9:59 A.M.: Here is a link to the actual Ninth Circuit appeals court decision:Khatib v. County of OrangeUPDATE, MARCH 15, 4:24 P.M.: A Muslim woman who claims her constitutional rights were violated when Orange County sheriff's deputies forced her to remove her headscarf while ... More >>

Orange Countians Closely Watching Events Unfold in Egypt Agree the U.S. Must Get Behind Its People

​"It's a moment of total euphoria," Edina Lekovich, director of policy and programming with the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Los Angeles, said during this morning's uninterrupted KTLA/Channel 5 news coverage of the events unfolding in Egypt after the resignation and departure of Egyptian Presi ... More >>

A Family Affair at Les Amis in Fullerton

From grandma to grandchild, the Montecristos keep this bistro humming with their Lebanese meals

Cure That Hangover! Top 5 Numerically Named Drinking Games

Photo By Flickr User uc_candideHello, Edward Fortyhands!​Not many people can say they get paid to drink. And although I love this opportunity to track down new bars and cheap wine tastings, I need a break this week to cure my, well, hangover. Instead of giving you a new drink to try, I leave you w ... More >>

Souhair Khatib, Who Had Her Hijab Removed in OC Jail, to Get Her Day in Appeals Court

​The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a new hearing in the case of a Muslim woman who claims her constitutional rights were violated when Orange County sheriff's deputies forced her to remove her headscarf while she was being held in a courthouse holding facility.Chief Judge Alex Kozin ... More >>

¡Ask a Comida Critic! A Classy Little Arabia Restaurant?

​From a reader a couple of weeks back:I am a LA resident architect guy who plans to come down south with my Palestinian-German girlfriend to have a fine birthday meal with dear old Newport Beach friends in OC this Saturday eve. Inspired by your recent OC Weekly article about Andaluz, we are hopin ... More >>

(100) Days of Summer Movies

[Summer Guide] Flicks to help you enjoy the great indoors

LA Times Hints DeVore Misdirected Over Military & Reagan Background

John Gilhooley / OC WeeklyChuck DeVore: Fill in the blank.​Perhaps inspired by the New York Times' recent detrailment of a Connecticut senatorial candidate's campaign by pointing out that he had repeatedly "misspoken" about fighting in the Vietnam War, a Los Angeles Times article today takes a clo ... More >>

It's The Fiorina-DeVore-Campbell Debate Drinking Game!

MS Paint photo illustration by Spencer Kornhaber, you can give me my Pulitzer now.Fiorina's ready to play.Sometimes, campaign flacks are kinda useful!Case in point: the drinking game directions we received from Julie Soderlund from the Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate campaign. Fiorina is debating Repu ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Eamon Daniel Higgins GUILTY in Foreign Student Visa Fraud

UPDATE: Defendant pleads guilty (details below) . . . Courtesy of ICEAn ICE officer escorts a student visa fraud suspect into custody today.​Eamon Daniel Higgins, 46, of Laguna Niguel, pleaded guilty in federal court today to conspiracy for allegedly orchestrating a visa fraud scheme involving doz ... More >>

Valentine's Day Show with Bryan Callen

Brea Improv

Al Amir Bakery Rises Again

[Hole in the Wall] The return of an institution to Anaheim's Little Arabia

Distant Karma Catches Up With the Brotherhood's Brenice Lee Smith

LA Times Spews OC Great Park Bull

Great Park or Great Home Park?​Michael Hiltzik's Nov. 30 Los Angeles Times article, "Putting the Green in Orange County Great Park," is the kind of journalism that delights Larry Agran, the controversial politician running Southern California's largest public works project in decades. Hiltzik didn ... More >>

[Summer Guide] Proposed Theme Park Celebrates OC's Part in Bringing the Global Economy to Its Knees

Behold John Bolton and His Moustache at Balboa Bay Club

John Robert Bolton, the neocon's neocon, laps up the hosannas of fellow knuckle-draggers May 28 when he is the special guest of the World Affairs Council of Orange County. The nonprofit, 500-member council--which since its 1967 founding has hosted Prince Andrew, Vicente Fox, Hans Blix and several ot ... More >>

[Special Screenings] 'Under the Bombs,' 'Border Café,' 'The Big Lebowski,' More

[Hole in the Wall] Greek Garden Grill Is Aegean Well

Capo Valley High's James Corbett Isn't the First Local Educator to Face OC's Cultural Conservatives

Blazing Saddles!

Sheriff Carona takes his posse on a European tour

Art: For Dummies?

J Flynn Gallery gives us art for ordinary people

Baby Killer Redux

Orange County's diaspora of ethnicities is finally coming together against a common foe: whitey. On Saturday, Anaheim's Little Gaza played host to a protest against the ongoing Israeli destruction of Lebanon, as well as US support for Israel's efforts. Some went so far as call the Israelis baby-kill ... More >>

DeVore Cries Havoc

"Look at it burning." -Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader, speaking as his group's rockets struck a US-made Israeli warship Well, we're in for it now. Israel, Lebanon and Palestine are at each others' throats. Amr Moussa, General-Secretary of the Arab League, has declared the Middle East pea ... More >>

This Hole-in-the-Wall County

Orange Countys 74 Greatest Holes-in-the-Wall

Wandering the Dessert

Sarkis Pastry finds prosperity, peace in Anaheim

Hot Shank, Cool Jazz

Delicious Mediterranean fare at Byblos Cafe

The Terrorist Next Door

The U.S. says a former Anaheim resident is trying to kill us all