Peru

Geeta Bansal Interviews Virgilo Martinez, Peru's Newest Chef Star

Every Monday, Clay Oven Irvine executive chef/owner Geeta Bansal shares an interview that she's done with some of the heavyweights of European cooking. Today, she regales us with a visit to Peru, where Virgilio Martinez is currently the toast of the country's cooking scene. Enjoy!

Delicias Peruanas' Great Chicken Salad?

[Hole In the Wall] This Lake Forest spot wows with a simple-yet-potent Peruvian menu

UCI's 14th Annual Latin American Film Festival Starts Today!

Orange County has been really good to us cinephiles lately. Apart from the Vietnamese International Film Festival, the ongoing Newport Beach Film Festival, and the Cinema Orange series at OCMA, we now rejoice as UC Irvine hold its 14th annual Latin American Film Festival this week. It's a modest fe ... More >>

An Open Letter To My Fellow White People At the Juice Bar

Dear fellow white people:Enough.Enough with the damn $10 cups of juice.Enough pretending to be dedicated to local, organic, sustainable food when you then turn around and order a glass of can-you-even-still-call-it-juice with lúcuma from Peru, açaí from Brazil, mangosteen from Thailand, spirulina ... More >>

Greg Long, OC Weekly People Issue Star, Wins Big Wave World Tour Crown

Greg Long, the San Clemente big wave rider who recently starred in OC Weekly's inaugural People Issue, has been crowned the winner in this year's Big Wave World Tour contest. The event, now in its fourth year, was cancelled after just three of five rounds (in Todos Santos, Baja California and P ... More >>

Geeta Bansal Interviews Sebastian Mazzola, Chef at 41° in Barcelona

Every Monday, Clay Oven Irvine executive chef/owner Geeta Bansal shares an interview that she's done with some of the heavyweights of European cooking. Today, she regales us with a visit to Barcelona, where Sebastian Mazzola is making his name at 41°. Enjoy!

On The Line: Steve Parker Of The Tulsa Rib Company, Part One

As he awaits final inspections for the new home of The Tulsa Rib Company, Steve Parker finds time to answer our questions. "We've had 32 years to get prepared," he says of the decision to move after so many years in the same Orange strip mall, "so we should be alright on it." Special thanks to Liz P ... More >>

Laguna Beach Music Festival

Various Locations

Restaurant Roll Call for September 2012

Let's get to it, shall we? Here's the Restaurant Roll Call for September: our monthly run-down of what we've noticed opening and closing. Slow month? Well, in terms of restaurant closures, that's a good thing. See also:Restaurant Roll Call for August 2012Restaurant Roll Call for July 2012Restaurant ... More >>

SoCal Film Festival Uses "Carmageddon II" Fears to Drive Butts into Surf City Movie Seats

The SoCal Film Festival has a message for those fearful about moving around Southern California's 405 freeway during "Carmageddon II":Stay off the streets and in Huntington Beach for the eighth annual celebration of independent cinema, which rolls in the Central Library on Talbert Avenue Thursday th ... More >>

Renzo's Taste of Peru Closes :-(

Renzo's Taste of Peru, the unlike source of great ceviche in Irvine, has closed. In a Facebook update posted Tuesday, owner Renzo Macchiavello wrote: Today was our last day of Bussines.I am proud of this litte place and the people and all of your support .....thanks so much for your comments and l ... More >>

Is Tortillaz Aspiring to be Chipotle?

​ I'm not saying that every Mexican chain like Cafe Rio is trying to copy Chipotle. Even though it says it's not, Taco Bell is doing it. And why wouldn't they? It makes business sense to aspire to the same kind of success that Steve Ells Mexi-chain has achieved. There's nothing wrong with that. Bu ... More >>

Ding Dong: Burger King Tests Out Food Delivery Service

​The food-obsessed stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan had a great line once about food delivery. He said, "Delivery is really a combination of two of my favorite activities: eating, and not moving."People of the same mindset might soon have not just pizza and Chinese food but Whoppers they don't have ... More >>

International Indigenous Film and Video Festival

Cal State Fullerton Titan Student Union

On the Line: Renzo Macchiavello of Renzo's A Taste of Peru, Part Two

Photo by Kevin Lara​Family is a recurring theme in our interview with Renzo Macchiavello: influencing his past, supporting his present and inspiring him to excel at what he does best. His expertise earns him gold medals, and here, he offers a few good anecdotes in part two of his On the Line inter ... More >>

At Renzo's, Life Is a Ceviche

Surfer Renzo Macchiavello creates Incan favorites in Irvine

Krochet Kids' Third Annual Gala

Lido Theatre

Five Great Pickles for National Pickle Day

Flickr user ehfisher​In honor of National Pickle Day, The Counter Custom Burgers slashed prices on their Fried Dill Pickle Chips to a dollar this Sunday, November 14 (go while you can!). There are two OC locations: Irvine and Newport Beach. You can also get fried pickle chips at Beachwood BBQ, Luc ... More >>

Aji Limon Is the Chifa Champ

This Buena Park eatery just might be the county's first restaurant to specialize in Peruvian-Chinese food

Wacky Snacks: D'Onofrio Pezi Duri Lucuma Ice Cream

Edwin GoeiName: D'Onofrio Pezi Duri Lucuma Ice Cream Origin: Peru Found at: Aji Limon, Buena Park Cost: $10 Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat, Milk Whey, Lucuma Flour, Milk Protein, Skimmed Milk, Glucose, Emulsifiers (Mono and diglycerides, Guar Gum, Garrofin Gum, Carragee ... More >>

Self-Caffeination As It Was Meant To Be Done

Our coffee culture, sadly, tends to run toward Starbucks and drive-through at It's A Grind. Largely missing from la naranja is the local, artisanal small-batch roaster whose singular focus on the product raises the coffee bar. Sure, we have Martin Diedrich, and the lines out the door at his two coff ... More >>

Cherimoyas

Dave Lieberman​Three years ago, if you saw a cherimoya, it had almost certainly been flown in from Chile or Peru and had been languishing in the "exotic" produce bin at the supermarket, waiting for someone to recognize it and pay $5 for a tiny, withered fruit.Commercial production of cherimoyas ha ... More >>

[Locals Only] DJ Frankie Alvaro Is in the Vanguard of Vintage

Full Film Slate: "Imagine This," "Crude," (the Return of) "The Cove," "Coco Before Chanel" and Michael Moore's Latest Polemic

Chill the Red Bull, re-heat the coffee and warm up the crack pipe: your eyeballs are about to get a workout from local screens in the days ahead. "Imagine This" took a film crew high into the Andes Mountains. First, Laguna Beach Film Society screens the documentary Imagine This tonight. Eion ... More >>

Top 5 Frozen Yogurt Flavors I'd Like To See

Since new yogurt stores seem to keep popping up like an unstoppable, virulent disease (See my earlier post here on the phenomenon), there's really one thing left to do: request more flavors.  Not that there's a lack of creativity out there.  Some, like Yogurtland, seem to have a hard-working f ... More >>

Charter Film Series: MADEINUSA

MOLAA

[Hole in the Wall] An Acid Trip Through the Ocean of OC Ceviche

[Versión En Español] ¿Dónde en el Mundo Está Edgardo Jiménez

A Priest the Diocese of Orange Admits Faced an Abuse Accusation Is Still in Ministry In Spain

Italy's Ban on Ethnic Food Called "Gastronomic Racism"

I wished what this Times Online story had to say was a hoax -- that Italy didn't really start banning kebabs and other foreign food from its cities -- but it's too outrageous not to be true.The article states:The drive to make Italians eat Italian, which was described by the Left and leading chefs ... More >>

[This Hole-in-the-Wall Life] Chicken Like Soup at Pollo de Oro

[Special Screenings] Local Showings of 'Evil Dead 2,' 'Carrie,' 'Dracula,' More

To Do This Weekend 9/26 - 9/28

Chippendales, Friday 8 p.m. Fuck yes. Coach House 33157 Camino Capistrano San Juan Capistrano, CA 949-496-8930 Swing Dance Lessons, Friday 5 p.m. Jump jive and sigh. The Neighborhood Cup 1 Journey Aliso Viejo, CA 949-716-5100 Bastard Winos with Gasoline Addicts, Saturday 9 p.m. Two of the greatest ... More >>

Fountain Valley's Peruvian Kitchen Moves to Irvine

So here's what happened since we last checked in: Lima City (a Peruvian food stall in an Irvine food court I previously reviewed) is gone, replaced by Peruvian Kitchen, who moved out from its Fountain Valley digs, which is now occupied by another Peruvian restaurant called Casa Inka. I won't att ... More >>

Special Screenings

Movie of the week: Peel: The Peru Project

Here's Your Insight, Pal

James Redfield's Prophecy is one divine mess

Remote Hog

Chappelle Show (Lost Episodes)

Caraz Dulzura

This Week in Roughage

Special on Sambo, Aisle Dos!

Picking apart racist caricatures at Orange County Latino grocery stores

This Week in Cephalopods

This Week in Non-Mexican Latino Restaurants

This Hole-in-the-Wall County

Orange Countys 74 Greatest Holes-in-the-Wall

Clashingly Yummy

Travel through Peru with Norys

Five Sinful Ceviches

My Laguna

Feeling most at home at a place that's not

No Magic Act

Szyszlo mixes up Stonehenge, Area 51 and the Incas

Chillin With Uncle Sam

Feds to teens: Just say no, dude

Hope I Die Before They Get Old

Drugs, sex and rock & roll get the Boomers treatment