San Gabriel Valley

Pho Bo Vang, Ann's Pho & Teriyaki and Maison de Pho and the Closing of the Pho Frontier

A pho proliferation in South OC bodes well for the assimilation of Vietnamese food

Eclectic Roots Festival - Irvine Lake - 5/12/12

Eclectic Roots FestivalIrvine LakeMay 12, 2012If we could ever dream up the ideal introduction to a local music scene, it would probably look something like the Eclectic Roots festival last Saturday at Irvine Lake. After all, it's not often we get to see a smorgasbord of young upstarts from Orange C ... More >>

Eclectic Roots Festival - Irvine Lake - 5/12/12

Eclectic Roots FestivalIrvine LakeMay 12, 2012It's rare to find a spanking-new local event with as much potential as the Eclectic Roots Festival that planted itself  at Irvine Lake last Saturday. After all, it's not often we get to see a smorgasbord of young upstarts from Orange County and L.A ... More >>

Gamblers Mark Want to Bet the House

[Locals Only] The band are living the lucky, rockabilly life

Gamblers Mark's Dave Gambler on Almost Betting His Guitar and His Grandfather's Six Wives

Technically, brothers Dave Gambler and Danny Exito hail from the San Gabriel Valley, but they're in Orange County so much and have so many friends here--the Moonlight Trio, Trash Monster, all the folks down at Classic Tattoo--they're as much a part of the local scene as anybody. Their sound is an a ... More >>

[UPDATED with Corrected Details:] Arlet Hernandez Contreras, Fernando and Emmanuel Limas, OC Homicides Nos. 12, 13, 14: Shazer Fernando Limas May Face Death Penalty

UPDATE, MAY 8, 4:10 P.M.: A statement on the continued arraignment of Orange 31-year-old Shazer Fernando Limas, who could get the death penalty for allegedly killing his girlfriend and their two young boys, gives new ages for the children.Said originally by Orange Police to have been 2 and 4 years o ... More >>

San Gabriel Noodle House Lauded by Jonathan Gold To Open in Irvine

​Irvine's Culver Plaza is already going to be the first OC site of Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot, a San Gabriel Valley staple which is supposed to open any day soon. And now it looks like there will be another SGV import coming our way, slated to do business around the corner from the 99 Ranch.

Ten Great Chinese Restaurants in Orange County

​Orange County doesn't have the San Gabriel Valley, lined end-to-end with great Chinese restaurants. We do, however, have Irvine, which is where most of these recommendations are, and where you can eat well from just about any region of China.As with all these sorts of lists, there will be the ine ... More >>

CNNGo Publishes First Ever Worthy National-Media List of Chinese Restaurants

​Whenever I read a best-of list in the national media, I wince internally. They're usually either cobbled together by looking at the Internet and seeing which ones are mentioned most often--which results in a kind of small-scale Zagat guide, prone to the hype machine--or they're put together by pe ... More >>

Class 302, Popular Taiwanese 'Shaved Snow' Restaurant, Planned for Irvine

​Rowland Heights' Class 302, arguably the restaurant that put the uniquely Taiwanese dessert called shaved snow on the map and everyone's consciousness (at least if you live or play in the San Gabriel Valley), is planning a store in Irvine at University Park Center, which you may already know as t ... More >>

Taste Test: Koko's Cafe in Irvine

Edwin Goei​This is a taste test. Only a test. Not a formal review, but a quick, dirty trial of two dishes from Koko's Cafe in Irvine, which as I noted in an annoucement post last week, opened recently in Irvine. It took the place of Dickey's BBQ at the corner of Irvine Center Drive and Jeffrey, an ... More >>

Koko's: A Hong Kong-Style Café Finally Opens in Orange County

Edwin Goei​I posited the question last May: Why aren't there any Hong Kong-style cafés in Orange County?In that post, I said that the last Hong Kong-style café to grace our dining scene was O'Shine in Irvine, which then became Red Onion, a similarly styled restaurant that folded shortly after. ... More >>

LA Times Pushes Back Community News Expansion into South County and Announces OC Arts Section

​The Los Angeles Times announced today that it will expand Times Community News (TCN) coverage into Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel and the Orange County arts community beginning Aug. 26.If part of that sounds like deja vu all over again, it is--with a twist. A June 30 memo from Times Media Group to ne ... More >>

Starfish Is Asian, But of No Persuasion

The Laguna Beach restaurant relies on tried-and-true 'Oriental' tropes for its so-so food

101 Noodle Express Teaches You Chinese 101

It replaces Irvine's Nice Time Deli, but is it worthy of the legend?

Eat Here, Not There: High-End Bánh Mì

ProfessorSalt.comVegetarian banh mi​Little Saigon has the best bánh mì shops in the nation, despite the absurd New York Times story we ridiculed here on this blog a couple months ago. Sure, the San Gabriel Valley has a few great shops, as do San Jose and a number of other Vietnamese enclaves acr ... More >>

Hsin Hsin Shau May Deli Closed In Irvine

​Hsin Hsin Shau May Deli, the only Orange County outpost of a San Gabriel Valley-based chain of Taiwanese steam table restaurants, has closed in the 99 Ranch plaza at Jeffrey and Walnut.Given that the same plaza contains Liang's Kitchen and Nice Time Deli, it seems like the competition for pork ch ... More >>

New York Times Names the Best Bánh Mìs in America--and Not One is From Little Saigon

Flickr user svensk​The New York Times' coverage of Vietnamese food has always been laughable--who can ever forget its decade-late feature on Sriracha or it declaring 2009 the "year of the bánh mì" (while neglecting to mention Little Saigon among the nation's Vietnamese enclaves) about seven year ... More >>

Eat Here, Not There: Bánh Mì for the Los Angeles Crowd, Or: More Reasons to Hate on Red Medicine

In some ways, I wish they kept this idiocy...​Last night, I traveled to Los Angeles to dine at Rivera, the fabulous restaurant that spans Latin America and is the latest stunner by John Sedlar, the last of the Southwestern-cuisine Mohicans. I was there to interview Sedlar for my coming book, and I ... More >>

Best Online Coupon Sites

[Trendzilla] Gilt.com, Groupon.com, LivingSocial, Market for Drama and Rue La La Allow You to Get Your Coup-On

Liang's Kitchen's Lines Don't Lie

The Taiwanese fare at this new Irvine eatery is worth the wait, and comes with a side of history

Aji Limon Is the Chifa Champ

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

New Taiwanese Restaurant Opens in Irvine; Replaces Takaraya

Edwin GoeiLiang's Kitchen (a.k.a. Mama Liang's) opened this week to early crowds at the 99 Ranch-anchored plaza on Walnut and Jeffrey in Irvine, the reputation from its established restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley preceding it.

Feds See a Red Door, Want to Paint It Black

​When Mick Jagger saw a red door, he wanted to paint it black, as is widely acknowledged (by me) in the greatest Rolling Stones song of all time (any girl who claims otherwise gets cut!).So, the federal investigation of the San Gabriel Valley-based Red Door gang--which just ... More >>

Spicy City's Kidney Flowers: Why Cutting Matters

Flickr user wang_qian_021386Sadly, my picture did not come out. This is what the dish SHOULD look like.​One of my favorite dishes in the Chinese repertoire is huo bao yao hua, or "fire-exploded kidney flowers". It's a Sichuan dish of pork kidneys in a slightly sweet sauce. Kidneys, which are the f ... More >>

The California Challenge at Pepe's

[Hole in the Wall] In which you will face a burrito of mythic proportions

#84. Silken Tofu and Thousand Year Old Egg at Asian Tapas

Edwin Goei​ We continue to countdown our 100 favorite dishes at local restaurants. We'll be sharing these with you every weekday until our annual Best Of Issue comes out. Enjoy! #84. Silken Tofu and Thousand Year Old Egg at Asian Tapas You need to get past the "thousand-year-old egg" moniker ... 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 >>

Chinese, Part 2

Arguably the most familiar Chinese regional cuisine in the United States, Cantonese food got its start with the first Chinese immigrants to San Francisco. At that point they had to make do with what ingredients were available to them. Cantonese food in the US isn't like that anymore.tracyhunter @ fl ... More >>

Gustavo Arellano Related to Jessica Alba!

Taken from Wikipedia lest we pay the papparazzi...​I get the strangest, most beautiful letters regarding my book, Orange County: A Personal History, and I probably got the best one yet last week from a middle-aged lady who lives in the San Gabriel Valley. She had long heard me on the Orange County ... More >>

Get Your Meat and Potatoes, Deutschland-style, at La Habra's Continental Deli

Taken from Wikipedia lest we pay the papparazzi...​I get the strangest, most beautiful letters regarding my book, Orange County: A Personal History, and I probably got the best one yet last week from a middle-aged lady who lives in the San Gabriel Valley. She had long heard me on the Orange County ... More >>

Dueling Dishes: Battle Fish Taco

Dave Lieberman​A great fish taco is a thing of beauty: fried fish (yes, it must be fried!) topped with raw, shredded cabbage, crema (thin Mexican sour cream), chunky salsa and a squeeze of lime on corn tortillas. The first time I had them ("Fish tacos? Seriously?") was when I was working in the Sa ... More >>

I've Revealed A Secret; Now It's Your Turn

Edwin Goei​If you've picked up the latest edition of The Weekly -- which is, by the way, our annual, and might I say, awesome Best of OC Issue (okay, I'm done with the shameless plug) -- you might have noticed my review of May Garden's secret menu in the usual Food section. During a chat wit ... More >>

The Secret Menu at May Garden Opens Up a Whole New World of Taiwanese Tastes

Edwin Goei​If you've picked up the latest edition of The Weekly -- which is, by the way, our annual, and might I say, awesome Best of OC Issue (okay, I'm done with the shameless plug) -- you might have noticed my review of May Garden's secret menu in the usual Food section. During a chat wit ... More >>

Acid Circus' Vargas Brothers 'Rock Out' Their DJ Sets

Edwin Goei​If you've picked up the latest edition of The Weekly -- which is, by the way, our annual, and might I say, awesome Best of OC Issue (okay, I'm done with the shameless plug) -- you might have noticed my review of May Garden's secret menu in the usual Food section. During a chat wit ... More >>

[Hole in the Wall] Bánh Mì Déjà Vu All Over Again at Nhu Lan Bakery

Edwin Goei​If you've picked up the latest edition of The Weekly -- which is, by the way, our annual, and might I say, awesome Best of OC Issue (okay, I'm done with the shameless plug) -- you might have noticed my review of May Garden's secret menu in the usual Food section. During a chat wit ... More >>

Battle Over Bolsa Chica and Indian Bones Keeps Humming Along

When the California Coastal Commission meets in Huntington Beach on Thursday, panelists will be staring into at least one familiar face: that of Chief Anthony Morales of the Gabrielino-Tongva Band of Mission Indians (pictured). While the commission deals with coastal development ... More >>

Kogi Korean Taco Truck...Only in L.A., For Now

Surely by now you've heard about Kogi Korean Taco Truck, right?  If you haven't, catch up by reading up on it over on our buddy Eddie Lin's blog, Deep End Dining (or listen to Evan Kleinman's KCRW show, Good Food, where Eddie talks about it).  But really, it should be obvious what it is. I ... More >>

Out-of-County Experience: Dim Sum at New Capital in Rowland Heights

If we're in a recession, someone forgot to tell the Chinese. Yesterday, the dim sum crowd at New Capital in Rowland Heights was as crazy as always.  Judging by the number of people milling about outside waiting for a table, this go-to place for dim sum in the eastern part of San Gabriel Valle ... More >>

[Trendzilla] Chinese Foot Spas

If we're in a recession, someone forgot to tell the Chinese. Yesterday, the dim sum crowd at New Capital in Rowland Heights was as crazy as always.  Judging by the number of people milling about outside waiting for a table, this go-to place for dim sum in the eastern part of San Gabriel Valle ... More >>

[Trendzilla] Purikura (a.k.a. Giant Expensive Japanese Photo Booths)

If we're in a recession, someone forgot to tell the Chinese. Yesterday, the dim sum crowd at New Capital in Rowland Heights was as crazy as always.  Judging by the number of people milling about outside waiting for a table, this go-to place for dim sum in the eastern part of San Gabriel Valle ... More >>

The Pastrami Sandwiches at Tommy's Are Massive, Glorious Gut Bombs

If we're in a recession, someone forgot to tell the Chinese. Yesterday, the dim sum crowd at New Capital in Rowland Heights was as crazy as always.  Judging by the number of people milling about outside waiting for a table, this go-to place for dim sum in the eastern part of San Gabriel Valle ... More >>

At King Lobster Place in Orange, Chinese Seafood As Good As Any San Gabriel Valley Joint

If we're in a recession, someone forgot to tell the Chinese. Yesterday, the dim sum crowd at New Capital in Rowland Heights was as crazy as always.  Judging by the number of people milling about outside waiting for a table, this go-to place for dim sum in the eastern part of San Gabriel Valle ... More >>

A Chicken-Foot Fetish at Fullerton’s California Asian Bistro

If we're in a recession, someone forgot to tell the Chinese. Yesterday, the dim sum crowd at New Capital in Rowland Heights was as crazy as always.  Judging by the number of people milling about outside waiting for a table, this go-to place for dim sum in the eastern part of San Gabriel Valle ... More >>

Sucking in the '70s

The grub at Wong’s is sublime, if you don’t mind dangly tassels

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