Spanish Food and Cooking

Eat This Now: The $5 Queso Fundido Burger at Lola Gaspar

Lola Gaspar's Queso Fundido Burger will arrive at your table in nothing more than a paper food boat lined with brown parchment. There is no foliage nor pops of color. No truffle oil that costs more than the burger itself will coat the patty, and its sesame-seed bun won't make you wonder about its pe ... More >>

For a Hot Time In Old Huntington, Go to the Black Trumpet Bistro

Dino Ferraro's French/Italian/Spanish/Moroccan menu would be oddball anywhere but Beach Boulevard

OC Roller Girls Flat Track Roller Derby

The Rinks

The Black Trumpet Bistro, New Tapas Restaurant In Huntington Beach, Serves Shawarma and Pasta

Have you ever craved a shawarma wrap, a plate of pasta, and a crock pot of stinky French onion soup all at the same time? Neither have I. But now, I sort of do. A new restaurant in Huntington Beach has just opened that gives you the option of eating all of the above from the same menu. The Black Tru ... More >>

OC Fair to Have "Arturo the Churro" Mascot; Board Director Calls it Racist

When it comes to the world of anthropomorphized food mascots, exaggerated ethnic and racial depictions are not only commonplace but virtually mandatory. The best example is the Milwaukee Brewer's legendary sausage races involving a hot dog (American), bratwurst (German), kielbasa (Polish), Italian ( ... More >>

New Huntington Beach Restaurant Serves Kimchi-Flavored Waffles

A new Asian tapas restaurant opened in Huntington Beach. No not that Asian Tapas, which is just a name for what has evolved to be a typical Northern-style Chinese restaurant.Scraps seems to be a real Asian tapas-style eatery. The menu consists entirely of small dishes made to be shared--dishes ... More >>

On the Line: Mick Schepers of Mick's Karma Bar, Part Two

Have you ever played that game where you have to find the differences between two pictures? Shortly after our photographer shot Mick, he uploaded an Instagram photo in front of their menu board announcing that they are now open both Saturdays and Sundays! That's a Karma burger any day of the week. W ... More >>

Recipe of the Week: Black bean enfrijoladas

I eat at restaurants like I listen to music. I'll find one album (or dish, for the sake of this analogy) that I really, really love and play it out until either I'm sick of it or my wife yells at me because she "can't listen to Lil' Wanye's 'Lollipop'--not even one more time!"One such meal has been ... More >>

Ole Spain Delishop Is Beyond Spanish Rice

[Hole In the Wall] This Santa Ana strip-mall delight offers Spanish dishes and sausages—and the cheese!

Ochoa's Chorizo With Amnesty

[Hole In the Wall] This Santa Ana foodmaker hints at the potential of OC's cottage-food industry

Reasons to Visit Matator Cantina: A Patrón Pairing Dinner Next Week!

Maybe you're stuck working this Saturday. Or you want to keep celebrating long after the 5th has come and gone. Either way, the duo of chef David Dennis and mixologist David Valiante at downtown Fulleton's Matador Cantina have five perfectly good reasons to pay a visit. And each goes well with tequi ... More >>

Rooster Cafe Hatches The Hen House in Corona del Mar

Best known for their breakfast burritos, at least according to El Jefe, Rooster Cafe has been there, done that. Previously housing a hidden kitchen, tapas bar, and late night grub, they are now flying the coop to become a surf shack.The Hen House is their little sister in the works. She will serve t ... More >>

Game Day Fire-Grilled Hot Dogs Gets Their Game On

[Hole In the Wall] The Orange restaurant, with its wondrous wieners, is well-suited to a college town

On The Line: Sea Kyeong Kim of Charlie Palmer At Bloomingdales, Part Three

Photo by Meranda Carter​This Charlie Palmer chef takes his craft pretty seriously. After going over the ingredients for the recipe, we must say, this is one intensely flavorful tomato salad! To catch up on what you missed with Chef Kim, links for parts one and two can be found here, and over here. ... More >>

Paella in Compton on Sunday, May 15

Flickr user pablovenegas​Compton's not the place you think it is anymore. Sure, it's got some of the best barbecue in the area, but it's got an increasing population of Samoans, Filipinos and other Pacific Islanders, and it's the home to this year's picnic of the Casal dels Catalans de Califòrnia ... More >>

Ochoa's Chorizo Gets the Good Food Treatment

I'm a bit late in plugging my appearances on KCRW-FM 89.9's Good Food with Evan Kleiman, so this: I interviewed the Ochoas of Ochoa's Chorizo two weekends ago for the show. It was great to talk to not only Sal Jr., but the originator of the chorizo herself: his mom, Aurora, who still gets in to moni ... More >>

Tapas and Beer In Rancho Santa Margarita: First Taste

ProfessorSalt.comGrilled chicken marinated in achiote with pineapple rice​If you thought I meant Papas and Beer, that south-of-the-border mega-bar, calm down. This is Tapas and Beer, a new restaurant that seeks to fuse a small-plate concept with a neighborhood sports bar.And the place looks like a ... More >>

Food Profiling: Ochoa's Chorizo

​ Thirty-five years ago, Aurora Ochoa was a wife and stay-at-home mother who wanted to do something while her husband was out working. She started making her own chorizo in their garage and gave it away to friends and family. Back then, she hand-cranked single meters of meat at a time with the ... More >>

Battle High-End Churros: Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen vs. El Torito Grill!

​Churros, like an empanada or a concha, is one of those Mexican pastries almost impossible to improve, almost always good, almost never splendid--but when done wrong, a disaster. Most of the churros in Orange County fall into the former category--really, do diners care about eating anything other ... More >>

Sol del Sur Bistro Cooks Everything Under the Sun

The San Juan Capistrano restaurant's globe-trekking menu is already dizzying when you realize that one guy insists on cooking it all by himself

Umami Mongolian Grill Has Pinoy Panache

[Hole In the Wall] This Buena Park eatery masters the stagnant culinary genre and even advances it

Lizarrán Tapas Waiters Need to Focus on Hungry Customers More than Getting Laid

​Behold the ramekin of toothpicks after the jump, a photo from my dinner last Thursday at Lizarrán Tapas in Fullerton. I like their offerings--juicy chorizo, decadent bacon-wrapped dates, a beautiful use  of quince--and was famished that night. I asked the waiter to keep them coming...but th ... More >>

Drunk After Work: Sagami

Edwin Goei​The Place: Sagami, 3850 Barranca Pkwy. Ste B., Irvine, CA 92606, (949) 857-8030 . The Hours: Monday to Thursday, 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m. The Deal: Sapporo on tap for 50% off ($1.88 for a frosty mug). Hot sake, also 50% off. $4.95 sushi rolls (Rainbow, Spicy Yellowtail, Salmon Skin, or S ... More >>

Mariela Rebollo of Barcelona On the Go, Part 2

Photo by Kimberly Valenzuela​This week, On the Line is featuring Chef Mariela Rebollo of the mobile tapas bar Barcelona on the Go. If you missed yesterday's questions, you can find them here. Tomorrow, Chef Mariela gives us a recipe for octopus cooked with wine and potatoes.

Drunk After Work: Tapas and Wine at Hi-Time

The problem with wine tasting is that the palate-cleansing oyster crackers they give out are short on flavor (which is probably the point). Wine lovers in Costa Mesa, however, have an option, at least Fridays in April.Dave Lieberman​

Natilla at Felix Continental Cafe

Jessica Ford​Felix Continental Cafe mixes the cuisine of Cuba and Spain with the vintage charm of the Orange Circle. Although most of the food is not too aesthetically pleasing, Felix's makes up for it in bold flavors and harder-to-find items likes croquetas and platanos maduros. The dess ... More >>

Barcelona On The Go

Dave Lieberman​The food truck frenzy continues apace: this weekend saw the launch of the Barcelona On the Go truck at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa. When I arrived at 3:30, the line was about twelve people long; when I got to the front, the line had grown to about twenty, and when I left at a ... More >>

New Spanish Tapas & Paella Food Truck Debuts This Weekend in Costa Mesa

​You didn't think that this food truck thing was even close to being done, did you? Our friend Brekkie Fan has tipped me off that Barcelona On The Go is making their debut this Saturday, February 20th, from 3 p.m.-8 p.m. at Hi Time Wine Cellars 250 Ogle Street, Costa Mesa. Among their menu it ... More >>

Recipe of The Week: The Best Sandwich You've Ever Had

The Alice Walker school of California cooking--the immaculate, jewel-like vegetables, the artisan oils and vinegars, the painstakingly sourced meats--has at times been leveled with the criticism that it is not, in fact, cooking, but assembling. How much talent or skill does it take to make the best ... More >>

The Northern Chinese Fare at Asian Tapas Isn't Really Tapas, But It Is Delectable

Tap Water at Haven Gastropub--EWWWWW

​I'm with Edwin: Haven Gastropub in Old Towne Orange is uneven. I love their chorizo flatbread, a perfectly toasted plate with oily, spicy chorizo, red peppers out of the Windy City, a tomato sauce that tastes like it came from organic veggies, a reason to justify this overplayed restaurant trend. ... More >>

Another Restaurant Goes Global Tapas

Flight Bistro​Susan Feniger, what hast thou wrought?After one-half of the Too Hot Tamales, of Border Grill fame, opened the nearly un-Googleable Street in Hollywood as a restaurant specializing in street foods from around the world, it seems like everyone has started jumping on the bandwagon.Edwin ... More >>

Meet Winemakers of Bodegas M.

Wine Lab Newport

Two Upcoming Food/Wine/Art Events at the Shorebreak/Zimzala, Huntington Beach

​First, this Sunday (from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.) is the inaugural 2nd Sunday bash at the hotel, featuring "fine wine, tasty nibbles, live music and stimulating art." Specifically, the booze is from Coppola Diamond Collection, the grub is from the hotel's own Zimzala restaurant, and the paintings are fr ... More >>

Did Matador Cantina Owner Take Gustavo's Advice?

I have so many restaurants waiting for SAFII reviews  that sometimes I lag and get beat. That's what happened this Thursday, when the Orange County Register gave a thumb's-up to Matador Cantina in Fullerton. I visited about a month and a half ago, and don't necessarily disagree with writer Lori ... More >>

Boqueria's Tasty Tapas Hatches at Rooster Cafe

A So-So Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen Dinner--But, Oh, Those Churros...

Owner Gabbi Patrick--cool dame!It seemed a couple of days ago that my chica and I would experience another disappointing meal at Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen in Orange, a place I have long championed but has recently acted like another Old Towne Orange battle horse, Felix's Continental Cuisine: a super-b ... More >>

Warning: Charlie Palmer's New Small Plates May Be Bad For Your Health (But Not In The Way You Think)

Last night, the bar at Charlie Palmer, South Coast Plaza, launched its small plates menu--available from 4pm until close--with a media shindig.I have to confess that I only tried one dish, but I do have a legitimate excuse: I'd just chowed down on the five-course tasting extravaganza at Marché Mode ... More >>

Lizarrán Tapas Worth Every Small Bite

I had a book signing a couple of weeks ago at Hibbleton Gallery, a great little art space in downtown Fullerton, but there was a problem--I arrived at 6:30, thinking my reading was scheduled for 7 p.m., when in fact it was an hour later. Famished, I asked one of the gallery guys, Jesse La Tour, abou ... More >>

The Best Taco in Orange County is..

*Moved up, 'cause the conversation is raging--and where the hell are you, Cheeser???I love all of you, o readers and commentators (especially the commentators), and one of the most loyal is Cesar Madrid. He's always bilingually witty and profane, whether talking about Gunkist historians, the Catholi ... More >>

Kalesa Grill Now Pinoy Fiesta

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Kalesa Grill in Anaheim, misspelling the Filipino restaurant's name as Kasela but not misrepresenting its great take on the archipelago's turo-turo buffet tradition. I visited again last weekend, only to find the dive is now named Pinoy Fiesta. Everything remains ... More >>

Barcelona Comes to Fullerton Via Lizarran Tapas

Trio Gabacho

Mexican food for the John Wayne crowd

Spinnin' & Singin' Pretty

DJ Colette Vox the House

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

Yum Buns

Castile Storms Back

Picante heats up the not-so-spicy Spanish-restaurant scene in OC

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

Death by hog

You, Me, 50 Cent, and Everyone We Know

If you can read this Six Degrees of Separation review, were connected

The Dudes Abide

No go-go boys in Newport, but the Big Lebowski lives on in Lakewood

Burrito History

Nick Zampino and the dawn of the burrito