Thanksgiving

Gilbert Gottfried

Irvine Improv

Bill Evans: The Black-Hole Son

See our full OC Weekly 2013 People Issue

On The Line: Kurt Schaeffer of Back Bay Bistro, Part Two

Balmy Orange County weather is a powerful thing. Just ask Kurt Schaeffer. A New York transplant, he's adapted to the sunshine. We find out what he loves and remembers most in today's edition.Read our interview with Kurt Schaeffer of Back Bay Bistro, Part OneAnd now, on to Part Two . . . .When you're ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in OC This Week

Tuesday, December 11Food and MicsDetroit Bar The quantity of charitable donations around the country always spikes in December--all that holiday cheer really brings out the giver in most people. Detroit Bar, in association with Buford House, gets on the generosity wagon this week with a special Tu ... More >>

Food & Mics

Detroit Bar

Wienerschnitzel's Chili Cheese Tamales: Too Lean on the Beef!

After Thanksgiving, my holiday diet mainly consists of tamales and pozole until a few days after the New Year. With that uptick being the case for a lot of us Mexis, Wienerschnitzel is wise to roll out its 'for a limited time only' Chili Cheese Tamales starting this month. Loving the signature brown ... More >>

Suicide Silence Seek Donations For Mitch Lucker Memorial Fund

Days after Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker died in a motorcycle crash in Huntington Beach, the band have launched a memorial fund to provide assistance to the family of the late singer. All proceeds donated to the official Mitch Lucker Memorial Fund will go towards the education of Lucker's fi ... More >>

Owners of Hans' Homemade Ice Cream Sell Business--But No Need to Worry!

After 40 years of scooping homemade flavors and watching their surroundings grow from bean fields to buildings, Hans and Judy Biermann were ready for retirement. They found the right buyers, and new ownership took effect on Monday. We sat down to speak to the new management team during their recent ... More >>

On The Line: Geeta Bansal Of Clay Oven, Part One

Geeta Bansal doesn't sit still. Her travel plans to visit chefs Europe are around the corner, and they've just finalized plans for another dinner collaboration-- and that's just for October. Most recently, they served wild boar at Taste of Newport. Plans to prep their signature Thanksgiving turkeys ... More >>

No. 57, Gudeg at Indo Ranch

If you're lucky enough to see gudeg at Indo Ranch, one of a handful of OC Indonesian restaurants (and I use that term very lightly here), it will be offered without rice. Indo Ranch's version is close to perfect despite missing the beef rinds in the sambal...that is if you even know what I'm talking ... More >>

No. 89, Wagon-Wheel Bread at THE RANCH Restaurant

While we're not the first to reach for the bread basket when waiting for dinner, this EDC-esque carb form has us mesmerized with its many spokes for varying tastes. Crafted specially for the dining room at THE RANCH in Anaheim, it rolls over any comparable chews we reckon in this county.A collaborat ... More >>

Little Saigon Asian Crip Who Killed At Asian Garden Mall Gets Bad News

Armed with a baseball bat and a mop handle, members of the Asian Crips criminal street gang attacked a group of men and women outside the Asian Garden Mall in Little Saigon on Thanksgiving 2001 and murdered one of the victims.The crime went unsolved for eight years until Westminster Police Departmen ... More >>

Akeem Jelani Johnson Gets 8 Years for Raping Drunk Aussie and Dumping Her Behind Bar

Akeem Jelani Johnson, the Tustin 28-year-old who raped a drunken Australian tourist in the back of a car before dumping her in an alley behind Godfather's Bar, was sentenced today to eight years in state prison and mandatory lifetime registration as a sex offender.A jury last month convicted Johns ... More >>

Top 5 Hip Hop Releases of 2011

​ Although it may feel like it when tuning into the radio, hip-hop is far from being dead. Keeping the culture alive and vibrant, a plethora of creative and conceptual albums from all over the globe were released in 2011. Narrowing down a list of the five best offerings from them is a painstaking ... More >>

Restaurant Roll Call for November 2011

​What the heck happened? One night I was handing out candies to adorable ghouls and ghosts, the next thing I know, we're a week past Thanksgiving with tomorrow the first day of December! This means of course, another installment of our monthly restaurant roll call, a summary of restaurants and eat ... More >>

Lupe Fiasco: 'These Ain't Bars, This is Barbarity!'

​ When I first downloaded Lupe Fiasco's free Friend of the People mixtape on Thanksgiving, I had no clue what to expect. Like many fans of the rapper these days, everything new that he does comes with the preoccupation as to whether the music industry will clamp down and restrain his genius. The i ... More >>

Dana Rohrabacher: Newt Gingrich is a Poseur

​The broken clock syndrome that saves Congressman Dana T. Rohrabacher from a continual series of embarrassing, boneheaded decisions has struck again. Rohrabacher didn't use his Thanksgiving Twitter soapbox to take his usual foaming-at-the-mouth-but-ultimately-limp swings at journalists who long ag ... More >>

Takeru Kobayashi Gobbles 7.5 Pounds of Turkey in 10 Minutes, Devours Record

​In honor of day of the year when gluttony is not only accepted, but celebrated here in America (yeah, that would be all days that end in "y"), we'd only expect Takeru Kobayashi to show us how it's done. On Thanksgiving eve, the competitive eating superstar gobbled 7.5 pounds of turkey in 10 ... More >>

Five Songs to Help Defeat the Leftover Blues

​Although Black Friday is known for shopping, it is also known as the beginning of the leftover parade. If you want to make room for non-gravy doused foods in your fridge, you'll need all the help you can get. Here are five golden oldies that can help lessen the blow of a week's worth of leftovers ... More >>

Support Your Local Independent Record Shops: Black Friday Record Store Day Sales Roundup

​Like it or not, the holiday season is upon us. As we all know, the big kick-off is Black Friday, when everyone shakes off the inevitable Thanksgiving food coma and hits the streets to forage for the best deals on gifts for friends and family. Rather than heading to the nearest mall to wait in hel ... More >>

El Bulli Documentary Screens in Long Beach This Sunday

elbullimovie.com​You think you have to cook under pressure this Thanksgiving? Imagine being a young stagiaire and invent a new dish that'll impress the master of avant-garde cuisine Ferran Adrià. That's just one snapshot within the documentary film El Bulli: Cooking in Progress. The only Los Ang ... More >>

Indo Ranch's Java to Go

This Lake Forest market isn't a restaurant, but it still celebrates the dishes of Indonesia in to-go containers

Japanese Curry CoCo Ichibanya to Open in Irvine Nov. 25

ProfessorSalt.comCoCo Ichibanya's Pork Katsu Curry​Do you love Japanese curry but long for more heat in the otherwise-mild-mannered dish? The Japanese chain restaurant CoCo Ichibanya offers spice levels you can customize to your taste, all the way to a brow-sweating, nose-running level 10. "Comin ... More >>

Disneyland Rings in the Holidays on November 14

​Halloween Time may officially be over at Disneyland (other than the Haunted Mansion's The Nightmare Before Christmas makeover that runs through the rest of the year), but all of the pumpkins will soon be replaced by tinsel when the park's holiday season officially bows on November 14.Learn what p ... More >>

Five Great Pumpkin Treats In Orange County

​Halloween has come and gone. Our costumes are once again being put away, packed in boxes or hung in closets, pushed to the corners of our minds until next year. But one culinary theme remains throughout the rest of autumn: pumpkins. While your squash-based sculptures won't keep through November, ... More >>

Seal Beach Hair Salon Shooting: 5 Ways to Help

​Much attention has been focused on why the gunman killed eight people and wounded another in the worst mass shooting in Orange County history. Much less attention has been focused on the victims who were left behind. These are the hair stylists, other staffers and clients inside Salon Meritage in ... More >>

On the Line: Erin Whitcomb of Front Porch Pops, Part Two

​Front Porch Pops' Erin Whitcomb gets technical in part two of our weekly series. She discusses expansion, her efforts in giving back to the community, and what flavors we can look forward to. We even learn how walking her dog inspired the company's name. Want more? Did you start with part one? Yo ... More >>

'I Don't Know How She Does It' Sacrifices Nothing

In the fantasy adaptation, working moms can have it all

Belly Up to Slater's 50/50

There's nothing halfway about the Huntington Beach eatery's embrace of America's bacon crush

Seventh Home Coffee and Tea House Shows There's No Place Like It

This teahouse caters to Korean chicks, but you should go, too

Rep. David Wu To Resign Amid Allegations of Sexual Misconduct With OC Teen

​Rep. David Wu (D-Oregon) announced this week that he will resign from Congress, post-debt ceiling vote, after an allegation that he had an unwanted sexual encounter with his friend's 18-year-old daughter.  According to The Oregonian, which broke the news of the scandal last week, Wu was visi ... More >>

Rodney Alcala, Convicted Serial Killer, Demanded Payback for Candy and Playboys in OC Jail

​Larry Welborn has a fascinating piece on The Orange County Register site about the 26 claims serial killer Rodney Alcala filed against his Orange County jailers while he was holed up in Santa Ana defending himself in his third (and hopefully final) death-penalty trial.Among the items the jailhous ... More >>

Book Review: Are You Gonna Eat That*? A Collection Of Crazy Culinary Concoctions

​With a cover like this, does one really need to read the introduction?  I didn't: I just jumped right in and came to three conclusions:1. The author must have an issue with combining sweet and salty flavors.2. He clearly consulted with pregnant women.3. What's the big deal?  Some of the ... More >>

Gendershe Has Bur, Baby, Bur!

[Hole In the Wall] Orange County's first Somali restaurant impresses with its fried bread and other specialties

Roasted Catfish at #1 Restaurant in Westminster

Michelle Woo​One Vietnamese dish that incites more whoas than a Thanksgiving turkey is ca nuong, roasted catfish. And one place that gets it right is #1 Restaurant in Westminster. (Yes, let it be known, #1 Restaurant wins the award for the most un-Googlable establishment of all time ... More >>

New Hip-Hop Album Says Leonard Peltier Got a Bad Rap

​While many of us were helping ourselves to servings of turkey, stuffing and other offerings of the annual feast last Thursday, jailed American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier continued to serve time on consecutive life sentences. Peltier has spent more than three decades imprisoned fo ... More >>

This Week in Food: Controversial Tamale Fundraisers, Great Office Park Eats, and Charlie Palmer!

Flickr user ilovemypit​Given this was Turkey Week, the blogging 'round here was at a more-relaxed pace, but that doesn't mean there weren't goodies in the mix (sorry for the double negative, a no-no in English, but I'm still asleep from the racks of ribs we ate last night). After the jump, some hi ... More >>

Special Anaheim Farmers' Market Wednesday

​All Thursday farmers' markets will be closed in observance of Thanksgiving this week, but the Downtown Anaheim farmers' market will have a special session on Wednesday, November 24 from noon to 7 p.m.

Disneyland Stops Housing POTUS-Pardoned Turkey

Wikipedia CommonsObama pardons last year's lucky bird, "Courage." ​They've got a mouse and a duck. Starting this year, Disneyland no longer needs a turkey.  The theme park will stop putting out the welcome mat for the National Thanksgiving Turkey and its understudy, the two lucky birds se ... More >>

Fast and Fruity Cranberry Sauce

Flickr user mf*laflaca​To me, Thanksgiving isn't complete without home made cranberry sauce. Using my method, you'll be finished in 30 minutes, and have a sauce that tastes fresher than any other recipe.I have a problem with the age-old method of cooking cranberry sauce. It calls for boiling the b ... More >>

Put Down The Damn Cool Whip. Do It Now.

Flickr user roadsidepicturesYou're not fooling anyone, you know.​Last week was a very stressful week, and when I get stressed out, I cook. The concentration required to work in a kitchen, a place with knives, boiling water or oil, fire, and slippery floors, takes my mind off whatever's gone wrong. ... More >>

¡Ask a Comida Critic! A Good Mexican-American Restaurant in Anaheim?

​Someone asked this weeks ago; I just got to this today, too late to help the lady. Sorry, Hiromi :-(My boss wants to eat at a good Mexican-American restaurant in Anaheim. Any recommendations?Little-known secret about Anaheim, our county's finest dining town: it's the county's best place for Mexic ... More >>

Sunday News Notes: Reg Slams Loretta Sanchez

​Local news highlights include:Register against Loretta Sanchez but drags out marijuana stanceThe editorial staff of the OC Register has declared itself for congressional candidate Van Tran, a Republican; U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, a Republican; and Whitman, yep, a Republican. "From our ... More >>

Sunday News Notes

Happy 10-10-10 to you.​Weekend news highlights from various media sources include:Fred Phelps thinks he knows whyYou can thank UC Irvine researchers for this good news: The future "Big One" earthquake along the San Andreas fault will be much worse and much sooner than previously expected, accordin ... More >>

Sunday News Notes

​Highlights include:The Latest Grocery Store Scam KCBS Channel 2 in LA is promoting its Monday investigative look into an area grocery store that pretends to honor product coupons but actually credits the shopper $0.00. No word on the identity of the alleged offender. The report is scheduled to ... More >>

The Twilight Zone

STAGEStheatre

Gettin' Made: Stop--Turkeytime!

The big bowl of leftover Halloween candy is still sitting on your counter, yet there's Christmas decorations every which way you turn. Did we all forget about Thanksgiving?   Turkey fused art pendant by Jochris12​ Thank goodness for these fab turkey finds--after the jump, some more ta ... More >>

Sweat it Out

The Barstow Boyz

Sashimi Surrender

Let Ikko Kobayashi have his way with you

Looking for Love in All the Right Pastas