Torrance

Asameshi Maeda Honten - "Legendary Ramen Fair" in Costa Mesa's Mitsuwa Marketplace

If you are reading this after February 18th, 2008, you might as well stop: Asameshi Maeda Honten will have already packed up and left for San Diego, its next tour destination. Sort of like a band that belts out noodle soups instead of tunes, you can find this Japanese ramen shop here, at the Costa ... More >>

A Very Zimmerman Christmas

Southern California's got a few neighborhoods known for their festive (or overkill, whatever you want) holiday displays, where entire blocks of houses do their very best to outdo and outlight each other: There's Candy Cane Lane in Torrance, Brea's got one off the Lambert exit of the 57, the Naples C ... More >>

[Summer Guide] Elliott Almond Brings an OC Native's Eye to His How-to Book About Surfing

Southern California's got a few neighborhoods known for their festive (or overkill, whatever you want) holiday displays, where entire blocks of houses do their very best to outdo and outlight each other: There's Candy Cane Lane in Torrance, Brea's got one off the Lambert exit of the 57, the Naples C ... More >>

Trendzilla

"I will not love you long time"

Letters

'There is no life left in the paper. No humor, no edge, no spank. You are plain and boring. I dont know what you did to all these good people to run away, but I can guess. I wont pick up OC Weekly The Digital Dump

Randy Lewis wants your old computers. The Smithsonian doesnt

'Tittie Twister'!

How the Los Angeles archdiocese stretched, twisted and contorted to hide bad, bad priests in Orange County and how we learned to love it

BCD Tofu

How the Los Angeles archdiocese stretched, twisted and contorted to hide bad, bad priests in Orange County and how we learned to love it

'If They Get Beaten, Then They Asked for It'

How the Los Angeles archdiocese stretched, twisted and contorted to hide bad, bad priests in Orange County and how we learned to love it

Something to Share

Oranges Backhausdance troupe has a spirit like a willow tree

Stop Acting Scary

Visionaries are not just a living, breathing Benetton ad

Stuck In Dramaramaland

John Easdale is still all about the rock

The Layoff Planet

John Easdale is still all about the rock

Bad Rap

Is Joshua Moore serving a 12-year sentence because of his taste in music?

Letters

Is Joshua Moore serving a 12-year sentence because of his taste in music?

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Is Joshua Moore serving a 12-year sentence because of his taste in music?

The Digital Dump

Randy Lewis wants your old computers. The Smithsonian doesnt

Scholarship Established For Ex-Weekly Reporter Vu Nguyen

Vu Nguyen​The Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield has created a website and scholarship in honor of former OC Weekly intern Nguyen Huy Vu, who died from a stroke on Mother's Day at the age of 34. Vu, who grew up in Orange County's Little Saigon, also worke ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Vu Nguyen​The Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield has created a website and scholarship in honor of former OC Weekly intern Nguyen Huy Vu, who died from a stroke on Mother's Day at the age of 34. Vu, who grew up in Orange County's Little Saigon, also worke ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Vu Nguyen​The Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield has created a website and scholarship in honor of former OC Weekly intern Nguyen Huy Vu, who died from a stroke on Mother's Day at the age of 34. Vu, who grew up in Orange County's Little Saigon, also worke ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Vu Nguyen​The Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield has created a website and scholarship in honor of former OC Weekly intern Nguyen Huy Vu, who died from a stroke on Mother's Day at the age of 34. Vu, who grew up in Orange County's Little Saigon, also worke ... More >>

At the Farmers' Market: Buffa... er... Bison

Lindner Bison​Don't call it buffalo. Buffaloes don't roam this continent, Brewster M. Higley VI notwithstanding. That lean, iron-rich meat you're about to chow down on is bison, and if you've been shopping at the Long Beach Southeast farmers' market in the Alamitos Bay Marina, it's grass-fed, huma ... More >>

Ethnic Eating 101: Korean, Part 1

phy @ flickr.com CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Korean restaurants have Seoul... get it?​Welcome to the new year of Ethnic Eating 101! Sorry for the unannounced hiatus; I was hung over--tequila is a delicious but cruel potion.While the wonders of Vietnamese cooking could fill up half a year's posts, the Vietnames ... More >>

The Restaurant Re-Tread: Café Hiro, Cypress

Monster Munching​Our own Edwin Goei has been lauding Café Hiro in Cypress for a very long time. Cypress isn't known for its culinary destinations, so when the opportunity came up to re-validate our capsule review, I jumped at it. While I was only able to visit once, I'm happy to report that it li ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Monster Munching​Our own Edwin Goei has been lauding Café Hiro in Cypress for a very long time. Cypress isn't known for its culinary destinations, so when the opportunity came up to re-validate our capsule review, I jumped at it. While I was only able to visit once, I'm happy to report that it li ... More >>

Drunk at Dinner: Paso Robles White Wines

Willy BlackmoreStephanie Anglim at Anglim Winery ​White wine is certainly worth drinking year round, but with the heat making its way back to Orange County, a cold, crisp bottle has become evermore tempting in the past weeks. We've tasted some wines from nearby Temecula in previous editions of Due ... More >>

Celebrate Tax Day With a High-Tech Toilet, "An Inconvenient Tax" Film

Second prize: steak knives.​Ah, Tax Day. What better day to get a spritz up your butt crack?

Hello Kitty + Skateboards = Art

[Trendzilla] Girl Skateboards all decked out, Sanrio-style

Santa Ana is Ground Zero for Toyota Legal War

​Santa Ana will be ground zero for sudden-acceleration lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. after a panel of judges last week consolidated the cases to the federal court there. The world's largest automaker faces at least 177 consumer and shareholder lawsuits seeking class-action status and at le ... More >>

Meg Whitman, Direct From My Mailbox

​Four fliers delivered to my mailbox this afternoon bring to mind instant images of Meg Whitman, your Republican nominee for governor of California. What follows is the actual order I pulled these fliers out of the box at Casa de Coker:

Santa Ana Neighborhood Halloween Decor Gone Too Far?

Mary Bell/OC Weekly​KTLA 5 called it "one of the most ghoulish displays in the OC."Plenty of neighborhoods go all out for Christmas--Candy Cane Lane in Torrance, Eagle Hills in Brea--but what about Halloween?Three houses on Buffalo Ave. in Santa Ana have started up a friendly tradition of outdoing ... More >>

Toyota Denies Report It Secretly Bought Back Cars That Accelerated Unintentionally

​Toyota has issued a statement denying the automaker was able to duplicate customer complaints about sudden acceleration and that it secretly repurchased problem vehicles from owners without notifying the government.Torrance-based Toyota USA blames attorneys for people suing Toyota for spreading t ... More >>

Mitsuwa Marketplace Offers 20-Percent Off Everything Today!

​For one day only, Mitsuwa Marketplace in Costa Mesa is offering 20-percent off everything in the market--yes, that includes ready-made sushi, bento boxes, meat and seafood--and yes, the place is a fucking madhouse.

Pork Overload at Yamada-Ya Ramen

ProfessorSalt.comKotteri Tonkotsu soup with kakuni​Even though Orange County has its share of first-rate ramen shops, I'm afraid we've just been demoted to second-tier losers. There's an escalating pork arms-race waged by the new-school purveyors of tonkotsu (pork bone) soup in the South Bay like ... More >>

Sanrio.com and Select Boutiques Donating Net Proceeds to Japan Disaster Relief Tomorrow

​It's now the world's most famous mouthless white cat's turn to help out Japan: Tomorrow, Sanrio.com and select participating boutique locations will donate all net proceeds toward Japan disaster relief.The company (whose stateside headquarters is housed in Torrance) seems to be following in the f ... More >>

What's Happening in OC/LB on Record Store Day? Your Handy Event Directory

​Since its inception in 2007, the fandemonium over Record Store Day has only grown. Drak, owner of Vinyl Solution in Huntington Beach, expressed his awe of fans last year who flooded into his store "like mice after a piece of cheese. It's amazing." It's no wonder they do--each year on the third Sa ... More >>

Volcom Sues Jay-Z

[Mental Notes] More important, what's going on for Record Store Day in OC?

American Airlines Now Sponsoring Fortunes in Chinese Fortune Cookies

​Two nights ago, my family and I went to Shanghai Palace in Torrance to celebrate my dad's birthday. As we reached the end of the meal, the waitress handed us our obligatory fortune cookies. Exciting! As I opened up the plastic wrapper, I wondered what fate would be revealed on that two-inch white ... More >>

iPad-Equipped Restaurant Opens Tomorrow in Torrance; Cerritos in the Fall

​Our sister blog Squid Ink and other LA food sites have been writing about Stacked for months. The hook of the restaurant is that each table is equipped with an iPad from which you order and customize your burgers, pizzas and salads via dragging the ingredients on Apple's tablet computer. You pay ... More >>

Federal Judge in Santa Ana Sets Trial For First of Hundreds of Lawsuits Against Toyota In February 2013

​A Santa Ana-based federal judge has picked the bellwether case in the slew of freak-acceleration lawsuits lodged against Toyota. The trial, which will undoubtedly influence the litigation of the other cases, is set to start on Feb. 19, 2013, according to a timetable housed on the court' ... More >>

[UPDATED with Sentence:] Darryl Raymond Phillips, Ex-Fullerton Official, Gets Jail, Probation, Restitution

​UPDATE, JUNE 21, 2:17 P.M.: The city of Fullerton's former risk manager admitted last week to scheming with his cousin and cousin's boyfriend to signing off on phony personal-injury and property-damage claims and cashing out about $28,000 in payouts for his own use.In exchange for guilty pleas, 4 ... More >>

Hybrid Cars Lose Special Carpool Lane Privileges

dmv.ca.govCalifornians who drive hybrid cars will face a rude awakening tomorrow when they lose their special carpool lane privileges.​Since 2005, thousands of hybrid vehicles have been granted access to the carpool lane, even if there was only one person inside. Lawmakers OK'd the move as an ince ... More >>

Freshia Korean Market to Close Remaining OC Location :-(

ProfessorSalt.comFresh out of meat at Freshia Tustin​What used to be a great place to buy good-quality beef and unusual seafood items such as fresh monkfish and live halibut is shutting down this week. According to a store manager I spoke with, July 31 will be the last day for local Korean superma ... More >>

Ramen Yamadaya Coming to Costa Mesa!

ProfessorSalt.comKotteri ramen at Yamadaya​When I heard the news, it was like Christmas in October. Yamadaya, the renowned LA ramen shop, will open store No. 3 in Orange County in late November. There are plans afoot to open a fourth location in Westwood in December, maybe in time for actual Chris ... More >>

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 >>

Savory Spice Shop Opens at OC Mart Mix

Dave Lieberman​Just in time for the holidays, Savory Spice Shop has opened its second location, inside the OC Mart Mix at the SoCo Collection off the 405 freeway. The original branch of the chain has been open for a couple of years in Corona del Mar Plaza, where people whose cars cost as much as m ... More >>

Irvine's Mitsuwa Marketplace Food Court To Host Santouka Ramen

Edwin Goei​It would've seemed a safe bet to assume that the new Irvine Mitsuwa Marketplace going into the 13,800 square feet space at Heritage Plaza that was formerly Ace Hardware would contain a Santouka Ramen. At every single Mitsuwa Marketplace in the US (Costa Mesa; Torrance; Los Angeles; Sant ... More >>

First Taste: Ramen Yamadaya Costa Mesa

ProfessorSalt.comYamadaya's Kotteri ramen​They're finally open! Back in November we reported that Yamadaya's first Orange County restaurant was opening by the end of that month. They put up hand-written signs in their papered-over windows counting down the days. "8 Days," the sign promised, and ... More >>

Mr. Chiizu Makes You Say, 'Cheese!'

[Trendzilla] IPhone app lets you create your own Japanese-style photo booth

Is Kula Becoming The Walmart of Sushi?

Edwin Goei​Some may remember that before it sold $2 sushi on moving belts, Kula's previous incarnation was as a high-priced, made-to-order sushi bar in Century City. When it failed to catch on after about one year, the restaurant made the move to the then still unproven Diamond Jamboree in Irvine. ... More >>