Where Bread Is King

Photo by Jessica CalkinsIslamic Chinese cooking is a rarity in Southern California, eclipsed by $1 combo plates, fried rice and a nice side of MSG. But there it is in Tustin: Jamillah Garden, an expansive, always-crowded oasis where customers speak Arabic as often as Chinese, where bread is king. Inside, photos of Mecca and bamboo …

Slowrider

SLOWRIDER HISTORIAS EN REVISIÓN NOMADIC SOUND SYSTEM East Los Angeles jam geniuses Slowrider have proven during their three-year existence that jamming isn't just about droning on a perfect riff forever, but that jam bands should incorporate other everlasting chords until the results are as fiendishly beautiful as a Bach fugue. Such is the main attraction …

Diary of a Mad County

MONDAY, July 14 Apparently George W. Bush isn't the only person not checking what he's saying these days. After a second person is found to have been injured on a ride at the Orange County Fair, fair general manager Becky Bailey-Findley explains she didn't alert the press because “We don't issue a press release every …

Outside the Master Plan

Photo by Tenaya HillsCamille Barr is sitting on her back porch enjoying the afternoon sunshine. A few yards away a sprinkler drenches the hot yard. Her dog, Charlotte, runs through the yard and then goes back inside. Near Barr's feet, her pet chicken, Foghorn, silently picks at a corncob. “I feel so lucky to live …

Hoag Hospital Food is Newport Beach Class at Cafeteria Prices

They certainly looked like doctors, though they were dressed like you or me. They didn’t have any surgical tools or stethoscopes or anything, but I couldn’t shake the feeling they were medical professionals. They were two tables over, so I leaned in closer to listen in on their conversation. Much of what they were saying …

Meal of the Marauders

Photo by Jessica CalkinsA bronze relief hanging from a wall in Genghis Khan restaurant in Fullerton depicts a smiling family outside a ger, the massive portable tent medieval Mongolians called home. The 13th-century-era clan sit around a campfire eagerly awaiting their allotment of cooked meat. The same scene occurs before the relief daily, except eaters …

Letters

BREN GAME I guess I feel baited and switched on the Don Bren article (Steve Lowery's “Don Juan Bren,” May 30). After your cover promised titillation and sexy scandal, all we got was the typical anti-growth, anti-Irvine preachy rant you have stored on your computer! (A hit piece on the Ferris wheel? Get real, folks!) …

Portrait of the Art Critics

You'll find a lot of critical cooing over Bradford J. Salamon's “Orange County Tastemakers,” at Square Blue Gallery—the pretty, blond-wood garret space that abuts his studio. The Register's Daniella Walsh coos. Laguna Art Museum curator Tyler Stallings coos. And Jamie Wilson coos, but that's her job as curator of Square Blue—a space that's become an …

Diary of a Mad County

MONDAY, May 12: Troy High in Fullerton wins its fifth National Science Olympiad in eight years—pending drug-test results, of course—over the weekend. TV and newspaper pictures show the victorious Trojans returning to cheering crowds as if they were gods. Clearly, as we suspected, Troy has become a factory: these kids receive special treatment just because …

Yerba Buena

YERBA BUENA PRESIDENT ALIEN RAZOR N TIE New York hasn't developed anything noteworthy in the Latin-music galaxy since the days of the Fania All-Stars in the '70s, but here come Yerba Buena. With their debut, President Alien, the seven-person collective has produced an album of such aural ingenuity, such mishmashing of dance styles, and such …

Letters

Contact us via e-mail (le*****@******ly.com), regular mail (Letters to the Editor, OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627) or fax (714-708-8410). Letters will be edited for clarity and length. All correspondence must include your home city and a daytime phone number. PICTURE THIS I am writing to respond to Nathan Callahan's recent article …