WHY Prepared take-home dishes like lasagne and ravioli, huge and delicious sandwiches, savory sausages, take-and-bake pizzas and a bakery case lined with breads, cannoli and Italian cookies. WHAT This old-school Italian market and deli has been around since 1948, starting here in San Gabriel, and it now has five other locations. (This was once an [...]
April 13, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY An incredible assortment of southern and northern Indian delicacies, potentially made as spicy as one could ever want, with some of the world’s hottest peppers grown on premises. WHAT While the restaurant also contains a grocery store, with a diverse spice selection, it is the prepared items from the kitchen served to the 15 [...]
December 1, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY Our vote for the best Hunanese cooking in Southern California. WHAT A chile-emphatic menu offers carefully cooked Hunan dishes without the usual vats of oil. The toss-fried lamb, glowing like an electric-powered Christmas tree, is a powder keg of a dish lit up with a quartet of chile styles: fresh diced, dried whole, flaked [...]
November 24, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY Well-crafted dim sum by day and well-executed upscale Chinese cooking by night, served in an attractive dining room for surprisingly modest prices. WHAT The dim sum gets more attention at this swank Cantonese place on Alhambra’s auto row, but we think the dinner is equally worthy. As is the trend now in your classier [...]
October 23, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY Among the best Hunanese food in the San Gabriel Valley. WHAT There’s considerable talent behind the stoves at this plain but spiffy café next to the San Gabriel Hilton. The dishes showcase a multiplicity of chile types and styles: dried to an almost black-red or sun-bleached; whole or crushed into flakes; soft and almost [...]
August 22, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY Pan-fried pork dumplings that will have you eating far more than propriety or good health demand. WHAT Given the amount of competition, particularly in these parts, it takes a lot of chutzpah to call yourself ‘Luscious Dumplings,’ but this simple café’s wares deserve the appellation. Each dumpling’s covering sports a different decorative pleating that [...]
June 3, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY A place for chileheads to give their palate a thrill ride. WHAT Light years beyond kung pao, the Sichuan fare at this nicely designed little storefront is the winning contender for capsicum artistry in a city filled with peppery stir fries and incendiary noodles. The fresh fish hot pot has a fan club, but [...]
March 31, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY For the little-known Muslim fare of Xinjiang, China’s autonomous far western region. WHAT The food at this homey café, a mesh of Chinese elements and central Asian nomad cooking, likely bears little resemblance to anything you’ve eaten in L.A. Sure, Xinjiang lamb kebabs are well known, but owner Munire Omar brings out zhuafan, a [...]
January 27, 2012 | Posted in
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WHY A glistening mountain of lobster, sautéed with lots of garlic, scallions and ginger. Superb giant clams, too. WHAT Occupying a bright former coffee shop, Newport is handsome enough to attract business lunchers by day and upscale celebrators by night. And because the house specialties are four- to six-pound lobsters, as well as crab and [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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WHY To discover the flavors of China’s Yunnan province. WHAT A brightly lit Chinese café like a thousand others in the area, with the brusque service that’s the norm. But the culinary style is more uncommon: the robust, chile-laden food of the mountainous Yunnan province, which fills China’s southwest corner. Try the crossing-the-bridge noodles, cumin [...]
October 28, 2011 | Posted in
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