Author: James Gordon

Looking to study abroad? I recommend Los Angeles. On a single street in Koreatown, you may stumble across an Oaxacan taco vendor, a Korean barbecue joint, a Hong Kong yum cha parlor, a Salvadorian pupusa stand, an Isaan street food restaurant and a Hokkaido artisan noodle shop. Immigrants cook for

If mass Asian food events excite you, then this is an exciting time to be in Los Angeles. Last year, a few savvy entrepreneurs started 626 Night Market—an event meant to emulate the traditional Asian-style food night markets that grace China and Southeast Asia—and the Ramen Yokocho festival. The events

Since New York’s Mulberry Street was first turned into an Italian haven—a Little Italy, even—the concept of an Italian deli shop has ingrained itself into urban America’s consciousness. Los Angeles does not have a Little Italy truly on par with New York’s, but this city is no less devoted to

Both the Chinese and Vietnamese New Year were celebrated last week, and this past weekend featured Costa Mesa’s Tet Festival, the largest Vietnamese New Year celebration in the world. It seems apt, then, to discuss the culinary state of the San Gabriel Valley (SGV), the Los Angeles benchmark for Chinese

I’m happy to revise last year’s column, which wasn’t as accurate as it should’ve been, because I spent most of my time giving myself a crash course on L.A.’s “99 places to eat before you die.” (That’s literally how the Los Angeles Times refers to them.) I only had funding

I had the luck to visit Italy a few summers ago, and while I probably left with some level of appreciation for Renaissance sculpture, what I really took away was such a deep love for high-quality pizza that I couldn’t eat the lowly, unrefined, unpurified American version for several months.

It’s always seemed to me that the most promising and exciting Mexican food in Southern California is made in the famed food trucks that never seem to make it to Claremont, with the exception of Harwood Halloween 2011, when Pomona was so terrified of a campus-wide alcohol poisoning plague that

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Bangkok has the longest official city name in the world: Krungthep Mahanakhon Amorn Rattanakosin Mahintara Yudthaya Mahadilok Pohp Noparat Rajathanee Bureerom Udomrajniwes Mahasatarn Amorn Pimarn Avaltarnsatit Sakatattiya Visanukram Prasit. This is awesome because 1) cities can have official names that are apparently

I lied in a column last week when I compared Indian puri to the fried elephant ears you get at Disneyland. Turns out that they don’t even sell elephant ears at Disneyland. I wasn’t lying maliciously, though—I’m just ignorant. I found out because an incensed friend yelled at me for

Last year, I wrote a column on Pioneer Boulevard, India’s gift to Los Angeles. Pioneer Boulevard features 15 easily top-notch Indian restaurants, and that’s before we get into the logistics of what actually qualifies as a restaurant. The street’s best quality is that it offers food you just don’t see