Health

I’ll take the jerky at Sophy’s over your Wagyu steak anyplace else Pepper-smeared strips of beef jerky fueled countless late-night study sessions in my college dorm room. I enjoyed the leathery, stringy belts I ate on road trips as a kid to Las Vegas, Palm Desert or wherever my parents drove us in my mom’s … Read more

Fresh produce at Mercado González Northgate Market in Costa Mesa. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times) 1 A thousand stimuli charge your senses when you walk into the Mercado González in Costa Mesa. Dragon fruit, colored in lucid pinks and greens, piled in a wooden bin among dozens of other fruits and vegetables displayed with … Read more

Review: A giant meatball is the gateway dish to L.A.’s best new Persian restaurant in years It’s hard to miss the giant meatball. Anyone on their way to ordering at the counter inside Azizam, while passing through its patio along Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, might instinctively sweep their gaze over the tables already full … Read more

Review: So many mysteries at Star Leaf. But mainly, where’s the spice? The contradictions surrounding the Asian chain Star Leaf start with the official number of locations: There are 43 restaurants around the globe. Wait, no. Forty-five. Most of them are in China. One might have a Michelin star. The woman who founded the restaurants … Read more

Review: How far for a true taste of Baja? To the center of this modern Mexican tasting menu The plates that roll out of the kitchen at Valle, a nearly three-year-old modern Mexican restaurant inside the Mission Pacific Beach Resort in Oceanside, are relentlessly beautiful. For his eight-course tasting menus, chef Roberto Alcocer might braid … Read more

Review: Aren’t tiny restaurants the best restaurants? A former Melrose coffee shop makes the case For decades Stir Crazy was a coffee shop, a business squeezed among Melrose Avenue’s endless buildings of connected restaurants and shops and offices interrupted only by cross streets. Dino Trucco took over the place in 1994, tore out the Formica-tile … Read more

We ate hundreds of tacos to find the 101 best. Here’s how the whole process went Twenty-one. That’s the most tacos Food reporter Stephanie Breijo ate in a single day while researching our latest team guide, the 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles. “The hardest thing about this is you can’t just try one or … Read more

1 Everyone in Los Angeles has a go-to taqueria. It might be the one that’s most convenient to you, or maybe it holds a special memory or is open late to satisfy your after-midnight taco cravings. We tapped some of our favorite Angelenos — from local chefs and restaurateurs to musicians, community organizers, professional athletes … Read more

(Brandon Ly / Los Angeles Times) 1 When ordering tacos in Los Angeles, it’s helpful to have some Spanish terms and phrases at the ready. Keep this glossary handy during taco crawls and you’ll soon be ordering like a pro. Adobada: Term for al pastor in Tijuana. Meat — often pork — marinated in a … Read more

How L.A. reached peak taco They’re everywhere. Tortillas with fillings and garnishes, three or four per paper plate, chomped down at thousands of taquerias or tarp-covered stands that tumble along the landscape like cells in blood. On any given day, thousands of tacos — tens of thousands? — are being lifted and eaten, hand to … Read more