Los Angeles


September 30, 2011

Umamimart Writers’ Dinner: Robata Jinya (LA)

by Sarah Nevada

On a particularly temperate Los Angeles evening, three Umamimart writers (one a founding member), and an Umamimart photographer, joined three Umamimart supporters and friends for a lovely dinner at Robata Jinya in West Hollywood, CA. Of the diners, two were strict vegetarians, one a somewhat new carnivore and the rest more of the “don’t knock […]

September 28, 2011

To Live and Eat in LA

by Kayoko Akabori

“To live and eat in LA, it’s the place to be; You’ve got to be there to know it, what everybody wanna eat” – Tupac Alright, alright, Tupac didn’t say “eat”. But instead of talking about hoes and tricks, he should have rapped more importantly about the bounty of food to be found in LA. […]

September 5, 2011

Postcard from LA: Yoshinoya Takeover

by Kayoko Akabori

I’m in LA for my best friend’s wedding. I love LA, you know that? There’s an energy here that doesn’t quite exist in sleepy SF. Plus, this is the city where my family first landed in AMERICA. We lived in the cuttycuts of Koreatown with cockroaches. Nostalgique. Driving around with my brother, I noticed something: […]

August 5, 2011

Old School Eats: Street Tacos at La Reyna (LA)

by Sarah Nevada

Photos by Thomas L. Young One dollar street tacos at a busy intersection in downtown Los Angeles is about as old school as you can get. On the corner of Mateo and 7th street, in front of the Mexican restaurant La Reyna (Est. 1974), is a taco stand run by one guy on the grill […]

July 22, 2011

Old School Eats: Umami Burger (LA)

by Sarah Nevada

While it’s no Musso & Frank or Mateo’s, Umami Burger is quickly becoming a fixture in the LA culinary world. Seriously. Six locations have popped up since the original La Brea location opened in 2009 and the popularity doesn’t appear to be losing steam. Though it embraces the similar rapid expansion model that made the […]

July 5, 2011

Old School Eats: Nickel Diner (LA)

by Sarah Nevada

Downtown Los Angeles is a special place–a part of town that still feels authentically gritty and big city-like. Even amongst the gentrification going strong in a few, piecemeal pockets, downtown LA is still pretty much what it was in Beverly Hills Cop 2. Sure, the crime rate and smog levels have dropped since the 80’s, […]

May 31, 2011

Old School Eats: Howard’s Famous Bacon & Avocado Burgers (LA)

by Sarah Nevada

This post goes out to all you haters out there on the internet (specifically, those living in the suburbs of Chowhound and Yelp), please stand corrected. Of the many, many times I’ve dined at Howard’s Famous Bacon & Avocado Burger, I’ve never been served anything that slightly resembled a “greasy guacamole burger” and never consumed […]

May 25, 2011

Skankynavia: In the US (Part 2)

by Anders Arhoj

PREFACE Skankynavia: In the US (Part 1 – Berkeley) Last week I listened to the great NYC radioshow called RadioLab. They deal with quirky science and interesting true stories, and last week’s subject was “memory” (a rerun from 2007, listen here). It turns out that every time you remember something, and when you revisit a […]

May 3, 2011

The Gift of Food for Japan Benefit (LA)

by Kayoko Akabori

All Photos by Yoko Kumano. About a week after our initial GIFT OF FOOD fundraiser in San Francisco, Yoko and I were approached to help organize a similar event down in LA, to benefit the victims of the 2011 Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami. Could we pull it together in less than a week? HECK YAH! […]

April 29, 2011

Old School Eats: Bob’s Big Boy (LA)

by Sarah Nevada

Around the corner from the dimly-lit, time machine-esque Smoke House is Bob’s Big Boy. This is where tourists and locals go to eat high-calorie meals under bright fluorescent lights, without caring who’s watching them–and no one is. The polite waitstaff is there to do the job they are paid to do: routinely and repeatedly check […]