D’Caché — Latin Fusion cuisine & lively music

Step inside this restored 1928 Spanish mission-style cottage, located on Riverside in Toluca Lake, and you might think you’ve been transported to somewhere in the exotic Spanish or Latin American countryside. D’Caché is a lively restaurant where they serve modern Latin-fusion cuisine, tapas and fine wines and great drinks. Try a fresh Columbian mojito made [...]

Mama Knows Best

Last month, I met up with Jonah and his lovely wife at the Tamale Festival and gleefully ate until I was stuffed. We agreed the winner of the day was the green chile and cheese tamale from Mama’s Hot Tamales Cafe, which was conveniently located right on 7th Street, the location of the festival. [...]

Los Balcones del Peru - Life-Affirming Goodness

Balcones del Peru
1360 N. Vine St.
Hollywood, CA

Nothing says Christmas like ceviche, right?
Anything this heavenly is most definitely a gift from the universe.
And since I’m leaving for a 2 week jaunt to the Peruvian Amazon tomorrow, it’s time to pay homage to the best ethnic food craze evah.
Los Balcones del Peru has received a lot of [...]

Mexican Food with a Twist

Babita Mexicuisine
1823 S. San Gabriel Blvd., San Gabriel 91776
(626) 288-7265
$20-$50 per person
Lunch: Tu-F 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
Dinner: Su, Tu-Th 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm; F-Sa 5:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Bottom Line: Think good Mexican food is all tacos from the side of a truck? Think again. And again. And again.
On a slow night at [...]

A Taste of Latin America at Xiomara

Xiomara is one of those restaurants that I’d been meaning to try for a while. I think I’ve eaten there once or twice before, but that was years and years ago. I can’t even recall if I liked it or not. Today, I had no choice. I was trying to meet [...]

Tamale Festival

Los Angeles may be ground zero for three world record attempts this weekend: The largest tamale; the most people eating the largest tamale and the largest tamale steamer. Somebody call Mr. Guiness, because it’s going down at the First Annual LA Tamale Festival.
I’m usually good for no more than one tamale at a sitting [...]

A Night on Melrose

My friend Michelle and I decided we should do Melrose Night. We were going to the 1988 Gallery for an exhibit and decided to fill up at Lala’s Argentine Grill and get drinks at the Larchmont afterwards. I was in the mood for Mario’s Peruvian & Seafood but they shut down at 8pm. [...]

Salud! Ciudad

Jonah has already la.foodblogged about Happy Hour at the Border Grill in Santa Monica so I’ll make this quick. By just a hair, we missed Happy Hour at Ciudad, the Two Hot Tamales‘ (Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger) Latin cuisine joint downtown. Despite the prices, I drank a capirinhia that made me woozy [...]