At Chinatown's Pearl River Deli, the menu is always changing — and worth chasing

Last May my colleague Lucas Kwan Peterson wrote a column about a string of 1980s-era Cantonese restaurants that had recently closed in the San Gabriel Valley. The closures included three Monterey Park behemoths — Ocean Star Restaurant, Empress...

Chef Tony    Needle    Pearl River Deli   

A takeout window seems an apt location to begin thinking through some of the Los Angeles restaurants that managed not only to open in 2020, but also to enrich the city’s culture with creative achievement and personal narrative. This carryout setup...

[It’s here: The Los Angeles Times’ 101 restaurants, dishes, people and ideas that define how we eat in 2020.] Over the years, Chinatown has become one of the most dynamic places to eat in Los Angeles. Despite a tumultuous 2020 in dining, it...

During a dim sum meal, a Cantonese friend once casually mentioned that part of the Chinese characters that spell liu sha bao — the fluffy, springy steamed buns that ooze sweet egg custard — translate as “gold quicksand.” I loved that mental image,...

Carrot tartare at n/soto Meatless tartare is an ongoing obsession. The beefsteak tomato tartare from Jose Andres’ Bazaar Meat is still a revelation. The precise preparation of the fruit mimics beef so perfectly that some diners have a hard time...