Good Food

This week, we take physical and historical journeys to East Africa and South America.

• John Birdsall traces the evolution of queer food through the 20th century
• In her new series Panamericana, Pati Jinich travels the roads and highways linking North and South America, connecting with people along the way
• As a child of East African immigrants, Zaynab Issa uses her suburban childhood to create a cooking style all her own
• Humberto Raygoza took his family's chorizo recipe and built a business, one link at a time
• At the farmers market, chef Ed Cornell prepares for summer with apricots and soft serve

It's time to get grlling! And sipping!

• Men of barbeque loom large in America but Toni Tipton Martin and Morgan Bolling remind us that women also know their way around the pit
• Cathy Park rounds up the best matcha lattes in Los Angeles. Zach Mangan of Kettl in Los Feliz considers the downside to the matcha boom
• Lila Seidman reports on the tricky process of removing rare steelhead trout from the Palisades Fire burn area
• At the farmers market, chef Viktoriya Campos gets an early start, stalking seasonal asparagus.

Bottoms up! We're all about the tipple this week.

• Historian Hadley Meares looks at how Hollywood sips cocktails on the big screen
• Aaron Goldfarb follows collectors hunting for vintage spirits
• Sociologist Nicola Nice takes a look at how women brought the cocktail home
• Lesley Jacobs Solmonson explains how liqueurs went from the hands of the apothecary to those of the mixologist
• Evan Rail plays detective, looking back on an absinthe enthusiast who became a con artist

The joy of cooking with Roy Choi...

• Kogi king Roy Choi has health on his mind in a new collection of recipes
• How do you become a restaurant critic? Besha Rodell explains in her memoir
• Marie Mitchell shares dishes from the Caribbean and its diaspora
• It's cherry season at the farmers market and which means the lines are long at the Murray Family Farm stand

It's Mother's Day weekend and we head to the sea

• Sarah Ahn's viral food videos of her mom have captivated millions of viewers with their behind-the-scenes look at Korean cooking and multigenerational life
• Environmental photographer Arati Kumar-Rao goes night fishing alongside dolphins on the Brahmaputra River
• Tyler Harper dons a wetsuit, often during storms, and heads out into the turbulent surf to fish for striped bass in the secretive and dangerous sport known as "wetsuiting"
• Ari Kolender of Found Oyster and Queen St. Raw Bar & Grill has tips for cooking fish and shellfish with confidence
• The Santa Monica Farmers Market says goodbye to longtime vendor Kandarian Organic Farms

It's a perfect party trifecta of tequila, margaritas, and salsa. Plus, we dig into the latest on food dyes.

• Ted Genoways considers José Cuervo's colorful history, from eluding Pancho Villa's death threats to bringing tequila north of the Mexican border
• Caroline Pardilla serves up 60 recipes for your next batch of margaritas
• Rick Martinez chops, blends, and crushes more than tomatoes for endless variations of salsa
• Dr. Jessica Knurick deciphers fact from fiction in the MAHA agenda.
• Although they're available year-round, blueberries actually have a season and they're ripe for the picking.

What baking beliefs can you do without?

• Nicole Rucker rekindled her love for baking by tinkering with her favorite recipes and eliminating the fuss
• Gabriela Glueck visits the "Torture Orchard," where California's nut trees are pushed to the brink so they can withstand the curveballs thrown by climate change
• Nasim Alikhani spent decades working various jobs before realizing her calling — opening a restaurant to showcase the food of Iran
• Evan Kleiman recalls the crazy ride of the 1980s LA restaurant scene with Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table
• Often overlooked among springtime greens, chef Dashiell Nathanson is anything but sorry to use sorrel in his cafe dishes

What do we buy? And what does that say about us?

• Emily Mester examines what happens when consumption begins to consume you
• Journalist Ada Tseng visits Costco twice a week for gas, deals, and hidden Asian treasures
• Benjamin Lorr explores how the sliding doors at American grocery stores stay open
• Patty Civalleri tells us about the man who created Trader Joe's, which started in Pasadena in 1967
• Gustavo Arellano recalls the legacy of Frieda Caplan, who introduced Angelenos to all sorts of exotic produce
• LA transplant Vanessa Anderson, aka The Grocery Goblin on Tiktok, documents the city by visiting its markets.

Passover and Easter are here — and we have food ideas for both holidays.

• Hèléne Jawhara Piñer unravels the thread connecting the Spanish Inquisition to modern Jewish food practices
• In a new memoir, Joan Nathan reflects on her life through the lens of food
• Jeff Chu abandoned his career as a journalist to work the land and attend seminary, tilling up life lessons as well as a sense of calm
• Great British Bake Off alum Giuseppe dell-Anno celebrates a sweet Easter with Italian desserts
• Chef Nestor Silva plucks leaves from the fava plant for a new dish at French Japanese bistro Camélia

From takeout boxes to feeling boxed in, growing up as a "restaurant kid" is a unique experience.

• Curtis Chin and Rachel Phan share memories of growing up in their parents' Chinese restaurants
• Cookbook author Irina Georgescu finds inspiration east of the Danube River in Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria
• Jeremy Salamon reconnects with his Hungarian Jewish heritage and the charming childhood created by his grandmother
• Chef Harry Posner takes advantage of the short window for green almonds

Explore the spiritual side of food and modern Ghanaian recipes.

• Jody Eddy spent two years visiting sacred spaces and meeting the people who cook in them
• Inspired by childhood visits to Ghana, Eric Adjepong debuts his first collection of recipes
• Andrea Nguyen questions the accuracy of those Prop 65 warning labels on many foods
• Evan Rail plays detective, looking back on an absinthe enthusiast who became a con artist
• Restaurant critic Tom Sietsema blows his cover in the CIA dining room

A Black chef and cookbook author finally gets her due!

• Deb Freeman traces the life of Edna Lewis, author of "The Taste of Country Cooking," in a new documentary.
• While some people spent the pandemic starting sourdough, Jesse Valenciana got busy perfecting his birria.
• Memo Torres visits an Inglewood backyard, where three generations of the Sandoval family make birria using an abuela's recipe.
• Carolyn Kormann shares alarming facts about how microplastics have made their way into our bodies.
• Chef Caroline Leff of Stir Crazy turns up at the farmers market for a favorite root vegetable.

Celebrate the Persian new year with fresh herbs and new recipes

• Known to his followers as the Caspian Chef, Omid Roustaei prepares to celebrate Nowruz. 
• Economist Betty Resnick lays out the reasons behind the US's agricultural trade deficit.
• Alissa Timoshkina ventures beyond cabbage in a new cookbook dedicated to vegetables in Eastern European cuisines.
• Whales that get caught in Dungeness crab fishing gear have left fishermen and environmentalists scrambling for a solution.

The story behind the famous orange chicken at Panda Express and more!

• Dora Herrera remembers her mother, Socorro, who took orders at Yuca's in Los Feliz for nearly 50 years.
• Tejal Rao visits the renovated Panda Inn, where a precursor to orange chicken took flight.
• Honor May Eldridge follows our obsession with the Hass avocado, which was developed right here, in Southern California.
• In his new cookbook, Tu David Phu reconciles his family's trauma with his perceptions of what ingredients are deemed worthy.
• In shades of pinks and greens, farmers market chicories are favored by chefs for creating balance in dishes. 

Eat Thai street food and maple tofu sticks while sipping makgeolli.

• Designer-turned-food-writer Kristina Cho celebrates her Chinese heritage with delicious and approachable recipes
• Bill Addison dives into pad see ew and other iconic Bangkok street food dishes at Holy Basil
• Chef Govind Armstrong cracks into spiny lobster while celebrating a popular Santa Monica Pier restaurant's 25th anniversary
• Dakota Kim embraces the modern boom in an ancient Korean drink — makgeolli.
• Monique King mourns the loss of Fox's, a family restaurant in Altadena, while trying to support her staff
• Pastry chef Sasha Piligian uses olive oil and farmers market citrus in a cake destined for a charity bake sale

From chocolate grown in a petri dish to the latest updates on bird flu, this is a sciencey episode along with a few beans, lemons and eggs.

• Gabriela Glueck puts lab grown chocolate under the microscope.
• Apoorva Mandavilli reports on the bird flu crisis and what items to avoid when you're shopping.
• Genevieve Ko offers alternatives for recipes that involve eggs.
• Steve Sando and Julia Newberry of Rancho Gordo share their ideas for using 50 varieties of beans.
• Bethany Harris puts the squeeze on farmers market citrus.

We explore candied fruit, small-batch cookies, how to make maple syrup and an ancient fruit — the date.

• Rawaan Alkhatib takes us on a hot date, offering a global perspective on the ancient superfood.
• Chewy and gooey, small batch bakes are perfect when you want just a little sweetness — and Edd Kimber knows how to mix them up.
• Camilla Wynne shows us how to make stunning candied fruit. Peter Gregg pursues happiness via maple syrup.
• Baker and chocolatier Valerie Gordon explains how she sugars rose petals for her bestselling petits fours.

An Altadena bar owner works to be a good neighbor while a cooking school taps home chefs from around the globe.

• After the Eaton Fire, Randy Clement, who owns Good Neighbor Bar, used wine delivery software to canvas Altadena, informing neighbors whether or not their homes had survived.
• Sergio Olmos reports on the recent immigration raids in Kern County.
• Lisa Kyung Gross founded the League of Kitchens Cooking School, where women from around the world act as instructors; now, they've compiled their recipes into a cookbook.
• Mother and daughter Patricia Tanumihardja and Juliana Evari Suparman share recipes from their Indonesian kitchen.
• Finally, Good Food looks back on a conversation with Slanted Door chef Charles Phan, who died unexpectedly last week.