Needle

, and it comes to mind again when I carve into Ryan Wong’s liu sha bao-inspired French toast at his Silver Lake restaurant Needle. Wong unites two slices of milk bread, encasing between them a filling of vanilla-scented custard made with salted duck egg

us deliver the news that matters most. Become a subscriber. Its top-of-class brilliance puts in second place Wong’s original, excellent peanut butter-stuffed version of French toast, which like much of Needle’s menu paid tribute to Hong Kong’s deeply

specials. The other restaurants, both in Los Angeles proper, come from two young chefs cooking to maintain connection with their heritage. Congee from the brunch menu at Needle restaurant in Silver Lake. (Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times) Ryan Wong, who

grew up in the SGV, worked at Trois Mec and Otium over the last decade before opening Needle in Silver Lake four months ago. “I never really connected with the food I was cooking in fine dining,” Wong said in a telephone interview. “It was great to

custard-filled French toast at Needle in Silver Lake that's one of my favorite indulgences.

generational tastes shift, Cantonese cuisine also continues to vanish in Los Angeles. Grand banquet houses in the San Gabriel Valley draw fewer crowds for celebrations; Needle, a Cantonese-inspired restaurant that opened shortly before the pandemic, closed in

, was something that couldn’t be ignored. For Ryan Wong, chef and co-owner of Needle restaurant in Silverlake, a tasting menu was the only way to stay open during the fall. After offering siu yeh, a series of skewers and snacks, as a once-every-other

workload.” An array of skewers including, cherng fun, meatball, oyster mushroom, octopus, pork jowl, chicken thigh and pork shoulder from Needle. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times) At the time of this writing, Wong had transitioned the restaurant to

your heat level wisely. The medium might bring a tear to your eye, while the hot will smack you right in the face (in a good way). 4070 Marlton Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 792-4835, hotvillechicken.com Soy sauce chicken wings from Needle. (Mariah Tauger

/ Los Angeles Times) My Chinese mother recognized the smell of the chicken wings from Needle in Silver Lake before I opened the box. “Are those soy sauce chicken?” she asked. She said they reminded her of the soy sauce chicken wings her grandmother made

mustard, I’ve been wielding bottles of Hotville Chicken Cayenne hot sauce and lashing bland food with spoonfuls of chile crisp from Yang’s Kitchen, Needle, Hui Tou Xiang, Go Go Bird and Rice Box —to name a few. Truth is, condiments are the unsung heroes of

Wendy Mattick recently launched the Red Oil Collective, a limited edition box of five chili oils made by Asian American Angelenos, after the Atlanta-area spa shootings. The $100 box includes chili oil from Mei Lin (Daybird), Ryan Wong (Needle), Max and

in the hot oil. The sauce has a sharp toasted-chile aroma and flavor with faint hints of the other spices. If you want an oil that tastes of pure chile but won’t destroy you (the heat level is about a 5 out of 10), this is it. huitouxiang.com Needle

. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The artist sterilized an area of Kramer’s thigh. She gripped the tattoo machine, which buzzed to life, and hunched over Kramer with the pulsating needle. The impending pain never registered on Kramer’s face. I

the needle between keeping the public safe and allowing our economy to reopen.” So should I book a reservation for tonight? It’s difficult to say it but I’m deeply torn. I am a restaurant critic — I live in and for restaurants. Is it dereliction of