In Little Tokyo, Yapa shines with sophisticated Peruvian-Japanese cooking

Over the years, I’ve interviewed food truck owners about the challenges of running a mobile kitchen. I’ve listened to stories about working punishing hours in extremely hot, cramped spaces; coping with equipment breakdowns; and the headache of...

A juane is an unusual dish in the Peruvian repertoire, a huge, overstuffed tamal from the headwaters of the Amazon, a kind of combo meal made in its area of origin as a convenient takeaway lunch for travelers. Juanes take their name from John the...

How do you know it’s Christmas at Bricia Lopez’s house? There’s a big Christmas tree in one corner of the art-filled hillside bungalow; a baby bobs in his bouncy chair. Bricia, her sisters Elizabeth Lopez and Paulina Lopez Velasquez, and her...

The most expedient way to describe Hippo in Highland Park is to call it a pasta restaurant. That shorthand doesn’t do justice to the place, but it does drop diners into the center of the action. We’re all here to gorge on the pastas. The menu’s...

“Pan-Latin” is a culinary label that strikes fear in my heart and sends a flutter of panic straight to my gut. The bland catchall descriptor invokes a region spanning more than 30 countries and territories, at least seven time zones, dozens of...