Restaurant Roll Call for July 2012

L.A. dining culture thrives on plurality. Restaurants in the region’s many rooted immigrant communities cook remarkable foods to please their own populaces. Second-generation chefs graft traditions and innovations in singular ways, often returning...

At a tiny sushi counter in this boundless capital's southwest suburbs, nine of us sat silent and alert waiting for Koji Kimura to finish readying his lunchtime service. We whispered our drink orders to the restaurant’s lone server while listening...

One evening in May 1959, inside a doughnut shop called Cooper Do-nuts on South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, three LGBTQ individuals were being arrested because their outward gender identities did not match the ones on their identification....

Photo by Edwin Goei In Lake Forest, one the leafiest suburbs in Orange County, there’s a strip mall that looks as if it belongs in LA’s inner city. A seedy liquor store sits in one corner, with an auto-body shop in the other. Wedged between them...

The deep red of ground sumac brings to mind the ripest strawberry, though the spice’s flavor veers lemony and tart — like a floral vinegar distilled into powder. Its brightness defines sumaqqiyeh, a Palestinian stew with origins in Gaza City,...