Tasting Notes: The meaning of mooncakes and tea

This week’s recommendations will require a leap of faith. If you’re willing to wait in line for your food or to possibly sit in traffic for a restaurant with no set menu or hours, then you’re in luck. I promise it’s worth the risk. Shan tofu...

I’ve come late to a zeal for coffee. I was — am — more of a serious tea person, forever enthralled by the infinite flavor variations that oxidation, roasting and fermentation can tease out of the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. (And equally...

She tells me not to order the sator Siam. I explain to my server at Siam Central, a new Thai restaurant in Mission Viejo, that I’m an adventurous eater. But she holds her ground. She crinkles her nose and says, “That is for Thai people, not...

When I went to the Gratitude, the new Newport Beach outpost of the vegan restaurant chain, I saw a characteristic common to the past few such eateries I reviewed: The dishes are given code names. The ravioli isn’t called ravioli; it’s called the...

Monday, September 8th will be this year's date of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, a.k.a. the Chinese Moon Festival, a.k.a. when people eat mooncakes. You might have noticed that all the Chinese bakeries are putting out boxes of those dense hockey...