Anne Fishbein

Hainan chicken is a ubiquitous dish with roots in Wenchang City in Hainan, a Southeastern province in China. It has, however, spread well past its Chinese sphere of influence and is famous all throughout Southeast Asia -- particularly in Singapore, where it's the national dish.

Hainanese chicken over rice is an expert take on steamed free-range chicken with scallions, fresh ginger and sesame oil as the base. The long-grain rice, which is cooked with chicken broth, is just as aromatic as the chicken. It comes out with a glossy sheen and has a hint of peanut oil and shallots in the mix. As for the sauces, there are different variations depending on the restaurant. Most commonly is a dark, sweet soy sauce, a minced garlic with scallions dip and in some places, a garlic-soy sauce with chili oil.

Even if you're reading this in China or Singapore, for most of us the SGV -- also Hollywood and Downtown L.A. -- is a bit easier to get to, so we've rounded up our 10 local favorites. Turn the page.

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Paul Bartunek

In many parts of Mexico, the pig is king. From fried skin to chopped ears to ground chorizo, puerco is the carne of choice for millions of Mexicans every day. And, as our southerly sister nation goes, so too do the culinary interests of Los Angeles.

We are a city that loves its carnitas, the long-simmering pork preparation that renders fat and boils huge chunks of pig to create tender, juicy bites that fall apart with flavor. And while many readers may only regard carnitas as the thick, pulled-apart bites from a simmered pork butt, it is really just a specific preparation of pig. You know, like how BBQ is both a specific food and a technique.

Everything from the snout to the ribs to all of that inside stuff can be tossed together (usually inside a large metal pot known as a cazo) and simmered for hours in lard. Once the desired internal temperature is reached, the already boiling pot is heated further, frying porky edges and crisping skin in the process.

So where can you find the best carnitas in Los Angeles? After weeks of taste testing, re-testing, taking home samples and scouring the city (tough job, isn't it?), here are our picks for the ten best carnitas spots around.

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Clarissa Wei

Authentic XLB from De Xing Guan in Shanghai: Skin is thicker, Less soup

When it comes to soup dumplings in Los Angeles, many opt to flock over to Din Tai Fung over in Arcadia. Hundreds of people make the pilgrimage from the Westside to the Far East just for their holy grail menu item: the xiaolongbao 小籠包 (XLB), which when translated literally, means "little caged bun." But what most don't know is that technically, the Taiwanese chain isn't serving a XLB at all. It's a Nanjing tangbao 南京湯包.

Believe it or not, there is a classification of soup dumplings. A true xiaolongbao, which originates from Shanghai, has a thicker skin and not that much soup. A Nanjing tangbao, like the ones over at Din Tai Fung, are soup-filled dumplings with a very thin skin. And if you're lucky, you might stumble upon a giant variety of dumpling with a leathery exterior that's larger than the average fist and requires a straw to get to the soup inside. That's your crab soup dumpling, or xiehuangtangbao 蟹黃湯包.

All three classifications of soup dumplings originate from the Jiangsu Province, with the exception of Shanghai, which was technically classified under the Jiangsu before it was granted independent municipality status in 1927. It's an eastern coastal province and champion of huaiyang 淮揚菜 cuisine -- a Chinese cooking tradition focused on light flavors, the liberal use of vinegar and utilizes pork, freshwater fish and other seafood such as crab as primary ingredients.

Fortunately for Angelenos, the specifics don't matter much in the States: They all fall under the broad category of soup dumplings. Though Din Tai Fung admittedly still tops our list, we've rounded up some other places so you don't always have battle the long queue to get your soup dumpling fix. Turn the page.

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A. Scattergood

macarons at Bouchon Bakery

French macarons are glorious confections, little sandwiches of buttercream or ganache filling pressed between two meringue disks. (They are not to be confused with macaroons, which are coconut, and most definitely do not resemble tiny round pastry sandwiches.) When well-made, macarons are delicate combinations of crunch and cream. What also distinguishes them, and makes them the hands-down favorite amongst 6th grade girls, is the vast array of colors and flavors pastry chefs can give to them. Pierre Hermé famously made Ispahan macarons of rose, lychee and raspberry; he also liked to flavor his macarons with ketchup, cornichons and hot sauce. (Maybe don't try this unless you're Pierre Hermé.)

You can make your own macarons (with or without ketchup), as they're somewhat labor-intensive but not that much harder than making, well, meringues and buttercream. (See Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, p. 58.) In L.A., you can buy them from Les Macarons Duverger, who sells them at Monsieur Marcel and even Whole Foods. You can get your macarons filled with ice cream at Milk, or the size of hockey pucks at Lemonade, where they'll cost you $4 a pop. Or you can venture out to a happy number of local patisseries, bakeries and bistros and buy them singly or by the box, preferably with a demitasse of espresso. Turn the page for our 10 favorites.

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Anne Fishbein

The Agnolotti at Superba Snack Bar

It's easy to start nodding off when people drag out the old "New York vs. Los Angeles" debate; it's a tired one, and largely a comparison of Big Apples to orange groves, anyway. But after Bon Appetit listed its 20 most important restaurants in America and New York outshone L.A. by a factor of six, it got us wondering: Where do East Coast transplants like to eat when they're missing New York?

Die-hard New Yorkers may grumble forever at the idea of re-creating that perfect slice of pizza or ordering up a true Brooklyn bagel on the West Coast, but Los Angeles is doing a lot of great things with the foods that Gothamites have traditionally considered to be sacred territory. Here are 10 dishes that New Yorkers love to lament the loss of after moving to the City of Angels, from pizza to bagels to cheesecake, that Los Angeles is making fantastically well -- and often without regard to the way it's "supposed" to be made back east.

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Susan Ji-Young Park

Mini Kabob

Although Mini Kabob in Glendale looks like a modest house repurposed into a commercial restaurant, describing it as like dining in someone's living room would be far too extravagant. You're basically eating at Ovakim and Alvard Martirosyan's modestly decorated kitchen counter.

Mini Kabob meets all the criteria of a great hole in the wall to the millimeter: 1) It's mom-and-pop operated, by first generation immigrants no less. 2) It's located in a tiny building on a narrow side street off Central Blvd. in Glendale, just south of developer Rick Caruso's behemoth Americana. 3) There are just three tables and eight chairs, all mismatched. 4) They serve high quality food in large portions at affordable prices. And 5) They're expert specialists.

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G. Snyder

Jim Dandy's fried chicken

Like egg rolls and gyoza, fried chicken is one of those dishes that your mother probably makes better than everyone else, because no one else's version is quite as crispy, or quite as juicy, or made with quite as much love. That said, when Mom isn't around and the craving strikes, there are quite a number of places, both down- and upscale, where you can find comfort in chicken that's almost as good as your mom's. Turn the page for our list of the ten best fried chicken in Los Angeles.

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A. Scattergood

Macarons at EuroPane

As you may have noticed, this year's Best Of issue dropped on your doorstep, metaphorically if not actually, last week. There are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of listings, of spas and hikes and cocktails and grottos (yes, grottos), so many that you might get lost -- so many that we thought we'd pull out a few highlights. Drop some breadcrumbs, so to speak. In this case, some of the best pastries and desserts, and the places to find them, in town. Turn the page.

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Anne Fishbein

Mole de los dioses at Juan's Restaurante

Let's count the reasons we love mole. It's rich and intense. Warm and comforting. Spicy, yet sweet and often savory. A seamless blend of 20 to 40 (or more) ingredients that have been toasted, roasted, ground, blended and cooked. Radiant and colorful. A mix of Old World spices with New World chiles and chocolate. Mole, more than a mere sauce for chicken or enchiladas, is considered Mexico's national dish -- and it has traveled to L.A. restaurants with traditional recipes largely intact.

We're not just talking about Oaxaca's mole negro, the "King of Moles" made with chocolate, about six kinds of chiles, nuts, garlic, onions and hoja santa. Nor the poblano from Puebla, popular for its own unique blend of chiles, plus a touch of chocolate. We also mean Oaxaca's colored moles -- the rojo and coloradito (both red, but with different levels of spice and complexity), verde (mild, with fresh herbs and green tomatoes), amarillo (seasoned with cumin and often served as a soup), manchamanteles (chicken broth and fruit-infused, literally meaning tablecloth stainer), and the smoky chichilo. And any thick sauce with a base of chiles and spices, such as the seed-based pipian, or the fanciful pistachio, tamarind and tequila varieties, among others, that have appeared in L.A. just in the past few years. Turn the page for 10 of our favorite spots.

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A. Scattergood

tonkotsu ramen

As you may have noticed, this year's Best Of issue dropped on your doorstep, metaphorically if not actually, yesterday. There are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of listings, of spas and hikes and cocktails and grottos (yes, grottos), so many that you might get lost -- so many that we thought we'd pull out a few highlights. Drop some breadcrumbs, so to speak. In this case, some that you might be able to translate into dinner. Nothing too fancy, no reservations required. Turn the page.

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