G. Snyder

Loco Moco

For around four decades Crenshaw's Holiday Bowl was not just a bowling alley, bar and coffee shop but a cultural hub for South Central L.A. Founded in 1958 by Japanese entrepreneurs who had been released from Manzanar's internment camps a decade earlier, it became a neighborhood enclave for the blue-collar and avant-garde characters who were relegated to L.A.'s cultural fringes during the latter half of the 20th century. A 1999 article in L.A. Weekly retells an anecdote from late owner Duke Kim: "Not only was [the] establishment not damaged during the '92 riots, but people came in and bowled that night, April 29." Sadly, the Holiday Bowl complex, which was considered one of the city's finest examples of Googie architecture, was torn down in 2003 and replaced by the Santa Barbara Plaza shopping center.

The good news? Holiday Bowl coffee shop has a spiritual successor in Tak's, a place that opened shortly after the local landmark closed, located in the back of a dense strip mall just across the street from its old habitat. It's run by Holiday Bowl's former waitresses and cooks, and has many of the same aging customers filling its vinyl booths, a eclectic mix of the African-American and Asian-American community.

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Linda Burum

Dragon's whiskers salad at Cafe Fusion

It's a great time to eat at Café Fusion. May officially kicks off dragons' whiskers salad season at the eight-year-old Taiwanese restaurant, and it also marks the seasonal arrival of locally grown baby bamboo shoots, yam leaves and other produce you rarely see elsewhere.

The restaurant attained cult status among vegetable-loving Taiwanese way before locavore and farm-to-table became overused menu buzzwords and now its phones are just getting slammed. "Our regulars call in to find out when we'll start serving the dragons' whiskers dish, it's a big favorite" says owner Arthur Chen.

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Flickr/The Minty

A balanced meal in one bite

Fried chicken and waffle ice cream? Yeah, that just happened.

Actually, it's been happening for a couple months now, as Culver City's Coolhaus has been rolling out its new most popular flavor; a sweet-savory combo that is already gaining something of a cult following -- as much as an ice cream can, I guess.

So how is it? It's rich, buttery and slightly crunchy, with a distinctive tang of salt and maple syrup on the finish. If scientists invented a substance that could slap all the junk food-loving portions of your cerebellum at once, it might be something like this.

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A. Scattergood

Oden with daikon and konjac at Morinoya

If you get tired of American comfort food, you might consider comfort food from Japan -- by which we do not mean, at least at the moment, ramen and curry rice. One of the most comforting of Japanese comfort food dishes is oden, a bowl of broth in which has been simmered many things, notably fish cakes and eggs, tofu and daikon and other vegetables. In Japan you can order oden in restaurants, buy sets of the components in grocery stores and, perhaps best of all, find steaming tubs of the stuff in convenience stores. Yep, walk into any Tokyo 7-Eleven (there are lots of them) and you'll find, next to packets of baumkuchen, simmering vats of oden dangerously close to the cash registers.

Sadly, no oden at the 7-Eleven in Los Angeles. But go to Morinoya, newly opened in the Little Osaka neighborhood along Sawtelle, and you'll find bowls of oden far, far better than those you'd get in any convenience store, even one in Harajuku.

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G. Snyder

Fruit and Veggie, Yin and Yang

You've probably heard some rumblings of the stellar work chef Gary Menes has been putting in after-hours at downtown's Tiara Café -- the former Patina, Palate, and French Laundry alum has quietly been reviving the art of counter-side dining at his pop-up restaurant, which has been running weekend dinner services since late last year.

Although the five-course menu looks rather condensed when you are staring at a handwritten page of paper, an evening at Le Comptoir unfurls at the kind of deliberate pace which hints that months of intense preparation are culminating in the span of a few hours. Even the warm loaves of crusty bread -- made from a starter that's almost old enough to vote -- is worthy of its own entry.

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Couscous at M.B. Post

The couscous at Manhattan Beach Post -- how have we survived without it until now? The flavors are so right. Perhaps you remember that "OMG I love this", feeling from the first time you had the Crying Tiger Beef at Jitlada or a Kogi taco? Yeah, like that.

If you were part of the overheated throng attending the Gold Standard event this past March (thank you for coming), you may have sampled this. Other than the beer and ice cream, it was one of the most refreshing options there.

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Flickr/TT Arvind

Brown rice

We've always believed that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. With that in mind, we've shied away from parboiled rice. But the other day, a bag on the shelf at Trader Joe's caught our eye. Organic, dry, brown basmati rice from India labeled "quick-cook." The front of the bag brags, "Ready in 15 minutes" while the instructions on the back say 10-12 minutes (Make up your mind, guys!) but either way, it's a convenient alternative to the 45 to 50 minutes normally required to prepare brown rice.

Cynics that we are, we figured something had to be funky about this fast and furious rice, especially since the bag has a spiel on it about how the grains are "scarified," which, frankly, scarified us. But our parboiled paranoia was cured by registered dietitian Susan Bowerman, M.S., assistant director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition.

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J. Thurman

"Fried With Meat" at Beijing Restaurant, San Gabriel

While it isn't as prevalent as pork, lamb turns up quite often on Chinese restaurant menus in the San Gabriel Valley, where lamb dishes range from the seemingly omnipresent cumin lamb skewers to soups, stews and meat pies. There also are restaurants like China Islamic and Omar's, the Uighur place, where lamb is the featured meat. But, for arguably the best lamb item in the SGV, one needs to head to Beijing Restaurant and order "Fried With Meat."

Located upstairs in Life Plaza, near the lavish Shanghai No. 1, Beijing Restaurant opened in 2010, providing the area with several unique Beijing-style entrées and appetizers. With the opening of its neighbor, the restaurant has upgraded to a more stylish menu and improved décor.

About that menu. It's fortunate that there are so many nice photos, as the translations aren't very helpful to English speakers. You won't find a "lamb burger" or "lamb sandwich" on the menu, but that's essentially what it is. Instead, you'll find it as "fried with meat."

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T. Nguyen

Coconut pineapple tamale and chicken mole taco at Guisados

If you're going to Guisados, the Boyle Heights eatery that, along with Mariscos Jalisco, just won L.A. Taco's epic Taco Madness 2012, you undoubtedly are going for one, or two, or three of its famed stewed and braised tacos. But tear your eyes away from the long list of available taco fillings chalked on the giant menu for just a second and shift your gaze to the right. There, you'll notice that Guisados also offers tamales, which you can ask about while you put in your taco order. The mole tamale seems to be there most days; other options sometimes include a sweet tamale with shredded coconut and pineapple. Either is an excellent complement to any of the tacos, whether it be the calabacitas or tinga de polla. And, at only $1.50 per tamale, you may as well order at least one.

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Amy Silverstein

Fresh Brothers matzah pizza

For people who have been observing Passover since Friday night, right about now you might be experiencing signs of pizza withdrawal. Fear not. Fresh Brothers Pizza has a fix for you --- a special matzah pizza, available until the holiday ends Saturday night. (We'll digress for a moment to note how many spellings there are for the traditional unleavened Passover bread substitute --- matzah, matza, matzo, matzoh, plural matzot...)

"When you keep Passover, it's difficult to eat out. We always end up eating in or bringing lunch to work. So now, those who like to eat out can still do it during the week of Pesach," says Fresh Brothers founder Adam Goldberg, who runs the company along with his brother Michael. (Third brother, Scott, a restaurateur in Chicago, develops the chain's recipes.)

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