May is burger month, so it seems almost obligatory that Squid Ink get around to one of those "Best of" lists. But after eating 30 burgers in 30 days, declaring our favorite upscale burger and chowing down on five of our favorite burger stands, there didn't seem to be much ground left to cover. Thankfully, an office full of waistline-minded food writers suddenly worried about their summer figures provided the answer: veggie burgers. After all of this talk about butchers and beef and salt and fat and cheese and -- uh oh, we're getting hungry again -- it seemed only fair to give veggie burgers their due.

With a wide array of base ingredients that included everything from brown rice to yams to mushrooms to that wheat gluten putty known as seitan, it wasn't easy to compare and contrast the veggie burgers on offer around town. Some opted for real cheese, some for no cheese, others for vegan cheese. More than one location tried to make their veggie burgers as actual-burger-like as possible, while many proudly vegan restaurants shaved and pressed their way into a finished product that didn't look (or taste) anything like a juicy moo-burger. Still, there was a patty, a bun, some toppings and a slathering of condiments. Sounds like a burger to us. So after weeks of veg-heavy noshing, from upscale vegan eateries to the vegetarian options that almost seem like afterthoughts on some menus, these are the best veggie burgers we found.

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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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Chris Jolly

Third Street at night

In a city where nobody walks, here's a street that imminently walkable. While our low stucco architecture bears no resemblance to the brownstones of New York City, Third Street -- between La Cienega and Fairfax -- has become a Manhattan-esque mish-mash of bars, restaurants, cafes, dry cleaners, boutiques, and exercise studios.

This one-mile stretch has places for people who want to be seen (weekend brunch at Toast) and for people who want to hide (St. Nicks on a Tuesday); for families pushing strollers (Magnolia Bakery on Sunday morning) and girls dressed in their Vegas best (The Churchill on Saturday night). The street has had a lot of turnover the past year, and more to come, but here are some of the current best bets on the block.

Street parking can be hard to find unless you happen to live in the neighborhood, but there's valet up and down the street, and parking structures at either end: in the Beverly Center and The Farmers Market/Grove. Want to make it a real New York night? Take a cab, and create your own pub-and-grub crawl.

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Liezl Estipona

See also:
*10 Best Carne Asada Fries in Los Angeles

Think back, if you can, to a time before food fusion and "mobile gourmet dining experiences." When late night eating meant a 24-hour Subway, 4 a.m. Thai joint or one of the city's finest taco trucks. Remember the off-white loncheros that have crawled the construction sites throughout Southern California for decades, the feisty machines that vie for avenue space out in Highland Park, the hard to find but always worth it trucks and trailers that have delivered for years on a simple promise to us all: in Los Angeles, great Mexican food can be had, day or night, for very little money, from somewhere nearby.

That social contract is still alive and well, providing us all with the burritos, tacos, sopes, mulitas and quesadillas that this city runs on. Nearly everyone has a "local," their own favorite taco truck that has fed them when they needed it most, or provided a quick meal when the fridge was blowing tumbleweeds. But there are also those undeniable titans of the genre, trucks so beloved to this city that they belong to us all. We stand in line after the bars let out, we drive across town in 7 p.m. traffic, we make sure to carry cash and practice our Spanish on the way over. Of the thousands upon thousands of fantastic loncheros worthy of such dedication, we think these are the ten best taco trucks that Los Angeles has to offer.

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Paul Bartunek

Carne asada fries at Taco Spot

Carne asada fries don't travel well, practically and ideologically speaking. They're increasingly hard to locate as you drive north from San Diego County, and surprisingly rare in Los Angeles, a city teeming with Mexican food, college students and medical marijuana cards. Piles of freshly fried spuds, laced with spoonfuls of guacamole and sour cream, don't tend to fare well on the short drive home, either. Wait too long to dig into a mound of the late-night favorite and you'll have some seriously bloated french fries on your hands ... and on your shirt ... and on your pants.

Around these parts, catching a fresh pile of cheesy carne asada fries takes some doing. There are a few local spots west of the 405, a couple of options around downtown and Highland Park, and some good leads near Torrance -- L.A. is not exactly a city teeming with the stuff. Still, there are great options to be had, if you know where to look. To the discerning diner, it's possible to sit down with a steaming pile of warm french fries, well salted and crisp, tucked underneath a cow's worth of tender, grilled beef and nearly overrun by fresh guacamole, sour cream and handfuls of gooey melted cheese. It may never make sense to stick fries inside your already overstuffed burrito, San Diego, but when it comes to carne asada fries, you just might be on to something.

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Flickr user veganfeast/

The way to a music video audience's heart, it seems, is through its stomach -- or at least that's the route these videos take, with varying degrees of deliciousness.

From rank amateurs trying to grab a little YouTube stardom to established rock stars, food is a good way to establish a connection with an audience, because we've all got to eat. And if your audience loves peanut butter and jelly, chances are decent they'll like a song about peanut butter and jelly too. Perhaps that's why most of the songs on this list celebrate everyday foods -- waffles, chicken, fast food drive-thrus.

Conversely, there aren't that many musical odes to uppity or obscure foods -- songs about items like truffle oil, pig knuckles, or foie gras seem few and far between -- but that last one could potentially inspire some passionate serenades or angry protest songs. Until goose liver becomes a rich musical genre, however, there's plenty of meat-and-potatoes music to enjoy. Turn the page.

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Rachael Narins

Crab Cakes at Tony P's Dockside Grill

Recipes for delicate cakes of minced and bound seafood are as old as, well, maritime cooking. The crab version we mostly eat today -- crab, mayonnaise, breadcrumbs, eggs, seasoning and some onion, gathered up and pan-fried or broiled -- is a colonial American recipe that hasn't changed much since it was created.

The perfect crab cake should include large, lump-meat pieces and be loosely packed with a minimum of bread-crumb binder. The best versions are less a disk than a scoop, lightly broiled, allowing the flavor of the crab to come through. It should be served with citrus, and the sauce -- mayonnaise, aioli -- should be a welcome flavor addition, not a way to mask dryness or sub-par crab.

While we didn't find any spots that were cooking, cracking and picking their own, what we did find was that places using a single variety -- Dungeness and Blue (Callinectes sapidus or "beautiful swimmer that is savory") -- made sure to note it. Happily those two are also Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch approved. The meat is delicate, sweeter than larger crabs, and soft. Snow and King crab -- while abundant -- are both chewy and tend to be watery and less flavorful. Trying to figure out what type of crab you're being served can be tricky. Most menus don't say because so many species are used -- and 75% of crab meat is imported, so looking for locally sourced crab cakes is a major challenge.

Normally with our top ten lists we attempt to find a wide range of prices so everyone can get something great no matter their budget. That just doesn't work here. High quality crab is rare and should be expensive until we stop over-fishing and efforts to rebuild habitats and populations fully succeed. Sorry, there's no hidden $5 gem out there -- but there are some really terrific crab cakes. Turn the page for ten of them.

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Christine Chiao

Beef cheek hash at MB Post

See also: 10 Best Breakfast Spots in Los Angeles

Brunch is one thing that's done well in Los Angeles, a town that's very well-versed in mashups -- Carmeggedons I and II, for starters -- that grab more attention than should be necessary. And while it may not be the favorite meal service of chefs, this internal struggle is not transparent when you're enjoying Casey Lane's version of biscuits and gravy or a curiously well-coordinated composite of contrasts in the pastrami and eggs with slices of tart Windrose apples at Farmshop.

When tracing the lineage of L.A.'s approach, it's less in the New York City tradition of eggs Benedict and bagels with lox, and more circa 1930s Hollywood when stars made late morning meals a part of their travel itineraries. It may explain why in L.A. brunch became a meal that rolls with the punches of late nights and later mornings, defined more by its social nature than the exact content of your plate.

This may also be the reason why chefs and cooks in town have adopted various interpretations to brunch: Breakfast entrees with lunch-type accoutrements; breakfast as lunch; lunch as breakfast. Given the temporary permissibility of daytime drinking, it's what is in your glass -- beer, wine, mimosa, bellini -- that seems to tie the whole operation together. Or mugs for that matter, with many restaurants refilling your order of coffee often and without prompt as you catch up with friends over eggs and toast.

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Flickr/Muy Yum

Chinese New Year feast

Deciphering the meanings of the items around the Chinese New Year table is a lot like a treasure hunt. Each individual dish is steeped in tradition and is a homonym for a particular wish in the upcoming year.

This year, the Spring Festival falls on Sunday, Feb. 10. For 15 days, Chinese families around the globe are returning to their homes for half a month of feasting, money-stuffed red envelopes and much-needed bonding. In China especially, where a migrant working culture is prevalent, the holiday is often the only time of year when people get to see their relatives.

Food is the cornerstone of the celebrations. So in the spirit of the festivities, we've rounded up 10 essential New Year dishes, and included the significance behind them all. All of these dishes can be found in Chinese restaurants, but we wouldn't advise making the trek to the San Gabriel Valley over the weekend -- most of these places will be closed for the holiday.

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Silk Road map

Los Angeles can, yet again, boast about having the most variety, if not depth, of something. Home to the most diverse Muslim population in the United States, Los Angeles County is full of halal restaurants. Halal means permitted or lawful according to Sharia (Islamic) laws. In the realm of dining out, the key factor for observant Muslims -- besides avoiding pork and its byproducts -- is halal meat or meat from animals slaughtered according to religiously proscribed procedures.

As a food-history buff, we couldn't help getting a little dreamy trying dishes with roots in ancient Mesopotamia and cultivated during eras of caliphates, Moors, spice routes, Silk Road caravans and vast colonial empires. Though our actual journey involved a small economy car, every congested freeway in L.A., strip mall dining -- and a parking ticket.

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