True to tradition

I have fond memories of visiting Captain Kidd’s when my children were little. It was their favorite restaurant, where they could enjoy staring into tanks of crabs, looking at pictures of fishermen from past decades, studying taxonomy charts of fish species on the outside patio, and then eating more fried items than I would ever…

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Hermosa holdout

The Beach Cities are noteworthy for their lack of fast food chain restaurants in our downtowns – there are plenty on PCH, but not a single one west of the highway. There used to be one exception, a Taco Bell south of the pier in downtown Hermosa. They served mediocre Americanized tacos and burritos to…

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Breakfast in America, exemplified

Every time you sit down to a breakfast of bacon and eggs or pancakes, you participate in a ritual that is unlike the way most of the world eats. While some other cultures have traditional foods to start the day, America probably has the most varied selection of items eaten only at breakfast of anywhere…

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Practice makes perfect

Sometimes I hear from someone who mentions a place that just opened and asks why I haven’t reviewed it yet. Do I want to let some other publication beat me to the story? They’re often surprised when I respond that I’m not concerned about this possibility. Any restaurant is likely to have problems when they…

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A tasty plate of history

I used to be an avid historical reenactor, demonstrating skills like woodfire cooking, baking, and traditional brewing. My closet contains costumes from various eras, some with stains and scorch marks from feasts of decades ago, and my kitchen cabinet has cookware that I crafted on a potter’s wheel and pewter forge. It can be thrilling…

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A delight, but not ready for prime time

Thai cuisine was once regarded as unlikely to succeed in America because it was too spicy, too sour, too strange to American tastes. The breakthrough came because a rock band promoter named Tommy Tang opened a restaurant that not only softened the more assertive flavors, but had a menu that carefully described the unfamiliar items.…

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Two slices of bread with ideas between them

History books say that the idea of putting meat between slices of bread was invented by an inveterate gambler sometime in the 1770s. John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich (and yes, there is a town in England called Sandwich) was a talented civil servant, patron of music and sports, and also a member of the notoriously…

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Variations on a culinary theme

I was in a restaurant where the menu lists signature dishes, and it caused me to think about what my actual signature looks like. This is a distinctive scrawl that inspired my wife to remark that it always looks like I happened to have a pen in my hand during an earthquake. On the bright…

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The future is now for California Japanese

It has been 40 years since the movie Blade Runner and the cyberpunk movement in literature depicted a future world in which Asian, particularly Japanese, culture blended with a future high-tech California. It was a chaotic, visually fascinating place where billboards writhed and morphed, strange electronic music pulsated, and food was elegantly presented but almost…

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All the ingredients for greatness

As far back as the 1930s, dining in California was noted for a casual blending of indoor and outdoor spaces. The emphasis is on the casual – movie stars showed up in fancy dress at restaurants on the Sunset Strip, but their home entertaining was more likely to be a barbecue on a covered patio,…

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