Mexican Casserole

This is my mom’s Mexican Casserole recipe. It has nacho cheese Doritos in it, so naturally I adored it when I was a kid. Actually, I still adore it now! It is cheesy, crispy, meaty goodness. You can dress it up with sides, but honestly it’s good enough to eat plain. Guessipe 20 oz cheddar…

Pico de Gallo

When I go to a taco place, I always make sure to get a healthy scoop of the Pico de Gallo at the salsa bar. It’s got a little spice, but also adds a nice pop of freshness to any taco. Pico de Gallo is equally good with just some tortilla chips. Or you can…

Far East Plaza Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #44 Similar to Grand Central Market, Far East Plaza brings a bunch of eateries together in a Chinatown shopping center. The plaza as a whole is on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. While I’m conflicted about the notion of including a grouping of restaurants that vary in food type and quality onto…

Elote

Elote, a.k.a. Mexican corn on the cob, is a magical treat that always induces warm fuzzy feelings for me. Perhaps because it’s the kind of food you usually get from a street cart or at a fair, and then eat while walking around. I like to make an Elote bar at BBQs, where people can…

Grand Central Market Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #36 Grand Central Market isn’t so much a restaurant as it is an experience. It is an indoor market in Downtown LA, filled with stalls of cooked food, fresh produce, breads, cheeses, and spices. I have somewhat mixed feelings about it being part of Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. I understand his love for…

Cinco de Mayo

I’ll take any reason to gather around food, especially if it’s themed. So Cinco de Mayo was as good an excuse as any to do a taco night. Considering that we started floating the idea around late Wednesday night for a Friday party, it came together quite nicely. We had five different taco fillings, and…

Coni’Seafood Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #23 Coni’Seafood is in the middle of nowhere Inglewood. It has a tiny 4-car parking lot that you have to back up into the street to exit. But it’s often on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list, so we trekked to Inglewood to try it. It was worth the effort. The back patio…

Mariscos Jalisco Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #17 Mariscos Jalisco was our second stop as we hopped from one taco truck on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list to another (check out my Guerrilla Tacos post to read about the other). The Mariscos Jalisco truck always parks at the same spot on East Olympic Blvd. There’s another truck with a similar name that parks just…

Guerrilla Tacos Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #16 There are a couple taco trucks on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. My cousin came into town for a couple days, and I talked her into taco truck hopping with me. It didn’t take much convincing. We went to Guerrilla Tacos first (also check out my post about Mariscos Jalisco, where we went…

Guelaguetza Restaurant Review

Gold Dig #13 Guelaguetza is an absolutely gigantic Oaxacan restaurant in Koreatown. In addition to tons of seating, there is a bar area, stage where they often have live music, gift shop, and cases filled with prepared sweets and drinks for purchase. A regular on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list, he calls Guelaguetza “one of the best…

Tortilla Chips 3 Ways

I love Sundays during Fall, because they combine two of my favorite things – food and football. I had a package of corn tortillas that I needed to do something with. So for one football party, I decided to try my hand at homemade tortilla chips. I am normally the first person to say some…

City of Gold

City of Gold is a documentary in which Jonathan Gold explores the food culture of LA. Given my little side project of working my way through Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list, seeing this movie was a must for me. I was so excited to hear that they would be doing a City of Gold event at…