Wallace Stevens would be proud of the concupiscent curds of Santa Monica and the Westside. The poet of the “Emperor of Ice-Cream” might even have relocated from Pennsylvania to be close to our pleasure paradise. Fortunately for us, we don’t need his posthumous approval to delight in the Land Flowing with Milk and Honey. Here’s 12 of our flavorites:
Ginger’s Divine Ice Cream Culver City – Sweet Scale 2+. Sensational original flavors, perfect balance of sweet and creaminess. The huge variety will keep you coming back for more. The owner is a ginger. They have a large selection of vegan. Here’s the scoop: Don’t be put off by the name of the universally heralded “Pickled Strawberry Blueberry Pie.” Be adventurous: try Oaxaca Habanero Chocolate. V, ND $15.95 per pint
McConnel’s Fine Ice Creams Pacific Palisades and 3rd St. Promenade – Sweet Scale: 3. McConnell’s is the king of cream. The Santa Barbara based artisan ice cream boasts all natural ingredients, and they have creative flavors to tantalize. Here’s the scoop: To make it cheaper for a couple, get two scoops in one waffle cone to share; same amount of ice cream as two cones but at a lower price. ND $12.00 per pint
Mashti Malone’s Westwood – Sweet Scale: 1. Their Persian sweets are unrecognizable in America. With a refreshingly low sweetness, Mashti’s reminds us that dumping extra sugar will never compensate for quality. The opening of the Westwood branch is decades-awaited of the landmark Hollywood store. Here’s the scoop: Choose the Persian varieties: Rosewater and Saffron Rosewater, for example. V, ND
$8.95 per pint (Ready To-Go), $9.85 per pint (Hand Packed)
Rori’s Artisanal Creamery Santa Monica – Sweet Scale: 3. Amazing ice cream with a variety of creative but confident, successful, and high-value flavors, even with vegan options. The ambiance is relaxed and the store is boutique. The service is very good as the servers are exceptionally nice. Here’s the scoop: Peanut Butter Chocolate Candy Swirl on a waffle cone. V $13.75 per pint.
Salt & Straw Los Angeles Sweet Scale: 3. With a lively atmosphere and ambience, Salt & Straw draws a young adult crowd. The ice cream is made in small batches and has a hint of salt in its flavors. There is a good variety of flavors, mostly of which are offshoots of generic flavors. For example, Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons has a very pleasant taste while Salted, Malted, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is a must-have. With large servings, the expensive price is worth the delightful ice cream. Here’s the scoop: Sea Salt w/ Caramel Ribbons is a favorite, but don’t hesitate to sample a couple extra flavors. V, ND $12.50 per pint.
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Venice Beach – Sweet Scale: 3. Jeni’s is very closely ranked with Salt & Straw. The name is spot on: Splendid. From the variety of distinctive flavors to the texture and taste of the rich ice cream, it is simply delightful. The flavors are superior to Salt & Straw, but the ambience and atmosphere is not as exceptional. But, with its nice shop and location, it is only a matter of time before the crowds fall in love with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. Here’s the scoop: Get either the half scoops or get a double scoop and to share. ND $12.00 per pint
Read the rest: Best Ice Cream Shop West Side Los Angeles.
Jerry Lorenzo was supposed to give his $100 sneakers to 100 influencers around the nation to promote the brand in October 2016, but instead he decided hand them out to the homeless on Skid Row in Los Angeles.
His brand — Fear of God, which he says is cool, not corny, because it counters a lot of dark, empty religious symbolism in fashion — produces street luxury garments that have caught the eye of Kanye West, Rihanna, Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber and Travis Scott. His Desert Storm-inspired tennies sold for $1,100.
Jerry Lorenzo came to Los Angeles to finish grad school. Being out from under his parents’ covering, he embarked on a journey of self-discovery, ditched his Christian upbringing and sampled the party life in Hollywood. He made lots of friends and supplemented his own income by staging his own parties. At the time, there were either black/ hip hop scenes or white/techno. Jerry fused the two and created his own space.
[Advert: The author sells 
For some reason, one would expect more options for Mexican food in East Los Angeles (a neighborhood dominated by Mexican-Americans), but we always only seem to find Tamales Liliana’s, which gets the job done but doesn’t seem to register the highest marks.
We went for my daughter-in-law’s pining as a nurse, a whole group of us. Only my daughter wanted to try the house namesake, the tamale, which graded as somewhat dry. Maybe this is because we got there very late, at the end of the day, when the tamales are on their last living breath. Or maybe she’s just used to Guatemalan tamales, which are wet. She grew up on Guatemala.
I broke with my same-old same-old of enchiladas and tried the pozole, and it was appropriately spicy. The hominy was outstanding, and the cabbage fresh and crispy. I definitely recommend it.
I like how the enchiladas come with drizzled cream like they do in Mexico.
Famous for movies and music, Hollywood is great too for munchies. It turns out all those stars — and would-be celebrities — like foreign fare, evocative entrees, daring dainties.
The Thai food eatery is aptly decorated with Thai Buddhas — thinner than the Chinese versions — and golden furbelow. The interior decorating is tasteful, the food even more so.
My friend Andrew ordered and we shared yellow curry chicken and pad Thai noodles with ground peanuts. This is the sort of stuff you look for in a Thai restaurant — a clean break from meat and potatoes.
There are entrees that beckon: Crying Tiger Angus ribeye with spicy dipping sauce, Siamese Fish crispy fried in tamarind-chili sauce, Lamb Curry stewed in Mussamum curry, Tom Yum spicy hot and sour lemongrass soup, Rot Paratha for dessert.
It’s an intimate eatery on the west edge of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
After climbing Mount Watermen, we three men were hungry. “Monster” burgers were the order of the day.
My serendipitous discovery came as it usually does, by way of a local. Wanna find good grub without Yelp? Ask a local.
Crispy asparagus fries. Deviled eggs with bacon. Truffle fries. Fish and chips with jalapeño tartar. Chilled gazpacho. Burrato-tomato caprese. Sesame-almond crusted salmon. Short rib street tacos. Popcorn curry chicken.
(Whimper. I’m growing hungry as I write.)
I’m normally a fries guy, but Nathan Williams was from Salt Lake City where soup is the thing, and he had a picture from the last time. He showed me. That was that. It looked more mouth-watering than the fries.
Mercifully, the menu is one large page. Just one. If it were more, I would probably need to go this restaurant for the rest of my life to sample all the goodies.
Central Grille has one-upped the competition. They’ve shown that you need to do more than just an “e” to the end of “Grill” if you want first-timers to become faithful.
Waterman Mountain in the Angeles National Forest, about an hour north of Glendale, was an exhilarating hike with snow and ice. I won’t need to be a famished mountainman to seek the eatery again.
Seventeen-year-olds are merciless, so when I took my son with me to help review Dinah’s Family Restaurant, I knew he would cut through all the nonsense and deliver either a brutal or bomb grade.
It even boasts that its bucket sign was the first of its type in Los Angeles. (Such was the trademark of Pioneer Chicken, which didn’t keep up with Kentucky Fried, which is struggling against an infinity of healthier options.)
There’s not too much on the menu that borders on “ethnic” or “exotic.” The retro interior speaks throwback.
The fries were impressively thick but otherwise nothing special.
Since the restaurant has been opened, it has served a lot of food. Its website provides the accounting:
More than 5 million apples to make apple pancakes.
2 million pounds of bacon and sausage.
8 millions pounds of potatoes.
Ice cream specialty shops abound. So when you find something special, it’s a rare gem.
This is POPS Artisanal Creamery in the City of San Fernando. They offer a sundae in a half coconut. They make their own ice cream with some rocking originals.
The exotic flavors are Latin variations. You don’t have as many options as competitors La Michoacana, but the ice creams are made to the American taste, not according to the Mexican formula. Which means, I like them better.
I learned a thing about exotic ice creams when I went to BAE, which offers unthinkable flavors like Coco Puffs Chocolate and Charcoal Cleanse. Only problem with BAE is that they don’t taste good.
To be fair, I didn’t try the spicy cucumber, so it would be wrong for me to endorse it here. But I did the sweet cream corn ice cream, which Martin said was his grandfather’s recipe, and it was delicious.
The proprietor, Martin Ken, is a handsome guy with light eyes from Belize. He’s slightly chubby, proof that he is a connoisseur of creams. He gives an individual attention and care to every customers, talking freely, answering questions, giving samples.
As a matter of fact, it was me who called it quits on the sample porque me apené. (Sorry for the Spanish, but I thought it might be apropos given the Latin neighborhood and the Latin flavors.) I think I sampled four separate creams before deciding, with my wife, for the super nutty walnut and the sharp coffee. (I say “sharp” because the coffee flavor is quite strong and tastes like a legit cup of joe — way better than your average coffee ice cream.)
Martin shaved the inside of half coconut and left the shavings in the bottom. Then he scooped in our two flavors, sprayed on whipped cream, gingerly applied chocolate syrup and topped it off with a mascherino cherry and a little parasol normal for cocktails. That parasol was a little bit of fun, an attractive, playful touch that shows signature caring.
He talks knowledgeably of creams from around the Caribbean. He talks about his family history with creams-making. He talks about his plans to open a second store in New Hall, to the North. He talks…. He talks friendly.
Nihari House is pure fire — and it’s not a rap flow.
In my quest to try all the most exotic ethnic food in Los Angeles, I wound up in Nihari House in Arleta (in the Central Northern San Fernando Valley.)
Because of her no-non sense recommendation, I tried the nihari, the house specialty. It is beef shank slow-simmered in chili oil for seven hours or so. The gravy is hot, hot, hot. There was no need to throw in the chopped jalapeño on the side. To squeeze in lemon juice would have pushed the acidic levels into radioactive. (Excuse the hyperbole, but I’m 52 and can’t take too much spicy anymore. Fortunately, there was a remedy.) It was delicious.
My wife got the lamb Lamb Karahi, which came in its own Pakastani wok (I didn’t know they had their own woks!). And that was just as hot. It wasn’t until the chef, an affable slightly overweight guy, came out to check if everything was up to our satisfaction. He explained that we could have ordered a less spicy version. It certainly gives me confidence in a restaurant if the chef himself comes out to check on our enjoyment.
Fortunately, there was an answer to the chili power. It was the mango yogurt drink to neutralize acids in the stomach. Even if you don’t need to chill the heat, this drink is absolutely worth the experiment. It’s delicious and different.
I thought that Mexicans were the hot chili pepper-eating champions of the world. (I remember in Mexico City seeing a 4-year-old eating a jalapeño all by itself as if it were a banana. He didn’t cry until he accidentally wiped his eyes with his fingers.) Now I know that the Pakistanis are right up there competing.
Mustard Seed Budget 