Mehmet Kaplan is from Cappadocia and spent his formative years in Istanbul, becoming a chef and culinary tour guide. He and wife/partner Lisa Matarazzo shifted Al Sanabel Bakery into a higher gear when they...
Craig Strong is the latest chef to downsize from fine dining. Don’t get me wrong. The longtime chef of STUDIO at Montage Laguna Beach has hardly turned his back on premium ingredients or flair,...
Melbourne born roaster Ed Moffatt opened Common Room Roasters last year with Jeremy Creighton in a Newport Beach industrial park near Hoag Health Center. They roast beans behind glass on a Joper machine and...
Sugar cane juice, known in Vietnam as nước mía, has proven popular in Little Saigon, but hasn’t taken off beyond Orange County’s Vietnamese-American enclave. That may be changing as I’ve started to see sugar...
“Dry noodles” are a bit of a misnomer. This menu description just means that the noodles aren’t served in soup, but the bowls at Grandpa’s Kitchen Dry Noodles 168 in Little Saigon are far...
Ever since Tip Top Sandwiches emerged victorious in my multi-stop 2009 Little Saigon Banh Mi Bender, I’ve been enamored with their take on the ubiquitous Vietnamese style sandwiches. The now 30-year-old business debuted in...
