Mitsuwa’s cherry blossom mochi
Head to Mitsuwa hungry and you’re bound to walk out with a week’s worth of food, pulled in first by the market’s perfect produce then lured back for a second spin by the inevitable impulse buys. On top of all that, there’s a full food court that supplies everything from restaurant-bettering ramen [...]

Coco Reno’s Taco Salad
Everyone in Long Beach probably already knows about the tofu tacos and mushroom tacos at Coco Reno’s. Those who don’t are bound to sound about as ignorant as someone who can’t find the Pacific Ocean. But the restaurant’s vegetarian taco salad is a different story, an equally tasty meal that sometimes goes [...]

Breakfast at Natraj
Most Sundays it’s eggs Florentine and coffee—Bloody Mary, too, if you’re living on the edge—but sometimes having breakfast for breakfast just doesn’t sound so good, especially if brekkie gets rolling around 1 in the afternoon. So. What to eat—pizza? Burgers? Soup? How about tandoori chicken with a side of champagne? It’s certainly not [...]

Yogurtland
Some say that trends cycle through our minds every 17 years or so, and with Southern California locked in yet another frozen yogurt fad, that calculation seems just about right. But due to Pinkberry and all the other fruit-related spinoffs, it’s hard to figure out which places are actually good and which are just trendy [...]

Burrito Factory’s bean burrito
It takes cojones to name a restaurant Burrito Factory. This is Southern California, after all, not some Mexican-food-free land like Nebraska. We know our burritos like we know our traffic and smog. But although Burrito Factory isn’t as industrial as it sounds (no conveyor belts, no gargantuan burrito machines), the restaurant more [...]

Mama Ocllo’s Peruvian cookies
Simple as it is, Mama Ocllo’s advertising hits square in the stomach: photos of burger-sized alfajores (dusted in sugar and stuffed with only the darkest dulce de leche) that look like they could end any meal. Thankfully, the buttery Peruvian cookies, which best most of Europe’s multinational treasures, can end any meal. [...]

Long Beach Pizza Company’s Pesto Pizza
Long Beach Pizza Company is in a popular part of town, tucked in on Broadway between neighborhood staples like Olives and the Library coffeehouse. But what brings in the crowds is LB Pizza Co.’s variety—the place has a sprawling selection second only to Long Beach’s favorite Thai/Italian/American flavor-pit, Dean’s. However, [...]

Village Cafe’s Beach Burger
It’s a common assumption back in the colder half of the country that California cuisine inevitably chooses style over substance, that we’re more content to crack open a Corona and plop some protein on the grill than to dutifully toil behind a stove. But one bite into the Village Cafe’s so-called Beach [...]

Hole Mole’s potato tacos
I’m a subscriber to the theory that potential hangovers can be beaten by eating something before passing out. By the looks of the line outside Hole Mole’s bar-adjacent Fourth Street location, I’m not the only one. After a night of the Fourth Street Crawl, I find myself at Fern’s not just for [...]

La Concha’s enchiladas
It can easily be argued that from its tree-lined beginnings in Park Estates to its concrete crossing of the LA River, Anaheim Street is the most diverse path through Long Beach, an essential artery that cuts through just about every spectrum of city life. And so La Concha seems a perfect fit, [...]