Month: July 2024

17 of the best L.A. trails for every type of visitor

17 of the best L.A. trails for every type of visitor

Published by Sam Flores

Rock Pool and Century Lake Trails is a relatively easy hike in the Santa Monica Mountains that’s fully loaded with all of nature’s bells and whistles: a creek-adjacent trail, wide-open vistas, hillsides blanketed with flowers in spring and shady stretches under a canopy of oak trees. And that’s just to start. Step out of your car and the drive is suddenly worth it; feel your breath slow and your chest open up. You do have to pay to park here (do so in the second lot on your left and the hike starts opposite the lot, at the bottom of the stairs) and dogs are not allowed. But those inconveniences don’t stack up against the payoff: a naturally diverse hike that also includes some Hollywood sparkle. Parts of the 1968 movie “Planet of the Apes” were filmed here — the “Planet of the Apes wall,” at the rock pool, is a popular climbing destination — as were scenes from the long-running TV series “MASH.” Follow the signs to the MASH hike, and you’ll spot a …

Gamer Tiffany Herrera shares L.A.’s best 5 Latino-owned businesses

Gamer Tiffany Herrera shares L.A.’s best 5 Latino-owned businesses

Published by Sam Flores

Los Angeles helps keep Tiffany Herrera grounded. More commonly known as TiffyQuake on the internet, the 36-year-old influencer has built her career around her love for video games. Since 2010, she has garnered a following of over a million people who enjoy her playful and lighthearted content. As she continues to share her life online, she credits who she is today to her upbringing in East Los Angeles. Shaped by the neighborhood’s “delicious food” and “expressive art,” she says she can feel her sense of confidence flourish. “Living in L.A. has definitely made me embrace my culture. It’s a place where I can shine without dimming my sparkle. It’s given me pride and drives me to learn more about where I came from and who my ancestors are. Here, I’m not just accepted; I’m celebrated,” said Herrera. Coming from a Mexican American background, she is focused on finding events, businesses and restaurants around the city where she can experience her heritage in every sense. “Being a Latina in L.A. is like being in the epicenter …

10 buildings that tell the story of L.A.’s Roaring 1920s, year by year

10 buildings that tell the story of L.A.’s Roaring 1920s, year by year

Published by Sam Flores

Then: From some angles, this theatrical collection of whitewashed walls and red roof tiles might look like another SoCal mash-up of Spanish Colonial Revival this and Mission Revival that. But this 1925 complex, designed by Elmer Grey to house the Pasadena Community Playhouse, marked a milestone for live theater in Southern California. By 1939, playhouse leader Gilmor Brown had staged all 38 of Shakespeare’s plays, won designation as the state’s official theater, and had ventured into edgier contemporary material with a production of “Our Town.” The theater’s courtyard served as an outdoor lobby, shaded by palm and fig trees. Indoors, above the seats, the ceiling seemed to be adorned with Spanish-style hand-painted tiles. Now: Outside, the palms and fig stand tall. Inside, that strange ceiling remains — but as Pasadena Playhouse producing artistic director Danny Feldman enjoys revealing, it’s an illusion — lightweight burlap, painted to look like tiles. Someday, Feldman hopes, audiences will again see the stage’s asbestos fire curtain, which features an epic painting of a Spanish galleon by California impressionist Alson Clark. …

Where to find the best misugaru lattes in Los Angeles

Where to find the best misugaru lattes in Los Angeles

Published by Sam Flores

When I was growing up in Michigan, misugaru was a warm, comforting drink that my Korean stepmother made for me as a treat before bed on especially cold winter nights. She called it “sweet rice tea,” which sounded amazing to my 9-year-old brain. Misugaru is a powder blend made up of a variety of grains such as brown rice, barley, millet and black sesame. The grains are steamed, roasted and ground and served hot or cold mixed with water or milk. Many Koreans make their own misugaru at home, but there are also a dizzying number of retail versions. It’s sometimes consumed as a meal replacement since it’s high in many nutrients. I hadn’t thought about the drink in ages until I stumbled into Bodega Park, a sandwich and coffee shop in Silver Lake. There, chef and co-owner Eric Park serves a black sesame misugaru drink that combines espresso, oat milk and the multigrain powder and gets topped with black sesame cream. It’s nutty, sweet and frothy, but not too rich thanks to the bitterness …

The best staircase walks with ocean views in Los Angeles

The best staircase walks with ocean views in Los Angeles

Published by Sam Flores

On this five-mile staircase walk through downtown Long Beach, you’ll spot public art, buildings with rich histories and views of the Pacific Ocean from several angles. The path includes several places to grab a coffee or snack. 1. Start your walk at Bus Shelter F, designated by the F on a large silver column. Walk west toward Pine Avenue. Along the way you’ll notice animal mosaics decorating the ground. The first letter of each animal’s name corresponds with the letter of each bus shelter. Cross Pine and turn left on the street, walking past the historic First National Bank of Long Beach building, which now houses an Italian restaurant on its first floor. 2. Continue north on Pine Avenue until you reach the Pine Square shopping mall. Hang a left at the Johnny Rockets and head to the upper right corner of the mall’s courtyard for your first staircase. Head up 28 steps, and veer left at the top toward the nearby staircase to head down 27 steps. Return to Pine Avenue, where you’ll bear …

101 best tacos to try right now in Los Angeles 2024

101 best tacos to try right now in Los Angeles 2024

Published by Sam Flores

Robert Barajas Jr. wakes up every morning at 2 a.m. to start making birria horneada — “ovened,” he says. “We used to make it in the ground, now we use conventional ovens in order to have that crispy taste.” It is never simmered, adds Barajas. His father started the business several years ago, serving birria de chivo much the way the family has been making it for three generations in Tecalitlán, Jalisco. Birrieria Barajas opened first as a puesto on Compton Boulevard and then launched a truck across the street, parked in front of Eddie’s Liquor every day but Monday, beginning at 6:30 a.m. “When we started we wouldn’t even sell half a goat,” Barajas says. “By word of mouth and faith we started to get going week by week. There are a lot of people that make birria. But it has to be goat, and it’s supposed to have your special mole, a kind of rub, your own recipe. Maybe that’s why we have good clientele, because we make the rub, everything, every day.” …

Best vegetarian and vegan tacos to try in Los Angeles

Best vegetarian and vegan tacos to try in Los Angeles

Published by Sam Flores

The metal-inspired pop-up has an entire menu devoted to vegetarian and vegan options dubbed “Heaven” (the meat-centric menu is called “Hell”). You can order the vegan options as a trio of tacos that includes black trompo (stacked with mushrooms, Napa cabbage, eggplant and onions coated in recado negro), green “chorizo” (with soy and a mix of epazote, cilantro, spinach, watercress, peanuts and pistachio) and “chicharrón” (made with flour and salsa verde), or get the plant-based proteins in a mulita, torta or burrito, including a Chilakilles combination with a fried egg. Show more Show less Source link

Critic’s favorites from the L.A. Times 101 Best Tacos guide 2024

Critic’s favorites from the L.A. Times 101 Best Tacos guide 2024

Published by Sam Flores

Where there is a taco conversation in Los Angeles, there is debate. Or, as is often the case, less polite exchanges than the word “debate” can encompass. To live in Los Angeles, and invest in its food culture, is to have opinions about tacos. None of us will ever completely agree. And yet, after months of eating so many tacos for this project, I felt pulled to name-check some of my favorites. Get to know Los Angeles through the tacos that bring it to life. From restaurants to trucks to carts and more, here’s 101 of the city’s best. Here are a few things to know: I think of this roster as a starting point, among the 101 luminaries we selected as a group, by which to survey Southern California’s taco culture geographically and stylistically. Some places uphold regional Mexican traditions, others take creative chances, charting flavors that more directly express our corner of the world. Many top-tier tacos can require some final customer assembly; here I thought mostly about tacos that arrive in your …

8 Latinx healers raising vibrations in L.A.

8 Latinx healers raising vibrations in L.A.

Published by Sam Flores

A birth worker since 2012, Raquel Lemus Coaxitlalli centers pleasure, joy and purpose during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. The fully licensed Afro-Indigenous Latinx full-spectrum midwife, peristeam hydrotherapist and placenta specialist facilitates home births with local holistic Black and Indigenous maternity service providers Sugar Heal Gang and offers uterine health and holistic gynecology independently as Community Partera. As a childbirth educator, Coaxitlalli promotes positive birthing experience for families by checking mother and baby’s vital signs and offering self-care guidance throughout prenatal visits. During the birthing window (37-42 weeks), she remains on call and recommends vaginal steaming and other holistic modalities to prepare mother and baby for birth. During postpartum visits, she assesses vital signs and provides lactation counseling, uterine massage, belly binding and postpartum vaginal steaming. Source link