Past Stories
25,000 Miles of Spaghetti a Year
There are more types of pasta sauce at the supermarket than chilis, salad dressings or marinades—at least at my local grocer. Americans love pasta, you see, especially spaghetti. In fact, according to a study in Nor...
Oktoberfest!
What’s got beer, the chicken dance, lederhosen, polka, more polka, sauerkraut, bratwurst, cleavage, bouncers and a petting zoo? It’s Oktoberfest, baby—Big Bear’s annual celebration of all things Ge...
The Colossal Stromboli
Consider if you will the fate of the lowly stromboli—completely overshadowed on the one hand by its older brother the pizza, on the other often mistaken for its cousin the calzone. Perhaps it all started when Disney decid...
GO STUFF YOURSELF!
My second husband hated curry spices and anything that looked like curry spices, so we never ate Indian food. For this—and so many other reasons—my second husband was an idiot. Fortunately, my third husband is...
CLASS THAT WON’T GET YOUR HEAD CUT OFF
Saying that Gerard’s is the best French restaurant in Riverside—which is what the “Best Of” lists always say—isn’t really saying much. For one thing, “Best Of” lists are usually m...
CHEESESTEAK SMACKDOWN!
All right, I’m just going to put this out there: I’ve never been to Philadelphia. Not once. I’ve never, um, wanted to go there. I’m sure it’s nice—there’s that cracked bell, guys ...
SATISFYING THE SAMURAI WITHIN
The barely foot-long monster, colorful green and silver-brown skin glistening under the soft light, beckons me with its black, scaly face and green sprout antennas. My chopsticks predatorily attack its segmented body. Aft...
COWBOY JUNKIE
I was in Fontario, near the Inland Empire’s biggest inland port and in the gray myriad of warehouses, when out of the night came something that looked like a cross between Vegas and Chuck E. Cheese.
Cowboy Burgers &...
FUNKY SPUNKY
On a freezing, blustery day—and lately, they’ve all been freezing and blustery—I headed over to Redlands to check out Tony’s Spunky Steer, a classic family steakhouse, familiar to anyone who’...
Death by Panang!
When I was an unhappy Army wife in Naples, Italy, we lived in a small, privately owned apartment building with a landlord who never missed a chance to feel me up—which is a completely different, albeit fun, story. O...
Chips Over Salsa
“You could go across the street. There’s some good places to eat over there.”
This is how I found my new favorite Mexican restaurant, Las Brasas, on an excursion to a different eating place which turned ...
Starch Specialists
I’m at an English pub, the Royal Falconer in Riverside, at 6:30 on a Thursday night, and the place is filling up quickly. But not with people eating—they’re here to drink.
If you go to the Falconer for j...
The Happy Hookah
As a cultural anthropologist, I strongly believe in the concept of cultural relativism—the idea that no culture is “better” than any other culture. While it’s true you can’t compare the &ldqu...
Funky Monkey Madness!
Fusion cuisine—the mishmashing of any number of culinary styles into one highfalutin whole, and meditated on by a lot of wannabes—can be revitalizing or dangerous for one’s health (you can almost hear th...
Not Your Average Kung Pao
Growing up in a Chinese restaurant, having the run and pick of anything in the kitchen, having a grandmother cook whatever fragrant-smelling Chinese entrée I wanted for lunch in elementary school, surviving on food...
An American Pie for the Masses
Got a gaggle of booze-guzzling loudmouths around you who want to celebrate the glories of televised springtime sports over beer, pizza and more beer? Well, maybe not right this second, but you will. And when they start churning...
Swayze-Free Zone
When I first pulled in to the Lookout Roadhouse for lunch, I felt a bit uneasy. I was with the kids, but is a roadhouse really a proper place to bring the young-uns? Would Patrick Swayze be around—and would he…
Feast of Fats
Before I praise all concepts and concerns Peppi’s-related, let me say just one thing: Peppi’s should be torn down. It’s an anachronism, and an eyesore to boot. The sooner they throw up a Jack-in-the-Crack or a...
Beyond Checkered Tablecloths and Marinara
Back in the days before Giada De Laurentiis stole my husband away from me (and not because of her smooth curves, ample bosom and winning smile—although that never hurt), my first Italian food memories went like this: pizz...
The Karma Special
Going out for Indian food in the IE can be a frustrating experience. There aren’t as many great Indian places as there should be in an area this large, however godforsaken parts of it may be. (Just kidding, Muscoy!) Anoth...
Haute Desert Blight
I’m a simple girl with simple tastes. Give me a back-alley taqueria, and I’ll be content to stuff my face in anonymity. But sit me down in a sophisticated setting, and watch me squirm like a mouse on acid.
I’l...
Sandwich D’Or
D’Elia’s Grinders is a transcendent sandwich experience in a Riverside region pockmarked with several hidden dining pleasures, despite the ‘hood’s relative poverty. From the eclectic Mexican joint Templo...
Lessons My Korean Waitress Taught Me
The next time you’re in an Asian restaurant (the dine-in kind, where real live Asians not dressed in chef’s whites are sitting around the table, chopsticks in hand, shoveling rice from rice bowls into their mouths),...
Dive Bar Nirvana
There are a few simple guidelines all great dive bars must have in common, things that makes them truly exceptional establishments. I went to the Tartan of Redlands recently to investigate if it was the classic dive bar it appe...
Gluttonous Maximus
Despite the aromatic wafts of horse manure aerating the otherwise smoggy Norco skies, that wasn’t enough to keep a line of ravenous diners from snaking out into the parking lot of the Cowgirl Café. Luckily for me, ...
Bring Your Own Wheelbarrow
The search for truly authentic Asian cuisine in the desert can seem daunting, but Aiyara provides an oasis of deliciousness in the sands of Temecula. Located just outside the periphery of the Promenade, Aiyara opened last year ...
Basquing in Nostalgia
I dreamed about feasts taken in the warm, fuzzy confines of Old World France, in old stone farmhouses off the main road, amidst rolling hills and grazing sheep. Anthony Bourdain, my punk-loving, ass-kicking, testosterone-driven...
The Posh Palate
When it comes to burger joints, divey Mexican cantinas, Thai, moderately-priced Italian, Indian, bistros, delis, and donut shops that sell egg rolls, lottery tickets and smokes, the Inland Empire can more than hold its own agai...
