I am a chip girl. BBQ potato chips, classic tortilla, new-age flax and chia speckled, doesn’t matter the flavor: pretty soon after opening I’m covered in crumbs and tossing the…
I met Nicola last year at Eat Real Festival, and fell in love with her dreamy California photo journals. Here’s a story from her on one of my favorite foods…
It’s my personal breakfast philosophy that a good barometer of a breakfast joint is the most basic thing on the menu, eggs and toast. If an egg isn’t cooked properly…
For townies like me, walking into the new Emeryville Public Market might tug at your nostalgic heartstrings for an East Bay of days past. The Public Market was like town…
You can’t miss the street food vendors on the sidewalk on International Blvd in Fruitvale. The fruit carts with peeled and cubed tropical fruits stacked in neat quart containers that…
Trump is President, it’s cold for us California babies, and everyone I know is sick. We need soup, y’all. Here are three places to get a bowl of soup in…
Juices, smoothies, acai bowls and chia puddings, non-dairy warm drinks… We are on trend in Oakland and thankfully it’s without the activated $12 charcoal waters and bullshit anti-food health diets.…
This past week has been a sad one for Oakland and I’ve been craving comfort food. The other day inside Berkeley Bowl I even paused in the bulk aisle when…
Is it ever ramen weather in Los Angeles? Not like I really need an excuse. Here are two ramen chains in L.A. to get your slurp on. Shin Sen Gumi…
If you live in Oakland like me chances are you’ve been getting a mailbox full of flyers telling you to vote no on Measure HH, the “grocery tax.” But guess…
Oakland farmers markets, my friends and family are a few reasons why I love coming home. Now I’m adding a new market to my weekend lineup: the Freedom Farmers’ Market,…
I usually roll my eyes at anything advertised as raw food or vegan. Neither of those labels indicates that a meal will be balanced, healthy or taste good. In LA “healthy” food…
I’m driving from the Bay to LA a lot these days— and I don’t have AC, so summertime means I’m taking the 101. It’s a longer ride, but cooler and…
With 140 taqueros I was officially overwhelmed at LA Weekly’s Tacolandia event last weekend. Luckily, there was a lady handing out shot glasses and I always have something to put…
There are many new things happening in North Oakland that I’m not excited about. Increasingly ridiculous rents, for example. Groups of white girls all wearing variants of denim tops and…
I’m pretty sure that for each Yelp page of southern restaurants in the Bay there’s at least five reviews that start with, “I’m from [enter somewhere in the south] and I…
Tacos Oscar took over Boot & Shoe last night accompanied by fiery sangritas and popsicle micheladas, zebra piñatas, and a salsa-spinning DJ. I don’t know anything about him because he…
We started with a juice and a tumeric-ginger shot at Crafters, and then armed with the make-believe nutritional permission to eat and drink mostly things that are bad for us,…
I recently stopped by my old daycare for lunch. BAHIA (Bay Area Hispanic Institute for Advancement) and its sister preschool Centro Vida, are undeniably where my taste for Mexican food…
NOTE: Sadly, Casa Jimenez is now closed! As I was writing this post and reflecting on why in a restaurant known for its carnitas would so many people be eating…
I’ve always loved the Tamarindo bar: the black and white Mexican films projected on the side wall, the glow from the pressed tin ceiling and metallic chandeliers, the splashes of…
Taco tuesday at Azucar Lounge was almost exactly what you would expect from a bar in SOMA: not having anything to do with good tacos. I still have some things…
Yes, I live in the Bay but I go to LA like every two weeks. Hey, it’s sunny, the boys are cute, and well, it’s so big with so much…
I am visiting LA more and more, and each time finding new ways to start my day. Enjoy: Guerrilla Tacos This taco truck is putting everything fancy and good on…
I’ve recently been approached more than usual for dive bar recommendations. I guess we’ve already shaken off the healthy eating resolutions. Not that we can’t eat well on top of…
Lately I’ve making 1 minute episodes on great spots to eat in the East Bay on the Tatstemade app. A lot of you might be familiar with these restaurants, but…
There are three central lessons I learned while talking to Don Luis Abundis, the owner of Nieves Cinco De Mayo in Fruitvale: 1. My mom may always be my biggest…
Healdsburg is a magical little place isn’t it? Sometimes I think it’s too precious for me, but then I have a few glasses of wine and I take that thought…
Now’s the time of year when I start getting text messages from my friends asking me for summer evening date spots. So I figure we could all step up our…
I am careful with what food events I attend in San Francisco. A few months ago at a pop-up food event downtown I overheard a guy say that he was…
Edit:Taqueria Campos is now called La Casita, and it’s the same family as before. Living in Temescal I’m lucky enough to have gray weather comfort food options just a stone’s…
Los Moles photos by Laila Bahman Yup, still love Mexican food. Here are a few places in the East Bay that I’ve become quite smitten with this past month. Los…
I recently went to LA and mostly stayed in Topanga Canyon, a village-like community nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains. While I was visiting, the cops found 5,000 tons of…
I don’t like going to Berkeley, mostly because it feels far from Oakland (especially when I go to San Francisco everyday). It just takes me too long to get to…
I’m doing a new bilingual series for Vision Hispana exploring Latin American food in the East Bay, click on the links below for my reviews and interviews with chefs. La…
This is a post about eating in Palm Springs, with a sprinkling of advice on eating in cities that are not food destinations. I did my research. The highest recommended…
1. Romo’s Market (728 Guadalupe St) Couples express their love and appreciation for each other in many ways. For us, “baby, I think you just introduced me to one of…
The first time I came here was a Thursday evening around 8 pm. There was a group of four waiting at the door, every seat in the house was full,…
At 5:28 as I was waiting in line for Comal to open, a Cal student amused by the long line outside of the restaurant asked the woman behind me what…
Strip malls are frightening things to me. I often get lost in Bed, Bath & Beyond, and I am constantly bewildered as to how I convince myself every time that…
Emeryville’s got a new bar, and here’s the skinny: 1. They have delicious punch bowls. Menu says they serve 6-8 people. We say 3-5 for a good time. 2. For…
As many of my friends and coworkers have learned the hard way, I’m not the nicest person pre-coffee. Or pre-breakfast. If I’m going to brunch, I usually have a snack…
Eleven months out of the year I’m not a big sweet tooth. If it ain’t dark chocolate then I’m not really that into it. But come that time between Thanksgiving…
Edit: Hawker Fare in Oakland is now closed (but you can find it in SF). Sorry! The rainy weather is back in session and we all need a little extra…
True food festival freaks feel a little empty when food festival season is over. Summer ends, fall arrives, and soon it’s back to the ol’ holiday sit down dinner. Meals…
A few Saturdays ago (yes, I’ve been a bad blogger) I skipped Oakland’s first battle of the taco trucks because, aside from my general aversion to anything screaming Cinco de…
The first significant experience I had with a tamal was in a small town outside of Merida, Yucatan in the sweltering heat, sitting next to a chicken, a tub of…
Ahh 50,000 square feet of chocolate, my kind of breakfast. The San Francisco International Chocolate Salon was a bazaar of fifty chocolate vendors, wineries and genuine chocolate-loving freaks. I was…
Old Weang Ping is overgrown with ivy and tropical plastic flowers. Wood birds suspend from the ceiling, mismatched string lights adorn the walls, and a cascading alter to an…
Being in downtown Berkeley has always made me feel like I’m in high school again. Those days of scrambling for crappy off-campus lunches, impatiently waiting for the hourly 65 bus,…
One chilly night last week, my friend and I sat down to a bowl of soup and a bottle of wine and in between our sipping we began to…
America getting you down? It’s been a year since I left the country, so you know I’m getting anxious and I have a feeling a few of you are feeling…
A good guide is one who picks you up from the airport and says,”You hungry? Great, I know delicious Thai place. It’s a total dive.” The thing I love about…
The word “gala” has always evoked a sound from me that resembles something like “eeewwh“. Eeewwh for the amount of work that goes into throwing a gala (been there, done…
You had a long happy hour. You just realized you’ve had three margaritas and no dinner and it’s 11 pm. And magically, right when you grudgingly start going through your…
How does a restless, globe-hopping gal like me wrestle the monotony of a 9 to 5 in the Financial District (stupidly nicknamed FiDi, I’ve since learned)? Lunch! And if you’re…
So you know about wine, you know what you like, and you know how to bullshit well enough to thrown in the occasional “blackberry notes” and “barnyard nose” commentary if absolutely…
Here’s the deal: I recently had my heart broken. We all have our methods of coping and mine certainly have to do with eating and drinking. I get snobby about…