Healthy (Vegan/Vegetarian) Dining Options for Orange County Diners
Our culinary columnist gives meatless dining an overdue deep dive. How’s that New Year’s resolution to lose weight going? If you are feverishly hitting the gym but not seeing any…
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Meet the Strong Water Founders: Orange County’s Sole 2024 James Beard Semifinalist
Our culinary columnist interviews Strong Water’s owners, Ying Chang and Robert Adamson. It was November 2019 when I initially visited Anaheim’s Strong Water, Ying Chang and Robert Adamson’s long-awaited project in…
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Why Does Kei Concepts Keep Changing Concepts?
Our culinary columnist questions recent alterations in the Kei Concepts family of restaurants. I’ve followed Kei (pronounced “Key”) Concepts restaurant group since its first brick-and-mortar, Sup Noodle Bar in Buena Park –…
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Five Things To Know When Visiting Mercado González
Our culinary columnist offers her take on Northgate’s newest property, Mercado González. Literally one of the biggest openings in 2023 happened in November, when Northgate completed its puesto (food stall)…
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No Drinking, No Problem: Non-traditional, Zero-proof Beverages
Our culinary columnist gives some love to a different kind of drink, but remembers to include at least one mocktail. While zero-proof cocktails gained traction in the last few years,…
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Anne Marie’s Favorite New Restaurants of 2023
Our food columnist looks back on a delicious year. Time seems to have sped up as the year progressed. Blink and it was spring. Summer felt more brutal than usual,…
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Great Places for Cocktails in Orange County, Part 3: New (and Newish) Cocktail Programs
COCKTAILS, PART 3: This is the last installment of a series of stories by our food writers, Anne Valdespino and Anne Marie Panoringan, who took a deep dive into places around…
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Cookbooks Could Be Your Last Minute Gift-giving Solution
Still looking for a holiday present? Our food columnist has a few cookbook suggestions – including a few from Orange County authors. I own too many coffee cups. There is…
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Dynamic (Sister) Duos Command OC’s Restaurant Scene
Our columnist understands that success isn’t always strength in numbers, it’s strength in sisters. She gets to know some of the prominent players in Orange County’s food and beverage scene….
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Maximizing Dining Headroom (or, Managing Dual Concepts In A Single Space)
Our food columnist is fixated on the idea of secondary restaurants residing at the same address as its primary, yet separate concept. What’s more challenging than having a restaurant concept?…
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Celebrating 10 Years at The Blind Pig (or How a South OC Mainstay Reached the Decade Mark)
Our food columnist revisits an establishment that changed the way locals in Rancho Santa Margarita defined dining out. (Hint: It involves a visually impaired farm animal.) Plus, a look at…
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Where I Prefer to Dine
At some point when I strike up a conversation with someone new (and they learn about my food writing), they ask the question that I dread, “What’s your favorite restaurant?”…