Dining | Orange Coast Magazine
 

DINING | Orange County

  • The 'Bountiful' World of Costa Mesa's White on Rice Couple

    Rock-star food bloggers add to the growing O.C. cookbook category

    I'm always saying Orange County’s an exciting place for food. Not surprisingly, It’s also a busy incubator of cookbooks—especially the kind that celebrate super-fresh O.C.-style cooking, influenced by the incredible bevy of gorgeous produce we have at our fingertips year-round. Read More
    Taste of OC

  • Chef Jamie Gwen's Got Herself In a Jam

    Busy chef Jamie Gwen of Newport Beach, known for her Sunday morning food radio show on KFWB 980, television appearances, and charity work, has gotten herself In a Jam. This development was completely on purpose—In a Jam is the name of her new line of artisanal preserves. Read More
    Taste of OC

  • Larb

    This bracing signature dish of Laos also is quintessentially northern Thai

    Apiquant Thai salad can be crowned with a mound of seared steak, green papaya, or barbecued shrimp. All are delicious. But branch out and go for larb, a simple salad of minced meat and roasted ground rice combined with fresh herbs, a scattering of vegetables, and the Thai trinity of fish sauce, lime juice, and chilies. This dish, which crept across the border from Laos, is one by which you can measure any northern Thai restaurant. Read More
    Global Fare

  • Housemade Noodles

    These seven local restaurants still insist on making their own, with rustic and satisfyingly chewy results

    There’s nothing like a bowl of noodles for the ultimate in Asian comfort food—but it’s even more special when they’re made in-house. It’s admirable that a small-but-dedicated cadre of O.C. restaurants continues to practice this vanishing art at a time when factories can churn them out much more economically. Whether the noodles are knife-cut, hand-torn, or hand-kneaded, they’re all worth slurping. Read More
    Guides

O.C.'s Best: Dining Guides

  • Omakase: Trust the Chef

    Surrender to omakase at the sushi bar and you’ll be rewarded with exceptional creations and an elevated dining experience

    So you’ve graduated beyond the rudimentary rolls and may have tried still-wriggling live sweet shrimp or luxurious uni (sea urchin), the foie gras of the sea. Congratulations, you’re ready to broaden your sushi repertoire. Time to try omakase, which means “trust me” in Japanese, hardly a new concept but one that more places are offering. Sit at the bar, say the magic word (oh-ma-kah-say) and let your itamae, or chef, deliver off-menu treats reserved for such an occasion. Read More

  • The Ultimate Guide to O.C.'s Mexican Food

    From pozole to puerco, churros to chilaquiles, tamales to tortas, these are O.C.’s most delectable favorites

    Nachos to Beat The Cal-Mex take on carne asada nachos at La Sirena Grill outshines the competition. The key is the precise ratio of primo goods: grilled grass-fed beef, luscious Hass avocados, organic pinto beans, jack cheese, and spicy-fresh pico de gallo. Wash it down with watermelon-strawberry agua fresca. 347 Mermaid St., Laguna Beach, 949‑497‑8226... Read More

  • Pizza Love

    You know you want it. Here's where to get the best in Orange County.

    PIZZA E VINO The self-described “Antica Pizzeria Napoletana,” just steps from the lake in Rancho Santa Margarita, lives up to its billing and then some, with old-school technique, charm-your-socks-off Italian ambience, and a new-school mindset. The restaurant is O.C.’s first—and the country’s 39th—to be Verace Pizza Napoletana-certified as serving authentic Naples-style... Read More

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