Star Wars, Mickey Mouse and More: Scenes from the Pasadena Chalk Festival

Last weekend we strolled through Pasadena's Paseo Colorado open-air mall to check out the participants from this year's Pasadena Chalk Festival in mid-creation. Billed as the world's largest chalk art competition, more than 600 artists created some really great, colorful chalk art. (And as a weird bonus, we ran into Marc Maron, a day after he interviewed President Obama in his Highland Park garage!) Check out the winning murals here. Some highlights:

Scenes from This Year's Festival of Books

Target wasn't a sponsor of this year's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC -- and although I'm sure that was a financial blow to the festival organizers, it was likely a nice boon to independent bookstores like Montrose's Once Upon a Time (above). I happily shelled out money to support the store (one of the gems of Montrose's shopping district) and buy the Blogger Kids some fresh books (many of which were autographed by the authors) at the same time.

I also stopped by Angel City Press (by far my favorite booth every year at the festival), where I picked up a few new L.A.-centric books for my collection and also caught up with LA Observed's Kevin Roderick, and we both marveled at how we've now been doing this blogging thing for 12 years. Is there an end game? Or can we keep this up as a hobby forever? Good question!

I had Blogger Kid 2.0 in tow, so there was no time to really listen to any speakers, although we did stop for a bit to hear Billy Idol interviewed about his career. Some pics of our Saturday at the Festival of Books:


Music at the USC stage


Kind of hard to make out, but yes, that's Billy Idol


Always a crowd at the Festival of Books!


I think this character has something to do with a Trader Joe's cookbook.


C-SPAN's Book TV

Rate-A-Restaurant #331: White Rabbit (Food Truck)

Restaurant: White Rabbit Truck

Location: Food truck (various)

Type of restaurant: Filipino



We stipulated: We were in downtown's Grand Park for the annual Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture, and it was lunch time. After a treat of halo halo, we decided to grab lunch. The White Rabbit truck, offering "Filipino Fusion," looked promising.

They stipulated: "The idea started with a tight group of friends noticing the lack of Filipino cuisine in the mainstream. They started with under $1000 and experimented with various menu items for nearly one year at their home kitchen. After sampling their cuisine to hundreds of friends and family. With the rise of the popularity of Filipino food, we noticed that there were no places that served true Filipino Fusion food."


What we ordered: Chicken adobo bowl ($10)

High point:  I love the effort to bring Filipino cuisine to the mainstream, while giving it a twist.

Low point:  For $10, I figured there would be more chicken.

Overall impression: Decent. But it doesn't come close to Maria's spin on chicken adobo. (And it needed more sauce.)

Will we return: I'd be interested in trying more things on the menu.

From Crispy Fish Tacos to Miso Donuts, Filling Our Bellies at The Taste's Opening Night

There are plenty of food festivals in Los Angeles. But I don't think there's one better organized than Los Angeles Times' The Taste, now taking place this weekend at the Paramount lot. The event attracts top-notch restaurants, which offer up perfect bite-sized eats, and there's never a long wait for any of the vendors. You can eat well at The Taste.

And last night, at the Opening Night of The Taste, we ate very well. Some highlights:


Yep, those tacos were crispy. And effing good. Maria and I agree, this was the best item of the night. And it was the very first thing we ate. From the Church Key.


Waterloo & City


Adding a drizzle to the miso donuts at Hinoki & The Bird


Fried chicken sandwich from Plan Check Kitchen + Bar


Putting together those Plan Check sandwiches


Feel the burn! Spicy curry chicken from Jitlada Thai Cuisine. And I mean SPICY. But even through the tears, no regrets!


Forkin'! At Phorage.


Other restaurants at opening night included: Alma, Bowery Bungalow, Bulgarini Gelato, CAFE del REY Chichen Itza Restaurant, DeSano Pizza Bakery, esCaLA Ktown, Firefly, Fred 62, Goldie’s, Guelaguetza, Hamasaku, Horse Thief BBQ, iPic, Mexicali Taco & Co., Pedalers Fork, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Sun Cafe, Sushi Roku, Tanzy, The BLVD- Beverly Wilshire Hotel, The Counter Burger, The Restaurant at Mr. C Beverly Hills, The Whisper Restaurant and Lounge, Union, Urban Garden, Wood & Vine.

Some tickets are still available for the Saturday and Sunday events; go here for details. (Keep in mind that, per the website, LA Times food critic Jonathan Gold is no longer involved with this weekend's festivities due to "unforeseen circumstances.")

Stuffing Our Faces at the LA Street Food Festival

They warned us to wear stetchy pants, and we indeed showed up to Saturday's Los Angeles Street Food Festival ready to eat. More than 100 booths offered up samples of dishes from a wide variety of Latin, Asian, European, American and other dishes, as well as an iced coffee lounge, an ice cream/dessert section, a tequila tasting tent as well as beer, wine and cold drinks. I brought along the Blogger Kids and we arrived at the Rose Bowl around 4:30, hoping to beat the crowd.

The crowd was already huge, and we never made it through the Latin area. But we did manage to try a wide range of items. Some photo highlights:



The Grilled Cheese Truck were among the mobile eateries making an appearance.



Golden Road -- enjoying a bit of Point the Way IPA to counteract the heat.



The early crowds at the LA Street Food Fest.



Of course, the boys steered us over to the ice cream and dessert tents.

At Salt & Straw, I tried a coffee & bourbon ice cream, while Blogger Kid had sea salt/caramel and Blogger Kid 2.0 tried chocolate with gooey brownies.



You have a friend in Donut Friend.



I Heart Spam at the Aloha Plate truck!



Quenelle offers up an apple pie bon bon with bourbon caramel.



Nothing new about Sushi Roku, but still a solid spicy tuna roll and baked crab roll.

Bring Stretchy Pants: The LA Street Food Fest Is This Saturday

It seems like every weekend there's another food festival here in L.A. But there's nothing quite like the Los Angeles Street Food Festival, now in its fifth year and bursting at the seams with some of the best L.A. food imaginable.

This year's event takes place on Saturday, June 28, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Rose Bowl. Here's the good part: Just 5,000 tickets are sold, making the crowd manageable and the food actually attainable. More than 100 vendors from restaurants, food trucks and food carts will be on hand, plus craft beer, cocktails, wine, tequila, ice cream and even an iced coffee lounge.

Here's who's coming:

LA food truck favorites Urban Oven, Luckdish Curry, the Grilled Cheese Truck, Azteca Truck, Foodism, Kraken Mobile and Currywurst plus special guest truck, Aloha Plate, champions of last year's Food Network Great Food Truck Race, bringing us their signature Spam musubi from Hawaii; street eats from foodie favorites Home State, Badmaash, Chef Brian Huskey/Formosa Café, Mexicali Taco, Chef Bruce Kalman/Union, El Condor, Chef Vartan Abgaryan/Cliff's Edge, Short Order, Guelaguetza, El Coralense, Chef Eric Greenspan's Grilled Cheese, Bizarra Capital, Del Rey Deli, Sticky Rice, and pop-ups BEP Vietnamese Kitchen, ARO Latin, The Ceviche Project and Hotato Potato.

Debuts at this year's Fest include The Asian Box, the Carb & Nation truck helmed by Church & State alums, Shao Kao BBQ from underground supper club chef Luther Chen, Short Cake's new lunchtime line of paninis from pastry chef Ivan Marquez, and Glassell Park's 100% grass fed Vaka Burger, voted Best Burger in Southern California. Past event award winners, Starry Kitchen and Dog Haus return along with local lonchero Mariscos Jalisco and Baja, Mexico's Mariscos El Mazateño, Tacos Kokopelli and Aqui es Texcoco. For the veggie minded, Kitchen Mouse Vegan Café returns along with The Grain Café and No Tacos, Please!

For the sweet tooth, the popular Ice Cream Social is back and even bigger, featuring cult favorites Donut Friend, The Churro Borough, Peddler's Creamery and The Beignet Truck alongside Fluff Ice, Ramekin, Quenelle, Choctal, Saffron & Rose, What the Funnel, Ice Cream Lab and Confexxion's "brioughnut", along with the baked stylings of local flour mill, Grist & Toll. Portland's Salt & Straw makes a So Cal debut with special flavors created just for the LA Street Food Fest including "Papi's Salted Nuts": the brainchild of Roy Choi from Kogi and POT, combining salty Beijing-style boiled peanut ice cream with a spicy Southeast Asian style marshmallow fluff and "Stumptown with Compartes Love Nuts": cold brewed Indonesian coffee with chocolate dipped, caramel coated pecans from LA's Compartes Chocolate.

A new feature debuting this year is the Iced Coffee Lounge which will feature cool caffeinated beverages from a dozen of the city's top roasters and new wave coffee shops including Cognoscenti Coffee, Copa Vida, Cafecito Organico, Home Brewed, Zona Rosa and more, plus the debut of Angel's Gate Roasting.

For the 21+ crowd, the original Tequila Tasting Tent returns and beer options have been expanded to include refreshing suds from Angel City Brewery, Golden Road Brewery, Stella Artois, Kronenbourg and Singha. Caroline on Crack also returns having curated some incredible cocktails from Petty Cash, Harlowe, Bar 1886, Church Key and Melrose Umbrella Co.

Tickets are just $55 and are available right now at the LA Street Food Fest website here or at Eventbrite here.

The organizers advise that you "bring stretchy pants."

Celebrating Lummis Day and Northeast Los Angeles at Heritage Square

Victorian-era Los Angeles comes alive at Heritage Square, the collection of old homes and buildings parked in Highland Park. We were back there on Sunday for the 9th annual free Lummis Day event.

"Lummis Day" takes its name from pioneering L.A. journalist, librarian and leader Charles Fletcher Lummis, whose Lummis House, a Rustic American Craftsman stone house that he built in the late 19th century, is nearby and now a cultural landmark. Lummis Day is meant to celebrate the unique, diverse neighborhoods of Northeast Los Angeles.

Here are more pics from the Lummis Day events:


In costume inside one of the Heritage Square homes.






Kids gather for a puppet show at "Colonial Drug"


The puppets get down for "Scooter's Circus Adventure."


An old timey revue: Teatro Arroyo's "Dr. Madcap's Theatricum."


A model of Eagle Rock's Oinkster restaurant.