Los Angeles

2 June 25, 2017 Finding Mexico in Los Angeles

What to order at Gracias Madre

Gracias Madre is my favorite restaurant in West Hollywood and one of my top 3 favorites in Los Angeles. And I’m betting if nobody told you in advance that it was a vegan restaurant, you might not even notice because the menu is that good.

Vegan and Mexican are two words that most people wouldn’t necessarily associate with each other, however, there are actually quite a few vegetarian and vegan-friendly dishes that are part of the cuisine. Everything on the menu at Gracias Madre is organic and vegan, but don’t let that distract you; you’re in for a truly excellent Mexican meal.

If you’re visiting Los Angeles, Gracias Madre definitely deserves to be on your list of restaurants to check out, and if you’re local to LA, early lunch or happy hour is the best time to go if you want your choice of tables (you might even see me there).

Paparazzi tend to lurk nearby, as this restaurant and several others in the neighborhood are celebrity favorites. Request to be seated on the patio if it’s not too hot outside—you’ll have the best chance to see famous faces or at least catch a glimpse while they’re leaving.

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0 April 9, 2014 Tacomiendo

Wordless Wednesday: What to eat at Lotería Grill in Los Angeles

Since moving to Los Angeles in 2013, we’ve eaten a lot of tacos. There aren’t a lot of places where we’ve returned to eat twice, but one place I like is Lotería Grill—specifically their location at the LA Farmers Market. It has a taco stand feel, the hustle and bustle of an open air market, a whimsical lotería board wall and the tacos I’ve eaten there are consistently good. I recommend this taco de carnitas, pictured below, which is made with Michoacan-style carnitas, salsa de chile morita (which is really not that spicy—although it says spicy on the menu—but is perfectly smoky), and is garnished with a slice of avocado, onion and cilantro. A few weeks ago I enjoyed lunch here with some girlfriends and couldn’t resist snapping a few photos to share.

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0 August 7, 2013 Finding Mexico in Los Angeles

Wordless Wednesday: What I ate at L.A. Restaurant Week

Since we’re still relatively new to Los Angeles, we decided to get out of the house during L.A. Restaurant Week after I saw the #dineLA hastag on Twitter. We hadn’t been downtown yet, so we decided to head into the city for an experience. We ended up at Rosa Mexicano (the LA Live location) because I’d eaten there in another city when I was traveling for work a few years ago and liked it quite a bit.

Here’s what I ate at Rosa Mexicano for L.A. Restaurant Week:

Appetizer: Tacos dorados de pollo (also known as flautas) served with crema Mexicana, cheese and salsa verde.

Main Course: Carne asada, frijoles con chorizo, esquites and a fresh salsa verde. The esquites were so good that I had to steal José’s since he’s not really a fan. I couldn’t let them go to waste!

Dessert : Espresso flan with a cinnamon whipped cream and nueces (pecans). The galleta on the bottom was divine!

I also loved this little detail in the decor on the walls at this location that reminded me of the cliff divers in Acapulco.

Rosa Mexicano has a Festival de Helados going on through August 26 (at all locations) with paletas, raspados, helados and more in interesting flavors such as guava, chile de árbol and huckleberry, honey-amaranth crunch, plantain and peanut butter, and others. Check RosaMexicano.com for the addresses of locations in New York, L.A., Miami, Boston, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, San Francisco and other cities.

0 December 10, 2010 Cultura/Culture

¿Verde de envidia?

This weekend I’ll be off galavanting around Cuernavaca to visit friends with my suegra, but so as not to leave you too verde de envidia (especially if I end up eating at El Faisán before returning to Mexico City on Sunday), I thought I’d give you a few events going on in a few of my favorite U.S. cities that will make you feel like you’re in Mexico – at least for a few hours.

If you know anything about Mexican music from the 1980s, then you know the Mexico City guacarrock band, Botellita de Jerez. True story: we played the Botellita de Jerez song “Abuelita de Batman” at our wedding in Mexico and it was a hit with all our guests! For a blast from the past, watch the music video of the song below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4F3ttV9Avs[/youtube]

Now, there’s a film, “basada en hechos más o menos reales” as they say about the true story of Botellita de Jerez, and it’s called “Naco es Chido.” I’ve been dying to see the film but haven’t had the opportunity to view it yet because I was out of town when it screened in Chicago this summer during the Hola México Film Festival. Botellita de Jerez will be in San Diego and Los Angeles this weekend, with a special screening of the film in Los Angeles followed by a performance by the band….