Urban Honking

Our salad days are in full swing, and to celebrate we revived an eternal standard of the garde manger: the Nisçoise. Ubiquitous on the bistro menu, the salad composé of Nice is a meal sized salad anyone can make. Our version is certainly not the spitting image of the forever-popular pile of components crowned with […]

Occasionally life passages require dramatic, indulgent celebrations. Since we — the two baby men behind Hot Knives — both turned a quarter-of-a-century-old this year, we’re starting to forlornly dig the passage of time enough that we can get Dionysian once in a while for special occasions. Like last week. We partook in an out-of-control, meat-free, […]

Avery Brewing Company is probably the best argument in favor of southwestern beer superiority. In terms of flavor, packaging, and lunacy, their beers rank highly in our little pantheon of liquid love. For anyone outside of the exteded four corners area, you’re seriously missing out. Oak aged barley wines? 15% abv. stouts? Imperial Oktoberfest Lager? […]

Being brunch geeks, hollandaise sauce has caused us a great deal of pain. The evil goo of egg yolks and clarified butter escapes any true vegan interpretation. Still, we’ve settled on a replacement we’re quite happy with: creamy polenta jacked with vegetable stock, shallots, garlic and fake butter. The enveloping amoeba-like blob of the polenta […]

The Sonoma Farmhouse series is a new line of beers brewed by the bad dudes of the central coast. Lagunitas’ beers usually rank on the heavier side boasting brutal bitterness, and large alcohol percentages. The first two farm hands are milder affairs, with temperate booze levels and heavy-handed subtlety. At a meeting of the minds […]

Here in L.A., the fish wrap of record — for restaurant reviews as much as for local news — remains the Los Angeles Times. Every Wednesday we skip the front page over coffee and turn straight to the weekly Food section. Though wincingly pedigreed at times, most of the critiques and recipe writing are juicy, […]

The classic, wet, hot, American pool party would seem to be all about exclusivity. That sucks, a lot. So we brought a classy American side dish that tastes totally inclusive: even if you hate eggs and can’t eat wheat without vomming (we keep meaning to throw more wheat-free recipes out there). This macaroni salad tastes […]

Dear Readerz, Out of civic duty — and not mean spirits — we feel compelled to respectfully call out one of the leading vegan fast food joints in the L.A. area for a sad case of misrepresentation. Orean Health Express, often hailed as the Eastside mecca of realistic meat-like drive through cuisine, is fronting, hardcore. […]

People like steak and eggs. As we understand it. First there’s the gnarly char of a gristly piece of mediocre, trounced-on red meat. Then you top it with the ooze of some barely-above-temperature chicky eggs. Sounds to us, like kind of a nightmare. But hey, one dudes’ nightmare is another dude’s Saturday belly bomb. Since […]

There is, according to Jules Verne (among other Frenchies), a fleeting visual phenomenon that accompanies a warm summer sunset — he called it “le rayon vert,” the green ray, or perhaps more literally “the green flash.” By his description, the green ray was a split second flash of emerald light just as the sun dips […]