Category Archives: Food

Cinco de Mayo: A Cultural Holiday

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We were driving thru the Westside today, somewhere along the border of Silver Lake and Echo Park, when we thought we saw something stupid headed our way. Sure enough, and cuz I had my camera handy, we were able to take a picture of some innocent dolt dressing up as a Mexican captain of sorts on his way to some shitty place to drink his shitty Tecate beers. Oh yeah, it’s Drinko de Mayo! We of the Chicano variety are not so learnededed on this American holiday so we decided to seek out an experience. Might as well get to know the Ethnic people that live in your city and figure out why they do the things they do.

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Dia de los Muertos in Boyle Heights!!

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There are way too many DOD happenings all over town. So I am keeping it local, and real in my neighborhood — Boyle Heights (Aliso & Mariachi Plaza Goldline stops only). You are welcome to come down, we’ve got it all –music, art, food for the living y los muertitos, crafts, lagrimas y sonrisas, celebrities, new and old friends, timeless charm mixed with new adventures—but be warned, I predict it’s gonna get congested, so please take public transportation. Be sure to support the local merchants, artists and community spaces!

Dia de los Muertos in Boyle Heights!!

October 28, 29 & 30 – Boyle Heights Farmers Market Harvest Festival at Plaza del Mariachi (1st & Boyle) 3-9pm. Free. All ages. A cocktail of crafts, vegetables, mariachi music, Tupperware, kids crafts, haunted house, pumpkin patch and pushcart vendors, in a beautiful historical setting. Don’t leave without taking in the view of downtown from the eastside. (Mariachi Plaza Metro station).

October 28, Opening Night of “Revival” Day of the Dead art exhibit curated by Patssi Valdez, 7-9pm. Why go to LACMA to see what Patssi Valdez is up to? This year’s exhibit is an eye candy of installation and visual art which includes many notables. SHG, 1300 East 1st Street (right across from the Aliso Metro station).

October 29, Noche de Ofrenda, 6-9pm. Get the lowdown on what Dia de los Muertos is all about. Reflect and commemorate your dearly departed with the spoken words of Letras de Maguey and the timely history of this ancient custom by Master Altar Maker, Ofelia Esparza. SHG 1300 East 1st Street (Aliso Metro station).

November 2, Celebrate at the NEW Casa 0101 Theatre, 2102 E. 1st Street starting at 3pm. Enjoy a Burlesque & Calavera Show, 4pm and special art exhibit featuring classic SHG Day of the Dead artwork from previous exhibitions, as well as altars, masks, and works by Corky Dominguez, Josefina Lopez, and other local artists. Bring the kids and the whole family for fun, flowers, refreshments, and pan de muerto. Free. Then it’s off, in a procession along 1st Street to Self Help Graphics’ Festival at 4:20pm! (Aliso Metro station).

November 2, Self Help Graphics & Art 38th Annual Dia de los Muertos Celebration. Starting at 5pm with a Walking Procession gathering, face painting & ceremony at Mariachi Plaza (1st St. & Boyle) Joining en-route 4pm at Casa 0101, 4:30pm at Corazon del Pueblo, 5:30pm Pecan Park with Amigos from Dolores Mission/Proyecto Pastoral. Metro Procession led by Tochtli 7 the Aztec Bunny, 4pm at Union Station 801 Vignes Street to Aliso Station in front of SHG! Musical Performances by Maya Jupiter, La Resistencia, Lysa Flores , Chicano Son, Hard N Da Paint, Hello My Name Is Red, Son Muxeres, Mariachi Tesoro Los Angeles, Pio Pico Middle School, Stage Band (Brooklyn Music Center), Thee Paramounts (Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory Band) with ELA legend Ruben Guevara as Emcee. Traditional Danza, Food and Craft Vendors, Face Painting, Live T-shirt Printing, Children’s Workshops. What can I say? It’s the Mother of all Day of the Dead celebrations. SHG, 1300 East 1st Street (right across from the Aliso Metro station).

November 2, Eastside Luv Wine & Cheese (whine & ‘jeeez’) Bar, Dia de los Dead Oingo Boingo Dead Man’s Pari Tribute, 5pm. Featuring musicians John Avila, Steve Bartek, Sluggo Phipps & Johnny Vatos with art by Robert Vargas. An annual collision of Halloween costume dress code, hedonism and wine cocktails on top of a Day of the Dead altar squeezed into a phone booth. 1835 E. 1st Street. (Mariachi Plaza Metro station).

November 2, Orale!: An Evening of Boyle Heights Stories, 7:30 – 9:30pm at the Breed Street Shul, 247 N. Breed St. (and Cesar Chavez). Residents young and old are invited to record their neighborhood stories  for the Breed Street Shul’s oral history archives. Pictures and memorabilia of your favorite Boyle Heights memories are welcome. Special preview of new play Dia de los Dybbuk, a musical retelling of the classic story about a Jewish Exorcism, only this time set in the multi-ethnic community of Boyle Heights in the early 1940s. Please RSVP. The Breed Street Shul Project, the Jewish Historical Society of So-Cal & Libros Schmibros are co-sponsors of this Dia de Los Muertos program. (Soto Metro station).

November 4, 5, & 6 Dia De Los Muertos Festival at Plaza Del Mariachi (1st and Boyle).  More than likely starting in the afternoon. Featuring a live performance by Eziquiel Pena. Para variar vamos a celebrar Dia de los Muertos! (Mariachi Plaza Metro station).

 

Dia de los Muertos 2011 Event Listings

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It’s that time of the year again folks !! Time to dress up as everyday people and add the word “sexy” to it to make it a Halloween costume. At the same time, it also means that Dia de los Muertos is just around the corner as well. And as has been the tradition for the last 2 years, I compiled a list of Dia de los Muertos events happing in L.A. starting this weekend, continuing through November 5th.

I made the first post over at LA Taco because they asked ever so nicely. And since I was already working on the post, I figured what the hey. But rather than copy and paste all that info on here again, and upload a BUTT LOAD of pics, again, I’d figure I’d link that post and share some Eastside Dia de los Muertos highlights with ya’ll. My top pics if you will.  Continue reading →

Fresco Community Market Is Worth A Visit

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North East Los Angeles is full of wankers. Well maybe not full but teeming at the very least. They like to bitch and complain about how this area is great but if only it had this or that particular amenity they had grown accustomed to back in their old fancy community or generic suburb. Whenever I hear them whine (or mostly when I read their laments online) I want to poke them in the eyes, 3 Stooges style. Because for all that griping they are still never happy even when they get what they want. That seemed to be the case today when I finally visited this fairly new market in Hermon which was incredibly nearly empty of customers. Yes, I am arbitrarily going to use this visit to make some wild generalizations and to argue that catering to the monied hill people is a losing proposition.

 

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Notes from the Boyle Heights Wastelands

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This week the spin doctors were working overtime to make Michelle Obama look like a hypocrite for eating a burger and fries, because it registered at 1700 calories!! One of her personal campaigns is to have healthier food in public school cafeterias and food programs. Who’s not for that? Back to the calories though– for some women a whole day’s intake of calories could be 2000 or around that (yes, that’s 3 meals) and the amount needed just to maintain the same weight, not to loose or gain. Gender, age, activity and some doctors think ethnicity, determine how many calories an individual should eat.

Being a vegetarian for decades now, I have had run-ins with long lost friends at the super market whose eyes sadden upon spotting meat in my cart. I don’t need to explain that my cat is on an organic food diet and eats ground turkey or that I make beef tamales and chicken mole for my brother on his birthday —but I do. I practically live like a monk, because I have lived in a certain way and people expect that from me— I expect that from me. I really don’t ram my personal rules down anyone’s throat and those of you who think I do —“you really wouldn’t want to know what goes on in my head”. Still, there are some hardships to being a role model, even if it’s by accident, like me. I would not trade places with someone in the microscopic public eye, like poor Michelle.

We all know that Boyle Heights and some other communities on the eastside are considered to be food deserts, because there are not enough super markets to supply us with nutritious and healthy foods. If you’ve ever tried to get into El Super at 6 p.m. on any day—you know what I mean. Forget about getting a healthy vegetarian choice at any of the local restaurants either. It’s all about the queso. There are many people that have poor diets in the food dessert (due to lack of availability), they are considered to be malnutrition. But, even if we live in a food desert, we can make choices that are healthy instead of giving into the “high profits and low product” American food cartels. People who use grocery coupons to make ends meet can easily fall into the pit of foods that have absolutely no nutritional value. Think about it—why would a manufacturer give you something free? Usually, it is for a new product and it reminds me of the drug dealers (in those 80s movies) that get you hooked on cheba by giving you freebies at first. Beware of those coupons.
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Tostiloco

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On a recent trip to my hometown of San Diego I was introduced to the wonderful world of Tostilocos. Though it f-ed up my stomach I couldn’t not stop eating it. I think almost anything with Chaca-Chaca, lime and chile would be deloosh.

Intersecting Realities: Visions of Immigrant Narratives

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Save the date for June 18th 6 p.m. for what will be one of many art shows that looks at the Dream Act movement from the point of view of the individuals who make it up. This is a show that has been a long time in the making and through a collective effort of individuals and artist, a space has been created in which the movement will be seen a little differently that the normal political context. Seen the way we see it ourselves everyday going to work, school, being activist, artist, brothers, sisters, daughters,sons … human beings making the best of what was given to us.People see us as the students, dreamers, activist and youth, but rarely do those same people get to see the other sides of our lives outside of these spaces. Truly, a persons personally is like a kaleidoscope, perpetualy changing, sometimes too fast to notice.

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Condiments

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The Three Beauties of the Modern Los Angeles Table. Sriracha, Ketchup, and Tapatio are ubiquitous around the city and usually always hanging out together.

Take a guess where this was spotted: first person to figure out the type of restaurant it was and leaves a comment on this post wins a free LA Eastside t-shirt. (Make sure you use a real email address tonto!)

If you are reading this on our facebook page make sure to comment here instead: https://laeastside.com/2011/05/condiments

UPDATE!

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Eastside Food: Mariscos El Rey del Mar

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On Saturday my two friends and I decided to go hunt for some new mariscos spots. For the longest our friend Don Bon was telling us about this truck near the old Lincoln Heights jail called, “milagros” he said that the shrimp cocteles were the best. Well that milagro never occurred because the truck was never found, and I had asked around a few times.  However, last weekend he suggested another truck which is called Mariscos El Rey del Mar. The funny thing is that it took us about 40 minutes to find it(we did not know the name at first). He said if we exit the freeway we would get off on 4th and it would be on State Street near a park. We did all that but we went to the wrong truck! we ended up by Hollenback park where there was another marisco truck. I was kind of suspicious about it because it was real lonely with no customers. I talked to the older lady serving the food and she said she was the only marisco truck nearby. My friend ordered the ceveche but I had to taste it before I ordered. First taste and I was not feeling it at all.  I knew after that we must of found the wrong truck! I still felt obligated to order so I got a taco de papa for a buck. After feeling defeated we called Don Bon again we all  felt like  we were definitely bugging him, but  he laughed and told us once again how to find the correct truck. Long story short we finally found it!

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