The summer before last, I ran a series called Ice Cream Summer, whereupon I undertook the dreadful, nasty, difficult, and troublesome task of tasting the wares of many of our fair city's many ice creameries. I crowned the victor as Gelato Paradiso, a then-new gelato bar located smack dab in the heart of all the dressed-up character melee of Hollywood Boulevard. But so much has happened in the world of frozen dairy (or non-dairy,......

We suppose we're going to have to cop a "better late than never" stance as we offer up this belated year-end look at food in LA. Actually, we've been thinking about this one since the day before we boarded a plane in mid-December for our long-ish holiday trip, when the waiting area at our nail salon already had their copy of Los Angeles Magazine's January issue, featuring their picks for the top ten restaurants......

Since summer is winding down, we figured now would be a good time to wind down our Ice Cream Summer endeavor. We took the well-intentioned suggestion to try Venice's Robin Rose, but soon realized they'd been out of business for two years. Then the mention elsewhere in internet-land of Gelato Paradiso's new 3 month-old location in Hollywood sent us scurrying over the hill and in their front door. Among all the other ice cream......

This weekend, the Chinatown Business Improvement District is putting on a two-day Chinese Food Festival, aimed at getting folks out and about and eating in LA's historic Chinatown. Food and fun are on the menu, with attendees having the opportunity to sample tasty dishes from local restaurants, see Taiwan’s spectacular Hsiao Hsi Yuan Puppet Theatre, catch continuous showings of two of our favorite Chinese films, Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet, meet......

Would you believe that it's our fifth week of ice cream tasting, and we're still as giddy as a kid in a candy store when we get in front of those freezers full of creamy, sweet goodness? This is why we feel slightly apologetic for having put the young lady behind the counter at Bennett's this weekend through her paces with our eager sampling and mild line of questioning. Bennett's, located in the north......

There's nothing more quintessentially Hollywood than a legend of dubious origin. Such is the myth of Mashti Malone's, the curiously exotic ice cream maker that has set up shop right in the heart of Hollywood for 25 years. The truth is that when Iranian brothers Mashti and Mehdi Shirvani took over what was once the Mugsy Malone ice cream parlor, they couldn't afford to change the entire sign. So the tale is as sweet......

Okay, so here's the thing about LAist's Ice Cream Summer: We don't expect to find anything revolutionary in ice cream. We don't hope to uncover a hidden gem. We feel we should spend just as much time on the places that are, to the purists, perhaps just a bit less desirable. Places that are more, shall we say, ubiquitous. Places that exist, that enjoy some popularity, and that just happen to be popping up......

LAist is going on a delicious spree around LA from A to Z. This week, LAist dabbles in D. Inspired by the more indulgent Ice Cream Summer adventures at Fosselman's and Lickety Split, LAist now goes bargain basement with Diddy Riese in the heart of Westwood Village. We must ask, "How on earth does Diddy Riese stay in business?" Even with a line 30-deep, out the door, down the street, LAist just can’t see......

The folks over at Lickity Split say "if you like ice cream, you'll love frozen custard." We knew not of what they spoke, so we dedcided to make the new Lickity Split location in the heart of Hollywood our next stop on the Ice Cream Summer tour of the city. Frozen custard, as it so happens, originated in 1919 on Coney Island, and has sustained its popularity since then, primarily on the East Coast and......