The Brief

Borrowers have spent much of 2025 trying to keep up with dizzying changes to the federal student loan system.

The Trump administration and Congress are in the process of overhauling everything from how much Americans can borrow to how quickly they have to pay it back.

Here's what to know as we head into a new year:

President Biden's SAVE Plan is ending

The U.S. Department of Education announced in early December that it had reached a proposed settlement agreement to end the popular, yet controversial Biden-era student loan repayment plan known as SAVE.

The Saving on a Valuable Education Plan "was the most affordable, generous and flexible plan for millions of student loan borrowers," says Persis Yu of the liberal advocacy group Protect Borrowers.

But it was so affordable, generous and flexible — with its fast-tracked loan forgiveness and monthly payments as low as $0 for low-income borrowers — that Republican state attorneys general sued the Biden administration for exceeding its authority.

Legal challenges put SAVE borrowers in limbo for months, during which they were not required to make payments on their loans. Interest began accruing in August.

This new agreement, pending court approval, would end the long legal battle by ending SAVE itself.

"The law is clear: if you take out a loan, you must pay it back," Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement announcing the proposed agreement. "American taxpayers can now rest assured they will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for illegal and irresponsible student loan policies."

Under the agreement, the Education Department would commit to moving the roughly 7 million borrowers still enrolled in SAVE into other repayment plans — though some of those plans are also in flux.

Whether you blame Biden or Republicans for SAVE's downfall, Betsy Mayotte, founder of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors (TISLA), says it puts borrowers in a real bind.

"People that made other financial decisions based on what they thought their payment was gonna be on the SAVE plan — they're in trouble," Mayotte says. "A payment plan has never been challenged in court and has never been pulled out from existing borrowers."

Now, Mayotte says, those roughly 7 million SAVE borrowers will have to change plans and find a way to afford what will likely be higher monthly payments.

Complications for borrowers working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Liz Kilty, an oncology nurse in Portland, Ore., has been on the SAVE plan from the start.

"As soon as SAVE was an option, I signed up for it," says Kilty, who works in a public hospital and wanted to keep her monthly payments reasonably low on her way toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Since 2007, PSLF has offered a path for borrowers who work in public service — including teaching, nursing and policing — to have their loan balances erased after 10 years on the job.

Kilty has $36,000 in debt remaining, and 15 payments to go before she can qualify for loan forgiveness.

But SAVE's legal troubles have slowed her down: Since her payments were frozen, so too was any progress she could make toward forgiveness. "I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' Like, 'This is the year I'm going to be done, and this is the year that they're going to screw things up?' I've been waiting a decade [for forgiveness] and now things could go awry, and you're just helpless."

Earlier this month, Kilty applied for the PSLF Buyback, to make her remaining 15 payments in one lump sum and finally qualify to have the remainder forgiven.

One reason PSLF is still an option for Kilty and other borrowers is because it was created by Congress.

The Trump administration doesn't have the authority to stop PSLF — but it has worked to change the rules. Effective July 1, 2026, the department says it will deny loan forgiveness to workers whose government or nonprofit employers engage in activities with a "substantial illegal purpose." The job of defining "substantial illegal purpose" will fall not to the courts but to the education secretary.

In November, the cities of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Albuquerque, N.M., sued the Trump administration over those PSLF changes.

The complaint argued that a city or county government's resistance to the administration's immigration actions, for example, could lead the secretary to exclude that government's public workers — including a local nurse, like Kilty — from loan forgiveness.

Repayment plans are changing 

SAVE aside, trying to change repayment plans in 2026 is about to get weird.

That's because, in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Republicans also decided to gradually shut down two other popular, more affordable plans: Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE). Both base payments on a borrower's income, and both will end in mid-2028.

Current borrowers can still, technically, enroll in these plans – for now. Another income-adjusted plan to consider — one that's not going anywhere — is Income-Based Repayment (IBR).

You can find a handy list of all of these plans and compare your monthly payments on the Education Department's Loan Simulator.

Congress also used the OBBBA to create two new repayment plans, beginning on July 1, 2026, that, for new borrowers, will replace all of the current options.

1. The standard plan

Under this new standard plan, new borrowers would agree to a repayment window between 10 and 25 years, depending on the size of their debt, with what they owe being divided up, along with interest, into equal monthly payments, like a home mortgage.

Under this plan, borrowers with larger debts would qualify for a longer repayment period.

2. The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) 

For borrowers worried they don't earn enough to cover the standard plan's rigid monthly payments, Republicans created the RAP for future and current borrowers alike.

Payments would, for the most part, be based on borrowers' total adjusted gross income (AGI), and the department will waive any interest that is left after a borrower makes their monthly payment. The result: Borrowers in good standing will no longer see their loans grow.

In fact, Republicans want to make sure borrowers see their balances go down every month. For those whose monthly payments are less than $50, the government would match whatever they do pay and apply it toward the principal.

While other plans offer forgiveness of remaining debts after 20 or 25 years, the RAP would delay that to 30 years. That's a big difference, says Preston Cooper, who studies student loan policy at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Borrowers with typical levels of debt "and typical incomes for their degree level are almost always gonna pay off well before they hit that 30-year mark," Cooper says. "So if you're going into RAP, I wouldn't be thinking about forgiveness because you're probably gonna pay it off."

Beginning July 1, 2026, new loans will be subject to new borrowing limits

We've covered big changes to repayment, but there are also big changes to how much graduate students can borrow in the first place. (Undergraduates won't see any changes.)

New limits will make it harder for lower- and middle-income borrowers to attend pricier graduate schools. Republicans are shutting down the current grad PLUS program, which allows students to borrow up to the cost of their degree.

"Colleges could simply raise the price, pass the cost on to students, and the federal government would be required to write a check through the federal student loan program, " Cooper says. "That system was completely untenable, and I very much understand why Congress elected to end it." 

After July 1, grad students' borrowing will be capped at $20,500 a year. Ideally, Cooper says, this will push some schools to lower their prices.

Until they do, though, Persis Yu, with Protect Borrowers, says many students will face a serious funding gap between their federal loans and the actual cost of graduate school.

"Students are gonna have to make up that gap with some other type of funding," Yu says, "and many students are gonna have to turn to the private student loan market."

Mayotte, at TISLA, says she thinks some schools will abandon certain degree programs.

"I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when this law went through because I don't think it's gonna lower the cost of education like members of Congress think that it might," Mayotte says.

Borrowers working toward a professional graduate degree (think medicine or law) will have their borrowing capped at $50,000 a year.

Parents and caregivers who use parent PLUS loans to help students pay for college will also see new loan limits. They will be capped at $65,000 per child.

"The precipice of a default cliff"

Amidst all this change, data shows that millions of borrowers are struggling to keep up with their payments.

Preston Cooper at AEI recently published an analysis of the latest federal student loan data, and the results were sobering: 5.5 million borrowers in default, another 3.7 million more than 270 days late on their payments and 2.7 million in the early stages of delinquency.

"We've got about 12 million borrowers right now who are either delinquent on their loans or in default," Cooper says.

That's more than 1 in 4 federal student loan borrowers – a crisis raising bipartisan alarm.

Persis Yu, of Protect Borrowers, warns America is at "the precipice of a default cliff."

Mayotte adds, "I really do think we're headed for historic default rates, for a while."

And so, heading into 2026, the big question hanging over the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans is: Can all the changes they've made help bring these borrowers back into good standing? Or will the default numbers snowball into an avalanche?

Copyright 2025 NPR

I remember feeling very adult the first time I sent out holiday cards with family photos on them.

But the overall cost of this sweet, but fleeting, gesture is getting hard to swallow. The cards are expensive, of course. And then there’s the price of sending them through the mail. Forever stamps now cost 78 cents. When did that happen?

I was rethinking the whole endeavor when I did a little Googling, and bingo! — I found a bunch of websites offering stamps for close to 20 cents a piece. A fraction of the price. Was this for real?

No, as it turns out. The majorly-discounted stamps advertised online are more than likely counterfeit. And if you use fake stamps, you risk your mail being confiscated or sent back.

“Typically, there is no such thing as a discounted stamp,” said Marjan Barrigan-Husted, a federal agent with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Barrigan-Husted said “typically” because the postal service does have agreements with a select number of vendors, mostly big box stores and stamps.com, to sell stamps at a slightly discounted rate — for example, you can get a whopping 25 cents off a roll of 100 stamps from Costco.

That’s not even close to the steals I was finding online with just a little scrolling. And the stamps looked, to me, just like the latest stamps coming hot off the USPS press.

“It takes 'em about six weeks to turn around from the time the stamp is issued until it's available in the United States as a counterfeit,” said Wayne Youngblood, a writer and philatelist — an expert in stamps.

What’s behind the surge in counterfeit stamps?

Youngblood said there has been an “explosion” in counterfeit stamps in recent years, mostly coming from China. Many also come from India, Barrigan-Husted said.

Federal postal agents seized more than 4.4 million fake stamps, worth more than $3 million, just in the first quarter of this fiscal year, according to Barrigan-Husted.

Why the surge? For one thing, they are not easy to detect. “ It's very difficult to tell unless we are analyzing these stamps side-by-side in our lab with very technical equipment,” Barrigan-Husted said.

Plus, she thinks the temptation might just be too great for those on a tight income.

“The economy has been rough ever since COVID,” Barrigan-Husted said. “People with no ill intentions are thinking that they can save some money here and there by cutting costs, and one of those ways of cutting costs is to get discounted stamps.”

‘It’s like wack-a-mole’

Shutting down the websites that sell fake stamps seems like an obvious answer to the problem, or so I thought.

“ We are doing our best to shut these websites down,” Barrigan-Husted said. “But there are millions of them that just keep popping up.”

Plus, the Postal Inspection Service that Barrigan-Husted works for is a small agency, with arguably bigger fish to fry.  They also investigate child exploitation crimes, money laundering, elicit drug trafficking and other major crimes associated with the mail system.

“And so those kinds of things kind of take their priority,” Youngblood said.

What happens if you use fake stamps?

Mail fraud is a federal crime. But postal agents are more focused on suppliers of counterfeit stamps than the often unwitting consumers who buy them. But Barrigan-Husted said your mail might be confiscated and even opened if it has a fake stamp on it. Or, it could be sent back.

She said consumers should also be wary of giving their credit card information to online businesses offering stamps that are too cheap to be legit.

“ The scammers are using that information as well,” Barrigan-Husted said.

In the end, the postal service is likely the biggest victim of the illicit stamp industry — Youngblood estimates that USPS loses more than $1 billion annually when people use counterfeit stamps instead of buying the real ones.

That loss also translates to higher prices for all mail users — including the continual rise in the cost of stamps.

“ We're having to make up for all of the counterfeit stamps that have gone through the mail stream,” Barrigan-Husted said, “we still have to make up that revenue.”

For me, this all translates into an excellent excuse not to send cards this year. It’s getting late anyway. Maybe next year.

This story will be updated. Check back for details.

Whether you call it a "pineapple express" or atmospheric river, officials are warning that a massive storm moving across Southern California could pose serious threats to the region during the holidays.

Here's what we know as of Tuesday morning.

Rainfall totals

Coastal and valley areas are expected to receive 4 to 6 inches of rain over the course of the storm. Up to 10 inches is forecast for the foothills and mountains. We'll keep track of running rain totals here as the storm progresses.

Evacuations and closures

One of the main concerns with the holiday storm is mud and debris flows, and properties near recent burn scar areas are especially of concern. To prepare, officials in Orange and L.A. counties have issued evacuation warnings orders for recent burn scar areas.

Some areas are slated to get mandatory evacuation orders over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday.

If you're unsure of whether your home is in one of the evacuation warning zones, you can see this map on L.A. County's webpage for the current emergency. Go here for the latest orders in Orange County.

Nearly 400 properties in recent burn scar areas are under an evacuation order in L.A. County that went into effect at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

"Those recommendations are based on technical science, forecasting of the current weather event and our best estimate for who would be most vulnerable," Mark Pestrella, the director of the L.A. County Department of Public Works, said Tuesday morning.

The 383 properties currently under an evacuation order have been contacted directly by law enforcement or other emergency personnel. If no one answered their door, officials left flyers and will revisit the property Tuesday, according to the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management.

See latest road conditions in Southern California

Forecast

A flood watch is in place for most of Southwest California.

Tuesday morning in L.A. will be cloudy with a chance for some rain in the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

Rain will pick up later Tuesday evening and into Wednesday.

The National Weather Service said "widespread gusts of 35 to 55 miles per hour are likely" in the area.

Here are some of the potential impacts of the storm outlined by the National Weather Service:

• Widespread and significant flooding in urban areas
• Debris flows that could affect areas outside of recent burn scar areas
• Saturated soil and strong winds could lead to downed trees and power lines

Take this upcoming storm seriously

Ariel Cohen, who leads the National Weather Service in the Los Angeles and Oxnard areas, told LAist's AirTalk Tuesday morning that a storm like this occurs only once every five to 10 years in the area.

That this storm is falling on a holiday week makes it a bit more concerning, Cohen said.

" The impacts are going to be potentially much higher with folks on the roadway," Cohen added. "So what you can do now is plan to not be on the road."

Cohen also said the storm's impact won't be felt equally in different parts of the county and warned that the "life-threatening" conditions will be throughout the foothills and mountains across the region.

Understanding National Weather Service warnings

Here’s an excerpt from our guide to understanding flood warnings, if any are issued:

• Flood advisories are how the NWS begins to raise the alarm. The goal is to give people enough time to take action.
• Flood watches are your indicators to get prepared to move.
• A flood warning is issued when a hazardous weather event is imminent or already happening. When one is issued for your area, you need to get to higher ground immediately.
• A flash flood warning is issued when a flash flood is coming or in progress. Flash floods are sudden and violent floods that can start within minutes.

Read more: Flash Flood Warnings? Watches? Here’s What You Need To Know

Tips for driving in the rain

Advice on driving in the rain:

• Check weather and road conditions all along your planned route.
• Slow down.
• Keep a wider-than-usual distance between your vehicle and the one in front.
• Don't drive through standing water — as little as 12 inches of rushing water can carry away most cars, and two feet can carry away SUVs and trucks.
• Make sure tires are fully inflated.
• Check windshield wiper blades and replace if necessary.

Read more: What you should do if you end up driving in a flooded area

Downed tree, power line or flooded road?

Dial 911 in an emergency.

However, if you need to report a flooded road or a downed tree, you can call the following non-emergency numbers:

• L.A. city: Dial 311 for a flooded road or downed tree. Call (800) DIAL-DWP if you see a downed power line.
• L.A. County: (800) 675-HELP
• Ventura County: (805) 384-1500
• Orange County: (714) 955-0200 or visit here.

If you're in L.A. County and need sand bags, you can find some at local fire houses.

Staying safe when the winds are high

• Watch for traffic signals that may be out. Approach those intersections as four-way stops.
• Make sure you have a battery-operated radio and flashlights. Check the batteries to make sure they are fresh. Use flashlights for lighting during a power outage; do not use candles because they may pose a fire hazard.
• If you’re in a vehicle with a fallen power line on it, stay in the vehicle and remain calm until help arrives. It is OK to use your cellphone to call 911. If you must leave the vehicle, exit away from downed power lines and jump from the vehicle, landing with both feet together. You must not touch the vehicle and the ground at the same time. Then proceed away from the vehicle by shuffling and not picking up your feet until you are several yards away. 
• Water and electricity don’t mix. Water is an excellent conductor of electricity. Do not step in or enter any water that a downed power line may be touching.
• Do not use any equipment indoors that is designed for outdoor heating or cooking. Such equipment can emit carbon monoxide and other toxic gases.
• If you use a generator, place it outdoors and plug individual appliances directly into it, using a heavy-duty extension cord. Connecting generators directly to household circuits creates “backfeed,” which is dangerous to repair crews.
• Leave the doors of your refrigerator and freezer closed to keep food as fresh as possible. Place blocks of ice inside to help keep food cold. Check food carefully for signs of spoilage. 
• Check on your neighbors to make sure everyone is safe.

Tips on staying warm

• State law requires residential units to have heating systems that can keep indoor temperatures at a minimum of 70 degrees. That means every dwelling unit and guest room offered for rent or lease should offer heating equipment.
• Use heat smartly to save money: Cranking heaters can be expensive. If money is tight, be judicious about how and when you use your utilities. For example, only use heaters at night or only set the thermostat to around 70 degrees.
• Open and close those vents: If you have central A/C, look at where the vents are around your home. Are any open in places where you don’t stay long? Practice opening and closing those so warm air only goes where you need it (most vents should have a small toggle lever). Humidifiers can also help you warm things up — and it’s useful to add moisture into our dry air.
• Adjust your wall heaters: If you have a wall heater, you can change the output by adjusting the knob (usually at the bottom). Since wall heaters can only warm the areas where they’re placed, it’s essential to close doors to rooms you won’t be in so hot air doesn’t get wasted.
• Turn on your ceiling fan (really): If you have a ceiling fan, try turning it on. This sounds counterintuitive, but there’s science behind it. TSince hot air floats up, your fan can help move it around. For warming, your fan should spin clockwise to create an updraft. Not all fans will have this option.
  

Sign up for emergency alerts

• L.A. City: Notify L.A.
• L.A. County: Ready L.A. County
• Ventura County: Ready Ventura County
• Orange County: AlertOC
• Riverside County: AlertRivCo
• San Bernardino County

How we're reporting on this

This is a developing story. We fact check everything and rely only on information from credible sources (think fire, police, government officials and reporters on the ground). Sometimes, however, we make mistakes or initial reports turn out to be wrong. In all cases, we strive to bring you the most accurate information in real time and will update this story as new information becomes available.

Facing a mountain of lawsuits, California K-12 schools will have a system in place beginning this year to prevent teachers and other staff from sexually abusing students.

A new California law creates an array of measures to educate school staff, beef up reporting requirements and stop teachers credibly accused of abuse from getting jobs at other districts.

The law, Senate Bill 848, goes into effect Jan. 1 and schools must have protocols in place by July. The law applies to all schools, including private schools.

“I’m proud to see this bill move forward. It’s been really personal for me,” state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, the bill’s author, told CalMatters after it passed. “For survivors, this is an important step toward justice.”

Avalanche of lawsuits

The law stems from a previous California law that made it easier for victims to sue school districts and counties. Under AB 218, which went into effect in 2020, victims can file suit until age 40 or even older if they didn’t remember being abused until later in life. That’s led to an avalanche of lawsuits and much greater public awareness of the scope of the problem.

So far, victims have filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against school districts and counties, with some resulting in enormous payouts. A jury in Riverside County in 2023 handed Moreno Valley Unified a $135 million verdict over abuse allegations, and Los Angeles Unified faces more than $500 million in claims.

Overall, California schools face nearly $3 billion in sex abuse claims from former students, according to the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, a state agency that helps school districts with financial matters. Some of the incidents occurred decades ago, as early as the 1940s, and some of the payouts have been so large that they’ve led districts to financial insolvency.

School accountability

While the new law doesn’t address the lawsuits, it does institute measures intended to stop future abuse and hold schools more accountable. It requires schools to write comprehensive policies on appropriate behavior, and train students, teachers, coaches and other school staff on recognizing and reporting misconduct. It also broadens the number of staff who are required to report abuse allegations.

Perhaps the most noteworthy requirement is creating a database of teachers credibly accused of abuse. The database, to be administered by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, will be available to schools during their hiring processes. The aim is to stop teachers who’ve abused students from quitting and getting rehired elsewhere, only to abuse more students. Teachers who’ve been cleared of wrongdoing will be removed from the database.

Pérez, a Democrat from Alhambra, said she was inspired to author the new law after reading about generations of abuse at Rosemead High School, which is in her district. She also told CaMatters that she was the victim of a teacher’s unwanted attention when she was in high school.

“There are now dollars and cents being assigned to these cases,” she said in September. “It’s really opened up this conversation about what can we do to better prevent this abuse from happening.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

After hundreds of meals across Southern California this year, these 12 dishes stand out for me — not just for how they tasted, but for what they revealed about our region.

2025 took me from makeshift taco stands in Vernon to Michelin-starred counters in Little Tokyo, from strip-mall gems in Garden Grove to high-profile chef collaborations in Santa Monica and downtown L.A.

I tasted underappreciated cuisines finally get their due, discovered that some of the most memorable meals cost less than lunch at a chain restaurant, and felt embraced by love as a Long Beach chef turned a dinner into a wildfire fundraiser. What tied it all together? Each dish told a story about who we are as Angelenos — our immigrant roots, our creative spirit, our refusal to choose between honoring tradition and pushing boundaries.

So without further ado, here are my best dishes of 2025.

Aguachile at Mariscos Chiltepín (Vernon)

Aguachile mixto with salsa verde and salsa negra at Mariscos Chiltepín in Vernon. Chef Francisco Leal dusts the fresh shrimp with crushed chiltepín peppers for extra heat.

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In the never-ending quest to find the best mariscos in all of Los Angeles, after a few tips from some trusted colleagues, I found myself at Mariscos Chiltepín, a small makeshift outdoor restaurant run by Francisco Leal, who's from Sinaloa, Mexico. Leal's tenure in Los Angeles began when he helped start Del Mar Osteria, a popular mariscos truck located off La Brea, for which he still consults.

These days, Leal can be found on the streets of Vernon making some of the most memorable aguachiles that I've had in recent memory. I ordered a mixture featuring fresh, opaque shrimp splayed in a circle, bathed in two different salsas on either side, which Leal makes himself. I ordered a salsa verde along with his signature salsa negra, both dusted with crushed bits of chiltepín, a tiny, fiery wild chili pepper that's also Leal's stand's namesake, providing that extra added heat. The salsas are dynamic beyond belief, each with its own distinctive flavor profile that combines sweet, savory and spicy notes, highlighting the integrity of the fresh shrimp and making the dish super memorable.

Roasted duck breast at Backbone (Montrose)

Roasted duck breast with caramelized endive and roasted black figs at Backbone in Montrose.

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I've always been a sucker for a good comeback story when it comes to restaurant vets, especially in places like Los Angeles, where there seems to be endless fascination with the new, best thing.

But what if chefs and restaurateurs used their platforms as jumping-off points to grow and develop into something that recognizes its past while embracing its future? That's the vibe I caught while visiting Backbone, located on North Verdugo Road in the Montrose neighborhood, run by Karen Yoo and Nathan McCall. They were the original owners of McCall's Meat & Fish at its first Los Feliz location before selling it. McCall and Yoo have also spent time cooking in some of the most revered kitchens in the world, including the Michelin-starred Daniel in New York and Arzak in San Sebastián, Spain.

That talent is on full display at this cozy neighborhood bistro, where you can grab a seat at the bar or any one of the tables and still get a good view of the team pulling out all the stops. A standout dish for me was the roasted duck breast, dressed in a buttery golden sauce, served alongside caramelized endive with roasted black figs over a bed of greens. It was both seasonal and timeless, capturing McCall and Yoo's ability to stay as relevant as ever, just in a different era of their careers.

Goat biryani at Jikoni (Culver City)

Goat biryani and sides including kale egusi at Kiano Moju's pop-up Jikoni, which operated at Citizen Public Market in Culver City before the market closed.

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This past year, I had the privilege of hosting the LAist live event series Cookbook Live, in partnership with the James Beard Foundation, where I participated in live cooking demos and conversations.

One of the guests was Kiano Moju. Moju was born in California to African immigrant parents — her mother is Kenyan, and her father is Nigerian. In 2024, she published her cookbook AfriCali.

I got to try some of Moju's cooking at her pop-up Jikoni at the Citizen Public Market in Culver City before it closed earlier this year. When our social media producer, Brandon Killman, and I arrived, Moju informed us that the special of the day was goat biryani. I'm a huge fan of goat protein and love the gamey flavor it adds to each dish, and I always jump at the chance to try it in a way I haven't had before.

The rich flavors from Moju's version didn't disappoint. The same goes for the seemingly endless side dishes she served with it, which included her egusi, a traditional West African dish with cooked-down kale, where the bitterness of the greens and the nutty flavors of the crushed melon seeds came together with the soft bitterness of the roughage.

Jikoni ended right before the Citizen Public Market closed its doors; however, Moju and her team are still popping up around Los Angeles. Follow her on Instagram to see where she'll be next.

Chochoyotes with squash blossoms, roast Petaluma chicken with pepián at Rustic Canyon x Acamaya (Santa Monica)

Chochoyotes with squash blossoms (top) and roast Petaluma chicken with pepián at the Rustic Canyon x ACAMAYA collaboration dinner in Santa Monica.

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Elijah Deleon's work at Rustic Canyon has consistently demonstrated that Mexican cooking doesn't need to compromise its soul to earn fine-dining recognition. For this collaborative dinner at his home base — where he serves as chef de cuisine — Deleon partnered with Chef Ana Castro of Acamaya, the acclaimed New Orleans mariscos restaurant known for blending Mexican traditions with Louisiana Gulf Coast ingredients. Castro brought the same infectious energy to her cooking as she did working the dining room that night, flitting from table to table like a monarch butterfly with plenty of joie de vivre. The result was a multicourse showcase of what happens when Mexican techniques meet California's peak-season abundance.

The chochoyotes course — an ode to Oaxacan cooking made from the masa from Chef Fatima Juarez's KOMAL, the craft molino located in the Mercado de Paloma — made the strongest case: those distinctive thumb-pressed masa dumplings swimming in a vibrant golden-green sauce built from Valdivia Farms squash blossoms, eggplant and habanada peppers (a fruity, floral cousin of a habanero minus the spice). Whole squash blossoms — some bearing delicate char marks — floated alongside the dumplings, their petals still intact and tender. Where traditional preparations might serve chochoyotes in simple broths, the sauce is carefully emulsified to preserve that just-picked vibrancy rather than the heavier, earthier notes of conventional moles.

The roast Petaluma chicken with pepián proved equally revelatory. That ancient pumpkin seed sauce — golden-green and glossy with natural oils from ground pepitas — pooled around perfectly cooked chicken, topped with a tangle of sunflower shoots and edible flowers. Deleon's refined take maintained a distinctive nutty, earthy complexity, while fresh plums added subtle sweetness to the sauce's savory depth. It was the cooking of both chefs that honored its roots while speaking fluently in California's agricultural dialect — precisely the kind of work that defines both Rustic Canyon and Acamaya's overlapping missions.

Gimmari at Kato x Animae (Downtown Los Angeles)

Gimmari, Korean seaweed rolls filled with shrimp, pork and perilla are topped with salmon roe and are meant to be eaten by hand, wrapped in the perilla leaves.

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When Jon Yao and Tara Monsod, two chefs operating at the highest level of Asian American dining, came together for a Sunday Summer Series dinner pairing, it felt inevitable. Both are committed to honoring tradition while refusing to be constrained by it. But it was the opening course that set the tone for everything that followed: gimmari, those humble Korean seaweed-wrapped noodle rolls, reimagined as sleek rectangular packages filled with shrimp, pork and perilla, then crowned with glistening salmon roe.

Served on wooden planks atop fresh perilla leaves, the dish demanded interaction — you wrapped the crispy, glossy nori bundle in the aromatic leaf. You ate it with your hands, almost like a taco, with the ikura bursting against the savory filling. It was refined and playful, luxurious and humble, a perfect synthesis of both chefs' approaches. This wasn't just elevated banchan; it was a thesis statement about what California's Asian diaspora cooking can be when two masters collaborate.

Carnitas at Carnitas Los Gabrieles (downtown Los Angeles)

Michoacán-style carnitas tacos at Carnitas Los Gabrieles in Downtown's Piñata District.

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There's something fitting about a Gabriel (that’s me) finding his way to Carnitas Los Gabrieles in the Piñata District — call it destiny or just good marketing, but either way, it delivered. This is Michoacán-style carnitas done right: all parts of the pig, slow-cooked until they achieve that impossible texture where the meat simultaneously holds its shape and melts the moment it hits your tongue.

Served on freshly made tortillas that were still warm, the carnitas needed nothing more than maybe a squeeze of lime and some salsa to let that pork fat work its magic. Every bite was pure, unapologetic indulgence — the kind of straightforward, technically perfect cooking that reminds you why carnitas remain one of Mexico's greatest gifts to the taco world.

Tasting Menu at Restaurant Ki (Little Tokyo)

Dungeness crab soup with pine mushrooms and fresh noodles made by Keizo Shimamoto at Restaurant Ki in Little Tokyo.

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Gab Chabrán

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LAist

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Chef Ki Kim earned his first Michelin star this year, and one evening at his Little Tokyo counter made it clear why. The $285 multicourse tasting menu is nuanced dining storytelling at its finest — each plate building on the last, taking you on a culinary journey that feels both meticulously crafted and surprisingly intimate. Kim's cooking has a quiet confidence that never announces itself, letting technique and ingredient quality speak without unnecessary flourish.

What sets Restaurant Ki apart from other high-end tasting menus is its approachability. Despite the price point and the precision on display, there's nothing precious or intimidating about the experience. Kim and his staff engage directly with diners from behind the counter, explaining dishes without pretension, making you feel included in the creative process rather than merely observing it. It's the kind of meal that justifies its cost not through luxury ingredients or theatrical presentation, but through thoughtfulness, skill, and genuine hospitality — the markers of a chef who understands that a Michelin star is just the beginning of the conversation.

Makali pita at Sababa Falafel Shop (Garden Grove)

Makali pita at Sababa Falafel Shop in Garden Grove, stuffed with fried eggplant, potato, vegetables, pickles and tahini.

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Gab Chabrán

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LAist

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In the suburban sprawl of Orange County, finding a parking spot in a strip mall lot can be just as challenging as scoring a reservation. Sababa Falafel Shop in Garden Grove has been quietly earning recommendations for years, tucked into one of those spaces that reward the effort. This is the kind of place that does one thing exceptionally well: stuffing impossibly good ingredients into warm, soft pita bread until it can barely contain itself.

The makali pita was a revelation — fried eggplant and potato tumbling together with assorted vegetables, sharp pickles cutting through the richness, all drizzled with creamy tahini that tied everything together. Every bite delivered that perfect contrast of textures: crispy, tender, tangy, smooth. And as the name suggests, their falafel lives up to the shop's reputation, which everyone is given a free sample of before they order — herbaceous, perfectly crispy outside, fluffy within.

Sesame cold noodles at Liu's Cafe (Koreatown)

Sesame cold noodles with chili crisp and chili wontons at Liu's Cafe in Koreatown.

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Gab Chabrán

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LAist

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What if I told you one of my favorite meals in Koreatown this year wasn't actually Korean food, but instead a hybrid Taiwanese and Hong Kong-style cafe with a modern bent? Liu's Cafe is just that place. Walk inside and you might think it's strictly a spot for coffee and tea — which it is — but you'd be missing the point entirely if you didn't explore the lunch menu, particularly the noodles.

The sesame cold noodles with chili crisp sound simple on paper, but that simplicity is exactly what makes them remarkable. Fresh, extra-chewy egg noodles get bathed in house-made sesame sauce and chili oil, topped with crisp cucumber. Each bite builds on the last, reminding you that not everything needs to be elaborate to be exceptional. The chili wontons hit that same sweet spot — spicy, savory, beautifully textured, tasting exactly like the platonic ideal of what the dish should be. Washing it all down with one of their Taiwanese fruit teas over ice added the perfect fruity counterpoint to all that savory heat. I haven't stopped thinking about this place since, and I'm already planning my return.

Afro-Caribbean shrimp dumplings at Si!mon (Venice)

Afro-Caribbean shrimp dumplings in coconut bisque with coconut rice at Si!mon in Venice.

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Gab Chabrán

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LAist

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It was a Monday night and I was on assignment to write about a $27 Panamanian-style lamb neck tamal, so I made a late reservation at Si!mon in Venice — 8:45 p.m., late enough to put my kids to bed first. Chef Jose Olmedo Carles Rojas' restaurant had been on my radar for years, ever since it opened, but I'd only had Panamanian food once before and honestly had no idea what I was in for.

My server didn't need to work too hard to convince me to order beyond the tamal. The Afro-Caribbean shrimp dumplings arrived in a pool of coconut bisque, highlighted with charred scallion oil and fresh herbs — essentially shumai that had taken a tropical vacation. Alongside it, the coconut rice looked unassuming. Still, it delivered some of the most memorable rice I've tasted this year: deeply coconut-forward with crispy, caramelized bits throughout that left me almost at a loss for words. I ended up pacing myself through both dishes, partly to save room but mostly because I wanted to bring some home for my wife to share in the discovery.

Si!mon is a special restaurant, and I'm already ready to go back to soon — hopefully at a more reasonable dining hour.

Crispy smoked lamb belly at Selva (Long Beach)

Crispy smoked lamb belly at Selva in Long Beach. Chef Carlos Jurado, who grew up in Long Beach, blends Colombian influences with techniques learned at Nashville's Husk and Beverly Hills' Bouchon.

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Gab Chabrán

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LAist

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I'd be remiss not to mention a Long Beach restaurant on this list (where I live), especially when Selva remains one of my favorite places in the city. Chef Carlos Jurado has built a reputation as something of a local culinary alchemist, playfully blending Colombian food with influences from the American South (he worked with Sean Brock at Husk in Nashville) and Southern California fine dining (Thomas Keller's Bouchon in Beverly Hills).

The crispy smoked lamb belly exemplifies his approach — similar to pork belly but lighter, with a distinct gamey richness that sets it apart. It arrived over a bed of forbidden black rice, topped with a heap of purple spring onions and a thick triangle of pickled golden beets that cut through the richness with sharp acidity. It's exactly the kind of dish you get from a chef who honors tradition without being bound by it.

Chicken parmesan at Ellie's (Long Beach)

Chicken Parmesan at Ellie's in Long Beach. Chef Jason Witzl turned this dinner service into a fundraiser for those affected by the Eaton fire, asking guests to donate directly to a friend who lost his home rather than paying for their meals.

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Gab Chabrán

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The wildfires that hit Los Angeles were felt everywhere throughout the Southland, even all the way down here in Long Beach. When my wife and I were invited to a special dinner at Ellie's — a charming Italian American bistro run by Jason Witzl, blocks from the ocean — we knew we were coming to support our mutual friend Andre Soto, whose house was tragically lost in the Eaton fire. What we didn't realize was what Chef Jason had planned for the evening.

When he came out to address the whole dining room, he announced he wouldn't be charging anyone that night — instead asking guests to donate directly to Andre and his family. There was an audible gasp. Nobody expected that kind of generosity, but the leadership Chef Jason showed that evening, rallying the Long Beach community around a victim of the Altadena fire, made this one of the most important meals I attended all year. The chicken parmesan — deliciously breaded chicken breast blanketed in mozzarella and swimming in bright San Marzano tomato sauce, served with a simple arugula salad — was exactly the kind of comforting, generous food the moment called for. It was a perfect meal to celebrate a friend and support a good cause.