The Brief

Alhambra has always been close to my heart. I have fond memories of visiting in my early teens and experiencing a culinary awakening at places like Noodle World, housed in old Bob’s Big Boy, with a statue inside just to remind you where you are, and 101 Noodle Express, next to a bowling alley, for sweet-tasting beef rolls.

Although it is technically in the suburbs, that’s part of its charm; it still feels very L.A. The reasonable rents and great walkability make it the perfect place to scout out cheap fast food.

While it offers a wide variety of noodles and dumplings, there are also oodles of other options, such as beloved Hainan chicken, Malaysian brunch items that go well with a nice cup of tea, and old-school L.A.-style pastrami.

This is Cheap Fast Eats Alhambra.

Kang Kang Food Court

Kang Kang food court

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Wandering into Kang Kang Food Court feels like you’ve stumbled into an alternate reality. With a vast array of signs in Chinese and English and stark fluorescent lighting, it can feel a bit of shock to the senses.

But once you collect yourself, head over to the counter where daily hot and cold bar offerings are served cafeteria-style, and the real fun can begin. Let faith guide you into picking any of their combination plates, ranging from one item for $8.71 to a four-item combo for $10.91. I, of course, always looking to get the most bang for my buck, opted for a four-item combo, which that day consisted of chicken, fish, and a couple of sides of vegetables, which was more than enough.

If that isn’t your thing, try the sheng jian bao ($12.75). These pan-fried dumplings contain large, supple meatballs filled with soup broth. The broth is scalding hot when it arrives, so wait a few beats before taking a bite. It will burn you as it runs down your face and hands, so don't say we didn’t warn you. But if you're patient, you’ll be highly rewarded with one of our favorite dumplings in all of Los Angeles, packed with many flavors.

Shanghai Pan Fried Small Bao and combo plate at Kang Kang Food Court.

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Chef G on 4th Thai Street Food 

We’re taking a detour off our beloved Valley Boulevard and heading to a section of Main where you can cozy up inside the small-ish restaurant Chef G on 4th, which offers various Thai dishes that always seem to hit the spot.

For value, we love the lunch specials, which include pad thai, green and red curries, and vegetable dishes. The prices range from $11.95 to $12.95, and they come with a side salad, soup, and jasmine rice. You can also add tofu, chicken, or pork. For a dollar more, you can get crispy pork belly, beef, or shrimp.

Chef G on 4th Thai Street Food

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Pad Thai at Chef G on 4th Thai Street Food

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A simple pad Thai noodle with tofu usually does the trick for my money. Its tight, well-constructed sauce with the sweet, almost burnt marshmallow flavor from the tamarind intermingles perfectly with the evenly fried cubes of tofu and bean sprouts, just as a good pad thai should. If you’re looking for a bit more to eat, make a combo for $13.95 - $14.95 with a one-item appetizer, a choice of cream cheese wonton, or a shrimp egg roll, for a bunch of extra creamy crunch that perfectly rounds out your meal.

The Hat (The Original) 

Pastrami sandwich at gravy fries at The Hat.

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Of course, no trip to Valley Boulevard in Alhambra is complete without visiting The Hat, known for its world-famous pastrami, where the thinly sliced ribbon-like cuts of beef are steamed to its version of perfection. Don’t come here looking for the thick cuts of pastrami usually found at places such as Canter’s Deli or Langer’s; that’s a different genre entirely. At The Hat, the go-to is the Pastrami dip ($11.95) served on a wide, squishy French roll, lightly dipped in jus, with a thin layer of yellow mustard and a couple of slices of pickles tucked into the bottom. The sandwich itself is big enough to share.

Double your luck with an order of wet fries ($6.75) featuring a large order of medium-thick-cut spuds heavily drenched in dark brown gravy sauce. The salty-tasting sauce provides the perfect shellac-like layering between bites of your sandwich. It’s a simple meal that doesn’t require much thought and offers just the right amount of comfort.

The Hat

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Savoy Kitchen 

Savoy Kitchen’s reasonably priced dishes, which draw from various influences, keep me returning. There’s one dish in particular that draws me back: the Hainan chicken ($11.95).

The simple dish, made of skin-on poached chicken breast, served with rice cooked with chicken broth, and a trio of dipping sauces consisting of soy sauce, grated ginger garlic, and a garlic chili sauce, is a damn near perfect combination.

Plates at Savoy Kitchen

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Savoy Kitchen

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Brian Feinzimer

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You can also choose dark meat for a dollar more, which is my preference. Pair it with half a side of salad and a creamy ginger vinaigrette. There’s something to be said about dipping a piece of the smooth and velvety chicken into the sauce before following it up with some rich-tasting rice or a satisfying crunch from the salad.

Honorable mention goes to their daily specials, which include oxtail stew, baked pork chop, and chicken rice noodle soup for $11-$12.

Ipoh Kopitiam

Ipoh Kopitiam

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Ipoh Kopitiam is a Malaysian cafe on the bottom floor of a medical plaza building. Despite its rather norm-core surroundings, there's a wide range of delights to be had from a country with Chinese and Indian as well as Dutch and English influences.

Sip on a cup of Malaysian milk tea, known as teh tarik ($3.95), mixed with black tea and condensed milk. Its name means ‘pulled’, which means it's poured back and forth, helping cool the temperature before consuming. The warm, frothy drink has a subtle taste, containing sweet and earthy notes. And what goes best with a nice cup of tea? Toast, of course.

Start with some kaya toast ($4.25) with butter. A simple white bread sandwich that’s lightly toasted, containing a coconut jam spread — the sweet and slightly rich flavors work great together as a light bite. Another great pastry option is the Hong Kong-style bun, also known as the pineapple bun; it contains no pineapple flavors but instead references the appearance of the fruit, with a round bun that’s topped with a bright yellow ridged sugar crust, similar to the Mexican concha, that’s sliced in half and eaten with butter. The sweet-tasting bread with the creaminess of the butter is another excellent way to get a little taste of Malaysian cuisine.

Toast with kaya and butter, roti canai with chicken curry and Hong Kong style pineapple bun with butter

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I’d be remiss not to try some curry here, another cornerstone of the cuisine. I had the roti canai with chicken curry ($8.95). This soft flatbread is served with two sides of curry, one vegetable-based and the other stewed chicken, which makes for some great dipping.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

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