The Brief

Throughout ancient mythology, birds have often prefigured good fortune for characters keen enough to spot them.

So it goes then that during the early days, when the three 20-somethings behind Dave’s Hot Chicken laid eyes on a single, limp rubber chicken for sale — just as they meandered around a local swap meet in the search of cheap kitchen equipment — it stopped them dead.

“We're like, what are the chances there's one rubber chicken inside a kitchen store, when we're trying to open up a chicken restaurant,” said Arman Oganesyan, one of the three cofounders along with Tommy Rubenyan and Dave Kopushyan.

L-R: Arman Oganesyan, Tommy Rubenyan and Dave Kopushyan.

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Courtesy Dave's Hot Chicken

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The trio announced earlier this week that they signed what’s purported to be a billion-dollar deal with Roark Capital, a private equity firm that owns brands like Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins.

Quite a coup, considering they famously got their start with some foldout tables and fryers in a Hollywood parking lot back in 2017 with a pooled $900 worth of savings.

Their rubber chicken logo that put them in the public's consciousness

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Courtesy Dave's Hot Chicken

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Needless to say, they brought the rubber chicken home, and decided to use the goofy oddity as their logo.

“And every time people see a rubber chicken, they'll think of the brand and every time they see a brand, they'll think of the rubber chicken, and it'll be this really crazy snowball effect,” said Oganesyan, who’s known as the marketing genius behind the brand, or in his words the “talker.”

That strategy behind the crude but indelible logo that draws eyes all throughout the city “worked kind of perfectly over time,” he added.

It's just one of a number of serendipitous moments that happened just perfectly, allowing these local boys to catch lightning in a bottle — proving that friends can actually be successful business partners under the right circumstances.

Childhood friends

The three friends grew up in the heart of Hollywood “with nothing,” Oganesyan said. He's known Rubenyan since kindergarten, and met Dave Kopushyan — the one with the cooking skills — in middle school on what was actually Kopushyan’s birthday.

His brain started clicking some years later in 2017, when Oganesyan said he saw Nashville-style chicken start to trend hard.

“I'm like, damn. Dave's this culinary guy. We're good friends. We have great chemistry. If we could maybe work on a recipe and kind of jump in on this, like strike while the iron's hot?” he said.

Except Kopushyan — who had previously cooked at the French Laundry, as well as several Los Angeles restaurants — was actually a vegetarian at the time. He was also working as a chef at Echo Park’s Elf Café, then a vegetarian restaurant. (Elf just closed its doors on June 1.)

It took some prodding, as “he wasn’t about it at first,” said Oganesyan, who was already a fried chicken fiend. But he finally got Kopushyan to give the Nashville-style chicken a look, as he couldn’t deny it was getting seriously popular.

Quickly, “he was kind of hooked,” Oganesyan said. They started developing the patented Dave’s Hot Chicken coating — which relied on “baseline ingredients” accessible anywhere, which would help with scaling the business later — at Dave’s home over a period of months.

Tommy Rubenyan entered the picture as their main and “only believer,” Oganesyan said. None of their other friends were interested in going in with them on a food truck at the time. But Tommy was just like, “Yeah, I'm down. I'm like down to whatever.”

After deciding on the recipe, Rubenyan found the Thai Town parking lot where they’d set up shop just a few blocks from his place on Alexandria street. He was the one to make the call — “Well, we should start tomorrow” — even though they didn’t have any permits.

The appealing yet simple menu

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Courtesy Dave's Hot Chicken

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“He was like, ‘No one’s going to give three kids permits,’” Oganesyan recalled.

They could worry about paperwork later. Eventually, Rubenyan's brother Gary came on board and helped them open their first brick and mortar.

Perfecting the batter

Oganesyan, Kopushyan and Rubenyan are Armenian. Oganesyan moved to L.A. from Armenia when he was 2. Kopushyan and Rubenyan were born here shortly after their families arrived. Hot chicken isn’t really a thing in Armenian cooking, Oganesyan said, though the culture is very spice-heavy and they brought a hint of those flavors into their batter.

But Kopushyan had a Korean roommate and another from South Carolina who were into chicken. “So everybody kind of gave their input and we had all of these different pals who would come in and like help guide us.” In the end, what they got was an amalgam of “different cultures and palettes,” he said.

Another moment of luck occurred when Farley Elliot, then-senior editor at Eater LA, visited their chicken stand just a few days after they opened and gave them a writeup, telling readers the chicken would "blow their mind." He’d been made privy by the owner of nearby bar Tabula Rasa that these guys were cooking up some good chicken.

The day after Elliot’s article hit, they had a line of 60 to 70 waiting customers, Oganesyan said. From there, he continued to push the brand through an intense and focused “craving”-fueled social media strategy. But none of that would matter, he added, if the foundation wasn’t the strength of their food, as they had no marketing budget back then.

Could this stroke of good fortune have happened anywhere but L.A. at this particular moment in time?

“I always say that there's very few places where you could have done it like this,” Oganesyan said. “But I think L.A. played a very, very big role in how popular it got and how fast it got that popular. Because anything that trends in L.A., it creates this wave feeling where people catch that wave.”

“Like even hot chicken in general, before it came to L.A., obviously the only place they had hot chicken was in Nashville," Oganesyan added. "It was there for like 30 years and it comes to L.A. for a year and it becomes the most popular thing you could eat.”

The story first appeared on LA Local.

A week after an underground pipeline near East Cesar E. Chavez and North Eastern avenues was punctured, questions remain about who was responsible.

Officials said early reports indicated a boring crew conducting directional drilling for a fiber optic line struck the 16-inch petroleum pipeline, which sent an estimated 2,400 gallons of crude oil onto nearby streets and into storm drains and the Los Angeles River. Streets in the area reopened Thursday after days of closures that disrupted nearby residents, businesses and schools, though more soil remediation remains ahead.

Spill report updates from the California Office of Emergency Services indicate that the reported cause of the spill was a “human error.”

Here’s what we know about the companies involved:

Who operated the pipeline?

The pipeline is operated by Pacific Pipeline System, which since 2006 has been owned by Plains All American Pipeline.

Who was drilling?

In the hours after the spill, Boyle Heights Beat reporters witnessed a truck labeled Camarillo Drilling Inc. A Camarillo Drilling representative told the Beat they were seeking counsel and could not confirm if they were working at the site.

A February 2026 report from the state Department of Water Resources notes that Camarillo Drilling Company, in April 2020, punctured the Santa Ana Pipeline in Riverside “while performing directional and horizontal boring during installation of an underground communications cable.”

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) filed a complaint against Camarillo Drilling in Riverside County Superior Court in April 2022, seeking damages of about $1.2 million to cover pipeline repair expenses and DWR staffing costs, according to the report. 

Why were they drilling?

NBC4 reported that HP Communications was behind the drilling of the fiber optic line. A representative with HP Communications told the Beat they could not comment or confirm that they were working at the site. 

HP Communications is one of the companies awarded a contract for the Broadband for All plan, a $6 billion state and federal investment to close the digital divide. 

The plan involves building a network of high-capacity fiber lines that carry large amounts of data at high speeds over long distances, according to LAist. About 10,000 miles of fiber optic cable is being installed throughout California, including more than 500 miles in Los Angeles County. The state owns and manages the system.

Another company that was awarded a contract for the plan is Arcadian Infracom, which in 2023, held a groundbreaking event in Boyle Heights for the California portion of its L.A. to Phoenix fiber route, LAist reported in 2024.

The project will help serve residents in East L.A. and extend to communities in Barstow and Needles (The route totals 306 miles, but only 40 are within L.A. County limits).

What remains unknown?

It’s not clear if the drilling that led to the pipeline rupture is linked to the Broadband for All effort. Arcadian Infracom has not returned a request for comment regarding any potential involvement with the pipeline puncture. 

The California Department of Technology did not respond to Boyle Heights Beat’s questions in time for publication.

Pacific Pipeline System (PPS) has also not responded to questions regarding the third-party companies involved. 

A state investigation into how the pipe was struck remains ongoing. Supervisor Hilda Solis on Thursday said she’d work with the Board of Supervisors to ensure “every responsible party is held accountable and advancing stronger protections for impacted residents, communities, and small businesses.”

How to file a claim

Claims of damage believed to be caused by the spill can be submitted to PPS by calling (877) 817-5465. Callers will be prompted to leave their name and contact information in a voicemail for a representative to return the call.

According to the pipeline operator, some examples of claims that may be considered include: 

• Property damage
• Business interruption or loss of access
• Cleanup or remediation expenses
• Equipment, vehicle or inventory damage
• Other documented costs directly related to the incident

PPS will request contact information and a description of the claimed damages. The timeline for any potential compensation depends on the urgency of the claim, according to the spokesperson.

How to report air quality concerns

To report excessive odors, smoke, dust and other air contaminants, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice advises residents to contact the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) by calling (800) CUT SMOG or (800) 288-7664. 

Residents can also access South Coast AQMD’s online complaint system by clicking here. 

To report health concerns related to odors, residents can also contact the L.A. County Department of Public Health by calling (626) 430-9821 or by emailing DPH-OEJCH@ph.lacounty.gov.

You might have braved the process to get a seat at SoFi Stadium for one of the eight FIFA World Cup 2026 matches in L.A., or maybe you’re gearing up to head to a community watch party.

Either way, you can maximize the celebration, avoid traffic and save your wallet by taking transit.

LAist prepared the following guide to help folks get to and from the stadium, L.A. city watch parties and tips on using bikes and scooters to get around the region.

Getting to the stadium

L.A. Metro is the countywide transportation agency and is the official public transit provider for the World Cup matches in the city. It’s partnering with more than 10 regional transportation and charter providers to get people to and from the stadium.

Where is the stadium: All eight of the matches will be at SoFi Stadium, or L.A. Stadium, as it will be called during the World Cup. The address is 1001 S. Stadium Dr., Inglewood, CA 90301.

How do you get there on Metro: Metro is offering direct shuttle service to the stadium from several locations in L.A. and Orange counties:

• Hawthorne/Lennox Station
• Crenshaw Station
• LAX/Metro Transit Center
• Near LAX hotels
• El Camino College
• Harbor Gateway Transit Center
• Culver City Transit Center
• Torrance Transit Center
• Union Station
• Downtown Long Beach
• Downtown Santa Monica
• North Hollywood Station
• Pierce College Station
• ARTIC Anaheim Station 
• Newport Transportation Center

You can catch a stadium-bound shuttle at locations throughout L.A. and Orange Counties.

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L.A. Metro

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When: Shuttles to the stadium begin service at least three hours before kick-off depending on which location you’re leaving from, and they’ll run up to 90 minutes after the matches end.

How often: The shuttles will generally run every 10 minutes. For the Pierce College Station and Newport Transportation Center, the shuttles will run every 30 minutes.

How to pay: You can tap the fare machines directly with your credit or debit card. Or you can go old-school and use a physical or digital TAP card. There are several ways to get a TAP card, including using your smartphone or picking one up at a Metro station. Here is a page with more details and instructions.

How much: The same as usual: $1.75 one-way.

Ok, but how do I get to the shuttle locations?: There are a few different options.

The shuttle pick-up and drop-off locations are well-serviced by existing transit. You can use the Transit or L.A. Metro mobile apps to help with trip planning.

And yes, you can drive, too. For most of the shuttle locations, you can reserve parking via SpotHero on Metro’s official World Cup page. You can also use ride-share or taxi services.

The only pick-up and drop-off location that doesn’t have any kind of vehicle access, including rideshare, is the LAX Metro Transit Center. But that station is accessible by five different Metro bus lines and two rail lines.

Bonus: If you’re looking for a souvenir to commemorate your time on transit during the World Cup in L.A., make sure to pick up a special TAP card. You can see the designs and where to find each one here.

How to get to the watch parties

There are going to be more than 100 free watch parties in the city of L.A. at different park locations. It’s part of an initiative called Kick it in the Park. You can find out more about the watch parties here.

Some of the locations are accessible on Metro rail.

• MacArthur Park. You can take the B or D line to the Westlake/MacArthur Park Station.
• Seoul International Park. The D line stops at the Wilshire/Normandie Station, which is about a half mile away from the park. 
• Sycamore Grove. The A line stops at the Southwest Museum Station, which is less than half a mile from Sycamore Grove. 
• Stoner Recreation Center. The E Line stops at the Expo/Bundy Station, which is about half a mile away from Stoner Recreation Center.
• Cheviot Hills Recreation Center. The E Line Palms Station is just less than a mile away. 

Check out the city’s interactive website to learn which Metro, L.A. Dash or other regional transit can take you to the Kick it in the Park events.

Other cities in the county are also hosting watch parties, including Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Culver City.

Micro-mobility solutions

Taking a bike share or scooter could be helpful to get to and from transit stations or to go a short distance that isn’t well-served by transit. There are a few different options here:

• Metro Bike Share. Metro operates a fleet of regular and electric bikes that you can find at docking stations throughout L.A. Use the L.A. Metro app to find docking stations near you that have available bikes or to find stations where you can return the bike when you’re done using it. There are different prices depending on how long you anticipate needing a bike, and you can pay with your TAP card. 
  

• Lime. The private scooter and bike-share company recently expanded into the Valley and now offers a total of 15,000 vehicles in the city of L.A. Its vehicles are also accessible in West Hollywood and Long Beach. You can use the Lime or Uber apps to book the vehicles.

  The company is launching a “fan pass” this summer that includes 90 minutes of riding over the course of five days for about $13. You can purchase the fan pass more than once. It’ll be available between June 5th through July 12th. If you don't have access to the internet on your phone but still want to use a Lime vehicle, you can text "Unlock" to 415-463-3473. You will receive a text back with instructions on how to proceed from there.

The soft hiss of fat dripping onto white-hot binchotan. The alchemical smell of both sweet tare sauce and charred meat. If you closed your eyes, you could easily imagine yourself parked at the counter of any number of South Bay yakitori joints.

But this is Three Pigs, a Long Beach-based pop-up and catering operation, that roves around the region, one week perhaps at a street fair, another in the parking lot of a donut shop.

It’s the work of partners Allison and Vasili Tavernakis. In just under two years, they’ve built a community of dedicated diners from Orange County to Los Angeles, drawn to their personal market-inspired take on traditional Japanese cuisine.

Three Pigs owners, Vasili (left) and Allison Tavernakis.

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Courtesy Three Pigs

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Yakitori is what first launched Three Pigs, so. So there are always skewers on the menu, like a juicy beef kushiyaki skewer dabbed with wasabi.

But there’s also always something special and even ephemeral to be had. Maybe it will be hearty kakuni don, a bowl of rice topped with meltingly tender soy-braised pork belly, a jammy soft boiled egg, and daikon and bok choy sprouts. Or perhaps you’ll find a hyper-seasonal dish like nowhere else: yuzu-scented whipped tofu, charred broccolini, sake-cherry agrodolce, and sprouted watercress.

Three Pigs is restaurant-quality cooking unbound from the financial and creative trappings of a brick-and-mortar space.

“The challenge is what keeps me excited,” Vasili said. “I want our pop-ups to feel like if you changed our bamboo plates, you’d feel like you were at a restaurant.”

A restaurant-quality dish at Three Pigs.

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Courtesy Three Pigs

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Organic growth

Allison and Vasili are both hospitality veterans. The pair met while working at a restaurant in Torrance: Allison as a manager and social media director in the front of the house, Vasili as a chef in the back of the house. After their shifts, there were few options for late-night bites. Inevitably, Vasili said, they’d find themselves at Japanese izakayas, where they and their coworkers could build camaraderie over skewers and small plates.

It was during those post-work meals that Vasili became enamored with yakitori. But it wasn’t until the pandemic lockdowns that Vasili ever attempted to cook it himself. It was a slow process, learning the techniques and honing the recipes that called back to those late-night meals that he sorely missed. For Allison, who is Japanese-American, the dishes spoke to her own flavor memories and family traditions.

Eventually, they became confident enough to invite friends over for dinners to try out new dishes.

Still, the idea of a pop-up seemed far off. It wasn’t until a friend who owns a store in downtown Long Beach offered a pop-up opportunity that Three Pigs started serving the public. After that first smashing success, which saw their entire menu sell out, the operation has grown organically ever since, building on community connections and word of mouth to find new avenues to share their food.

Evolution and ambition

If you pay enough visits to Three Pigs’ pop-ups, you can watch the pair continually push boundaries.

“On a recent visit to Japan,” Vasili recounted, “we saw a vendor with a gorgeously long irori-style grill with fish standing on skewers. In Japan, irori is a multifunctional space in the home for both heating and cooking. I hadn’t seen a vendor do that before, so I thought I could try building one.”

So he did. Then he sourced ayu, small fish prized in Japan for their sweet, delicate flavor. The fish were skewered whole and arranged vertically around lengths of charcoal stacked in the center of the grill. The result was not just an approximation of that inspiration from Japan, but an homage to the craft and care of Japanese cooking. Even attempting such a cooking method is something no other pop-up, let alone a brick-and-mortar restaurant, is likely doing in Southern California.

Casual pop-ups are only part of the Three Pigs experience. Allison and Vasili also host a dinner series. And it’s at those dinners where Three Pigs’ creativity is truly at play.

At a Santa Monica nursery a few months ago, Three Pigs paired an ambitious tasting menu dinner with an ikebana class hosted by Tiger Blossom Studio. In between flower arranging lessons, Allison and Vasili served a farmers market-driven menu that saw dishes like a hamachi crudo in a pool of strawberry ponzu, spiny lobster in a caviar and white miso beurre monté, and a hojicha panna cotta with craggy, dehydrated black sesame cake.

“We try and create an experience, not just food on a plate,” Allison said. “We see this as an entire restaurant experience that happens to be outside in the community. We get to interact with customers in a more intimate way, ask questions, and have a conversation.”

But that conversation isn’t just one with customers old and new. It’s a dialogue between memory and place, Southern California and its seasons, and tradition and evolution.

No matter where you find Three Pigs, you can always guarantee there will be something new on the menu.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Four years ago, Adan Matul was selling a Guatemalan sweet bread called pan de Xela, out of a street cart in the San Fernando Valley. Now, Matul and his family run El Sabor Auténtico de Xela, a Guatemalan restaurant and bakery in Chatsworth.

Matul opened the restaurant in February with his partner, Yolanda Barrios, and her daughters, Hellen Rodas and Selena Barrios. The family works together every day to bring dishes and pastries from their ancestral home of Quetzaltenango.

“Everything we serve here is a reflection of our roots — the dishes our parents cooked, what we snacked on, the bread we had with our coffee,” Matul told The LA Local. “We want our bread and dishes to evoke memories of home, the warmth that we felt eating our mothers’ food.” 

A basket of Guatemalan breads from El Sabor Auténtico de Xela.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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The demand that led to El Sabor Auténtico de Xela opening its doors reflects a broader shift in L.A. Los Angeles County is now home to the largest population of Guatemalans outside of Guatemala, with more than 280,000 residents as of 2025 — a roughly 35% increase over the past decade. As the community has grown, so has the visibility of its food, even as many Central American immigrants face increased immigration enforcement and political pressure.

“We’re living in a time where so much systemic harm has been done to our people,” Rodas said between greeting customers at the restaurant. “We’re told we need to assimilate to thrive in this country, and that mindset took so much of my cultural identity when I was a child. Part of my healing has happened through working here.”

Growing up Guatemalan American in Los Angeles, I know that feeling. For years, food from our homeland was hard to find — even in one of the most diverse food cities in the world.

That’s no longer the case.

Across L.A., dishes like pepián, garnachas and tapado are moving from the margins to the mainstream. What was once hidden is now defining neighborhoods.

These five restaurants capture that shift.

No. 5 Puchica Guatemalan Bar & Grill

Tapado, a Garifuna recipe popular among the Guatemalan community residing in the Caribbean coast, served with rice and a Mojarra Frita.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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Walk into Puchica and you’ll likely spot a wall of photographs — Lake Atitlán, Antigua, Tikal. There might be live Chapin music filling the room. There will definitely be some of the best Guatemalan food in L.A.

Owner Ronan Lurssen, a native of Suchitepéquez, and his wife, Taryn, have made it their mission to bring regional Guatemalan cooking to Los Angeles — and that means going beyond the usual menu.

Puchica is one of the few restaurants in the area serving tapado, a coconut-based seafood stew from Guatemala’s Caribbean coast. The dish traces back to Garifuna communities — Afro-Indigenous people whose roots come from West African survivors of shipwreck and the Indigenous Kalinago and Arawak people. 

The tapado here delivers on that lineage. The broth is rich and creamy, the seafood layered with deep umami flavor. It arrives with rice and mojarra frita — a whole fish, scored, garlic-lime marinated and fried until the skin shatters and the meat pulls clean. The plate comes with tortillas to make fish tacos that you should definitely dip into the broth. It’s a dish that demands you slow down and find comfort in the experience of finishing everything on the plate.

No. 4 Mi Cocinita Chapina

Carne Guisada from Mi Cocinita Chapina served with a salad, rice, and mash beans. The Guatemalan dish on the left corner is called Hilachas, a shredded beef stew.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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Mi Cocinita is a little hole in the wall that serves some of the best traditional Guatemalan dishes in the area. Nestled on the corner of Malvern Avenue and Venice Boulevard, it is known for its authentic Guatemalan breakfasts. 

Put some pep in your step with Mi Cocinita’s desayuno tipico — eggs, savory mashed black beans, fried plantains, queso fresco and your choice of chorizo or puyaso steak, a cut of sirloin with a thick layer of fat. 

You can also start your day here with carne guisada, a savory stew featuring beef simmered in a thick, rich gravy and potatoes. 

No. 3 Amalia’s Restaurant

Sopa de Mariscos served with rice and the Plato Amalia’s with rice and homemade tortillas.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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Amalia’s Restaurant is a rarity in L.A. — a Guatemalan spot that’s been holding it down since 1994. Long before the current wave of regional Central American cooking, Amalia’s was serving Koreatown’s Guatemalan community, quietly becoming a neighborhood staple.

The sopa de mariscos is the move here. Built on a deeply seasoned tomato broth, the soup is loaded with fish, shrimp, crab and mussels, simmered down into something rich and restorative. It’s the kind of dish that hits immediately — briny, citrusy, just enough lime to cut through the depth.

If you’re hungover, it’ll fix you. If you’re not, it’ll still feel like it did.

No. 2 Shucos LA

Shucos’s churrasco plate offered a variety of assorted meats served with a Russian salad, rice, beans and homemade guacamole. The bistec encebollado at the top with Agua de Jamaica.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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Shucos started as a backyard setup near Jefferson Boulevard and 41st Street in 2020. Within a few years, it grew into a storefront in Commerce, fueled in part by a steady rise on TikTok, where staff showcased their Guatemalan-style hot dogs to a wider audience.

Those hot dogs — known as shucos — are a staple of Guatemala’s street food scene. Built on a toasted bun, they’re loaded with grilled meats, guacamole, cabbage, grilled onions and the classic trio of ketchup, mayo and mustard. Messy, smoky and fully loaded, they eat more like a full meal than a snack.

But the menu goes deeper. Shucos also serves a range of traditional dishes, including bistec encebollado, salpicón de res, pollo en crema and churrasco.

The churrasco features meats that are tender with a strong char, the seasoning pulling everything together without overpowering it. On the side, garnachas — crisp, saucy and so delicious, they were consumed in a matter of minutes. 

No. 1 El Sabor Auténtico de Xela

A shuco mixto from El Sabor Auténtico de Xela. A shuco is a street food staple from Guatemala that combines multiple meats in a single toasted bun. Above left is carne adobada and above right is Pepián.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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A true one-stop shop for Guatemalan food, El Sabor Auténtico de Xela earns the top spot on this list. The restaurant and bakery showcases dishes from the Quetzaltenango region alongside a lineup of nostalgic snacks like Tortrix chips and Chiky cookies and sodas like Tiky.

Matul often points first-timers to the Pepián, Guatemala’s national dish. The stew is rich and layered, rooted in both Mayan and Spanish traditions, with slow-cooked meats and vegetables in a thick sauce made from roasted tomatoes, tomatillos and toasted seeds. It’s served with rice and tortillas — simple on paper, deeply complex in flavor.

Rodas recommends the caldo de res, a hearty beef soup packed with corn, cabbage, zucchini and potatoes. It’s the kind of dish that hits even on a 100-degree day.

But the standout is the carne adobada. The meat is tender, deeply seasoned, with a subtle smokiness that lingers. It’s served with Russian salad and Guatemalan chow mein — a local adaptation shaped by Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century that has since become a staple of the cuisine.