The Brief

Sitting directly next to downtown, Chinatown as we know it today was originally a mixed neighborhood of different immigrant communities, Asian but also Mexican and Italian. It became known as New Chinatown in the 1930s after residents of the original Chinatown were displaced due to the construction of Union Station.

These days the issue of displacement remains a concern. Walking around Chinatown, you get the sense that it’s an area rapidly changing, with old storefronts either sitting vacant or being torn down, and new highrise structures serving as a backdrop.

While many from Asian communities have moved to the suburbs, other low-income and elderly residents have stayed put, fighting for proper living conditions and access to grocery stores.

Food is often political and can serve as a vehicle for this systemic change, from encroaching chain restaurants like the Buffalo Wild Wings on Cesar Chavez Avenue to newer independent restaurants spaces such as Lokels Only, located in the Jia Apartments building, which serves as an incubator for local pop-up restaurants.

Grassroots organizations like the Chinatown Community for Equitable Development have been confronting these new businesses, holding them accountable to the community's needs.

Here at Cheap Fast Eats, we strive to accurately represent the neighborhoods we visit, so we’re featuring both old and new Chinatown restaurants to give you a sense of what it's like to dine in the area.

This is Cheap Fast Eats Chinatown.

Long Family Pastry

Chicken buns, zongzi, shumai, har gow, sesame seed balls, BBQ buns and egg tarts amongst other items from Long’s Family Pastry.

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While dim sum carts are becoming a thing of the past due to restrictions brought on by the pandemic, and while there are some traditional sit-down restaurants in the area, if you’re in a hurry, to-go dim sum is the way to go in Chinatown.

Long’s Family Pastry is a perfect example. When you enter the small indoor space, located on a quiet part of Spring Street, you’ll be welcomed by brightly-lit bakery cases packed with a variety of dim sum, plus pastries with fillings of everything from hot dogs to red bean paste.

At Long’s, the special chicken bun is a crowd favorite. Tearing into the bun, you’ll find a mixture of ground chicken, lap cheong (cured Chinese sausage), hard-boiled egg, and other mixed vegetables. A couple of the buns are more than enough to fill you up. If you want more variety, there’s the zongzi, advertised as a Chinese tamale, a sticky rice dumpling filled with lap cheong, peanuts, and different veggies wrapped in bamboo leaves. Digging through it with your fork almost feels like a treasure hunt.

You can also get your fill of shumai dumplings, taro, and turnip cakes to enjoy at home, the perfect parting gift to yourself for future dim sum cravings.

Pedestrians and customers outside of Long’s Family Pastry.

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My Dung Sandwich Shop

Pedestrians and customers outside of Bánh Mì Mỹ Dung.

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A banh mi sandwich is one of life’s many pleasures, with its crusty bread, fresh garnishes made of sweet-tasting carrots and daikon radish, and a protein combo of your liking. A good banh mi can be found in areas such as the San Gabriel Valley or Westminster in Orange County, known as Little Saigon. However, finding them in other parts of Los Angeles can sometimes be more challenging.

One under-the-radar gem is the tiny storefront of My Dung, located on Ord Street between Broadway and Spring Street. It doesn’t exactly scream neighborhood sandwich destination upon the first arrival. You’re greeted by fresh produce stacked outside the entrance, including bunches of bananas hanging from the outside awning. The same goes when entering what appears to be a corner store, but take a quick stroll to the back, and you’ll find a menu board with about eight different sandwiches for around $5 - $8.

Grab a seat inside or hang outside while you wait for sandwiches. When they call your number, unwrap your offerings and dig in. The perfect crusty roll, which maintains the same level of softness on the inside of the bun, envelopes the sandwich's contents, whether it be cold cuts, barbeque pork, or shredded tofu, with a helping of pâté slathered inside, plus carrot, daikon, cilantro, and cucumber providing that extra bit of roughage. The ultra-fresh ingredients, paired with the salty-savory cuts of meat creates a highly satisfying experience.

Brian De Los Santos and Gab Chabrán with sandwiches from Bánh Mì Mỹ Dung.

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Angry Egret Dinette

Customers sit outside at Angry Egret Dinette.

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Chef Wes Avila's cafe inside the Mandarin Plaza feels like an oasis off busy Broadway. Avila, originally of Guerilla Tacos, opened up Angry Egret Dinette in Oct. 2020 as a pandemic project where he could serve whatever food he could dream up, via a window in an open-air patio setting.

The type of cuisine that Avila serves at Angry Egret Dinette could be classified as many things, from "Alta California cuisine" to comfort food, but whatever it is, it's nothing short of mouthwatering. With a variety of influences from growing up in nearby Pico Rivera and working in fine dining restaurants, he serves up several sublime dishes he calls L.A.-style cuisine.

Owner/chef Wes Avila at Angry Egret Dinette.

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Order the egg sandwich for $8 with a pillowy pile of soft scrambled eggs, layered on both sides of an American cheese sandwich, on an ultra cushiony bolillo bread sourced from a bakery in East L.A.

For a couple of bucks more, try the McTorta, made with perfectly seasoned beef gyro, then topped with an over-easy fried egg, sealed on both sides with equal amounts of American cheese on one blissful bolillo. Don’t forget to douse your sando with their chile de árbol salsa, as fresh as it is fiery, especially if you’re looking for that extra spice.

The McTorta and Egg Sandwich at Angry Egret Dinette.

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Amboy Quality Meats & Delicious Burgers

The Amboy classic amongst the fancy and steakhouse classic burgers from Amboy Quality Meats and Delicious Burgers.

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The lively brasserie-esque storefront is owned and operated by Alvin Cailan, previously of Eggslut and, more recently, the popular YouTube series The Burger Show, co-hosted with George Motz. In the show, Cailan and Motz travel to remote cities throughout the country, trying different regional styles of burgers. This extensive research is put on full display at Amboy.

For around $10, you can get the Amboy classic, featuring a sesame seed bun, a smashed patty (for a little extra, you can add another patty), American cheese, grilled onions, and their signature burger sauce, Cailan’s take on something like In-N-Out’s. This sweet, creamy tanginess melts into the rest of the burger.

Meanwhile, the Steakhouse burger comes with their house steak sauce, a far cry from A1, with a robust taste that's equal parts sweet and umami perfectly complementing the rest of the burger. If you’re feeling extra special, opt for the Fancy Classic, made with melted provolone and aioli. Because you’re worth it.

Pedestrians and customers outside of Far East Plaza, where Amboy Quality Meats & Delicious Burgers.

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Perilla L.A.

Kimbap and the banchan rice combo from Perilla LA.

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Anyone who’s been to a Korean barbeque restaurant knows that one of the best things, aside from the glistening cuts of meat grilled in front of you, are the side dishes accompanying your meal.

Chef Jihee Kim, formerly of Rustic Canyon, has brought her specific spin to the style, creating a dining experience that solely focuses on the side dishes.

With offerings changing daily, based on what produce is readily available at the farmer's market, when we visited the banchan our choices included a soy sauce marinated okra with a slight char. It had a perfect flavor and texture in each bite, an interplay between the vegetable's saltiness and bitterness. Other choices include kimchi made with collard greens, a substantive and memorable taste, with aromatic spice and hearty leafy greens. Another favorite is the rolled egg, made with a rolled omelet with seaweed in its center, resulting in a cool refreshing sweet bite.

Pedestrians and customers outside of Perilla LA.

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This story first appeared on The LA Local.

It’s Thursday night at Eastwood Bar in Koreatown, and the place is packed with about 300 people chatting under sparkling disco lights. Haystacks, wooden guitars and retro beer signs decorate the space. In the center, a metal stool holds a Mac laptop, and a big screen displays a visual sales presentation, or pitch deck. A beaming young woman steps to the mic and begins her slideshow pitch. But she’s not selling anything. She’s trying to get someone in the audience to date her friend.

This is Pitch-A-Friend Los Angeles, one of LA’s hottest dating events, where singles looking for a match rely on a good friend with great slideshow skills as their wingman.

The goal is to connect people to dates in real life, but the unique concept also allows singles to see their friends say nice things about them in creative ways, Pitch-A-Friend Los Angeles organizer Jackson Wise told The LA Local.

“I get to see best friends kind of hype each other up and talk about their friends’ characteristics and sometimes that’s not always spoken,” Wise said. He added that he often notices the friend being pitched sitting in the audience and getting teary-eyed from all the encouragement.

Wise began the LA offshoot of Pitch-A-Friend nearly two years ago. The original event began in Philadelphia. After spending several years struggling in LA’s notoriously difficult dating scene, Wise scrolled past the Instagram account for a Philly-hosted event of Pitch-A-Friend. “I reached out to them, and they said I should start it in Los Angeles,” Wise recalled.

He said his LA offshoot was not very successful early on, drawing small crowds. But he kept at it, relying on social media and word of mouth to grow the event, which now draws crowds in the hundreds.

Pitch-A-Friend Los Angeles leader Jackson Wise opens the night at Eastwood Bar in Koreatown.

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What is Pitch-A-Friend?

The concept is simple: Instead of single people promoting themselves on a dating app, their friends do it for them, live, in front of a room full of strangers. Each presenter gets four to five minutes and a slide deck, usually made in Canva or Google Slides, to show off a single friend’s best qualities, quirks and what they’re looking for. Singles in the crowd who like what they see can find that person afterward, in the room or through the Hooked Up app.

The LA Local got a front-row seat to an LGBTQ+ singles event at Pitch-A-Friend Los Angeles. Here’s how it went down.

Half an hour before presentations, Wise made sure all participating friends were signed up. He checked that their five-minute Canva or Google Slides decks were good to go. Soon after, he energized the crowd with lively announcements like: “At the end of every presentation, I get, ‘Hey, I didn’t meet anybody.’ My first question is, ‘Did you talk to anybody?’ It’s usually no.”

Then he encouraged everyone to scan the QR code for the Hooked Up app or to break out of their circles, mingle and help their friends connect. He introduced stickers to help direct singles on queer night: green for women or friends, red for men and white for both or nonbinary.

Among the crowd was Elektra Armenta. “We don’t really get many mixers or dating events for queer folks in LA. So, I was really excited to be here, to experience all of us,” Armenta said.

The first presenter used colorful and playful multimedia slides to hype up her 23-year-old gay male roommate as someone who is intelligent, supportive and attentive and, above all, has a gift for listening.

Next, two young women took to the stage to introduce their accomplished friend, a 35-year-old retired three-time Olympian now thriving in tech at LA28. “Lauren is looking for something serious,” one of them declared. Someone in the crowd shouted back, “Yeah, we don’t play.”

As the night went on, each presenter was greeted with cheers and applause for their creativity, thoroughness and appreciation of their friends’ achievements. More importantly, singles were finding potential matches.

“Getting to know people through their friends is actually a really special experience,” first-time attendee Brex Garay told The LA Local. “It’s been really impressive to see people’s creative sides on pitching their friends.”

Jacaranda. Jacaranda. Jacaranda. We love those purple canopies across Los Angeles.

But have you seen the Chinese flame tree — sporting happy yellow blooms that brighten everything around them in the fall, before giving way to pink or reddish capsules that are reminiscent of paper lanterns?

“The genus for that group of plants is Koelreuteria,” said Donald Hodel, a landscape horticulture adviser with UC Cooperative Extension, part of the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Two species of the tree flower this time of the year. Hodel said that despite their varied origins, they’re almost visually indistinguishable. Koelreuteria bipinnata is from China, and Koelreuteria elegans is from Taiwan.

The golden yellow phase of the Chinese flame tree.

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Pinkish, reddish capsules of seeds emerge after the yellow flowers.

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The genus, according to the UC Cooperative Extension, was introduced to the United States in 1763 — most likely by an arboretum or botanical garden, Hodel said. From there, they entered the nursery trade.

They are popular trees in greater Los Angeles — and can be found in El Sereno, Long Beach and Culver City — with a couple of knocks against them.

“They aren't water hogs by any means; [but] they can't really be considered drought-tolerant,” Hodel explained.

Close-up of a capsule from the Chinese flower tree.

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And they sprout easily if their seeds find a water source. “Which means you have to take them out, 'cause eventually they'll get too big,” he said.

No tree is perfect — he stressed — not even SoCal’s beloved jacaranda.

“If I could only have one or the other, I'd probably pick a Koelreuteria,” he said. “It's a good-looking tree.”

The post appeared first on LA Local.

Go past the dog walkers and strollers up the hilly street with the massive refinery. You’ll see an aerospace company’s moon buggy mural. Head toward a classic dingbat apartment and you’ll find a surfer-themed bar in a WWII-style Quonset hut.

Shh. There’s a secret comedy show happening in there where a comic is revealing secret techniques to make babies fart.

Don’t Tell Comedy shows like this one at Boardroom Brewery in El Segundo last month are happening all around Los Angeles County. They are stand-up shows where the crowd is only given venue clues ahead of time and only told where to be just hours before. The sites vary from parking lots, furniture stores, wine shops and other unconventional settings for stand-up comedy.

How to find a secret comedy show

• The first step is fairly simple. Visit the Don’t Tell Comedy website and look for a show in a city you don’t mind driving to.
• You’re going to have to buy tickets without knowing anything about the show. That means you won’t know who is performing or where the show is being held.
• The morning of the event, you will receive a text message or email with the address to the secret location.

What a typical show looks like

Go past the dog walkers and strollers up the hilly street with the massive refinery. You’ll see an aerospace company’s moon buggy mural. Head toward a classic dingbat apartment and you’ll find a surfer-themed bar in a WWII-style Quonset hut.

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Don Perez

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The LA Local

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Boardroom Brewery bartender Rick Mathiesen told The LA Local that the night started with folks “getting out of their Ubers with confused looks on their faces.” They were trying to figure out if they got the right place, especially when the beach town bar rolled down its see-through hangar door.

The secret comedy show organization started in 2017 with backyard and living room pop-up shows. It has expanded its clandestine comedy format to more than 200 cities, including areas across LA such as downtown, Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Pasadena.

Griffin James, the emcee of the night and a local producer for Don’t Tell Comedy, was seen putting 80 chairs away by himself — hey, legendary comic Sam Kinison got his start as The Comedy Store’s doorman.

The 26-year-old Griffin said the gigs are still as competitive as landing a stage at The Laugh Factory, where he’s performed. There’s an added benefit for the audience: There is no mandatory two-drink minimum, which makes it more affordable than a night at a traditional comedy club.

Go past the dog walkers and strollers up the hilly street with the massive refinery. You’ll see an aerospace company’s moon buggy mural. Head toward a classic dingbat apartment and you’ll find a surfer-themed bar in a WWII-style Quonset hut.

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Don Perez

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The LA Local

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Most comics at Don’t Tell Comedy shows are up-and-coming locals, but a few big names like Ali Wong, Nikki Glaser and Michael Che have appeared.

Jenna Lewanda told The LA Local that she and her boyfriend, Manny Aguilar, decided to take a trip from their West Hollywood home to the mystery spot in El Segundo. Their usual haunts for live comedy are the Hollywood Improv and a friend’s show, Hambone Comedy.

Lewanda received a message at 9 a.m. that Saturday with the location details. She looked it up and committed the odd curved building to memory. She was happy that night’s headliner was a famous stand-up: Brad Williams. 

Williams — a comedian with dwarfism who has two Showtime specials and a Netflix stand-up episode under his belt — closed out the seven-comic show that night.

He got a lot of laughs recalling a camping incident where a park ranger told him to “get big” when confronted by a bear. The 4-foot-4-inch Williams’ response: “How?”

With less than three weeks until Election Day, outside groups are pouring millions of dollars into two types of state legislative races: purple districts featuring a Democrat and a Republican, and safely Democratic districts featuring Democrats of different ideological stripes.

Political action committees backed by politically powerful groups such as unions and business have spent over $100 million on California legislative races so far this election cycle, eclipsing 2024 spending. Groups can spend unlimited amounts on “independent expenditures” to boost or oppose a candidate, providing they don’t coordinate with the campaign.

Since they came on the scene in January, two new tech-backed groups have dominated spending in legislative races. Grow California, funded by cryptocurrency investor Chris Larsen and venture capitalist Tim Draper as a “counterforce” to union spending, has spent more than $20 million this cycle. California Leads, funded by Meta and Google, has spent close to $14 million this year to support candidates who are focused on “real-world solutions rather than ideological fights.”

Legislative Action PAC, which Republican strategists founded in 2025 at the request of Republican lawmakers amid frustration with the official state Republican Party, is also spending for the first time this cycle. It aims to help Republicans hold seats they flipped in 2024, and its major funders include Google, AT&T and oil and gas companies. The PAC and its offshoots, Legislative Action Victory PAC and Legislative Bipartisan Action PAC, have spent at least $6 million to support Republican candidates since April.

A CalMatters analysis of spending since the June 2 primary found that these are the nine most expensive competitive general election contests in the Legislature. Total spending in each race includes campaign spending from the primary through Sept. 19, the most recent reporting period, and independent expenditures from the primary through Oct. 13.

$5.6 million: David Penaloza (D) v. Jessie Lopez (D) – Assembly District 68

The priciest race so far is between two millennial Democrats who both serve on the Santa Ana City Council in Orange County. Lopez is the more progressive of the two: She helped pass a rent control ordinance in 2021 and faced a recall attempt by the local police union after she voted to create a police oversight commission in 2022. Tech money is flowing to help her opponent: In recent weeks, California Leads has spent $1.4 million and Grow California has spent $1.3 million on ads supporting Penaloza.

Several powerful unions, including those representing public employees, nurses and California State University faculty, have spent a combined $1.4 million on ads supporting Lopez and attacking Penaloza.

$5 million: John Erickson (D) v. Brian Goldsmith (D) – Senate District 24

In the battle to succeed Sen. Ben Allen, Brian Goldsmith, an entrepreneur and former senior adviser for the pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel, faces John Erickson, a West Hollywood city councilmember. The coastal Los Angeles district includes Malibu and Santa Monica. The two candidates are sharply divided on renter protections. Erickson supports repealing both the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act and the Ellis Act, which limit local rent control and allow landlords to evict tenants to leave the rental business. That’s likely driving the influx of money supporting Goldsmith from the California Apartment Association, which has spent $450,000 on independent ads attacking Erickson. The California Realtors Association is the main funder of a PAC that’s spent over $600,000 backing Goldsmith.

Criminal justice reform advocates and organized labor, including the carpenters and school employees association, have bankrolled ads supporting Erickson.

$4.7 million: Greg Wallis (R) v. Leila Namvar (D) – Assembly District 47

Republican Assemblymember Greg Wallis is again fighting hard to retain his seat representing a purple district that includes both deep-blue Palm Springs and Cathedral City as well as conservative suburbs around Redlands and Yucaipa. Wallis has a significant fundraising advantage over his opponent, Democrat Leila Namvar, a former local labor leader and city planner. His campaign has outspent hers 6-to-1 and independent expenditures supporting him are more than 5-to-1. A moderate with a pro-business record, Wallis has been a favorite of California Leads, which has spent $1.1 million supporting him. A PAC funded by oil and gas companies has spent about $450,000. Legislative Bipartisan Action PAC spent about the same.

Amid the flood of outside spending, the Democratic Party has backed Namvar. Since mid-September, the party and its county committees have given her committee about $1.8 million.

$4.6 million: Sara Hernandez (D) v. Sarah Rascón (D)  – Senate District 26

Two Democrats are vying to replace departing progressive Sen. María Elena Durazo in this deep blue Los Angeles-based district. Sara Hernandez, a community college trustee, faces Sarah Rascón, a planning commissioner for East Los Angeles. Grow California and California Leads are backing Hernandez to the tune of about $3 million, even though her campaign website says she will “fight for strict rules with real enforcement” on Big Tech profits. Cardrooms near this district, including Hawaiian Gardens Casino and Commerce Casino, which are in a perennial battle with tribal casinos over gaming rights, have spent about $500,000 on independent ads supporting Hernandez.

Rascón, whose top priorities include advancing environmental and social justice, has rejected corporate money. Her campaign had spent about $34,000 as of mid-September, and the Working Families Party and California Environmental Voters have spent over $100,000 on ads supporting her.

$3.8 million: Eric Lucan (D) v. Jackie Elward (D) – Assembly District 12

This seat, which encompasses all of Marin County and some of Sonoma County, is another target of Grow California. The group has spent about $1.8 million on ads supporting Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan. Lucan’s positions are more moderate than those of progressive Rohnert Park Councilmember Jackie Elward, who said in a KQED questionnaire that she supports moratoriums on “all things AI,” including data centers, and that “protecting workers is the priority.”

Elward’s support comes chiefly from the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, Consumer Attorneys of California and SEIU California State Council, which have spent over $1 million to support her race.

$3.2 million: Jeff Gonzalez (R) v. Ida Obeso-Martinez (D) – Assembly District 36

Outside groups have spent $2.7 million to back Republican Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMattersTraditionally Democratic, this Latino-majority district along the California-Mexico border voted for Trump by 1.3 percentage points in 2024. The same year, Republican Jeff Gonzalez flipped it. Democrat Ida Obeso-Martinez, a nurse practitioner and Imperial County councilmember, is now challenging him to take it back. Oil and gas companies, a California Chamber of Commerce PAC and Legislative Bipartisan Action PAC are among the outside groups that have spent $2.7 million on mailers, polling, and TV and digital ads supporting Gonzalez and attacking Obeso-Martinez.

No outside groups have spent on behalf of Obeso-Martinez, but the California Democratic Party and its central committees recently gave Obeso-Martinez over $1.5 million for the final weeks of the race.

$2.8 million: Josh Hoover (R) v. Amy Slavensky (D) – Assembly District 7

Incumbent Republican Josh Hoover faces Democrat Amy Slavensky, a retired teacher and superintendent, in this competitive Sacramento-area district, which shifted rightward after redistricting in 2022. Hoover’s allies, including business groups, cardrooms, and the Legislative Action PAC, have spent at least $2.3 million, chiefly on digital ads and mailers supporting him and opposing Slavensky.

No independent groups have spent to support Slavensky, but Democrats have contributed close to $1 million to Slavensky since mid-September.

$2.6 million: Leticia Castillo (R) v. Clarissa Cervantes (D) – Assembly District 58

Assemblymember Leticia Castillo at her desk during a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Jan. 23, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMattersRepublican Assemblymember Leticia Castillo flipped this Latino-majority seat in Riverside County in 2024, defeating Democrat challenger Clarissa Cervantes by 596 votes. This year is a close rematch. Cervantes, a Riverside city councilmember whose sister is Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, received 54.5% of the vote compared to Castillo’s 45.5% in the June primary. In a rare move, Cervantes has outspent the incumbent Castillo in the general election. Much of her spending — close to $1 million — has been from her campaign account, compared to Castillo’s $80,000.

Legislative Action Victory PAC has spent about $650,000 on ads attacking Cervantes, and a coalition of unions spent about $530,000 supporting her. Both parties have been pouring in money to their respective candidates in the last few weeks.

$2.6 million: Guillermo Gonzalez (R) v. Melissa Hurtado (D) – Senate District 16

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Melissa Hurtado won this district by 13 votes in 2022 even as Gov. Gavin Newsom lost it by more than 10 percentage points, making her the only Democrat to represent a state Senate district that President Donald Trump won in 2024. She faces a challenge from Republican Guillermo Gonzalez, a small business owner and former aide to Rep. David Valadao. Legislative Action PAC has spent over $1.7 million supporting Gonzalez and opposing Hurtado.

The Democratic Party and various county central committees have donated $4.8 million to Hurtado’s campaign war chest this election cycle, allowing her to spend close to $1 million between the primary and mid-September’s filing deadline.

For the record: This story was corrected to reflect that Clarissa Cervantes received 54.5% of the vote in her June primary contest against Leticia Castillo.

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