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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The Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend is typically busy for the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles. On Monday, the orchestra finished its third performance of the weekend at the California African American Museum, which included a musical rendition of the civil rights leader’s seminal “I Have a Dream Speech.”

It was flautist Tionna LeSassier’s first time playing with the orchestra on the federal holiday. Tionna said she began playing flute when she was 12.

“I feel really relieved that I was able to accomplish such a big performance for a really big holiday,” Tionna, who has been playing flute for more than two years, said. “I cannot believe I’m here playing with these amazing musicians.”

The orchestra’s performance, which included pieces like “We Shall Overcome” and the “Afro-American Symphony,” capped off the museum’s annual “King Day” celebration.

The event is held on the federal holiday that honors the legacy of the Baptist preacher whose nonviolent protests and eloquent speeches helped shift American attitudes about race in the 1960s and beyond and lead to landmark Civil Rights legislation.

Earlier in the day, museumgoers listened to and reflected on a recording by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from 1967. Nearly 60 years later, event participants said, the words still feel fresh.

“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are incapable of being conquered,” King said in “The Three Evils of Society,” his keynote address at the National Conference on New Politics in Chicago.

Cameron Shaw, executive director of the Exposition Park museum, told LAist on Monday that the speech has “incredible relevance to the political and social moment and what we’re going through as a people today.”

In a brief discussion after the speech, one attendee spoke about the need to interrogate racism as a systematic ill, not just as one-off acts, and another commented on the importance of standing up to injustice.

Shaw says the museum’s celebration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day has evolved over the last several years, but one of the main throughlines she sees is the continued message of “speaking truth to power.”

“When we celebrate Dr. King today, we celebrate all of the folks past and present who have been brave enough to speak truth to power,” Shaw said. “That is something we truly need.”

Monday’s event also featured a faux stained glass workshop inspired by an exhibition the museum has on display about architect Amaza Lee Meredith.

The museum’s King Day event was one of several celebrating the Civil Rights leader this weekend in L.A.

Italian fashion designer Valentino died Monday at his Roman residence. He was 93. His foundation announced his death on Instagram.

Dubbed an "international arbiter of taste" by Vogue, notable women wore his designs at funerals and weddings, as well as on the red carpet. He dressed the likes of Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Onassis, as well as modern stars, including Anna Wintour to Gwyneth Paltrow and Zendaya.

The image of style and lavish living, Valentino's signature features included crisp suits and a "crème brûlée" complexion — due to his fervor for tanning. He was heavily inspired by the stars he saw on the silver screen and had a lifelong fixation with glamour.

"I love a beautiful lady. I love a beautiful dog. I love a beautiful piece of furniture. I love beauty. It's not my fault," he said in The Last Emperor, a 2008 documentary about him.

In the world of haute couture, Valentino embraced sophistication, elegance and traditional femininity through his dresses and trademarked a vibrant red hue. His work embodied romance, luxury and an aristocratic lifestyle.

He was born Valentino Garavani and named after the silent movie star Rudolph Valentino. A self-described spoiled child, the designer acquired a taste for the expensive from a young age; his shoes were custom-made, and the stripe, color and buttons of his blazers were designed to his specifications.

His father, a well-to-do electrical supplier, and his mother, who appreciated the value of a well-made garment, catered to their young son's refined palate and later supported his fashion endeavors, sending him to school and financing his early work.

Growing up in the small town of Voghera, Italy, he learned sewing from his Aunt Rosa in Lombardy. After high school, he moved to Paris to study fashion and take on apprenticeships.

Valentino owed much of his success to his former lover and business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti. The two met in a café on the famed Via Condotti in Rome in 1960, where Valentino had opened his first couture studio.

They founded Valentino Company the same year, and its first ready-to-wear shop opened in Milan in 1969. Together, the pair built a fashion empire over five decades.

They separated romantically when Valentino was 30 but remained business partners and close friends. Valentino knew little about business and accounting before meeting Giammetti; together, they formed two parts of a whole — Giammetti the business mind, and Valentino the creative force.

"Valentino has a perfect vision of how a woman should dress," Giammetti told Charlie Rose in 2009. "He looks for beauty. Women should be more beautiful. His work is to make women more beautiful."

They sold the Valentino company in 1998 for nearly $300 million. It made $1.36 billion in revenue in 2021, according to Reuters.

Even after his retirement in 2008, he couldn't completely leave fashion behind and continued to design dresses for opera productions.

Once the fashion world became more accessible to the public, millions of aspiring fashionistas bought jeans, handbags, shoes, umbrellas and even Lincoln Continentals with his gleaming "V" monogram. By the peak of his career, Valentino's popularity would rival that of the pope's in Rome.

Copyright 2026 NPR

LAist has a full list of all the events going on today in celebration of MLK Day — check those out here.

I spent Wednesday night screaming my head off with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters as they spent two-and-a-half hours ripping through their hits at the Forum, with an audience that included friends and family of the band (I even spied legendary tennis star John McEnroe in the crowd). The show included a touching — and subdued — solo tribute to drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in 2022. They are one of the best bands to see live (the screaming just isn’t as cathartic on Spotify!), and we’re lucky to call them Angelenos.

There’s all kinds of music to lift your spirits and lighten your load this week, too. Licorice Pizza’s upcoming picks include indie-pop band Echosmith at the Mint on Monday, and Replacements legend Tommy Stinson at Alex’s Bar, also on Monday. Tuesday, U.K. singer-songwriter Jacob Banks is at the Troubadour, and on Wednesday there are a ton of options, including Robert Randolph at the Grammy Museum, hip-hop star Duckwrth at the Blue Note, Saving Abel at the Whisky and the Metal Hall of Fame ceremony at the Roxy. Also on Wednesday, Twice begin their residency at the Forum through Sunday. Plus, the Beachlife lineup for May was just announced, with sets from James Taylor and Duran Duran on tap — something to look forward to!

Elsewhere on LAist, you can meet a landlord who uses astrological signs to choose renters, find out what chefs think about the new tortilla mandate and try a Taiwanese bagel in Pasadena.

Events

All The Devils Are Here

Through January 26 
Broad Stage
1310 11th Street, Santa Monica
COST: FROM $45; MORE INFO 

Shakespeare’s villains are as timely as ever, brilliantly laid out and executed by actor and writer Patrick Page in this one-man show at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Page has a long history of playing the biggest roles in Shakespeare, from Brutus in Julius Caesar opposite Denzel Washington to Iago in Othello at the Washington Shakespeare Company. In this 90-minute show, Page blends his take on Shakespeare’s personal history with current pop culture references and expert quick-turn soliloquies that embody the Bard’s most vicious characters; I especially enjoyed the after-show talkback, where Page generously answers your most pressing Shakespeare questions.

Tools of the Trades: American Handmade Implements & Devices

Through February 28
Craft in America
8415 W. Third Street, Fairfax 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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There’s art in the tools that make art. That’s the premise of the current show at Craft in America, Tools of the Trades: American Handmade Implements & Devices. Cleverly laid out on the walls and pedestals of the gallery space, everything from intricately engraved scissors to saws to compasses and carving tools is on display and organized by their utility.

The Puffy Chair

Monday, January 19, 7:30 p.m. 
Vidiots
4884 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock 
COST: SOLD OUT, WAITLIST AVAILABLE; MORE INFO

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Original mumblecore brothers Mark and Jay Duplass have gone on to numerous mainstream projects (Mindy Project, Industry and Transparent, just to name a few), but it all started with indie darling The Puffy Chair. The brothers, plus Katie Aselton, will join for a screening of the roadtrip/buddy comedy about an adventure to pick up, you guessed it, a puffy chair, on the film’s 20th anniversary.

Night Scene 

Wednesday, January 21, 8 p.m.
Zebulon 
2478 Fletcher Drive, Frogtown
COST: $38.63; MORE INFO

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Do you like fun? Night Scene has it all — they call it a “rock & roll sleaze show” but it’s a little bit of everything — DJ night, live performances, cool visuals, featured dancers and more. This week, check out sets from Frankie and The Studs, special guest Domenica Fossati (Brazilian Girls) and creator Ashley Hayward.

Stand Up for Pets

Wednesday, January 21, 7 p.m.
Wallis Annenberg PetSpace 
12005 Bluff Creek Drive, Playa Vista 
COST: $30; MORE INFO 

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Laugh along with your furry friend (and meet some potential new ones!) at Wallis Annenberg PetSpace’s Stand Up For Pets comedy night. Can't Even Comedy presents an evening of stand-up headlined by Tacarra Williams (Bring the Funny, Totally Funny Kids) and hosted by Caitlin Benson.

Angel City FC at LA Works MLK Day Volunteer Festival 

Monday, January 19, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
LA Memorial Coliseum 
3911 S. Figueroa Street, University Park 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Use your day off to support youth in L.A. with Angel City FC and L.A. Works. You’ll help put together 1,500 sports kits for youth across Los Angeles, giving them the tools they need for learning and play. The opportunity brings volunteers like you together to honor King’s community vision.

We Buy Souls

Through February 14
Good Mother Gallery
5103 W. Adams Blvd., West Adams
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

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You’ve seen them all over — those telephone pole signs that look like ads, but really are an art installation and the brainchild of L.A.-based artist RABI (David Emanuel Mordechai Torres). This conceptual installation brings his long-running subservice public intervention into a gallery space for the first time ever. WE BUY SOULS! has attracted attention for its place as “artwork, equal parts installation, performance, marketing experiment and dark satire,” with the posters directing people to a hotline where they are prompted to leave a message dictating the value of their soul and why. Ponder that and other deep thoughts while exploring RABI’s work at the Good Mother Gallery in West Adams.

Speaker Series

Monday, January 19, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. 
Alana’s Coffee Venice
2524 Pacific Ave., Venice 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

Three inspiring speakers from across the worlds of Hollywood and literature will share stories and insights into their careers — for free! — at the new Alana’s Coffee speaker series. Inspired by Lectures on Tap and other “hang and learn” projects popping up, this first one features Patricia Rust (The King of Skittledeedoo), Kimberly O’Hara (author and storycoach) and Nancy Nyberg (former Fox exec).

Descanso L.A. One-Year Celebration

Thursday, January 22, 5 p.m. to close
Descanso
5773 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile
COST: $55; MORE INFO

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Courtesy JS2 PR

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Celebrate a year of new Mexican spot Descanso on Wilshire with an all-you-can-eat taco night for $55. Plus live painting, a DJ, margarita flights and more. The event benefits Food Access L.A.