Elise Thompson

Pork French Dip With Swiss, Pre-Spicy French Mustard/Photo by Caleb Bacon for LAist Roadfood pioneers Jane and Michael Stern's new book, 500 Things to Eat Before it's too Late: and the Very Best Places to Eat Them has just hit the bookstores. Don't worry, the title is not a reflection upon the state of your health or a dire prediction of the apocolypse. It's more of a statement on the homogenization of the country's...

Rick's Drive-in in Pasadena serves old-style burgers, shakes, and fries, but those in the know go there for one thing - the spuderito. Stuffed with french fries, tomato sauce, cheese, onions and salsa, this messy burrito comes with a huge handful of napkins. Really, it is so spicy it is almost more like a salsarito. If you like, you can add meat for a dollar ten, but that really isn't what the spuderito is all...

Finally! Just in time for Memorial Day! A way to cut hot dogs! It was such a mystery before. I simply could not figure out how to keep my hot dog from exploding in the microwave until this marvel came along. OK, actually, this thing is kind of scary. It may even make certain people of the male persuasion wince. Remember, Mom and Dad, this is not for kids. But your friends will love it! Thanks to Allee Willis for turning us on to this wunder of wunders.

(L to R:) Christine ``Little Flower'' Moore; Jeanne ``Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes'' Kelley; Colleen ``Eat L.A.'' Dunn Bates; Jessica ``Daily Dish'' Gelt; Jonathan Gold, Patty "EatingLA" Saperstein/Photo by Elise Thompson for LAist Thursday night 826LA presented a seminar titled, "Food Writing!" And as fans of punctuation know, anything with an exclamation point has got to be good. 826LA is a community organization offering free tutoring, workshops, desktop publishing and all-around grooviness to the...

Good news for those of you who don't eat beef, pork, or pig's anus! Wienerschnitzel has just introduced the amazing new sea dog. Now you can gorge yourself on Alaskan pollock - and fish anus. It wasn't weird enough that Weinerschnitzel (when did they drop the der anyways?) started serving pastrami and Angus chipotle chili dogs. They had to go dredging the ocean. The sea dog must be in a testing phase right now,...

The two works that were stolen According to Lee Joseph, publicist for La Luz de Jesus art gallery in the back of Wacko on Sunset, two paintings were stolen from the gallery today. The works by Lauren Gardiner are worth $1750 total and were already sold to patrons. "There were only a few customers in the store this morning--none of them carrying bags or wearing loose clothing," explained Joseph. "It is our store policy...

The TommyCam keeps an eye on the Tommy Trojan statue at USC Today EarthCam launches its new live streaming video webcams using up-to-date video compression technology to provide videos with with H.264 flash quality. This site has webcam sites from all over the world conveniently mapped for you, along with informational pages and viewer-voted “Hall of Fame” videos. This is only phase one, so more locations will be added over time and upgrades are...

On Saturday over a dozen teams including celebrities like Gene Simmons, Eva Longoria Parker, Bai Ling and Stephen Baldwin took off on an all-day race/scavenger hunt around Hollywood. The starting line for the rally was at the Hollywood Roosevelt. Clues led celebrity navigators and their rally drivers to six unique pit stops where they could earn points by competing in various challenges. Pit stops were at Universal Studios, The Americana, Dodger Stadium and other Los...

Video taken by Elise Thompson for LAist If you were wandering around The Hollywood Roosevelt, Universal Studios, or the Americana Saturday and thought you saw Gene Simmons drag racing with Eva Longoria, Bai Ling, and the guy from "Chuck" it was not a hallucination. Welcome to Hollywood. The event was the Rally for Kids Scavenger Hunt, hosted by Eva Longoria. The Rally was to benefit Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and PADRES Contra El Cancer....

Tonight just before 7pm the fire detector in the kitchen of Susan Feniger's popular new restaurant, "Street" malfunctioned. It detected a nonexistent grease fire and the sprinkler system sprayed a hot chemical down on the kitchen from behind the chefs, coating much of the food and sending everyone running out of the kitchen. Not only is the food a loss, but there are strict rules about this kind of thing both from the Health...