The Chapin Breakfast, served only once a month at Santa Cecilia’s church.

Long before the concept of a pop-up restaurant was even established in 2009 by a certain audacious, Los Angeles French chef, Santa Cecilia’s Catholic Church had already mastered it. In 2001 to be exact, when the South L.A. church’s congregants of various ethnic backgrounds formed four different volunteer cooking groups, as a way …

Mexican Chef with Boyle Heights YouthThe somber cafeteria at White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights is perhaps the last place in Los Angeles you would expect to find Aquiles Chavez, the high profile, Mexican celebrity chef that has his own show on the Utilisima network (Mexico’s equivalent to the Food Network). But last week, the Mexico city-born chef that sports dreadlocks and a handlebar …

A Tamal Feast (photos by Javier Cabral)

As part of their new Cultural Continuum series, Mercado La Paloma in South Los Angeles hosted a Tamal workshop last week through their popular Yucatán Restaurant “Chichen Itza,” and we were invited.

Chef Gilberto Cetina Showing Everybody What’s up With Tamales Yucatecos

The Mercado, located across the street from the DMV offices and a stones throw away from USC, …

Maria Rosita Cabral and her proud turkey
Contrary to popular belief, Thanksgiving is not always what you learned about in school. The imagery of overflowing cornucopias and indians eating in peace with pilgrims never existed in my Mexican American upbringing. The paper cut-out “pilgrim” hats that I made in Elementary school had no significance beyond the lesson that day. No, for my family, the only …

“An ethnographic eating tour of some off-the-grid spots serving the best Mexican and Central American food this side of the border” for $250 a person was offered as part our Kickstarter campaign back in August. Surprisingly, we got eight backers for it and found it to be a real success. Pictured above are Tejuinos in Boyle Heights – a sweet and salty fermented corn …

Low-rider altar at the Dia de Los Muertos Festival in Uptown Whittier (Photo by Javier Cabral)To quote Lalo Alcaraz (creator of La Cucaracha), “Dia de Los Muertos is the new Christmas, it comes earlier every year.” The holiday honoring deceased loved ones has caught on in this Mexican’s home away from home known as Los Angeles. Here are a handful of events happening around …

East Los Angeles is a food desert, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Little access to affordable and healthy diet options, coupled with hundreds of fast food chains are factors that exacerbated child obesity rates in East LA, nearly doubling digits in a decade (32.2% in 2012). More info: Obesity_2011Fs.
Earlier this year, the UCLA-USC Center for Population Health and Health …

The latest mobile food truck trend in Los Angeles left one type of food truck behind: Produce Trucks. Located deep in inner-city blocks at the very edge of gentrification, they stand in nourishment solidarity against food deserts, and have been doing so way before it was cool to do.
Yet, if you don’t live in one of these neighborhoods, you’ve probably never seen one of …

The official Sonic Trace KCRW blog is here!
We are excited to make this new blog the hub for sharing all things Sonic Trace. Here you can browse though our broadcast features, contributed stories, web goodies, photo slideshows, and all the stores we’ll be gathering around town in La Burbuja – our portable sound booth.
Sonic Trace asks LA residents:
¿Por qué te vas? Why do you …

Sonic Trace was at La Guelaguetza on a bright and early on a Wednesday morning. At 8 AM sharp, the employees were in full hustle, horsing around and getting ready for the breakfast service.

Conrado, aka, Victor Garcia “Comandante Treviño” has had a few hard experiences adapting to the American way of working life. He used to be a Mexican police (PGR) agent back in …