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LA Times: Carlos Salgado’s Taco María is The Times’ 2018 Restaurant of the Year

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Yet no restaurant in years may have had quite the impact that Taco María and its chef Carlos Salgado have had on the Southern California scene. The restaurant, which serves tasting menus of Salgado’s Mexican-influenced cooking, is at the center of a culinary movement that seems to grow in importance each year. By regarding tortillas with a seriousness familiar to any fanatical French baker, by using perfect seasonal produce and by treating regional Mexican dishes with both imagination and respect, Salgado has propelled California-Mexican cooking into the jet stream of abstracted modernist cuisine.

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Daily Pilot: Small Business Saturday brings big crowds and savings to SOCO and OC Mix in Costa Mesa

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Big crowds gathered in search of sizable savings during Small Business Saturday at South Coast Collection and the OC Mix in Costa Mesa.

The annual promotion, first sponsored by American Express in 2010, is meant to shine a spotlight on brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop-style shops nationwide, as opposed to big-box and online retailers.

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Daily Pilot: Portola Coffee Lab and other shops will be featured at Small Business Saturday

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(Christa Duggan and husband Jeff Duggan run Portola Coffee Lab, which will be featured during Small Business Saturday on Nov. 19 at SOCO and the OC Mix in Costa Mesa. (Kevin Chang / Times OC)

Jeff and Christa Duggan are passionate about coffee — almost to the point of obsession.

That deep enthusiasm about the intricacies among coffee beans is what drove the husband and wife to open Portola Coffee Lab, which has taken root as a favorite among Orange County coffee drinkers who prefer an alternative to mass-produced java.

Portola, along with other Orange County businesses, will be featured Nov. 25 at Small Business Saturday at SOCO and the OC Mix.

 

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At Designer Camp’s first O.C. session, students get a taste of fashion 101

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Whhen Kristen Dees and Mercedes Curran made high school visits on behalf of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles to speak with adolescent students, many of the pupils seemed unsure about pursuing a future in the industry.

“It was almost too late, like they were too scared to know if this was something they wanted to do for the rest of their lives,” Dees said. “Some parents wanted tutoring and mentoring geared toward the college-bound kids. But what about the age before that?”

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(Photo by Kevin Chang / TimesOC)

Pastry chef’s sugar sculpture sweetens the pot for O.C. Fair visitors

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Orange County Fair visitors with a sweet tooth can find a lot to satisfy it on any given day. But most confections on the midway don’t require a blow torch to create.

On Sunday evening, however, award-winning pastry chef and master chocolatier Stephane Tréand wielded fire, canned air and plastic molds to forge an exotic tropical-looking sculpture out of sugar.

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(Photo by Daily Pilot Staff)

LA Times: Your guide to Orange County food halls

Posted on by Kirby

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Say what you will about the culinary landscape in Orange County: It may be home to strip malls packed with chain restaurants, but it’s also where the artisanal food hall scene is taking off like nowhere else in California.

Angelenos may not think twice about driving from East Pasadena to Venice Beach for a pastry. A trip down the 5 Freeway to Orange County for lunch? Not likely. But a new wave of food halls that have opened in the O.C. over the last five years should have people planning trips to the area, in search of many things from an excellent beef dip sandwich to Fanny Bay oysters to tacos. 

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LA Times: Head to Restaurant Marin in Costa Mesa for giant English muffins and chicken pot pie

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LA Times Head to Restaurant Marin in Costa Mesa for giant English muffins and chicken pot pie

Another favorable review!

Name: Restaurant Marin, named after co-owner Marín Howarth. She and her husband, chef Noah Blom (he worked at Daniel in New York City), are also the duo behind Arc restaurant next door. Restaurant Marin opened in April. 

Concept: The restaurant, located at the South Coast Collection shopping center in Costa Mesa, bills itself as a modern-day diner.  So there’s chicken pot pie, a fried chicken sandwich, pancakes, a patty melt and meatloaf on the menu — but it’s all more elaborate than what you would expect. Almost everything is sprinkled with pink salt before it leaves the kitchen. And instead of laminated menus and greasy booths, your food is served in a beautiful, intimate space outfitted with tabletops made of sea glass, distressed mirrors, chandeliers and short plush blue booths that curve ever so slightly at the ends. Howarth also designed the space. 

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(Photo By Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

LA Times: Glowing Review for Restaurant Marin

Posted on by Kirby

restaurant-marin

Once again, I have found another terrific restaurant at SoCo. This one is called Restaurant Marin, named after the chef’s wife.

The chef is Noah Blom and he is the creator of Arc, which is next door to Marin. That restaurant cooks everything in a wood fired oven or a wood fired grill. Marin will also use the wood fired ovens and wood fired grill, but the cooking temperature will be lower so they can do seafood as well as other offerings.

Read the full article Right Here!