Cindy Carcamo

1 month ago | latimes.com | Bill Addison |Cindy Carcamo |Danielle Dorsey |Betty Hallock |Sarah Mosqueda

11 carne asada tacos to try from the 101 Best Tacos guideLos Angeles is the land of tacos. We grab them from copper cazos as the sun rises, duck out for lunch breaks to stand in line at taco trucks and end our nights at sidewalk taquerias. It’s why the Food team spent several months rounding up 101 of the best tacos across the region last year. Everyone has a go-to taco order, whether it’s spit-shaved al pastor, juicy carnitas or fried shrimp tacos.

2 months ago | businessandamerica.com | Cindy Carcamo

In the back kitchen of Chapter One, a neighborhood gastropub in downtown Santa Ana, the restaurant’s chief busser and utility worker, Alfonso Lira, is in constant motion. He takes out the trash. He cleans a prep station. He refills a customer’s water glass. Even standing at a sink to rinse dirty dishes, he shifts his weight from side to side as if he were a boxer waiting to deliver his next blow.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Cindy Carcamo

Tomas Saldaña started his job as a line cook more than three years ago at Costa Mesa’s Paradise Dynasty, the Singapore-based restaurant group best known for its xiao long bao. But it wasn’t the restaurant’s famous soup dumplings that most captured his imagination. The restaurant’s golden radish pastries, also known as turnip puffs, are what truly captivated him.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Cindy Carcamo

For most it’s a grind having to wash an assembly line of pots and pans first thing in the morning. For Sophia Velador, who helms the dish pit at the breakfast and lunch spot Alder & Sage in Long Beach, it’s therapeutic. A sink overflowing with unwashed dishes marks the start of her workday. It’s how she’s made a living for the last 10 years. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Cindy Carcamo

In the back kitchen of Chapter One, a neighborhood gastropub in downtown Santa Ana, the restaurant’s chief busser and utility worker, Alfonso Lira, is in constant motion. He takes out the trash. He cleans a prep station. He refills a customer’s water glass. Even standing at a sink to rinse dirty dishes, he shifts his weight from side to side as if he were a boxer waiting to deliver his next blow.