Serena Puang

2 days ago | theadvocate.com | Serena Puang

What’s going on with May Street? Local residents and commuters passing by the LSU Lakes might have noticed that the street that runs between the lakes is closed and the way home might be a little longer. This work is part of Phase 1 of the University Lakes restoration project at LSU, which has been ongoing since 2023.

2 days ago | theadvocate.com | Serena Puang

Craving Korean food? The options in Baton Rouge have been sparce, but in recent years, that's changing. Local Korean/Korean American business owners are starting to open businesses that serve street food and Korean-inspired cuisine. In March of this year, Seoul Stop opened on Florida Street. Its offerings include DIY ramen and fresh rolled kimbap. The Korean-style convenience store also has a photo booth and a ton of the iconic Korean snacks that people might see online.

3 days ago | theadvocate.com | Serena Puang

Approximately two weeks after closing the downtown location on Florida Street, House Brew is back downtown in a coffee trailer outside Oxbow Rum Distillery. “We had a vision to be downtown,” co-owner Manning Bergeron said. “I don’t think we were necessarily a good fit (at the Florida Street location) for the long term.” The short term was great, Bergeron said, but after running the numbers, they realized that House Brew wouldn’t have been able to survive past another year or so.

3 days ago | theadvocate.com | Serena Puang

Vacation isn’t always about the destination. Growing up in Baton Rouge, Kimberly Szuszka was always excited to travel — in order to stock her pantry. “We'd bring coolers and grab so many Korean ingredients, because you couldn't find it in Baton Rouge for the longest time,” she said. “We’d stock up and then fill up the freezers and our dry storage with everything. It was always just so fun. We're like, ‘Oh, it's like an adventure.

1 week ago | nola.com | Serena Puang

“Ten Incarnations of Rebellion,” Ballantine Books, 320 pages, releases June 3. How old were you when you learned to hope? For Kalki, a young woman growing up in India under British rule, the answer is 19. Her father, a freedom fighter himself, taught her the songs and myths that would help her believe. “I did not realize it then,” she reflects as she recalls a memory of her father telling her the story of Manu and Matsya.