Photo Courtesy of Krynsky on Flickr

Conventional wisdom has it that street food vendors provide a lower-quality fare than restaurants. While that may have been true of your grandmother’s grease trucks, it’s definitely not the case anymore. Used to battling perceptions that their kitchens aren’t as clean as their brick-and-mortar counterparts (false, it’s the mobile food purveyors who have the most to lose from keeping a dirty workstation), sidewalk vendors have turned their attention to the myth that their product is inferior too.

Read more »

Courtesy of tokidoki

As an Italian artist working in a Japanese tradition, Simone Legno knows what it’s like to cross cultures. Now that his lifestyle brand, tokidoki, has brought him to Los Angeles, he’s crossing cultures all over again — we spoke with him about the experience of being an Italian in Southern California.

You were born in Rome and moved to L.A. seven years ago, when you began expanding Tokidoki with your business partners. How does living in Los Angeles compare with living in Rome?

Of course, they are totally different worlds. I love the sun here. I love the underground street culture. Coming from Rome, I was surprised actually that there was so much culture. Culver City is full of small galleries showcasing local talent. I love being close to the sea even though I never go there; I just like knowing it’s there. What I like about L.A. is that it’s a harbor for people from all over the world. My friends here are from Brazil, Japan, Europe. That doesn’t happen in Rome. I miss the contact with people, though. I am in my car all the time.

Read more »

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/jek-a-go-go

I made my annual trip to LA last month — this time without a car, because, like everyone, times are lean for me. I had the luck of staying with a friend in West Hollywood, relatively central, and I walked a lot — up and down Santa Monica Boulevard, along to Sunset, down to Melrose.

I was walking in LA, like that Missing Persons song, and I couldn’t stop humming it to myself. I was also like the beginning of “Party in the USA,” except I didn’t have a cardigan or a multi-million-dollar tv/movie/pop franchise.

Read more »