Jonathan Gold

Even though El Parian is only a few blocks from L.A. Live, the Mexican restaurant might as well be in another country for many of the patrons of downtown's sports and entertainment hub. Perhaps best known for its birria , a roasted goat in broth, El Parian also serves a celebrated carne asada, both dishes accompanied by hot, homemade tortillas. But if you're catching a Lakers game at Staples Center or a Los Angeles Film Festival movie at the new Regal Cinemas Stadium 14, the preferred south-of-the-border stop is typically Rosa Mexicano, the Los Angeles outpost of a New York-based group of nine restaurants serving (in all seriousness)

Do you remember those plexiglass dollhouses that museum shops sold for a while -- brightly colored things that looked like the "Brady Bunch" house as re-imagined by a unicorn? The new Venice restaurant Sunny Spot is a little like that, a bit of Midcentury Modern on an institutional strip of Washington Boulevard in Venice with a flat roof, acres of windows and glowing, color-washed dining rooms that can't quite decide whether they're outside or in. As Beechwood, this space felt slightly generic, a loungy "Playboy After Dark" kind of place centered on its fire pit. As Sunny Spot, it booms with reggae and supports both a serious cocktail crowd and a multitude of lobster-red beer guys fresh from an afternoon on Venice Beach.

Circling Valley Boulevard in Alhambra, lost in suffocating, 100-degree heat, I'm wondering: What could possibly justify leaving my air-conditioned office to stumble around this too-familiar Southern California bleakscape of tire outlets, big box stores, nail parlors and fast-food joints? A few minutes later, I've finally limped into 101 Noodle Express, and the answer is at hand. It's the restaurant's beef roll, something like a crispy Chinese pancake, rolled around thin layers of savory beef and topped with a homemade bean sauce.

A cautionary tale Re "No illusions, just a message for gays," Column One, Aug. 10 GOP presidential hopeful Fred Karger has no message for gays. But his life does serve as a cautionary tale. As a therapist who often works with men and women coming out of the closet, one of the first lessons in building self-respect is the importance of having people around you who value you as you are. Karger, a longtime Republican operative, surrounded himself with people who actively worked against people like him. A second lesson might be to do things you can be proud of. Karger's biggest achievements seem to be his ability to lie about himself to everyone around him, his divisive political campaign featuring Willie Horton and his ability to convince people to hurt themselves by smoking cigarettes.

Mark Gold, the esteemed marine scientist and president of Heal the Bay, knew it was only a matter of time before his older brother, Jonathan Gold, the equally esteemed Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic, would pick up a set of chopsticks and commit the ultimate act of fraternal betrayal. "From his perspective, if you've already eaten Jamaican goat penis, what's wrong with whale?" Mark asked.

There are a lot of good reasons to visit MacArthur Park on a Saturday afternoon, even if you're not in a mood to leave the cake out in the rain. Local TV newscasts may characterize the neighborhood as the center of vice in the civilized world, and it is an easy place to buy a forged green card, but mostly, these days, it's the crossroads of Central American commerce in Los Angeles.

El Parian Goat's the stuff at this Jalisco-style workingman's lunch hall-- birria , kid roasted crisp, hacked into slivers, submerged in a thick, chile-laced elixir of amplified pan-drippings. The sweet, mild meat has crunchy parts and stewy parts and parts that seem cleaved from a roasted joint; meat also clings to the tiny goat ribs, which you suck and then spit back into the bowl.

Do you remember those plexiglass dollhouses that museum shops sold for a while -- brightly colored things that looked like the "Brady Bunch" house as re-imagined by a unicorn? The new Venice restaurant Sunny Spot is a little like that, a bit of Midcentury Modern on an institutional strip of Washington Boulevard in Venice with a flat roof, acres of windows and glowing, color-washed dining rooms that can't quite decide whether they're outside or in. As Beechwood, this space felt slightly generic, a loungy "Playboy After Dark" kind of place centered on its fire pit. As Sunny Spot, it booms with reggae and supports both a serious cocktail crowd and a multitude of lobster-red beer guys fresh from an afternoon on Venice Beach.

Join Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold for his second annual Union Station Cocktail Party. This one celebrates the growing trend toward a speakeasy style in downtown nightlife, which has people knocking on back doors and uttering passwords for entrance in order to drink artisanal cocktails from old-time recipes. Food and beverages will be provided by Seven Grand, Las Perlas, Street, Jar, Comme Ca, the Lazy Ox and more. Union Station, 800 N. Alameda St., L.A. 7 p.m. Sat. (213)

BOOKS Stacy Schiff There are a lot of theories swirling about Cleopatra, which we like to think of as something like ancient Egypt's Angelina Jolie. Favorite topics of speculation include her makeup habits, her famous political strategizing and of course, how many lovers she had. Stacy Schiff, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, queries classical sources in order to wring a fresh and exciting take on a woman who still rivets the imagination. For this Aloud event, Schiff will be in discussion with screenwriter Robin Swicord.

BOOKS Stacy Schiff There are a lot of theories swirling about Cleopatra, which we like to think of as something like ancient Egypt's Angelina Jolie. Favorite topics of speculation include her makeup habits, her famous political strategizing and of course, how many lovers she had. Stacy Schiff, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, queries classical sources in order to wring a fresh and exciting take on a woman who still rivets the imagination. For this Aloud event, Schiff will be in discussion with screenwriter Robin Swicord.

Join Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold for his second annual Union Station Cocktail Party. This one celebrates the growing trend toward a speakeasy style in downtown nightlife, which has people knocking on back doors and uttering passwords for entrance in order to drink artisanal cocktails from old-time recipes. Food and beverages will be provided by Seven Grand, Las Perlas, Street, Jar, Comme Ca, the Lazy Ox and more. Union Station, 800 N. Alameda St., L.A. 7 p.m. Sat. (213)

Jonathan Gold takes a sensual look at a 17th century painting and builds to something like rapture. Jerry Stahl asserts that Sammy ("Can you actually cry out of a glass eye?") Davis Jr. did more for the black man than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. John Powers schools us on the thieving Bling Ring, more honest about their consumer gluttony than the celebrity media who pretend to stand above them. Moments of surprise, whimsy and unconventional truth burst from the pages of Slake: Los Angeles, the new quarterly journal whose editors have essentially flipped the bird at the faster-quicker-shorter imperatives that are supposed to define 21st century media.

Even though El Parian is only a few blocks from L.A. Live, the Mexican restaurant might as well be in another country for many of the patrons of downtown's sports and entertainment hub. Perhaps best known for its birria , a roasted goat in broth, El Parian also serves a celebrated carne asada, both dishes accompanied by hot, homemade tortillas. But if you're catching a Lakers game at Staples Center or a Los Angeles Film Festival movie at the new Regal Cinemas Stadium 14, the preferred south-of-the-border stop is typically Rosa Mexicano, the Los Angeles outpost of a New York-based group of nine restaurants serving (in all seriousness)

Circling Valley Boulevard in Alhambra, lost in suffocating, 100-degree heat, I'm wondering: What could possibly justify leaving my air-conditioned office to stumble around this too-familiar Southern California bleakscape of tire outlets, big box stores, nail parlors and fast-food joints? A few minutes later, I've finally limped into 101 Noodle Express, and the answer is at hand. It's the restaurant's beef roll, something like a crispy Chinese pancake, rolled around thin layers of savory beef and topped with a homemade bean sauce.

Mark Gold, the esteemed marine scientist and president of Heal the Bay, knew it was only a matter of time before his older brother, Jonathan Gold, the equally esteemed Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic, would pick up a set of chopsticks and commit the ultimate act of fraternal betrayal. "From his perspective, if you've already eaten Jamaican goat penis, what's wrong with whale?" Mark asked.

The first thing you may notice about Rocio's Mole de los Dioses, an immodestly named restaurant not far from the Burbank airport, is the cactus. By this I don't mean that there are potted cactus plants around, or pictures of cactus on the walls, or a blinking neon cactus in the window, but that there is cactus on the plate almost everywhere it is possible for cactus to be. (The restaurant is somehow related to the cactus-intensive tortilleria Nopaltilla next...

A cautionary tale Re "No illusions, just a message for gays," Column One, Aug. 10 GOP presidential hopeful Fred Karger has no message for gays. But his life does serve as a cautionary tale. As a therapist who often works with men and women coming out of the closet, one of the first lessons in building self-respect is the importance of having people around you who value you as you are. Karger, a longtime Republican operative, surrounded himself with people who actively worked against people like him. A second lesson might be to do things you can be proud of. Karger's biggest achievements seem to be his ability to lie about himself to everyone around him, his divisive political campaign featuring Willie Horton and his ability to convince people to hurt themselves by smoking cigarettes.

There are a lot of good reasons to visit MacArthur Park on a Saturday afternoon, even if you're not in a mood to leave the cake out in the rain. Local TV newscasts may characterize the neighborhood as the center of vice in the civilized world, and it is an easy place to buy a forged green card, but mostly, these days, it's the crossroads of Central American commerce in Los Angeles.

El Parian Goat's the stuff at this Jalisco-style workingman's lunch hall-- birria , kid roasted crisp, hacked into slivers, submerged in a thick, chile-laced elixir of amplified pan-drippings. The sweet, mild meat has crunchy parts and stewy parts and parts that seem cleaved from a roasted joint; meat also clings to the tiny goat ribs, which you suck and then spit back into the bowl.