There is a movement happening in Texas to declare tacos the official state food. I see a good case for that, although brisket is a strong contender as well. In California, I think making the taco the official state food would be nothing short of a slam dunk. Sure, Southern California is the birthplace of the fast food burger and up in San Francisco, a whole style of burrito awaits you. Still, North or South, big city or quiet surf ...

It is a daunting task, trying to anoint one taqueria that serves the best burrito in San Francisco. It’s almost a mission meant to end in defeat when one thinks of the sheer volume of celebrated taquerias in the famous Mission district alone. Even as I posted a teaser on Instagram about my San Francisco Burrito Quest, suggestions started to come in from Oakland . . . and the East Bay is its own beast, worthy of a separate “best ...

Ahh, San Diego. German for a . . . well, we all know how that line from Anchorman goes, so no need to rehash it on the interwebs for the millionth time. Instead I’ll just jump into the Cheap Eats scene in San Diego while fondly looking back at one of the most fun episodes of Cheap Eats we have ever done. Yes there were Ferrari rides that included doing donuts with a donut making guru. Oh and this was ...

Home to the summer residences of Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, and Julia-Louis Dreyfus(just to name a few), and boasting an average home price around $1.3  million, you probably wouldn’t expect the word “cheap” to be thrown around too often in Santa Barbara. One could even say Santa Barbara is Hollywood’s Shangri-La. But can this gorgeous beach town also double as an oasis of Cheap Eats?  Well, you just might be surprised at the deals to be had. I ...

Spokane on the brain! Yeah, I definitely has Spokane on the brain. If you caught this episode you would have also caught on to the fact that the crisp air caught me for a bit of a cold. I give props to the magic of television and the amazing people serving up Cheap Eats in Spokane, who helped me pull through what was the toughest shoot of my life. I think this episode flowed and the energy I found here ...

Portlandia. PDX. Or just plain Portland, Oregon. Whatever you call it, we all know this city has a rep for food, style and weather. This was not my first visit to the PDX. In 2014 I was sent all along with an army of food bloggers(vloggers) armed with the now defunct Tastemade app to shoot and eat the heck out of this venerable food town. I discovered loads of young chefs taking fried chicken seriously, farm to table tacos, plenty of ...

The Vitals: the burger: two patties of a custom triple cut grass fed beef blend, on a sponge bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and thousand island dressing and american cheese the bucks: $7 the coordinates: Los Angeles, CA Last night I dreamt about Zankou Chicken. For those of you who are ignorant to the work of Beck, or happened to have never called LA home, Zankou Chicken is one of those dirty bird chains blessed from the Gods. A Lebanese-Armenian take on the ...

The Vitals: the burger: Double Fast Burger: two 3oz patties of enlightened grass fed beef, house made American cheese, custom burger sauce, lettuce, tomato and onion the bucks: $8 the coordinates: Los Angeles, CA One of the most compelling debates on how to make great food erupted perfectly on Twitter a few years ago between Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert over which factor was more significant: technique or ingredient. Bourdain’s argument for technique sort of “won”, as he pointed out that ...

The Vitals: the burger: The Big Mouth Burger: a 1/2 pound of USDA Prime All Natural Chuck, charbroiled and served with lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle and mayo the bucks: $8.95 the coordinates: San Francisco, CA Most of the country would balk at a cheese-less burger for $9, even if it was a 1/2 pound of USDA Prime all natural chuck and came with fries. But most of the country ain’t got nothing on a warm sunny day in San Francisco, ...

Ali Khan Eats the burger at Hinano Cafe in Venice Beach, a neighborhood of Los Angeles CA.