8 Things You Need to Know About L.A. Restaurants This Morning

— Josh Kun's "To Live and Dine in L.A." has been nominated for the Southern California Independent Bookseller award for Best Non-Fiction. If you haven't picked up this excellent volume of vintage menus and essays, you'll get a great survey of this city's dining culture. One can also check out the affiliated exhibit at the L.A. Public Library. [LA Observed]

— Spotted at LA Street Food Fest this past weekend: The Goldster, a banana-suited Nyugen Tran of Starry Kitchen, and Street Food fest judge Lesley Balla.

What was Jonathan Gold whispering to fellow judge @lesleyla? #jonathangold @lastreetfoodfest @saucela #lastreetfoodfest #lafoodfest #stretchypants #rosebowl #pasadena #foodfestival #weekendeats #theoffalo

A photo posted by The Offalo (@theoffalo) on Jul 12, 2015 at 2:56pm PDT

Maybe Gold was telling Balla how spicy Howlin' Ray's can be. The banana-suit was definitely apprehensive:

"Will I still have feeling in my mouf?" @starrykitchen @howlinrays @johnnyrayzone @matteblackmandy #howlinrays #hotchicken @lastreetfoodfest @saucela #lastreetfoodfest #lafoodfest #stretchypants #rosebowl #pasadena #foodfestival #weekendeats #theoffalo #latergram

A photo posted by The Offalo (@theoffalo) on Jul 12, 2015 at 11:17am PDT

— Munchies has a long personal account of a taco truck owner that had been extorted by local gang members. Though the gang activity hasn't affected him recently, apparently things aren't any better now that the police have been harassing him and ticketing his customers for parking violations.

— Nobu Malibu is now open for breakfast, which might make it one of the lovelier places in town to have a scenic morning meal. Nobu is offering breakfast on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. [Toddrickallen]

— Sprudge has a nice look at Highland Park's incoming Civil Coffee, which is looking to transform the caffeine scene along Figueroa. The program will use Coava and Heart Coffees from Portland. Is Highland Park the next PDX? Maybe it already is.

Photo by David Maziarz/Sprudge

— The OC Weekly has a lengthy interview of donut and ice cream specialists Afters Ice Cream, which has dominated Orange County's dessert scene for a few years. There's a Long Beach outlet in the works., so a full on northern invasion seems more likely than ever.

— Zagat commands you to eat these five things at the new Blue Ribbon Grill & Sushi Bar at the Grove, including that fried chicken, oxtail fried rice, and of course, sushi.

— LAist tries some of the new bowls at Rice Bar in Downtown, lauding the creative Filipino-tinted creations. The best thing might be the frozen coconut buko popsicle. It's almost like a frozen gogurt, but elevated.

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