Food & Cooking
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Myanmar Restaurant in Thailand Offers Free Meals to Fight Coup Back Home

Courtney M. Wolf
Myanmar coup

A fundraising bowl at the Mandalay Food House restaurant in Bangkok. Photo: Teirra Kamolvattanavith

Mandalay Food House is cooking up a plan to fight back after the Myanmar coup.

For one week at the beginning of this month, the restaurant, which is based outside Myanmar in the Thai capital Bangkok, is asking diners to donate to a fund aimed at helping people affected by the military’s seizure of power this week. Meals are on the house.

“When I saw the news on February 1st, I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t want to sell anymore. I was extremely sad…

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Japanese Food
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A Surprise Japanese-Korean Restaurant Draws Long Lines to a Santa Clarita Strip Mall

Courtney M. Wolf

Just like everywhere else in America, it’s been hard for restaurants large and small in the Santa Clarita Valley to survive the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Newhall Refinery and King Kogy, once acclaimed as among the valley’s best places to dine, both closed within months of the first statewide lockdown orders last spring. Even supposedly invincible franchises like Round Table Pizza, PizzaRev, and Coco’s in nearby Valencia and Canyon Country have shuttered, at first temporarily, before quietly fading into oblivion. The legendary Saugus Cafe, the oldest restaurant in LA and a beloved breakfast spot that welcomed whistle-stop train tours

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Japanese Food
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Korean and Japanese restaurant SpoonSticks opens in Massapequa

Courtney M. Wolf

For years now, Long Islanders in search of great Korean fare have heeded the advice of determined foodies and gone west — to Queens and its surfeit of fine K-town eateries. Not surprisingly, that same surfeit is now leading Korean restaurateurs to head east in search of dolsot deserts, people like Andy Sin of Flushing. His Korean and Japanese place SpoonSticks, which opened in December in Massapequa, is already drawing high marks for authenticity and, of course, convenience.

“We first looked at opening a place in Brooklyn, but there was too much competition,” says Sin, who co-owns SpoonSticks with chef

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Japanese Food
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Japanese restaurant owner paid staff $270G, covered health benefits during pandemic

Courtney M. Wolf

One restaurateur in Massachusetts has put his money where his mouth is throughout the pandemic.

Jack Huang, the owner of Douzo Sushi, Basho Japanese Brasserie, Shabu Maru and Sushi Momento in Greater Boston, revealed he has been able to pay his employees a combined $270,000 between March and December as well as cover 100% of their health benefits, according to a recent Instagram post shared by Douzo Sushi.

HOW TO HELP YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS DURING THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

“This pandemic showed up overnight, and being a restaurateur means taking care of the people that show up every day to make

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