Mitsuwa is continually bringing us tastes of Japan in the form of limited-time special items, and this one caught my eye. It's the Ice Cornet, a swirl of soft-serve ice cream inside warm bread shaped like a cone. The picture above doesn't do the concoction justice--it's huge!

The treat is popular at Japanese shopping malls, where they offer flavors such as mango yogurt, vanilla, chocolate, green apple, blueberry and raspberry.

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Anne Marie Panoringan

Lumpia #useyourhands

When Manila Groove shut down last year, it was one less Filipino option in a sea of ethnic cuisines. Growing up in Daly City (where the fog is so thick from all the rice cookers hard at work), the only times my family went out for Filipino food were after church and en route to a party to pick-up a catering order. Otherwise, Mom and Grandma Lola made most of my meals. And if you loved your Mom's cooking, you also know matching it would be next to impossible.

Learning about Playground 2.0's Wanderlust pop-up intrigued me. I interviewed Ryan Carson for On the Line when he worked for AnQi, and that's when I learned about his hapa heritage. After he left House of An, Ryan showcased his talent with Pri-ve dinners, conducting a weekly tour of tastes, creativity and molecular gastronomy. It was a matter of time before he visited his multi-cultural background, and I intended to taste his interpretation of my childhood.

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Dave Lieberman

"¿Una tortilla de papa?" asked my neighbor, confused. "Like the Spanish pancake?"

"No, a thin tortilla, like for enchiladas."

"No, Dave, no se hacen tortillas de papa. Nomás maíz y harina."

Wrong, Lidia. Wrong. There are absolutely potato tortillas, and the Norwegians--who else?--have been making potato-based flatbreads for hundreds of years. It's become something of a holiday treat here in the United States, the winter holidays being the time of year when otherwise-assimilated Scandinavian Americans trot out the old traditions. (I'm Danish, but we only ate Danish food at Christmas and New Year's.)

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sushiFAQ

For sushi novices, it's the gateway dish. More »

Clay Oven

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Look, nobody's saying you need to affect a French accent when you order a French dish, but it would be nice if you didn't totally butcher my language when doing it. Nobody's asking you to screw up your nose and pipe out "croûton", with that oh-so-pretentious nasal vowel at the end, but at least put the em-PHA-sis on the correct syl-LAB-le, okay?

See also:
 Five Commonly Mispronounced Mexican Food Terms that Americans Shouldn't Mispronounce
 Five Cultural Faux Pas to Avoid
 Five Things You're Doing Wrong With Japanese Food

Here are twelve of the most grating ones to a French speaker:
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We gave you a guide to Orange County's best noodles in this week's cover feature. Who knew we had such diverse and delicious noodles in our fair county? We did! In our continuing effort to bring you the best of this oft-overlooked meal staple, may we present an interactive map of top-notch noodles. More »

Michelle Woo/OC Weekly

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Flickr user snowpea&bokchoi

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Flickr user primerano

"That is not what I meant when I ordered chicken heart."

​"You won't like."

"Too spicy for you!"

"Are you sure?"

Such is life as a regular American trying to get the great food from the ethnic restaurants with which Orange County teems. Let's just say it: most white people are afraid of authentic food. Too spicy, too sour, too pungent, what's this little squiggle? It's far easier, as a restaurateur, to dumb it down.

So, assuming you're channeling Andrew Zimmern, how do you get the good stuff? How do you prove you can handle it? By ordering and eating dishes that fall outside the American norm. Obviously, these aren't magic passwords, but at the very least you'll be expanding your culinary horizons by ordering this stuff.

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