Kenya and Melissa are Los Angeles high school students who have never tried Indian food until now.  Each girl was born in Mexico but has resided in the United States for most of their lives.  MCCN Editor's Crystal Johnson took these open minded ladies out for dinner at Moksha, a restaurant located in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.  The restaurant is in an unassuming spot but worth checking out. 

2012 is certainly our most ambitious season to date. We are very excited to have Sanford Robbins coming to LA to direct The Winter's Tale. Sandy has directed at some of the great theaters and Shakespeare festivals around the country including the Alley Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and American Players Theatre. A Midsummer Night's Dream features costumes from designer Garry Lennon, and a 40's tinged The Comedy of Errors features a live band and direction from ISC founder Melissa Chalsma, who helmed last year's critical and popular hit The Merry Wives of Windsor.

A little food fun, we mean drink fun too! If you are high functioning Autistic or the parent of high functioning Autistic child, we especially hope this is a fun and inspiring video to watch. No matter who you are it is great to watch family having fun and doing things together.  Logan is high functioning Autistic  fifth grader in Los Angeles.  Watch him  perform the famous Mentos and Diet Coke experiment with his Mom(she's offcam but you can hear her) and Stepdad for his science project. Video shot by MCCN's Editor Crystal Johnson. 

Wikipedia-Vasilopita is a New Year's Day bread or cake in Greece. It contains a hidden coin or trinket which gives good luck to the receiver. It is made of a variety of doughs, depending on regional and family tradition, including tsoureki.

Kelly Clarkson has the distinct privilege to be the very first American Idol. The singer lived up to the hype with a voice that blows everyone away. The Grammy-Award-winning artists' life is the fulfillment of the American dream— rising from financially humble means to go on to super stardom.  

Clarkson was born and reared in Texas. Her mother is Greek and info about the other part of her ethnicity is conflicting.  Some sources state she is half Irish while others state that she is half English, but one thing is certain—Ms. Clarkson is an American gal!   

Opa! St. Nicholas Church and its 500 volunteers invite you to enjoy a cultural experience for the entire family with live music, dancing, gourmet food, homemade pastries, cooking demonstrations, children's activities, a Greek market, and a variety of shopping boutiques. Boasting a three-day average of 50,000 guests, the admission-free fundraiser is the largest festival of its kind in the area. So make the most of your Memorial Day weekend and immerse yourself in the cultural vision that is the 39th Annual Valley Greek Festival.

mycolombianrecipes.com-Medellin, like other cities in the world, has hot dogs stands on the streets and this recipe is very popular with them. In Colombia we don't grill the hotdogs or salchichas, we boil them and the toppings include cole slaw, pineapple sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard and potato chips. When my friends and I would go out to dance, we would usually end up at one of the best hot dog stands located on Poblado Avenue in Medellin at 2 o' clock in the morning.

Derived from the Spanish spelling of the Quechua name kinwa or occasionally "Qin-wah", Quinoa originated in the Andean region of Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.  It is a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds.

Wikepedia-Picarones is a peruvian dessert originated in the colonial period. Its principal ingredients are squash and sweet potato. It is served in a doughnut form and covered with syrup, made from chancaca (solidified molasses). It is traditional to serve picarones when people prepare anticuchos, another traditional Peruvian dish. Picarones were created during the colonial period to replace Buñuelos as buñuelos were too expensive to make. People started replacing traditional ingredients with squash and sweet potato. Accidentally, they created a new dessert that rapidly increased in popularity throughout the country.

Fina Estampa has an inviting look from the outside of the restaurant.  A mural bursting with Peruvian pride and culture, beautiful tile and decor but the inside falls short of the beauty of the outside. Don't get me wrong.  It is not a dump.  The potential is all there for this place but it hasn't come into fruition.  The tables are simply one step away from qualifying as cafeteria tables.  The buffet set up functional but not a attractive.  All I could think was "What could Restaurant Impossible do with the inside of this place?"