5 Best Walking Streets by Kevin Roderick

5 Favorite Dishes to Make for First Time Guests by Ariana Morgenstern

Ariana Morgenstern, Morning Becomes Eclectic Producer.

I love to cook. I cook everyday. I spend endless hours thinking about meals and one of my favorite pastimes is pouring through my cookbooks and modifying recipes. I’ve taken classes, apprenticed at 72 Market St in Venice in its heyday and volunteer my services to friends.

As a child, my mom made 3 square meals a day so it’s hard for me to open a box and put the contents in a microwave. I’ve never even owned one. I’m more inclined to have a simple cheese sandwich over frozen food. That’s just not how I was raised. While I am not a fancy cook, there is great beauty in simple hearty fare.

It’s easy to get stressed out when guests are about to land on my doorstep so I try to prepare meals I’ve made before. My mom told me long ago to never experiment with a new dish on guests. I learned that the hard way when I made a quiche — the crust was so hard and dense my guest actually picked it up and started banging it on the table.

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5 Best Beards in Music by Jeremy Sole

Jeremy Sole, KCRW DJ.

Sure, I could have chosen a profound subject for my Top 5 list – one that might allow me to wax philosophic on music, race or early changes in migration patterns of the snowy egret as an indication of global warming. But alas, I have been guided to crest a higher summit – a list of those who liberate their follicles in honor of the upside-down crown.

Whilst trimming off the obvious picks like ZZ Top or Matisyahu, and pruning away Joe Cocker and all sporters of the porkchop, I have shaved it down to five of music’s most notable chinstraps – from the bearish muzzle to the pharaoh-like obelisk. Because this was a tough one to shear down, I have decided to focus on those who have wholly represented the fuzz throughout the majority of their career. Being that I’m the self-appointed arbiter on this matter, I hereby denounce all accusations of favoritism!

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5 Best Places to Play Tennis by Eric J. Lawrence

Eric J. Lawrence, KCRW Music Librarian/DJ.

Believe it or not, we DJs really need our exercise. Like most working folk, our gigs don’t provide us with many opportunities to move around all that much. Instead, we fall into bad habits, like hunching over the mixers, contemplating our next selection, all the while screwing up our posture and building up pressure in the neck and upper back. So, in order to keep in shape, we have to work out. And each of us has a different routine. Myself, I’m a tennis guy.

Southern California is well-suited for the tennis fan, with our year-long accommodating weather. It’s a social vs. solitary activity, and, depending on your mood, can inspire serious trash-talk or silent, steely-eyed stares. And thankfully there are plenty of courts (and players) around town. Here are my Top 5 Favorite Places to Play Tennis in Southern California:

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Five favorite places in L.A. for “Taking Tea” by Chery Glaser

Chery Glaser, KCRW Host.

Back when I was in third grade, my aunt from England taught me the proper way to make and drink tea (pre-heating the pot and truly boiling the water are a must for the former; I prefer milk and a skosh of sugar for the latter). I’ve been a fan of the brew pretty much ever since. There’s nothing like it for curling up on the sofa on a chilly night or lingering over on a lazy Saturday afternoon. But I’m also a fan of tea, the meal–particularly when somebody else has done all the work and I can just sit back and enjoy. So forthwith, my five favorite places for taking tea in L.A.

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