Ben Mims

A spicy salad, fragrant curry, refreshing fruit toast and an aromatic sugar revolve around the texture and sweet flavor of the best summer watermelon.

Easy vegetable-centric sandwiches, hearty salads and protein-packed bowls offer plenty of nutrition for road-trip food that keeps well until you need it.

Tiki bar culture is on an upswing. But have we considered the food? Crab rangoon, "coco" shrimp and sweet-and-sour pork defined tiki restaurant menus in the mid-century — they're best when prepared at home.

Pineapple and rum spiked a ketchup-based sauce that glazes pork tenderloins in this twist on the classic tiki restaurant appetizer.

Scallions add green freshness to these traditionally rich cream cheese and crab appetizers, here spiked with extra seasonings and fried to a shattering crisp.

Vermicelli rice noodles fry up crisp and brittle to coat shrimp in what is likely the original rendition of the popular coconut shrimp tiki restaurant appetizer.

Here's the L.A. Times Food guide to all of the classics for Thanksgiving. These are timeless recipes, updated appropriately.

Let's state the obvious: Hosting Thanksgiving is tough. And when the day comes for you to show up at a neighbor's, friend's or distant cousin's

I don't know what it's been like in Los Angeles since the start of the new year, but here in Berkeley — where I've been camped out with my partner