FROM THE BOONDOCKS: Noted East Coast restaurant...

FROM THE BOONDOCKS: Noted East Coast restaurant critic-author Mimi Sheraton highly recommends several Orange County restaurants in the current Conde Nast Traveler magazine. But talk about your backhanded compliments: Outside L.A., she says, Southern California has long been “culinary wastelands.” . . . Adds Sheraton: “But now, even such gastronomically conservative strongholds as La Jolla, Palm Springs and Orange County are beginning to support temptingly original restaurants.”