On the dining scene, SIV gives new tapas joint Bar Pintxo 1½ stars and Fraiche is doing so well in Culver City, it's already thinking of expanding to additional locations.
Naturally, every Food section around the country is covering Thanksgiving, and The Los Angeles Times is only different in the approach: looking at the Thanksgiving table as a palette of colors:
The most interesting article of the day (in my opinion, of course) is from Regina Schrambling who ponders the anonymity of restaurant reviewers from professional journalists to bloggers (and if you happen to recognize a mysterious half face on the article, yes, that is yours deliciously!)
Looks like the entire staff of the Los Angeles Times food section went on a retreat over the long weekend to Santa Barbara, with the entire section dedicated to the "local" wine country.
It's no secret that I am obsessed with Jonathan Gold. "Who the heck is Jonathan Gold?" some of you may be asking.
Don't worry, I'm not offended that you may not know. If you don't live to eat in Los Angeles, or maybe even New York, then you might not know him. Jonathan Gold is the current restaurant critic for the LA Weekly, and I will most certainly have you all know that I had a cybercrush on him waaaaay before he was even in the running for a Pulitzer Prize, let alone named the winner! Yes, yes, y'all, Mr Jonathan Gold is a Pulitzer prize-winning writer.
Some of the obsession has to do with what he writes about -- though he has dined around New York, he started in LA and makes his dining home here now. He also tends to focus his dining experiences on places that don't get written up by every other person on the planet.
However, the real reason I gush like I do about Mr. JGold is not his subject matter. It's his writing.
As far as wine regions, the Central Coast of California uses unusual grapes and SIV praises a hot wine, Le Picpoul from the Languedoc region in France.
You must have A/C in your house if you can stand to be in the kitchen! White wine gelees are a refreshing addition to the summer table and the Times hunts down the recipe for Grilled Cheese from restaurant Lucques.
A little more than a year ago, I fell all over myself after reading about Pig Candy. No, not those pig-shaped peppermint candies to which you take a tiny mallet and break open. I am talking about "candy" that is made from pork. At the time, the only place in LA that offered this "secret dinner-party hors d'oeuvre" was Lou, a wine bar in Hollywood.
Well, it has taken more than a year, but I finally got to Lou on Vine, and got to try Pig Candy, and friends, it is awesome. Really, it's nothing more than thick-cut bacon that's baked in the oven with brown sugar, but for some reason, popping these gems while sitting in a dark wine bar with a group of friends makes it so absolutely special.
If you happen to be in LA this weekend, you might want to make your way to the UCLA campus for the Los Angeles Times sponsored Festival of Books on Saturday and Sunday.
While the book festival as a whole is exciting, there are a few things that are of special interest to me as a Slashfoodie. On Saturday at 10:00 AM, there's a panel called "Food Fight: When Did Eating Get Controversial?" that will feature Marion Nestle (What to Eat), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemna) and Barry Glassner (The Gospel of Food). On both days, there will be a series of chef demos on stage, and I plan on going Saturday to see Govind Armstrong, Dave Lieberman, Cat Cora, and Ted Allen (all of whose books are pictured above). Sunday will feature Martin Yan, Barbara Fairchild, Nancy Silverton, and Lidia Bastianich. All of these chefs have books, which will be available at the event.
Have you ever stashed a Coke in the freezer, hoping to chill it quickly, then forgotten all about it, only to have it explode all over your frozen peas?
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
