If you live in LA (not "if you are from" LA because I don't know a single person "from" LA), or know anything about this odd city at all, then you know that LA's downtown shuts down into a veritable ghost-town after 5 PM. Or 6 PM if you're an attorney.

So it makes me wonder how restaurants like the Too Hot Tamales' pan-Latin restaurant, Ciudad, do for dinner. We've talked about Ciudad's sister restaurant in Santa Monica, Border Grill. I had lunch at Ciudad the other day for the first time, but I wasn't sure that I'd be willing to drive there for dinner. Having dinner at Ciudad means driving through ridiculous rush hour traffic along the I-10 freeway in the early evening.

The LA Times cooks, starting with the basics of the basic, mirepoix, and glorifies timballo, a dish made of pasta or risotto that is baked into a mold. I think I remember something like this from my chilhood. It was called "spaghetti pie."

Teakettles are put to the test to determine which method is best for boiling water - stove top vs electric. The result? Seems to be a draw.

Dining about La La Land, SIV visits Boneyard Bistro for some barbecue and asks "Really, who wants to eat venison with foie gras in a casual, loud setting?" She gives it two stars (**). Counter-Intelligence heads down to Torrance for a study in washoku at Yuzu, and we get the lowdown on the down lows of Bastide's closing. It was just "too French." I don't know why, but that's funny to me.

In the world of wine, the Times gives us tips on how to spot a bad wine, and SIV highlights a 2004 Blanc Fumé de Pouilly par Didier Dagueneau (say that five times, fast) from the Loire. At $45 a bottle, it's "a relative bargain for a wine of this quality."

Although breakfast is the least complicated meal of the day to prepare at home, there are times, especially on Fridays and the weekend, that I like to take the morning off and go out for breakfast or brunch. Almost all breakfast places are good, because there aren't too many ways to mess up French toast.

So the differentiator among the breakfast joints is value - the best tasting breakfast for the least amount of money. There are plenty of restaurants that serve good breakfasts, but charge $14 or more for an omelet.

Lazy Daisy Cafe is a three-location chain of cafes in Los Angeles that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch for great value. At the West LA location, the cafe faces a fairly noisy part of Wilshire Boulevard, but it's easy to overlook that when both the interior and the staff are bright, cheerful, warm, and friendly. Though Lazy Daisy is slightly more than the $3.99 breakfast special at the Tomy's shack on Sawtelle, pancakes for only $5.95 and a huge stuffed omelet for $7.95 are much less expensive than some other breakfast places in the area. The best part? A giant, bottomless cup of coffee that you pour yourself from the counter. 

Lazy Daisy also serves salads, sandwiches, and other lunch-ish fare until 3 PM.