"rosh hashana" news and stories

• The L.A. Times Test Kitchen put together a baker's dozen recipes for your Rosh Hashana menu.
• Speaking of Rosh Hashana, you don't have to make tzimmes and honey cake just because your mom always did.
• Saddle Peak Lodge feels like an old mountain lodge -- but the cuisine is fresh and new.
• Verdejo, a white varietal, is a Spanish star that's made a comeback.

This week in Food at the LA Times, Russ Parsons goes to town with Heirloom apples with a Guide to Apple Varieties and answering the age-old question, To bake or not to bake?. Recipes include Baked Apple Ice Cream, Boozie's Apple Cake, and Maple Baked Apples with Dried Fruit and Nuts.

Also in the kitchen, Rosh Hashana recipes to celebrate the Jewish New Year: Kibbeh bi'kizabrath (cilantro-tomato soup with Syrian meatballs), Rubuh' (roast veal stuffed with spiced ground meat and rice), and Ejjeh b'kerrateh (leek fritters).

In restaurants, SIV visits the newly re-opened Ca'Brea and gives it a half star, LA chefs try serving cocktails with or as the amuse bouche.

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!)

There's a new trend in food-buying: getting beef directly from the rancher. Recipes are for: Marinated Grass-Fed Flank Steak, Sally Gale's Olive-Crusted Rib Roast, and Chileno Valley Beef Stew.

Apple recipes in preparation for Rosh Hashana: Currant- & Ginger-Stuffed Baked Apples with Honey Creme Fraiche, Butter Lettuce, Apple, Endive, Walnut & Cheddar Salad with Honey Vinaigrette, and Grilled Flatbread with Melted Brie & Honeyed Apple Compote.

Olivia Wu's Shanghai Diary has Drunken Soybeans.

In the news, THomas Keller's temporary Ad Hoc is open, Cindy Pawlcyn does fish at Go Fish, and Gary Danko tops the Zagat survey. Pan-Asian Red Ginger in El Granada and Oakland's country French JoJo both receive two and a half stars (**½). Mescolanza in the Richmond District gets two stars (**).