Wahoo's Fish Taco, the West Coast fast-food joint known both for its tacos and California surfer sensibility, celebrated its 20th anniversary in February with a party at its original Costa Mesa, Calif., restaurant. At the party they served 20-cent tacos and the first 200 guests won raffle prizes and an autograph session with professional skater Ryan Sheckler.

But the party isn't over yet. On Saturday, the company's beloved fish tacos will have their own 21st birthday shindig at all 38 California Wahoo's locations.

It's unclear what it means for a fish taco to turn 21, but customers who get free food and prizes, probably won't be complaining. (At 21, can fish tacos now finally be cooked with alcohol?)

The first 21 customers at each restaurant will get a swag box of prizes, including gifts from Tony Hawk Inc., the pro skateboarder's action-sports company. Everyone who eats at a California Wahoo's on Saturday will be rewarded with a free meal or gift card.

You'd think that with the nation's focus on turkey, cranberry sauce and the subsequent holiday season, November food festivals would be few and far from interesting. Not so -- from warm-ups to warm climes, check out our roundup of remarkable November fȇtes.

Chocolate Show New York, New York, Oct. 30-Nov. 1: A brief event straddling two months, these three decadent days include book signings, cooking demos and tastings, from chocolate experts such as Jacques Torres' -- he's pairing Puerto Rican rum and chocolate -- as well as party ideas.

Chocolate Festival of Texas and Texas Wines, Houston, Tex., Nov. 6-7: Not to be out-gunned by the Yanks, the Lone Star State is holding its own celebration for chocoholics, and this one includes oenophiles, who get a souvenir wine glass.

Port Barre Cracklin Festival, Port Barre, La., Nov. 12-15: You read right -- fat back is on offer! The perfect way to pad up for winter hibernation. There will be a fair pageant, rides, live entertainment and the obligatory cook-off.

While most mobile food trucks have dealt with the animosity of less than enthusiastic local eateries, few are subjected to veritable street-meat turf wars. Yet the revered Los Angeles street vendor, Taco Zone, was set fire to one Friday night this past June, reported the Los Angeles Times. The subject of much debate, the fire's origin was never ascertained -- but motives are surmised to include hate crime, envious competitors, vandals or gang activity.

Regardless, in a city brimming with taco trucks on nearly every corner, Taco Zone reigns supreme in Los Angeles. The no-frills Echo Park truck -- outfitted in a plain metal exterior and typically parked just outside a Von's parking lot -- may be as visually unremarkable as the rest of the fleet of local food trucks, but has garnered a cult following for its zesty authentic Mexican tacos.

More on Taco Zone -- and a photo of their fare -- after the jump.

Chorizo tacos at Austin's Arandas #3. Photo: Jessica S. Ralat

A whopping 69 percent of poll respondents told this recent Brooklyn-to-Austin transplant that the Lone Star State's tacos were the best in the nation and relayed some excellent suggestions. We were able to sample some 40 tacos around Austin, setting them against the closest Sunset Park, Brooklyn, counterparts we could find. Here's one taster's subjective opinion. (Austin is growing on him.)

6. Austin's Arandinas (suggested by Slashfoodies Lacey and LP) pork taco vs. Brooklyn's Matamoros cabeza taco:
Arandinas' juicy, eminently scarfable pork taco went head-to-head with Matamoros', uh, cow head -- and triumphed.
Winner: Arandinas, Austin.

5. Austin's Mi Madre's Restaurant (suggested by Jodi and others) Pork Adobado vs. Brooklyn's Matamoros Enchilada taco:
Anticipating a chili steam engine from this red-sauced breakfast taco, we instead found spiceless goop in a flour shell ill-matched to its flurry of onions and avocado slices. The slightly spicy red enchilada taco at Matamoros is still the one we hold dear.
Winner: Matamoros, Brooklyn

Four more, including the winner, after the jump.

Tacodeli's "cowboy" taco. Photo: Portal and Friends/Flickr

The taco may be the perfect food. Portable and unassuming, not to mention affordable, it proffers fuss-free enjoyment for most everyone. This Slashfoodie's recent move to Austin, Texas, after residing in the taco mecca of Sunset Park, Brooklyn for three years has led him to sample Lone Star State tacos whenever possible. Naturally, a mano a mano Austin versus Sunset Park contest was inevitable.

Austin's taco scene skews toward what some might call "gringo fancy," characterized by the prominence of flour tortillas and nontraditional ingredients like bison and basil -- and fish, which is found infrequently in Sunset Park.

Brooklyn tacos, on the other hand, pay homage to one of the neighborhood's main demographics, Mexican immigrants, with tacos wrapped in two corn tortillas. They typically contain nothing more than a meat filling -- goat, lengua (tongue) and cabeza (brains) are among commonly selected options -- minced raw onion, cilantro, a spritz of lime and an optional flurry of queso fresco (white cheese).

Poll and more after the jump.

• Artificial sweeteners aren't for diet products anymore. The Times outlines the ins and outs of sweeteners, and how they're not only entering our cooking but are also ripe for mixing with regular sugar.
• Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson talks about his vegan lifestyle and how sometimes he slips (but only to be polite).
• Delicious and buttery biscuits: How the Southern tradition moved out of the home and into our freezers.
• We try to keep our kitchens clean, but sometimes bacteria are so very welcome -- especially when you're making homemade yogurt.
• A sad love letter to Charles, a restaurant that disappointed, from Frannie Von Furstinshow.
• The Times investigates New York's burger scene, from wagyu, to a tasty side of french fries -- Flip, Black Iron Burger, and City Burger.
• Empanadas are pretty much the national food in Chile and can be made at home with a quick dough and tasty filling.
• A comforting recipe for Roasted Pepper Tacos with Cream -- "soulful, easy and deeply flavorful."
• Bouley Market is on its way to getting a cheese room, and gears up to sell restaurant-quality vegetables.
• In case you don't have enough gadgets, King Arthur Flour and Crate and Barrel offer shiny new products.

'Tacos'
Mark Miller
Ten Speed Press -- 2009
Buy it at Amazon

Most Americans equate tacos with a "run for the border," but a really good taco takes far longer than the average fast food.

"Tacos," written by the founder of the Coyote Café in Santa Fe, N.M., is a vision quest of sorts for lovers of all things tortilla. You will learn the basic philosophy of this traditional Mexican street food; it isn't until you get into the recipes, though, that you realize just how laborious it can be to make that yummy treat.

Along with approximately 44 taco fillings, Miller shows how to make homemade tortillas, offers a slew of salsa recipes and even gives a Mexican breakfast section sure to make you salivate.

Miller does a bang-up job pairing each of his taco fillings with a wine or beer choice, a tortilla recommendation and the proper salsa accompaniment. With the latter, it gets tricky: If you see a salsa paired with the filling, plan on an extra hour for the preparation.

Takeaway tips: Tacos take work ... lots of it!

1. The word taco comes from the Nahuatl word "ac," which means flat.
2. Make your own tortillas at home.
3. Sixty percent of a chile's heat is in the ribs or veins.
4. "If you can do as much of the preparation as possible in advance, you can have everything ready and waiting for your guests." Live that warning, love it and you'll be a happy taco eater/chef.
5. Be warned: You will have to buy exotic ingredients that may be hard to find.

Quality of pictures: A varied assortment of luscious taco shots peppered with ingredient closeups

We tested: Smoky Bacon Tacos with Cascabel Chile-Blackened Tomato Salsa and Chicken with Chorizo Tacos with Salsa Fresca
These recipes looked delicious and having made some laborious Rick Bayless gems, we were hoping they wouldn't be quite as much work. We were wrong.

The Smoky Bacon Tacos seemed quick enough -- fry up the bacon, fry up the onion in the bacon grease, mix together with honey, salt and two chile powders. However, the salsa -- Cascabel Chile-Blackened Tomato Salsa -- took a bit more than the 20 minutes listed as the prep time, and we couldn't even find cascabel chiles in Whole Foods (so we substituted with a blend of arbol and chipotle). That said, these were delicious and original, and we'd make 'em again.

The Chicken with Chorizo Tacos were somewhat easier, though we had to pull the leaves off an entire bunch of cilantro (add another 15 minutes to prep time) and let the chicken marinate for more than an hour. The results were subtle and good, though not quite as tasty as the Smoky Bacon Tacos.

Slashfood started dinner at 6 p.m., ate at 9:45 and gave up trying to make corn tortillas from scratch because of fatigue.

Worth the investment: These are labor-intensive recipes -- only for those who love their Mexican food and are willing to put in the hours to get it.

If you've got Luke Perry sharing his recipes, you've also got to have Jason Priestley getting in on the action. Dylan was all about the fatty, Southern cookin' with steak, biscuits, and lard, but Brandon went for a different spin. Surprisingly, Jason wasn't getting into something Canadian, but rather, something classically Tex-mex. Oh, yes. Tacos -- not just any tacos, but ones that require you to have the crispy, envelope kind. If you don't, they tell you how to make 'em!

Jason Priestley's Tacos

Are high gas prices getting to you? Jack in the Box wants you to know that they sympathize. On Thursday, June 26 the restaurant chain will be giving out two free tacos when you show them a recent gas receipt.

That's it. Just show the cashier a recent receipt from any gas station and you can get yourself two free tacos. The deal runs all day and you don't have to buy anything else. However, the receipt must be original, no copies allowed. Also, only one order of tacos per gas receipt.

If you live near a Jack in the Box, keep your gas receipts and have a free snack on Thursday. I'd probably do that if I lived anywhere near a Jack in the Box, but I don't think there are any of them on the east coast.

With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, my brain is buzzing with thoughts of Mexican food -- burritos, tamales, chorizo. But at some point, thoughts switch to faux Mexican dishes, the US concoctions that are more fusion than ethnic. This then leads me to my first forays into recipe creation. I've been cooking and baking since I was a little kid, but it wasn't until I hit puberty and got sick of those too-simple Old El Paso taco mixes that I discovered that recipes are nice, but not necessary.

My mother handed the kitchen over to me, and told me to make my own tacos, since I wasn't happy with the dry, plain mix. In a flurry, I was pulling out old spices that were covered with dust, sniffing, shrugging, and throwing them in. I scoured the fridge for anything that might work and added that. In a blink, I had a meal that was better than any powder or simple sauce. It was just as easy, there was no extra mess, and the result was so very worth it.

Check out the "recipe" after the jump, and let me know what your first unique creation was.

A search for the best chocolate pudding leads the author through dozens of cookbooks, calls to pastry chefs, and a multitude of cooking experiments. The pictures nearly led me to the grocery store at midnight to satisfy my suddenly awakened craving for bittersweet chocolate pot de crème. Included recipes look insanely delicious.

Tuscan vintners get in a battle over labeling laws, grape origins, and possible wine contamination - is a brunello di Montalcino by any other name as pleasing?

An Iraqi restaurant in midtown Manhattan is a gathering spot for Iraqi ex-pats, Iraqi-Americans, and journalists home from the Baghdad beat.

The Minimalist does tacos Yucatán-style, with poblano peppers, potatoes and corn.

After losing a lawsuit, Pinkberry is forced to reveal what's in its frozen yogurt, and the truth is less than "all natural."

Eric Asimov discusses German Rieslings.

Florence Fabricant explains the grains behind Whole Foods new multigrain sushi.

Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!

In last night's episode of Top Chef, teams created dishes to serve at a block party in a Chicago neighborhood. First things first: This was one intense block party. We're talking moon bounce and dunk tanks. In fact, now that I think about it, the food didn't even look like the best thing there.

"I already ate dinner...Oh, BYOT? Did you say BYOT?!?! I'll be there in 10 minutes."

Such was my end of the mobile conversation with my sister last night when she called me over to her place for dinner. Not only had I already eaten a huge meal just before she called, but it was also Mexican food. That all went out the driver side window when she said "BYOT." When anyone in my family does BYOT, everyone and their mothers (literally) shows up.

BYOT in my Delicious family stands for "Build Your Own Taco," which isn't anything earth-shatteringly new or innovative. It just happens that BYOT is perfectly appropriate for a Super Bowl party because 1) the food is not difficult to prepare, and 2) as a "Southwestern-style" food, it matches the Super Bowl XLII's host city, Phoenix, Arizona. It doesn't hurt, either, that BYOT is highly customizable to your and your guests' tastes. It can be comprehensive, vegetarian, or even a little gourmet.

All you have to do is prep the components and set them up as a buffet. Your guests will do all the work of putting their tacos together.

• Tortillas - We typically go with hard taco shells made from yellow corn tortillas, but you can also offer soft flour and corn tortillas, flat tostada shells, or if people are picky about carbs, nothing. They can make "salads" in bowls or on plates, and you can make fun of them for being "healthy" at a Super Bowl party. Remember that while people can eat regular tacos with their hands, tostadas and "bowls" mean you have to offer silverware.
  
• Meat - Protein choices for tacos are plenty. My sister likes ground beef with the requisite taco seasoning, but we have done carne asada, carnitas, and grilled chicken. You can do grilled fish or shrimp, and if there are vegetarians on your guest list, you may want to provide black or refried beans.
• Cheese - Go with any cheese you like, and shred it. If your cheese squirts out of a can, we can't help you.
• Vegetables - The standards are shredded Iceberg lettuce, diced fresh tomatoes, chopped onions, and black olives. Don't get too fancy with vegetables. If you start grilling peppers and onions, you're crossing that fine line into fajita territory.
  
• Salsa - A simple red tomato salsa is perfect, though offering options like tomatillo, roasted tomato, and other salsas is nice.
• Guacamole - I very rarely see tacos with guacamole, but why? It's guacamole!
• Other Good Stuff - Sour cream and hot sauces (in addition to salsa) like Tapatio or Cholula.

One of my great food memories is getting together with my best friend and making tacos. We'd get all the fixings - beef, lettuce, shredded cheese, tomatoes, etc - and really make an event of it. Tacos is one of those meals you probably don't have as much when you become an adult - unless you're rushing around and make a stop at Taco Bell - so today is a good day to start making them again.

In the kitchen, Amy Scattergood goes gourmet glam with tacos, with recipes for Achiote-marinated fish tacos, Duck tacos with chile-cherry compote, and Shrimp tacos with pumpkin seed sauce. To go with those tacos, some sangria, or refreshing tea-infused ices and granitas from the Times' archives. Product pick for the kitchen is organic clementine preserves from Les Comtes de Provence.

On the restaurant scene, Russ Parsons looks at what it really means for a restaurant to be "green." Speaking of "green," LA chefs are making Caesar salads from non-traditionally Caesar ingredients like butter lettuce and frisee. S. Irene Virbila goes to Traxx restaurant and gives it 1½ stars.