JFLinLA

And who does one contact?

So short of heading over to Dodger Stadium, how could I get some It's-It's in Southern California? I'm even willing to order them if they could be shipped. Wouldn't it be fun for an event?

Still waiting for my starter to arrive as I was on vacation and only requested it a few days ago. Here's my question: Can you explain more about the vitamin C? What does it do and how much should you add assuming there isn't anything in your flour? My flour says something like "not a significant source of vitamin C" and other stuff?

LA Times Food Section -- September 10, 2003 To view the LA Times Food Section as it appears in print, click here for the PDF version. This will allow you to see all the articles. Summaries and links to individual articles are provided below. However, the LA Times is now posting their restaurant reviews in the Calendar section on-line even though they appear in the Food section of the print edition. Further, one is required to register separately to access the Calendar section and pay a fee if you don't already subscribe to the paper. Have a little honey, honey. This week's cover story, "Something Wild," by Emily Green, is all about honey. Okay, it's an homage to honey and all its variations and complexities. Besides finding out all about the sweet stuff, and some of the great people who bring it to you, scroll down to the end of the article for recipes for Honey-brandy ice cream with fig jam (I've got to try this one), Edon Waycott's baklava, and Escarole salad with honey-glazed pecans. Table for four? Not so fast, pal is David Shaw's Matters of Taste column. What's the biggest scourge of restaurateurs? No-shows!! Find out how bad the problem's getting and what restaurants are doing about it. America's best barista is a 21 year old college senior from Cal Poly Pomona. Read Russ Parsons' She's 21 and fully caffeinated to find out about Heather Perry who is, not only the best in the US, but one of the world's 10 best. Talk about it here. Culinary SOS by Cindy Dorn provides the recipe for trout stuffed with spinach and mushrooms. Chili baby, poblano that is. Barbara Hansen says the poblano is "a true Mexican aristocrat." She tells you all about them, what to look for and how to use them. Find recipes for Crema poblana (poblano cream soup), Chiles en nogada, and Chiles poblano polenta. It's mecca for collectors is James Ricci's Wine & Spirits column. This week he profiles Twenty Twenty in West LA boldly stating that it "may have the broadest and deepest inventory of old and rare vintages of any wine shop in the U.S." Find out how they do it. The Wine of the Week is 1999 Hess Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. This week's restaurant review, Quirky and communal in Los Feliz, S. Irene Virbila reviews Hillmont calling it "the alternative chophouse from Cobras & Matadors founder Steven Arroyo." She gives the place one star and recommends the Summer gazpacho, mac 'n' cheese, pommes frites, French green beans, sauteed "wild" mushrooms, dry-aged New York strip, roast chicken, stuffed pork chop, and baklava with ice cream. This place is as much about the ambience.

Forget the rest of the country, I want to get It's It in Southern California. Isn't this the perfect thing for Trader Joe's to carry?

Yes, we have mother's cookies on the west coast. Don't forget the pink and white covered animal cookies they have. I do love the traditional animal crackers in the little boxes from when I was a kid. And the Pepperidge Farm Pirouettes I think their called. The crisp, thin cookies rolled into a "cigarette." Plain and with bits of chocolate in them. Basically, I love almost all cookies. Who mentioned amaretti . . . yum. Who else besides me grew up in LA and remembers these little treats at the old Will Wright's ice cream parlors?

I heard about this once as a way to make Dulce de Leche. I think it was from a guest on Evan Kleiman's Good Food on KCRW. They also said to boil the can of condensed milk, keeping it covered with water, for a long time. I don't remember how long. Then leave the can to cool in the water. Let us know how it turns out.

Okay, in next week's digest, I'll tell all those gentle and not so gentle readers about the PDF version.

Steve: Once you get onto the Food page online, click on the Food PDF button on the left of the screen. You won't get the newsprint on your hands but it will give you a sense of how the thing looks.

Here's the link to the LA Times Digest with a summary and a link to the article.

Los Angeles Times Food Section -- September 3, 2002 Note: The LA Times is now posting their restaurant reviews in the Calendar section on-line even though they appear in the Food section of the print edition. Further, one is required to register separately to access the Calendar section and pay a fee if you don't already subscribe to the paper. For his column, Go ahead, get fresh, e-Gulleteer Russ Parsons shamelessly used the discussion boards to help prepare his story. But does he give us any credit? Huh? Does he? Actually, it's a good story about the great places to get great fish from great fish mongers all around town. Schools of Cooking gives you general characteristics of different types of fish. Trolling with chefs tells you how the pro's do it. Included are recipes for Yellowtail with tarragon aioli from Suzanne Jar at Tracht, and Provençal sardines from Michael Cimarusti of Water Grill. Find the thread Russ started on e-Gullet here and let us know what you think. What do you do if you have a cooking gadget emergency? If you're in LA or Orange County, you call Chef's Toys which will have all the sauce pans, zesters, clogs, immersion blenders or whatever you might need, and they come to you. Read Leslie Brenner's The secret behind LA's great kitchens. Would they come to my house? Find out what's rolling off their trucks in From the Toys' chest. Just off Melrose, a hidden jewel, is S. Irene Virbila's review of Nishimura serving "exquisite sushi in a stylish, contemporary setting." She gives the restaurant 3 stars and recommends the Steamed razor clams, Kumamoto oysters, live scallops, grilled live shrimp, thin-sliced octopus, grilled freshwater eel, sushi and sashimi. Discover the true curry is Barbara Hansen's article about real curry -- the leaves that is. Recipes for a potato dish called Bateta shaak and a soup called Kottu. If you'd like to grow the leaves yourself, read For the cook's garden. Cindy Dorn's Culinary SOS provides a recipe for Garlic chicken with lemon sauce. From the rich, red earth is Rod Smith's story about the Zinfandels of Mendocino's Redwood Valley. The Wine of the Week is 2001 San Vincenti Chianti Classico. In Restaurant Journal, Leslee Komaiko tells how restaurants around town are using GoBo lights to project their image, literally.

Sometime in the early summer, I think, the LA Times did a review of a Basque restaurant in Chino. I don't know if the LA Times link is still available but you can read my summary of their review in the Digest here. Scroll down to one of the last entries on the first page.

LA Times Food Section -- August 27, 2003 Note: The LA Times is now posting their restaurant reviews in the Calendar section on-line even though they appear in the Food section of the print edition. Further, one is required to register separately to access the Calendar section and pay a fee if you don't already subscribe to the paper. Picnics are going to hell in a hand basket. Or, in this case, without the hand basket. Charles Perry blames the demise of the modern picnic on the demise of the picnic basket in Romantic outdoor idyll? Hah! If the article inspires you to get your own classic picnic basket, find out where to buy one here. The night beckons is S. Irene Virbila's "Critics Notebook" about the hot clubs where the food is also good. Put on your best black outfit and find out where to go for night life and eats. Or for a combination approach, here's some good information on Restaurants that morph into club scenes. Pick a fish, any fish . . . for poaching that is and it doesn't have to be salmon, says Donna Deane. Recipes for Poached mackerel with ginger-soy sauce and soba noodles, Mediterranean poached striped bass, and Poached sole with basil-garlic oil and Champagne vinaigrette. In Culinary SOS, Cindy Dorn comes through with a recipe for fresh pea bruschetta from Mario Batali's restaurant, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria. The season's second wave of fresh peas is coming so get ready. Whether it's an Italian Pinot Grigio, a French Pinot Gris or an American wine of either name, they all come from the "gray Pinot" grape. But oh there are differences in the end result and they can all be great. Read about it in Rod Smith's Stalking the great gray grape. The Wine of the Week is 2001 Qupé Syrah Stolpman Vineyard. Sure there's chicken soup to cure what ails you. Yet, according to Linda Burum, "Although Chinese therapeutic cooking traditionally has been practiced in homes, there has been a wave of health restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei, some of them with highly respected gourmet chefs, and the trend recently has reached the Southland." To find out how and where to get better read her column Where the food is meant to soothe. For this week's review, S. Irene Virbila says that Bombay Cafe is An original that has only gotten better. She says the best dishes are Samosas, fish pakoras, chutney sampler, bhel puri, dahi papdi chat, eggplant bartha, lamb frankies, Sindhi chicken, lamb vindaloo, Goan shrimp curry, kheer (rice pudding), kulfi (Indian ice cream).

Langer's is only open to 4:00 pm. Just get the pastrami on rye. You get a choice of 2 mustards. It's very good. No need to complicate things with slaw, etc. If you need fake IDs, phony auto insurance certificates, green cards, drugs, etc., you can try the market across the street in MacArthur Park (or you could just ride in a paddle boat). From Wilshire/Vermont, take the Red Line to the MacArthur Park Station, you're half a block from Langer's. Rail and good pastrami . . . almost like New York.

D -- Sorry for any misunderstanding. While I've never enjoyed the goods from Russ', I've had lots of lox from all over, including in NYC while there and some stuff from Zabar's that someone sent to me last December. I think (and I have others who agree with me) that the stuff from 3-Star is great. It's not at all about sacrificing quality -- I don't do that for price. If you've tried their stuff and still disagree then we can just say, "Vive la difference." OK? Jody

I'm thinking of the caramel-pecan filling and the almond filling I use for hamentashen. Brian -- when I put chocolate ganache inside hamantashen they boil up and out of the pastry when baking. Wouldn't it work the same with rugelach? What should I do differently?

Where is this?

Brian -- would you be willing to provide how-to info on your fillings? We've had lots of discussion about dough but I, for one, want to know about this too. Thanks in advance.

This week's LA Time Food Section covered this very topic. It's in the 8/20 digest here with a link to the full article.

Los Angeles Times Food Section -- August 20, 2003 Note: The LA Times is now posting all of their restaurant reviews in the Calendar section on-line even though they appear in the Food section of the print edition. Further, one is required to register separately to access the Calendar section and pay a fee if you don't already subscribe to the paper. This is the color-themed issue -- green -- with articles on limes and avocados. The brightest twist, by Regina Schrambling says limes are the season's unsung fruit. "Probably no other ingredient can enhance so many summertime indulgences with such a light squeeze." Read down to the end of the article for recipes for Bluberry-lime tart, Rum punch, Lime-herb beurre blanc, Tuna ceviche with mango and lime, and Ginger-lime pudding cake. In a town where everybody wants to do lunch, at LA restaurants It's nearly extinct. David Shaw investigates the phenomenon. We're eating where, by S. Irene Virbila profiles two places near Pac Bell Park in San Francisco that are worth a visit. Join the discussion already underway on e-Gullet here. Despite being threatened by killer avocados, you'll be glad to know that e-Gulleteer Russ Parson, his family and his house areOK. He actually says that they're heaven sentin is California Cook column. Find recipes at the end of the article for Cold avocado bisque with goad cheese-chive quenelles, Grilled corn and avocado salad with lime-cumin vinaigrette, and Carne asada sandwiches with avocados and chipotle mayonnaise. A whispering of Syrah, by Rod Smith, profiles the Beckman Vineyards in Los Olivos. While most new vintners pursue Chardonnay or Cabernet, the Beckmans took the road less traveled and are having success with Syrahs, Grenaches and other Rhone-style blends. The Wine of the Week is 2002 Bodegas Muga Rose. Leslee Komaiko is Changing the salad paradigm in this week's Restaurant Journal. She tells about restaurants that are going beyond the traditional "3 C's" (i.e. Caesar, Cobb and Chopped Salads). For this week's review, S. Irene Virbila says Ocean Star is Still reigning in Monterey Park. She says it's "the ultimate Hong Kong seafood restaurant, and it's at its best when you know how to work the room. She gives it 2 1/2 stars.

Oy, the memories this brings back. I'm kvelling. I baked all the goodies for the Friday night "oneg" for my son's Bar Mitzvah, plus the dessert bar and challot for the Bar Mitzvah itself, plus Torah-shaped cookies decorated with royal icing (with a "kof" from his Torah portion) for the party favors. How about macaroons -- good ones. I've never made rugelach myself but you're getting me inspired. I have a yeast recipe I use for hamentashen, and I think it has dairy in it, but not cream cheese. I'll have to look. Do you want that? PS -- I'll be back in touch with everyone here when it's time for the Bat Mitzvah in a little less than 2 years. For now, I'm just scheming.

Living in Los Angeles (another area of earthquake country) we do try to be prepared however, I never seem to be able to go out and get all the individual things you are supposed to have. We buy those pre-packaged kits and keep one at home and one in the trunk of each car with a pair of comfortable old shoes thrown in. Flashlights and batteries are always around. I should probably remind myself of how and where the gas shut-off is.

Anything I can make ahead in bulk and freeze. Make extra tomato sauce and freeze some for later. Make a pile of pizza dough, place in zip-loc bags inside coated with non-stick spray and into the freezer.

Why pay Russ & Daughters retail prices plus shipping when you can pay wholesale prices and no shipping at 3-Star . . . and it tastes great.

The LA Times Food Section did a good article on the show this week. It's in the Digest, here, with a link to the whole article.