Boule, the elegant new bakery on La Cienega, is an offshoot of Sona.

Not shown is a refreshing pineapple/Indonesian pepper sorbet, which had a wonderful kick.

Boule's marshmallow man...the rose-flavored marshmallows were little clouds of pink pleasure.

The macaroon server...Scharffenberger chocolate mini cookies in the foreground.

Good old fashioned fish and chips

The situation: A cold, windy, drizzly day in Santa Monica. Hordes of Christmas shoppers jostle the chilled homeless. Gale force winds whip up and down Broadway, Santa Monica, Arizona. A day that calls for something hearty, comforting, and of course, fried.
The solution: Fish and chips, accompanied by hard cider for me and ginger beer for Matt.
The venue: Ye Olde King's Head, Santa Monica.
The verdict: Crunchy, ethereal, perfectly fried batter. Standard issue cod, adequate as a base for the sublimely fried crust. Chips are much improved by sitting underneath a few pieces of vinegared fish for a while. Vinegar seems oddly mild -- diluted for the Yanks, possibly? A satisfying, tasty lunch for the slog back to the car.
The damage: A king-sized plate of F & C runs about $13.95, a queen size about $10.95. I managed to polish off the large size, but the smaller would have been quite sufficient.
Ye Olde King's Head
116 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica
(310) 451-1402

Large hunks o' nicely-fried cod at Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica -- hearty fare that hits the spot on a freezing Sunday afternoon.

Ramin digs into a ham panini at Farmer's Market.

Rojak salad at Singapore's Banana Leaf -- mildly spicy and full of interesting flavors

Singapore's Banana Leaf makes a mean rojak

Although I've been to Indonesia and Malaysia, I had never had a rojak salad before today's lunch at Farmer's Market. I'm now a convert to this unusual combo of pineapple, jicama, cucumber, fried tofu and spinach, topped with a spicy clear dressing studded with peanuts. Unlike other peanutty dishes from this area such as satay and gado-gado, the peanuts are pleasantly textured additions to the dressing rather than goopy peanut-butter spinoffs. I loved their spicy fried noodles the last time I was there, so this place is my new favorite at the Farmer's Market for a lunch with super-charged flavor.

DuPar's gets updated...pro or con?

A recent Nation's Restaurant News article detailed Biff Naylor's plans for Du-par's. Biff's dad founded Tiny Naylor's, which is now extinct. He plans to bring in his daughter Jennifer Naylor, a chef and partner at Wolfgang Puck's Granita in Malibu, to make improvements in the menu, such as an upgraded dinner menu with higher-quality ingredients. He's also mulling an expansion into a Las Vegas casino. He's also planning to keep the Farmer's Market location open 24 hours and will close for about two months for renovations once the deal is finalized. While many were worried about Du-par's changing beyond all recognition, it sounds like Naylor wants to preserve the vintage food and feeling the diner is known for.

Coming soon to a food court near you...
My new fun read is Nation's Restaurant News, which looks boring at first, but turns out to be full of interesting tidbits about what the rest of the country eats and will be eating in the years to come. While a lot of it is taken up with interminable discussions over whether offering chicken wings at pizza parlors is likely to add to big profit boosts, there are also recipes, profiles of the restaurant scenes in different cities and the occasional useful special issue like a recent one devoted to L.A. One of the developments that I find interesting and even hopeful is the number of new Asian-style casual fast food places opening up -- even though they're chains, they're likely to offer something a tad tastier than McDonald's if you're stranded in the suburbs.

Food news updates

I'm a little behind on the blog, so here's a quick catch-up of food news. I'm going to be posting more frequent links and articles as well as original content, but a person can only eat so much, so if you've read or written something interesting in the local food world lately, please let me know.
Last week's L.A. Times food section had a nice piece on Farmer's Market. Unlike the Bobby Flay TV show, the writer got it mostly right, possibly because Variety contributor and Farmer's Market regular Bill Higgins helped lead him to the right people.

This week's feature is an exhaustive treatise on burritos. I have a feeling the writer left out several of the Chowhounds' favorite places like Thi's precious King Taco, but it's a nice start.

Not quite local, but Sunday's New York Times had a wonderful story on what it's like to be Alice Waters' daughter Fanny. Fanny grew up in Berkeley, going to nursery school with my nephew, and eating food most of couldn't even imagine at her age. Now she's at Yale and has become nearly as particular as her famous mother.

Nearly as young as Fanny are Vinny Dotolo and John Shook, the Food Dudes, two very young L.A. caterers also profiled in the NY Times.

Say Hi to Hi Thai Noodles (Closed)

Hi Thai Noodle is a great place to stop before a movie or show in Hollywood. Super-clean shiny new booths, cheap boba drinks, lots of stir-fried noodles and soups, and an amazing fruity green chili sort of Thai salsa thing that electrifies any dish. Cheap, too.
Hi Thai Noodle, 5229 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Open seven days, 24 hours.

Melkon toasts the chocolate-orange vodka.

The Modern Spirits launch party cake and elegant vodka bottles, at the Monrovia factory party.

Vodka-delic

Eating L.A. turned into Drinking L.A. for a night for the launch party for Modern Spirits infused vodka. Luckily for us, the first flavor being launched was chocolate-orange, a delish dessert in a shot glass that would go down pretty nicely in a cup of hot chocolate or coffee. We liked it just fine all by its lonesome, though. Modern Spirits is the lovechild of travel and food writer Litty Mathew and her hubby Melkon Khosravian, and we first tasted their vodka at a taste test party where guests had to vote on 20 flavors -- everything from lavender to kumquat -- divided into spring, fall, winter and summer selections. Last night, after several samples of the chocolate-orange and a few homemade chocolate truffles to clear the palate, we were asked to vote again on the next flavor for commercial availability: candied ginger, grapefruit or French tea. The ginger had a powerful spicy kick with a sweet finish, which made it the hands down winner. It's tasty on its own but I was also thinking of tropical desserts involving coconut sorbet, ginger vodka, and who knows what else. The chocolate-orange, perfect for a Christmas house present, is available at Larchmont Village Wine and Spririts and DiamondStar on Third St, with more flavors soon to follow.