Silver Take Neighborhood Kitchen coming to Rowena

It's still two or three months from opening, says co-owner Aria Ben, but Ben and his wife Patti are refurbishing the tiny cottage that was hidden away behind a fence on Rowena near Edendale Grill for so many years. Silver Take will be a take-out and eat-in cafe with foods from many cultures, including Mediterranean, according to Ben. This photo doesn't show the full extent, but there's pretty wood paneling and counters and a patio out back.

Great tastes of 2008...and the booby prize

Chilequiles at My Taco

These aren't the best tastes, just some really good but very random ones I've enjoyed in this year of never-having-enough-time-to-try-everything eating. Looking over the posts of the past year is a good refresher course for the memory: That was this year I had jury duty, with ceviche from Grand Central Market? There was really a time before Lamill? Remember the outpouring of Backdoor Bakery grief?
1) Santouka Ramen: The deliciousness of the ramen was made perhaps more profound by the horror of the natto that accompanied it.
2) Salted caramel ice cream from Carmela. Also, salted caramel macaroons at Europane, and salted peanut brittle from Morning Glory. OK, I guess I'm just a salted caramel slut. Also, the salt-tasting station from Saltistry. Salt = good.
3) Chilequiles at My Taco: they were probably so good because I waited until 3 pm to have breakfast. They're also the right price, just down the street from my house, not crowded with annoying people, and there's a full menu of other Mexican breakfasts like chorizo and eggs.
4) Kimchee fried rice at Daisy Mint: Nearly everything I've had at Daisy Mint has been good, but this dish was our favorite so far, with the eggplant salad a close runner-up. The tangy cabbage adds just the right note of sourness against the rich fried rice. You can get any meat or tofu with it, but beef seems like the appropriately Korean choice.
5) This one's kind of embarrassing: I was about to list the Jamon Iberico de Bellota at Bar Pinxto, but instead I'm choosing the next post, for Kychon Chicken, because it will haunt your dreams. I don't need to eat much fried chicken -- the version at Gus's BBQ is actually quite good for white folk, chicken breast fried chicken -- but if I'm going to have it, from now on it's going to have to be from Kyochon.
6) The amazing cherry cobbler I made from the cherries I picked in Leona Valley in June. The season only lasts a few weeks, but a few pounds of cherries made cobbler, ice cream and jam, and the cherries had so much more flavor than supermarket fruit.
7) Arctic char with beech mushrooms at Lamill, and the desserts. This was the dish that launched my butter-and-soy obsession, but I could never get the skin as crispy or the sauce as unctous as Lamill did. The salty/sweet desserts with exotic spices and flavors were also pitched just right to my tastebuds.

The Stuffed Sandwich's spaghetti sandwich is just wrong
And the worst dish of 2008? The honor goes to the spagetti sandwich at the Stuffed Sandwich. Even as a vehicle to soak up beer, it doesn't work. And even though I love beer, the place is a little too strange to let you enjoy the beer.

L.A. Restaurant trends in 2008..and beyond?

Hooray for Korean tacos, and hopefully more to come...

Oops, I'm sure Metromix meant to credit EatingLA for helping brainstorm The Ate List: A Year in the Life of L.A.'s dining scene. But because it's Christmas, we're going to give them a shout-out anyway. Their pick of trends for the last year included pig in all forms, craftbrews and gastropubs, street food and the post-cupcake craze. There's also 8 Openings Metromix looks forward to and 8 Smokin' Chefs...but no photos of most of the hot chefs, darn!

What about next year? Here's a few of my predictions:
1) Lower priced menus: Not just gimmicky "Depression menus," but restaurants all over town will need to rethink their menus and make sure there are plenty of options people can afford.
2) The Kogi Korean BBQ truck and the Green Truck were a good start, but I think in 2009 we'll see the birth of a vibrant street food culture in L.A., closer to the scene in Portland and Austin...unless, of course, government officials would prefer people not run successful small businesses.
3) The younger generation learns to cook...and make coffee: It's a conundrum: how will people save money by eating at home more often, when many have never learned basic cooking skills? And how will people economize by giving up their $5 lattes if they're not up to speed on home coffeemaking? Even more cooking classes and workshops will spring up to help meet the demand.
4) More community, less cost: Professional cooks will host more reasonably priced supper clubs than the $60-$100 ones we've seen in the past, while groups of friends will increasingly get together over cooking clubs and potlucks than at pricey restaurants.
5) Could this be the year we finally cut back on ahi tuna? Whether you believe Jeremy Piven's mercury poisoning tale or not (most people vote for not), it seems like diners and restaurateurs might finally be more interested in exploring more sustainable fish. Now if someone could just tell me where to get some great grilled sardines...

What do you think will happen in L.A. restaurants next year?

Silver Lake Farms compost bust: city has nothing better to do?

EatingLA's longtime friend Tara Kolla, who runs Silver Lake Farms, has been cited by the city for composting kitchen scraps from Canele, according to the L.A. Times story. Apparently her bins are not the right kind for composting non-home generated compost. After seeing the hoops restaurant owners have to jump through to open a job-generating, tax-generating business, and now this, I sometimes wonder if the city has any interest at all in sustaining a healthy, green community of entrepreneurs. Tara grows flowers and herbs for heaven's sake, it's not like she's raising beef cattle behind the Coffee Table. Do you think the city and county need to spend this much effort harrassing taco trucks and small-scale growers, or are there perhaps more important things for on which to focus their efforts?

Nancy Silverton loses nest egg with Madoff

Nancy Silverton at Mozza, from the L.A. Times

I know it can sometimes be hard to summon pity for rich people who lose money, but Claudia Eller's L.A. times story of Nancy Silverton, who invested the proceeds of the sale of La Brea Bakery with Bernard Madoff, is pretty upsetting. Clearly she had bad advice and should have been more careful with her nest egg, but it's still a shame that someone who worked hard to create a quality business -- the first decent bread in L.A. -- had to see this happen. As the Times succinctly puts it, "It's a good thing Nancy Silverton still has her day job" slicing cheese at Mozza's bar -- and a good thing she co-owns the Osteria and Pizzeria, which are still going strong.

Cow Jumped Over the Moon takes over Prime Grill spot

A couple of years ago we were pleasantly surprised to find an authentic French cafe that just happened to be fully kosher underground in a Rodeo Drive parking garage. A Cow Jumped Over the Moon's new full-service restaurant is now open in the former location of the short-lived kosher steakhouse the Prime Grill in the Rodeo Collection. I haven't tried it, and from the rather formal photos, it seems to specialize in kosher wedding receptions offering enormous pastry shell alligators, but I just thought I'd point out that it might be a good bet for those readers who need to find a kosher restaurant. It's dairy, which means there's no meat, but there's kosher sushi, pizzas and seafood entrees, as well as wine and beer. And the original cafe with crepes, salade nicoise and great French bread is still open in the parking garage.

Nickel Diner: What L.A. needed was bacon donuts

It's entirely possibly that Downtown's Nickel Diner is the first place in L.A. to serve one of this year's iconic foods, the bacon donut, already much beloved in more progressive cities like Portland. This coup should merit a visit to the retro-styled diner, but woman cannot live by donuts alone, so it's a good thing that the rest of their breakfast dishes are equally delicious. It's easy to warm up to a place where the server plunks down a free amuse of three donut holes, including a bacon one, before you order.My test of a first visit to a restaurant is whether I have trouble choosing between two or even three things on the menu. At the Nickel, I vacillated between Cameron's Puppy Pile, with pancakes, an egg and chicken apple sausage, or a salmon/leek scramble, or polenta with maple syrup and bacon. I ended up with the bacon/spinach/garlic/goat cheese scramble which is served with a side of creamy polenta (or potatoes). Beth enjoyed the Puppy Pile; the coffee was sturdy and they offered Beth a refill to go, which seemed very kind. On a busy Christmas shopping Sunday, parking near Main St. is nearly impossible due to the adjacent wholesale toy district; next time I'll have to ride my bike and work off the hearty donuts, polenta and bacon.
It's also a refreshing change from breakfast in Silver Lake -- although one of the diners is a dead ringer for Jake Gyllenhaal, The Nickel has just a sprinkling of hipsters and little attitude -- a very promising sign indeed.
Right now, it's open Wednesday through Sunday for breakfast and lunch, but starting in January, it will be interesting to see what the Nickel cooks up for dinner as well.

Spitz Downtown: Doner kebabs and beer bring variety to Little Tokyo

When Spitz and Oinkster in Eagle Rock opened about two years ago, Northeast L.A. got a taste of the new wave of reasonably-priced casual food that's actually good. At Spitz, everything from the sweet potato fries to the Lamill Coffee was well-thought out. The new Little Tokyo location adds beer and wine to the mix, creating a homey hangout spot for Downtown dwellers and workers. Although Little Tokyo has a many good restaurants, Jeremy Piven showed us that you don't want to eat sushi every day, so a chicken or lamb doner kebab seems like a good way to vary the diet. The sandwiches are available in wraps or as foccacia sandwiches, and there's also vegetarian falafel for non-kebab eaters. I was invited for a small press preview and tried the combo doner plate, which is a greatest hits basket of salad, chicken, lamb, falafel and fried pita strips on a bed of French fries and sweet potato fries. The beer menu had some interesting selections -- Spitz owners Bryce and Robert were able to convince the notoriously choosy Craftsman Brewing to take them on as a new account. I tried a can of "the world's best canned beer," the Gordon strong ale, which had a nice hoppy flavor but had less carbonation than I would prefer. Instead of the gelato like the Eagle Rock location, the Downtown Spitz is experimenting with dessert kebabs of chocolate, fruit, mascarpone, etc. While I can't get too excited about the pricey steakhouses et al over at L.A. Live, beer and doner kebab at a decent price are something everyone Downtown can be happy about.
(press preview)

Beer and bikes is a blast

Thanks to Alex and Evan from Hot Knives, the Grand Crew '08 ride, held on a cool, sunny Saturday, was a big success. At least 60 riders, including Hair of the Dog Dave and Will Campbell got expert advice on microbrews, tequila and scotch at four beer-buying stops. After meeting at Union Station, we cruised over to Boyle Heights to check out Ramirez Liquor at 736 S. Soto St. Ramirez has wide spreads of German, Belgian and American small production beers, as well as an amazing tequila wall with hundreds of varieties of premium stuff and lots of fun miniatures. Combine a tequila-buying trip to Ramirez with a tasting tour of tamales or tacos, and you've got a hell of a day.I picked up a Stone Brewing's special holiday ale made in partnership with Nogne and Jolly Pumpkin, with chestnuts, juniper berries, white sage and caraway seed.
Next we headed to the Rock 'n Roll 7-11 on Figueroa. I've already written about this 7-11, which is the only one that stocks rare and wonderful craftbrews, but this time I got to meet Charles, the beer geek manager who offered several generous specials to the riders. I picked up a bottle of Avery Ale to the Chief to drink on Inauguration Day. Then it was on to Galco's, which carries beer from dozens of countries, like all the varieties of Hitachino Nest including the zesty ginger brew. The rest of the riders carried on to Glendale's Red Carpet Wine; I pedaled back to pick up my car, but I'm sorry I missed Red Carpet, which is one of Evan and Alex's favorite places to buy beer. Red Carpet has the largest selection of holiday brews around, and it's also apparently mecca for scotch connoisseurs. We all met up on the patio at the Verdugo at sunset to try three winter ales on tap and snacks from Pure Luck and Hot Knives. Now that's my kind of exercise!

Hirozen still rules...just don't overdose on sushi like Jeremy Piven!

I could easily eat Japanese food several times a week (well, except natto). But unlike Jeremy Piven, I mix it up with ramen, soba and several varieties of seafood in addition to the toro and ahi tuna favored by most American sushi eaters. Since tuna is such a big fish, it does tend to be higher in mercury than smaller species. But it's highly unlikely you could eat so much that you'd get mercury poisoning. So if you do eat a lot of sushi, it's best to mix it up with smaller fish like sardines and mackerel. That's easy to do at Hirozen, which in addition to excellent traditional sushi, has a menu of creative specials like Grilled Kasu Marinated Sardine with Pickled Cucumber and crab meat chile relleno. savory steamed red spinach and mushrooms

Hirozen was my favorite restaurant about 10 years ago, but since I'm always trying new places, sometimes I forget to return often enough. I went back for lunch last week and there's still something wonderful about the tiny restaurant hidden in the back of the Beverly Blvd. strip mall which still has the quirky light bulb store up front. I have my favorite dishes at Hirozen -- salmon and ikura donburi bowl, tofu steak, tuna shiso tempura, but I forced myself to order something different this time. I tried an assorted sushi trio and red spinach with mushrooms, while my lunch companion had heirloom tomato salad. It can be so damn hard to find real vegetables when you eat out a lot, but this simple spinach dish made me feel healthy for days. The sushi trio above (tuna, scallops, and ack, forgot the other) was tiny but amazingly fresh. For dessert, we tried a beautiful purple sweet potato yokan with coconut tapioca (above), that made just the right not-too-sweet finish to a simple, healthy meal. This version of yokan was a dense sort of pudding that is just one example of the diverse and interesting dishes at Hirozen, which I'll try not to forget about anymore!
Hirozen
8385 Beverly Blvd.
323-653-0470

Santouka Ramen: natto is nasty but ramen rocks

The English sign for Santouka is discreet -- it's the one with the crowd in front

The bonus of going to someplace I don't often have time to get to, like the South Bay, is the chance to hit someplace I haven't been on the way back. Of course, I've been to the Downtown and West L.A. Mitsuwa markets many times, but I had never hit the jumbo Torrance location and the Santouka Ramen stall in the market's food court. You know a place has to be good when it can get away with numerous rules: cash only, no takeouts, no pre-ordering by phone. To order, there's a series of choices to make. Do you want your broth flavored with shio (salt), shoyu (soy) or miso? The guy in front of me recommended shoyu, so I took his advice. Then, a small, medium or large bowl of ramen? Nice to have a choice. I took small. You can get just the bowl of ramen, or for just a bit more you can add two sides -- "fravored egg," which is a hardboiled egg in a nicely savory tea-flavored sauce, and rice topped with green onion, salmon roe, natto or chopped pork. Since Josh and I had just been discussing natto, or fermented soybeans, I felt that for just $2 more, I should finally try it. Nasty natto on rice at left

I tried the natto first, in case I needed to get rid of the taste with the ramen broth. I scooped up a bit of rice, stringy, rotten soybeans and green onion and popped it in my mouth. Ugh. Not the most horrifying thing ever, but way too reminiscent of the time in college I made red beans and rice and left the pot on the stove for a week, deciding instead to eat at Pinocchio's every single night. The result at the end of the week was quite similar to the bowl of natto in front of me -- funky and just very off. Wow, talk about an acquired taste. Ok, I tried it, can I get the badge for my foodblogger sash now? I cleared my palate with the egg and pushed the natto aside.
On to the ramen. The murky broth filled with al dente ramen noodles was supremely comforting, perfect for the blustery, drizzly day. There was a fatty, smoky piece of pork swimming around, and I wished I had sacrificed the natto for a medium ramen instead, with more noodles and pork.
Afterwards, I had a good time picking out black cod, rice cakes, nappa cabbage, sesame oil, plum wine, etc. at the market. With several more food stalls for curry, desserts, tea, a bakery and more, plus stationery, book and Hello Kitty stores, Mitsuwa Torrance is one of the best exotic vacation spots I can imagine -- and it's right in our backyard.
Mitsuwa Marketplace/Santouka Ramen
21515 Western Ave.
Torrance

Shade Hotel: Manhattan Beach's easy staycation

Ay carumba, birthday churros!

When I was offered a press trip to Manhattan Beach's sleek little Shade Hotel on the evening of my birthday, it seemed much better than trying to plan a party in the middle of holiday season. We heard that we would be viewing fireworks before dinner, but we had no idea that Manhattan Beach's holiday fireworks are massively attended and more extensive than most July 4 exhibitions. The streets of Manhattan Beach are closed off and the restaurants completely packed, and there's even a small snow park on the beach. We started off the evening with traditional Navy Grog and grilled artichoks at our host Michael Zislis's rollicking restaurant Rock 'n Fish near the beach. Another Rock 'n Fish opens at L.A. Live on Jan. 19.
Next up was drinks and hors d'oeuvres back at the hotel's Zinc Bar. The Shade Hotel is just a few blocks from the beach in the Metlox complex, which also houses the excellent Greek restaurant Petros and the Trilogy Spa where I had a soothing honey body wrap that put me in a relaxed mood for the rest of my stay. The hotel rooms are full of festive, romantic touches: there's an espresso maker instead of the usual coffeepot and a blender and cocktail shaker for impromptu room parties. A futuristic glass tube turns into a fireplace with the push of a button, and colored lights surrounding the spa bathtub provide chromatherapy, whatever that is, while you soak in the bath.
Zislis seems to own half of Manhattan Beach, so then we walked over to his Mexican restaurant Mucho for a chef's tasting menu that was much more ambitious than tacos and enchiladas. Our tasting ended with plates of crunchy, fresh churros with dulce de leche and chocolate sauce, which I couldn't stop nibbling on, even though we had been to three restaurants that evening!
I hardly ever get to the South Bay, and although it took only about 30 minutes to get there, it seemed like a real beach vacation. The hotel is surrounded by dozens of restaurants, lounges and boutiques, so there's no need to drive anywhere. The winter celebration was a great time to see the town, but this would make a perfect quick getaway pretty much any time of year.

Organic tamales from La Guera Tamalera

La Guera Tamalera translates to the White Girl Tamale Maker, and though Deborah Stern didn't grow up making tamales, once she fell in love with the portable packages she studied hard with a family in Veracruz, Mexico as well as with Sandi Romero at Mama's Hot Tamales to learn the secrets of Veracruz-style tamales. I haven't had time yet to sample La Guera tamales, but since it's that time of year, I thought it best to post now and taste later in case people are wondering where to order tamales.
La Guera tamales are artisan organic tamales, and in addition to traditional flavors like locally-raised pork in red sauce and free-range chicken in green sauce, there's vegetarian jalapeno and cheese and vegan spinach and mushroom. Sweet tamales include squash, ginger peach and fig/banana. OMG, I want a fig banana tamale for my breakfast right this minute. La Guera is at the Unique L.A. sale Downtown today (Dec. 14) at 110 E. 9th St.
Otherwise, until Locali opens in January, La Guera will deliver a dozen or more tamales to most locations in the L.A. area whenever you need them. Delivery is free in the Hollywood/Silver Lake/Downtown area, even on Christmas eve and Christmas Day.
Until I get to taste them myself, here's a nice writeup from GourmetPigs.
Feliz Navidad!

Kogi BBQ Korean tacos: Jumping on the truck

Holiday shopping Korean taco eaters line up at the Kogi truck

Jeez, the L.A. food world moves fast. Only about two weeks since the Kogi BBQ Korean taco truck started feeding the voracious taco eaters of L.A., and I'm already feeling behind since I haven't tried it yet. I'd heard that the tacos were delicious, but that if you sign up for their Twitter feed, you might hear a little too often about where they're parked. Since I'm still Twitterless, I waited until the truck appeared on my route home at the Sunset Junction holiday fair Friday night and picked up two shortrib and two spicy pork tacos ($2 each). The kimchee and sesame leaf quesadilla special also sounded interesting, but I stuck with the tacos. Sam and I happily devoured them all, and he doesn't even much like spicy food. The spicy pork had just a touch of spice and the shredded pork was tender in a savory sauce, almost reminiscent of cochnita pibil. Shortrib or bulgogi was in kind of large chunks; the meat itself was a little plain and chewy but with the shredded cabbage and sauce on top, it made a lovely package. It would be even more awesome if the kalbi had that sweet, carmelized edge it gets when you cook it yourself in a restaurant, but hey, it's a truck, not a full on barbecue restaurant, albeit one run by real chefs.
"Why didn't you think of this?," a guy playfully harangued his girlfriend as they waited in front of the truck. Indeed -- why didn't we all think of this?

Carmela: Local ice cream now in holiday flavors

Recently I was listening to NPR when the commentator started a story, "Chances are that today you bought something made in China." I was feeling kind of smug, because in fact that was the day I bought beautiful handmade silver earrings from Sasha Bell Jewelry, a vintage Mexican silver ring at the Silver Lake Art Craft & Vintage sale and adorable designer seconds from All-Mighty. It was a very locally-made day.
Then at home, my kids and I sampled holiday ice cream flavors sent over from Carmela Ice Cream, which is made right in L.A. with seasonal, local and organic ingredients including herbs from Silver Lake Farms. Did I say really local? My daughter loved the dark chocolate cacao nib flavor, despite an earlier bad experience with overly earthy nibs at Scharfenberger. My son quickly polished off the candied pecan. I thought the cranberry orange thyme sorbet would make a perfect palate cleanser during Christmas dinner. We all liked the refreshing spiced strawberry sorbet (pictured at center). The teens found the nutmeg a bit too nutmeggy on its own, but we all agreed it would be an excellent addition to a slice of pumpkin pie. But the piece de resistance was the salted caramel -- this is the best ice cream I've had in a long time, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to lay in a large supply of it. The perfectly-balanced amount of salt cut the sweet caramel in just the right way, and I didn't even resort to my usual tinkering with pomegranate syrup and such.
Just. Delish.
Carmela is great stuff, and although they sent me this sampler, I've bought it before and will continue to -- especially the salted caramel! It's available on the website, at the Hollywood and South Pasadena Farmer's Markets, and at restaurants including Tasca, Auntie Em's and Cafe Was.

Krua Thai: pad thai with all the fixins'

special pad thai includes lots more toppings

I'm trying to work my way through the amazing Thai restaurants of North Hollywood, and although Josh had a good report on Bua Siam, Krua Thai was next on my list. Krua was kind of disappointing, though. The cold, tile-floored room kind of reminded me of a remodeled Taco Bell, and the waitstaff seemed rather bored. The now-famous Pad thai Krua Thai, proclaimed by Jonathan Gold as the "best in L.A," was certainly better than an average pad thai, with lots of ground chicken and various other toppings. But there was a bit too much greasy chicken and the sweet tamarind sauce didn't offer much variation in flavors, unlike the special pad thai I had at a now-closed place on Sunset. Fortunately the Tom yum kai soup with chicken was quite a good version, with a touch of heat and a jolt of sourness livening up the chicken and mushrooms. Papaya salad was full of fiery flavor but seemed a bit tired, like they made it all at once a while ago. Maybe we didn't get to sample enough dishes at Krua Thai, but what we tried seemed no better than most Thai Town joints, certainly not worth a trip to the Valley. Or maybe it was just that we had come from a screening of "Revolutionary Road," which is sure to leave you with a slightly bad taste all afternoon. Did we miss any great dishes there?
Verdict: Food: two stars out of four
Atmosphere: Indifferent
Value: Good

Krua Thai
13130 Sherman Way
North Hollywood
818-759-7998

New Year's ideas: the Park, Dominick's, Rustic Canyon, Beacon

If you're planning on dinner out on New Year's Eve, a prix fixe meal is nearly inevitable...

except at Dominick's, where the regular menu (Rice Balls with Mozzarella and Mushrooms; Treviso, Celery Root, Gorgonzola Dolce, Red Pear & Candied Walnuts; GrilledDiver Scallops with Black Truffle Butter or Housemade Fettuccine Carbonara) will be available.

Plus, Little Dom's will be open for breakfast New Year's Day including the famous $10 Prosecco deal.

Or try The Park in Echo Park, where prix fixe six-course meals are available for both omnivores and vegans at $60 each with an early and a late seating. Call 213.482.9209 for menu info and reservations.

If you're on the Westside, Rustic Canyon has an early seating with an amuse followed by six courses (Oysters, short ribs, stuffed cauliflower tortelli) for $75 per person and a late seating plus hamachi crudo and a Champagne toast for $105 per person. Call (310) 393-7050 for reservations.

And in Culver City, Beacon swings both ways: you can order a la carte (black cod, calamari salad, chestnut bisque, etc.) or try a special four-course dinner for $48, with Maple Leaf Farms duck breast, striped bass or miso braised shortribs.

Beer and bikes, what could be better?

If you've done dim sum on bikes and you're ready for more, it's time for Hot Knives' LA Grand Crew beer-bike ride Saturday Dec. 20 from 11-5. I think I'll try it, even though 22 miles is more than I've done before, but at least it's in the daytime. The ride is $10, starting at Union Station and passing places like Galco's, ending with a kegger party at the Verdugo, with snacks by Pure Luck (because the Hot Knives guys are vegan beer connoisseurs).
(The Paypal link seems to be down at the moment, but check back and hopefully they'll get it working.)

Good December: tamales, gardening, ice cream and more

All you need is three bowls of filling, plus husks, for cheese-jalapeno tamales

I signed up for the tamale-making class as the perfect excuse to get myself over to the Good December event sponsored by Good magazine. Although the workshop was a one-off, you should check out the space anyway, especially Sunday (Dec. 7) for the second day of the Local World's Fair. There's some very cool handmade stuff to buy, free Intelligentsia coffee, and other serendipitous things like the raw almond-butter workshop that started up while I was there. Silver Lake Farms, Full Circle Gardening, Evan Kleiman and others will be there Sunday, and there are other events revolving around sustainability, local activism and such every day for the next two weeks. And free Ben & Jerry's ice cream much of the time too.

Before the tamale workshop, sponsored by LA Commons and Mama's Hot Tamales, we feasted on tamales with mole and chile verde while we heard the inspiring story of Sandi "Mama" Romero and how she was instrumental in cleaning up MacArthur Park and helping sidewalk vendors go legal, as well as starting a business incubator program. One of her protegees, Ariceli from Mama's International Tamales, provided masa (made with vegetable oil instead of lard), jalapenos in tomato sauce, cheese and corn husks and showed us how to spread the masa (left), fold the husks, and then wrap it all in paper just like you swaddle a newborn. Mine were a little messy, but I'm sure after steaming for 45 minutes or so, they should be just right.
I like Good's mission "to push the world forward" targeted to "people who give a damn." Plus, they've figured out that the progressive messages go down easier with ice cream, coffee, tamales and lots of groovy people wandering around.

SLS Hotel: Totally over the top

The dessert bar offered bites of sweets with distinctive flavors

Perhaps it was a last gasp of capitalist excess, or perhaps there's another L.A. where people live like this all the time. But for this blogger, the SLS Hotel opening party last night was actually a respite where I could spend a few hours not thinking about all the deep media layoffs of yesterday. At the rooftop pool, a dancer spun in a floating ball

Instead I was able to contemplate, with about 1000 other guests, just how to shoot the test tube of shrimp cocktail sauce down my throat while eating a shrimp at the same time, and whether I should tell the willowy young blonds that the cotton candy they were childishly excited about actually had a core of molten foie gras at the center. Designer Philippe Starck outdid himself, with hundreds of whimsical chairs and objets strewn about the lobby -- I like the accent on Fornasetti -- and executive chef Jose Andres offered some amusing tastes of his molecular tapas or whatever they're called.
Highlights were Kumamato oysters with lemon air, aromatic mussels in darling sardine tins (left), popcorn frozen in liquid nitrogen, luscious chicken croquetas and a beautiful array of dessert bites. I don't like big, sweet, chocolatey desserts, so the little squares of sesame candy, lemon marshmallows, saffron gelees in edible paper(right), exquisite pates de fruits and pop rocks chocolate were just the ticket to graze on.
Is Los Angeles burning? Let them eat lemon air!

Kid critic story gets a movie deal

12 yr. old David Fishman from the New York Times article

Variety's Mike Fleming reports that the article just two weeks ago about the 12 year old kid who's an aspiring food critic will become a feature film for Paramount, produced by Lorne Michaels and John Goldwyn. New York pre-teen David Fishman goes out to eat by himself when his parents work late, goes to schmancy Fieldston school and loves seafood. I'm not sure how that makes a whole movie, but it proves, all you need is a gimmick. I can't believe the kid doesn't have a blog, though.
Meanwhile, if you're waiting to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child in Julie & Julia, the opening has been moved from April 2009 to August 2009.

Grass-fed dogs in Silver Lake: Let's Be Frank and Silver Lake Wine

You never know what to expect at Silver Lake Wine...last Sunday it was pizza from Tomato Pie, and now the hot dog cart from Let's Be Frank will park in front of the store at this Thursday's tasting event. Let's Be Frank, which usually roosts on the Westside, serves grass-fed, therefore guilt-free beef hot dogs and brats with no nitrates. Don't forget to order them with grilled onions for the best effect.

Cabernale: beer with a touch of the grape is made for the holidays

Every year at harvest time, Pasadena's Craftsman Brewing waits for a shipment of cabernet sauvignon grapes from Paso Robles to make its Cabernale -- ale with added grapes. It sounds gimmicky, but we tried the festively purplish brew at Lucky Baldwin's last night, and it's much more refined than you might think. There's a slight grape flavor combined with a malty ale without much bitterness at all. A hefty 8% alcohol sneaks up on you because the beer isn't at all strong-tasting. It sneaks up on you even faster when you finish up with a half-glass of Alesmith Yulesmith holiday ale, an Imperial Red Ale with an even higher 9.5% alcohol, which is also a fine winter beer. Lucky Baldwin's is featuring a dozen or two holiday ales all month long, and Cabernale is also on tap at Father's Office and a few other places around town. Alas, Craftsman still hasn't started selling bottles of beer, as this would be the perfect beer to take to a holiday celebration.

Eat: Los Angeles: our guide to edible L.A. debuts

UPDATE: Please note, signing is at 7 pm.
Earlier this year I had fun working on a brand-new guidebook to all things edible in Los Angeles, Eat: Los Angeles.
Monday evening, from 7-8, Vroman's bookstore is hosting a signing for the brand-new book which, unlike guidebooks mostly for tourists, should hopefully be helpful for people who actually live here. And unlike most guidebooks, it was completely written by longtime experts on the local food scene, including Bandini from the Great Taco Hunt, Linda Burum, Amelia Saltsman, Jean Barrett, Jenn Garbee and our resourceful editor Colleen Dunn Bates. The book includes our selective, opiniated picks for everything from butchers to boba, cupcakes to caterers. I also contributed several food-oriented walking tours of Silver Lake, Boyle Heights, and South Pasadena. Hope to see you there or at other events we may be doing around L.A.!