Melting Pot food tours expand to Pasadena

We've heard good things about the Melting Pot tours, L.A.'s only food tour company. Now they're expanding from the original Farmer's Market tour they launched a year ago to a Pasadena Walking Tour, starting this Saturday, July 11.
Stops will include Tortas Mexico, Bar Celona, Aux Delices, Bird Pick Tea, Tibet Nepal House and Mignon Chocolate. The tour will run every Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm, for $49 per person.
I haven't been on one of the tours yet, so let me know what you thought if you take one. (I've seen them listed on Goldstar before for half price, so as with all local food events, check there first.)

More food blog ethics, in L.A. and across the pond

The L.A. Times story Eater LA's Must uproar puts blogger ethics in the spotlight takes a look at last week's controversy, also touching on the issue of comped meals and the Food Blog Ethics manifesto. Thanks to Elina for including EatingLA. Here's another opinion I gave her that didn't make it into the article: EatingLA doesn't recommend that any blog adhere to any specific code. I happen to think that comped meals and products should be disclosed, but it's not up to me to make rules for anyone else. I think readers are getting pretty good at distinguishing who they can trust and who's not worth the time.
I like this British take on the question from Timeout London: When are food bloggers just meal blaggers? Read it and find out why punters are good and blagging is bad.

Mo-chica: Feeling the Peruvian love

Potato salad of the day was bright yellow potatoes layered with crab meat and avocado.

For a while now, it's been bruited that Peruvian food is the NEXT BIG THING. I'm still not sure I buy it as a trend, because I still feel like there's a limit to what you can do with raw fish, potatoes and giant corn kernels. But then I probably said that about Vietnamese too, so what do I know?
In any case, Mo-chica, in the Mercado La Paloma food court (convenient to USC but south of Downtown), is taking these traditional ingredients as far as they can go with an expert hand at combining flavors. The menu is compact, but rotating specials keep things fresh. Since the other stands in the Mercado are closed in the evening, Mo-chica is fairly empty at night, but the marketplace buzzes at lunchtime.
Here's some of the uniformly bright, modern Peruvian dishes we tried:

Ceviche of the day was yellowtail, with a tart, complex dressing incorporating corn, onions and yams. A complementary grilled sardine amuse-bouche had a wonderfully sharp corn and bean-studded dressing.

Aji de Gallina is a stick-to-your-ribs chicken stew with bread sauce and walnuts. It's more of a winter dish, but Mo-chica's version had more going on than the version I had in San Francisco. Use one of the three salsas to provide another layer of flavor.

Salad of the day was a lively mix of barley, lettuce, and plantain fritters.

We also tried the unusual Chicha morada, a tea made from purple corn. The deeply-colored drink has a sweet, fruit taste similar to jamaica. All this came to just $30, which is pretty amazing for this quality of food -- they also use organic produce.
Mo-chica
3655 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles
213-747-2141

Win tickets to Hot Knives beer/cheese pairing

On Wednesday evening, the HotKnives guys are teaming with the Verdugo Bar for a beer and cheese tasting featuring beer from L.A.'s most anticipated new brewery. The tasting is already sold out, but if you guess the beer on HotKnives' site, you can receive two free tickets.
Happy 4th, raise a tall one!

Read lots of food blogs at once on Digesty

I mentioned Digesty yesterday to someone who was looking for a way to see what's going on with several L.A. and national food blogs at once, and since she hadn't heard of it, I thought I'd give it a plug. Jonah from la.foodblogging created Digesty as a way to see who's updated every day, without having to deal with news feeds or subscriptions, which some people don't care for. There's ways to slice the blogs by L.A., N.Y., S.F., candy and wine so it's quite handy.
I know there's quite a few local blogs that aren't represented, so if you want to be included, email Jonah, not me.

Latin flavors meet fine wines at East L.A. Meets Napa

Salsas from Homegirl Cafe

When you go to a tasting event, do you ever feel like theret's too many diverse flavors going on, with Thai food piling on top of foie gras in your stomach? he upcoming East LA Meets Napa benefit for Alta-Med on Friday evening offers a thematic array of flavors, with a collection of great Latin tastes from Moles La Tia, El Tepeyac, Porto's, Cook's Tortas, Rivera, Palate, Guelaguetza, Homegirl Cafe and many more. Wine from dozens of Latino-owned or operated wineries including Quintessa, Cobblestone and Nevarez.
Tickets are $125 and go to provide health services to underprivileged communities in L.A.
Friday, July 10, 6-9 p.m.

In the news: Must Bar blog controversy, Julie & Julia and sour beer

Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Stanley Tucci as her hubby in "Julie & Julia."

Been asleep the last 24 hours? Latest mini-controversy in L.A. food world has EaterLA posting a rather inflammatory email from a tipster about Downtown's Must Wine Bar, Daily Dish following up and now LAObserved posting a response from an actual lawyer. While it's nice to know that blogs are probably legally allowed to post things from a third party, it would also be nice to think that bloggers might think twice before endangering small local businesses.
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Julie & Julia, the first movie based on a food blog, screened last night and got some favorable Tweets...can't find an actual review yet but here's a mention from Michael Ruhlman. It opens Aug. 7. Did anyone blog about the screening?
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Josh from FoodGPS does an awesome job introducing readers to the sour beer phenomenon in the LATimes food section...will these beers catch on or are they just too difficult for most beer drinkers to appreciate?

Fancy fast food: clever site tarts up junk food

Popeye's chicken sushi

Sorry for the light posting, more reviews and news coming soon, but in the meantime here's an amusing idea: FancyFastFood takes fried chicken, cheeseburgers and such and makes it into surprisingly decent-looking dishes. If you were served this quiche or sushi, you'd probably think it looked good, at least until you tasted it.
(via Buzzfeed)

Street foods of Singapore cooking class

...sounds cool, right? The catch is that it's at RockSugar in Century City, which is known for for its decor than its authentic Asian foods. But classes like this are hard to find in L.A., especially since Jet Tila, who taught the Thai street foods class I took, has moved to Las Vegas.
So if you're still curious, here's the menu for the July 25 class:

Singapore Chili Shrimp

Newton Circus Baked Chilean Sea Bass

Bubur Cha Cha (dessert)

Teh Tarik (pulled milk tea)

Wine Pairing

Call 310-552-9988 for reservations. Price is $75.

Lobster two ways at Lou tonight!

Wow, tonight's prix fixe dinner at Lou on Vine sounds delightful:
Salad of Adriatic & Black Mission figs, roasted almonds, speck, arugula (w/Sancerre rose)
Grilled Maine lobster tail and butter-poached claw, baby potatoes, roasted corn (w/tasting flight of Veltliner, etc.)
Boysenberry-Blenheim apricot trifle w/Muscat de Rivesaltes
It's $55, and no reservations are required. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me...
Their website seems to be down, but more more info, call:
Lou
724 Vine St
Hollywood
(323) 962-6369