The 5 top tastes of June,2018
This month I deviate from my policy that all five tastes must be reasonably local, meaning in and around Los Angeles. The outsider comes from Oregon, fries so good you’ll want to go there just to try them....
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ABACELA, THE TEMPRANILLO PIONEER
Visiting Abacela winery is like treading on sacred ground, that is, if you worship the Spanish red wine grape Tempranillo. It was here, in Southern Oregon’s Umpqua Valley, that Earl and Hilda Jones introduced Tempranillo to the Pacific Northwest, with stunning results....
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The five top tastes of May, 2018
May’s top tastes are mostly Asian–ramen, two terrific Indian dishes and a cute Korean cake shaped like a fish. The exception is Good Measure’s crispy pork rillette, a shredded pork cake coated with crumbs and fried until the coating lives up to the word “crispy” in its title....
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The sweetest kind of addiction
TV cook Siri Daly confesses that she’s an addict. Her addiction is to sweets. And it’s so serious that she limits consumption in her household to four nights a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. These are known as treat nights, and everybody (a husband and three kids) looks forward to them....
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A master class in Artesa Wines
Six glasses of wine face me, but only two are finished wines, the 2016 Estate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Artesa Vineyards and Winery. They’re at the right in the photo above. The other four are components that went into these wines. To the casual palate (mine), they seem good enough to stand on their […]...
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You’ll love these crunchy Indian Fries
(Barbara Hansen) These are the crunchiest fries you could ever crunch on. They’re not potatoes, they’re idlis, South Indian steamed cakes made from a rice and lentil batter (above). Sliced and deep-fried, they turn into an incredible snack that kids go crazy for, especially because they come sprinkled with tomatoes,...
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Learning to cook under pressure
To make these carrots, I had to conquer terror–horrendous, knee-shaking terror. But it was worth it. Vibrantly flavored with harissa, lemon and cumin, plus a dash of sweetness from maple syrup, this dish is now in my permanent repertoire. I’ll take it to potlucks, set it out like meze or pickles to accompany a dinner...
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Doing more with less in the kitchen
My kitchen is a cheerful clutter of spices, spoons and ladles, CDs for dinner music, cat toys, even a small Buddha. Doesn’t everyone need to line their counter with Thai butterfly pea flowers, Salvadoran red beans, five kinds of rice and jars of homemade ghee, like me?...
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A Feast of Turkish Food and Wine
If I could have a bowl of yayla çorbasi every day, I would be perfectly happy–and healthy. This is Turkish yogurt soup–çorbasi means soup. And yayla means plains, the high places where the best yogurt was made in the days before refrigeration, according to “Samples from Turkish Cuisine,” a book I bought...
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The Five Top Tastes of April, 2018
This month’s top tastes range from an all-American steak sandwich with fries to exotic fare such as a saffron-laced drink from India. The others are an exceptionally pretty crab cake, a Salvadoran pupusa with a touch of tradition and a Russian-Armenian pastry that is more than sinfully delicious....
Gerry Furth-Sides 
Barbara Hansen 
Chef-owner Alain Cohen 
Roberta Deen 
Jose Martinez 
Nivedita Basu 