We're a sucker for pretty fonts and vintage French pop. Whitney Adams of Domaine LA and Claire Thomas of Kitchy Kitchen showcase both elements in their charming series of web videos, Brunellos Have More Fun. Eschewing lectures and bullet-point presentations, the impressionistic pastiches, rarely more than a minute long, pair wine with fondue or with grilled cheese, or suggest a wine for that crucial fifth date. Like the yé-yé tunes to which they are sometimes set, the videos never overstay their welcome.

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David Fromme.

A top student from Sparkle Boys Modeling Academy next to Whole Foods' cheese sculpture.

Over at the Whole Foods mothership on Lincoln Avenue in Venice, things are not only getting real in the parking lot, they're getting real in the dairy section. Somebody at the store has gone to amazing lengths to create this fantastic cheese sculpture: A profile of the rare cheddar bat (Desmodus lactus) -- or is it some sort of panther? -- carved into a massive wheel of cheese. Brilliant!

If you have any brilliant shots of food you've taken around town recently, you might consider uploading them on our LA Weekly Flickr pool. Never know where they might show up.

djjewelz/Flickr

Cheese galore.

Go west, young cheese cart. LQ's cheese cart is taking a trip, rolling out of its current home at Starry Kitchen in downtown L.A. to visit Hancock Park wine shop Domaine LA. The cart will have almost 40 cheeses, and the sommeliers at Domaine LA will pair up to a dozen wines with them. Expect a Savennieres, a Barbera and an Eiswein from Austria, among others. As usual, the pairings are a mix of traditional and unconventional: a Sauternes with your blue cheese but also an apple cider from Normandy. Never fear, the vagabond cheese cart will return to Starry Kitchen.

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For some, those back-to-school commercials instill an insatiable hunger for ballpoint pens and protractors. For us, that instinctual need to buy supplies this time of year usually means we wind up trying out a new kitchen experiment or two. And so we're already stocking up on powdered thermophilic starter (used to make Italian and farmstead cheeses) so we can try that Romano cheese recipe (p.110) in Mary Karlin's fantastic new cookbook, Artisan Cheese Making at Home.

The beauty of this book, to be released later this month, is in the thoughtful organization and plain-speak recipes. So many of those old school cheese books are the sort of Lactobacillus-covered academic manuals that you imagine chemistry geeks toting around in their backpacks. But here, Karlin eases propionic bacteria (a culture used to add a nutty, buttery flavor to many Swiss-style cheeses) novices into cheese making with an initial chapter on the basics, from ingredient definitions to visual demonstrations of cooking the curds to separate the whey. And then she gets into the really good, oozy stuff.

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Anna Woo

Molten Marshmallow Peep Guts

One thing is for sure: the husband and wife team of attorney Brian Beecher and schoolteacher Crystal Beecher, a/k/a, "The Mivens" won't ever tell you what the hell their secret ingredient, "Mivens" is, no matter how insistently you beg, threaten, wheedle and cajole. They'll just smirk, "Mivens are good and good for you."

Last Thursday night at The Foundry, chef-owner Eric Greenspan invited The Mivens, friends and fellow champions he met through the Grilled Cheese Invitational, to join forces with him as he let an eager crowd preview samples from the menu at his soon-to-open quick service restaurant next door, Greenspan's Grilled Cheese (opening date: "eventually").

The tasting menu featured four savory sandwiches created by Greenspan and four dessert sandwiches created by The Mivens.

Theories abound as to the actual composition of the mystery ingredient/running gag that Team Mivens uses to snag trophies at the Grilled Cheese Invitational year after year. Mivens is marshmallow peeps. Mivens is "your favorite thing." Mivens is crystal meth. Mivens is people.

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Jgarbee

Laker Bakers, Homemade Baguettes + Russian River Chardonnay

Last weekend's JazzFest marked the unofficial launch of the Hollywood Bowl summer season (it officially begins this Friday). Along with that much-needed dose of Dianne Reeves comes a reminder that it is once again time to polish off summer's most basic skill: How to pack a picnic.

Sure, you can pony up for a fancy boxed picnic from the Bowl's onsite caterer, Patina Group, or grab something from one of the many restaurants offering To-Go boxes around town. But picnics are a lot cheaper, and arguably much tastier, too. Turn the page for our Top 10 Hollywood Bowl Picnic Essentials.

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JGarbee

EATaly's Bread Counter

When we first spoke to Lidia Bastianich about the inspiration behind EATaly, the Italian mega-market in New York that she opened with son Joe and Mario Batali, we had yet to experience the swanky 5th Avenue market churning out thousands of loaves of bread, handmade pasta and plates of antipasti a day. With the recent rumors about the Italian superstore possibly coming to L.A., EATaly was our first stop on a recent visit to New York.

In a nutshell: When we casually mentioned to one employee that hundreds of people must work at EATaly, she laughed and said, "At least." And like everyone else, she warned us not to return on the weekends. "It is packed, you can't move." Fortunately, we were there on a Thursday, so we were able to make ourselves terribly annoying by chatting incessantly with the most interesting folks. You know, those rare employees who aren't treating their retail shop tenure as yet another job, but who are true experts in their chosen obsession. Guys like Sal Barrafato, the New Jersey "mozzarella guy." Turn the page for more.

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Gourmet.com

American cheese

Thanks to Mediabistro for this one, which is a hilarious want ad from Craigslist in Boston. If you read (past tense) Gourmet magazine, you may remember this lovely ode to square cheese. Although a working knowledge of Proust, irony, and actual cheese may or may not be relevant to the job.

Guzzle & Nosh

Puffed rice from Street.

April is National Grilled Cheese Month and National Poetry Month, but it's also a month of evil. It's tax month. To help, here are a few tax day and, in some cases, tax month, deals. (BTW the last date to file taxes this year is April 18th.)

Every day during the month of April, Street is offering a Tax Relief Lunch from noon to 3 p.m.: every item costs $11 or less -- even the brioche cheeseburger. It culminates on April 18th with an all-day "Unhappy Hour." Street will extend its happy hour from opening to closing, serving bar food for $5 or less alongside strong drinks.

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Courtesy of The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills

Not content to sit atop a throne of taleggio as one of Los Angeles' most acclaimed cheese purveyors, Norbert Wabnig has fashioned himself into the artisanal food world's equivalent of (pre-stroke) Dick Clark, bestowing a set of annual awards to artisanal food producers. The proprietor of The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, just announced the winners of the seventh annual American Artisanal Treasure Awards.

Wabnig, whose store has sold all manner of crafty eats since its inception in 1967, sees the awards as a way of saying "thank you" to these artisans. This year, for the first time, the awards include organizations helping to promote the artisanal movement. Full list of winners, along with Wabnig's take on them, after the jump.

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