Minh Phan/Beachwood Cafe

Chai-ginger hot cross buns

If, like any good Episcopalian, you feel that you should enjoy hot cross buns but, like many of us, you nonetheless loathe the yeasty rolls with their bitter bits of candied citrus peel, chef Minh Phan of Hollywood's Beachwood Cafe may have a solution for you. She replaces the citrus bits (currants and raisins are also popularly used) with crystalized ginger infused with tawny port and flavors the dough with chai tea and extra cardamon. The essence of the spent tea is combined with confectioners sugar and heavy cream to create the icing. As a festive spring touch, Phan crowns each bun with a tiny edible flower.

Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten by Catholics on Good Friday and by Protestants on Easter. In folklore, the magical buns are said to heal rifts, protect against shipwrecks, prevent fire in the home and ensure that all your bread will turn out perfectly if you hang one in the kitchen. (The frosting cross on top is a symbol of the crucifixtion.) And since you can't get them for one ha'penny anymore, maybe consider making your own.

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A. Scattergood

Porchetta at Barbrix

Porchetta, as we recently discovered, is having its moment in Los Angeles. Or maybe it's having another moment, as the glorious Italian ode to pig is hardly a recent discovery. The roasted pork dish had been gracing Italian menus, Italian food trucks and rustic Italian kitchens for a long time before it hit the restaurant scene in L.A. And of course chefs here have been cooking the stuff for years. Don Dickman has been making porchetta for over a decade, at his now-shuttered Santa Monica restaurant Rocca since it opened in 2003, and at Barbrix, which debuted in Silver Lake four years ago.

Dickman's porchetta, he recently told us in Barbrix's tiny open kitchen, is easily adapted for the home cook -- not least because it is not made with a whole pig, suckling or otherwise. (Although he did make the dish with a 100-lb. pig at Rocca.) These days, Dickman uses a Niman Ranch pork shoulder, which he seasons, ties, covers, then puts into an oven for about four hours. That's more or less it. There are a couple tricks -- not because porchetta is a tricky dish, but because there are always tricks to the best dishes -- most of which involve fennel pollen. Find it, buy it, use it, and do so very liberally. That's about it for tricks. "The simpler it is," says Dickman, who has logged many hours as a culinary instructor, "the more likely you are to cook it."

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An family

Crustacean executive chef Helene An prepares a chicken with her mother-in-law Diana An

"Sticky rice with Chinese sausage has always been a family favorite," explains Catherine An, managing partner in House of An and owner of An Catering and Tiato in Santa Monica, and the youngest of the five An sisters who manage the family's restaurants. "It was my grandfather's favorite thing to eat, my father's ... so every holiday we have sticky rice. In Vietnam, we stuffed it in chicken or geese. Once we came to America and Thanksgiving was the culture, we adapted it and did it for turkey. Growing up, it has always been my favorite holiday thing to eat, whether for Thanksgiving or Lunar New Year."

An adds that her mother, Helene, "loves adding the chestnut because it's sweet and healthy. She also likes sticky rice over bread because it's gluten-free."

This Vietnamese sticky rice stuffing, from executive chef Helene An of Vietnamese fusion restaurant Crustacean and An Catering, combines traditional stuffing elements such as sausage, chestnuts and sauteed onions with Asian seasonings like fresh chopped lemongrass and oyster and soy sauce. The addition of tapioca holds this moist, delicately flavored dish together.

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A. Scattergood

cioppino at Avalon Grille

If you haven't been to Catalina Island -- 22 miles out into the Pacific from the second most populous city in America and a mere 70-minute boat ride away -- lately, you might consider it, particularly now that we're having another run of triple digit temperatures. Snorkeling. Parasailing. A night-time zip line. And, at the Avalon Grille, sandwiched between waffle shacks and ice cream shops, across the street from the beach: some very good food.

You can read about chef Paul Hancock's journey to get to that restaurant in today's food section, about what he's doing in the kitchen there, about his food, including his glorious cioppino. Or you can get on the boat and see for yourself. Or you could, after a nice read, go into your own kitchen and make the chef's wonderful seafood stew yourself.

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Ninelle Efremova

Surprise Surprise Bake Shop cake pops

At a recent fancy event, when the dessert table was unveiled, we were startled by how many adults elbowed past children to get to the cake pops display. (Hey, that little kid was going for the last red velvet one! We couldn't let that happen.)

This got us thinking about how cake pops seem to be everywhere these days. They've gone from being a novelty item to a classy presence at birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, baby showers and weddings.

"Food-on-a-stick is a perennial favorite with Americans," points out food historian Lynne Olver, creator and editor of the Food Timeline, a website that can trace the provenance of nearly any food.

Olver says that prior to today's version of cake pops, there were lollipop cookies featured in the 1963 edition of Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. These were basically a frosted sugar cookie sandwich on a stick. Some 40 years later, Neiman Marcus had a big hit selling what the company called Cheesecake Pops, which, as the name implies, was cheesecake on a stick.

"Cupcakes ruled during the 2000s and, while still popular, discerning consumers ... were ready for something new. Cake pops are perfect," says Olver, because they are "portable, inexpensive and personally portioned."

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Tonya Dooley

Cutie Pie That! Blueberry Lemon Meringue Pie

On paper, meringues look like the easiest thing to create, basically just egg whites and sugar. But looks can be deceptive. While the goal is a melt-in-your-mouth crispy texture, often the disappointing result is a sticky puddle of goo.

Determined to find out what we're doing wrong, we turned to renowned food scientist and cookbook author Shirley Corriher. We knew she would have some good advice, since her book BakeWise has an entire chapter devoted to the intricacies of egg whites.

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amazon.com

The subtitle to Susan Feniger's Street Food -- Irresistibly Crispy, Creamy, Crunchy, Spicy, Sticky, Sweet Recipes -- could just as well be a Wikipedia entry on the woman who, as we are reminded on the book jacket flap, is behind Street, co-founder of Border Grill, one of the original Food Network personalities and a regular on Top Chef. And we would add: a woman with seemingly boundless, infectious, center-stage energy. And a darn good cook, too.

Feniger's latest cookbook is co-written by Kajsa Alger, her partner and chef at Street (who developed many of the recipes), and director Liz Lachman, Feniger's partner in business and life. Our favorite line in the acknowledgements is apparently indirectly via Lachman, just after Feniger thanks chef Alger profusely for her kitchen innovations: "And without my life partner, Liza Lachman, I would probably be in a gutter somewhere right now. I promised her she could write that sentence, so you see what happens?"

Classic Feniger. As is the cookbook.

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from the LudoBites cookbook

For all of you who constantly check Los Angeles chef Ludo Lefebvre's Twitter feed and LudoBites website for updates on his latest pop-up, who surf the Sundance Channel and drive by Gram & Papa's to check for rooster paraphernalia, who DM the chef and his wife offers of babysitting, soon you can thumb through the LudoBites cookbook instead. Cook some of Ludo's recipes. It's even more fun than stalking!

Ecco won't publish LudoBites: Recipes and Stories From the Pop-Up Restaurants of Ludo Lefebvre until early October, but you can pre-order the book on Amazon if it'll make you feel better.

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Dr. Oetker/Daily Mirror

A cupcake portrait for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

After Mother's Day, it seems only fitting that we celebrate the Queen. More so in a Diamond Jubilee year, as Queen Elizabeth II will be celebrating her 60th year on the British throne next month (the British monarchy is the exception to the typical 75-year diamond anniversary rule). You are planning an elaborate afternoon tea party to celebrate, yes? (If not, maybe try to win one at the Langham.)

If, like us, you're wondering what to make for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, which begins June 2, the Detroit Free Press has an excellent suggestion: Lamprey Pie. The eel pie is traditionally baked only for the Queen's special occasions, such as her coronation in 1952 and her Silver and Gold Jubilee. Unfortunately, the Queen has a little ingredient-sourcing problem: Lamprey are a protected species in England. Good thing we have plenty of the invasive, overabundant, slippery little bloodsuckers in the Great Lakes. Get more on the diplomatic lamprey pie relations, as well as a chocolate pie recipe from one of the Queen's former chefs, after the jump.

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G. Snyder

Beer Belly Brussels

Between serving up his "Death by Duck" grilled cheese sandwich at this weekend's Grilled Cheese Invitational, preparing for a championship-defending rematch at this summer's Korean BBQ festival, and engineering weekly creations like pizza cheesesteaks and fried house-cured pickles at "New Order Mondays", Beer Belly chef Wes Lieberher has been pretty busy. He took some time out this weekend to share with us a recipe for one of the most popular dishes at the Koreatown beer bar, which will be celebrating its one-year anniversary in a few weeks. Lieberher amps up the gastropub staple of roasted Brussels sprouts to maximalist levels by tossing in sliced pancetta, apples, and onion for a sweet-salty sauté.

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