Susan Bell

Sarah Portnoy at Guisados with co-owner Armando de la Torre and students

We all eat for pleasure. Some of us also eat in pursuit of academic knowledge. "Food studies" is a burgeoning field where scholars consider food a potent tool for illuminating a vast range of topics and issues. Among L.A. colleges and universities, you'll find classes on "Animal Ethics," "Restaurant Culture," "Food Politics," and "Science and Food," among others. One emphasizes L.A.'s Latino community -- professor Sarah Portnoy's "The Culture of Food in Hispanic Los Angeles" at the University of Southern California. As a class in USC Dornsife's Spanish department, students spend ample time developing language skills. (Such as writing blogs in Spanish.) But the culinary twist means they also examine issues related to history, immigration, and cultural values. We spoke with Portnoy, a Houston native, over margaritas at Yxta Cocina Mexicana to hear her take on L.A.'s diverse and fascinating Latino food scene.

For more academic discussion, join Portnoy and other food experts at USC's Doheny Memorial Library tomorrow, Friday, March 1 at 11 a.m. for a panel discussion entitled "Just Food and Fair Food: A Multidisciplinary Exploration." Admission is free. The panel will be followed by a "fair food bazaar," and lunch courtesy of Mama's Hot Tamales and Homegirl Café.

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Pujols' Kitchen

Deidre Pujols (right) handing out samples of her cookware in the Dominican Republic

While Anaheim Angels first baseman Albert Pujols was hitting his 450th home run last year, his wife, Deidre Pujols, was knee-deep in calderos, the Dutch oven of Latin American cooking. The price tag comes with a good cause: Proceeds from her new cookware line, Pujols Kitchen Cookware, benefit poverty-stricken families around the world by providing meals and other necessities. The couple's Pujols Family Foundation already assists impoverished families in Albert's native Dominican Republic (Deidre traces her culinary roots to Mexico).

The cookware includes various sauté pans, a glass baking dish and assorted kitchen tools (spatulas, spoons, ladles), but the stars here are the calderos ("cauldrons") in various sizes.

Get more after the jump, including Deidre's pollo guisado, the spicy Dominican chicken stew that she calls "home run chicken" for its purported effects on her husband.

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W. W. Norton

Gran Cocina Latina

What happens when you combine a culinary pedigree that includes a Latin American/Spanish market and pastry shop (Ultramarinos) and two restaurants (Zafra and Cucharamama in New Jersey) with a doctorate in medieval history? Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America, a 900-page homage to Latin American cooking by chef, restaurateur and historian Maricel E. Presilla, our Cookbook of the Year.

Other notable 2012 titles: Burma, The Art of Fermentation, The River Cottage Fish Book, The Art of the Confectioner. We could go on.

But we keep flipping back to the Latin American recipes in Presilla's cookbook, her "magnum opus" as the book jacket flap aptly describes. It serves as the kitchen culmination of 30 years of research and travel throughout Latin America.

Get more, and a recipe for spicy Bolivian peanut sauce, after the jump.

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N. Galuten

Pupusa revuelta at Atlacatl

Celebrating this year's Best of L.A. issue -- now out in print and online -- we're counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes.

32: Pupusa Revuelta at Atlacatl.

All hail the pupusa, in its crisp-edged, cheese-oozing glory. Enjoying this Salvadoran staple has long been an essential part of Los Angeles' culinary tapestry -- no matter what neighborhood you inhabit, there's a good chance a superb pupuseria is just a short drive away. (And that's not even counting the dozens more vendors who set up streetside griddles on weekends throughout Mid-City and Pico Union, pounding out handfuls of masa into little corn frisbees.)

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G. Snyder

Arepas at Amazonas Restaurant

How popular are arepas, the little fried corn cakes sold on street corners in Venezuela? Back in 2010, President Hugo Chavez introduced "socialist areperas" to ensure that the country's most famous export didn't fall into capitalist clutches. He even extended an invite to President Obama to come and share one with him.

If you've stumbled upon a good one -- a circular shell of fried masa split open like a fresh clam, oozing melted cheese and stuffed with anything from shredded beef to scrambled eggs -- you'll probably understand why it's a snack food worthy of diplomatic negotiations.

Lately, we've been fascinated by the palm-sized arepas at Amazones in Koreatown, a small café located a block from the sprawling Koreatown Galleria and about a half-dozen good Korean jiggae joints. The restaurant is run by a mother/daughter team who opened the space a few months ago, retrofitting what was essentially a corner bodega with a few tables and a wide deli case stocked with aguas frescas and caramel-laced flan. Listed on the menu alongside hulking beef burritos and chicken fajitas is a curious selection of Venezuelan antojitos -- snack foods. There are crispy empanadas packed dense with mashed plantains and laced with shrimp, or little corn breakfast crepes folded with ham and cheese, grilled shut and topped with crema and crumbled white cheese.

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D. Solomon

Arepa with pepper, duck bacon and mozzarella

In December, Bolívar Café and Gallery celebrated two achievements. First, its 10th anniversary as a small, bustling Santa Monica café. Second, the arrival of a custom-made arepa machine, and the reappearance -- after a year hiatus -- of this Venezuelan dish. "On the first day we made over 200," says owner José Carvajal. "And we haven't stopped since."

Yes, the arepas -- cornmeal patties split lengthwise and filled like a sandwich with ingredients such as panela cheese, chicken and avocado -- are that popular. At least, among locals in the know. Bolívar doesn't advertise. And not a single sign marks its unassuming white façade on Ocean Park Blvd. So it's noteworthy that Bolívar has persisted for 10 years, even enduring the rough economic climate. It also survived a recent legal dispute between Carvajal and his then-co-owner.

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D. Gonzalez

Not your usual plate of Porto's: Dulce de Leche Kisses

There are always certain points a holiday parties. The point at which someone has had just enough to drink to say something catty about the person who just happens to be standing right behind them. Then there is the point of the party when someone walks in carrying those distinctive yellow boxes. The sign that the Porto's has arrived.

Is it a box of potato balls? Those guava filled refugiados? Maybe cheese rolls? When we are bearer of those coveted bakery boxes, while we make sure to bring those pastries that Porto's Bakery is most well known for, we also include our own favorite: the dulce de leche Kiss cookie.

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G. Snyder

The Pupusa-Papaya Connection

The origins of this week's food mash-up trace back to a particularly reflective pupusa run a few weeks ago. To be clear, we love the pupusa in all it's crisp-edged, cheese-oozing glory, and given the ubiquitous status of the Salvadorian staple these days it's clear that its a populist favorite to boot (pupuseria may soon eclipse taqueria as the city's dominant -eria). Few things bring us more joy than a triple stack of pupusas piled high like Sunday morning pancakes.

One small qualm, or more accurately, one aspect with potential for improvement, is the toppings that usually accompany pupusas. There is curtido, the roughly chopped vinegared coleslaw that resembles something a hapless Latin line cook might whip up if pressed for a last-minute sauerkraut. Then there is the mild, watery salsa roja, a version far divorced from the fiery chile-spiked version commonplace in Mexico. Unlike their northern neighbors, many Central Americans aren't as keen on spice. Salvadoran salsa roja, even in its purest form, tastes remarkably similar to warmed over Campbell's seasoned with a handful of oregano.

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