Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "You will leave slightly drunk, slightly sore and covered with stinking juice. It's what love is all about." Ask Mr. Gold: Big Plate Dating.


• "This working shoulder-launched munition made with 15 pounds of bacon can fire model rockets or summer sausages." The Bacon Bazooka + A Brief Interview With Those Responsible.


• "Open since 1999, it's the best thing that ever came from a PBR brewery." Barbara's at the Brewery: The Best Beer Bar in L.A. You've Never Heard Of.


• "Once immortalized in the Beck song 'Debra,' a film company executive raved to the New York Times in 2003 that he would eat Zankou Chicken out of the garbage can. Enough said."

Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "Somebody had a great week once in Provence, and wants the Meatpacking District -- and the swingers at the Melrose Place sequel -- to be as happy as he or she was." First Bite: Fig & Olive, and More Figs and Olives.


• "Wysaski's table brings order to the chaos. Creating it took him 'a long freaking time.'" The Periodic Table of Meat Explained: Q & A with Jeff Wysaski.


• "People go to China, and they just get sucked in. They really do. The next thing you know, you've been there six years, opened several businesses." Q & A With Kelley Lee, Part 1: Moving to Shanghai, Menu as Nostalgia + The Joy of In-N-Out.


• "Called the OCD Chef Cutting Board, the 9" x 12" beechwood board will run you about $25, which is probably cheaper than more Ritalin." The OCD Chef's Cutting Board: Of Kitchen Tools, Rhombuses + Ritalin.

Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "Whatever the current style in Los Angeles restaurants ends up being named, all of it -- from the small-plate thing to the fixation on local, organic produce; the off-center proteins to the international palette of flavors; and the resistance to even modest customer requests -- may have its origins in the cheeseburger conspiracies of Father's Office tsar Sang Yoon." First Bite: Son of a Gun, or What Would You Want To Change Anyway?


• "But with Red Medicine I'm just an investor, I don't really have anything to do with the food." Q & A with Adam Fleischman of Umami Burger, Part 1: The 5th Taste, In-N-Out + The Quest for Global Domination.


• "SCRATCH THAT, it turns out his publisher has suddenly recalled the recipe from us and even from McGrady's own blog -- ah, another bloody $$-driven American publishing company." Prince William's Groom's Cake Revealed + The Royal Family's Chocolate Biscuit Cake Recipe.


• "I haven't been able to eat a fast food hamburger in thirty-five years." Breaking News from Alice Waters: "Yes, It's True. I Am Ruth Bourdain."

Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "While waiting for Pho Minh to resurface (please, please, let it resurface), try Pho Filet, a couple of blocks away, which also has a delicious pho bac, highlighted by a slab of filet mignon that looks as if it came off on the losing side of a knife fight, in a broth crazy-sharp with cloves." Ask Mr. Gold: Take Two Down, Pass 'em Around.
• "'Kids love pizza, but we have to teach them pizza isn't just lots of cheese on top and ham or pineapple.'" Celestino Drago Teaches Kids to Cook + FREE EATalian Kids Meals + A Recipe.
• "Anyone who is still avoiding French cuisine because they think its all heavy sauces draped over various seared meats (you've surely dropped your New Year's resolutions by now anyway, right?) needs to become friends with frisèe." What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Frisèe.
• "Those who fret at the mere thought of Starbucks buying Peet's need not worry: You can only go up from here." 10 Places to Get a Damn Good Cup of Coffee.

Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "Have we ever tried poutine? Don't come around here much, do you?" Ask Mr. Gold: Poutine in Los Angeles, or The Endurance of Boy Food.


• "'You're not nearly as fat as I expected.'" 30 Burgers in 30 Days: The Aftermath.


• "You can buy fresh fish, homemade pasta -- 350 pounds of homemade pasta a day is what we are going through now." Q & A With Lidia Bastianich: On Vegas, Her Next Book + Chances Of An L.A.-based Eataly.


• "It's not just former presidents who get book deals, but sitting first ladies too, for which we are grateful." Michelle Obama Signs a Book Deal: The White House Garden + Family Recipes.

Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "You're the porteño with the Ph.D. in literature. You tell me." Ask Mr. Gold: In Search of Salteñas, Revisited.


• "And the drink is named The Bitter End 'because we all know this isn't going to be a happy ending,' says Straus." 8 Charlie Sheen Cocktail Recipes from L.A. Bartenders.


• "This being Day 27 of our Quest to Develop Gout and Hasten our Dependence on Blood Thinners, we don't bite at dessert unless it looks spectacular. Taylor's dessert tray looked nice." 30 Burgers in 30 Days: Taylor's Prime Steaks in Koreatown (Day 27).


• "The 6 pointers from the news release are after the jump, including three emphasizing that inspectors may not be paid for good grades. That's Yelp, remember?" LAPD Warns Restaurant Owners of Health Inspector Scam.

Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "The lime-and-salt thing is for beginners." The Cocktail Issue: Border Grill's Sangrita + A Recipe.


• "It looks a bit more like an 18-wheeler crossed with a Che Guevara T-shirt shop." [Updated] Jamie Oliver Launches L.A. Food Revolution Truck.


• "Wait a second. How can I do that when there's people like Jeff Koons around?" Q & A With Fred Eric, Part 2: Chefs Who Fast, The Cost of Tuna Salad + The Importance of David Bowie.


• "No one comes into The Foundry without talking to me." The Foundry Hosts Top Chef Casting Call.

Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "Floss when you get home - those antennae can be tenacious." Ask Mr. Gold: Where to Eat Bugs in L.A.


• "Why a band known for mixing coke and heroin might worry about a little inter-berry mingling is beyond us." Top 5 Edible Rider Requests By Los Angeles Bands.


• "'It's big. It's red. It says Paris. And it's fucking delicious.'" Someone Stole Paris Hilton's Birthday Cake.


• "Grant Achatz was a health nut. He didn't eat fat. He doesn't eat much dairy, only eats lean meat. Works out three times a day -- I don't know how he did that. We'd get there at five in the morning, and he would be eating egg white sandwiches. But even he had a slice." Staff Meals: 10 L.A. Chefs/Restaurateurs Recall the Best and Worst.

-- Woman fends off angry tiger with soup ladle. [BBC]

-- What if Michael Pollan is wrong? [Zester Daily]

-- Diabetic's discrimination lawsuit against restaurant is hard to swallow. [Los Angeles Times]

-- Two New York women eat dog food for a month to promote their product. [CBS]

-- The opening date of The Hungry Cat #3 (on the PCH in Santa Monica) now pushed back to April. [Eater LA]

-- The pleasures of consommé at Musso & Frank. [Psycho-Gourmet]

-- Student-run collectives replace junk food franchises on college campuses. [Politics of the Plate]

-- The utter ridiculousness of hip food trends. [Salon]

-- Pete Wells' last Cooking With Dexter column. [The New York Times Magazine]

Anne Fishbein

staff at Musso & Frank's Grill

Flickr/Lauren Manning

• "They're filled with custard, you could eat a million of them, and you get to gripe about how they're not as good as the ones you had on the Big Island on your last surf trip. Mission accomplished." Ask Mr. Gold: Mmmmm, Doughnuts!


• "Otherwise, it will be just another forgettable chain with a lame technology gimmick." Stacked: iPad-Driven Restaurant to Open in Torrance.


• "You don't have to experience your meal on a meta level, readjusting your rapidly cooling soup for the best possible photo angle, comprising Facebook status updates while you chew, or dashing off to the bathroom to tweet your meal between courses." Put Down Your ePhing iPhone and Eat Night.


• "Indians do eat those things, but not nearly as much as we do (or think that they do)." Venn Food Diagrams: L.A.'s Idea of Indian Food vs. What Indians Really Eat.