It's a relief to know that a writer on The New York Times food beat has kids whose tastes don't sound all that much more adventuresome than those of your own children. Given that people are obsessed with food and what the kids are up to, and perhaps more importantly, what the parents are feeding said kids, conversations around food and family have taken on different, arguably absurd, proportions.

While certainly in and of this climate, the writers featured in The Cassoulet Saved Our Marriage: True Tales of Food, Family, and How We Learned to Eat, a new collection of personal essays edited by Bay Area writers Caroline M. Grant and Lisa Catherine Harper (Roost Books), shared the anxieties and joys tied up with all of this stuff by sharing plenty of their own.

Divided into three parts categorized as Food, Family, and Learning To Eat, the stories reinforce how good food and bad food have the power to shape experience, memories, and identity in near equal measure. (But it's definitely preferable if the food is good.)

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Tom Bergin's Tavern

Soft pretzel at Tom Bergin's Tavern

Today is National Pretzel Day, a holiday that is actually Pennsylvanian -- due to the state's early German and Dutch settlers who popularized the snack. It was declared not once, but twice in a span of twenty years by two Pennsylvanian politicians. So celebrate it for the pretzels, which are pretty great eats if done well. It also beats honoring Richter Scale Day -- a holiday that's a lot more relevant to Angelenos -- which is also today. No offense to seismologists.

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Andrew Meade

Ingrid Hoffman

Rice and beans, pork, pupusas, fried plantains, cheese and tortillas. These might be the core of most of the Latin food you're familiar with, at least in many of the Mexican, Central and South American joints in this town. Ingrid Hoffman takes the rustic cooking styles of these hearty Latin staples that she grew up on and redefines them, giving them slightly lighter makeovers that are easily reproduced with everyday ingredients.

Hoffman, the Latina chef of Univision's Delicioso and Food Network fame, wants you to know exactly that. The popular Colombiana just published Latin d'Lite: Delicious Latin Recipes with a Healthy Twist (complete with 150+ recipes), the health-conscious prequel to her first book, 2008's Simply Delicioso, and is out on a mission to change the often waist-unfriendly perception of her beloved cuisine. Squid Ink caught up with her while she was in Los Angeles for a brief interview. Turn the page as she talks about her own food struggles and reveals a day in her personal diet -- plus a recipe for her rendition of Pescado Veracruzano.

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Sanae Suzuki

Original Kale Salad by Seed Kitchen

Seed Kitchen in Venice is a macrobiotic vegan restaurant, but chef-owner Eric Lechausseur may not emphasize it when he and wife Sanae Suzuki host a dinner party at home.

"I don't even tell people. I find that they don't know until I let them know," Lechausseur says. He makes hearty one-pot entrées like cassoulet with soy sausage and white beans or a three-bean chili. True to macrobiotic philosophy, the flavor profile changes with the season; he might opt for something spicier in the summer, whereas the dish would be thicker, more gravy-heavy in the winter. To complement the main dish, he'll prepare four to five other dishes -- grains, greens, or seaweed salad.

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Christine Chiao

Artichoke flatbread; recipe by Danny Elmaleh

When creating new dishes for sbe restaurants Cleo and Mercato di Vetro, Danny Elmaleh leads a team of four in search of something that gives what he calls a pop of flavor. This can come from anywhere: an herb, a certain spice, or one in the range of vinegars they are experimenting with. It's an ingredient capable of cutting through everything but bringing it all together at the same time -- the kind of culinary paradox.

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Anuar Pinto Velasco

Vegan pate at BLD

A vegan pâté, or any charcuterie not reliant on meat either faux or real for that matter, is not commonly found as a regular menu item at restaurants in Los Angeles. That may be why the smoked mushroom vegan pâté at BLD on Beverly Boulevard was met with wariness at first.

"Initially, when we first launched it, there were a lot of people who were a little hesitant. So I tried to give out samples to bring people in," said Lewis Chan, the restaurant's chef de cuisine.

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Patrick M. Gookin II

Black bean burger with cashew cheese by Spork Foods

A July 2012 Gallup poll indicated little to no change in the number of people who claim to be a vegetarian (or vegan) in the United States from 2001, but Heather Goldberg and Jenny Engel's experiences in teaching vegan cooking classes through Spork Foods give another perspective.

"We've seen a huge growth over the years from us teaching. Most of our students are not vegan or vegetarian; they just want to learn about the cuisine. We have seen people become much more accepting in L.A.," says Engel.

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Flickr/woodleywonderworks

broccoli

Broccoli doesn't bring to mind romance, adventure or fun. But maybe it should. The latest Berkeley Wellness Letter reminds us of the ways this vegetable might help us stick around longer, to enjoy all of life's good stuff.

Part of the Brassicaceae family, broccoli is a powerhouse of nutrients and a few other things that are hard to pronounce. One cup has as much vitamin C as an orange, along with ample amounts of vitamin K, folate, fiber, potassium and beta carotene. If that doesn't impress, how about this: According to the Wellness Letter, it's also a good source of sulforaphane and phytochemicals, which scientists believe may inhibit cancer.

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Felicia Friesema

Stinging nettles from Flora Bella Farm at the Hollywood market

Let's forgive the Stinging Nettle -- an herbaceous weed currently popping up all over Southern California following our December rains -- for evolving those highly annoying tiny little hypodermic needles that give it its name. The poor plant has been unceremoniously ripped out of the ground for thousands of years to treat everything from madness to arthritis to asthma to "the female affliction." The stem fibers make both rope and fine, linen-like cloth. And it's also the base for vegetarian rennet in cheese making.

Second maybe only to hemp, the stinging nettle is one of the most useful -- and freely available -- invasive weeds in the state, though its recent renaissance is based on its versatility as a freely foraged food.

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A. Scattergood

Copenhagen Pastry's marzipan pig

There are many reasons to stop by Copenhagen Pastry, the bakery and retail shop in Culver City owned and operated by Danish native and longtime Angeleno Karen Hansen. The dark, seed-covered loaves of rye bread. The little bags of holiday sugar cookies. The LAMill coffee. The trays of freshly baked flødeboller and Napoleon hats and almond paste-filled kranse cakes in the enormous case. Since Hansen opened in June, the bakery has been turning out excellent pastries and baked goods in the ægte style of Hansen's homeland.

But in the next few days before Christmas, possibly the best reason to visit Copenhagen Pastry is the enormous marzipan pigs that Hansen has been selling. Imagine your favorite Charlotte's Web-style pig, made entirely out of almond paste and wrapped in a ribbon. What to do with these glorious pigs? Well, you can eat them whole in one sitting, as a certain 11-year-old girl will doubtless be doing when she finds one in her stocking next week.

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