Via Travel Channel

Anthony Bourdain relaxing on a Baja beach

The Baja California episode of No Reservations begins with a soundtrack of gunshots and sirens peppering news reports of violence in Tijuana. But against this noise we see Anthony Bourdain strolling into town looking unafraid. He knows what you're thinking: "Wait, isn't Tijuana dangerous?"

The short answer, we learn, is there is no short answer. Yes, it's been a hotbed for drug-related violence in recent years, which has caused Americans largely to stop going. So what does one find just over the border these days? A city that's stopped caring, apparently, about catering to our vices and is now in the midst of a renaissance, especially when it comes to the culinary scene.

Bourdain also reminds us in this episode that Tijuana is merely stop one on your Baja excursion, if you're wise, and that a journey further south will land you in wine country that "feels like Tuscany."

In other words, our SoCal backyard is blooming again, and watching this show will make you want to frolic in it.

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Margy Rochlin

Farmer's Market in Vancouver's West End

We have often studied the notation on our Day-At-A-Time calendars -- Thanksgiving (Canada) -- and wondered what the festival entails. As it turns out, it's a national holiday that lands on the second Monday of October and mirrors our national celebration in menu (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy), excited swapping of brining recipes, belt-expanding over-consumption and (at least in the case of the bespectacled used bookstore owner too busy talking on the phone with a friend to ring up our purchase) the sharing of squishy yet earnest-sounding platitudes.

Canadian Thanksgiving is older than ours (circa 1578) and involves no buckle-shoed pilgrims or pointy black hats. It traces back to an English explorer named Martin Frobisher who landed in northeastern Canada having not discovered a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean but was so psyched to still be in one piece that he initiated a day of thanks.

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Emma Courtland

A labyrinth of foreign labels

Los Angeles' ethnic neighborhoods often feel impenetrable. Navigating the seas of strip malls signed by foreign characters, and market mounds of various exotic herbs all labeled "peppermint," is a disconcerting task for even the most adventurous flavor foragers. That is, it can be disconcerting, without the proper culinary compass.

Luckily, James Beard Award nominee Chef Robert Danhi, author of Southeast Asian Flavors: Adventures in Cooking the Foods of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, & Singapore -- which he says is "more of a food book than a cook book" -- leads culinary tours of Little Saigon in much that same vein. Through the enormous markets and small shops of the Orange County enclave, home to the highest density of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam, Danhi goes beyond names and recipes, he demystifies Vietnamese cuisine, and shows why he fell in love with the Southeast Asian culture -- introducing curious cooks and eager palates to the unique neighborhood flavors, and his adorable wife Estrellita.

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For the group of food writers, bloggers, chefs and restaurateurs that spent this past weekend traveling through Mexico, Saturday morning began at the weekend-only spot, Barbacoa "Ermita". Slurping lamb consommé so thick and soothing that it should replace chicken soup in elementary school thermoses, chomping pansita (Mexican haggis), drinking brightly colored jamaica (hibiscus) and sucking down mutton cooked overnight until it evolved into barbacoa.

N. Galuten

Restaurant Silvestre, hidden in the Valle de Guadalupe.

On the final leg in the journey, we made our way to the coastal town of Ensenada. At La Guerrerense, the 33 year-old seafood cart: tostadas of sea cucumber, warm sea urchin, bacalao (salt cod) and sea snail, topped with various homemade salsas, including one packed with spicy peanuts, were yet further proof of the massive difference between California Mexican and the real thing.

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Jill Mittan looks tired. But despite the looming death of the five year-old winery dream she shared with her husband Kevin, she's still pouring tastes and telling visitors about the local wine scene at Midlife Crisis Winery. On Sunday, July 27th that will end too.

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Mid-May is a busy time for food events around the L.A. area, y'all. To wit:

California Strawberry Festival

Berrylicious fun

Only about an hour drive north gets you to the California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard. The big, juicy, seasonal fun goes from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; general admission is $12, and parking is $5. Free and eco-conscious shuttle services from multiple locations can ease the trip, too.
Strawberry Meadows of College Park, 3250 S. Rose Ave., Oxnard, (888) 288-9242.

The harshly rectilinear character of City Bank National Plaza across from the Central Library gets softened and humanized when the Flavors of Los Angeles event sets up on Sunday, May 17. The $250 per ticket evening features cocktails and silent auction starting at 5 p.m., then there's a five-course dinner at 6:30 p.m. to benefit the American Liver Foundation. Participating chefs and restaurants include home-court players Celestino Drago of Drago Centro and Shigefumi Tachibe of Chaya Downtown, John Sedlar of Rivera, Gabriel Morales of Provecho, and Andy Cook of The London WeHo.
555 S. Flower St., Downtown, (310) 670-4624.

Also Sunday: the next 5 x 5 Chefs Collaborative dinner is at Josiah Citrin's Mélisse with guest chef and recent JBA winner Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern in NYC.
1104 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 395-0881 or www.melisse.com.

Join Alice Waters for a high-minded conversation about her Edible Schoolyard project followed by a book signing at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica on Tuesday, May 19 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m..
1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, (323) 466-3456 or tickets here.

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BY DIANE MOONEY
Special to SQUID INK

Diane Mooney

Stew in a pot

Shenzhen, China -- In China, where restroom-goers often squat on top of rare Western-style commodes, the Shenzhen restaurant Modern Toilet encourages everyone to sit down and relax instead. The Taiwanese chain -- yes, there's more than one -- features toilets for chairs, mini-toilets for dishes, and urinal-shaped glasses for drinks.

The locals here seem to have embraced toilet dining with enthusiasm. On weekends, the new Shenzhen branch, just across the Hong Kong border, is packed with the young dining on fried rice and curries.

The friendly waiters bring us our own Modern Toilet table mascot, a stuffed homunculus with a swirl of poop for hair and a runny nose. We've already got another one keeping us company inside our glass-covered bathtub table. Cameras flash constantly as patrons pose for pictures sitting on toilets or standing next to shower gear and bathrobes tacked to the wall.

Diane Mooney

Two spoons, one cup: the chocolate-swirl dessert that launched the Modern Toilet restaurant chain

Diane Mooney

Take a seat

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Beware All Ye Who Enter: Food-and-wine-induced stupor may occur.

My iPhone has grown into an extension of my hand (see: day job). So when I first stepped inside Thomas Keller's famous French Laundry in Napa Valley, I wanted badly to Tweet my amazement, to Flckr the restaurant's discreet filigreed sign, to update my Facebook status to "French Laundry -- see you in 4 hours bitches." (Yes you heard right, 4 HOURS.)

Descending from a line of people whose culinary contributions lean more toward 24 hr Diner than fine dining, it actually took me some living before I got to eat at a "real" restaurant (let alone one of the world's Top 50) -- you know, one where the servers aren't in costume and/or the dinner doesn't involve a "tournament." Somehow between the ages of 24 and 27 I went from being the gallery assistant reading about these things in a pilfered copy of her bosses' New York magazine to being able to act the part of the well-heeled lady sitting across from the most gentlemanly of gentlemen at The French Laundry in Yountville, thinking I could go satisfied if Death decided to take me at the end of this lunch.

But even with churches -- the most sacred of sacred -- getting in on the Twitter action these days, I asked myself how could one process a nine-course, Michelin three-star meal in 140 characters or less? It's true that I, a relative food novice, offhandedly live-tweet Top Chef whenever the family gathers to watch it on HD on Sunday nights. But I've never done a whole MEAL social-media style, let alone something as serious and once-in-a-lifetime as a Thomas Keller menu.

And so, I posted my last somewhat forlorn update to Twitter, resigned: "French Laundry -- I will not be live-tweeting this."

Of course the Twitterverse had other ideas. I immediately received an onslaught of Tweets: "WHY NOT?" came the resounding response. The most surprising "Why Not?" of all turned out to be mine.

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Imagine that table filled with eight tired but overjoyed Coachellans

This past weekend at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio was pretty memorable: Leonard Cohen at sunset; singer/vegan Morrissey's classic between-song nugget of food criticism directed at the BBQ shack -- "I smell burning flesh ... and I hope to God it's human!"; Warrior Queen's incendiary set of nasty dancehall; My Bloody Valentine's ear-blowing Sunday set.

But a decade from now, if you were to ask me about Coachella 2009, there's a good chance that the 2 a.m. feasts created by Ken Concepcion, sous chef at Cut in Beverly Hills, will be the first thing to pop into my mind.

In addition to cooking at Wolfgang Puck's flagship steak restaurant, Concepcion is also a music freak and has done Coachella for the past six or seven years. He and some friends rent a house with a pool and a big kitchen, and do music and food. I've been lucky enough to stay with them for the past two years during the festival.

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If you're willing to spend a long day on the road and splurge for a food-and-slosh fest, then the second-annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine gathering held April 16-19 merits the effort. Consider: 250 wineries. 50+ major chefs. Tastings. Demos. Meals. Names on the roster that are near and dear to Angelenos' hearts include Cimarusti, Citrin, Mina, Myers, Richard, Silverton, and Yard. Plus the likes of Keller, Pasternack, Ripert, Des Jardins, and Pepin may ring a bell. We're already exhausted and jealous just thinking about it. But minor warning: this event in the amazing Monterey/Carmel region might require some tolerance of golf and stuff more often associated with retirement communities, suburbia and the like.

Alternately, the Santa Barbara Vintners' Festival doesn't appear to be as off the hook in terms of variety and sheer food quality, but it's a lot closer, cheaper, and will help scratch the wine and food itch. Plus the scenery ain't fugly either. The main celebration happens on Sunday, April 18 at Lompoc's River Park from 1 to 4 pm. Over 100 wineries participate, and you can also buy a Vintners' Visa, which is a four-day pass that gets you into special tastings and privileges as twelve locations around SB County.