Jim Thurman

Lamb soup with knife cut noodles, Shaanxi Gourmet, Rosemead

2011 in the San Gabriel Valley restaurant scene witnessed the usual spate of openings and closings, some notable and some not so notable. With some 300+ Chinese restaurants alone, trying to compile a list of the year's openings and closings in the 626 area code was quite a task, but we managed it -- with some help from the kind folks at Chowhound and Tony Chen's updates at Eater LA.

Looking back on the area trends of 2011, an early surge of restaurants featuring Dongbei style cuisine was followed by the opening of more and more Sichuan style restaurants. Indeed, one restaurant opened Dongbei before switching to Sichuan in mere weeks. It was a year Xi'an cuisine debuted, a new duck specialist emerged, shaved snow spread rapidly westward and popular Taiwanese bakery and coffee chain, 85°C Bakery-Café, came to the area.

Dumpling 10053 closed only to re-open in a different location with a new name, Fortune Dumpling. Bamboodles closed to the dismay of its fans and the owner of Chuen Hing shuttered over the impending ban on their specialty, shark fin soup. It was a year when a place featuring Tianjin style breakfasts came and went so quickly as to become part of lore, a SGV Brigadoon. Turn the page for the list, and If we missed something, let us know in the comments or by e-mail.

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Taco Bell

Taco Bell gives thanks for being sued over the contents of its meat

A look at this year through the lens of the food-related lawsuits is like watching the first season of The Killing: an exercise in frustration, bewilderment, and, occasionally, excitement. From the mother who sued Nutella for allegedly misrepresenting its nutritional claims (frustrating) to restaurants suing bloggers for bad reviews (bewildering) to a multi-jurisdictional raid on a members-only food club (exciting), we highlight ten of the year's best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) lawsuits. And eagerly look forward to next year, when we may or may not see who killed Rosie Larsen and the resolution of at least some of these cases.

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jgarbee

Still Life With (Good) 2011 Cookbooks

Because if you still haven't gotten a gift for someone of genuine or obligatory importance on your list (your closest friend; your boss/mother in law), check those Amazon availability lists right now. Or better yet, stop by your local bookstore.

We've reviewed a lot of books this year, and we've already given you a few "favorites" lists. But here are what we consider The Best Cookbooks of 2011 (and one cocktail book for kicks). Not the best general cookbooks, practical as they are. These are those engaging (yet useful) cookbooks that for some reason, you just can't seem to put down. A motley crew of cookbooks on very different subjects for polar opposite audiences. The L.A. demographic in cookbook form, essentially.

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jgarbee

The Well-Stocked Cookbook Bar

Because kitchen skills are exactly that -- skills that take time to master -- we offer the best three general cookbooks this year for three very different cooks. Even we never would have thought we would put Ferran Adrià's latest cookbook in the "general" cooking category. And for beginners. But hey, 2011 was that kind of year.

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CakeSpy

Rainbow Cake From "CakeSpy"

We all have a friend or two who is in dire need of being weaned from their Martha Stewart entertaining habits or persistent Rachael Ray cookie book fixes. But handing them the latest crémeux-filled pastry book from Michel Roux is only going to send them into "I can't do it, I need Martha!" baking relapses. It's time for one last Baking Style and CakeSpy shot.

Neither book is going to be revolutionary for an experienced baker, but a revolutionary baking book is not what you need here. For some friends, you need sheer silliness to get your point across. Maybe even a slim little paperback book like CakeSpy: Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life by illustrator and blogger Jessie Oleson that can help the Martha-addicted realize the lunacy of making cute decorations for every edible that comes out of their oven.

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sugarbabycookbook.com

Homemade Chocolate Mints

Was it really 2006 when Simon L.A. introduced their junk food platter? Ah, how quickly that cotton candy grows up. Which gets us to this year in candy -- quite a good one for the sugar set.

The sugar positives? Some of our favorites this year included the vegetable candies and Mexican piloncillo over at La Zamorana and those French sea salt caramels from Little Flower Candy Company. And the European-style toffee (and cool new Koreatown digs) over at Valerie Confections. Turkish Delight? Nory Locum, for sure. Yes, we are forgetting a lot of candies (Korean ginger candies, Jewish halvah?), so do share your favorites in town. When it comes to sugar diversity, no city does it better than L.A.

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backwardsbeekeepers.com

Backyard Bee Supporters

It's great DYI canning and preserving is back in full force, but this year we've been more focused on the original preservers: honeybees. And so in honor of the humble bees and beekeepers who have served us so dutifully -- in countless cups of tea, in baked goods, drizzled on just about everything -- we offer our reflections on The Year in Honey.

Why honey? Much as we love the tart bite of just-made jam, we appreciate honey's maturity. And we're enamored by the thousands of bees, and thousands of hours, that go into making that jar. It's also been a roller-coaster year for honey. And besides, The Year in Honey sounds like something from Chinese astrology. In Zodiac terms, 2011 was technically the year of the rabbit.

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Tannazie via Flickr

Takosher tacos

With the new year approaching, we reflect on all things 2010: upscale Mexican restaurant Red O opened with a tweet war; the short-lived Test Kitchen experiment opened with big name chefs; the nation's first kosher food truck, Takosher, rolled out; and jeggings became a trend ... for better or worse. After closing abruptly in August, Les Deux, once a hot nightclub, reopened in December as a low key gastropub. Small business owners adapted to the economic downturn by slashing menu prices, shrinking staff, and re-branding their image.

New restaurants are on the horizon. Ink, a restaurant serving American cuisine on Melrose, is set to open in the coming months (tentatively March) with Top Chef Michael Voltaggio. Freebirds, a UCSB Gaucho favorite, famous for stuffing 7-pound burritos, is expanding to the downtown area in early 2011 and is opening 16 locations throughout California. However, a few mom-and-pop operations, such as Tacos Guanajuato, couldn't keep afloat. We've also rounded up a list of San Gabriel Valley comings and goings for 2010. Turn the page for this year's L.A. openings and closures. If we've missed any notables, please let us know in the comments.

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Flickr user Sam Breach

Keep bacon where it belongs

The past year has been a hard one to swallow. Everywhere we look, there is some new abomination disguised as an innovation in cooking or dining. Before we start buying Tums in bulk, we'd like to suggest a few food trends that shouldn't make an appearance in 2011.

1. Baconifcation
As far as fans of fat and salt are concerned, there's little that bacon won't improve, but you don't have to be a pork purist to get grossed out by bacon ice cream and other pairings that are good only in theory.

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N. Galuten

The famed KFC dispensary, which even spawned a South Park episode

Marijuana has been in the news a lot this year. Prop 19 brought the legalization debate to the national forefront, even though it never had much of a shot at passing (despite our Governator's well-documented use during his former career as Mr. Universe). If anything, this much national discourse shows us how much things have changed since, say, 1930. But as this is a food blog, and the year is winding down, we decided to take a look back at the Top Food and Pot Stories of 2010.

8. The Daily Beast: Criminalize Coffee, Not Cannabis

Robert Rosenthal writes about the U.S. coffee culture, and argues that our addiction to coffee is our biggest drug problem, and that we should start turning coffee shops into marijuana dispensaries. While his comedic article may run a little pun-heavy, it also includes gems like, "More problematic yet is that caffeine is clearly a 'gateway' drug. You don't need fancy research reports to prove that a majority of those who innocently start their day with a cup of Joe inevitably move on to harder drugs. Like Prozac, Ambien, and Viagra."

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