Object of Desire: Tofu spring rolls

It has come to my attention that vegans are angry with me today, what with all the foie gras and all. So as a peace offering, I thought I might point out that Golden Deli, the Vietnamese noodle shop whose crackly cha gio, fried spring rolls, have been fetish objects in the San Gabriel Valley for more than 30 years, has recently been trying to establish a beachhead on the fried tofu front: custardy, crunchy fried tofu served on noodles, with rice or alone on a plate with only a lonely sprig of cilantro to keep it company.

More to the point, there is a fried-tofu version of the fresh spring roll goi cuon -- bean curd patties wrapped tightly in sticky rice paper with lettuce, cellophane noodles and shreds of marinated carrot; and served with a dark soy-based dip instead of the customary nuoc leo, which is more or less ground peanuts laced with fish sauce. The tofu rolls are something you can enjoy while your friends are making fools of themselves with the grilled shrimp cakes and pork rib-snail soup. Can we be friends again?

815 W. Las Tunas Ave., San Gabriel, (626) 308-0803.

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-- Jonathan Gold

Photo credit: Jonathan Gold

The apéritif hour: Roast almonds with paprika

Apéritif hour has arrived and you have nothing to serve?

No worries. In the time it takes to chill down a bottle of fino or manzanilla sherry, you can make these roast almonds with paprika from Sam and Sam Clark, the genies behind the restaurant Moro in London (and co-authors of the wonderful “Moro the Cookbook”). The two chefs, who are married, have a great affection for Spain and north Africa. And these almonds dosed with smoked paprika are a delicious twist on the ubiquitous roast almonds in olive oil.

They write, “the word for almond — ‘almendra’ — has roots in the Moorish past, for the Arabs were very partial to them and planted trees all along the Mediterranean coast from Tarragona to Malaga.”

Note: To blanch almonds: bring a pot of water to the boil. Remove from heat, dump in the almonds for about a minute. Drain and cool under running water. Slip the skins off by gently holding between the thumb and forefinger and squeezing.  

Serve with a fino or manzanilla sherry, well-chilled.

Almendras con pimentón

Almonds with paprika (adapted from “Moro the Cookbook” by Sam and Sam Clark, Ebury Press, London, 2001, $27.50 paperback)

Serves 6

About 1/2 pound whole blanched almonds

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon smoked sweet Spanish paprika*

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt (preferably Maldon), ground to a fine powder

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the almonds on a baking tray and dry-roast in the top of the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and stir in the olive oil, paprika and salt. Return to the oven for a couple more minutes. Remove and cool before eating.

*You can find smoked Spanish paprika at Penzeys Spices in Santa Monica and Torrance, and also online at www.penzeys.com.

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Photos: Roast almonds with smoked paprika. Credit: S. Irene Virbila/Los Angeles Times.

Test Kitchen tips: Zabaglione 101

Whisk some egg yolks with a little sugar until they take on a bright, velvety sheen, then drizzle in a little wine. Place the bowl over gently simmering water and keep beating, and in just minutes you have a light and airy custard, faintly sweet and enticingly smooth and rich with the almost smoky aroma of Marsala.

That's it — the simple wonder of zabaglione.

A traditional Italian dessert, zabaglione is as elegant to serve as it is simple to make. Quickly prepared, it makes a perfect dessert, whether you're serving a formal dinner for company, or following a meal of leftovers on a busy weeknight.

What's not to love about zabaglione? It's easy and versatile, and you probably already have the ingredients at home. Whip up a batch and serve it spooned over freshly diced fruit, or ladle it over a cake or a crisp, flaky pastry as a velvety sauce.

Or serve it simply by itself, in a beautiful glass -- fresh and warm, just off the stove. You can also fold it with some whipped cream and freeze it for a frozen custard treat. Give it a try -- it makes a great weekend project! And there are so many options:

• Recipe: Zabaglione
• Frozen chocolate zabaglione
• Hazelnut sherry zabaglione
• Beer zabaglione
• Frozen zabaglione

If you have any kitchen tips or questions you'd like me to explore, leave a comment below or shoot me an email at noelle.carter@latimes.com.

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-- Noelle Carter
twitter/noellecarter

Photo: Beer zabaglione. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Dinner tonight!: Nancy's burgers

Looking to do a little outdoor cooking tonight, or sometime this weekend? Have we got a burger for you, courtesy of Nancy Silverton. Best of all, you can make the toppings ahead of time, then just grill up the burgers to order. You can find the recipe here.

For more quick-fix dinner ideas, check out our video recipe gallery here. Food Editor Russ Parsons and Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter show you how to whip up a dozen dishes in an hour or less.

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Photo: Crumbled blue cheese and cheddar top Nancy's burgers. Credit: Beatrice De Gea / Los Angeles Times

'Cooking for Solutions': A sardine revolution

The first discussion at the 2012 Monterey Bay Aquarium "Cooking for Solutions" program was on the problems facing forage fish -- those many little guys marine biologists refer to as "small, schooling pelagics" but which you and I think of mostly as sardines and anchovies. Times are tough indeed, an estimated 90% of the catch goes to making fish oil and food for aquaculture and chickens.

During the break I was bemoaning the waste of this delicious resource with Mike Sutton, the Aquarium's vice president for the Center of the Future of the Oceans, when he confided that he and some friends had been part of a revolutionary group called the "Sardinistas," which was devoted to bringing an appreciation of that fish to a wider audience.

Recognizing a fellow traveller, I immediately started pressing him for the group's favorite dishes. "Well, we make a sardine salad," he said. That sounded great! Maybe with arugula and roasted peppers? Some black olives and pinenuts?

No, he confessed, actually it was a basic tuna salad using sardines instead. "And when we served it to people blind, they couldn't tell it was sardines," he bragged.

This seemed to me to be beside the point, but he argued, "You and I might love sardines, but a whole lot of people don't. We found the biggest impediment to getting people to eat sardines is that people just don't like oily fish."

Unless they're named salmon, I pointed out.

Sutton shook his head wearily. "That's right. But it's an uphill battle convincing other people of that. At the end of the day, they're still sardines."

Me, I think that any movement that hopes to convince people to eat sardines by apologizing for the fact that they taste like sardines is not going to make much headway.  

But when it comes to food, I guess I'm a revolutionary, but a big tent revolutionary. There's room for sardine salad as well as sarde en saor and sardines cooked with mustard breadcrumbs.

-- Russ Parsons

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Photo credit: Sachi Cunningham/Los Angeles Times 

SHOREbar soft-opening Saturday in Santa Monica

Consummate cool guy John Terzian (of the buzzy nightlife-producing h.wood group) will soft-open a new lounge in Santa Monica on Saturday called SHOREbar.

Located on Channel Road, between the Hungry Cat and Giorgio Di Baldi, in the former Hideout bar space, SHOREbar touts a cocktail list by mixologist Vincenzo Marianella of the esteemed craft cocktail haven Copa D' Oro.

The redesign, featuring a nautical theme and an ivory-and-brass color scheme, was done by Rosetta Getty and is being referred to as "Nantucket chic," which immediately conjures images of Vampire Weekend. I like the idea of a bunch of sun-soaked preppies in pastel Lacoste shirts and boat shoes reclining in this beach-adjacent hang. It's very summer-like.

There is a second, smaller upstairs bar that is reserved for members only. There you can keep a house expense account, order food from local restaurants, throw wild parties and have access to your very own locker to keep, well, whatever it is that you keep in a locker at a bar.

Although unlikely, it's my personal hope that SHOREbar can help usher a new spirit of artsy revelry into the Santa Monica Canyon neighborhood, which has a rich history of just that.

In 1948, the writer Christopher Isherwood, whose short stories about Berlin inspired "Cabaret," rented Lee Strasberg's house at 333 E. Rustic Road -- a short walk from SHOREbar -- and came to believe it was haunted. He wrote in "Lost Years: A Memoir 1945-1951" about "the intensity of the unpleasant psychic atmosphere." Isherwood, who lived in Santa Monica Canyon until his death at age 81 in 1986, called it "our western Greenwich Village."

But hey, I'll take our western Nantucket.

SHOREbar, 112 W. Channel Road, Santa Monica. (310) 429-1851.

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Food FYI: Salt, what cures zombies

SALT STORIES

Mark Kurlansky, author of "Salt: A World History," talks salt: its importance in the French Revolution, the geological relationship between salt domes and oil deposits, and curing zombies (as in de-zombifying them, not pickling them). [The Smithsonian]

CRASHING BIDEN'S SPAGHETTI DINNER

While campaigning in Ohio, Vice President Joe Biden stops at Naples Spaghetti House and bumps into a Mitt Romney campaign spokesman. Awkward. [The Observer]

STARBUCKS JUICE 

Starbucks expands its Evolution Fresh juice bar concept: bottled juices, juices on tap, custom blends and packages for juice cleanse diets. [Nation's Restaurant News]

OLD VIN JAUNE

A 240-year-old bottle of vin jaune is sold at Christie's for $49,000. It reportedly has flavors of nuts, spices, curry, cinnamon, vanilla and dried fruits. [Decanter]

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-- Betty Hallock

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The foie gras wars get meta at Melisse

Melisse, the Santa Monica restaurant of chef Josiah Citrin, is about as luxe, calme et volupté as things get in Los Angeles, a subdued Santa Monica dining room with two Michelin stars. The $115 prix fixe menus are, one would think, most appreciated by the comfortably well-off, and events here tend toward sedate benefit dinners. Monday's benefit dinner for the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farm Standards (CHEFS), or rather that organization's push for higher agricultural standards and against California's imminent foie gras ban, was rather less than sedate.

What was it like at the dinner? Odd, distinctly odd -- even considering that the meal  happened to feature eight courses of the high-test duck liver at issue, cooked by eight well-known chefs. There were the people inside the restaurant protesting the ban, which goes into effect July 1. There were louder people outside protesting the protest of the ban. There were other people outside protesting the protest of the protest of the ban. In the end, it was unclear whether the real protestors were the ones dedicated to protecting culinary freedoms, or the chanting ones hoping to have those freedoms curtailed just a little bit sooner. The evening was all rather meta, especially because to most of the people eating dinner, the occasion was less an intimation of prohibition than a nice evening out with friends.

"What's the fuss about?'' a bewildered young woman on the sidewalk asked Lissa Doumani, the pastry chef and co-owner of Terra, a St. Helena restaurant represented at the event.

"Feeding ducks,'' Doumani said. "All of this is about feeding ducks.''

Eat Beat: Lemon tart

What do you do when life hands you lemons? Make a lemon tart, of course! In today's Eat Beat, Food editor Russ Parsons demonstrates how to make Lazy Mary's lemon tart. You can find the recipe here.

Catch our televised recipe demonstrations on KTLA-TV Channel 5 every Wednesday and Friday toward the end of the 1 p.m. news hour; you can also watch the videos on Food's homepage.

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Video: KTLA

Checking out Los Agaves in Santa Barbara

For almost 30 years almost every trip north on Highway 101 has been punctuated by a stop for lunch at Santa Barbara's sainted La Super Rica tortilleria. My love for the place is deep and abiding. My cars seem to find the way there on their own. So imagine how I felt when I pulled up and found it closed. Closed! La Super Rica was closed! How could they do this to me? Or maybe more to the point, how did I never notice that the family took Wednesdays off? But what was I to do for lunch?

Fortunately, I'd noticed a sweet-looking little place just a block a way (I've been going to Super Rica long enough that I know I need to start scouting for parking places very early). Oh well, any port in a storm, particularly at lunchtime. And Los Agaves did not disappoint. In fact, I'll go further than that. Los Agaves is pretty darned terrific.

It's a pretty little place, lots of tile and art and if you're the kind of person who has always objected to Super Rica's awning and cement pad, this will come as great news. Me? I'm all about the food. The menu is roughly similar to La Super Rica's, but mostly in the way that both are dissimilar to the standard Southern California taco-and-burrito lineup (not that there's anything wrong with that).

The queso fundido was hot and cheesy, with a nicely browned crust underneath and was studded with bits of crisp chorizo and soft roasted peppers. The tortillas were thick and chewy and appeared to be homemade. Since I'd passed Mussel Shoals, I'd been contemplating the loveliness of Super Rica's tacos de rajas -- tacos stuffed with roasted peppers, melted onions and cream. At Los Agaves, my rajas came atop a bed of shredded carnitas.

Not better, not worse, just different. But when you're comparing a place to La Super Rica, that is high praise indeed.

600 N. Milpas St., Santa Barbara, (805) 564-2626.

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--Russ Parsons

Photo credit: Russ Parsons