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 Last year I bought three evergreen passion fruit (passiflora edulis) vines from Jimmy Williams of HayGround Organic Farming at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Williams, who sells organic herb and vegetable plants there every Sunday (and also on Saturdays at the Santa Monica Farmers Market), suggested the vines as a solution to covering 80 feet of chain link fence at the back of my garden. Three plants? I was skeptical, but he swore up and down that in six months I wouldn’t see the fence.
He was right. The ugly fence is now completely covered in hand-sized emerald green leaves with dozens, if not hundreds, of passion fruits dangling among the leaves. My neighbor tried one of the egg-shaped fruits and promptly ordered a vine. I’m sure the neighborhood wildlife has been chowing down on the bounty too. 
I’ve been making vinaigrette with passion fruit instead of lemon. The fruit’s tartness and luscious perfume is fantastic on salad greens. I want to try making sorbet and soufflés too. But meanwhile, last night, my husband, Fred, had the idea to cook some gorgeous little carrots from the farmers market in passion fruit juice. He braised them in a little butter with the saffron-colored passion fruit juice (with the seeds sieved out), a spoonful of sugar and a couple of sprigs of thyme until done. Just before serving, he turned up the heat to thicken the juices and caramelize the carrots. Delicious!
However, I just picked another basket of fruit. Now what?
-- S. Irene Virbila
Photos by S. Irene Virbila
Tia Juana, which has been in business since 1976, closes the doors of its Olympic Boulevard location this weekend. The last of 31 years of handmade tortillas will be patted out there Sunday.
When the restaurant opened (under its original name, La Choza), Olympic between Barrington Avenue and Bundy Drive was an obscure industrial neighborhood. Owner Enrique Haro remembers there was so little traffic at night that if they saw headlights, they could assume the driver was a customer. La Choza's first Times review recommended it as a good place to stop on your way back from a drive up the coast -- that's how remote West Olympic seemed in those far-off days.
The neighborhood grew rapidly, and Haro upgraded La Choza, replacing the name (which means "the shack") with the grander-sounding Tia Juana and adding calamari and other dishes to a menu known for carne asada, pork mole and nopalito salad. Today the Olympic Boulevard property is about to be developed for larger businesses, hence the closure.
Members of the Haro family own a number of restaurants around town, including Casablanca and La Cabana in Venice. Enrique Haro -- and his mother, who has been the cook throughout the history of La Choza/Tia Juana -- are relocating to Huntington Beach, where they have revived the La Choza name, complete with the Tia Juana menu and handmade tortillas.
Tia Juana, until Sunday, 11785 W. Olympic Blvd., (310) 473-9293. New location: 7402 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach, (714) 842-7888.
-- Charles Perry
 The tender feeding and care of wineglasses ... Recently, at Bin 8945, owner and general manager David Haskell served my table a Gruner Veltliner from Austria in gorgeous crystal glasses with incredibly slender green stems, part of a new Sommelier series from Riedel (pronounced to rhyme with needle) the famous Austrian glassworks. I was immediately smitten with glass lust. How much? I found myself asking.
"Fifty dollars a stem -- wholesale," Haskell said. "We have just seven of them. I broke one when I was demonstrating how to wash them to the staff. And now I'm not allowed to touch them," he confessed.
Not all the stemware at the West Hollywood wine bar is as fragile, but they're all good, thin-lipped crystal. When any of the staff gets a moment, he or she pulls on some white cotton butler's gloves kept in a drawer behind the bar and polishes and inspects the glasses for smudges.
Serving wine in the perfect stemware enhances the experience, especially when Haskell is pairing glasses of wine with one of chef Michael Bryant's tasting menus available in five-, seven- and 10-course lineups.
At my house, I'm not allowed to go near the wineglasses, either -- I'm too clumsy. I leave the washing to my husband, Fred, who has it down to a science. After dinner for six, we're sometimes left with a couple of dozen dirty glasses. After rinsing them out with water, he leaves them lined up on the counter overnight. The next day he puts some music on the stereo and gets to work washing them by hand. That's the easy part. It's drying them that's difficult.
He tried all sorts of cloths, but they always left some lint until he found a waffle-weave microfiber cloth at Koontz Hardware that doesn't leave any lint nubs behind. (The brand is called MysticMaid and you can find it elsewhere too.) Another tip: Be careful not to put any torque on the stem of the glass while you're drying it.
Bin 8945, 8945 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 550-8945
-- S. Irene Virbila
Photo by S. Irene Virbila
Foodies tend to keep records of the number of times they’ve eaten at a three-star Michelin restaurant or the most truffles they’ve ever consumed. Some will e-mail friends and strangers their constantly updated guide to favorite restaurants in the great capitals of the world -- whether or not the recipient is interested. It’s a form of bragging, yes. But what about the worst restaurant experiences? Those often go unmentioned when they can make for an entertaining story.
I’ll go first. Here’s one from my archives.
Years ago, traveling in Spain on a train from Andalucia to Madrid, I met a young woman who claimed her aunt was one of the best chefs in Spain and I just had to eat at her restaurant in Madrid. She was so persuasive, and I was such an easy mark for the idea of a woman chef in Spain, that I agreed. It was in a tony section of the city -- I don’t remember where now, or even her name. The place had an ultramodern décor. First, we were invited for an aperitif and subjected to a guitar player singing “Feelings” for what seemed like two hours directly in front of us so there was no escaping. Can I say that I loathe the song? And that this was sheer misery? Not only that, but having to keep a straight face in front of this hapless musician.
Nothing on the menu was very Spanish. It was international luxe cuisine all the way -- filet mignon, foie gras, lobster. A complete and utter snore. And it was excruciating sitting there knowing we’d just used up our splurge money on a meal I could have gotten at any pretentious restaurant anywhere in the world. I couldn’t relax, either, always on the lookout in case the guitar player was going to launch into “Feelings” again. We could not wait to leave. And as soon as we paid our incredibly expensive bill and got out the door, we started running through the streets, giddy at finally escaping.
Let’s hear from you re any regrettably painful restaurant experiences, especially the expensive ones.
-- S. Irene Virbila
 Yesterday at the Santa Monica farmers market, market manager Laura Avery -- undeterred by the heat and the faint smoke blowing in from the north -- was roasting peppers. "Don't worry, we got it approved by the Fire Department," she assured the folks who gathered around the giant roaster as the peppers began to char over the propane-fed flames.
Avery, who picked up the roaster in Santa Fe, New Mexico --where outdoor pepper roasting is a kind of public sport -- has been roasting peppers since the beginning of September at the Saturday Pico market, but this was the first time she's done it on Wednesday. Today Laura (shown here with Ted Galvan, the Pico market manager) was roasting Tutti Frutti Farms' organic Anaheims and pasillas. After five minutes of flame, the peppers came out, charred and unbelievably fragrant. Laura's done roasting at the Pico market, but next Wednesday she'll have her roaster out again.
Roasted peppers, $5 for a 2-pound bag. Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market, 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Arizona Avenue and 2nd Street, Santa Monica.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Bill Johnson
 I stopped by Tablas Creek Vineyard last weekend to walk the Paso Robles property with founder Robert Haas. He and his Tablas Creek partner, Château de Beaucastel owner Jean-Pierre Perrin -- the fathers of the Rhône wine movement in California who've supplied fellow Rhône Rangers with vine material brought here from Beaucastel -- have a new project. They're introducing several Châteauneuf-du-Pape grape varieties to the United States that have never been available here before. (Well, at least not legally.) After years in U.S. Ag. Dept. limbo, Cinsaut, Picpoul, Terrat Noir, Muscardin, Vaccarese, Clairette and Bourboulenc vines could be available to plant this year.
I know those grape varieties don't trip off of the American tongue when wine lovers think of the Southern Rhône, but it's exciting to think that American vintners will have all 13 of the grapes approved to be used in Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines at their disposal. Let the experiments begin!
-- Corie Brown
Photo by Stephen Osman
As citrus season starts kicking into full swing, check out Japanese groceries for some pretty rare fruit. Yuzu (on the right), which has attracted a cult following among chefs, is showing up and so is an even more obscure example called sudachi (left). Normally available only in bottled liquid or dried peel form, they are most familiar  mixed with soy, mirin, rice vinegar and shaved bonito flakes in ponzu sauce. The fresh fruit, of course, offers much more nuance.
The two fruits are similar, though they are different colors (yuzu is green, turning to yellow when ripe; sudachi is green, turning to orange). Both are tiny, typically smaller than a ping-pong ball. Both are extremely tart and very seedy. As a result, both are appreciated more for their peel than for the fruit itself. It’s in the zest that the real complexity of their aromas comes through.
It’s hard to define those unique fragrances. They are similar in many respects -- tart and somewhat lemony, of course. There are also overtones of grapefruit or tangerine and even some floral notes.
Supplies of fresh yuzu and sudachi are very limited, so availability tends to be somewhat erratic. They are also expensive, costing up to $30 per pound, though a little does go a long way.
Fresh yuzu and sudachi are available at Mitsuwa and Marukai markets. Yuzu is also available at Peter Schaner's stand at the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market.
-- Russ Parsons
Screenwriter Amy Ephron has just launched a web magazine, One for the Table, devoted to musings on "food, politics and love." The site offers food-centric stories by Ephron, her daughters Maia and Anna Harari, her novelist sister Delia and the site's contributing editor and Saturday Night Live alum Laraine Newman.
Also thrown into the highly literate mix are restaurant and book reviews, recipes (such as the Grill's creamed spinach or pot roast a la Newman) and links to sites for ingredients and cooking gear (including Plessisville maple sugar chips and Guerande fleur de sel). The site, which will be updated daily, also has stories from guest writers and excerpts from stories published elsewhere (such as one on waffles by L.A. Times columnist Russ Parsons).
Today's issue features a review of Osteria Mozza and a cookie recipe from Arianna Huffington -- maybe that's where the politics comes in. Fun, eclectic and well-written, Ephron's magazine should be an entertaining addition to L.A.'s Internet food scene. And who knows? Maybe with the impending writers' strike, it'll be the start of a new trend for frustrated screenwriters. I wonder if Ethan Coen bakes pies ...
-- Amy Scattergood
 Now that "Top Chef" season is over, viewers with Padma withdrawal can pick up a copy of her just-published second cookbook, "Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet." (Maybe the title came from the same people who dressed her in halter tops for the cooking show.) The beautifully shot book has plenty of pix of the former model too, along with those of the actual food -- an appealingly international mix of recipes heavy on the Indian spices. We all know Colicchio can cook, but I've always been curious about his costar; so I took the book home over the weekend and tried it out.
This recipe -- spiced Cornish game hens stuffed with bread, oranges and kumquats -- sounded most intriguing. Especially as among the catalog of spices going into it was asafetida, an esoteric medieval powder made from gum resin whose name means, literally, "stinking resin." (We booby-trapped knife kits with it in cooking school.) The dish looked good -- after I cooked it 35 minutes longer than the recipe's muddled directions called for. (If I had followed directions, it would have been pretty raw.) But the flavors were haphazard and overwhelming, the spices jammed together without any subtlety or coherence. My kids loved a recipe for orange blossom waffles, though, and the hot and sweet grilled tilapia was quite good. The chai tea, however, was surprisingly weak, and a fresh mint chutney was an inarticulate mess of greenery rather than an identifiable condiment.
The book has range and some interesting flavor profiles, but the mechanics don't work as well as they should. Sure, Padma's been busy, what with her TV show and her divorce proceedings. But if she didn't have time to test the recipes, she could have hired professional testers. Or here's an idea for a Quick Fire Challenge: You have 30 minutes to test my new book's recipes! Your time begins NOW.
"Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day," by Padma Lakshmi, Weinstein Books, $34.95.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Amy Scattergood
This afternoon's the time for a noir novel reading at L.A.'s only surviving 1930s cafeteria. It will be from Nathanael West's black-humor (or noir-humor) view of Hollywood in the '30s, "Day of the Locust." It's put on by a group called L.A. Reads (formerly known as Nobody Reads in L.A.), which describes itself as "a loose-knit group of individuals striving to create a stronger cultural, literary and historical sense of downtown Los Angeles."
In this case, it can also give people a historical sense of downtown dining -- in Nathanael West's day, cafeterias were L.A.'s most characteristic eateries. And Clifton's Brookdale still serves a great panorama of the sort of Midwestern food Angelenos loved in those days. Don't pass up the pies and cakes.
Clifton's Brookdale, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles; (213) 627-1673. Reading takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. on the mezzanine floor -- look for the people with copies of the novel.
-- Charles Perry
 These are Berkshire pigs, eating organic acorns in a pasture outside Dyersville, Iowa. And if you have $3,285 burning a hole in your pocket, you can buy one of them from the prosciutto makers at La Quercia. Your very own pig will yield about 35 pounds of organic fresh pork ribs, trim for sausage and tenderloin, plus 100 pounds of La Quercia-cured guanciale (cured jowl), pancetta, lardo (Italian-style fatback), coppa, spallacia (front leg, cured prosciutto-style) and bone-in whole-leg prosciutto -- which will arrive on your doorstep after the year and a half (approximately) it takes to cure it. Whether you know what to do with it or not, you also get leaf lard, caul fat and offal. Among the serious foodies who have already bought their pigs are wine critic Robert Parker, chefs Daniel Boulud, Chris Bianco, Paul Kahan and Mario Batali -- who, wouldn't you know it, bought two. There are still some pigs left (there were 50 total), so if you want one, hurry.
The pigs are the first group raised by La Quercia and organic pig farmer Jude Becker, who raises the Berkshires that La Quercia uses for its La Quercia Rossa prosciutto. Last summer when I went to Iowa to profile prosciutto makers Herb and Kathy Eckhouse, they told me about their plan to start finishing the Berkshires' feeding with acorns, the way it's done in Spain to produce the famed jamón ibérico. Herb says the pigs are happily munching on acorns; harvest date is set for Dec. 5. So that means acorn-finished Berkshire prosciutto sometime in the summer of 2009.
La Quercia, 400 Hakes Drive, Norwalk, Iowa. (515) 981-1625. www.laquercia.us.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Jude Becker
 If you were wondering what Joachim Splichal's Patina Restaurant Group had in store for the former Maple Drive space in Beverly Hills, they've just announced plans to open seafood-themed Paperfish next month. And taking the helm is executive chef Yianni Koufodontis (pictured), who was executive chef of Greek restaurant Petros in Manhattan Beach.
Paperfish is the name of a small rare tropical fish; it seems unlikely that it will be on the menu -- but there will be fish baked en papillote (in paper) and served tableside. The menu features starters separated into "raw," "warm" and "chilled" and entrees separated into "shell fish," "round fish," "flat fish" (and then there's "weird fish," "funny fish" ... just kidding) and "from the farm" (farmed fish?). Starters include oysters on the half shell with pomegranate-ginger granita, and entrees include steamed turbot with dried fruit couscous and eggplant-oxtail tagine and sautéed skatewing with sunchoke purée, white wine, golden raisins, pine nuts and preserved lemon.
The restaurant will be open for lunch and private parties only until early January, when dinner service is scheduled to begin.
Paperfish, 345 N. Maple Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 858-6030.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo by Ken Hively
 Melanie Dunea certainly gets this year’s “Silk Purse From a Sow’s Ear Award.” In fact, maybe they just ought to retire the thing in her honor. Dunea’s book “My Last Supper” takes one of the most hackneyed ideas possible — asking 50 great chefs from around the world what they'd like for their last meal — and turns it into a coffee table book that is not just gorgeously photographed but smart, funny and touching. This is a book that everyone who is fascinated by chefs and restaurants ought to own.
Most of the credit, it must be said, goes to Dunea’s photos, which are uncommonly sensitive. Somehow, she manages to capture the essence of the cooks, giving us real insight into their personalities. I love the picture of Jacques Pepin at a table of simple ingredients, looking like an elder statesman. And Gary Danko on a fainting couch surrounded by caviar and what appear to be drag queens. British chef Giorgio Locatelli looks like he’s in an ad for Prada’s mackerel store, and Daniel Boulud seems right at home on the steps of Versailles.
Some of the shots will even make you gasp. Gabrielle Hamilton was photographed nearly nude, breast-feeding her child — as primal an act of cooking as you can imagine. Anthony Bourdain is nude too, completely revealed but for one outsized, strategically placed beef bone. What makes this photo really work, though, is the slightly sheepish expression on his face — Bourdain is revealed as the smart kid who knows he can’t stop himself from being the class clown.
The text is based on a simple Q&A, which mainly shows what absolute control freaks most chefs are —they’ve got the last meal planned course by course with accompanying wines, where they’ll be held, who they’ll eat with, who’ll do the cooking and even what music will be playing. But some of them are nearly poetic. Michel Richard, captured in moody black and white, wants no music at his last supper: “Just the sound of the rain. When I was a kid, we used to play inside a big box carton, like it was a tent, until the rain destroyed the box.”
Of course, nothing matches Guy Savoy’s last words: “Dear Madam, I thank you for your note, and I am touched by your admiration. Nevertheless, I have a phobic rapport with death, and because of this, will never discuss my last meal! This returns me to my life’s philosophy: I talk about openings, not closings.”
"My Last Supper," by Melanie Dunea, Bloomsbury USA, $39.95, will be published Nov. 6.
-- Russ Parsons
Photo courtesy of Melanie Dunea / CPi / Bloomsbury USA
 The Food staff was just treated to an unexpected taste delight a few minutes ago when The Times' Health section editor, Tami Dennis, let us sample the boiled peanuts she made last night. It all started when Deputy Food Editor Susan LaTempa brought Tami back some green (i.e., uncooked) peanuts she found at the City Hall farmers market yesterday afternoon, at one of the stands selling Thai greens. Tami's from southeast Georgia, so Susan thought she might like to have her way with the peanuts.
Tami did indeed. She put about a pound of them in a big pot, added a half a cup of salt and a lot of water, boiled them (covered) for about two and a half hours, then let them sit in the water for another half an hour. Southerners say they're an "acquired taste," at least according to a "What's Cooking America" link Tami sent us, which includes history, a recipe and lore (like they're pronounced "bald" peanuts in the South). But if that's the case, we Food staffers acquired it immediately. They're fantastic! They have wonderful, gentle peanut flavor and a texture like a cooked garbanzo bean. Watch out! They squirt when you open them, and the shells are squishy.
Tami says it's hard to predict how long they'll need to boil; it depends on the size of the peanuts and how fresh they are. Just keep tasting them, she counsels, till you're happy with them.
-- Leslie Brenner
Photo by Leslie Brenner
Yes, yes, we know -- our blog roll up till now has been, well, kind of pathetic. Thank you to those bloggers who have taken us to task for it. You were right! So we at the L.A. Times Food section have put our heads together and compiled a much more comprehensive one. Certainly it just scratches the surface of the incredible wealth of terrific L.A.-centric food blogs. Blogs like the Delicious Life, spotlighting Sarah Gim's wonderful writing. Or Monster Munching, focusing with verve on dining and cooking in Orange County. Or Rameniac, where you'll want to go for all things ramen. (Did you know there are 22 popular ramen styles in Japan? Rameniac parses them all.)
It all starts with the beginning of our roll of L.A. food blogs (it's on the right rail; scroll down to find it). That's the place to find important must-check blogs such as Eater L.A., the Knife and more. Click on "More delicious links" and you'll find the rest of that list (we're still tweaking -- we're missing a couple of category headers), then L.A. food sites; more food blogs, such as Epi-blog (Epicurious' group blog), the Grinder (Chow's food media blog) and the Wednesday Chef. Then L.A. Food sites, including resources such as Yelp, Slow Food L.A. and the county Department of Public Health site for restaurant grades.
We hope our expanded links list will make it easy for you to find all things delicious in one spot. If we missed a blog or site you love or rely on, please let us know by posting a comment. We may be slow in getting it up (the L.A. Times has a very busy tech department!) but we'll do our best.
Whew!
-- Leslie Brenner
 Well, these dishes look pretty good. But cooking through Alice Waters' new book, "The Art of Simple Cooking," posed a few problems for Russ Parsons, the California Cook. Oh, Russ ... ? What's the deal? That's Alice Waters you're talking about. Join Russ for a live chat today at 1 p.m. at latimes.com, and get it straight from the Parsons' mouth. He'll be happy to explain what snagged him up in the recipes, what he was expecting, why he was disappointed and which Chez Panisse cookbooks he prefers. If you ask him real nice, he might even tell you about some of his favorite Chez Panisse recipes, and talk you through making them.
-- Leslie Brenner
Photos by Carlos Chavez
 Katsuya Hollywood officially opens tomorrow, though last night Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was already bobbing his head to taiko drummers and extolling the praises of SBE Entertainment mogul Sam Nazarian and chef Katsuya Uechi at the opening party.
It was a real politicos-amid-the-sushi evening, with Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti in attendance, as well as State Controller John Chiang (all the way from Sacramento) and even an official or two from the city Planning Department. Interesting, as Nazarian's empire seems to be growing exponentially (expect more Katsuyas, hotels, nightclubs, etc.). And just a couple of weeks ago, Garcetti announced that he would push an initiative making it easier to build housing, offices and other real estate projects by cutting from 12 to two the number of government agencies that review any single development.
 Meanwhile, the sushi bar was hyper-busy preparing sashimi, spicy tuna on crispy rice, California rolls, unagi (grilled eel) sushi and more for the hundreds who squeezed into the Philippe Starck-designed space (kimono and geta on the ceiling, the crying eyes of a geisha on the wall, sushi knives suspended in blocks of clear resin). There was sashimi draped over horizontal wooden poles that had been assembled all the way around the sushi bar, and it was a feeding frenzy, with people nabbing slices of yellowtail, salmon and tuna with their chopsticks. I asked Nazarian how much sushi was made for the night. He said, "With 14 sushi chefs, hopefully enough."
-- Betty Hallock
Photos by Betty Hallock
Katsuya, 6300 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 871-8777.
 I stopped by the Gumbo Pot at the Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax the other day, thinking I'd just have a cup of chicory cafe au lait and some beignets. While I was waiting, I scanned the chalkboard menu and saw not just the usual Cajun suspects (jambalaya, po' boys) but alligator. And how can you not order alligator when you see it on the menu? Here's what the enormous plate looked like: The alligator "fillet," coated with coarse cornmeal and fried, is served with spicy tartar sauce, a corn muffin, red beans and rice and collard greens.
It was surprisingly good, kind of like a cross between chicken and a mild white fish, and the cornmeal coating was fantastic. The alligator, which is always on the menu, is farm-raised in Texas. The guy in line behind me laughed out loud when I asked my server about sourcing. "Orange County," I heard him mutter under his breath. The guy in line, that is, not the server. Yeah, OK; no Reggie jokes either, please.
The Gumbo Pot, 6333 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles; 323-933-0358.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Amy Scattergood
 While the Smashbox folks dine on miso-marinated black cod at Beacon, the harried parents navigating the carpool lines at Culver City's nearby Willows School can now pick up a dinner of chef Kazuto Matsusaka's meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Yup, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Or macaroni and cheese. The Beacon chef -- a veteran of Ma Maison, Spago and Chinois -- and his partner and wife, Vicki Fan, opened their second restaurant today; there they're serving some decidedly homey fare.  The Point, located in the Hayden Tract area south of Venice Boulevard, is offering a mix of made-to-order dishes and prepared to-go meals, including breakfast, salads, panini, soups and "Mexican lasagna." It's a great idea, and could well be a terrific addition to an increasingly foodie neighborhood.
The Point, 8522 National Blvd; (310) 836-8400. Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photos by Myung J. Chun (Kazuto Matsusaka, left) and Stephen Osman (Vicki Fan, right)
 Stopped by the 20th annual Great Tastes in Brentwood festival yesterday. Lots of fun, lots of folks, lots of food. The Pecorino guys were there with porchetta, long-roasted pork that chef Raffaele Sabatini carved on the spot. (His twin brother, Mario, is center in the photo, and the third owner, Giorgio Pierangeli, is on the left.) They also had tiella di riso, a sloppy and delicious rice, potato and mussel dish from Puglia; and crisp fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta, basil and pecorino. Literati II was there with grilled corn on the cob with truffle butter, grilled hanger steaks and late-summer-fruit sundaes; Takao, the San Vicente Boulevard sushi bar, had some nice sushi.
 Bakeries made a good showing too: Susie Cakes brought red velvet cupcakes, and La Provence Patisserie & Cafe had this gorgeous array of pastries and macarons. Proceeds are to benefit Brentwood's public schools.
Pecorino, 11604 San Vicente Blvd.; (310) 571-3800; Literati II, 12081 Wilshire Blvd.; (310) 479-3400; Takao, 11656 San Vicente Blvd.; (310) 207-8636; Susie Cakes, 11708 San Vicente Blvd.; (310) 442-2253; La Provence Patisserie & Cafe, 8950 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills; (310) 888-8833.
-- Leslie Brenner
Photos by Leslie Brenner
 How does a despot show his guest he had a really, really good time? Matsutake mushrooms! According to a Reuters story, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il presented visiting South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun with a going-away present of 4 tons of the prized pine mushrooms after their recent summit.
That's a gift the wire service estimates has a value of $2.4 million, based on the reported South Korean street price of "up to" $654 per kilogram. Of course, in Japanese groceries in Southern California, Oregon matsutakes (they are a slightly different variety) are selling for $90 a pound, which would only equal $720,000. And if they bought them from David West at the Santa Monica farmers market, they could get them as cheap as $25 a pound, which would bring it down to a rock-bottom $200,000.
That's probably not going to make most North Koreans feel any better -- the country's per capita income is estimated at $760 a year, and thousands of people flee every year trying to escape starvation.
What did Roh give Kim? A collection of South Korean films and television dramas -- priceless in the North, where they are banned.
-- Russ Parsons
Photo by Eric Boyd
We all know American Italian food is not quite the same as Italian Italian. For instance, Italians could afford more meat in this country, so they adapted the old-country dish eggplant parmesan to make chicken parmesan. Other dishes created here include cioppino, clams casino, chicken piccata (in fact, practically the entire chicken repertoire, because chicken had rarely been eaten in Italy) and even spaghetti with meatballs -- traditionally, meatballs had been served separately from pasta. Shock of shocks, the ubiquitous pasta primavera was invented by the Italian owner of a New York French restaurant, Le Cirque.
In 2004, a writer named Skip Lombardi published a book on this subject, "Almost Italian," which included scores of these classic American Italian dishes. He's bringing out a new edition right now -- on his blog. Two or three passages have been appearing per week. So far they've been from the historical introduction, but recipes will be coming soon. This might be the first cookbook ever to be serialized recipe by recipe in blog form.
Lombardi welcomes blog viewers to offer their own comments, stories and, of course, recipes. So if you have Italian roots, here's your chance to bring your heritage to the public.
-- Charles Perry
 Apple season heralds the fall, sure, but more importantly in my house it marks the beginning of October festivities: Oktoberfest, Halloween, the World Series. The kids and I won't be chugging pilsner this year, but we've already started collecting pumpkins, celebrating Manny Ramirez's return to the lineup -- and making caramel apples. Last weekend, I dipped a few crisp Galas into a pan of caramel sauce. They were pretty great -- specially considering that I'd made the sauce with Tahitian vanilla and fleur de sel -- but a little too gooey. So the next time, I tried dipping the apples into the pan of bronzed cooked sugar before I added the heavy cream to make the sauce -- instead of afterward. The sugar coated the apples and set up instantly, resulting in a gorgeous, more sophisticated version -- like Snow White's apples set in glass. Instead of being gooey, they were crunchy, and the flavor of the apples came through instead of being masked. (They also made a pretty nice centerpiece, for the 20 minutes we were able to resist eating them.) Then I added the cream to the rest of the sugar and made some more caramel sauce, which goes fast in my household. A tip: Coat the apples quickly, then add cream to the rest of the sugar before the mixture hardens in the pot.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Amy Scattergood
 We’re finally to the months with Rs in them. Thank goodness. And just in time for oyster season is one of the most remarkable single-subject books to come along in a while: Rowan Jacobsen’s “A Geography of Oysters.” Jacobsen, a staff writer for Ed Behr’s The Art of Eating newsletter, covers oysters in exhaustive detail, but with writing so engaging and sprightly that reading about the briny darlings is almost as compulsive as eating them.
Whether you are a timid newcomer or a veteran slurper, this book will improve your oyster eating immeasurably. Jacobsen walks you through some of the oyster basics. This even includes a chapter on “What Kind of Oyster Eater Are You?” that analyzes your slurping style and then recommends specific oysters that are likely to please you (“Shrinking Violets” will probably prefer Beausoleils or Kumamotos; “Connoisseurs” will be happier with Olympias and Totten Virginicas.) On a more serious note, he addresses issues of aquaculture and oysters and food safety. For a finale, per the title, he details more than 100 specific oysters, giving specifics on variety, growing area and even cultivator. In addition, Jacobsen has a website that shares not only some of the book’s highlights, but also a plethora of links for ordering oysters for yourself.
There may be no more pleasurable food than a raw oyster; there almost certainly is no better guide.
-- Russ Parsons
 This sign may not look like much, hidden off a one-way street close to the 10 Freeway in an industrial neighborhood of Santa Monica. But walk inside the bare-bones storefront of Guidi Marcello and you'll find a glorious world of food. I'd never been there until last week, after three separate people in a 24-hour period (two of them executive chefs) told me that's where they got their vin cotto, their Italian grain, their pappardelle. So I drew a map on the back of my hand and finally found the place. Inside I also found Gessica Guidi, granddaughter of the company's late founder, Marcello Guidi (that's an inversion, not a typo), handing out samples and chatting with customers. (Marcello Guidi began the company, but it was his son Marco, Gessica's father, who in 1981 opened the Santa Monica store.) A Berkel slicer (they sell them) stood inside an office door. Customers congregated to sample five varieties of vin cotto -- a syrup made from wine must that's aged in oak barrels. The small store, which mostly does wholesale business, was filled with shelves stocking Spinosi pasta, cans of San Marzano tomatoes, 1-kilo jars of La Favorita salted capers, refrigerated cases filled with guanciale and salame cresponde and fresh Gioia burrata. Inside a frozen case I found bags of fresh porcini and veal agnolotti.
And then, on the way out, next to a rack of a dozen or so kinds of olives -- Castelvetranos, Baresane black olives from Puglia -- I spied a wall lined with these beautiful square nesting jars filled with Moreno Cedroni's jams and mustards. Cedroni is the chef at the Michelin two-star Madonnina del Pescatore in Marzocca di Senigallia, Italy; Guidi Marcello is the L.A. distributor for the Italian chef's line, which will soon include sauces.
I won't need to write the directions on my hand anymore; after Wednesday's visit, Guidi's has been permanently imprinted in my memory. Along with the taste of a 50-year-old chestnut balsamic vinegar that Gessica had us sample after the vin cotto.
Guidi Marcello, 1649 10th St., Santa Monica, (310) 452-6277. Open 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photos by Amy Scattergood
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Last year I bought three evergreen passion fruit (passiflora edulis) vines from Jimmy Williams of HayGround Organic Farming at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Williams, who sells organic herb and vegetable plants there every Sunday (and also on Saturdays at the Santa Monica Farmers Market), suggested the vines as a solution to covering 80 feet of chain link fence at the back of my garden. Three plants? I was skeptical, but he swore up and down that in six months I wouldn’t see the fence. 
noelle.carter@latimes.com
Betty Hallock is assistant Food editor and joined the Times in 2002. She formerly worked at the Wall Street Journal in New York. betty.hallock@latimes.com
Susan LaTempa is the Times' acting Food editor. susan.latempa@latimes.com
Rene Lynch is a Times Web deputy and staff writer. rene.lynch@latimes.com
Russ Parsons writes "The California Cook" column for the Times' Food section. He is also the author of “How to Read a French Fry” and the newly published "How to Pick a Peach." russ.parsons@latimes.com
Amy Scattergood is a Times staff writer and “The Saucier” columnist. Scattergood grew up in Iowa, has degrees in theology, poetry and cooking, and, when she isn't writing about food, is trying to get her two young daughters to cook it themselves. amy.scattergood@latimes.com
S. Irene Virbila is the Times' Restaurant Critic. virbila@latimes.com