Sampler Platter: Mignon coming to downtown L.A., Santa Monica resists food trucks, loads of contests

How is it possible that Farrell's is opening a location in Orange County before opening another location in Los Angeles? I have no idea, but it's true. This and more in today's food news.

-- Mignon, from the owners of Bacaro LA Wine Bar, is set to open this winter next to Cole's/Varnish. Eater LA
-- Santa Monica resists nouveau food trucks. California Taco Trucks
--Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour makes its Orange County return on Wednesday, opening a new location in Mission Viejo. Fast Food Maven
-- The New Yorker profiles Jonathan Gold (and mentions local food blogger Teenage Glutster!).
-- With the demise of Gourmet magazine, Jane and Michael Stern will now be e-mailing their Roadfood newsletter once a week. Eating LA
-- Mattatouille has some lovely pictures from his recent foodventures in Japan, Indonesia and Korea.
-- New York firm recalls ground beef due to possible E. coli contamination. Safe Tables
-- Challenge Butter recently launched its "Taste of the West" contest. Prizes include a seven-day / six-night trip to Montana and an $850 kitchen package from Spice Islands and OXO.
-- Check out this infomercial, supposedly the first one ever, made in 1949. It's from Vita-Mix and features founder William G. “Papa” Barnard and a blender. Make your own absurd video and you could win Vita-Mix's Pitch Me! contest.
-- Marly Billings of Newport Beach, Shelly Mayo of Brentwood and David Walter of Los Angeles won Wahoo's Fish Tacos' recent naming contest with the three following dishes: Power Chopper Salad, Wafu Bowl and Baja-ladas Platter.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: 28-year-old Justin Dervaes (right) secures a smoothie being blended as his sister Jordanne pedals in the backyard of the family's urban homestead in Pasadena. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times.

Follow food trucks on our Twitter list; Asian Soul Kitchen rolling out Dec. 1

Using Twitter's new list function, I managed to harness one tiny atom of the power of social networking by creating a list of Los Angeles food trucks.

At the top (OK, technically, the bottom) is the newest of the nouveau food trucks, Asian Soul Kitchen. The brainchild of husband-and-wife team Richard Wright and Akiko Konami, it fuses American soul food and Asian food. The duo previously ran the Butta’Cup Lounge, a similarly themed restaurant in the Fort Greene neighborhood of  Brooklyn, before picking up stakes and moving to L.A. in 2008. Examples of their fusion cuisine include teriyaki beef sliders, salmon croquettes and their signature lollipop chicken (fried chicken with an optional tamarind glaze). Barring any delays, the truck should officially roll out on Dec. 1, but check their Twitter feed for test runs after the truck gets wrapped in mid-November.

Asian Soul Kitchen is part of the expanding fleet of Road Stoves trucks, which is also rolling out the Little Spoon dessert truck in the near future. More details to come.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Various food trucks park outside the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA for the Dwell on Design conference in June. Credit: Stefano Paltera / For The Times

Haute Vietnamese at Simon LA

For this week only you can sample the sort of Northern Vietnamese cuisine enjoyed by the glitterati during the fabled days of the French colonial era. Created by one of that country’s finest chefs, the menu presented at Simon LA restaurant is the inspiration of Nguyen Van, chef de cuisine of the Hanoi Metropole Hotel, which opened in 1901 and that now, in its renovated state, has been designated a historic landmark.

Van’s elegant food is interpreted by Marius Blin, executive chef of the Sofitel Hotel Los Angeles who traveled to Vietnam to work with Van. Dinner is $34 and lunch is $22.

Dinner begins with two appetizers. The delicate seafood soup of scallops, prawns and squid is accented with star fruit and garnished with a crisp lacy rice flour disk. Alongside comes a poached prawn and marinated green papaya spring roll.

The entrée offers beef prepared three ways: marinated seared filet mignon cradled in grilled lemon grass stalks on a Vietnamese–seasoned reduction; braised short rib meat with hints of star anise and cinnamon served in a red onion shell; garlic-shallot seasoned minced beef wrapped in fresh lalot leaf and grilled over charcoal.

Dessert, caramelized banana crème brûlée subtly touched with star anise and cinnamon, is served with honey ice cream garnished with bee pollen.

For reservations, call Simon LA: (310) 358-3979.

--Linda Burum

Photo caption: Photo of beef cooked three ways. Photo credit: Sofitel Hotels

Scene Setter: With East Restaurant & Lounge, David Judaken plans a future in restaurants

There comes a point in every forward-thinking person's life when it's time to stop worrying about the party and start eating. That's what happened to nightlife impresario David Judaken when he decided to open East Restaurant & Lounge instead of adding another nightclub to his impressive list of Hollywood properties (MyHouse, Opera/Crimson and Mood).

"I've evolved," says Judaken, 39, with cool confidence. "Nightclubs are dysfunctional for me, I no longer hang out in my own facilities. Restaurants will be my focus from here on out."

If Judaken stays true to his word, that could be a good thing for the dining public. East, a sophisticated Asian- inspired retreat in the heart of Hollywood, was built with the same razzle-dazzle sensibility of a club but without the prowling-for-a-hookup scent of desperation.

Designed by Dodd Mitchell (Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Teddy's, Thompson Beverly Hills Hotel), East is an exercise in texture and shadow. A cross between a Tibetan monastery and the Bat Cave, it features sloping walls of white faux-stone; leafy trees beneath a peaked 65-foot industrial skylight; flickering 4-foot cream-colored candles suspended from the ceiling and recessed booths sheltered by stalactite-like drippings.

To read the rest of Jessica Gelt's story, click here.

Photo: Fresh scallops on a half-shell, with a lemon grass sambal, wasabi creme fraiche, shiso dust and cilantro served at East Restaurant & Lounge. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times.

Delicious Deals: It's Thai Hometaurant

If you're among the many people this season who are cutting back on dining out, then you'll be happy to learn about a little-known strip mall gem in Echo Park called It's Thai Hometaurant. Open for a just under a year, the diminutive restaurant is sandwiched between a Burger King and a WIC office, just down the street from the Echoplex.

It's got a gorgeous little outdoor patio filled with lush green potted plants and chic tables and chairs. The back walls of the patio are made of corrugated steel, which is painted with funky colors. The inside is all low light and deep orange hues, with pleasant table settings and satisfyingly heavy cast iron teapots.

Best of all, though, are the incredibly reasonable dinner specials on offer. For $8 you get soup (a tasty miso broth with tofu), salad (with deep-green greens) and your choice of entree (pork, chicken, tofu or vegetable). Add $1 for beef or $2 for scallops or shrimp. Entrees include spicy eggplant, spicy garlic, cashew nuts and red chile paste, panang curry, asparagus and shiitake mushroom and more. 

This isn't greasy, MSG-laden food either. It's nuanced and flavorful and presented on square porcelain plates and in fragile bowls, with light sauces and purple-colored brown rice. That's in large part due to the care of chef Danny Suptong, who once worked at Pimai restaurant on Franklin Avenue. 

There's nothing quite like dining on a quiet, satisfying meal with friends at It's Thai to make you wonder why on Earth all those people just across the way are spending almost as much money for their Burger King value meals.

-- Jessica Gelt  

Photo: Charlie Amter

Your vegan recipe for the day: Deep-fried tofu with dipping sauce

Soy, oh soy! You knew we were going to have to bust out a soy recipe or two during this Vegan Month of Food, so here it is: Deep-fried tofu with dipping sauce.

--Rene Lynch

RELATED:

More L.A. Times test kitchen recipes for Vegan Month of Food

Join us on Twitter @latimesfood and Facebook @latimesfood

Photo: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Food fight waged over refrigeration of Asian noodles

It's on!

Asian noodle manufacturers are poised for a food fight. They're uniting against a California law that prohibits the pasta from being kept at room temperature, saying it ignores a long-held cultural tradition. Public health officials cite safety. Read more here.

Photo credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Craft brewers rethinking rice beers

Though the grain is derided in many circles, a handful of brewers are using it in ales for a crisp, delicate flavor that can easily pair with lighter fare. Read more here.

Photo: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Join us on Twitter @latimesfood and Facebook @latimesfood

Sampler Platter: GrubHub launches in L.A., Susan Orlean considers the chicken, Superior Grocers opens in South LA, Vegemite renamed as iSnack2.0

A new Japanese restaurant, a new grocery store for South L.A., a new name for Vegemite and more in today's food news roundup.

--Superior Grocers is the first full-scale supermarket to open in the South Central Avenue corridor in at least five years. Los Angeles Times
--Susan Orlean considers the chicken. The New Yorker
--Agura Japanese Dining coming to La Cienega. Blackburn + Sweetzer
--Naming Contest Fail: New Vegemite spread to become the ever so catchy iSnack2.0. News.com.au
--Angry child's "bacon is good for me" rant gets remixed. YouTube
--GrubHub, which lists all the restaurants in your area that deliver food, launches in L.A. Click this link from Thrillist and get a $10 discount if you're a first-time user.
--Californians may soon be paying increased deposits on drink containers because lawmakers have been raiding the state's recycling fund. Los Angeles Times
--Folgers holds a contest (Sep. 30-Nov. 7) where five winners will receive a seven-day, six-night trip for themselves and up to three guests to travel to their hometown. (Restrictions apply.)

--Elina Shatkin

Photos: Top left: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times. Top right: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times. Bottom right: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times. Bottom left: Christina House / For The Times.

Tour of Southeast Asian cuisine via eclectic cookbooks

The culinary tag "Southeast Asian" has cachet in American foodie circles even though it has not yet achieved the all-purpose buzzword status of "Mediterranean."

Books about the food of this vast and complex region are multiplying fast. Four current works on the subject all present their own trade-offs. Do you want the book that covers the largest number of countries (Michael Freeman’s "Ricelands"; Reaktion Books, $35), or that has the largest number of recipes (Rosemary Brissenden’s "Southeast Asian Food"; Periplus Editions, $30)?

The one that charges at the subject with the most irrepressible energy (Robert Danhi’s "Southeast Asian Flavors"; Mortar & Press, $45), or that gives cooks the most careful guidance (James Oseland’s "Cradle of Flavor"; W.W. Norton & Co., $35)? Each is bound to meet some expectations and thwart others. Read more here:

Photo credit: Reaktion Books