Sampler Platter: Esquire names Bazaar as Restaurant of the Year, McDonald's to open at the Louvre, Doughboys reveals new exterior

Fast food comes to France's fanciest museum; news on Doughboys and the Gold Room; and all sorts of food-crime news in today's food news roundup.

-- The Bazaar by José Andrés is named Restaurant of the Year by Esquire. Rivera makes the magazine's Best New Restaurants of 2009 list. And RH and West Side Tavern are included on Esquire's list of Another 15 Places Not to Miss. Eating Las Vegas
--McDonald's to open at the Louvre. Los Angeles Times
-- An E. Coli-laced hamburger patty that paralyzed a woman exposes flaws in the food safety system, especially ground beef production. New York Times
-- Doughboys reveals its new exterior. Blackburn + Sweetzer
-- Echo Park's Gold Room gets polished up. The Eastsider LA
-- More on the Capitol City sports bar, which we peeked into a few weeks ago. Los Angeles Times
-- New York City public schools limit bake sales. Gothamist
-- Insanity hot sauce fells British columnist. Times Online
-- Pasadena, Texas, woman eats ex-hubby's goldfish after a fight over jewelry. Houston Chronicle
-- Man gets 18 months in prison for hot dog theft. Telegram
-- Fourty-four tons of rotting kosher bison meat stink up South Dakota town. Yahoo! News
-- Curry festival spices up London. CNN

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Tobias Hatfield poses by his bison herd on his ranch outside Williams, Ore. Credit: Bob Pennell / Mail Tribune / Associated Press

Tagging crew accused of robbing taco trucks

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has accused the tagging crew/gang called the "Fearless Kings" of robbing at least 22 taco truck vendors in East Los Angeles over the past two months. Sheriff's deputies estimate they have committed anywhere from two to three robberies per day, netting a total of $7,000.

Investigators have arrested four of suspects, but are still looking for Nery Perez, whose last known residence was in Downey. Investigators from the Sheriff's department (under whose jurisdiction East L.A. falls) are working with members of the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollenbeck division, where seven similar robberies occurred.

Click here to read the full story by Ruben Vives.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times