Alex Weiser

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: (The End of) Purple Brussels Sprouts at Weiser Family Farms

There's a very good reason that so few farmers are willing to bring purple Brussels sprouts to market. They're a pain to grow. But what makes them a pain also entices customers -- they lack the cabbage funk of your standard green Brussels sprout and have an almost broccoli-like sweetness That sw ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: The Whole Menu

Over the past few months, you've watched us catalog our 100 Favorite Dishes. Catalog being a lovely term meaning eating our way across this town, well, even more than usual. And because we thought you might want a better way to access these, we've collected all one hundred into one piece, a menu if ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: Weiser Family Farm's Hot Roasted Peppers

Alex Weiser's market tables are groaning under the weight of his summer harvests -- Gaia and Ogen melons, freshly dug torpedo onions, a small rainbow of eggplant including Caliope, Hansel and Gretl to name a few. He recently added just-cured Spanish garlics and French shallots, and then there are ... More >>

72: Persian Mulberries at Weiser Family Farms

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 72: Persian Mulberries at Weiser Family Farms. If you've never had a bowl of ripe Persian mulberries -- a berry about which the Homeric adjective "wine-dark" w ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: Butterscotch Melons a Melon Picking Primer

He likes round produce. Sure, there's the occasional baskets of Spanish padrone peppers, bunches of torpedo onions -- and does anyone else remember the crosnes? But push that aside and you have Alex Weiser's rainbow assortment of heirloom potatoes and, come summer, a stack of intensely aromatic me ... More >>

Karlsson's New Batch 2008 Vodka: $80 Worth Of Potatoes In Sip-able Form

Swedish spirits company Karlsson's has released a new vodka, Karlsson's Batch 2008, a small batch potato vodka from Börje Karlsson (he of Absolut notoriety) that promises to deliver the terroir subtleties and single vintage potato notoriety of a top wine. The buzz -- literally -- here is in a singl ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: Makah Ozette Potato

Alex Weiser's potato varieties form a mounded rainbow of surprisingly vivid colors, ranging from a nearly black Purple Peruvian to red-fleshed Chilean tubers to pale fingerlings. So you'd be forgiven for passing up on the Ozette (a.k.a. Makah Ozette), but only once. It is one of Weiser's, and the ... More >>

Eat This Now: Romanesco Cauliflower

A. ScattergoodRomanesco cauliflower​Among the many cool things you can find right now at local farmers markets is cauliflower, not only the traditional pale orbs and the very pretty purple and orange variations, but Romanesco cauliflower. A number of Romanescos in formation, like these on Alex ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Markets: Fresh Purple Hull Pink Eyed Peas Cannelinis Coming

Felicia FriesemaPurple Hull Pink-Eyed peas at Weiser Farms booth at the Hollywood market.​ Fresh field peas, like the Black-Eyed and prehaps more interestingly, the Purple Hull Pink Eyed pea, debuted at the markets a couple of weeks ago. Black-Eyed and Pink-Eyed peas are a favorite holiday foo ... More >>

Taste of Tehachapi Farm Dinners: Vultures, Angry Ostriches L.A. Chefs

Flickr user photography hoboOstrich Burger From Lulu's Cafe on Beverly​There are the typical farmers market discussions involving the final peach season days and those first fall apples. And then there are the back alley conversations about angry ostriches and vulture migrations, like the one ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Mountains of Melons

Felicia FriesemaOgen melons from Weiser Family Farms at the Hollywood market.​ Summer at the markets brings an embarrassment of riches and a bit of sensory overload. A prime example of this manifests when you walk by the Weiser Family Farms booth on a hot market day. Even feet away, you can' ... More >>

New Crop: Purple Viking Potatoes Salsify News

Felicia FriesemaThe new Viking potato from Weiser Family Farms.​ Another brand new potato arrived at the Weiser Family Farms tables this weekend, giving Weiser's purple and gold Laker Baker a visual run for its money. The Viking potato has a deep burgundy purple skin mottled with uneven splot ... More >>

May at L.A. Farmers Markets: Your Virtual Grocery List

A. ScattergoodMcGrath Family Farm's pea tendrils​ It's May at Los Angeles farmers markets, bringing the season's first cherries and sweet corn, Bloomsdale spinach -- which Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms is growing longer this year up in Tehachapi; something he does when he's not shooting ... More >>

New Crop: Weiser's New All Red Potato

Felicia FriesemaWeiser Family Farms' All Red potato.​ Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms is fond of making us ask, "Ooo what's that?" March's entry was a pomegranate-colored tuber sitting off in a corner pile, partially obscured by a box of Chilean Red fingerling potatoes. Those familiar wit ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Romanesco Broccoli

Felicia FriesemaRomanesco brocolli at the Weiser Farms stand at the Hollywood market.​ Molecular gastronomists take pains to showcase the science of food, cleverly manipulating the laws of nature to aid their efforts (hydrocolloids, anyone?). But the logarithmic spirals of the Romanesco brocc ... More >>

The Platonic Ideal

Farmshop's french fries are what fries should be

[Updated] First Bite: The Platonic Ideal, or FarmShop's French Fries Are What Fries Should Be

Jonagold apple, portions removed​Update: Department of Corrections. In this week's First Bite column, which waxed rather purple over French fries at the rather too new FarmShop, we misidentified the price of the potatoes involved. We were erroneously brought a $4.50 serving of French fries ins ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Atomic Red Carrots

Felicia FriesemaAtomic Red carrots next to their paler yellow cousins att he Weiser booth in Pasadena​ Local harvests take a deep dive in January as the crispy chilly air and shorter days force plant energies below ground. The payoff? A plethora of root veggies, and more specifically, carrot ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Swedish Peanut Potato Debut

Felicia FriesemaAlex Weiser shows off his new Swedish Peanuts at the Hollywood Farmers Market.​ Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms has become the go-to guy for tubers. Sure he has Bloomsdale spinach, Padron peppers, and beautiful baby Romanesco broccoli heads, but the man's claim to fame res ... More >>

Last Call for Booze with Fresh Produce Bulgarini Gelato in Hollywood on Thursday Nights at Yamashiro

Photo courtesy Yamashiro​ It's never too late to create new traditions in this town. Just think, Cinespia screenings didn't even exist a few years ago. So it's fitting that the Thursday night farmers' market at Yamashiro restaurant, perched high above Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, became a new ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Sometimes Spicy Padrons

Felicia FriesemaPadron peppers from Weiser Family Farms​ Just when it actually starts to feel like a typical Los Angeles summer, the Weiser Family Farms booth rolls out the Padron pepper, a Spanish pimienton that Weiser has been growing here for a few years. And like the days we've had in Ju ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Eggplant

Felicia FriesemaBlack Beauty eggplants at Weiser Family Farms​ In the category of vegetables that are actually fruits (a berry to be more precise), the eggplant, originally only small, white, and egg-shaped (hence the name), has evolved over hundreds of years to include several colors, shapes, ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Heirloom Ozette Potato

Felicia Friesema​ Really, he had us at Laker Baker. But Alex Weiser apparently isn't content to simply wow us with new potatoes. This week he's decided to wow us with an old potato. An heirloom, actually, from the late 1700's called the Ozette, a.k.a. the Makah Ozette, after the Pacific No ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Pinto/Zebra Potatoes, or Laker Bakers

If you say you bleed purple and gold, chances are you might be one of those people. You know, face paint, multiple car flags, wrist warmers at the office, color coordinated food for your game viewing party menus. With the Lakers now playing in the NBA finals, it's good to know that you can now add ... More >>

Chef Rich Mead's Canyon Restaurant To Open In Anaheim Hills

Rich MeadCanyon: Coming Soon​What you might not know about Rich Mead, longstanding chef-owner of Sage in Newport Beach, is that he used to work for the IRS. Ya, another tax collector goes tuna tartare. So it seems appropriate that Mead closed his other restaurant, Sage on the Coast, just two d ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Market: Bloomsdale Spinach

Bloomsdale spinach is probably the only leafy green that can be considered even remotely sexy -- the heavily ruffled top leaves act like a billowy skirt, concealing long crunchy stems that connect in a bright pink nexus at the base of the plant. And thankfully, most vendors harvest the plants whole ... More >>

Karlsson's Gold Vodka Tasting: A Potato Farmer, A Chef An Open Container

Vodka is defined by U.S. law as "without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color." Delicious. So Squid Ink was rather intrigued when a bottle of Karlsson's Gold vodka arrived on our doorstep this week, with a teaser claiming the spirit is made from seven potato varieties from Cape Bjäre, a pot ... More >>

Meat and the City

Ask Mr. Gold: Meat and the City

Photo credit: Anne FishbeinMr. Gold, with dim sum menuDear Mr. Gold: It seems like there's a lot going on in New York and in San Francisco in terms of meat, but I haven't heard of much out of Los Angeles yet. I'm a recent USC graduate working with an amazing butcher in Brooklyn -- a rock star butch ... More >>

Farm to Cell Phone to Table: Alex Weiser's i-Field

The path from farm to table is sometimes a convoluted one, with hours logged in the fields and on the highways to farmers markets. At Weiser Family Farms in Tehachapi, this path is also virtual. You can now follow your Ru ... More >>

Globavore or Locavore

Two nights at Grace, close to home and from afar

Alex Weiser

Green Giant