Sonoma County

Porchetta Hits L.A.: The Mysteries of Pigsburgh

Porchetta is the thing to eat right now -- but deep roots belie its current trendiness

Chardonnay? Yes, Really: 5 Great Chardonnays for the Holidays

For many years, American chardonnay has been a wine category that cognoscenti love to hate, a wine whose ubiquity, confected stylings and bloat have more or less condemned it to a reputation for mediocrity, a wading pool of a wine, epitomizing the shallow waters of American taste. And for many year ... More >>

Serious Drinking: Peel Me A Grape

Across the state, harvest is upon us. California winemakers either are readying their crush pads for what appears to be a fairly large crop, or are out among the vine rows, tasting fruit, rolling it around on their tongues or between their fingers to determine if it's ready to pick. Last week I was ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: Local Gravenstein Apples Your Two Week Window

If the Red Delicious apple was hard to grow and had at most a three week harvest window, we safely predict the farmers market cognoscenti would be making at-dawn market runs to the one or two vendors who offered it -- to buy it by the crate. That rush-and-grab mantle currently belongs to the Graven ... More >>

Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival: The Wine Part of the Equation

The second annual Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival concluded Sunday, a slickly produced, three-day debauch mostly held in and around the capacious digs of L.A. Live and its Marriott property -- though neither conference room nor rooftop exhibition tent could adequately contain the assemblage of whit ... More >>

Natural Wine: An Explanation Where to Find It

What's in a glass of wine? The answer might be surprising. Wine is basically spoiled grape juice. (Whoever first ingested it millennia ago: hat tip.) But these days wine's ingredients can also contain a laundry list of adds in's: sulfur dioxide, egg whites, oak chips, water and numerous chemical ad ... More >>

Meat 101 at Nick & Stef's: Demystifying Meat Wine Pairings

At the farmers market, a couple digs through the coolers at the Jimenez Family Farm stall, unearthing plastic-encased cuts of goat, lamb, pork and rabbit. They're shopping for dinner, but looking a little less than confident. "What do you do with this again?" asks the lady, bespectacled, gray-bunned ... More >>

Twelve Tales of Sexual Mortification

Angelenos cough up their most embarrassing sexual moments, and a whole lot of blood, puke and piss

Not Your Standard Thanksgiving Wine Pairings: Top Winemakers On The Tofurky Challenge

www.yrousseauwines.comTofurky! Let's Toast! (Center: Yannick Rousseau, Y Rousseau Winemaker)​The problem with those incessant Thanksgiving food and wine pairing write-ups in every food publication this time of year? They all presume the food on your table will most certainly be Saveur magazine ... More >>

Mendocino Farms Opens Blue Cow "Sandwich Atelier"; Closes Casa

LA Wad/FlickrMendocino Farms Mascot inspired the new concept​ Mendocino Farms is known for its quirky sandwiches -- the one that first got us was an addictive combo of duck confit with duck-skin cracklins -- and its approachable farm-to-table lunch fare at its three locations (two downtown and ... More >>

Pork Wine Pairing: Black Pig's Heritage Bacon Is Good, But Have You Tried The Pinot?

biteclubeats.comStewart and Estes After Their Big Cochon Win​Heritage bacon. Could life get better? It can, particularly if chefs John Stewart and Duskie Estes -- and a really great back story -- are involved. The couple is best known as the chef-proprietors behind Sonoma County's Zazu Restaur ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews L.A. Weekly Pancake Breakfast

Support Your State: Drink California Wine During CA Wine Month

Kathy A. McDonaldLearn more about wine this month at a wine tasting seminar​These days, every foodstuff or drink gets a day in its honor. Did you know there's a National Pecan Cookie day (September 21)? One guess on how to observe either National Guacamole Day (September 16) or National Beer D ... More >>

Dry Creek Olive Company: Tim Bucher Knows How To Make His Olive Oils Rich

trattorewines.comSerial Entrepreneurs Make Pizza, Too​Among the benefits of being a "serial entrepreneur," as Tim Bucher, owner of Trattore Estate winery in Healdsburg, aptly describes himself, is having the financial chops to take advantage of those 150 year-old olive trees you happen to "dis ... More >>

Alice and Gertrude: Inseparable Angeleno Geese

Amit ItelmanAlice and Gertrude, right, have already made friends in their new home.​ The two white geese, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, were carried down from the house by Allie, the 16-year-old daughter of an animal rescuer up in Laurel Canyon. The mother-and-daughter team scours county an ... More >>

10 Places to Get a Damn Good Cup of Coffee

T. NguyenA pretty cup from Espresso Cielo in Santa Monica.​ Intelligentsia's founder, Doug Zell, told us in 2009 that "LA got a later start in terms of the very best coffee can offer, but they seem to be embracing it with the religious zeal of a convert." The conversion didn't happen overnight ... More >>

The Thursday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

SapphireBlue22stack of newspapers​What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections mid-week. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is free ... More >>

Tom Waits Writes a New Poem (about a Boner, Among Other Things)

Michael O'Brien"The trees look like hula girls"​Regular old songwriting just ain't enough sometimes. A few of our favorite living legendary wrinkly musician men are exploring their creativity, venturing into forms beyond their usual mind-melting melodies. While Mike Watt's new opera is circula ... More >>

The Factory Farm Map: Your Chicken PSA of the Day

​ Ominous splotches of burgundy, salmon, and peach are usually reserved for maps illuminating the presence of sex offenders, spiraling crime rates, and dangerous pollution levels. Upon pulling up Food & Water Watch's interactive Factory Farm Map, some people will see that magnitude of foulnes ... More >>

Steve Cooley Concedes Attorney General's Race to Kamala Harris

Steve Cooley​Steve Cooley has conceded the attorney general's race to Kamala Harris. In a conference call, Cooley's campaign consultant, Kevin Spillane, announced that Cooley had called Harris to congratulate her.We called the race for Harris yesterday, after noting that Cooley would need to win t ... More >>

Kamala Harris Defeats Steve Cooley For California Attorney General

Fox 11 NewsSteve Cooley went with his gut and declared victory on Election Night. His gut let him down.​We've been saying for a while that the math didn't look good for Steve Cooley. But now we can go ahead and make it official.Steve Cooley has lost. Kamala Harris will be the next attorney general ... More >>

Web Surfing: A Roundup of News from L.A. Food Blogs & Beyond

-- Patt Saperstein eats hoppers and other Sri Lankan treats at Angeli Caffe's most recent Street Food Monday. [Eating L.A.] -- A visit to Izayoi in Little Tokyo, jack of all trades but master of none. [Exile Kiss] -- No fuss, good service, and solid food at Golden China Restaurant in Rowland Heigh ... More >>

The TastingRoom.com: A Whole New Kind of Boxed Wine

Travelpod.com user KlauridsenTastingRoom: The 1.67-Ounce Airport Security Solution​ Other than the occasional local tasting bar, generous sommelier, or wine country vacation, there are rarely test drinks for expensive wines. Enter TastingRoom.com, an emporium of sample flights of high-end wine ... More >>

Wine & Dine: Sonoma in the City Arrives this Week

Flickr/tibchris​ Sonoma wineries will strut their stuff during a Sonoma in the City: Los Angeles promotion this Tuesday through Thursday, May 4th through 6th, that will offer tastes at every level, from free for the cash-strapped to a $150 wine dinner. The $150 dinner at Melisse on Wednesda ... More >>

Merlot March Madness: What To Drink On the Road To The Final Four

H&K SculpturesWine Dunk​Welcome to Merlot March Madness. Squid Ink has been training for weeks, swirling and sipping -- definitely not spitting -- to come up with just the right wines to drink during the Road to the Final Four. Why Merlot? It's just so college basketball friendly -- a wine wit ... More >>

Nice Jewish Guys Calendar 2010 Event at Silverlake Wine Tonight: Wine, Cheese, Marriage

Nice Jewish Guys CalendarDavid, Mr. September​Tonight Silverlake Wine will be hosting a wine and cheese tasting event for, get this, the Nice Jewish Guys Calendar 2010. Yes, that's a real calendar, and yes, those are real nice Jewish guys. Apparently a longtime wine shop customer is also a nic ... More >>

L.A.'s Homeleand Security Spending Spree

In 2004 the L.A. Weekly examined the free-spending ways of the Department of Homeland Security, calling DHS largesse to academia and local law enforcement agencies "a 21st-century New Deal for the military-industrial complex." Now, on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a report is ... More >>

Movie Reviews: Land of the Lost, My Life in Ruins, Pressure Cooker

Also, Corked!, Downloading Nancy and more

Heal the Bay's "Top Ten Beach Bummers"

Heal the Bay's 19th annual report card on 10 terrible shorelines is out -- and so, apparently, are the waters around Catalina Harbor, Cabrillo Beach and the Santa Monica Pier. All but two of the guilty beaches are located in Southern California, with Pismo Beach Pier and Campbell Cove State Park tak ... More >>

Shell Game

Water Grill chefs throw pearls before wine

Sex, God and Little Armenians

Generational divides, from Hollywood to NYC

Can Do

Who’ll Stop the Reign?

The big trial is over, netting several convictions -- read last year's story on the U.S. versus the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang

From Mediocre to Monster

John O’Keefe’s brilliant new play finds the pulse of our times

What’s Black, Green and Not Yet Over?

Donna Warren wants African-American voters to defect from the Democrats

Kama Sutra Journalism

Biting Back

L.A.’s fired animal chief says he was mistreated

Chicken-Hearted

The hatching of memory