Among the top 10 ways you can ID a food lover in this town: the car radio channel set to KCRW, the amount of time racked up in the Chego parking lot, the crumpled plates from food truck visits on the back seat, a bottle of hot sauce in the glove compartment, the Jonathan Gold bobblehead doll on the desk at work (just kidding), and the salsa verde-stained copy of EAT: Los Angeles. Well, time to get an upgrade on that last one. The 2011 edition of the food guide is coming out on October 4th.

Newly updated, with some 1,300 resources for food and drink, this is the third edition of the book, which is edited and published by Colleen Dunn Bates and her Pasadena-based Prospect Park Media. The guide is written by a cadre of local food experts, including Pat Saperstein (Eating L.A.), Linda Burum (Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine), Jenn Garbee (Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly), Miles Clements (Los Angeles Times) and Amelia Saltsman (Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook). Which means that they're pretty reliable, to say the least. Plus this one is red, in a handy portable size, and its cover works pretty well as a taco emergency plate.

EAT: Los Angeles 2011, Prospect Parks Books, $19.95.

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