• Melissa Clark’s Spicy Pork Stew with Hominy and Collard Greens

    Melissa Clark’s Spicy Pork Stew with Hominy and Collard Greens

    Here’s a cooking tip: if you have something in your pantry that requires a long soak (dried beans, for example, or dried chickpeas), rip open the bag in the morning, pour them into a bowl and fill it up with water even if you have no idea what you’re going to do with them later…

  • Seeking My West Coast Hummus Place: The Hummus Bar & Grill

    Seeking My West Coast Hummus Place: The Hummus Bar & Grill

    When I lived in New York, my body was composed of 90% hummus. That’s because I lived close to Hummus Place on 7th Ave. and I’d go there a few times a week for lunch (see this post). And though I’ve attempted to recreate a Hummus Place meal for dinner here in California, it never…

  • My New Cookbook Shelf

    My New Cookbook Shelf

    Let’s pretend that I have a boyfriend (or partner or whatever it is you prefer I call him, you touchy readers you) named Craig and let’s pretend that Craig, one day last year, bought a designer bookshelf from H.D. Buttercup in Culver City. The bookshelf, in this story, was so heavy you couldn’t lift it…

  • Sweet Potato Hash w/Aleppo Pepper and Poached Egg

    Sweet Potato Hash w/Aleppo Pepper and Poached Egg

    Remember that time I told you how to make Sunday Morning Potatoes? The recipe, which isn’t really a recipe at all but a technique I learned from Marion Cunningham’s Breakfast Book, has become so popular here on Sunday mornings, it’s now a regular part of my repertoire. But last weekend I decided to shake things…

  • Shophouse (The New Chipotle)

    Shophouse (The New Chipotle)

    You should’ve seen the crowd at Shophouse on Hollywood & Vine, where I went to meet Zach Brooks (of Midtown Lunch and Food Is The New Rock fame) for lunch last week. The place was his suggestion because, apparently, he’s addicted to it. It’s a new concept from the folks that brought you Chipotle; whatever…

  • Malted Waffles

    Malted Waffles

    Wow, what a morning. I went to sleep last night slightly anxious: would the Supreme Court continue its conservative streak, this week, and uphold DOMA? Would Prop 8 remain in place? Then, at 6 AM, I woke up and checked my phone, going straight to Twitter to see if there were any relevant updates. There…

  • The Art of the Cheese Plate

    The Art of the Cheese Plate

    Bar Covell is one of L.A.’s (and the country’s) most celebrated wine bars and it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite places to go in the early evening to meet a friend before grabbing dinner. The wine is always interesting and carefully selected and, if you’re hungry, they make a cheese plate that pretty much…

  • The Salty Turnip and Egg at Ruen Pair

    The Salty Turnip and Egg at Ruen Pair

    Jon Shook, of L.A.’s Animal and Son of a Gun, once told L.A. Weekly his favorite places to eat in L.A. One of them is one of my favorite places to eat in L.A., Ruen Pair, where I almost always get the same thing: the Prik King (see #9 on the list of my favorite…

  • Diana’s Butter-Roasted Potatoes

    Diana’s Butter-Roasted Potatoes

    Now we all know the concept of the student beating the master and I don’t want to imply that my friend Diana was ever my student or that I was ever her master (though I was her roommate, which is kind of the same thing with me); what I’d like to imply, however, is that…

  • Got A Fat Tush? Make Fattoush

    Got A Fat Tush? Make Fattoush

    Sometimes recipes take you by surprise; you think they’re going to taste one way, they wind up tasting another way and you wind up liking that other way better. With the fattoush recipe from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem, I was expecting crispy pieces of pita bread tossed with pretty typical Israeli salad vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.), yogurt,…