L.A. Times - Food & Dining

Good deals go fast on wine websites

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wineries, importers and wholesalers are embracing direct-sale sites that can make inventories vanish in a matter of hours.

New Jersey wine retailer Joe Arking was in the Napa Valley last month, drumming up business. Arking is hardly a typical retailer in the bricks-and-mortar sense or, for that matter, in the normal Web-commerce sense. His website, winestilsoldout.com , sells just one wine at a time and at an incredibly steep discount until it's gone without a trace -- usually within eight hours. While Arking doesn't like to use the word "liquidation," the wine's swift and mostly silent evacuation is the website's greatest virtue.

Writing a new chapter in Napa's rebirth

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Shuttered Copia and vacant developments are reminders that a renaissance for the wine valley's namesake city hangs in the balance. But many are optimistic.

What's a town gotta do to gain some cachet? The city of Napa has new homes, new hotels, new shops and new restaurants. The once-neglected river that runs through town has been reclaimed, historic buildings have been restored, and developers have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into downtown.

The Napa Valley restaurant scene

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila visits Napa establishments, including Bardessono, Brix Bottega, Hog Island Oyster, the Fatted Calf, Meadowood, Ad Hoc and Ubuntu.

Every couple of years I feel that siren call to go up and spend some time in Napa Valley. For most of us, this was our first wine country experience, as exotic as anything discovered later in Burgundy or Piedmont. Who can forget the smudged violet of the hills, the rows of vines with mustard blooming bright yellow at their feet? The cool dark of the cellars or the view from Auberge du Soleil or Domaine Chandon?

Eater LA's Must uproar puts blogger ethics in spotlight

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By posting an anonymous tipster's accusations against the eatery, many say the local blog crossed a line. It's an issue food bloggers continue to grapple with.

They say all press is good press, but when restaurateurs Rachel Thomas and Coly Den Haan read a nasty blind item about their downtown Los Angeles wine bar the Must on local food blog Eater LA , they were furious.

'What We Eat When We Eat Alone' by Deborah Madison

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

When the dinner bell rings and there's no one but you to hear it, is it cause for celebrating with a steak and a glass of wine? Or for whining your way through a bowl of cereal standing at the counter?

Ramen California in Torrance

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Innovative Japanese chef Shigetoshi Nakamura takes a fresh approach to noodle soup in Torrance.

Ramen California's soups are startling, peculiar creations crowded with a garden's worth of unconventional ingredients. Bobbing in a bowl might be florets of purple cauliflower, earthy chunks of celery root or broth-staining bits of beet. The restaurant's produce-packed style marks a new direction for the noodle soup -- one guided by ramen prodigy Shigetoshi Nakamura.

In Ventura County, stone fruit, flame grapes, bicolor corn and black raspberries

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Thousand Oaks farmers market has recently returned to its original location in the parking lot of the Oaks shopping center.

Under the experienced direction of manager Karen Wetzel Schott, the Thousand Oaks farmers market is one of the two largest and best in Ventura County, along with Ventura Saturday. Vendors and customers are pleased that the market recently returned to its spacious original location in a shopping center parking lot, after two years of exile on a cramped rooftop.

Recipe: Model Bakery's ginger molasses cookie

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Dear SOS: There is a wonderful little bakery in St. Helena, Calif., called the Model Bakery. They make a fabulous molasses ginger cookie. Although all their baked goods are terrific, it is that cookie recipe I covet. Here's hoping you can get it for publication.

Recipe: Fried potatoes with yogurt sauce

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Fried potatoes with yogurt sauce

2007 Nicole Chanrion Domaine de la Voûte des Crozes

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Beaujolais -- the real stuff, not Beaujolais Nouveau, which is an entirely different animal -- makes perfect warm-weather drinking. And this Cote de Brouilly from Nicole Chanrion's Domaine de la Voûte des Crozes is a fabulous summer wine. Old-fashioned Gamay Noir with a distinct earthy quality and beautiful balance and texture. Tasting of blueberries one moment, cherries the next, it is pure pleasure to drink. Put it in a Burgundy glass and it takes on the weightier character of a serious wine.