County Fair Food, Alpaca Burgers, LA Food & Wine

Guest Interview

Market Report ()

Nate Peitso is the owner of Maggie’s Farm. This time of year he has a bounty of herbs available at this Santa Monica Farmers Market stand. His offerings include lemon verbena, lemongrass, vanilla tarragon and a unique variety of wild mint that you can only find at Maggie’s.

Matthew Biancaniello is the mixologist at the Library Bar, located inside the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. He brought his entire cocktail set up to the farmers market today and created his version of a Pimm’s Cup by muddling farmers market herbs and vegetables with his homemade Pimm’s Liqueor. A recipe for his Pimm’s No. 10 cocktail is on the Good Food Blog.

Banter

Alpaca Burgers and Quail Eggs ()

This week Jonathan Gold visits the new incarnation of Mo Chica, a Peruvian small plates restaurant in Downtown LA. Formerly the restaurant was housed in a casual food court near USC, but it closed that operation and  opened a much more glamorous storefront on 7th Street near Grand Avenue. Jonathan recommends the papa a la huancaina, aji de gallina, cau cau, alpaca stew and the paiche.

Mo Chica
514 W 7th St
Downtown
(213) 622-3744

You can find all of Jonathan’s restaurant suggestions on the Good Food restaurant map.

Guest Interview

Unique Eats at the County Fair ()

Good Food Producer Gillian Ferguson visits the Orange County Fair. She talks to Chicken Charlie about his deep fried concoctions, Mike Peterson about his bacon-wrapped menu at Bacon A-Fair and Dominic Palmieri of Biggy’s where everything from the burgers to the ribs are larger than life. See photos from the OC Fair on the Good Food Blog.

Guest Interview

The Making of LA Food & Wine ()

Robert Weakley is the co-founder of LA Food & Wine. He details what it takes to put on a food event that brings in 145 chefs from all over the world to participate in 47 events over a 3-day weekend. Weakley and his team source all of the food and gadgets for the chefs and have been asked to bring in obscure ingredients like Scottish Wood Pigeons to Amish Red Bush Grass.

http://www.lafw.com/

Guest Interview

A Quesadilla Worth Driving For ()

Gustavo Arellano is the Editor of the OC Weekly. He reviews Taqueria La Poblanita in the city of Anaheim. His favorite dishes are the cemita poblanas and the pambazos, but he says the best menu item is the quesadilla Coyoacán which is big enough to share.

Taqueria La Poblanita
855 S. State College Blvd.
Anaheim
(714) 520-9532

You can find all of Gustavo’s restaurant suggestions on the Good Food restaurant map.

http://www.ocweekly.com/

http://www.ocweekly.com/2012-03-01/food/hole-in-the-wall-taqueria-la-poblanita-anaheim/

Guest Interview

For Love of Blackberries and Pie ()

Besha Rodell is the new restaurant critic for the LA Weekly. She loves to forage for blackberries in the summer to make blackberry pies and buckles. A recipe for her favorite Blackberry Buckle is on the Good Food Blog.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/author.php?author_id=3616

http://blogs.kcrw.com/goodfood/

Guest Interview

Food Assistance and The Farm Bill ()

Kerry Birnbach is a Nutrition Policy Advocate with California Food Policy Advocates. She explains what the proposed $16 billion in cuts to food assistance programs in this year’s Farm Bill would mean for those who participate in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and Cal-Fresh.

http://cfpa.net/about-us#kerry_bimbach