Eating Cactus; American Cheese, Oyster Art; Twitter Recipes

Maybe it's the recession, or maybe it's Julie & Julia. Whatever the reason, people are heading to their kitchens to cook and they need the ingredients to do it right. This month, Los Angeles Magazine features a food lovers guide to the Southland. Lesley Bargar gives us a preview of where to get you meat, fish, cheese and everything in between. Cactus is a staple of the Mexican diet. But what about all those needles? Orange County native Gustavo Arellano invites us into his home to explain the wonders of eating cactus, or nopales. If you want to eat out, try Billy's Deli in Glendale. Jonathan Gold is here to tell us about this perplexing deli. Can food be turned into art, which is then turned into an environmental benefit? Mara Haseltine thinks so. She's an artist in New York who is using the oyster in her next art installation. Food can also be turned into words through recipes. Meet Maureen Evans, of Twitter fame, who is turning full recipes into 140 characters. Like it or not, there is a place in our culture for those individually wrapped slices of orange cheese. Liz Thorpe of the famed Murray's Cheese in New York puts American cheese in context. Good Food's pie obsession continues. Pastry chef Cindy Mushet is here to guide Evan through the challenge of Lemon Meringue Pie. While we've been pie crazy, an NPR producer has been just as enthusiastic about cake. Melissa Gray made a cake every week and wrote a book. All Cakes Considered this week. And, a visit with Chef Mark Peel at the Santa Monica Farmers Market.