Betty Hallock

1 week ago | latimes.com | Jenn Harris |Betty Hallock |Danielle Dorsey |Stephanie Breijo |Bill Addison

New cookbooks are a bright spot in spring, and this year’s crop is a bumper one. One emerging theme is: Go easy on yourself. Among this season’s favorite books, Los Angeles writers and chefs especially — including Nicole Rucker of Fat + Flour, Ari Kolender of Found Oyster and Queen St. Raw Bar & Grill, Kogi’s Roy Choi and Becca Millstein of tinned fish company Fishwife — set out to make things a little simpler, boosting our kitchen confidence along the way.

1 week ago | latimes.com | Betty Hallock

Ari Kolender, the chef behind Found Oyster and Queen St., has a new cookbook: “How to Cook the Finest Things in the Sea.”Try three easy recipes from his book. You’ll be making scallop tostadas and mackerel tartare all summer long. Ari Kolender, chef and co-owner of two of L.A.’s most popular seafood restaurants, didn’t grow up in a household that cooked a lot of fish or shellfish because his grandfather kept kosher.

2 weeks ago | latimes.com | Bill Addison |Cindy Carcamo |Danielle Dorsey |Betty Hallock |Sarah Mosqueda

11 carne asada tacos to try from the 101 Best Tacos guideLos Angeles is the land of tacos. We grab them from copper cazos as the sun rises, duck out for lunch breaks to stand in line at taco trucks and end our nights at sidewalk taquerias. It’s why the Food team spent several months rounding up 101 of the best tacos across the region last year. Everyone has a go-to taco order, whether it’s spit-shaved al pastor, juicy carnitas or fried shrimp tacos.

2 weeks ago | latimes.com | Betty Hallock

Following egg news this week has been a roller coaster. Because of persistent high prices, a third of Americans aren’t buying eggs, according to one marketing study. And even though avian flu cases might have decreased, any effect (like lower prices) isn’t yet reflected at stores or could be wiped out by tariffs. Egg prices hit a 10-year high in February, but President Trump claimed they’re coming down, while others say they’re about to go even higher. Why are we obsessed with the price of eggs?

1 month ago | latimes.com | Betty Hallock

Yoshoku — the category of Japanese versions of American and European dishes — has its roots in 19th century Tokyo, when internationalism was the cultural currency of the Meiji era. By 1900, tonkatsu pork cutlet (progenitor of the katsu sando) had been invented at a restaurant called Rengatei in the ultra-modern Ginza district, which also gave rise to omurice (a phonetic portmanteau of omelet and rice).