White Grapefruit & Epazote Sorbet

Last month, while I was researching a story on the Best Ice Cream in Los Angeles for Serious Eats I had the pleasure of hanging out at Tara Kolla’s Silver Lake Farms for the afternoon. It was there, with the bees buzzing around four different varieties of mint and picture-perfect roses that I first tried epazote, plucked fresh from a tall mint-like plant. I rolled the spiky green leaves between my fingers to extract some of the Mexican herb’s perfume, which was quite pungent, almost petrol-like, and spicy. I took a bite and was intrigued by its zesty, fennel and coriander-like flavor. I couldn’t get it out of my head. All I kept thinking was, this would be good with citrus.
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Black Bean, Chicken & Goat Cheese Tostadas

Wedding rehearsal dinners can be a drag. The food, most often, seems like an afterthought. But at a recent wedding in San Diego I was pleasantly surprised to find that the bride and groom had hired a taco truck to cater their post-rehearsal picnic at the Cove in La Jolla. They served delicious, authentic tacos on handmade fresh tortillas. I watched studiously as the cook ran little balls of dough through a hand-crank machine that flattened and punched out perfect five-inch circles. He threw the tortillas on a hot griddle and then ladled carne asada or chicken in them, then topped each with a little chopped cabbage and crema.

The tacos were amazing! And better still, you could smell the tortillas warming on the griddle from halfway down the beach. Sea air wrapped around aromas of sweet corn, enticing like fresh bread baking in an outdoor oven.

Since then, I’ve been on a bit of a taco kick, leading my boyfriend and I to the Best Fish Taco in Ensenada—a welcoming, turquoise-colored converted auto body shop in Los Feliz (on Hillhurst). Continue reading

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