RecipeMuncher

Oct 4 - LA Weekly Detour Music Festival
(12pm-12am)
Downtown Los Angeles
The LA Weekly Detour Music Festival, which has become the definitive Los Angeles music festival, returns for a 3rd year in a row. This years bands include The Mars Volta, Gogol Bordello, Datarock, Black Lips, Matt Costa, Shiny Toy Guns, and many many more. Party all day and all night in the streets around City Hall. It’s a can’t miss party. And just as always Dig Lounge encourages you to use the Metro. Take the Red Line to the Civic Center exit. Tickets are and proceeds benefit Tree People.

Oct 3-5 - E for All Expo
(10am-8pm Fri, 10am-7pm Sat, 10am-4pm Sun)
Convention Center, Downtown Los Angeles
Attention all gamers. Get your hands on the latest video games and related technologies at the E for All Expo. The show floor this year plays host to some of greatest and most exciting games and companies in the business. From product debuts, the latest games and gadgets, to tournaments and pro gamers. Pre-registration single day pass is , for two days and for all three days.

Oct 4 - Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon
(11am-5pm)
Pasadena
Discover, Savor & Taste Some of the Finest Chocolatiers & Wineries in Southern California at the LA Luxury Chocolate Salon. Taste from Guittard Chocolate, Mignon Chocolate, Chuao Chocolatier, Poco Dolce, Malibu Toffee Co., Sacred Chocolate, The Chocolate Traveler, Calcareous Vineyards and more. Tickets are .50 or at the door.

Oct 6 - 100th Anniversary at Philippe the Original
(4pm-8pm)
Downtown Los Angeles
Line up with hundreds of others to get the classic French dipped sandwich for just 10 cents as Philippe’s celebrates 100 years in Los Angeles. Ten-cent coffee will be just five cents. Rodger the peanut guy from Dodger Stadium will be there to entertain, along with Huell Howser and some other random entertainment. One sandwich per person.

No, I’m not talking about Salad, that’s another site entirely, but how good is your wrist flick? Again, get your mind out of the gutter. Rouxbe has introduced an interesting contest for you home Chefs out there called “So You Think You Can Toss”. They just released their pan tossing lesson plan. Which I’ve watched and I can’t wait to try my new skills. Now they are inviting people to post video of their own pan tosses on YouTube. The first-place winner will receive an 11-inch Viking Fry Pan (valued at 0) plus a lifetime membership to Rouxbe (valued at 9). Five runner-ups will receive an annual membership (valued at USD). Contestants will be judged on the: most creative pan toss, most unique location and the funniest video. I’m thinking costumes and some sort of flambé.

Someone over there really likes the iTunes commercials.

Time for hay rides, grilled corn, and roasted pumpkin seeds. You couldn’t tell it was Fall with the heat, but it’s that time of year to go searching for the great pumpkin. If you can resist, bypass getting a pumpkin from a dirt lot in the middle of the city, or from a concrete parking lot at the grocery store. Take a day trip to one of the many outlying pumpkin farms around Los Angeles.

Check out the Halloween Harvest Festival at Pierce College right off the 101 in Woodland Hills. Leave your car at home and take the Orange line to the De soto Metro stop. Plus, your metro ticket gets you free admission! From Sept 26 - Nov 2 explore a corn maze, brave the haunted house, enjoy hay rides and more. If that sounds too kid friendly for you, the place takes on a special sinister quality after dark.

Lombardi Ranch in Saugus kicks off pumpkin hunting season on Sunday Sept 28th, with live music, a pumpkin carving and Scarecrow contest, a bake sale and free train rides. And every weekend through Oct 26, enjoy live music and prime pumpkin hunting grounds. Proceeds benefit breast cancer research.

A truly unique Halloween experience can be had at the Filmore & Western Railway Co. Starting Oct 4th, take a train ride on the Pumpkin Liner for . Start at the Filmore train station, ride out to a pumpkin patch, eat some tasty BBQ, traverse the haunted hay maze, and browse the arts and crafts booths.

Beginning Oct 4th is the Fulkner Farm Pumpkin Patch. Search their acres of bright orange pumpkins for the perfect pumpkin. There is a giant sunflower forest for the kids, towering hay pyramids, hay rides, farm animals, pony rides, mini train rides, face painting, a country store, delicious food and great entertainment.

On Oct 18th and 19th check out the family friendly pumpkin festival at Cal Poly. Choose from thousands of pumpkins right out of the patch. Eat and play games at the College of Agriculture student club booths or head over to our popular insect fair that runs from 9am - 4pm (located at AGRIscapes, next to the Farm Store). They also have a petting zoo, horse rides, entertainment, and lots of activities for kids. Admission is free, pumpkins are .

Also on the 18th and 19th is the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival, with free carnival games, car exhibits, animal exhibits, skateboarding demonstrations, contests & live bands. Carnival rides available at an extra charge.

And of course, there are those of you who for some reason are afraid to leave the confines of the city. So for you we have the Lopez Pumpkin Patch across from the Farmer’s Market and Mr Bones in Beverly Hills.

Seems to be sort of a slow weekend for events here in LA. But the Lobster Fest is worth checking out. I went last year and had a great time cracking open lobster and seeing some great musical acts for just ! If you’re looking to adopt a new pet, this weekend is a great time to do it with LA Animal Services reduced fees. Celebrate the end of summer with a BBQ at Ford’s Filling Station and finally, if you can afford the high price tag, check out Savor the Season at Vibiana in Downtown Los Angeles.

Sept 19-21 - The Port of LA Lobster Festival (5pm-11pm Fri, 11am-11pm Sat, 11am-7pm Sun)
The Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro
The World’s largest lobster festival, the Port of Los Angeles Lobster Festival features fresh discount Maine lobster meals and plenty of entertainment. After feasting on lobster, enjoy dancing, parades, street performers, a pirate camp, tall ships, shopping for arts and crafts, and musical performances by Full Metal Jackie, Oliver Future, Los Straitjackets and Weather Underground. Addmiisson is , additional for the lobster dinner. Tickets and coupon for off can be found here.

Sept 20 - LA Animal Services Adopt-a-Pet (11am-3pm)
Beverly Hills
Come adopt a new friend at the LA Animal Services annual adopt-a-pet event. At Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills over 150 dogs and cats from 6 animal shelters will be available at discounted adoption fees.

Sept 21 - Savor the Season (6pm-9pm)
Downtown Los Angeles
Engage your senses in an adventure of tastes, sights and sounds at Break the Cycle’s Savor the Season. Enjoy food by Aaron Robins from Boneyard Bistro, Jan Purdy from Oinkster, Bijan Shokatfard from Geoffrey’s and more. VIP Guests can enjoy The Tasting Garden, an exclusive, sensory adventure with experts in cheeses, chocolates, salts and more. General admission is 0, VIP is 0. Tickets can be purchased online.

Sept 21 - BBQ Sundays at Ford’s Filling Station (3pm-close)
Culver City
It’s not too late to celebrate Summer at Ford’s Filling Station. Choose from two meats, beef brisket, pulled pork, chicken, Tuscan sausage, pork ribs and two sides for . Service runs from 3pm till closing. For reservations call 310-202-1470.

*Lobsterfest Images from lasplash.com by Craig Howie

This weekend check out the most authentic Oktoberfest this side of the Dusseldorf at Alpine Village. Watch authentic German music and dance, enjoyed with bratwurst and beer. What could be better? Well, perhaps LA’s very first BBQ festival featuring copious amounts of BBQ’d beef, chicken and pork for as little as ten bucks! For a more civilized experience, check out the Taste of Santa Monica, go on a wine tour in Paso Robles for the weekend, or check out Restaurant Week in Riverside.

Sept 12 - Oktoberfest at Alpine Village
Torrance, CA
Taking place in Torrance for the last 40 years, the Oktoberfest at Alpine Village features a Bavarian Brass-Oom Pa Pa band from Germany, German dancers, contests, beer brewed at the Alpine Village and Authentic German food. Through October 19. Designated drivers are highly recommended, it’s like shooting drunks in a barrel for the CHP.

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Sept 12 - Farmer’s Market Summer Concert; Saucy Monkey (7pm-9pm)
Farmer’s Market at 3rd and Fairfax
Enjoy the last night at the Farmer’s Market Summer Concert series with Saucy Monkey. It takes place on the west patio in front of the Gumbo Pot and E.B.’s. Saucy Monkey is a female-fronted, guitar alt-pop-rock band sure to entertain you, as you enjoy some of E.B.’s great selection of beer or wine and chow on shrimp jambalaya or a slice of pie and bid farewell to summertime.

Sept 13-14 – Los Angeles BBQ Festival (12pm – 6pm)
Santa Monica (adjacent to the pier)
The Los Angeles BBQ Festival will feature authentic BB’que from Texas, Kansas City, and Mississippi, in addition to the best BBQ masters from LA. Musical entertainment on Sat provided by honky-tonk band the Palominos, Johnny Cash tribute band Cash’d Out, and 80’s rockers Metal Shop. Then on Sunday enjoy the country stylings of Country Gone Awry and the Beatles tribute band Ticket to Ride. General admission is , VIP admission is .

Sep 14 - Taste of Santa Monica (12pm-4pm)
Santa Monica Pier
40 restarurants, 40 dollars, 4 hours. At Taste of Santa Monica savor Santa Monica’s top cuisines for one price. Enjoy samplings from Valentino, The Lobster, Whist, Bon Melange, and yes, Hooters. (I don’t think that’s what Zagat had in mind when they voted Santa Monica as the best dining experience destination, but, whatever.) Sip on wine, groove to beach music by Route 66, check out the Interactive Molecular Ice Cream Lab, and learn cooking techniques from hourly chef demonstrations. Tickets are for general admission, for students (w/ ID) and for the wine garden only.

Sept 13-14 - Paso Robles Wine Tour (most wineries open from 11am-6pm)
Paso Robles, CA
You’ve read about Paso Robles here many times before. Olive festivals, wine festivals. But Paso Robles has so much to offer on it’s own without any special festivities. With over 170 different wineries in 25 square miles, 40 different grape varietals, specializing in Cabs, Syrahs, and Zins, it’s a red wine lovers wet dream. A beautiful 4 hour drive up the 101, start the day off at Willow Creek Olive Ranch then stay the night and eat at any one of the great local restaurants. Enjoy a wine flight at Villa Creek, indulge in warm Scharff en Berger chocolate brownies with homemade Guinness ice cream at Artisan, or enjoy a 4 course wine tasting at Bistro Laurent for only . Also featured this weekend is the Paso Robles Air Show on Saturday.

Sept 14 - Riverside Restaurant Week kick off party (5pm-8pm)
Riverside
Riverside kicks of Restuarant Week with “The Overture” a gala featuring music, visual art, food and wine. The event celebrates the coming week of three-course dinners and lunches that will be offered at eight Riverside restaurants including Ciao Bella Ristorante, Mission Inn and Mario’s Place. presale, 5 to 8 p.m., Riverside Art Museum, 3425 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, (951) 680-1345.

Jonthan Gold asks, Is There Such a Thing as L.A. Cuisine? In this panel, moderated by Gold and presented by Zocolo, they ask this very question to some of LA’s top Chefs. The panel is part of Zócalo’s vibrant series of programs featuring thinkers and doers speaking on some of the most pressing topics of the day. What’s more pressing than what’s for dinner?

Gold was joined by Michael Cimarusti, co-owner and executive chef, Providence Restaurant, Octavio Becerra, chef and owner, Palate Food & Wine , and Evan Kleiman, executive chef, Angeli Caffe and host of the Good Food show on KCRW to discuss L.A. cuisine, the future of restaurants, and how LA’s ethnic communities effect how we eat.

What was realized? LA cuisine is more than burritos, french dip, Langers pastrami and burgers. It’s no surprise that they all agreed, what defines LA’s cuisine is it’s varied ethnic communities, local farming, young chefs, and the fact that we have one of the largest ports in the world, with access to exotic produce, fish and spices from all over the world.

The food Kleiman likes to present at Angeli reflects her time spent in Italy. It was very similar to Southern California with it’s weather and simple, fresh produce and ingredients. It represents the clarity and brightness of California.

Cimarusti spends a lot of time in various ethnic markets around LA, calls out one Korean market on Olympic (which I assume is Hannam), Mitsuwa market in downtown, and realizes a lot of eastern influences in his cooking, since coming from mostly French influences in New York. He also spends a lot of time at the downtown fish market, picking up some fish he’s never heard of just to see what he can do with it.

When asked where LA cuisine is headed, Kleiman responds that their “clients” require that food be honest, organic, fresh, natural and use local ingredients. Of course that’s without fitting that cliche of, what Gold pointed out, was a Los Angeles burrito he saw on a menu in Cleveland had sprouts and sun flower seeds in it.

My favorite sound bite from the evening was when Octavio Becerra referred to Glendale as the new frontier for Los Angeles food. The next Culver City? Maybe indeed. Keep an eye out on the Zocolo website for the podcast.

When was the last time you walked into a restaurant for brunch, starving from the long night of drunkorexia, and pined over a list of tasty looking appetizers? Probably never, well, because breakfast is primarily just a single course meal. Sure you may get toast with your eggs, or order a side of bacon with your flapjacks, but breakfast appetizers are about as popular as an egg and bacon soufflé at a taco truck at 2am.

Jar has popovers, Grub has a bowl of dry cereal that’s plopped down at your table before you order, some places offer breakfast scones, but that’s about it. I love breakfast, so why not enjoy a few small bites of bacon, potato and sausage goodies before the main course? So this past weekend, I set out to make a few of my own.

The first appetizer I took a stab at was just an idea I had floating around in my head. Mini crepes with crab and herb scrambled eggs, finished with a spear of asparagus (recipe at bottom). I found some Russian Blini at Surfas…

With college football kicking off last week and the NFL this week, for some of you, Saturday and Sundays will be consumed by pigskins, alma maters, chips, dip, beer, and fantasy stats through mid winter. But not all of you want to be confined to the lazy boy all weekend. So get out and enjoy some lobster at the LB Lobster Fest, eat some dolma with Tom Hanks, rock out with Panic At The Disco at HOB Sunset, wine and dine with your amex card, sip wine and eat under the stars in Monrovia, or simply flip that channel to the MTV VMAs if you’re glued to that chair.

Sept 5-7 – Long Beach Lobster Festival (5pm-11pm Fri, 12pm-12am Sat, 12pm-10pm Sun)
Rainbow Lagoon, Long Beach
Tons of fresh live Maine Lobster are flown in every day at the Lobster Festival, then steamed in the World’s Largest Cooker prepared and served by Bristol Farms Master Chef Bruce Jacobs. Other food vendors include ribs, chicken, Jamaican, Chinese, Thai and other international foods and desserts. Carnival rides and games, musical entertainment on two stages, expect lots of swing, blues, jazz, and golden oldie cover bands. It’s the largest Lobster Festival outside of Maine, right here in Southern California. Admission without the lobster dinner is , with dinner is .

Sept 5-7 – LA Greek Fest (5pm-11pm Fri, 1pm-11pm Sat, 12pm-11pm Sun)
Saint Sophia Cathedral, Los Angeles
Join celebrity hosts Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson at the LA Greek Fest at Saint Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles. It’s your passport to a Grecian Holiday. Greek food and pastries abound, plus music, dancing, Greek beer and coffee, cooking demos and a live Greek Theater. Admission on Fri is free, on Sat and Sun, kids under 12 free.

Sept 6 - Rock Band 2 Party to Benefit LIFEbeat (9pm)
House of Blues, West Hollywood
On Saturday, September 6, Rock Band Live Tour artists Panic At The Disco and Plain White T’s will be putting on a special performance to bring awareness to HIV/AIDS at House of Blues in Los Angeles. General admission is .00 for all ages, with proceeds going to Lifebeat. Those in attendance will also get a sneak peak at Rock Band 2 before it hits store shelves.

Sept 7 – Wine and DineLA
All over Los Angeles
For all you amex card holders out there. Starting Sept 7, and through the 21st, American Express presents Wine and DineLA. Renowned chefs from over forty top LA area restaurants will strut their culinary stuff with heavy-hitting wine pairing menus designed to highlight the best of our local grapes in honor of California Wine Month.

Sept 7 - Old Town Monrovia Food, Wine & Jazz Festival (5pm-8pm)
Old Town Monrovia
At the Monrovia Wine & Jazz Fest spend a leisurely evening under the stars, sample specialties from area restaurants, California wines, and a variety of live jazz performances. Proceeds benefit the Santa Anita YMCA. Myrtle Ave. (between Lemon Ave. and Colorado Blvd.), Monrovia. Tickets are per person and can be purchased online.

Sept 7 – “Winelover’s Night,” BOA Steakhouse
Santa Monica, CA
Every Sunday this month at BOA, every bottle of wine in the house is half-off all night long. BOA Steakhouse, 101 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, 310-899-4466

Sept 7 – 2008 MTV Video Music Awards (9pm)
Taking place on the Paramount lot, and hosted by British comedian/actor/trophy boy toy Russel Brand, the VMAs will include performances by the Jonas Brothers, Kid Rock, Katy Perry, Pink, The Ting Tings and more. Michael Phelps makes his first, of many to come, pop culture appearances as a presenter. It’s sure to at least keep you mildly entertained while you think about calling sick into work on Monday.

It’s time for a staycation. That’s a vacation where you stick around town and explore something local. Dig Lounge is your personal staycation planner for this lovely Labor Day Weekend. Long Beach does it up right with a Hula Festival, Crab Festival, and Blues Festival all wrapped up into one weekend. Get out of town for the day and check out the Microbrew Fest and Devo concert in Del Mar, race against a million other people around the world at the Nike+ Human Race, and enjoy a Jazz Festival with BBQ and wine in Hollywood.

Aug 29-31 - E Hula Mau 2008 (12pm-12am Fri, 8am-12am Sat & Sun)
Long Beach
The Fourteenth Annual E Hula Mau will be at the Terrace Theater of the Long Beach Convention Center. Other associated events include the Mahalo Bash and the Kanikapila Jam. Enj…

Ya-Ya we love you too, but please start winning some games. We reported back in June that Andre Ethier was blogging about food in LA. Now Joe Torre is blogging about life in LA. Driving, yip yap dogs and the most important home run ever. Joe on gas prices: “Who’d have guessed that a gallon of gas would end up costing as much as a hot dog…” Yeah, a gallon of gas is . Last time I checked a Dodger Dog was pushing .50 and only going up every year.

Originally reported by Curbed LA.

Betty Fraser, the Top Chef that people either loved, or loved to hate. Her and Denise DeCarlo’s hidden breakfast and lunch spot is tucked away amongst film studios and post-production houses. I knew Grub existed, but I had yet to try it out. Voted over and over on Citysearch in the top ten of breakfast spots in LA, I figured it was time to check it out. Situated in an old 1930’s bungalow, it was originally meant to be the home of their catering business, but they soon opened it up to the local neighbors and studio workers as they realized the desire for a local lunch spot.

The restaurant is quirky, with a pleasant outdoor patio and inside dining room. A very loud and warm inside dining room. Note to self, wait for a patio seat next time. The food, which has been deemed California Comfort food by it’s creators, was pleasant, fresh and comforting, but they won’t be winning any awards for presentation anytime soon. The…