Dessert

I’m not sure if the title of David Lebovitz’ new book is a question or a challenge, but regardless, the answer is yes. Ready for Dessert has a tantalizing photo of a cake on the cover, caught in the moment of being covered with ganache. I DO often judge books by their cover, and this book is DELICIOUS. Lebovitz has a wonderful, approachable tone throughout, despite his stature as an award-winning food blogger with training in France and Belgium, and a tenure as a pastry chef at Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse. Lebovitz’ recipes span the fruity and light (Champagne Gelee with Kumquats) to the sinful (perfect chocolate pots de crème) to the essential (chocolate chip cookies). I am ready for them all. Ready for Dessert is available for $35 from Tenspeed Press, in stores and online.

Good Sake

Discovering good saké can be an amazing experience, but clearing up the misconceptions is the first step in the enjoyment of this subtle and delicious Japanese brew. The best sakés should be served cold, not hot. Serving saké warm is a way to disguise the taste of an inferior product. The range of saké types is what most confuses would-be saké drinkers. The various grades of saké are determined by the amount of rice hull that’s milled away before the saké is made. More milling is better, since it leaves only the fragrant center of the rice kernel, and prices rise accordingly. Reading sake labels can be confusing, but the premium sakés available here have English names and informative labels. Be sure to check back labels, too, where you will often find more information.

Truffle Cheese

Truffles - the fungus not the chocolates - have a magical ability to transform any dish. And while truffle oils and truffle salts are affordable substitutes, there is a better way to satisfy your lust for luxury - truffle infused cheese. Predominantly imported from Italy, truffle cheeses are made from leftover nibs and bits of truffles, and infused with truffle oil and aromatics. A few of my favorites are Italian Sheep’s milk cheeses, Cacciotta ai Tartufo and Pinzani, and Perigord Truffle infused Brie is decadence in a rind. Also try Sottocenere, an Italian cow’s milk cheese aged in ashes, and Boschetto, a beautiful sheep and cow’s milk blend with black and white truffles. If you are interested in LA’s best selection of truffle infused cheeses, stop by the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.

Dining Cal Fresco

I spent a few radio shows this month extolling the virtues of LA’s food trucks. But in lieu of heavy curbside comfort food, sometimes it would be nice to get something a little fresher to enjoy in the LA weather. Now we have Cal Fresco, an amazing new truck concept from Chris and Kristine Bocchino, formerly of Terra Restaurant. Showcasing what they call “thoughtfully prepared” foods, daytime offerings include 3 cheese mac and cheese with truffle butter, roasted beet and goat cheese salad, grass-fed beef, short rib tacos, and a charcuterie plate. Those of you familiar with Malibu Family Wines will also be happy to know that Cal-Fresco will take a residency there during weekends this summer. The nighttime menu has organic turkey meatloaf, cornmeal crusted rock shrimp, and those short rib tacos. For more information, email Kristine at Calfresco@hotmail.com.

Daring Pairings

There are hundreds of varietals of wine available in the world, but walking through the aisles of a lackluster wine shop, you wouldn’t know it. But if you happen across a new name, do you know what to serve with it? Evan Goldstein, a four-time James Beard Award nominee and a Master Sommelier, gives you some clues. His book Daring Pairings from University of California Press can help you tell your Albarinos from your Gruner Veltliners, but goes one step further to aggregate recipes from America’s best chefs to show off the characteristics of these new wines. Hubert Keller gets Pinot Blanc, Nate Appleman gets Nebbiolo, Charlie Trotter tries Gamay, Suzanne Goin gets Carignan, and you should definitely get Daring Pairings for $35, available in stores and online.

Mobile Cravings

The food trucks are here to stay, and there's easy ways to keep tabs on them. If you have a favorite mobile food vendor, you can follow their whereabouts on Twitter, like I do. But if you're not up for such constant contact, try the website Mobile Cravings.com. The site will rank your options, and also give great advice on which offers you can't miss. Click on a food truck name, and you'll get a vital breakdown, complete with cost scale (most hover around one or two dollars), menus, Twitter feeds, reviews, or even movies with the truck staff showing off their wares. And if your chosen truck is cold for the day, or serving across town, Mobile Cravings offers suggestions for trucks that may satisfy your desires. Visit MobileCravings.com for more info.

PopChips

A light and airy snack has been making waves on store shelves for the past few months, and this is about as healthy as snack food gets - PopChips. Through a mysterious method involving pressure and heat, these amazing potato chips have become the most addictive snack foods. Never greasy or heavy, not even fried, these chips satisfy my savory-snack cravings with just a handful of chips. Best yet, the single-serving bags seem like an awful lot of chips, but the nutritional information grid on the back reveals PopChips’ best secret: one bag is just 100 calories. My favorite is the sea salt and vinegar variety, but other flavors include barbeque, sour cream and onion, salt and pepper, cheddar, parmesan garlic and original potato. You can find them at Whole Foods or check out PopChips.com.

Got Corks?

The natural corks that stop most wine bottles around the globe are truly things of beauty. The material is very hard to come by—a cork tree must be growing for 25 years before it’s mature enough to harvest, and that harvest can only happen once a decade. Most of the corks that are removed from bottles every year end up in landfills, even though cork can be recycled easily, and used in hundreds of eco-friendly applications. In 2008, though, America’s largest natural cork producer, Amorin, launched Re-Cork, a bold effort to salvage used or unusable corks. To find a collection spot near you, visit RECORK.org. Or, if no one in your neck of the woods has a donation spot, collect 15 pounds of cork and ship it to the organization, free-of-charge.

Biscotti

The giant sawdust dry hunks of cookie that have been passing for biscotti for the past few years have gotten me to avoid that fine confection for a while now. Flavors have become Americanized, I guess, with sweetness becoming overpowering and the cookie’s traditional delicate nature thrown by the wayside. But now, there’s Leslie’s Famous Biscotti, an LA-based company selling thin and absolutely delicious, tradition-inspired biscotti. Chef Leslie McKenna combines gourmet flavors elegantly, for cookies like Chocolate Seduction Spice and Cranberry Mandarin Dream. The cookies are handmade and contain absolutely no butter, and the icing toppings are skillfully added, making these biscotti quite beautiful and a great presentation, too. For more information, visit Lesliesfamous biscotti.com. If you’re going to eat a cookie it might as well be a good one.

Tea Time

Tea is the most popular non-alcoholic drink in the world, after water. Anytime is tea time in my book. Even if you haven’t yet explored gourmet teas, your run-of-the-mill grocery store carries an entire rainbow of flavors. To better acquaint yourself with tea (black, green, white, oolong, and every other kind imaginable), pick up Mary Lou and Robert Heiss’s new book The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook from Ten Speed Press. The elegant and slim book covers every aspect of tea, from growing regions, flavor profiles, even plucking instructions, should you ever find yourself in a fragrant tea field, ready to get down to business. Tuck this $17 book into a gift basket, and you’ll have a very happy friend. The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook is available in stores, and online.