Sometimes it just doesn't get any better than real life to show you that The Simpsons isn't a parody of America, it IS America. A Wisconsin man who ate a dozen pieces of fish at an all-you-can-eat fish fry was reportedly cut off by the restaurant when he asked for another. The restaurant says they were simply running out.More >>

ProfessorSalt.com

Introducing the Ku Roll

After months of anticipation and delays, Fountain Valley's Izakaya Ku held its grand opening on May 1. The new restaurant takes its name from the kanji character for "eat," and sets up shop along a short stretch of Brookhurst Street I'm naming Izakaya-Dōri, the street of Japanese pubs. They're nestling into a neighborhood where Kappo Honda and Shin Sen Gumi Robatayaki already have a strong following.

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ProfessorSalt.com

BBQ judges at the Dana Point BBQ Championships

​The last time we talked BBQ for the New Year's Eve contest at Knott's Splash Mountain, I promised you an inside view of the judges' tent of a sanctioned barbecue contest. This week: a video and a discussion of how competition barbecue is scored, plus information on where you can become a certified barbecue judge in Southern California next month!

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ProfessorSalt.com

Tacos & Carnitas Sahuayo

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It's the time of year again when I select a short list of five favorite restaurants. I love places with a tiny menu, tightly focused on producing one thing or variations on the thing at which they excel. Often, that specialist is an ethnic hole-in-the wall, but this year, I've also chosen two somewhat more upscale restaurants that excel at their particular brand of obsession.More >>

Flickr user heraldpost

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A cautionary tale to cookbook authors, publishers and recipe-writers (oh hey, that's me) everywhere: don't instruct your readers to deep-fry with oil so hot it'll cause explosions, fire and maim your trusting audience.

Hispanically Speaking News reports that yesterday, Chile's Supreme Court upheld a ruling that the daily newspaper La Tercera must pay damages to 13 people injured in explosions that resulted by following their 2004 directions for a fritters recipe.

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Seabirds Truck

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Have you ever wanted to cook delicious vegan food like the crew of OC's own Seabirds Truck? Well, fire up your tablets, because over the Christmas weekend, the Birds released an e-cookbook of the all-vegan luxe lonchera's greatest hits.

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Long Clawson Dairy

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What hostess gift says "Merry Christmas" better than White Stilton cheese studded with real gold leaf and flavored with Goldschläger?

If such a thing existed in Dickens' day, we're sure Ebeneezer Scrooge would have bought Tiny Tim an entire wheel of this cheese that costs £60 per 100 grams. Convert that to American, and that cheese will run you about USD$425 a pound before the airfreight from England.

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Cheryl Rosenberg/mommypants.com

​Let's face it: making gingerbread houses is more fun than eating gingerbread houses because the stuff tastes like papier-mache made from brown grocery bags. But all that is beside the point when your gingerbread masterpiece is an Imperial AT-AT walker from The Empire Strikes Back.More >>

Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen

Gabbi's Market Tamales

​The Christmas music is already playing at the mall, which means it's tamale-making season here in Southern California. This Saturday at 10:30 a.m., as part of the Chef Demo Series at the Orange Home Grown Farmers Market, Chef Gabbi Patrick of nearby Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen will teach you how to make her Butternut Squash Tamales with Roasted Corn, Mushroom Confit, Creme Fraiche and Candied Serranos.

We asked Gabbi a few questions about her family's tamale traditions, and where this particular recipe comes from.

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Photo by Professor Salt

Bakery owner Asiye Aliyazicioglu

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Ikram Bakery, Orange County's only Turkish bakery, opened in September in Fountain Valley. Armenian bakeries and restaurants are easy to find in the greater LA area, but Turkish? Not so many. In Orange County, we can only think of Anaheim's Doner G.

Why Fountain Valley? Is there a Turkish community we didn't know about along Brookhurst Street between the Japanese and Vietnamese restaurants? Apparently, yes. Bakery owner Asiye Aliyazicioglu opened between the Turkish-owned Hamle Market and the Armenian-owned Moonlight Pizza, which bakes lahmajun and makes a mean version of the white garlic sauce toum to go with its rotisserie chicken. Customers can pick up their weekly groceries and a taste of home, all conveniently in the same strip mall.

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