Counter: Hairy crab, boiled pork and dear old Mom

Assorted sushi platter at Asanebo in Studio City. More great L.A.-area restaurants: Jonathan Gold’s 101

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

If we were in snowy Hokkaido instead of Los Angeles, we would be smack in the middle of hairy crab season, one of the happiest times of the year even on that seafood-rich island. Why should you care? Because while the crab may look like a Japanese movie monster on a bad hair day, it is sweet, with an elegant texture. More to the point, it is an excellent excuse to visit Asanebo, a Studio City sushi bar that prepares them about as well as they prepare any of the creatures of the sea. Which is to say: superlatively well.

This week, we also take a look at the boiled pork at the new Mr. Bossam in Koreatown, S. Irene Virbila tours the newly vibrant Atwater neighborhood and Jenn Harris surveys the many, many Mother’s Day specials at local restaurants — on the off-chance you can’t persuade Mom to go out for hairy crab.

And be on the lookout for Wednesday's In the Kitchen newsletter, with cooking tips and news, including new recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.

—Jonathan Gold

Omakase in the SFV

Jonathan considers Asanebo, the longtime omakase specialist in Studio City, where, for a not-inconsiderable amount of money and some well-spent time, chef Tetsuya Nakao will engineer things like raw octopus suckers cupping a single brined salmon egg each or shaved orange and purple carrots with a single Hokkaido scallop. There's pretty great sushi too. 

Na Young Ma, chef and owner of Proof Bakery in Atwater Village holds her fig oat cake.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

A food guide to Atwater Village

Atwater Village is a great place to eat Italian, have a great weekend brunch at Canele, eat one of Na Young Ma's extraordinary croissants or buy wine and market produce, according to S. Irene Virbila, who recently spent a great deal of time in the neighborhood. 

A mother and her kids enjoy Mother’s Day brunch at a restaurant in Newport Beach.

(Karen Tapia Andersen / Los Angeles Times)

Karen Tapia Andersen / Los Angeles Times

Where to take your mom, with cocktails

Jenn Harris catalogs the many restaurants offering specials for Mother's Day. Treat the important woman in your life to a croque madam at Craft, lobster with somen noodles at Hinoki & the Bird, a dinner celebrating April Bloomfield's latest book at Lucque — or maybe a stiff drink with dinner. 

The server will show you how to wrap your cheese with all that melty, stringy mozzarella.

(Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee )

Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee

Mr. Bossam in Koreatown

In one of our latest scouting report, we check out Mr. Bossam, a bossam (boiled pork dish) specialist in Koreatown. Not only does this place — a recently opened outpost of a South Korean chain — have bossam, but they also have a dish of spicy ribs with cheesy corn. Enough said. 

Osa Wallander’s Kanel Bakery stand has been at the Sunday Pasadena farmers market for a month.

(Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times)

Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times

Time for fika

Kanel Bakery is a new cinnamon roll specialist, a small operation run by a Swedish baker and her husband out of their Santa Monica apartment, which last month started coming to the Sunday Pasadena farmers market. Osa Wallander's cinnamon rolls, reports Amy Scattergood, are a reminder of the coffee times, called fika in Swedish, that Wallander grew up with. 

Notes from the food and drink underworld

Trois Mec is raising its prix-fixe dinner prices — but, perhaps to soften the blow some, Ludo Lefebvre's previously ticket-only restaurant is also adding open late-night bar seating. 

L’Assiette offers a $25 prix-fixe menu with steak frites and soup or salad.

(Jakob Layman)

Jakob Layman

And speaking of prix-fixe dinners, Jenn Harris finds a list of restaurants where you can get them for $25 or less — including Pizzeria Mozza. 

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