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Newsletter: Counter: Clam-lardo tacos. Dodger dog pizza. We love L.A.

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The beef torta at B.S. Taqueria; beef Milanese, pickled beet, escabeche and iceberg lettuce, $11. More great L.A.-area restaurants: Jonathan Gold’s 101

The beef torta at B.S. Taqueria; beef Milanese, pickled beet, escabeche and iceberg lettuce, $11.

More great L.A.-area restaurants: Jonathan Gold’s 101

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times



Salutations:

In case you were wondering where the modernist taco fixation was going to end up going, this Sunday will see the opening of Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen, a taqueria loosely affiliated with Noma, the epicenter of New Nordic Cuisine, and run by Rosio Sanchez, its former pastry chef. Will the S. Pellegrino Awards name it the best taqueria in the world? Time will tell.

But in the meantime, we visit B.S. Taqueria, the modernist downtown taqueria run by former Fig chef Ray Garcia, and explore L.A.’s own collision of tacos and fine dining, if there is indeed a difference. Can more or less traditional carnitas tacos exist side by side with tacos made with fried bologna or clams and lardo? Will Los Angeles stand for messy, delicious appetizers stuffed into greasy paper bags? Is it possible to eat too many churros? We will all know soon enough.

Elsewhere in improbable cuisine, Dodger Stadium chef Jason Tingley discusses the possibility of fries with meatballs and pizza with Dodger Dog crusts, the Yeastie Boys stuff bagels with bacon and beer cheese, and the folks at West Hollywood’s  new Assembly coffeehouse contemplate the strange and terrible things that can be done with freshly roasted beans.

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

More tacos for us all

Jonathan visits (and revisits) B.S. Taqueria, the newish restaurant from Ray Garcia, lately of Fig and Cochon555. The restaurant is downtown, in the location previously home to Mo-Chica, which has been colorfully remodeled and filled with Garcia's take on Mexican street food. Chicharrones, masa ball soup, cauliflower al pastor, lardo tacos. Yes, lardo tacos. 

A clam-and-lard taco at B.S. Taqueria.

A clam-and-lard taco at B.S. Taqueria.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Dodger dog pizza

Baseball season means a lot of things in L.A., depending on whether you get the games on your television. This year it means some pretty fun food, thanks to Dodger Stadium exec chef Jason Tingley, who's making fries topped with meatballs and marinara, hot dogs with Cheetos — and he's working on a 16-inch pizza with a Dodger dog crust. Because, as Jenn Harris found, you can get pretty hungry over the course of nine innings. 

The Brooklyn dog at Dodger Stadium.

The Brooklyn dog at Dodger Stadium.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles TImes)

Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times

Bagels from a truck

The Yeastie Boys bagel food truck, which shows up Monday to Thursday in front of Stumptown Coffee in downtown L.A. around 9 a.m., has a lot more than just plain bagels. Try a warm bagel completely covered in a blanket of cheese, or a breakfast sandwich bagel with a soft scrambled egg, sliced tomato, applewood smoked bacon, beer cheese and jalapeno spread. You get the idea.  

The "Game Over" bagel from Yeastie Boys bagel truck comes with a soft scrambled egg, bacon, tomato, beer cheese and jalapeno spread. This is just one of the food trucks participating in National Eat At a Food Truck Day today.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times

Coffee in WeHo

Tien Nguyen reports on the Assembly, a new specialty coffee shop in West Hollywood where you'll find espresso drinks, batch brews and pour-overs. The beans are from Counter Culture Coffee. There are also pastries and handcrafted stationery. Maybe get a cortado and write an actual letter. 

A cappuccino at the Assembly, a new coffee shop in West Hollywood.

A cappuccino at the Assembly, a new coffee shop in West Hollywood.

(Tien Nguyen)

Tien Nguyen

Notes from the food and drink underworld

It's time for The Taste, the annual food-and-drink festival from all of us here at The Times, held every year over Labor Day weekend in the Paramount backlot. Tickets are on sale. 

L.A. Beer Week returns this year, its seventh, from June 20-28. About 60 breweries will attend the festival kickoff at Exposition Park. 

Representatives from a dozen local breweries combined their skills to produce Unity, the official beer of L.A. Beer Week, at Smog City Brewing in Torrance

Representatives from a dozen local breweries combined their skills to produce Unity, the official beer of L.A. Beer Week, at Smog City Brewing in Torrance

(John Verive)

John Verive

What we're reading

"Whenever I go to LA, I should probably try to get a weekend apartment in San Gabriel Valley just to eat Chinese food. That would be my weekend home. White people can get a beach house. I would get a Chinese-eating house." — David Chang on eating in Alhambra, Lucky Peach

A new French law will require grocery stores to donate their leftover food to charities and for animal feed. France wastes 7.1 million metric tons of food a year; the U.S. wastes 60.3 million metric tons, according to Modern Farmer

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Feedback?

We’d love to hear from you. Email us at food@latimes.com.

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