Newsletter: Counter: Celebrate the holidays with mole tamales or a black-tie party
Ingredients for Christmas Ponche, part of a classic Oaxacan Christmas meal.
The holidays mean many things to many people — for some it's a great time to check out restaurants to see what chefs are cooking this time of year or to load up on tamales, or to celebrate at home by cooking. This week, we have something for everybody, highlighted by a Oaxacan feast at the home of the Lopez family.
Jonathan Gold feasts on mole tamales, barbacoa and punch with Bricia Lopez, her parents and her sisters, the multi-generational family that has run the celebrated Oaxacan restaurant Guelaguetza for decades. Because while you can always go to Koreatown for their excellent cooking, it is also fun to bring those holiday tamales to your own kitchen.
If you like someone else to do your holiday cooking, it's not a moment too early to plan your New Year's Eve. Jenn Harris catalogs the restaurants and bars open the last night of the year. We also check out some more upcoming restaurants, and report on the closing of Le Cordon Bleu schools across the country.
More mole for us all
"So much mole. Everywhere, mole," says Bricia Lopez as she and her family gather at her house for a holiday Oaxacan feast. This will not surprise you if you spend a lot of time at Guelaguetza, the Lopez family's celebrated Oaxacan restaurant in Koreatown. But if you've ever wanted to bring that kind of feast into your own kitchen, here's your chance.
Plan your New Year's Eve party now
Know what you're doing the last night of the year? If you like to celebrate on the town, we have a list of places where you can ring in 2016 — either with a quiet dinner and a Champagne toast, or with a party. Jenn Harris catalogs over 40 restaurants and bars that will help you, offering multi-course dinners, special menus, black-tie parties, bottle service, even a Spanish masquerade event.
(Los Angeles Times)
Le Cordon Bleu closes U.S. campuses
This past week, the company that owns and operates the U.S. campuses of Le Cordon Bleu announced it was closing the cooking schools. Citing new federal regulations that limit funding for for-profit schools, Career Education Corp. will phase out currently enrolled students and any who enroll in early January. The campuses will all shut down by 2017. Le Cordon Bleu opened in 1895 in Paris, where Julia Child famously attended its culinary school.
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Food from Goa
You'll be forgiven if you haven't tried Goan cuisine yet; the food from the coastal Indian state is little-known in this country. Which is why a Goan restaurateur decided to open a restaurant in El Segundo last year. At Mandovi Indian Cuisine, you can find dishes that demonstrate the combination of Indian and Portuguese flavors and techniques of the cuisine — curried fish, spice-rubbed chicken, lamb-stuffed potato cakes.
(Linda Burum / For The Times)
The Halal Guys expand
If you spend a lot of time trekking to Costa Mesa for the plates of chicken and gyro over rice from the Halal Guys, you're in luck. The hugely popular restaurant, which began as a cart in Midtown Manhattan, is opening a second SoCal location in January.
A platter of food from the Halal Guys. 
(Zach Brooks / For The Times)
The return of Dine L.A.
Need an excuse to check out new restaurants — or revisit your favorites? Dine L.A. week, the biannual event presented by the L.A. Tourism and Convention Board, is back in January, offering special menus with special prices at many local restaurants. Alimento, Craft and Night + Market are three of the many participating restaurants.
(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Jonathan Gold's 101
The 101 is here! Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers. Find the list at latimes.com/jonathangold. Official hashtag #JGOLD101.
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