Newsletter: Counter: Fried chicken, oysters and hot sauce

A variety of hot sauces are available with the fried chicken.

(Betty Hallock / For The Times)

Betty Hallock / For The Times

Kitchen musical chairs

At Smoke.Oil.Salt, Perfecto Rocher has hung up his apron — he's returning to his native Spain, at least for a while — and Ricardo Zarate has put his on. Russ Parsons reports that Zarate, who left Mo-Chica, Picca and Paiche last year, is now the "exec consulting chef" at the Melrose Avenue restaurant. What does this mean for the food itself? Apparently, less Catalan and more "global Latin." Maybe if we're lucky, Zarate will cook some of his quinoa risotto. 

Chef Perfecto Rocher is shown in the dining room of Los Angeles restaurant Smoke.Oil.Salt. He says he’s going to take a month to return to Spain, visit his mother and recharge his culinary batteries before he returns to Los Angeles in the fall.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Oysters and more oysters

Like oysters? Like cheap oysters? We've got a list of 13 restaurants where you can find $1 oysters — somewhere, every night of the week. Also, at one place, $1 tacos as well. And at another, $4 Mules. You may never cook at home again.

Many restaurants and bars around town offer $1 oysters. You just have to know where to look.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

What to drink at Bestia

S. Irene Virbila navigates the wine list at Bestia, the Italian restaurant in downtown L.A. where Ori Menasche and his wife, Genevieve Gergis, work the stoves, the pastry kitchen — and the enormous wood-burning oven. While you're waiting to get a reservation (good luck with that), there's a pretty good wine list to check out. Or: what to pair with pan-roasted chicken gizzards with roasted beets.

A waiter talks with a table at Bestia, the Italian restaurant from restaurateur Bill Chait and husband-and-wife team Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis.

(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times

Your '90s flashback cocktail

In her latest cocktail video (Jenn & Tonic), Jenn Harris chats with E.P. & L.P. beverage director Alex Straus about something called a Kriss Kross, a drink he named for the '90s band — and gets a recipe. Something to mix up for happy hour while you're thinking about all those GOP candidates and reminiscing about Bill Clinton. 

EP+LP’s Kriss Kross cocktail.

(Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Times

What we're reading

If you, like some of us, missed Paul Greenberg's recent piece "Three Simple Rules for Eating Seafood" in the New York Times, here's your chance to read it. If you didn't miss it, maybe read it again. 

Or try this: one chef's love affair with rare bourbon — and the happy hobby of bourbon collecting, in Punch. 

Check out the thousands of recipes in our Recipe Database. 

Feedback?

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