What if you ate at the real ‘White Lotus’ hotel restaurant for a week?

Luxury tripe, a Sri Lankan find, a No.1 restaurant, holiday tamales and more. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager for L.A. Times Food with this week’s Tasting Notes.

‘White Lotus’ eaters

You call this a breakfast buffet? Jon Gries as Greg in “The White Lotus.”

(HBO)

There’s been a lot of complaining about the eating habits of the characters in the just-concluded second season of HBO’s “White Lotus.” “The biggest crime,” as comedian (not musician) Chris Martin tweeted in summing up the gripes, “is all those rich people eating in the hotel restaurant every single night for a week.” As others chimed in over social media and multiple articles, “You’re in Sicily!”

I’ll admit that I was one of the many screaming at the TV every time a character stepped into the hotel’s bland dining room. And that breakfast buffet with the sad fruit platters? The sliced pineapple looked as if it’d been flown in on a slow jet from the White Lotus in Hawaii. I can get better-looking melons and strawberries at my local farmers market. Again: You’re in Sicily!

But then I took a look at the menus for the actual hotel restaurant in Sicily where “White Lotus” was filmed — the Michelin-starred Principe Cerami at the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Taormina. Rather than the international take on Italian dishes that Aubrey Plaza‘s character Harper suggests for her husband Ethan (Will Sharpe) in the first episode — an arugula salad, a beet salad, the raviolo and the vitello, but not the “fishy” whitefish — Principe Cerami’s Sicily-raised chef, Massimo Mantarro, presents a menu seemingly inspired by the riches of his home region. The suckling pig, for instance, is served with turnip greens and Slow-Food-approved Leonforte peaches, a particularly sweet Sicilian variety that growers cover with paper bags to slow the fruit’s ripening and deepen the flavor. One of the pastas — artisanal spaghetti Luca Crimi ‘Mount Etna,’ tomato fondue and salty ricotta cheese — is not only a nod to the volcano that looms over the landscape but a showcase for the ancient grains used in the pasta from the Sicilian farm Luca Crimi. But the dish that told me that Principe Cerami is not just trying to please finicky eaters like Harper is the pasta with “Ghiotta style” cod, tripe and burnt potato. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a tripe eater, so this is a dish that I would order on the first day and maybe the third and fifth day as well.

In terms of variety, there are three different tasting menus to keep things interesting, including a truffle menu for “White Lotus” high-rollers, plus a more casual seafood restaurant, Anciovi, where Jennifer Coolidge‘s Tanya could get her beloved pasta with clams and I would order the restaurant’s signature dish, rigatoni with delightfully fishy anchovies.

“Going to the same restaurant a couple of times a week, and having a coffee at the same cafe, it really feels like it becomes home,” “White Lotus” actor Michael Imperioli told USA Today in describing the urge to nest in a home away from home.

Of course, in real life, I would seek out great Sicilian places to eat — my favorite Italian food guru Faith Willinger has all kinds of restaurant recommendations for Sicily on her website — but if I were forced to eat every meal for a week at the real “White Lotus” restaurant, I wouldn’t complain.

Looking out for No. 1

Brandon Hayato Go at his downtown L.A. restaurant Hayato, which is this year’s No. 1 spot on the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Among the most agonizing decisions restaurant critic Bill Addison had to make when putting together our annual 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles guide was choosing which Southern California restaurant should be ranked No. 1. Should it, he worried, really go to a place with just seven seats, making it nearly impossible to make a reservation? After much thought, he decided he had to go with his heart and give it to Hayato, where Addison says he had the most spectacular meal he ate all year. I had the honor of accompanying Addison to Hayato and experienced a world-class meal full of laughter, camaraderie and delicious food from Brandon Hayato Go and his team. It’s a worthy No. 1. Explore the list for yourself and let us know what restaurants you would have included. And don’t forget to check out our Hall of Fame, full of restaurants that, as Addison writes, “surpass the notion of annual lists. They’ve earned a place of honor for all time.”

Sri Lankan heat

Some of the Sri Lankan dishes from Baja Sub in Northridge.

(Oscar Mendoza / For The Times)

“We’re spoiled by the breadth and depth of food in L.A. restaurants, especially those that might be described by the overworked phrase ‘hidden gem,’ writes columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson in his review of Baja Sub, a “wonderful” Sri Lankan restaurant in Northridge next to a tire shop and smog-check garage. Peterson, who has traveled to Sri Lanka, praises the roti, the egg hoppers and more. I’ll be heading there as soon as possible.

More restaurants

(Michael DeForge / For The Times)

— It’s nearly Christmas, which means it’s tamale-ordering time, and we have a guide to some of the best, not only from Mexico but from Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia. Cuba and more chosen by Bill Addison, Stephanie Breijo, Betty Hallock, Jenn Harris and Lucas Kwan Peterson.

— Stephanie Breijo also has this week’s restaurant news, including details about The Rose chef Jason Neroni’s plans for his newest restaurant, Best Bet, which will open next year in Culver City. It will focus primarily on Italian food, but also display influences from his love of French and Japanese food.

— And don’t miss Jenn Harris’ latest column, in which she explains why her new favorite restaurant isn’t a restaurant at all.