Power restaurant Michael’s in New York has a Cobb Salad on its lunch menu for $36. The Brown Derby’s Robert Cobb cobbled together “his” salad out of what he found in his L.A. restaurant’s refrigerator one night. In 1953, a Cobb salad in the Brown Derby went for $2.25. Okay, inflation, and Michael’s uses balsamic vinegar, while the Derby’s French Dressing mixed olive oil with “salad oil.” Michael’s burger of ground rib-eye: $35. The Brown Derby’s Steak Hamburger De Luxe: $2.25. Marlene Dietrich broke the dress code by eating at the Derby in slacks. Match that, Michaels. – LD

By Larry Dietz -

If you love to cook, you probably have friends who invite you to dinner at their place. So you almost certainly have been in a situation where you’ve offered to make something and once you’ve made it you have to figure out how to get the dish to their house.

Easy if you’re driving, right? How many times have I remembered to put towels on the back seats of the car so that a sharp turn wouldn’t result in drenching the Saab version of Corinthian leather? How many times have I forgotten?

And if you’re on foot or taking a cab or public transportation, the challenge is magnified.

Enter Vonny Faucheux, who along with her husband Jerry, drew on Louisiana roots, where there’s plenty of plenty of food-sharing, to create a casserole tote that is both practical and stylish. With a laminated canvas exterior, it will hold a 9×13 dish, and has an outside pocket for utensils. My wife, who put one into service for a New York City dinner party, says that the inner container is also useful for delicate ingredients.

Naturally, Vonny and Jerry have market totes (gotta get the ingredients to go into those casseroles) and lunch totes (for the day-after leftover) in the same bright colors. You can find their complete range at www.vonny.com.

I love good writing as much as I love good food – maybe more, since good writing doesn’t have calories, prep time, or clean-up.

Mixing good writing and food is truly a recipe for enjoyment, and that brings me to one of the few pieces of mail I read and reread. Corti Brothers, the deli/grocer and wine merchant in Sacramento, sends out a newsletter a few times a year. Corti Brothers is the market at which Larry Levine bought the Mangalitsa pork he writes about in “Perfect Yellow Fin Tuna or Unique Mangalitsa Pig” on another page of this online food magazine.

Darrell Corti, who has a legendary sense of taste and nose for wine, writes the newsletter. The late L.A. Times food columnist David Shaw loved wine and admired those who made it and those who knew more than he did and could teach him. David told me Darrell Corti could not only identify one first-growth Bordeaux from another, blindfolded, but also could give you the year. Bordeaux and burgundies are the wine equivalent of a hanging curve to a wine expert, so wine fanciers have challenged Corti with more obscure wines, which he identified with equal aplomb while blindfolded.

When Darrell Corti recommends a particular Vermouth, as he does in the Summer 2011 issue of the newsletter, I pay attention. His description of the Cocchi Storico Vermouth di Torino is equal parts history of the drink, description of what makes that producer’s version great, and a recipe – in this case for a Negroni “Sbagliato” – the “incorrect” Negroni.

The newsletter is not just about alcohol. The Summer 2011 issue includes capers, popcorn (!), pickles, relishes, peppercorns (not the usual suspects), and garlic. Garlic! Garlic to me is the mound found in the produce department at a supermarket, or if buying upscale, organic garlic at Whole Foods. Did I know you can order 13 varieties from Corti Brothers, from Vekak, Czech Republic to the “very aromatic, not too hot” Ukrainian Blue? I know it now.

The Corti newsletter serves a grander purpose that just vicarious reading pleasure. Corti Brothers is the only place I’ve found that always carries the Spanish white vinegar, Unio Moscatel, which the newsletter describes as: “The base is the dry wine of this variety, acetified, then blended with some of the fortified sweet wine of the same variety. This means that the vinegar has a lovely Muscat character, and fruitiness is enhanced by the addition of the sweet wine. This is a vinegar which truly is addictive. Once you enjoy a salad dressed with Moscatel vinegar, you rarely change.” Amen.

You can subscribe to the Corti Brothers newsletter by calling (916) 736-3800, or visit the website at www.cortibros.biz.

I’ve never been a big fan of food shows on the radio. Usually they’re centered around recipes, with hosts or guests who are so chirpy and upbeat that I can’t take them, or their recipes, seriously. Or there are the solemn your-body-is-a-temple and good-food-is-its-fuel hosts who only make me want to rush out and dive into the biggest burger I can find.

Then there’s Evan Kleiman. She’s a wonderful cook in her own right at her Angeli Caffe in Hollywood, where she serves one of the more original rustic Italian menus in the United States. Angeli has garnered deservedly great reviews.

Evan is just as good on radio as she is in the kitchen. Her “Good Food,” broadcast on public radio’s KCRW-FM on Saturday, is a treat for anyone who cares about food and happens to live within range of the signal of the Santa Monica based station. You also can access her shows, including archives of past broadcasts at the KCRW website: www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf

One of her recent features was Evan interviewing a young man who has, since shortly after birth, no sense of smell, and therefore no sense of taste. To hear a person who has made her career from providing great-tasting food discuss intelligently the issues of a life with no taste whatsoever made me pull over in my car to listen without the distraction of driving.

Kleiman also features on-air restaurant reviews by Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly, impressive on the radio as in print.

By Larry Dietz -

There are people who can recite every course of a great meal they had years ago; I’m not one of them. In self-defense – or embarrassment – I travel overseas with a little notebook, simply to jot down what we’ve eaten. Even at that, my notes often are incomplete, trailing off in smudges, or droplets of dried sauce.

Was our first meal at Da Delfina outside of Florence Italy the best food ever?

The cooking was terrific on a trip in which we ate our way through the top places in Florence. But what made that lunch the most memorable meal was the entire experience, specifically, how the combination of location, view, service and food brought me back from near hysteria.

My wife, Karen, had an assignment from the L.A. Times food section back when it actually had space to fill. She was doing a piece on minestrone and ribollita, yesterday’s minestrone reboiled with bread and a lot more. Da Delfina was said to have spectacular ribollita, as well as a wonderful selection of game birds, sausages and pasta.

With friends, we’d rented a little house south of Florence for a week to get the out-of-city experience. We were going to eat our way around the area and do some cooking at home. But the one important, immovable meal was to be Sunday lunch at Da Delfina, northwest of Florence – perhaps 40 miles from where we were staying. When making the reservation, we learned the restaurant would stop serving at one o’clock to set up for a wedding party later that afternoon and evening. Then it was closing for two weeks.

I was driving. We left with plenty of time to get there by noon. But there are two east-west autostradas from Florence to the coast near Pisa. I thought I was on the northern one, meaning a simple left turn down to Carmignano/Artimino, where Da Delfina is located. Nope. I was on the southern road, and the left turn, after everyone asked, “Aren’t we going too far west?” took us into one small, deserted town after another. Sunday, noon – people in church or at home. Finally, a solitary man, unshaven, possibly drunk.

“Dov’e Carmignano?” (where is Carmignano?) got us a torrent of Italian, more than any of us had in our limited repertoire. Seeing he wasn’t getting through, his solution was to crank up the volume. Finally he shouted, over and over, “Sinestre! Sinestre!” Okay – left. We roared north. At three minutes to one we entered the Da Delfina parking lot. Karen, our daughter and our friends scrambled for the entrance. I just sat back in the car for a minute, sweating and vibrating.

When I got to the door, worried that Karen and our friends had to argue their way in, I found our party seated at a table. “Don’t worry,” Karen said as I arrived. “Everything is fine.”

How fine? There had been apologies that we couldn’t sit on the terrace. All the tables had already been moved for the party later that day.

The staff, affable and then some, gave no hint that we had to hurry. Their charm calmed me entirely within two minutes. There were other occupied tables, no one getting the rush. We were the only non-Italians, generally a good sign.

The food? Various house-cured and wonderful salami for starters, a selection of sensational pastas, then perfectly roasted game birds and meat. You can take a look at just how lovely the place is by going to www.dadelfina.it. Yes, the site is entirely in Italian, but click on “Il Ristorante” for photos that show just how gorgeous the view is.

Oh, a few years later, our family went back for lunch. I was thoroughly mapped-up, which did not, however, prevent me from taking the wrong bridge across the Arno and getting lost. Two local women at a T-intersection gave us exactly opposite instructions. We went one way, a shiny Audi behind us the other. We arrived at Da Delfina within a minute of each other. Same result: calm brought on by great food, exemplary service and beautiful surroundings.

Next time? Maybe my wife or our daughter will have better luck driving.

Bay Cities is an “international” deli in Santa Monica: a 20-foot long row of shelves devoted to olive oils and vinegars, another devoted to pasta, other shelves to sauces, canned fish – who buys those jumbo tins of anchovies – as well as ones filled with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern specialties. Bay Cities carries renowned Sant’ Eustachio coffee from Rome, and features a large wine section.

But Bay Cities is famous for its sandwiches. The huge crowds milling around the sandwich and cold pasta counter – weekends and lunchtimes are jammed – are waiting for their sandwiches to be made. Most notable is the Godmother, a combination of Genoa salami, mortadella, coppacola, ham, prosciutto and provolone, on a house-baked roll filled with the works – lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, pickle, an extremely flavorful house-made Italian dressing and mild or hot pepper salad.

The Godmother has been blessed on a Food Channel show and by two noted chefs – Susan Feiniger and Mary Sue Millikan of Border Grill and Feiniger’s Street. The Godmother is a stunningly good sandwich that stands up to any submarine, hero, or hoagie I’ve ever had in New York, Boston or Philadelphia. Two sizes are offered: $6.35 and $8.40 with the works.

However, the “secret” glory of Bay Cities is nearer the front door/cash registers than the scrum waiting for Godmothers. Nearest the front is a section with prepared foods: a few more-than-decent soups, hot vegetables, and proteins of one sort of another.

Sitting between that section and the cold meats/cold pasta display is a four-foot display of specials dreamed up daily and cooked by Victorio, who also answers to Greg. He’s often dressed in black; sometimes he remembers his mother’s Sicilian meat loaf, with egg, and that will be in his section that day. More often than not there’s mac and cheese because of the demand. If you show up on a day with crab cakes, don’t miss them. They’re large and meaty, with a hint of heat. Victorio is not shy about spices.

Some days he cooks tri-tip sirloins. The ahi tuna and the salmon just to his right in the deli case are his daily creations. Oh, and he has an already-made sandwich staple: the Spanish, with Spanish ham, Manchego cheese, roasted tomatoes, red peppers and seasoning. It’s $10, and worth every penny.

Once you’ve loaded up with Victorio’s daily specials, and a Godmother, and perhaps some Mexican Coca-Cola, with real sugar, where are you going to eat? Bay Cities has eight four-top concrete tables in front, overlooking Lincoln Blvd. and a Von’s Market across the street, and six four-tops on its side, facing the parking lot. Not attractive, and always crowded. However, you’re seven blocks from Palisades Park, overlooking the ocean, beach and Santa Monica Pier. Bring your picnic utensils and a blanket.

Bay Cities is located at 1517 Lincoln Blvd. in Santa Monica. Phone number is (310) 395-8279. Web site is http://www.BayCitiesItalianDeli.com

Barbrix is the sort of restaurant and wine bar every neighborhood should have; the Silverlake area of Los Angeles is that lucky location.

The chef is Don Dickman, whose cooking at Rocca led Times’ reviewer Irene Virbilia to say that he’d “channeled a Tuscan grandmother.” At Barbrix Dickman has expanded his range of grandmothers from Morocco and Spain to Greece, all centered on the Mediterranean.

Start out with the Cantimpalitos, Spanish sausages, roasted cauliflower, crispy pork belly, and an Asian detour to blistered Shishito peppers. Of course, pick among the sliced meats and well-chosen cheeses.

For a main course, can you resist Don’s Pappardelle with Guinea Hen ragu? I can’t. He has a way with scallops and if his Moroccan-flavored lamb chops are on the menu grab them.

There’s a short list of desserts, but the truth is I’ve always ordered a lot of appetizers, meats and cheeses, so I have to take the word of others that the ginger shortcake and the torta are wonderful.

Sign up for the Barbrix e-mail alerts to Don’s once a month, Sunday dinners. I missed the bouillabaisse but made it to the 3-course short rib meal that started out with Pecorino flan, grilled broccolini, and a chunk of crispy speck jauntily stuck in the flan, followed by the marvelously tender, flavorful short ribs (off the bone, topped with a horseradish crème fraiche) accompanied by apple braised red cabbage and apple dumplings, with a third course of a well-chosen Stilton cheese with home-made spice bread and chestnut honey. The tab was $28.

Plus, of course, wine. Owner Claudio Blotta helped put together the wine lists for La Terza and Campanile. His choices at Barbrix are not the usual suspects. They pair brilliantly with Don’s cooking and are fairly priced.

Another once a month special is a cooking class that Don gives on Saturdays, though you can learn a lot by sitting at the counter right in front of his tiny (and I mean New York tiny) cooking station. At the short rib dinner, as he turned out dozens of meals (careful prep the day before is everything), he explained to the couple sitting next to me at the counter exactly how to make those apple dumplings. I wish I’d had the wit to have taken notes, but I was too busy enjoying the food, and watching the ballet of Don and his right-hand assistant (so that’s how they pick up hot steel pans and ladles sitting in hot broth without burning themselves – they use tongs).

As wonderful as the cooking and wine is the front room orchestration of Blotta’s wife, Adria Tennor. She manages to coddle regulars, of which there are many, while recognizing and taking good care of the occasional visitor.

Barbrix is located at 2442 Hyperion Ave. in Los Angeles. Phone number id (323) 662-2442. Web site is www.barbrix.com.

I don’t want to oversell La Huasteca, although my first inclination is to write: “go there this minute.” The food is memorable, prepared by Chef Rocio Camacho, who made her mark in East L.A. at Moles La Tia. Now she’s performing on a larger stage, literally.

La Huasteca is in the Plaza Mexico, a sprawling shopping center in Lynwood that is built around a full-size reproduction of Mexico City’s Angel of Independence.

The restaurant, its walls covered in murals, has been a gathering place for political meetings and has long been known for high-end Mexican food, but Camacho has moved it to an even more remarkable level.

For starters, you must put an order of the empanadas on the table, exquisite puffs filled with squash blossoms and crema, surrounding a mound of rough-mashed guacamole. And order the spicy ceviche, its citrus marinade a cousin of the Peruvian ceviche at Mo-Chica, which is recommended at www.atLarrys.com. Oh, and the salsas put on the table are clearly home-made and wonderful.

Since Camacho is known for mole, it’s wise for someone to order her signature mole de los dioses, as complex and delicious a dark mole as you will ever taste. The tamarind mole on a chicken breast is a delicious rebuke to anyone who thinks that cranberry sauce is the way to enliven the white meat of chicken. My recent lunch mate had a pork mole and was transported by the taste of the mole and the skill in cooking the pork to perfection. At a dinner, I ordered the tikin-xik bass, one of the most memorable fish dishes I have ever had. Usually I believe that fish should be unadorned and simply speak for itself. However, this bass, bathed in sour citrus and achiote, covered with red chile, and cooked in a banana leaf, was a symphony of flavors that harmonized with the fish.

Every dish comes with rice, and it’s not an afterthought, but moist and filled with slivers of vegetables. Oh, and you can watch a woman hand-making the tortillas you’re served.

Save at least a little room for an order of flan for dessert. The butterscotch topping is subtle, as is the flavor of coconut that doesn’t overwhelm.

On Friday and Saturday nights a mariachi group performs from 8 to10. Don’t wince: Mariachi Juvenil Tapatio consists of nine accomplished players and singers. They also perform Sunday from 12-2, but be forewarned, the Sunday afternoon meal is served buffet-style. The regular menu is available only after 2:30.

There’s a full bar, serving a margarita that pleased a friend who sampled a lot of them at writer’s conferences in Mexico. Is La Huasteca perfect? There’s no Mexican beer on tap, bottles only. The chair legs rasp on the concrete floor. It’s in Lynwood.

But the food, the food, the food. You will find yourself thinking about it days later, wondering how soon you can go back, and how many people you can bring along so you can taste even more of Chef Camacho’s wondrous cooking.

La Huasteca is located at 3150 E. Imperial Hwy. in Lynwood, CA. Phone number is (310) 537-8800. Web site is www.Lahuasteca.com.

Sure, New York City is a great restaurant town. Why shouldn’t it be? It’s got people with money and expense accounts. Many city residents live in apartments with tiny kitchens, which makes ambitious cooking at home difficult. And just as important, it has a public transportation system – taxi, subway, bus, foot – that allows everyone dining out reasonable access to a variety of places, and also allows them to drink without having to drive home.

All that said, when I visit New York, what I find most impressive are the inexpensive, informal places. Porchetta (http://www.porchettanyc.com/) – which may seat eight if they’re friends – serves what its name implies: the pork sandwich and pork plate are wonderful, but it’s the crispy potatoes and burnt ends that are addictive.

Piccolo Café, which I listed on the When We Travel page at atlarrys.com, (http://www.atLarrys.com) seats perhaps 16 and serves The Works: Egg Sandwich, an egg, black truffle paste, lettuce, tomato, prosciutto and olive oil combo that is nothing short of remarkable. Oh, and they’ve been roasting coffee in Italy since 1938 and shipping it over in small batches for freshness.

Basque food? Txikito (http://www.txikitonyc.com/about.html) with its txitxiki sandwiches of house-made chorizo hash or pikillos, roasted sweet peppers and Basque tuna, may seat 20. One of the chef-owners, Alexandra Raij, created the menu at Piquillo in Jet Blue’s Terminal 5 at JFK, a great argument for getting to the airport extra-early.

Or Veselka (http://www.veselka.com/veselka_restaurant_menu.pdf), a 24-hour Ukrainian restaurant whose comfort food – pierogi and soups –  provides more than mere comfort, as well as a window on a cross-section of New Yorkers from nearby NYU to the Village.

Last visit, I missed by 15 minutes – they close an hour early on Sunday night – what very reliable eaters say is a wonderful skirt steak sandwich at Num Pang (http://www.numpangnyc.com/menu.html). It was to go on the plane with me the next morning. Next time.

Instead, I took wonderful Macoun apples and cheese from the Union Square farmer’s market, which also boasts winemakers who encourage you to sample their wares. You can make a nice picnic for yourself at that market to eat in nearby Madison Square Park, or in your hotel.

Midtown New York street traffic is slow and slower; but there’s always the subway, or the stroll, which inevitably allows you to discover another new place on your own. There aren’t many other places in the U.S. where you can do this.