The establishment has an incredible website catalog, but we Angelenos can go to the tiny and astonishingly well-stocked retail store in Los Alamitos. The storefront stocks everything from alligator to yak jerky, in mild to spicy versions. They even have gluten-free offerings.

The Sam Elliott–channeling dude in western gear is Cowboy Dan himself, Kris says. "The man clearly knows his dried meats and wonder-eyed first timers (such as myself) are enthusiastically offered a tour of the numerous brands, styles and varieties in stock -- all personally selected by Cowboy Dan himself," Kris says. "It's definitely an experience. So much so that checking out felt like a trip to the museum store."

Cowboy Dan's Jerky Emporium [Orange County]
4218 Katella Avenue, Los Alamitos
562-431-4139

Discuss: The Ultimate Jerky List

What you'll find here is full-on, third-wave coffee, a.k.a. individually brewed drip coffee. And at Angela's each cup is made with beans by a leader in this artisanal coffee movement, the San Francisco Bay Area's Blue Bottle Coffee.

"If you're into coffee, this is *the* spot," fooddude37 says. "Beans ground to order, weighed out on a scale. The coffee was incredibly clean and nuanced, definitely worth the $3 per cup."

The place is nice, too: well lit, with lots of outdoor seating, white tablecloths, and fresh flowers. They've also got a La Marzocco espresso machine and snacks from Cake Monkey Bakery. And, best of all, "the staff here obviously are into their craft, but they're not even remotely pretentious unlike what you often find at Intelligentsia," fooddude37 says.

Angela's Coffee on Sunset [Sunset Strip]
8539 W. Sunset Boulevard, #5, West Hollywood
310-358-9234

Discuss: Fantastic Blue Bottle Coffee at Angela's on Sunset

Jerome's $12 lunch of buttery sand dabs came with amandine green beans and enough capers to keep him happy. The surprisingly large portion of wild mushroom ravioli was $11.

You can also get a side of their "prize-winning chili," which has a nice story behind it. As the tale is told, once a year, the first-year students hold a chili cookoff during one of their classes, and as the prize, the winner's recipe is featured on the next year's menu. "I liked the idea - I also liked the chili," Jerome says.

The building is beautiful, and the décor is modern, with views overlooking the canyon. "Surprised how good it was, how pleasant the room [was], and if I were in the area, [I] would definitely go back," Jerome says. "Certainly worth a stop if it fits into a trip, say the drive to Vegas or Palm Springs or Joshua Tree or some such."

They also serve Dr. Bob's HandCrafted IceCreams as a tribute of sorts, youngc explains. Dr. Bob, you see, was actually the founding dean of the Collins College of Hospitality, and created the ice cream while working as a server there.

The Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch [Inland Empire]
3801 W. Temple Avenue, Building 79, Pomona
909-869-4700

Discuss: Finally bit the bullet - restaurant at Kellogg ranch at the Hotel school (collins school) Cal Poly Pomona

"It tasted lightly of liquefied Bac-Os ... in the vanilla shake, with the salty tears of having fallen prey to clever marketing. I sucked the whole thing down and enjoyed it. I liked it as a one-time kinky exploration, but probably wouldn't do it again. If you're bacon-curious, by all means try it so you can say you did it once when you were young and crazy." – Professor Salt on the Jack in the Box bacon milk shake

"The Indonesian/Dutch crossover that was so common [in Los Angeles] even a decade ago seems to have faded away - you used to find wooden shoes and spice pastes in the same markets, and you never had a good Indonesian meal in a restaurant in which at least one table was filled with Dutch ex-colonials reminiscing about the war." – condiment

The menu lists the rice noodle dishes as soups, Barry notes, but they may not be what you expect: They're just served with a cup of broth on the side. The food of Guilin—in Guangxi province, bordering Vietnam—tends to be spicier than much of Sunset Park's Chinese clientele can handle, rschwim says, so Top Taste has been turning down the heat. He made a point of asking for true Guilin seasoning and was rewarded with a great, robustly flavored dish.

Among the rest of the dozen or so vendors, an early crowd-pleaser is Shanghai Family Dumpling, which specializes in xiao long bao (steamed soup dumplings). DaveCook (who also blogs about the food court) says they're nicely made and gently priced, at $3.75 for six pork dumplings or $6.75 for six crab-and-pork ones. But Barry, who tried the latter, found them bland. Other stalls include Grand Noodle House for hand-pulled noodles (just "middling," Dave says) and Maine Lobster House for stir-fried lobster with gingery cabbage (a good deal at $9.95, but marred by too much salt and pepper). No reports yet on vendors offering congee, barbecued meats, teriyaki, Vietnamese food, hot pot, and frozen yogurt. Fei Long seems ripe for further hound exploration.

Fei Long Market [Sunset Park]
6301 Eighth Avenue (between 63rd and 64th streets), Brooklyn
718-680-0118

Discuss: Fei Long Food Court, Sunset Park

grouchomama went big, scaling up to a spread for 200 people, and wasn't disappointed. "Love it," she says—especially the grilled meats. "Great service, everything fresh."

Hazar [Bay Ridge]
7224 Fifth Avenue (between 72nd and 73rd streets), Brooklyn
718-238-4040

Discuss: Hazar Turkish Kebab

Alongside the tarts, look for an idiosyncratic but excellent version of lao po bing, or wife cakes. These sweet pastries, filled with mashed winter melon, are usually wide discs of thin dough enclosing a gooey interior. Double Crispy's are smaller, with a thicker, flakier crust and a denser, goo-free filling that's just sweet enough. "They’re delicious," Lau says.

For savory snacks like steamed-to-order cheong fun (rice noodle rolls), hounds have long headed to Sun Light Bakery on East Broadway. Late last year, AubWah reports, it renamed itself Happy Star Bakery, but the staff swears the shop has the same owner and the same great Hong Kong–style snacks as before. AubWah's must-order bargain bite is sticky rice with sausage, chicken, and mushroom: "It's so good I feel like I am ROBBING THEM by paying only $1.75 for it."

Though the rechristened Happy Star occupies two storefronts, it's still a tiny place that does mostly takeout business. small h, choosing to eat in, got her beloved cheong fun with shrimp. "I liked it a lot," she says, "even though I had to eat standing up and got hit with the door a couple of times."

Double Crispy Bakery [Chinatown]
230 Grand Street (between Elizabeth Street and Bowery), Manhattan
212-966-6929

Happy Star Bakery [Chinatown]
160-162 E. Broadway (near Rutgers Street), Manhattan
212-608-8899

Discuss: Double Crispy Bakery – Solid Portuguese Style Egg Tarts and Wife Cakes in Chinatown
East Broadway Bakery Breaking News! Sun Light Bakery is now Happy Star!

"Their kalbi are cut into chunks from the bone, not cut into strips like most places. They use charcoal, which is a big plus in my book. The meat is tender, juicy, and sweet. At first you taste the slight saltiness from the meat, and then you get the subtle sweet taste. It's awesome." – birdsandtogs on Mapo BBQ in Queens

"Turns out that they offer half price beer, wine by the glass and oysters on Friday afternoons. ... Thus we were able to try a dozen Effingham oysters (west coast Canadian variety) for only $18, with similar discounts on our beer and wine consumption. They were surprisingly good. Not creamy, but sharp and briny, tasting fresh, clean and of the sea. ... Thoroughly enjoyable lazy repast at really good prices." – BrookBoy on Sidecar in Brooklyn

Brew-lover lessleyellen (a.k.a. CHOW Senior Content Manager Lessley Anderson) recently posted a beer twofer: a review of Southern Pacific Brewing, the Mission's new biergarten (where she recommended the blue cheese burger with pickled red onion), and a rundown of the Beer Week events that should be of interest to hounds. At the top of her list are the Dark Horse Inn's Magnolia beer and New Orleans–inspired dinner, and Bar Tartine's soul food and brew event. chuckl suggests the "Sau & Brau" urban pig roast at Drake's Barrel House in San Leandro, where you'll find 24 Drake's beers served alongside two whole roasted pigs.

This time of year, it's an embarrassment of riches. Beer Week coincides with the annual release of Pliny the Younger, Russian River Brewing Company's cult brew, which inspires obsessive behavior by its admirers, who trek to the handful of authorized outlets and despair when the taps run dry. j mather reported that Barclays in Oakland will soon serve Pliny the Younger, and a representative from the bar wrote in to say that when it's available, he'll try to give 12 hours' notice through the San Francisco Bay Area Chowhound board.

Southern Pacific Brewing [Mission District]
620 Treat Avenue, San Francisco
415-341-0152

The Dark Horse Inn [Crocker-Amazon]
942 Geneva Avenue, San Francisco
415-469-5508

Bar Tartine [Mission District]
561 Valencia Street, San Francisco
415-487-1600

Drake's Barrel House [East Bay]
1933 Davis Street, San Leandro
510-568-2739

Barclays [East Bay]
5940 College Avenue, Oakland
510-654-1650

Discuss: Pliny the Younger sightings 2012
SF Beer Week – Which Events to Hit?
Great First Visit to the new Southern Pacific Brewing in the Mission

wally likes the dates grown at the Coachella Valley's Flying Disc Ranch, which are sold at several area farmers' markets. wally also points out that the texture change to the fruit has to do with when it was originally picked. Dates naturally get hard and sticky as time passes, so end-of-season dates will have the texture that khelvan dislikes.

Hounds also suggested buying dates from an unnamed vendor who can be found at Heart of the City Farmers' Market at the Civic Center and the Alemany Farmers' Market. Spenbald recommends the vendor's "variety of amazing dates," while Windy says the prices are great.

Heart of the City Farmers' Market [Civic Center]
1 United Nations Plaza, San Francisco
415-558-9455

Alemany Farmers' Market [Bernal Heights]
100 Alemany Boulevard, San Francisco
No phone available

Discuss: Where to find fresh (non-processed) dates in SF?

The "skillful use of ginger" added spark to their dinner, which included mu shu vegetables (served without eggs, also per Buddhist cooking) and a chow mein dish of mushrooms, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots on a pile of fried noodles. TopoTail also recommends the fried walnuts in sweet-and-sour sauce.

Better yet are the prices: The most expensive dish on the menu is $8.25. TopoTail also notes that the restaurant is cash-only and serves no alcohol.

Vegi Food [East Bay]
2085 Vine Street, Berkeley
510-548-5244

Discuss: Vegi Food – Berkeley

"Colibri is not your typical Mexican place. It's like a Spanish tapas bar, but the cuisine is from central Mexico. Love the complimentary handmade tortillas with 3 sauces. It's one of the few places where the guacamole is prepared tableside." – L C on upscale Mexican restaurants in San Francisco

"On [the] whole, I have to say the food is rather ... meh. ... However, they excelled at three things: a fried cauliflower and Brussels sprouts dish (so good we ordered it twice) and a Caesar salad (ditto), and, surprisingly, a little cast iron pot of smoked pistachios, of all things. Tasted like you were eating nuts by a campfire - really good!" – mariacarmen on the dishes at Redd Wood in Yountville

Import recipes from 20 or so supported sources (including CHOW) by entering each recipe's URL into a field on the site, and Pepperplate does the rest. You can also paste in recipes from other online sources or your own files—a process that "takes way less time than I thought it would," BananaBirkLarsen says—to integrate your entire digital collection. Once you've added a recipe, you can edit it, and add notes and custom labels for sorting and searching. The site also has features that allow you to scale a recipe up or down in quantity, and to instantly generate menus and shopping lists.

Hounds love how this tool makes it easy to use the recipes they'd previously bookmarked but neglected. "I've made like 6 new recipes in the last couple of weeks that I would probably never have bothered unearthing if it weren't for Pepperplate," biondanonima says. "Awesome website!"

lilgi thinks that the "genius of this site is how accessible it makes your info, increasing productivity from 0 to 90 in no time," adding that "because I'm able to plan more carefully my grocery bills have decreased somewhat."

Membership and use of the service are free, and iPad and mobile phone apps sync automatically, allowing you to plan menus or reference shopping lists on the go, while also making it easy to bring online recipes into the kitchen.

Discuss: Pepperplate menu planning app

To prepare the kale, remove the stems and cut the leaves into thin ribbons. Then add dressing ingredients and massage them into the greens thoroughly, which will "relax" them, Cynsa says. Some hounds like to let the kale marinate in its dressing for a bit following this step before serving.

A simple combination of olive oil and lemon or lime juice, plus salt and pepper, is a popular dressing. Cynsa's favorite salad—which she calls "surprisingly great"—uses avocado instead of oil. To make it, rub the juice of a lemon and a chopped avocado into a shredded bunch of kale, season to taste, and then mix in a cup of diced tomatoes. Chris VR is another fan of this preparation: "It really is magical what happens to the tough kale when the avocado and lemon juice come into play," she says. "Love this salad!"

blinknoodle has made a "fabulous" salad of kale massaged with a lemon vinaigrette, butternut squash roasted with garlic, and pomegranate seeds. "It was a hit over the holidays," blinknoodle says.

Discuss: Kale Preparation

Beloved cool-weather choices include this salad with roasted butternut squash and warm cider vinaigrette. It's "SO good!" raves Susan627. vday has "had good luck" dressing a combo of arugula, thinly sliced pears, Parmesan, and lightly candied walnuts or pecans with lemon juice and olive oil. Add bits of prosciutto "if something a little meaty sounds good," vday says. There's "nothing like" roasted beets and goat cheese with arugula, oakjoan adds.

When it's warm, roxlet tosses arugula with a lemony dressing and tops it with sliced sirloin. "It is absolutely delicious, and the essence of summer cooking for us," roxlet says. CanadaGirl recommends pairing arugula with peaches, blue cheese, and red onions. And MangaLisa's favorite summer mix-ins are grilled corn (cut from the cob), grape tomatoes, cilantro, and crumbled bacon; dress with olive oil, lime juice, honey, and cumin.

A year-round standby for several hounds is a simple salad of arugula with lemon-flavored oil, shaved Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Lady_Tenar calls the addition of minced capers and anchovies to a lemon juice and olive oil dressing "divine!"

Discuss: favourite arugula salad?

"Was shown a recipe by Heston Blumenthal where rinsed, cooked quinoa is partly blended (50% put in a blender/liquidiser) to make the seeds sticky. The quinoa is seasoned with a tangy ponzu [sauce] and then a filling [is] selected and the quinoa is smeared onto nori seaweed and rolled up into makizushi rolls. Turns out that if you make really thin long rolls they're perfect finger food for small kids--it's beautiful with avocado and smoked salmon." – MoGa

"I once filled a quart Mason jar with candied fruit (a la fruitcake), chocolate chips, and pecans, then poured in dark Jamaican rum up to the top and left it in the refrigerator forever. We ate it on ice cream and when the level got low we added more of whatever was handy." – Querencia

goslow recommends the Verdure pizza (grilled baby artichokes, mushrooms, and caramelized onions), and lergnom recently enjoyed a custom pie with shrimp and olives. "The dough is excellent and the ingredients are tasty," lergnom says.

The menu also includes salads, and suepar thinks the dressing on the Caesar is "expertly made, if a tad salty."

lergnom notes that while the savory pizzas aren't cheap, the dessert pizzas are a great deal at $3 for a 6-inch pie. The options include chocolate-hazelnut, cinnamon, and strawberry.

Ecco Pizzeria [Allston]
1147 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
617-903-4324

Discuss: Ecco Pizzeria Allston

Cincinnati chili is essentially "something like a ground meat pasta sauce, with a Greek twist on chili spices," says paulj. Cinnamon, cloves, and even chocolate are the characteristic spices, mattstolz adds. The beans, if they're present at all, are served on the side.

Meanwhile, Texas chili is more of a "glorious beef stew" flavored with a mix of chile peppers, caseyjo says. Beans are not invited. "I defy my Texas-born parents by adding the tiniest bit of kidney beans, but they haven't disowned me yet," caseyjo says.

Of course, the popular conception of chili is a stew made with lots of beans, tomatoes, vegetables, and meat. "I grew up thinking I didn't like chili because all I ever was exposed to was canned chili with kidney beans," laliz says. "What a travesty!" "I wish they'd call Eastern chili, kidney bean stew, 'cause it sure ain't chili to me," Passadumkeg says.

Discuss: Cincinnati chili has no beans?

Moby Dick: Despite the name, this is "delicious Persian home cooking," poho says. femmevox likes the lentil chili over rice, and BostonZest raves about the albaloo polo (basmati rice with saffron, sautéed sour cherries, and chicken).

Woody's Grill & Tap: MC Slim JB likes this spot for the wood-fired pizza and draft pitchers.

Pho Basil: y2000k thinks this is the best Southeast Asian option in the neighborhood, and MC Slim JB agrees that it has "respectable" food. Despite the name, Jolyon Helterman thinks the Thai dishes here are better than the Vietnamese ones.

Lucy Ethiopian Cafe: Boston hounds love this option for its homemade food, but galangatron warns that service might be too slow for a "quick bite." Be sure to arrive early if you have plans post-dinner.

Brasserie JO: Highland Park thinks it's a great option for casual French, and as Jenny Ondioline recently noted, the walk from the restaurant to Symphony Hall is lovely as well.

Moby Dick of Boston [Fenway]
269 Huntington Avenue, Boston
617-236-5511

Woody's Grill & Tap [Fenway]
58 Hemenway Street, Boston
617-375-9663

Pho Basil [Fenway]
177A Massachusetts Avenue, Boston
617-262-5377

Lucy Ethiopian Cafe [Fenway]
334B Massachusetts Avenue, Boston
617-536-0415

Brasserie JO [Back Bay]
120 Huntington Avenue, Boston
617-425-3240

Discuss: Help with favorite quick eats near Symphony Hall?
Quick bite near Symphony Hall

Some hounds have a ready answer. "I eat them with a knife and fork and a glass of wine," responds caseyjo. "If I've made a tender stew, I really only need a fork (and the wine!)."

Rabbits are one of the few animals commonly kept as pets in the United States that are also commonly eaten, and some people are squeamish about cooking them. Others, however, love rabbit meat for its flavor and versatility. Will Owen frequently ate it growing up, and still enjoys it. "Mom usually did a flour-dredge, browned milk braise - her standard recipe for small game - which is delicious and makes its own gravy, or else she'd make häsenpfeffer, and that's good too," he says.

SAHCook's family raised rabbits for food, and has found the cognitive dissonance easy to overcome. "The adults were our pets, the babies ended up our dinner," SAHCook says. "Just not when they were cute, cuddly little things. When they grow out of the baby stage, they get longer and leaner, and not so cute anymore. I never felt bad about eating those!"

Discuss: Forget dogs, how can you *eat* rabbits?