On Good Food, we give voice to food storytellers who represent a kaleidoscope of cultures. We also bring you difficult and frustrating stories of food politics, health challenges, and ecological devastation. A couple of times a year, we also bring you an opportunity to help the community of Southern California in a very direct way. It has become our tradition during KCRW pledge drives to offer donations of meals to a food bank as an option instead of receiving a t-shirt or coffee cup. If you've been following the news, you know that food banks are serving more people than ever, so it's particularly urgent to support them this year. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to turn your gift into meals. 

If you received as many pleas for support on #givingtuesday as I did, I can understand if you have "giving fatigue," so I'll get to the point. I don't feel like I need to sell you on why supporting Good Food is a good idea. You are a steady listener, and you signed up for this newsletter, so we already know you're a peach. I love peaches. Give what you're able during this pledge drive. If you're already on automatic as a monthly member, maybe you have a little extra for a holiday donation? It may seem odd at this time of year, when consumption can seem excessive, to ask you to pony up to help those who are barely scraping by. This weekend, when you choose the food bank option, we'll double the meals sent to our partners in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Coachella Valley, and Orange County.

—Evan

DINING HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE GOOD FOOD TEAM

Evan: There is nothing quite like having Thanksgiving dinner at a resplendent table of snowy white linen and good china with friends old and new. Also, the food was so good. Turkey was perfect and that mess of greens was kale, Swiss chard, and spinach. Care in every bite.

Gillian: There's a new apple farmer at the Mar Vista Farmers Market, and I can't get enough of his Golden Dorsett apples. Grown at 4,600 feet amidst the giant Sequoias, many of his apple trees were planted in the 1880s. Look for his Sequoia Apples sign on Grand View Blvd this Sunday.

Laryl: Roxana Jullapat's heirloom apple pie from Friends & Family is part of my annual Thanksgiving feast. I'm excited that she'll be sharing recipes from the pastry case in a new cookbook this spring.

Elina: The Thanksgiving dinner my friends ordered from Joan's on Third included zucchini fritters with chili aioli. Imagine the best bowl of chili you've ever eaten, redolent with cumin and chiles and spices, transformed into a creamy dip. Everyone I've shared it with has found the condiment as delightful as I did. 

THE LATEST EPISODE OF GOOD FOOD

On this week's episode of Good Food…

• Kat Lieu offers 108 Asian cookie recipes that you can bring to your next cookie exchange.
• Maureen Abood unlocks memories as she finds inspiration in the Lebanese bakeries of Dearborn, Michigan.
• An American baker living in Berlin, Laurel Kratochvila dips into the Polish canon with black breads, bagels, sour rye breads studded with caraway, and challah. 
• Jūrgen Krauss, everyone's favorite trombone-playing Great British Bake Off contestant, prepares for the holidays with traditional German Christmas treats.
• LA Times restaurant critic Bill Addison visits Sora Craft Kitchen, a Turkish restaurant in DTLA.

Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

WHAT I'M CONSUMING

WEEKLY RECIPE: I was going to suggest some kind of crunchy salad to give us a break after Thanksgiving and before Hanukkah and Christmas, but who am I kidding? Instead, here's a simple yet decadent dessert to fuel casual get-togethers with friends. It's Chocolate Mousse but with no eggs, just melted chocolate and whipped cream and a bit of powdered sugar to add sweetness and to stabilize the mixture. The recipe calls for chocolate chips, but you can use whatever chocolate you prefer. Feel free to adjust the sugar as necessary. This recipe is from Alison at Celebrating Sweets.
GET THE RECIPE

TASTY STUFF TO DO

• Head to the Mandarin Plaza Holiday Market, featuring local makers, food stalls, and small businesses, on Saturday, December 6th, 11 AM–4 PM. It happens at 970 N. Broadway in Chinatown.
• The Long Beach International Tamales Festival occurs Sunday, December 7th, 1–7 PM at the Scottish Rite Center. Expect music, drinks, performances, a Best Homemade Tamale Contest, and of course, lots of tamales. Use code: KCRW to get 15% off general admission tickets.
• Want to help hungry Angelenos? This Sunday, December 7th, 8 AM–1 PM, at the Hollywood Farmers Market, you can buy fresh produce from local farmers and donate it directly to neighbors experiencing food insecurity. It's part of a Community Produce Drive put together by Food Access LA, Food Forward, and Active Cultures, along with chef and artist Minh Phan. You can also donate funds. With recent cuts and restrictions to SNAP, the need is greater than ever.
• The inaugural LA Gingerbread House Gallery and Bake Sale takes place Thursday, December 11th, 5–9 PM at Danny D's Mud Shop in East Hollywood. You'll see gingerbread houses designed like iconic LA landmarks and made by some of LA's top bakers. Each baker will have gingerbread cookies in boxes for sale. All proceeds benefit LA Family Housing, which helps people transition out of homelessness and poverty with supportive services.

READING LIST

• Gustavo Arellano profiles LA Taco journalist and occasional Good Food contributor Memo Torres, tracing his path from landscaper to indispensable chronicler of ICE deportation raids in SoCal.
• A masked burglar broke into a closed Virginia liquor store and hit the scotch and whisky. Bottles were smashed, a ceiling tile collapsed, and alcohol pooled on the floor. The suspect acted like an animal because he was, in fact, a raccoon. And he has officially gone viral.
• Snail heist! In a village in northeastern France, burglars made off with more than $100,000 worth of escargot from a local farm, just as prime holiday snail-eating season begins. The family that owns the business thinks the thieves have an insider's knowledge of the esoteric escargot industry.
• It's lawsuit season! The city of San Francisco is suing Big Food for making us sick with ultra-processed foods. Costco is suing the Trump administration to get a full refund of new tariffs it has paid this year. A California court has dropped the Wonderful Company's lawsuit against farmworker unionization efforts. And Starbucks has agreed to pay approximately $35 million to more than 15,000 New York City workers to settle claims it denied them stable schedules and arbitrarily cut their hours.

AWWWW

Baby Japanese macaques, often called snow monkeys, are remarkably adorable primates that make remarkably adorable sounds!

To see more of what I'm consuming, including recipes, events, and other stories, check out my Substack!

—Evan