Newsletter: Counter: Charcoal, Target beer and Frito pie

To recap: It's September, it's too hot, there are a lot more restaurants opening, The Taste is over (check out some of our favorite dishes) and Jonathan Gold has closed his office door while he works on his list of 101 best restaurants (out November, if you're wondering), so he'll be taking a short break from writing reviews. You can always read all the old ones — we'll put some of our favorites up on Facebook, just to make it easier for you.

This week, we've been checking out a lot of those new restaurants, including Josiah Citrin's place, a tiny Korean restaurant hidden in a crappy strip mall, a food truck specializing in Frito pie and a Middle Eastern restaurant in Pasadena that has mantee and Ryan Gosling hummus memes. (If you've gotten tired of stalking Gosling at Jitlada.)

And be on the lookout for Wednesday's In the Kitchen newsletter, with cooking tips and news, including new recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.

—Amy Scattergood

The anti-Melisse

Russ Parsons reports on what Josiah Citrin, chef of the Michelin two-star restaurant Melisse, has been up to, other than making his highly regarded fancy food. He's been grilling, a lot, in preparation for his long-awaited new restaurant, Charcoal. Called that, if you need to ask, because that's what Citrin will be cooking most of the food over. 

Food truck alert

Two words: Frito pie. If you're not from Texas or don't spend nearly enough time at HomeState or Barrel and Ashes, you might not have enough of this in your life. Jenn Harris helps you out with that, checking out the food truck called Burnt to a Crisp. The truck, run by a pair of Texas transplants, has Frito pies, brisket quesadillas, pulled pork sandwiches and more. 

The Frito pie from the Burnt to a Crisp food truck.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

More fun in strip malls

It is a maxim in this town that you can find some pretty great restaurants in pretty dingy strip malls. Amy checks out Baroo, a new place in Hollywood. Run by two guys from South Korea, Baroo serves a chalkboard menu's worth of Korean-hybrid food, with lots of grains and vegetables and fermented things, including pickles and kombucha. 

Kimchi fried rice at Baroo includes a 63-degree egg, basmati rice, purple potato chips, roasted seaweed and pineapple-fermented kimchi.

(Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times)

(Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times)

Get your beer at Target

John Verive takes us down the aisles of Target — because apparently you can get a lot of good craft beer there, along with all that other stuff. There's even some of our local beer represented, including (at least at the West Hollywood store) Angel City, Firestone Walker and Stone Brewing. Just in time for all those October baseball games. 

A selection of craft beer at a Target store in Los Angeles.

(John Verive )

(John Verive / Los Angeles Times)

Mantee and Ryan Gosling

DeLuxe Cafe, opened recently in northern Pasadena, specializes in Middle Eastern food — kibbeh, mantee, fattoush and kebabs. And hummus, of course, which comes in edible form but also as a meme on the restaurant's television, with clips from cartoons as well as Ryan Gosling movies. 

Housemade mantee meat dumplings at Deluxe Cafe and Lounge.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Pies, mole and fishing with chefs

Now that our own giant food festival is over, we can start plugging other people's events, right? If you haven't been thinking about pie — or testing and submitting your own recipe — then start now. KCRW's pie contest is coming, as is the Olvera Street mole festival and another round of Go Fish LA, in which some of this town's best chefs go fishing (with food), and you're invited. 

A pie from the 5th annual KCRW pie contest, coming up in October.

(KCRW)

(KCRW)

What we're reading

Lucky Peach is publishing its first cookbook, "101 Easy Asian Recipes," out next month. To preview it, Peter Meehan gives us a recipe for rotisserie chicken ramen. Yeah, it'll take you two hours, but it's worth it. Maybe read some back issues.

Anthony Bourdain is back on CNN with the sixth season of "Parts Unknown," which premieres Sept. 27. According to Eater, among Bourdain's guests will be Bill Murray. Cocktails on Swedish golf carts? We can only hope.  

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