Newsletter: Candy bars and coconuts

The top food stories from this week at the Los Angeles Times:

Lucas Peterson reviews candy bars.

(Martina Ibanez-Baldor and Calvin Alagot / For The Times)

IT’S ALL IN THE MIX

Food columnist Lucas Peterson is back with the official candy bar rankings.

Niki Nakayama, left, and Carole Iida-Nakayama prepare onigiri at their Michelin-starred restaurant n/naka.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

MASTER CLASS

N/naka’s Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama show cooking editor Genevieve Ko how to make onigiri, the traditional Japanese rice balls.

Dining room captain Hank Kelly prepares a Caesar salad tableside at Dear John’s.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

THROWBACK DINING

Restaurant critic Bill Addison considers Dear John’s, the Culver City steakhouse with Sinatra cred and an expiration date.

Pici all’aglione (a hand-rolled pasta with a garlic tomato sauce), left; tagliatelle con sugo di carne (hand-cut egg pasta with a meat tomato sauce); gnocchi with pesto; brasato el gronchi (short rib); and focaccia at Bulgarini in Altadena.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

PASTA ON THE BRAIN

Restaurant critic Patricia Escárcega finds hand-rolled noodles and tender gnocchi at Bulgarini, the gelato shop in Altadena.

Brewer Charles Rapadas measures salts to harden water in the process of making beer at Three Chiefs Brewing in El Segundo.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

COCONUTS AND HYPE

Would you pay $899 for a bottle of beer? David Klein has a story on Three Chiefs, a tiny brewery in El Segundo where craft beer die-hards camp out the night before for the hyper-limited stouts.

Our 101 Restaurants We Love list for 2018 is out. The list incorporates restaurants and food trucks from around Los Angeles and Orange County, in alphabetical order (no rankings this time). Plus there’s a bonus list of 10 classic restaurants.

Check us out on Instagram at @latimesfood.

And don’t forget the thousands of recipes in our California Cookbook recipe database.

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