Flavor

Cherie Mercer Twohy La Betulle means white birches in Italian. I'm no botanist, but those might be white birches in the bustling parking lot next to the car wash. If you can't convince yourself, squint, or enjoy a glass of wine and use your imagination. The restaurant, specializing in Northern Italian fare, is tucked into a little shopping plaza on Foothill Boulevard and attracts a fair-to-middling crowd at lunch. The decor is a bit dated, and the service is definitely old school.

There's no shortage of Mexican food in these foothills. From fast food franchises to madre y padre establishments, taco stands are ubiquitous. Most offer quite Americanized versions of Mexican recipes. Nothing wrong with that, but if you are craving a bit more authenticity in your enchiladas, check out La Cabanita in Montrose. From mole to rajas, this family-friendly restaurant has been pleasing the locals for decades. The interior is bright and noisy ? alive with vibrant, lively conversation.

(ARA) - This season, dress up your salads with pure honey. Honey is an all-natural sweetener that can add extra zest or a slightly sweet flavor to any salad. Pure honey also can help your dressings cling to your veggies and not trickle to the bottom of your plate. Making a homemade honey vinaigrette can be as easy as combining equal parts olive oil and honey, adding balsamic or red wine vinegar and seasoning with your favorite Italian herbs or lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Different varieties of honey boost the flavor in a dressing.

Having never visited Peru, I claim no frame of reference for how authentically Peruvian Lola's cuisine might actually be. But within my frame of reference for affordable and tasty, Lola's fits the bill. The décor is eclectic, with the focus on an open kitchen in back, where the "All You Can Eat Lunch Buffet" takes center stage Monday through Friday. Cheerful cooks man the buffet line to describe and serve the dishes available. At $7.99, this lunch buffet is a bargain, featuring several salads (mixed green, Caesar and Russian potato salad)

What a difference a day makes ? or in this case, a few weeks. Maurizio's Italian Kitchen has been a cornerstone in the Glendale Exchange for years, serving up pre- or post-movie pizzas and Italian fare. Popular for holiday brunches and family celebrations, the mostly Italian menu offered predictably good value and flavor. Since my recent visit last month, a dramatic revamp has taken place, transforming the Old World calm into a rollicking, rowdy sports bar atmosphere. The décor has changed from hand-stenciled garlands to televisions mounted in the corners, and the crowd is decidedly younger and hipper ?

GLENDALE — Some cooks have their own secret ingredients and techniques to cooking the right batch of chili, while others depend on pure luck. Burbank resident Kevin Christensen relies on both. Christensen entered his chili recipe, which he changes a bit every year, into the Glendale Elks annual Chili Cook-off and Salsa Contest on Saturday at the Elks Lodge on Colorado Street. “I wouldn’t even say it’s really developed,” he said. “I just go by the seat of my pants every year until I find a winner.

When you walk into Raffi’s Place in Glendale, it’s hard to ignore the awards on the wall. There must be 10 “Best Restaurant” certificates. Internet foodie chat rooms are filled with gushing compliments about this restaurant. With such high expectations, it was hard to judge the place fairly. But after going twice, for dinner and lunch, I feel I have an objective perspective to share with you. There are good points and bad points about Raffi’s Place.

Drink To Your Health Continued... Sounds like many of you are checking out "tea total-ing." Glad to hear it and thanks for the feedback. My last column about choosing tea for your health was too long to include this. If you missed it, you can find it on my website, www.gotoloa.com. Finding the herbs and blends that you enjoy while bringing balance to the body is truly a fun and rewarding adventure. There's a cup of tea and then, there's a "great" cup of tea. The difference is mind blowing.

Chapstick. Classic flavor Chapstick. It's one of those things that transports me back to an exact moment in life. When I smell it, I am a wide-eyed child, uneasy and excited — curious about the man giving it to me, comforted because he was my father. It was the flavor I always remember him carrying in his pocket. I had some in my pocket last weekend as we made the long drive to Sequoia National Park, where we were taking Thing 1 and Thing 2 for their first camping trip. When I applied that waxy moisturizing protection to my lips, I was a 10-year-old sitting in the passenger seat as my father drove us on one of our camping trips — Simon and Garfunkel softly singing in the background of a bygone time as we made our way up steep mountainous grades in his heavily laden truck.

Dining with Duvall by Lynn Duvall This week, the fat envelope from Pillsbury announcing the call for entries into the 2006 Bake-Off arrived in my mail box. Between the arrival of this year's kit and the one that arrived two years ago, I read a fascinating book about America's cooking contests - "Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America" (Viking Adult 2003) by Amy Sutherland. I reviewed "Cookoff" earlier this year. The book begins with the arrival of the Pillsbury media kit containing details on the bi-annual Bake-Off where the grand prize winner takes home $1,000.

The rumors are true: The Girl Scouts of the USA are pairing up with Nestle to create candy bars flavored like the famous cookies -- and they'll be available this week. The bars will come in three options: Thin Mints, Caramel & Coconut and Peanut Butter Creme, all based on cookies that the Girl Scouts have sold for years to raise money. Nestle USA is based in Glendale. On Wednesday, customers can start buying the bars online in a limited-edition pre-sale on the Nestle Crunch Facebook page . Then, from June through September, the bars are to be sold at retailers nationwide.

One of the great things about going to college is the opportunity to mingle with people of every race and ethnicity. Glendale Community College is no exception, and it has the food to prove it. Across from the school is an island of eateries, a veritable international commissary boasting Italian, Asian, Middle Eastern, American, Greek and now Pakistani food in the form of Kurry & Kabab. Opened by a Pakistani family and co-owned by the owner of India Sweets and Spices in Atwater, the plain-looking restaurant serves food that is anything but plain.

Most aficionados of Indian food living in the Verdugo corridor know and love India's Flavor, a cozy restaurant in Sparr Heights near Montrose. The food at this family-run eatery is consistently delicious. Only problem is people are often bumping elbows with neighboring diners in the tiny dining room. Not anymore. The delightful Sikka family has just opened a second location on Brand Boulevard across from The Americana. Down a steep flight of stairs, the cavernous new space can seat five times as many people.

On a quiet, one-way Pasadena street, a few doors down from a comedy club and where you must take caution not to get run over by little old ladies trying to parallel park in front of a medical marijuana store, El Metate Café is a family-run Mexican restaurant that's not so easy to find, and nearly impossible to forget. This is the place for burritos the size of Popeye's forearms and a boiling concoction served in a giant pig-shaped mortar. It's where you can get tacos of chicken, beef, pork, brain, tongue and pig stomach.

Every day she looked at the quaint red brick building across the street from where she lived. “I thought, 'Man, if I was ever to open a store, that would be the cutest building ever,'” said Annette Starbuck. Then, Starbuck won Food Network's “Cupcake Wars” and the $10,000 winnings are helping make her sweet dreams come true. She's getting ready to open Goodie Girls Cupcakes in that red brick building she had admired at 415 E. Broadway in Glendale. Starbuck won the premiere episode of the series' third season, filmed this past spring.

Chapstick. Classic flavor Chapstick. It's one of those things that transports me back to an exact moment in life. When I smell it, I am a wide-eyed child, uneasy and excited — curious about the man giving it to me, comforted because he was my father. It was the flavor I always remember him carrying in his pocket. I had some in my pocket last weekend as we made the long drive to Sequoia National Park, where we were taking Thing 1 and Thing 2 for their first camping trip. When I applied that waxy moisturizing protection to my lips, I was a 10-year-old sitting in the passenger seat as my father drove us on one of our camping trips — Simon and Garfunkel softly singing in the background of a bygone time as we made our way up steep mountainous grades in his heavily laden truck.

Knight Restaurant is hidden away among a plethora of other restaurants in an area of San Fernando Boulevard that was once known as “Beautiful Downtown Burbank.” The competition for both lunch and dinner is fierce, but Knight Restaurant delivers the goods. Knight can be deceiving from the outside, but you will be pleasantly surprised once you step past the al fresco dining area and enter the clean, stylish interior. What stands out besides the food in this Greek and Mediterranean restaurant is the fast service, the ready smiles and the chatter from the owner, who obviously loves Burbank.

If you haven’t experienced Yakitori, Japanese open-fire cooking, there’s a great experience to be had at The Back House, the recently opened add-on to Burbank’s Asian Fusion restaurant Wokcano. Prices start at $1.95 (two shitake mushrooms on a skewer). However, don’t think you’re going to get the experience for a song. My guest and I left the place with our wallets $73 dollars lighter, but it was well worth the bank account drain. To say the ambience is minimal would be a huge understatement.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Knowing there's a wealth of local high school talent, Glendale Community College women's soccer Coach Jorge Mena hasn't shied away from tapping into the area pool. It's something that Mena would like to continue having a handle on for future seasons, though he's energized by the latest bumper crop of area players that will be a part of the Vaqueros this season. "The high schools in the area have got some quality players," said Mena, whose team will begin its season at 3 p.m. today with a nonconference road match against San Bernardino Valley College.

Everything about the new Deluca's Deli in the Americana says "Italia. " Strains of its lyrical language are bandied about over glass deli cases, products from Tuscany and Umbria scale its industrial metal shelving, and food offerings, like porchetta and capponata, are authentically Italian. Chef Piero Topputo is Italian as is owner Tancredi Deluca. Together with uber-developer Rick Caruso, Deluca also owns the neighboring Trattoria Amici, whose kitchen the deli shares. Not to be confused with Dean & Deluca, the famous Manhattan eatery, Deluca's Deli set out to make a light and breezy eatery that serves hot and cold sandwiches, salads, artisan cheeses and pastas to go. They succeeded.