Every week involves a steady stream of food, drinks and people. Of course not every taste or conversation is post-able, but the range of experiences is usually pretty amazing. Lucky me. Here are some of the highlights from the past seven days, some of which will help to fuel full posts.

January 16, 2012 – Sonoko Sakai and Mutsuko Soma hosted a soba pop-up at BREADBAR Century City through January 22, making rare Japanese buckwheat noodle dishes like the 100% buckwheat Juwari Soba, as part of the Common Grains cultural outreach program.

January 16, 2012 – Night + Market previewed their dineLA Restaurant Week menu for a KCRW event, featuring dishes like dancing prawns.

January 17, 2012 – Drip is a relatively new art-lined coffee bar on the second floor of Koreatown’s Assi Plaza that brews Coava and Handsome beans. My choice was the Coava espresso blend, which arrived in a metal cup.

January 18, 2012 – Din Tai Fung II had a revised menu since my last visit to Arcadia, complete with new menu items like steamed dumplings filled with sweet shrimp and crunchy green melon.

photo courtesy of Stacey Sun

January 20, 2012 – Korea-based fried pork specialist Meongdong Donkasu dates to 1983 and opened a branch six months ago in the same Koreatown strip mall as Kobawoo House. They feature plenty of different cutlets, including shrimp and chicken, but pork tenderloin and fillet are most popular.

January 21, 2012 – Sharlena Fong, who helped popularize the maple bacon donut at nearby Nickel Diner, opened Semi Sweet Bakery with James Gonzalez, starring takes on childhood classics. For example, her baked donut flavors mirror strawberry ice cream pops, orange creamsicles and Entenmann’s chocolate donuts.

January 22, 2012 – Reps for the Buick Discovery Tour invited me to the SLS hotel to experience their program of culinary demos, including experimental Moto pastry chef Ben Roche, who clearly explained why using liquid nitrogen to make walnut-blue cheese ice cream is a good idea, and presented S’mores that looked like a bomb, complete with a liquid Graham center and burning marshmallow wick.

January 22, 2012 – Melisse chef-owner Josiah Citrin was the sole L.A. representative at the Buick Discovery Tour. He prepared a signature Hokkaido scallop dish from his new cookbook, In Pursuit of Excellence, and instructed students like me to sprinkle from on high, to best disperse the salt or spice.

January 22, 2012 – My first meal for dineLA Restaurant Week was at Mezze where chef Micah Wexler and front-of-house partner Mike Kassar use spices displayed in glass jars as part of modern riffs on classic Middle Eastern dishes.

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This entry is filed under **No Info Box, Week in Pictures.