True story: Yesterday I’m rushing home to have lunch before an appointment, and as I approach my front door I see a nattily-attired gentleman rooting around under our lemon tree. Neighbors are constantly raiding our Meyer lemons, so I approach the man, irritated.

“Excuse me, what are you doing?”

The man jumps up, alarmed, and I see that he’s holding a big bouquet of purple and green sourgrass, both flowering wood sorrels that grow (as weeds) all over our neighborhood.

“What do you have there?” I ask.

“Just these. They’re for my restaurant!”

I look at him skeptically, “What, for the tables?”

“No,” he says, “for the plates.”

This guy knows his edible weeds.

“What’s your restaurant?” I ask.

“Mélisse!” he answers, gesturing to the celebrated, two-Michelin-starred palace of haute cuisine two doors down (and yet a world away…) Yes, indeed, this man in my flowerbed, in his Persols and cashmere scarf, was celebu-chef Josiah Citrin!

I start to chuckle, imagining our humble sourgrass adorning the oversized white plates of one of Los Angeles’s poshest restaurants. “Ok,” I say. “Just ring the doorbell next time, or you’ll freak us out.”

“I don’t want to freak anyone out!” says Citrin, scurrying quickly away, still a bit alarmed. “Thank you!”

For some reason, I didn’t demand free food in exchange for our coveted weeds. But I definitely have a new respect for the chef, for his daring, his knowledge of edible plants (though I’m 99% sure he thinks he’s picking the very edible Oxalis stricta rather than our sort-of-edible Oxalis pes-caprae) and his obvious devotion to locally sourced ingredients!

I have been waiting for some clever charlie to figure this out. Single-cup brewers have been an environmental nightmare, what with roughly 5 billion of those damned “coffee pods” ending up in landfills in 2011. The pods are neither recyclable nor compostable, but now, finally, there is a reusable option for Keurig machines. Fill the pod your own grounds, to your desired strength, and brew away one cup at a time, if that’s your thing.

Ekobrew Reusable Filter for Keurig Single Cup Brewers.

Industry publication Restaurant News offers 20 menu trends for 2012, as predicted by chefs. With the emphasis on local sourcing and healthy options, it all seems like good news for diners…but…one thing: What on earth is a “non-traditional fish”?

Chefs predict top menu trends for 2012 | Nation’s Restaurant News.

I don’t make New Year Resolutions per se–but I do think about aims for the year. A resolution is just so…resolute. And who knows what the year will bring? No use starting it out from a position of rigidity. When it comes to food, I think we should all focus on things that we intend to do more of, rather than whatever we believe we ought to do less of. So instead of “I will give up cookies,” try “I will eat more cruciferous vegetables…before I eat cookies.” Or, “I will eat more falafels…so I won’t have room for as many hamburgers.” Weight loss experts (somewhere, I’m sure) agree that this is a great approach!

My own Culinary Goals for 2012 include: Read on… »