la.foodblogging

A: I wanted to share two food-related websites that I’ve recently run into!

My friend just gave me a wonderful belated birthday gift from Cocoa Vino. I am now the proud owner of bonbons flavored with wine and spirits. My gift came beautifully boxed and it was tied with a little pink bow. The descriptions of these bonbons are amazing, plus, each treat comes with a wine pairing! Although I didn’t have a malbec on hand, my BACCHANAL bonbon was superb, with just a hint of red wine. K. even gets to have his own since the all 6 flavors came in pairs. Seriously, these were good chocolates.

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Yelp.com was advertising on a blog I read and I clicked the link to find out what it was. I was pleasantly surprised to find a restaurant ratings community where one can find friends and then share opinions on bars, eateries, and other community merchants. I think it’s a great idea. It’s relatively new; not a lot of places were reviewed on the West Side. I think if more people get involved in this project it would be a great resource for people moving to the area or for those who want recommendations from people they trust. I really thought that the synthesis between online communities and one’s IRL community was a great one.

A: We're a newly-married couple that lives in West Los Angeles. We're both graduate students at UCLA. Alison is a medievalist-in-training and Kevin is working on his Ph.D. in Computer Science. We both have developed a love for cooking and exploring the amazing culinary landscape of Los Angeles.