1. Searching for Intense Flavor in Cal-Asian Cooking
2. What’s Cooking This Month: July Food Calendar
3. Ana Martín: A Winemaker on Spain’s Advancing Front
4. Wine And Mexico Meet In The Windy City
5. Are You Low Carb Conscious?
6. Get a Spine. Eat a Cactus.
7. What to Eat and Where to Stay: A Food Lover’s Guide to Los Angeles
8. Chef Michael Rodriguez’s Recipe for Pan-Seared Foie Gras Crostini

1. Searching for Intense Flavor in Cal-Asian Cooking
While Cal-Asian cuisine has become somewhat of a cliché over the past decade, there is one restaurant that takes center stage, grabbing the (kaffir) limelight – MAX Restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California, just outside of Los Angeles.
http://www.starchefs.com/features/cal_asian/html/index.shtml

3. Ana Martín: A Winemaker on Spain’s Advancing Front
Spanish wines have made tremendous advances in the past two decades. Famous regions like Rioja and Ribera del Duero have rethought their winemaking to make tremendous advances in quality and style, while newer and lesser-known regions have leaped out from obscurity and into the spotlight. Winemaker Ana Martín has had her hand in this mix since 1987.
http://www.starchefs.com/wine/starvintners/html/ana_martin/ana_martin.shtml

4. Wine And Mexico Meet In The Windy City
Jill Gubesch, Sommelier at Topolobampo and Frontera Grill in Chicago takes on the challenge of pairing wine with Mexican food.
http://www.starchefs.com/wine/ask_Sommelier/wine.php

5. Are You Low-Carb Conscious?
Consumption of processed carbohydrates is down in the US, a fact that is having a dramatic impact on the food industry. Chefs, the low-carb revolution is here, and if you’re not evaluating your menus and thinking like your Atkins- and South-Beach-Diet-obsessed patrons, this is your wake up call.
http://www.starchefs.com/features/lowcarb/html/index.shtml

6. Get a Spine. Eat a Cactus.
While cactus usually conjures up the image of dusty deserts and spiny thorns meant to keep us away, the fruit and pads of the Prickly Pear cactus are a gift from nature that are at once a vegetable and a fruit.
http://www.starchefs.com/features/nopales/html/index.shtml

7. What to Eat and Where to Stay: A Food Lover’s Guide to Los Angeles
Check out the travel notes on LA from the StarChefs Editors, as well as our restaurant, bar and hotel guide written with foodies in mind.
http://www.starchefs.com/features/travel/la/html/index.shtml

8. Recipe for Pan-Seared Foie Gras Crostini, Grilled Litchis and Aged Balsamico
From Chef Michael Rodriguez of Metro Kitchen & Bar at Hotel Astor - Miami, Florida

Yield: 1 Serving

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Grade A Foie Gras
• Salt and pepper to season
• 1 ounce slice of French bread, cut on bias
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 canned litchis, quartered
• 2 ounces canned litchis, pureed
• ½ teaspoon 25-year aged balsamic vinegar
• 2 springs thyme