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Foodie Round-up: New Pollan, Roasted Figs, and Hamburger Helpless

- Could you do the 100 Yard Diet? Oakland blogger YourCityFarmer spent the entire month of July eating only things she grew, raised, and made herself: and that includes meat.
- New Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food, coming in November! Also, he shares some of his favorite reads with Newsweek.
- EaterLA is reporting that the kitschy German restaurant Lowenbrou Keller will be closing "when the food runs out" - but the owners plan to reopen at some undetermined date as a "lounge."
- Is your Hamburger Helper really helping? A UCLA study reveals that prepackaged "convenience" meal kits don't actually save you that much time in the kitchen. Slow cookers, however, are a beautiful gift from the gods.
- Personally, I can’t look at a fig without thinking of a certain Sex and the City episode. But since they're in season, and if you have not been so traumatized, check out Amateur Gourmet’s recipe for roasted figs.
- Jonathan Gold covers the Valley almost as well as LAist does! This week our intrepid culinary hero is exploring Lenchitas in Pacoima, where the tortillas are thick and the albondigas are enormous.
- Bowel-watch: another spinach recall from Metz Farms (here's the FDA announcement). Marie Callender's is also recalling their Frozen Turtle Pies.
- Who's got the best fries downtown? Downtown News investigates this pressing question.
Kimchi, kraut, tsukemono, dill: pickles of any kind give me a boner. Here's a recipe for a quick pickled cabbage that you can take to your Labor Day barbecues this weekend. Photo of sexy figs by beeep via Flickr.
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