Friday Quickies #88: A Drinkventure Filled Week . . .

The Black-Eyed Plum cocktail at the Hungry Cat's CrabFest last year

I'll likely be hitting the snowboarding slopes this weekend (and probably spending the rest of the week recovering from it) but there are still plenty of fun food and drink events for those of you without a bruised butt and ego.

Tonight, 6 p.m. - 1 a.m., Vinoteque on Melrose will be having the largest Provence wine tasting on the West Coast, with 12 domains bringing about 35 different labels (many of which not readily available for purchase in the LA area) for tasting, as well as opportunities to talk the winemakers and purchase bottles. Vinoteque's chef, KC Ma, will also be preparing rustic Provencal French fare to go with these fab vino. $55/person.

Tomorrow, 1 - 3 p.m., Deep End Dining extraordinaire Eddie Lin will have an Extreme Cuisine Book signing at The Annex in Santa Ana. The event is hosted by OC Weekly's Gustavo Arellano and the Sonoran hot dog & burrito truck will be on-site so you have something to nosh on while getting your autographs, not to mention your opportunity to compare most unusual grub with the extreme eater himself (I was told free samples of dried grasshoppers and balut are available for the truly daring.) More info here.

Sunday, March 7 and Monday, March 8, The Hungry Cat will be celebrating its fifth year anniversary! All day long, enjoy their specialty market-driven cocktails and draft beer at half-off (on Monday this also applies to their bottles of wine too!) as well as yet-to-be-specified food specials.

Tuesday, March 9, Pasadena's POP Champagne & Dessert Bar is launching Tapas Tuesdays and embracing that tradition in the truest sense; in lieu of their regular menu, the POP folks will be offering a complimentary bite of your choice for every alcoholic beverage purchase (or $3 a la carte.) The menu will change every week, but last week's offerings included duck taquito with citrus-avocado puree // roasted leg of lamb empanada with sweet chili apricot sauce // nutella crepe with berries and chantilly cream // lavender strawberries with creme fraiche and shortbread cookie. That's certainly something I can smack my lips and clink my glasses to!

Wednesday, March 10, 7 p.m., Fraiche Santa Monica is continuing their wine dinner tradition - this time partnering with the biodynamic Manincor winery with owner Count Michael Goëss-Enzenberg guiding through the five wine-paired courses, including: poppy seed ravioli stuffed with ricotta and red beet // sturgeon with veal jus, pearl onions and English pea tendrils // lamb chop and orzotta with wild mushrooms, golden raisins and baby turnips. $65/person + tax/tip.

And my favorite reads of the week:

A teacher is fed up with school lunch offerings for her students and embarks on an yearlong experiment to eat, and blog, about school cafeteria food. 2 months down so far. . .

Serious Eats' candid profile of Robert Caplin, a freelance photographer who's regularly on assignment for New York Times' food section.

And on the photography note, Diana Takes a Bite found gnocchi too good to miss with a camera!

SF Chronicle reports on California's ABC cracking down on house-infused spirits, surely not boding well for some of the classier and edgier bar operations in the state.

Speaking of spirits, The Wanderkind blogs an interesting two-parter confession about coming to terms with her own intolerance for alcohol.

Green LA Girl highlights some of the more unusual, green and budget-friendly diets out there. Too bad the sleep and baking diets on that post doesn't actually let me sleep and eat all the carbs to total abandon.

And lastly, Slate ran a hilarious ranty tirade of a hatepost on popcorn. Amongst the author's grievances, its "eaters sound like they're engaging in jungle combat" and it "looks like sheep shit."