Sausage

Pizza Hut has backed off its planned stunt to get the question "sausage or pepperoni?" asked during the live, televised presidential debate Tuesday night. The company had dared guests to ask President Obama and Mitt Romney to divulge their topping of choice during the town hall-style event in return for one large pizza every week for 30 years or a check for $15,600. But now, after a surge of disdain in response to the stunt, the pizza purveyor said it's putting the promotion online instead.

Mole Festival: How much do you like mole? The fifth annual Feria de los Moles Sunday at Olvera Street will give you a chance to find out. Billed as the largest Mexican food festival in the U.S., this year's event will pit Puebla versus Oaxaca in a mole-off featuring local restaurants and vendors from each region. Team Puebla will include Delicias Poblanas, Elenitas Moles, Goyos Nieves, Mole de San Miguel Xaltepec, Mole Doña Kaelita, Mole Doña Socorro and Mole Santa María Nenetzinla.

Gratins come in a variety of styles. Some are thickened with eggs, some with cream. In the case of this recipe, from Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter, it's quickly made white sauce, enriched with goat cheese, and holds together a savory mixture of Italian sausage and braised kale. Top it with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and a thick blanket of crisp bread crumbs and you've got a comforting one-dish meal that's perfect for the chilly months. Italian sausage and kale gratin Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes Servings: 6 to 8 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 pound fresh mild Italian sausage, casings removed and crumbled 1/3 cup dry white wine 2 bunches (about 1 pound)

Who's ready for a steaming-hot bowl of meat, eggs and cheese from Burger King for breakfast? Or a pizza with not just bacon but "double bacon" and six types of cheese? Rolling into 2011, fast-food joints across the country are set to deploy a potent new arsenal of greasy goodness for Americans who have grown numb to mere burgers. Think spicier, cheesier, gooier. The new items flout principles of healthful eating and instead celebrate a spirit of wanton gluttony. "There's been quite a bit of what we call carnival revival," said Darren Tristano, a restaurant expert at market researcher Technomic.

JEFF'S GOURMET SAUSAGE FACTORY LOCATION: 8930 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 858-8590 http://www.jeffsgourmet.com . PRICE: Hot dogs, $3 to $5; sausage sandwiches, $5 to $8; deli sandwiches and entrees, $7 to $13; sides, $1 to $3. DETAILS: Open Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed Saturday. Soft drinks. Credit cards accepted. Street parking. Catering, bulk sausage and mail order available.

On some late nights, Jeff's Gourmet Sausage Factory is the most happening place in L.A.'s Pico-Robertson neighborhood. Squadrons of families and kids descend for a late-night nosh. You might see packs of high school boys lounging at the outside tables, carefully adjusting their clothes: popping their white collars, skewing their yarmulkes just right to look as much like Jay-Z as possible while still keeping to the letter of Orthodox Jewish dress code. Jeff's Gourmet is a kosher sausage factory and eatery, operating for the last 11 years in a predominantly Jewish and Middle Eastern neighborhood.

No matter what you order at Western Soondae and Moobongri Soondae restaurants in Koreatown, whether it's the ice-cold spicy noodles or the luscious raw oysters drizzled with tart chile-infused sauce and wrapped in soft cabbage leaves, you'll be getting a generous side of soondae , the juicy, snappy-skinned blood sausage that's one of Korea's culinary obsessions. The two restaurants are Koreatown's newest shrines to soondae . At both places, the moist links are worked into stews, soups, appetizer platters — all designed to quell a nostalgia for the street-side hole-in-the-walls and tiny market stalls in Korea that craft the specialty.

  Lentils with turkey sausage Total time: About 1 hour Servings: 8 to 10 (1/2 cup) servings Note: Adapted from Cook for America / The s'Cool Food Initiative 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil 3/4 pound fresh turkey sausage, uncased 1/2 cup finely diced onion 1/2 cup finely diced carrot 1/4 cup finely diced celery 2 small or 1 large garlic clove, minced 1 cup lentils,...