Truffles

  Total time: About 1 hour, plus cooling and firming times Servings: About 2½ dozen truffles Note: Refrigerate the truffles in one layer in shallow airtight containers if you're making them ahead, and bring them to room temperature for serving. 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped 3 tablespoons walnut, almond, grape seed or mild olive oil 3 tablespoons sweet red wine 2/3 cup shredded coconut (about 2 ounces) 2/3 cup chopped walnuts (about 2.5 ounces)

  Total time: About 1 hour, plus cooling and firming times Servings: About 2½ dozen truffles Note: Refrigerate the truffles in one layer in shallow airtight containers if you're making them ahead, and bring them to room temperature for serving. 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped 3 tablespoons walnut, almond, grape seed or mild olive oil 3 tablespoons sweet red wine 2/3 cup shredded coconut (about 2 ounces) 2/3 cup chopped walnuts (about 2.5 ounces)

Summer truffles are just a fraction of the price of the most sought-after truffles. So chefs can be liberal with them and diners can indulge without breaking the bank. Il Grano Forget pepperoni pie. At this sharp Italian dining room, there's a white Neapolitan style pizza (meaning there's a bit of heft and chew to the crust) made with a summer truffle sauce, asiago and fontina cheese, and plenty of shaved summer truffle. * Pizza $17. 11359 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A., (310) 477-7886.

Haroset , a blend of fruit, nuts and wine, is probably the most popular food of the eight-day holiday of Passover, which begins on Monday night. For the Seder, the feast commemorating the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, haroset is spooned onto the Seder plate alongside other symbolic Passover preparations and is served as part of the ritual. Although haroset's brown color is meant to be a sad reminder of the mortar made by the Hebrew slaves, people's faces light up when it's time to sample it. Some Jews prepare extra haroset to use as a spread throughout Passover.

One of the biggest truffles found in half a century -- a 3.3-pound specimen unearthed in Italy late last month -- sold for $330,000 at an auction held simultaneously in Macao, London and Florence. The giant fungus, described as "looking like a man's brain," was presented on a silver platter by an Italian chef flanked by Chinese models at a Macao hotel.

The world's most expensive truffle, bought by a London restaurant for $52,000 last month, was returned to Italy for burial. When experts in Florence heard that the restaurant left the warty white delicacy in a safe for too long and it rotted, they asked to have the 1.9 pound truffle returned for burial in the hope that it would sprout an even bigger one next year.

Little Dom's “In Bocca” dinners: Chef Brandon Boudet of Little Dom's pays tribute to the “In Bocca” cookbooks, an out-of-print collection highlighting Italy's regional cuisines, with a dinner series beginning this evening. Tonight's a la carte menu is inspired by the “In Bocca Milano” edition printed in 1976, and features dishes such as spinach croquettes, saffron risotto and prosciuttini di pollo . Call for reservations. 2128 Hillhurst Ave., (323) 661-0055, www.littledoms.com . Truffle time: Starting on Feb. 7, Saam at the Bazaar will be offering a black truffle dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through March 2. Chef Jose Andres and team will prepare a 16-course menu spotlighting black truffles foraged by Truffle Brothers Michael and Marco Pietroiacovo.

Two highly skilled truffle dogs were killed by poison as a vicious war between hunters of the fungi in central Italy intensified, ANSA news agency reported. More than 30 dogs, which sniff out the expensive delicacies, have been killed by strychnine since the start of the hunting season in October. ANSA said the latest victims, two pointers owned by a truffle hunter from Perugia, died suddenly. A well-trained dog is very valuable to trufflers.

I've never been a drug dealer, but a truffle trader has to be the closest of relatives. You drive down the lonely country roads of a foreign land, money bulging from every pocket, suspicious of any cars behind you, ready to take evasive action if required. You arrive at a nondescript storefront and pass into a featureless back room with a small precise scale. The merchandise is removed from a ragged kitchen towel.

It has been no trifling matter for candy aficionados in San Diego, where chocolate truffles laced with brandy, rum and assorted liqueurs have been in short supply in recent months. Too, it was no small matter for state Assembly members, who raised concerns about drunk drivers, alcohol consumption by minors and basic fairness under the law before voting, 57 to 8, Monday to increase the allowable alcohol content of spiked candies.

Remember when you couldn't go to a restaurant without coming across yet another flourless chocolate cake? And when that trend finally passed, the chocolate fashion became precious, over-elaborate tastings of this and that. I'm glad that's finally passé. When something is good, you want more than one bite, no? Over the years, I've loved Sherry Yard's chocolate musings at Spago and Nancy Silverton's thick, gorgeous chocolate pudding. Not to mention Roxana Jullapat's fresh chocolate cherry tart at Cooks County, which I hope she'll be revisiting as soon as cherries come into season later this month.

Hey Girl, Happy Valentine's Day. It's me. Ryan Gosling. Wouldn't it be great if you picked up your ringing phone today and it was Ryan Gosling calling? His smirking face with that signature furrowed brow and blue eyes filling your calling screen? Well now you can, sort of. Hasty Torres of Madame Chocolat at D.L. & Co. Beverly Hills has created a custom chocolate iPhone. For $35 you can make it look like Ryan Gosling, a.k.a. Mr. Perfect, or whoever your crush may be, is calling.

Patina's black truffle dinners are back: Downtown L.A.'s Patina will be offering three-, five- and seven-course tasting menus during the restaurant's annual black truffle dinner series today through Friday. This year's menu will feature butternut squash velouté with black truffle brioche, a filet of John Dory with black truffle venoise , salsify and bitter greens; Scottish wood pigeon and black truffle roulé ; veal served with wild mushrooms; and for dessert, vanilla pain perdu with roasted pear and black truffle crème anglaise . The three-, five- and seven-course truffle tasting menus are priced at $85, $125 and $175 per person, respectively.

Little Dom's “In Bocca” dinners: Chef Brandon Boudet of Little Dom's pays tribute to the “In Bocca” cookbooks, an out-of-print collection highlighting Italy's regional cuisines, with a dinner series beginning this evening. Tonight's a la carte menu is inspired by the “In Bocca Milano” edition printed in 1976, and features dishes such as spinach croquettes, saffron risotto and prosciuttini di pollo . Call for reservations. 2128 Hillhurst Ave., (323) 661-0055, www.littledoms.com . Truffle time: Starting on Feb. 7, Saam at the Bazaar will be offering a black truffle dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through March 2. Chef Jose Andres and team will prepare a 16-course menu spotlighting black truffles foraged by Truffle Brothers Michael and Marco Pietroiacovo.

Fresh winter truffles are in season, and if you've managed to score one of the world's more expensive foods, odds are you can't wait to showcase it over something special. There's no better way to show off that pricey fungus than with an official truffle slicer (also known as a truffle shaver). A flat, smooth -- and often stylishly sleek -- plane is fitted with an adjustable blade, allowing you to shave your fragrant truffles into paper-thin slices for a most luxurious garnish. Prices vary by make and model, but a basic truffle slicer should run you no more than $25. When truffles are out of season, use it to shave chocolate (an equally luxurious garnish, in my humble opinion)

If, like me, you haven't cottoned to the fact that it's the latter half of November, and that December starts in just over a week, listen up. If you're planning on a wine country trip in January, the Napa Truffle Festival   is coming up Jan. 18 to 21, the third such event. The festival celebrates Tuber melanosporum , the winter Périgord black truffle (not to be confused with the much less pungent and pricy summer truffle). Food writer and editor Colman Andrews will be speaking.

The price of truffles -- always amazing -- has reached dizzying heights this winter because of troublesome weather in Europe. The treasured Italian white truffles of Alba are going for as much as $225 an ounce at retail. French black truffles aren't that far behind -- about $150 an ounce. Or you can go to the farmers market and get white truffles for $15 an ounce. And there are quite nice black ones at a local grocery for as little as $4 an ounce. How can this be?

It was surreal, even here, where the unlikely confluence of neon and sand has created a booming, crap-shooting, celebrity-hunting desert fantasyland. We were in the Las Vegas version of Valentino restaurant on a sunny Sunday morning, fresh from a gondola ride outside the Venetian hotel, and now we were linked by closed-circuit satellite television to New York and Alba, Italy, for the fifth annual white truffle charity auction.

Halloween happy hour: Silver Lake wine bar Barbrix celebrates Halloween with all-night happy hour on Wednesday. From 6 p.m. to closing, that's half off wines by the glass and Acme on tap. Also, Halloween cocktail specials include Gory Eyeball Prosecco ($8), Bloody Acme ($5), Radioactive Slim Prosecco ($8). Plus a half-pound burger for $6. 2442 Hyperion Ave., Los Angeles, www.barbrix.com. Shave the Date party and pig roast: Pasadena gastropub Kings Row kicks off  Movember (grow-a-moustache month in support of men's health )

For those who plan seriously ahead, registration for the 8th annual Oregon Truffle Festival opens Sept. 1 with early bird pricing for both a la carte and weekend events. When do you get to do some truffle sniffing? Not till early next year, from Jan. 25 to 27. And where do you do it? In Eugene, Oregon. This year's theme is the wild table, and leading the charge will be mushroom forager Constance Green, author of the cookbook " The Wild Table . " Check the event's website for details on the weekend-long celebration of Oregon's native truffles, which will include a truffle growers' forum, truffle dog training, cooking classes, winemaker luncheons, a grand truffle dinner and more.