Counter: The 101, vegan sushi, candy apples, oh my

It’s a great time to be a food lover in Los Angeles. This year’s edition of Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list is live, and the print version should be hitting your doorstep Sunday morning. There’s a new No. 1 for the first time since Jonathan’s Times list began in 2013, which means plenty of fodder for your dinnertime conversations. Why a new No. 1? Jonathan has a conversation with himself, about his list, in place of this week’s review.

And Eataly, the large-scale Italian marketplace that is like Disneyland for Italian food lovers, is finally opening a location at the Westfield Century City mall, on Nov. 3. We have an exclusive first look at all the excellent Italian food, products and wine at the market (the cheese, salumi, pizza, pasta, wine!)

We also have a story on all the great sparkling wine coming out of England (who knew?), the details on the new vegan “sushi” at Whole Foods (if you’re into that sort of thing), and a list of fun things to for Dia de Los Muertos, which starts Tuesday, on Halloween. Yes, it’s a very good time to be an Angeleno.

— Jenn Harris

JONATHAN ASKS JONATHAN

Detail of Vespertine chef Jordan Kahn’s live scallop dish at his restaurant in Culver City.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times )

Why was Esquire magazine’s favorite new restaurant not on the list? How could he bump Providence from the No. 1 spot? Does he even like Vespertine? Jonathan asks himself the questions you may all be wondering about his new best restaurants list.

SILLY, AMBITIOUS CULINARY DREAMS

Chef Jordan Kahn is behind Vespertine in Culver City.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times )

Who is the man behind the city’s new No. 1 restaurant? Food editor Amy Scattergood sits down with Vespertine chef Jordan Kahn to chat about his restaurant, which doesn’t look much like a restaurant at all. Amy discovers what’s behind Kahn’s silly, ambitious culinary dreams, and finds that “expectations are funny things.”

EPIC FRIED CHICKEN

Hitting three fried chicken restaurants with chef Johnny Zone, including Honey’s Kettle in Culver City.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Chef Johnny Zone is responsible for helping catapult L.A. into its current Age of Fried Chicken. He’s made a name for himself by serving boxes of Nashville-style hot chicken. And he’s the reason for the line that snakes through the Far East Plaza and out onto Broadway, daily. So we went with him on an epic fried chicken crawl to try some of the best in the city.

OH SO SWEET

Maple candied apples: Just cook a pot of maple syrup down and use that to coat apples.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Why not make your own caramel and candy apples for Halloween this year? Test Kitchen director Noelle Carter has tips, tricks and recipes for how to make maple candy, classic red candied and caramel apples.

IT’S TIME TO SQUASH

A variety of winter squash.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

In her weekly market report, Noelle considers winter squash. She notes that there are plenty of different preparations, from roasting and boiling to steaming, grilling and even deep-frying. And of course, she has some recipes, from squash soup to tempura.

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