Now dat's Italian

Gondola Getaway offers a catered pizza dinner (from Belmont Shore's own Demenico's) for six to 10 people for $35 per person. The super-size gondola has a table set with tableware, glassware and a checkered tablecloth, and the gondola tour of Alamitos Bay lasts about an hour.

Vegetarians do it with Relish

To celebrate International Vegetarian Day on Friday, October 1, Compassionate Cuisine fair will be held at Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden on the CSULB campus. All proceeds go to support Animal Acres, a farmed animal sanctuary. The event runs from 7 to 11 pm and features gourmet vegetarian dishes donated by Whole Foods, Zephyr, Viento Y Agua as well as Seabirds, a vegan street food truck. There will be speakers and music to help wile away the time. Tickets go for $35 in advance or $45 at the door.

Cupcake alert!

Magnolia Bakery, which has supplied New Yorkers with their cupcake needs since 1996, now has an outlet in Los Angeles at 8389 W. Third Street. They've got standard chocolate and vanilla with buttercream frosting as well as unique combinations like S'mores and other pies, cakes, and cheesecakes.

A Moveable Feast

Sunset Magazine listed Orgasmo de la Boca as an underground supper club in the L.A. area. The group arranges catered meals at people's homes or yards and usually throws in a movie or a show of some kind for $50 per person. The locations of the events are announced to ticket holders a few days before the event.

Good cooking, Good Causes--Outstanding!

I finally got around to checking out the Outstanding in a Field schedule. This group travels around the country, but mostly up and down the West coast, preparing organic meals outside on the farms where the food was produced. There are going to be several meals in Southern California in June, even one on Catalina Island, but alas, they're all sold out. Tickets start at $200. Now that's a meal to remember.

Another inspired cooking effort made possible by the Internet is Spread the Bread. This international organization, started by a mother and her three daughters in Wayland, Massachusetts, brings people together to make their favorite kinds of bread and share them with others, especially with those in need. Based on the belief that everyone is connected to bread somehow--through religion or memory or a family tradition, groups all over the country support each other in baking a million loaves of bread between September 11 and New Year's Eve to honor heroes by feeding the hungry.