This Sunday, Dec. 17, is the final Smorgasburg of the year. The largest weekly food market in Los Angeles will close out the year with all the food vendors, the monthly Record Fair and the final day of its annual Holiday Market. Those who won’t be returning next year include Smoke Queen BBQ (will be opening a brick-and-mortar in Orange County in January), Odd One Out (recently opened its brick-and-mortar location on Sawtelle) and stalwart Avocadamama (will be shifting focus to its packaged products in the new year.)  After this Sunday, Smorgasburg will be closed on Dec. 24, Dec. 30 and Jan. 7. The Grand Reopening for 2024 will take place on Sunday, Jan. 14, and like every year, will feature new vendors joining the popular downtown food fest. 

Known for its crispy, curly pepperonis, 20-inch mammoth-sized pizzas, and dough made fresh daily, Mountain Mike’s Pizza has opened its first location in Los Angeles County in Norwalk’s new Norwalk Fitness Village. It’s equipped with four big-screen televisions, a kids’ arcade area and an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. 

La Monarca Bakery's Rosca de Reyes cakes will return this year. The traditional, circle-shaped desserts are studded with dried fruit to symbolize the jeweled crowns worn by the three wise men. Whoever finds the baby figurine in their slice is the lucky winner who gets to throw a party later in the year for family and friends. The cake features pan dulce dough with La Monarca's signature cookie crust, candied cactus, and walnuts with a baby figurine on the side for hiding on your own. Preorders are available now at all 12 LA locations. The $24 medium size serves 8-10, and the $40 large cake serves 15-20.

Rosca de Reyes (Courtesy La Monarca Bakery)

TOUS les JOURS, the French-Asian bakery café chain offering more than 300 artisan pastries, gourmet cakes, and desserts baked in-store daily, is offering a “Merry Wiggle Christmas” collection featuring 25 festive holiday cakes. Available now through Dec. 24, the “Merry Wiggle Christmas” collection was created in partnership with popular Korean lifestyle brand Wiggle Wiggle, known for its colorful and playful designs for household items and clothes. They include: 

• Winter Tree Cake – Shaped like a Christmas tree, this Cloud cake is made with strawberry sponge, strawberry berry cream, and strawberry jam coulis layers.
• Snowman Cake – A snowman-shaped vanilla sponge cake that includes caramel cream and chocolate crunch cream.
• Holiday Party Cake – This Cloud cake features layers of chocolate sponge and rich chocolate cream mixed in with a sweet berry compote and raspberry crunch.
• Rudolph Cake – The chocolate cake features chocolate crunch inside and, of course, a red nose.
• Sweet Potato Cake – Made with sweet potato mousse
• Buche de Noel – This chocolate log roll cake is filled with rich chocolate ganache cream.
• White Wonderland Cake – Designed to look like a Winter Wonderland, this creamy white chocolate cake is topped with chocolate shavings, mimicking a snowfall

Christmas Dinner (Courtesy Socalo)

Redbird/Vibiana chef and owner Neal Fraser has created a 2023 holiday tasting menu with pairings from wine director Matthew Fosket available in the main dining room and lounge for the month of December, in addition to the regular menu. Highlights include bay scallop crudo with buttermilk, fuji apple, caviar and shiso, and California quail with chestnut stuffing, porcini conserva and honey agrodolce. See the full menu and reserve here. The price is $120++ per person with $75++ optional wine pairing

The Christmas dinner kit and tamales offer at Socalo has been extended until Saturday, Dec. 16 at  2 p.m.  The kit includes mole short ribs, sweet corn tamales, roasted root vegetables, winter chopped kale salad, cranberry apple salsita, organic red rice and Border Brownies. To order from Socalo visit HERE  and to order from the catering kitchen visit HERE.

What’s Popping Up is a weekly column in the L.A. Weekly that explores all that’s new in food and drink.

Courtesy TOUS les JOURS