Newsletter: Breakfast cereals and Peruvian food

The top food stories from this week at the Los Angeles Times:

BREAKFAST CEREAL POWER RANKINGS

Lucas Kwan Peterson ranks morning cereals, considering only sweet ones (the nonsweet variety will be ranked later). Also: cereal milk.

The costilla short ribs dish at Los Balcones, a Peruvian restaurant in Studio City.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

A PERUVIAN PARTY

Patricia Escárcega sits down at Los Balcones, the Peruvian restaurant in Studio City, for some costilla short ribs, ceviche frito and quinotto.

Imen Shan prepares gong fu cha, a ceremonial style of tea service, at Tea Habitat in Alhambra.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

TEA CEREMONIES

Bill Addison settles in for a tea ceremony at Tea Habitat in Alhambra and repeating cups of dan cong.

Peterson uses his knife skills to score a pineapple.

(Cody Long / Los Angeles Times)

PINEAPPLE HACKING

Lucas Kwan Peterson takes a knife to a pineapple to see if a viral hack really works. (No.)

Lu rou fan, a dish of gently spiced pork over rice, is a favorite at Joy.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

THE JOY OF JOY

Bill Addison reviews Joy, a Taiwanese restaurant in Highland Park.

NATIVE CLOSES

Jenn Harris has news of the closing of Native, chef Nyesha Arrington’s Santa Monica restaurant.

Food Bowl 2019 is coming. Our annual monthlong food festival is happening again this May. We hope you’ll join us for #31daysoffood. If you’d like to hold an event at your bar, cafe, hotel or restaurant; have breakfast in a kitchen garden or cocktails on a rooftop; host a charity bake sale or market tour, let us know at lafoodbowl.com.

Our 101 Restaurants We Love list for 2018 is out. The list incorporates restaurants and food trucks from around Los Angeles and Orange County, in alphabetical order (no rankings this year). Plus this year, there’s a bonus list of 10 classic restaurants.

Check us out on Instagram at @latimesfood.

And don’t forget the thousands of recipes in our California Cookbook recipe database.

Feedback? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].