One standout local example of the marriage of bean and barley is the chocolate-hued Coffee Porter from Torrance's Smog City Brewing Co.
Puddings are uniformly excellent (loosen your waistband): Gariguette strawberries, vanilla whey, cheesecake ice-cream; salted caramel, chocolate, malted barley ice-cream; peach and elderflower, stone-fruit ice-cream.
In a delightful ethnic adaptation, Grandma and mom cooked brisket, kosher roast chicken, barley and had the best chocolate babka from a local bakery.
Their creamy character and fuller body comes from roasted barley and is fantastic with chocolate, grilled meats, shellfish and fruity desserts.
Chocolate malt and roasted ungerminated barley are used at a high proportion (25 percent) to make stouts and porters.
Try the satisfyingly rustic chicken-mushroom-barley soup, a fishy or meaty salad and the chocolate cake with banana gelato, plus a beer from the cosmopolitan list.
With the flavor of fine chocolate, achieved by blending six types of roasted barley, it's a great dessert beer.
WHAT'S HOT: Nut-crusted Chilean sea bass, Dover sole, Moroccan sausage, chorizo, jamon serrano, chili and lime juice, white truffles, black barley, venison loin, roasted beets, tart Chilean cherries, paella, apricot or chocolate bread pudding, Spanish food, Indian food, red zinfandel.
The amber Straight Malt is richer, with lots of chocolate, caramel, brown sugar, cinnamon... and just a hint of the barley from which it's distilled.
Lunch might be a cheese and salad sandwich with hummus and fruit, supper a bean and barley soup, chicken with a spinach salad, and strawberries and grapes for pudding - maybe dipped in dark chocolate.
