Gluten-free Churros for Chanukah

It started with a question for Jonathan Gold. Chanukah 2011 was nearing, and a friend sent a query to Ask Mr. Gold, the advice column of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic renowned for putting Los Angeles on the map as a destination for culinary diversity. She told Gold that she wanted to participate in the Chanukah tradition of eating foods fried in oil, but didn't want to smell up her apartment frying latkes Instead, she sought the city's best churros. A tradition was born.

One night that week, a small, merry group got together and headed, per Gold's recommendation, to the Salinas C...