Photo courtesy of Disney-Pixar.

Spoiler warning: In the final moments of Pixar’s summer hit, Ratatouille, adorable rat chef Remy prepares an ethereal version of the movie’s namesake dish that wows stodgy restaurant critic Anton Ego. The film’s stunning animation made the vegetable stew look positively mouth-watering—even to those small viewers who tend to be stubborn about eating their veggies.

Professor and roving foodie Tyler Cowen releases his new book this week.

According to Tyler Cowen’s online Ethnic Dining Guide, “all food is ethnic.” But he’s not referring just to Chinese takeouts or neighborhood taquerias. No, this George Mason University economics professor spends his free time exploring the area’s holes in the wall, suburban strip malls, and upscale eateries for tastes of Argentina, West Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal—upward of 75 ethnic cuisines in all—and then writing about his findings online. His brief, straightforward reviews include notes on price range and ambiance, whether a restaurant is worth a trip on the Beltway, and whether a place’s collard greens are “blah.”

Ever seen the perfectly-coiffed Taberna del Alabardero waitstaff use power tools in the dining room? They do this weekend for the restaurant’s annual flamenco show and four-course dinner, inspired by the Andalucian region of Spain. Once waiters take away the last dessert plate—a white wine-soaked sponge cake—they huddle around the “main stage” to drill a wood board into the ground.

With the release of The Simpsons Movie this weekend, a couple of local businesses are capitalizing on the tie-in possibilities. The Tex-Mex chain Austin Grill tabbed its Springfield outpost to serve a 12-inch “Homer” burrito, stuffed with ground beef, three cheeses, jalapeños, and mashed potatoes. And a 7-Eleven in Bladensburg is doubling as a Kwik-E-Mart as part of a national promotion, complete with Squishees and Krusty-O’s cereal on the shelves.

Summer is vacation season, and I’m locked in a cube. So I seize every opportunity to travel vicariously—using nothing but a corkscrew, a glass, and my imagination—by exploring new and interesting wines from places I’d love to visit. If grapes grow there, I’ll go there—at least in spirit.

Back when I was a freshman at Georgetown, I heard about some kid named Nic who would cook duck in his Harbin Hall dorm kitchen. After weekend trips home to New York (apparently, his family was in the restaurant biz), he’d lug a bird back to campus to host family-style dinners for his hall friends—a pretty big step up from Leo’s cafeteria across the street. For Nic, storing whole, fresh ducks in a freshman dorm freezer was no big deal.