Todd Kliman, food and wine editor:
• A woman in Laguna Hills claimed this week that she was the victim of a racially motivated hate crime. The reason? Someone threw tabouleh onto her patio. Tabouleh: Woman Sees Tabouleh as Hate Crime Weapon.
• Jonathan Gold, the LA Weekly food critic, is often posed some good food-find challenges for his "Ask Mr. Gold" column, but this one's a doozy. A particularly la-la land doozy: Ask Mr. Gold: Seeking Romantic, Inexpensive, Healthy, Not Boring, Wheat- and Dairy-Free Restaurant (With Aged Mezcal).
• "Mixology," meet entymology. Or, what's that fly doing in my Cosmopolitan? Beetle Juice!
• Funny, gutsy chalkboard outside a Ft. Lauderdale restaurant. (No, it's not an article, but I got a kick out of it. And in our post-literate world, a tweeted pic now counts as information dissemination.)
Sophie Gilbert, assistant editor and Sophie at the Stove blogger:
• Apparently airline food is now so bad that pilots are willing to fly all the way from Seattle to Pittsburgh to get sandwiches. Next on the itinerary? Pasties from Michigan and lobster rolls from Maine: Crew Flies 2,500 Miles For Primanti's Sandwiches.
Kate Nerenberg, associate food and wine editor:
• Speaking of Jonathan Gold, the Wall Street Journal sent him out to compare two of the top restaurants on San Pellegrino's annual list that spans the globe: Noma in Copenhagen (the top dog) and Alinea in Chicago (number six and the highest-ranked North American restaurant). The piece has a lot going for it, including Gold's great writing and a mind-boggling reminder of the weird tools that are a part of the modern-dining landscape: pins, "snow," capillary tubes, squeeze bottles, timers (at the table): Food Fight!
• It's nothing new to hear that America's craft-beer scene is, well, hopping. What is news is that the Brits, who invented the pub, are embracing our little breweries. Now if only France would American Craft Beer: The Hippest of Hops.
Melissa McCart, Table for One blogger:
• I cannot get enough of Lettie Teague, whose column-turned-book, Educating Peter, is one of my favorite wine 101's. In it she teaches Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers how to navigate the world of wine in a voice and series of lessons that are riveting and accessible. I never pass up a Teague read: Drinking Wine With Kyle MacLachlan.
Sophie Gilbert, assistant editor and Sophie at the Stove blogger:
• Apparently airline food is now so bad that pilots are willing to fly all the way from Seattle to Pittsburgh to get sandwiches. Next on the itinerary? Pasties from Michigan and lobster rolls from Maine: Crew Flies 2,500 Miles For Primanti's Sandwiches.
• A little late on this one, but it's still interesting. Forget counting calories. It turns out that what you eat is almost as important as how much, and the humble potato isn't as innocent as it looks: To Keep Off Pounds: Pass the Nuts, Hold the Chips.
• If Domino's Pizza goes bankrupt, I for one will blame the recently introduced Parmesan/garlic crust dust. But Sonic? Say it ain't so: Bankruptcy Watch: 14 Risky Restaurant Stocks.
Ann Limpert, food and wine editor:
• In the wake of H & H Bagels closing its store on New York’s Upper West Side, Time’s Josh Ozersky tracks the demise of the bagel, declaring the modern version “an oafish, candied monstrosity engineered for children and lazy appetites.”: New York Bagels: An American Tragedy.
• Perhaps my favorite moment of this year’s Rammy Awards coverage was seeing Washington City Paper’s Stefanie Gans ask beer savant Greg Engert who does his hair and beard: Fashion Puleeze: Decked Out Local Food Stars on the Red Carpet at the Rammys.
• When I shop at Whole Foods I often shove a tub of Mexican layer dip deep inside my cart, covering it up with something like a $10 wedge of Garrotxa—kind of like hiding an Us Weekly inside a New Yorker. It’s a silly hangup, I know, and Rosecrans Baldwin’s passionate and convincing defense of nachos is helping me get over it: An Ode to the Nacho.
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Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
