The Food Section: Appetizers

Bon Appetit Relaunch

"The BA Blog" has its last day today, as it's replaced by "Project Recipe" and Bon Appetit's swanky, more user-friendly redesign.

Have It His Way

Featured in Heston Blumenthal's new book, Further Adventures in Search of Perfection, the Blumenburger tested by Cook's Illustrated food writer Kenji Alt is a 30-ingredient concoction in which everything is painstakingly made by hand-- bun and cheese slices included. All in all, it takes more than a day to make.

If on a Brooklyn Night a Traveler

FT columnist Nicholas Lander makes his first trip across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to explore the borough's restaurant renaissance, in particular, Franny's, The Trois Pommes patisserie, Huckleberry Bar, A Di La trattoria, and The Jake Walk.

Sugar and Spice

Spice up fruits of the season with Chez Pim's chili-salt, perfect for mangoes, berries, and melons.

Farms of the Future

In "Change We Can Stomach," Blue Hill's Dan Barber writes on how a worldwide spike in food prices should lead to policies that "look toward the future," favoring small, diversified farms for improving food security, resource conservation, and growing more food that's good to eat.

Currently: Heading out of town for a week-long vacation. In my absence, guest editor Melissa McCart will taking the helm and serving up a steady stream of appetizers.

World's Best Chinese Food

Today's WSJ offers highs and lows of Beijing dining: just in time for summer Olympics. With wallet-sized crib notes for best dumplings, family-style, and "most delicious," among other categories.

First They Came for the Pork Buns

Eric Asimov laments the Department of Health's closing of Chinatown's Mei Lai Wah Coffee House. Comparing this grungy shrine to roast pork buns to some of the funkiest mold-covered wine cellars in Europe, he wonders whether an exception should have been made: "However unappealing such places might be to modern eyes should not success over time earn them a pass?"

Asparagus in Winter? That's Criminal

Your daily Ramsay: Chef Gordon Ramsay wants restaurants to only serve seasonal vegetables, and he'd like to see them fined if they don't: "I don't want to see asparagus in the middle of December. I don't want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home-grown...There should be stringent laws, licensing laws, to make sure produce is only used in season and season only."

Eggcidents Happen

Several 100-foot wide sunny-side up eggs presently grace the city square of Leeuwarden, a town in the north of the Netherlands.

Suckling Pig 101

At Food & Wine, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten shows you how to roast a suckling pig.

Ramsay's Profane Progeny

Foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay, presently under fire from the Catholic Church, is now concerned with his son's swearing. "Yesterday he came running in and said, 'Dad, what's a wanker?','' said Ramsay. "I explained to him it meant like being a bit of an idiot and he replied, 'Oh, you mean like a knob?'." Ba-dum-dum.

Tomato Turn-On

Have you ever touched your tomatoes? Lightly brushing their leaves with your hands stimulates a growth hormone that encourages stockier growth.

Catholic Church vs. Gordon Ramsay

Australia's Catholic church is seeking to stop television networks from broadcasting chef Gordon Ramsay's profanity-ridden reality shows.

Merlot Mind Games

How thinking about price, context, and ratings motivates wine choices. Earlier: The price of pleasure.