This weekend at UIC Pavilion, as part of the Good Food Festival and Conference Oak Parker Rob Gardner will moderate a session on "The Art of Fermentation" with Sandor Katz, an equally outspoken spokesperson who has dedicated his life to promoting the health and culinary value of fermented products. Fermentation is one way to eat local throughout the winter months, and Gardner maintains we need such time-honored practices to enable us to eat local, all the time.

The mystery meal in this month's Name that Restaurant game was the BluesBurger from Poor Phil's. The winner of this month's game is Courtney Seifert.

In a village that sees new franchises or sure-bets (Asian, Italian, etc.) restaurants opening, it's a fair bet I'll never live to see a Senegalese restaurant open in Oak Park. So if you want to try the worthy cuisine of this West African country, you have to travel a little. Actually, you have to travel a fair distance up to Badou's Senegalese (2055 Howard).

Within hours of my post about poorly positioned trash cans in my alley, my recycling bin was savaged: the top torn off and the container positioned – for perhaps the first time -- correctly!

I've withheld the name of the restaurant where this dish was sold because I think their kitchen has the potential to make this dish for real – and I'm fairly certain they will recognize their dish in the photos. I hope my "outing" of them as perpetrators of a kind of menu-related mis-naming will encourage them to change their recipe to match the classic requirements of Chicken Vesuvio. Or they can call what they serve something else.

Why in the name of Justice do these uniformed keepers of the peace feel as though they don't have to provide the  courteous and usual kind of heads-up about their vehicle's direction-of-travel that could prevent accidents and foster safety?

Chinese is actually an excellent food for takeout. Unlike pizza, there's no crust to get soggy on the way home, and because most of the dishes are like types of stew, there's not much that affects the character of Chinese food as it travels from restaurant kitchen to table.

I worked with Village Hall's Joe Kreml and Patrick Rollens to produce a video about feijoada as part of our series, "You Really Should Eat This."  So please, watch…and then go eat the feijoada at Taste of Brasil Café.

Name that restaurant where the pictured dish is served and win a $50 gift certificate. We've set up an online survey that will go live on February 27.

I love meatloaf, and I'd like to share my wife's very simple recipe for what I believe is the World's Finest Meatloaf.