When new bloggers join the Slashfood team, we like to make sure they get a proper introduction to our readers. Meet the latest addition to our team, blog editor Alex Van Buren.

Do you have a personal blog?

Yes. It's where I post recent articles and scribble about various New York City food discoveries.

What is your day job, or rather, what do you do when you're not food blogging?

I am a full-time food nerd. I'm the new editor of Slashfood, have written for Gourmet, Martha Stewart Living, In Style and Time Out New York and am the co-author of "Clean Plates NYC: The Healthiest, Tastiest Restaurants in Manhattan," which published last week.

How long have you been blogging with Slashfood and what's your favorite post?
Here are my faves from each of our great writers during the month I've been editing here: Cheese. Beer. Julia. Egg creams. Cheap wine. Chickens. Croque monsieur. Ostrich eggs. Greek cuisine. Starter cookbooks. Bread pudding ice cream. And let's not forget the flaming bacon lance of death.

As for me, I loved eating dinner in bubble almost as much I enjoyed seeing more than 700 of our readers defend their favorite "bad" beers.

Do you have any non-food-related, non-blogging hobbies?
As a big music fan, I am totally psyched for another summer of lovely outdoor shows here in New York. I also read The New Yorker's short fiction rather obsessively.

Not every foodie does, so we have to ask. Do you cook?
Yup, although I have an insanely small Brooklyn studio kitchen (5-feet by 7) with zero counter space.

What is your most prized utensil/gadget in the kitchen?
I love my cast-iron skillet.

List three things in your refrigerator right now.
Candied ginger, applewood-smoked bacon and Stumptown coffee beans.

You have to impress a date with a meal. What are you going to make?
I'd make him my killer chicken molé, which I picked up from a cooking class up in Massachusetts.

What is the last thing you ate?
Kumquats sautéed in shallots, garlic and olive oil over wilted baby spinach topped with crumbled goat cheese.

Confession time – what do you eat that will get you banned from Slashfood?
Y'all are pretty open-minded, but I suppose in the age of artisanal ice cream, which I adore, I could be critiqued for my occasional stash of Ben and Jerry's Dublin Mudslide.

Your Mom makes the best _____.
My mom used to waitress at Legal Seafoods in Boston. Her simple baked haddock stuffed with bread crumbs and butter would blow your mind.

Which chef would you most like to have come into your kitchen and cook you dinner?
Grant Achatz, to see how his whiz-bang cookin' would holdup in my counter-less kitchen.

With whom would you most like to eat dinner?
Ruth Reichl, Germaine Greer (circa 1971) and Barack Obama -- just to see what their small talk would be like.

Your drink of choice?
In winter I love Old Rasputin Imperial Stout, so thick it will destroy your morale for anything other than cuddling or napping. In summer I pine for vanilla bean-passionfruit sorbet margaritas from a Martha Stewart Living recipe.

Where was your best restaurant dining experience?
It's a tie: A white port-glazed pork chop with apples at Portland (Ore.)'s Le Pigeon was so delicious I almost moved west to be closer to it, but the huevos rancheros I ate once in Mexico City nearly broke my heart.

The worst?
If a cafeteria can be considered a restaurant, the worst would be when I was 6 and found a tiny green worm perched on a lettuce leaf in my forkful of salad. Lettuce and I have not yet totally reconciled.

Do you want fries with that?
Oh, yes.

What foods do you think should be banished from existence?
I have a hard time with tripe, but some folks love it, so banning seems like overkill.

What do you see as the biggest "thing" in food for the coming year?
The Organic Thing and the Sustainable Thing are going to continue to dominate pretty much everything, which I think is great. Also, sea urchins seem to be ready for their close-up.