• Tweak your Easter meal into a meaningful celebration of spring, rebirth and renewal with these recipes for Parsi Deviled Eggs, Fall-Apart Lamb Shanks With Almond-Chocolate Picada, Chopped Greens, Carrot and Dill Salad with Yogurt Dressing, Smashed Greek Potatoes and Chocolate Malted Pudding With Marshmallows and Coconut.
• The food section editors take on a canned tuna taste test, in order to determine what is the best flavor bang for your buck.
  
• Columnist Rick Nichols offers a particularly lovely column about finding a replace for the beloved wooden bowl he broke during a kitchen remodel.
  
• The Rush Hour Gourmet throws together a Moroccan Vegetable Ragout in a hurry.
  
• Local restaurants struggle with rising food costs, the Market Basket is full of sweets and spring-y products and Table Talk is chock full of local restaurant gossip.

Half of the sugar grown in the US comes from Louisiana, so it only makes sense that cooks down there know how to make good use of cane syrup and molasses in addition to regular sugar. The sugar alternatives are especially popular around the holidays, when there are so many sweet treats to be had, including Louisiana Gingerbread (Stage Planks or Mule Bellies) , Cane Syrup Popcorn Balls , and Cane Syrup Cake (Gâteau de Sirop) . (Incidentally, I didn't know that cane syrup over thickly buttered white bread is called a diaper sandwich. But the name would probably stop me from trying it.)

One of the world's largest groups of Hasidic Jews originated Hungary, so it isn't surprising to learn that there is a lot of traditional Hungarian-Jewish food that is popular around the holidays. Dishes like Cheese Danish Pastries (Delkelekh), Hungarian Stuffed-Under-the-Skin Chicken and Hungarian Eggs with Tomatoes, Peppers and Onions (Letcho) are especially popular and making them means not only getting good food, but spending time with family.

The "truffle truck" is the name that chefs have affectionately given to John Magazino's truck, which he uses to deliver truffles, caviar and other ultra-high end foods to the best restaurants in New York.

Au Pied de Cochon - The Album is a cookbook from Marting Picard and the staff at Au Pied de Cochon, full of crazy illustrations and some very high-quality recipes for those who take their pork seriously.

Frank Bruni dines at Cafe Cluny and gives it 1 star.

Mark Bittman, the minimalist, offers a very quick primer on sugar.

Meats are great dishes to serve cold, especially at a picnic, on a hot day, but because they seem to loose some of their character during overnight storage, make sure to up the flavor to begin with. Marinades and rubs are great choices and result in less mess than sauces do. Serve them with easy summer salads.

Don't bring your Blackberry to a dinner party. Sitting at the table and using it is simply rude, even if the food is awful.

Up and coming chef Andrew Weissman is setting a new standard for french food (pictured) - from San Antonio, Texas.

Some NY wine lovers still have issues with California wines, but the chardonnays seem to get better all the time. Try pairing them with a great salmon dish.

Learning how to cook when you shop exclusively at a farmer's market can be challenging, since it is so different and so seasonal. But when you live above NYC's Greenmarket, there isn't much choice and once you've eaten food that is "fresh off the farm" in the middle of the city, how could you go back?

Barley is good for you and full of fiber. It also tastes great in summer dishes like Corn and Barley Salad and Chilled Yogurt and Barley Soup.

The Shake Shack lets you get a look at the line, which will be a long one, via its webcam before you even get there.

The minimalist, Mark Bittman, tackles tomatillos.

Frank Bruni gives the new Mr Chow a "satisfactory" rating. You might want to opt for Daisy May's BBQ U.S.A., which is a Times "Top Pick."

We've already started our Sarah G. vs Sarah G., Seattle vs Pittsburgh super food war. The Seattle Times can't miss out with its volley across the bow of the S.S. Seahawk.

• Make a meal out of your Super Bowl food with recipes for Seattle seafood chowder; hot smoked salmon dip; apple-glazed ham (Washington apples I hope!); sandwiches made with apple chutney to use up that yummy ham; and a Northwest Waldorf salad (which is pitiful, honestly, couldn't it have included hazelnuts instead of walnuts? what's Northwest about a Waldorf salad? it's from New York City for goodness' sake).
• Nancy Leson gives some recommendations for takeout (if you're too excited to cook), like Ezell's Famous Chicken, Sushiland, and Salumi Artisan Cured Meats.
• Skip the Budweiser and try some microbrews - and learn how to pronounce "hefeweizen" - it's HAY-fe-VITE-tzen, for the record.

When we did our decidedly inspired D day yesterday, we hadn't yet seen Nigel Slater's occasional series on the ABCs of food. He's in the middle of the alphabet, now, and is hitting the highlights between "F" and "L." Here's a rundown:

• F is for the Fairtrade mark and fish, especially fresh sustainable and (yes) Fairtrade fish.
• F is for farmer's markets.
• G is for game and grilling - Nigel suggests a stew of pigeon and rabbit with bacon, rough red wine and button mushrooms.
• I is for Internet shopping and Italy - "our second gastronomic home."
• J is for Japanese food. Nigel gives us a "recipe" for salted edamame beans.
• K is for kitchen; Nigel celebrates the movement to break down walls between kitchen and dining room.
• L is for lime, "the flavor of the moment," "most fashionable fruit next to the pomegranate," showing up in everything from "grilled garlic-infused scallops to ginger-spiked chicken soup" to lime zest in chocolates.

[Photo Sarah Gilbert]

• June, August and September were the favorite months for new recipes, and the editors picked out Curry Chicken Burger with Carrot Salad, Alaskan Salmon with Warm Blackberry and Shallot Compote, Roasted Kohlrabi with Garlic and Parmesan and Three Berry Crisp with Butter-Nut Crumb Topping among their faves.
• Paul Gregutt is excited: the 2005 vintage in Washington should be one of the best ever. He also can't wait to see the results of the Winegrower's Sustainable Trust, sample wines from the new Col Solare winery, or hang out at Taste Walla Walla this March.
• The Diet Detective answers questions about caffeine; you can safely consume up to 300 milligrams a day; it will interfere with your sleep cycle; but it won't sober you up.