Chances are, if you didn't make reservations last year for Valentine's Day this year, you might be out of luck, unless of course, you don't mind sitting across a table covered with a white tablecloth, candles, roses and...tiny square hamburgers?

White Castle is having their annual Valentine's Day celebration on Thursday February 14, 2008 at their restaurants around the country. But you can't just saunter in during the event, which lasts from 5 - 9 PM. Reservations are required. Check the White Castle website for locations and to make reservations.

With all the legislation and lobbying we have here in the United States to get cigarette smokers out of all public areas, you'd never think that banning cigarettes from a restaurant would actually be a bad thing.

That's because we're not talking about the United States, where entire states like California have banned smoking not just from restaurants but in public areas.

We're dining out in China.

In Beijing, customers deserted the city's first smoke-free restaurant chain, Meizhou Dongpo, leaving it with the possibility of going out of business. Apparently, the Chinese are the world's most smoking-est people. This is great news for cigarette companies, but a problem for Chinese authorities that want to "clean up" China's reputation in international eyes.

I don't know about anyone else, but even when I was a smoker a long time ago, I never appreciated second-hand smoke in a restaurant where I was dining.

Amazon is selling gift certificates to restaurants that range in value anywhere from $10 to $25, but selling them for a fraction of that value. For example, a $25 gift certificate for the New York Deli in Century City (Los Angeles) is only $10. The certificates are provided by restaurant.com and are for quite a long list of cities.

They might not be the highest end restaurants out there, but the places that are participating are decent enough for a good meal. There are some restrictions on the certificates, e.g. "dine-in only" and/or "weekdays only," but for the most part, it doesn't seem like a bad deal.

I wonder if they'll ever have one for The French Laundry.

Recorking is a term applied when a partially full bottle of wine is re-sealed so that the patron can take it to-go if they haven't finished it by the time their meal is over. Some restaurants even stock specially sized bags - clear in states that require it and discrete brown in most other locations - for packing up the unfinished bottles. Packing up bottles of wine is less common than packing a regular doggie-bag, so not all restaurants will have appropriate bags, but even without them, restaurants are starting to use recorking as a means of increasing their margins, boosting liquor sales by encouraging patrons to buy bottles, rather than just a glass at a time.

Getting the bottles to-go can be trickier than it sounds, however. Thirty-four states may currently allow it, but forty states have open-container laws that prohibit open bottles of alcohol, even corked ones, from being in a moving vehicle (the specifics depend on the state).

Difficulties of getting the bottle home aside, does recorking make you more likely to go for the full bottle? Would it if a favorite restaurant began to offer the service?

Pizza?!?! He's taking you out to grab a slice of pizza?!?! Forget it. What kind of cheapskate/Peter Pan/unimaginative guy is he!??! Drop him!

Don't pretend like you haven't done it before -- judged a guy (or girl) before you've even met, based on where they want to go on the first date. Fancy expensive reservations-30-days-in-advance-only and you're impressed, right? KFC drive-thru and...well, you get the picture.

Though they don't have an opinion about pizza, AOL has put together a short feature about what his restaurant/cuisine choice could say about him. If you don't have the time to read through it, here's the lowdown:

• Tapas - "don't expect a commitment from this professional dabbler anytime soon"
• Seafood - "it's nice to spend time with somebody who believes money is no object, but if he never lets you forget it..."
• Pancake house - "a guy who knows what he wants, and exactly where to go to get it"
• Sushi - "an eclectic lifestyle, so he wants to try everything"
• Mexican - "hot and spicy guy is the kind that will dance the night away"
• Chinese - "he needs a little motivation"
• Steakhouse - "since he won't stray too far from the norm, he could be a huge bore"
• Italian - "you've got a serious romantic on your hands"
• Burgers and fries - "likes it straight, so he can save himself for the BMX race he's in"

And you thought a two-month advance reservation for French Laundry in California's Napa Valley was a big deal? Try going out in New York City. If you were lucky enough to have a hotel room at the Marriott Marquis, you made that reservation in 1983. Dinner too? The Rainbow Room was completely booked for New Year's Eve 1999 four years in advance.

It's not quite so difficult to land reservations in premier spots these days. Sure it takes some careful planning, a lot of patience, and some quick reflexes on the redial button. An article in the New York Times lists some of the slightly more difficult tables in the city -- Per Se, Mario Batali's Babbo, Le Bernardin -- and a good strategy for "getting in."

The Chicago Tribune brought up an interesting question this week: when should a server clear your plate from the table? Should a server remove plates as a diner finishes them, regardless of whether dining companions are finished? Or should the server wait until the end, when everyone has finished, and clear the entire table at once?

Some people belong to the "Clear at the End" camp, thinking it rude. It disrupts the conversation at the table, and may make fellow diners who have not finished eating, feel rushed.

Other people belong to the "Clear as You Go" camp, and according to Emily Post, this is a newer practice. The argument is that clearing plates keeps the dining table less cluttered, and in fact, many diners see this as attentive service on the part of the waitstaff. Additionally, I know that some people like to have plates of unfinished food removed because they don't want to continue to pick at it.

It is not surprising to note that a meal eaten at a restaurant is more expensive than one eaten at home. You are paying for the cooking and service, as well as for the food itself. What is surprising is that people are actually spending more money eating out than eating at home overall.

Official figures released in Britain show that people are spending £2 billion more on restaurant food than on food that they might cook themselves. On top of that, spending on food and drink has more than doubled in the same time period, which indicates that people are eating more food, more often.

With the rise in popularity of cooking programs and the ever-growing trend for gourmet home cooking, it is possible that the numbers will hold as they are, though few people want to give up "exotic" foods that they think they can't cook at home, like curries and sushi.

While we might only think of yogurt when it comes to breakfast time, in cultural cuisines from Greece to India, yogurt is a staple ingredient in salads. Recipes are for: Turkish Eggplant & Pepper Salad with Walnuts & Yogurt, Greek Yogurt, Garlic, Cucumber & Fennel Dip (Tzatziki Me Maratho), Tomato Raita, Persian Spinach Salad (Borani Esfanaj), Iranian Yogurt & Cucumber Dip with Raisins & Walnuts (Mast-O Khiar), Crispy Okra Raita, and Beet Tzatziki.

Olivia Wu continues her exploration of Shanghai and shares a recipe for Farmstead-inspired Hangzhou Chicken Soup.

Readers inspire search for a recipe for Nut-filled Butterhorns.

Coffee addict? It's too hot for steaming hot cup of joe, so try a Coffee Granita or a Gelee de Caffe instead.

Burgers come with a side of glam in Los Angeles, where meat between buns is the "it" meal of the year, with recipes for the Terrace Duck Burger and the Sirloin Burger from the Sunset Tower Hotel, and the Stonehill Tavern Kobe Beef Burger. There's also a listing of places around LA for top-notch "glam" burgers.

In and around the farmers' markets, Mas Masumoto's peaches are in high demand. Recipes are for Masumoto's Peach Quencher (drink) and his wife's Peach Cobbler. The Big Blue Bus in Santa Monica will be featuring ads for the 25th Anniversary of the Farmers' Markets.

Out on the restaurant scene, SIV gives Thaitalian Cooking Duet one star (*) for their Thai Italian fusion. Betty Hallock find restaurants that do dessert tasting menus.

Jonathan Gold just might be the most popular food critic in Los Angeles, especially with Chowhounds, who love him because he spends just as much time in bargain strip-mall finds as he does in higher end restaurants. This week, in the LA Weekly, Gold put out his list of the 99 essential LA restaurants. They're not the best, the most expensive or even the most famous, but they all made the list because they reflect LA and inspire people to think about food in a new way. "And it's also a damned good place to eat."  Gold describes how and why he made his choice for each selection on the list, but even without the extra information, there are too many to list here. As a sampling, the list includes: A.O.C., Border Grill, Campanile, Geisha House, Mama's Hot Tamales Cafe, Pink's, Spago and Wat Thai.

You'll have to read through the whole thing yourself to find out the rest.

Maki at i was just really very hungry posted a great guide on how to take food photos in restaurants and other public places. A prolific blogger and writer, she has extensive experience and, judging from her photos, is good at what she does. Now, with some practice (and a good camera), getting quality photos at home isn't too difficult because you have the control over the lighting and there is not time pressure because there isn't anyone at the next table peeking over to see what you're doing.

Restaurants can be challenging places to shoot if they're dark, quiet or crowded, and because they are places of business, it is important to be unobtrusive. Maki uses three different cameras, ranging from a professional model to a camera phone for taking her photos. While she prefers to use the pro camera, there are situations were the other two are simply more appropriate, such as trying to be discrete with a camera in a restaurant. Beyond camera selection, here are a few of her tips for taking good food photos away from home:

For a foodie voyeur, MenuPages is highly addictive. The site has been around for a while as a resource for people who dine out in NY. It has addresses, phone numbers, and most importantly, scanned images of the restaurant's menu so that we can see what's available and for how much. Sure, lots of restaurant review sites have dollar signs to indicate about how much one would spend on a three course meal, tax and tip (not) included, but for me, those three $$$ mean nothing. I like to know how much certain things are. 

MenuPages has recently launched in LA. Not a few days later, MenuPix also launched its site, offering the exact same kind of resource! And to think I was going to do the same thing on my own blog! I guess great minds think alike.

Has anyone used either or both sites? What do you think? Which is better?

Lately, the problem of portion size has been all over the news. Unsurprisingly, the general consensus is that in order to curb the "obesity epidemic" and improve the heath and nutrition of most people, especially Americans, portion sizes need to be kept under control.

Great idea - but how can it be put into effect?

Since it is impossible to control how much people pile onto their plates when they're at home, thoughts are turning to restaurants to monitor how much they dish out to patrons. The theory is that if a diner isn't served 3 pounds of pasta, s/he can't eat 3 pounds of pasta. But this means that every single restaurant would have to reduce their portion sizes and risk losing customers, because customers are attracted to whatever they feel is a good value. If only one restaurant did not reduce portion sizes, customers would continue to patronize it because the temptation of a good value (and thus the opportunity to overeat) is incredibly hard to resist.

Though it make take more time, continuing to educate people about proper nutrition and healthy eating habits is a better way to go. Trying for force people to accept smaller portion sizes won't resort in happier, healthier people, but in a lot of people who resent being told what to eat. Once everyone wants to maintain a reasonably healthy lifestyle (one without 3-pound dishes of pasta), things like portion size will sort themselves out. Value will be in the quality and taste of the food more than the quantity.

It's not often that you see Dr. Joyce Brother's answer a question pertaining to food, but this seems like an issue that could be a problem for many foodies. No, it's not a 9 1/2 Weeks sort of thing. The question is about what to do when an adventurous eater is interested in someone who is not only picky and unadventurous ("the culinary tastes of a 6-year-old) in their eating habits, but is also entirely uninterested in changing.

Dr. Joyce said that the foodie is better off finding someone who can share her interest in food, since cooking and meals are not only important to her, but are a huge part of everyday life. It can be difficult to choose restaurants and menus when dining with friends if one or two people only ever want a cheeseburger and fries - imagine how much more frustrating that would be in a relationship when the issue comes up three times a day. Even if she could put aside her interests from time to time, it would only cause friction in the relationship as time went on.

It's sound advice. But the temptation must be there to try and convince the unwilling eater to expand his or her horizons. Has anyone succeeded in converting the PB&J devotee to something a little more exciting?