About a year and a half ago, I posted about the work of photographer Michael Harlan Turkell, particularly his Back of the House Project, a great series of 25 very candid black and white photos of restaurants and their staff. Turkell recently dropped Slashfood a line, pointing out his photo blog, as well as what appears to be a new photo series called "mise en place". It had been a while since I checked Turkell's site, so the blog was news to me. It appears he's also been commissioned by New York City restaurant blog Eater to photograph the subjects of their "Gatekeepers" series, which profiles "the very folks that stand between you and some of your favorite impossible-to-get-tables." If you've ever worked in the restaurant industry, or if you're just a lover of food, dining and photography, do yourself a favor and check out Turkell's website as well as his blog.

Normally, I don't make a habit of covering sites with the word cute in the URL (I"ll leave that to all you knitting bloggers), but Cooking Cute looks to be a bento site worth noting. The recently launched site has plenty of tips for packing and preparing bento lunches, a glossary of terms, recipes and links to way more bento blogs than I ever knew existed. I'm also fond of the bento calendar, which features photos and links to descriptions of the different meals. And you know, aside from a bunny and a few flowers, the cute isn't that overpowering.

Hopefully, you had a chance to take a look at the gallery of entries for this past month's Does my blog look good in this? photography contest. If so, you'll know that the competition was very tough. Judges spend many grueling (drooling?) hours scrutinizing and rating the pictures before the scores were calculated and the winners were determined. We actually featured the winning entry here at Slashfood weeks before it was entered!

 The overall winners were:
1. Baked Strawberry Pudding
2. Cinnamon Sugar Beignets
3. Blueberry Tarts with Lemon Cream
4. Beet Risotto with Fresh Garlic and Fava Beans
5. Spirale di filo ai Pistacchi

Pictured: Fairly Easy Fairy Cakes (the recipient of the viewer's choice award)

Usually, Andrew puts up a post announcing the entries in the monthly food blog photography competition, Does My Blog Look Good in This? I happen to be in charge of this month's event, though, so I get the honors. All of the entries are simply gorgeous. You can view them here, in the official gallery. The judges for the event will pick a winner at the end of the month, but please leave comments on your favorite photos to give the bloggers some feedback and let the judges know who you think should win. Not that they'll be swayed in their judicial responsibilities, of course, but it certainly can't hurt!

If you have your own food blog and would like to participate, read the submission guidelines. There is still plenty of time to enter.

We've seen strangely shaped watermelons and monster watermelons, but we have yet to see watermelon carving of the magnitude found in this online gallery. The horse and cyclist, shown above, are two of my favorites, though the skiier and Taj Mahal are very impressive. Watermelons are natural canvases for food art due to their large size and thick but easily carved rind. The fact that they are colorful is an added bonus. With a sharp knife and a steady hand, it does not seem like it would be that difficult to carve a basic pattern into a watermelon - after all, thousands of children carve into pumpkins every year, and watermelon carving does not require you to gut the fruit before starting.

The first North American exhibition of the work of eccentric Brazilian artist Artur Barrio is on display at the Levy Gallery at the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The exhibit, entitled Actions after Actions, features lots and lots of coffee. Over 1400 pounds of roasted and ground espresso fill the almost cave-like gallery space, with grounds covering the floor and what was once liquid splashed upon the walls. The smell of coffee not only permeates the 1,800 square foot gallery, but has spread through much of the school's campus. Some students enjoy the smell, not minding when the craving for a fresh espresso suddenly hits them after inhaling a large breath of air. Others experience headaches and irritation brought on by an inability to rid themselves of the aroma of the grounds after a gallery visit.

The exhibit also includes 250 bottles of wine and 200 loaves of bread, as well as 100 pounds of shellac, an insect secretion that was imported from France. The wine is available for guests to drink, but no drinkable coffee is available at the exhibit. Admission is free and the gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10am to 5pm and weekends from 12 noon to 4pm, if you are in the neighborhood. For directions, see the map or simply follow your nose. The exhibit runs though March 19, 2006.

[Photo by Levy Gallery]

While many will discard the peel when they eat an orange, others will save the zest for later use. There are a few who will turn it into a work of art. Jeu d'oranges is a site that hosts a monthly orange peel sculpting contest. The name of the site means Orange Game, or Game of Oranges. To enter your creation, you must carve it out of one whole piece of peel and photograph it on a black background, without letting it harden and dry. Every 15 days, the peel with the greatest number of votes will be posted on the homepage. The site is in French, but you don't need to be fluent to view their amazing orange peel galleries. Another way to make viewing the site easier is to use Google's translation feature to view the page.

Thanks to Bibi for the tip!

In a similar vein to the Moist Towlette Museum and the Condiment Packet Museum, I recently stumbled upon Kim's Page O' Chopsticks. Actually, it's a gallery of dozens of paper chopstick wrappers. Far more subdued than some of the specimens in the towlette museum (I didn't see any Star Trek chopstick wrappers), the art on these little paper sheaths sticks mainly to brushstroke characters and the occasional panda bear (the California Blue Shield wrapper is curious). At any rate, I have a soft spot for these sorts of collections and this one is surely worth a browse. There's also a link to a rather extensive chopstick collection.

One of the most popular comfort foods is meatloaf. But how do you put one together? Meat in a loaf pan? The Meatloaf Pages are here to help with possibly the largest, tested meatloaf recipe collection on the internet. The have recipes from Emeril's Most Kicked Up Meatloaf Ever to the posh Veal, Chicken and Wild Mushroom Loaf, which is fit for the finest restaurant table but simple enough to serve on a weeknight at home. Every recipe includes the observations and comments of their professional, experienced meatloaf chefs, as well as advice for improving the recipes.

And if you're looking for meatloaf inspiration, take a look at the Flickr meatloaf gallery, with photos of meatloaf, meatloaf sandwiches and the most popular meatloaf side dish: mashed potatoes. The photo above is one of my favorites, and a Flickr member's first attempt at homemade meatloaf.