"poll" news and stories

Got a family favorite or a calorie-laden comfort food classic you'd love to see lightened up? Vote for your favorite, or let us know in the comments below.

Photo: Knopf

In case you were wondering to what extent the mania for "Julie and Julia'" had gripped the nation, Sunday's New York Times delivered the answer.

This August 30, nearly half a century after the book was published in America, Child's classic tome "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" will be listed in the number one spot on the gray lady's bestseller list in the how-to category. The paper reports booksellers selling seven times as many copies in a month as they are accustomed to selling in a year.

This is not a small deal, particularly for the struggling publishing industry. Blogger Julie Powell is of course largely responsible for the surge of interest in the French Chef, and we wonder whether top Knopf execs have been bombarding her with flowers and thank-you notes.

More importantly, we are curious about how many of our own readers have invested in the book because of the blog or the movie. So spill it in our poll: Have you bought Child's cookbook? When? Tell us why in the comments.

Photo: Noble House Wines

Gretchen Roberts writes the wine blog Vinobite, has passed the introductory course at the Court of Master Sommeliers and is studying for her sommelier certification this fall.

A new Wine Spectator survey shows that even hardcore oenophiles are downshifting their vino spending. For those of us with modest budgets, here are five more wine steals. This week's theme is international, because even with our dismal exchange rate with most countries and the additional taxes, shipping and middlemen fees, imports are without question some of the best juice in the wine aisle.

5. Bodega Luigi Bosca "Finca la Linda" Torrontes 2008, Argentina ($11): This wine smells like a Viognier with its powerful orange blossom and jasmine aromas. It tastes of lemon, green apples, flowers and minerals, with a nice backbone of acidity to balance out the rather high alcohol (14 percent).

Four more wine steals plus a wine personality poll after the jump.

A receipt. Photo: Rick, Flickr

Hanna Raskin's first waitressing job was at a small Greek diner in Michigan. In the 15 years since, she's worked at a chop suey joint in Mississippi, an exclusive Arizonan country club, a vegetarian eatery and an Irish pub. She currently picks up odd shifts at a seafood eatery in the North Carolina mountains, where she cracks crab legs for helpless tourists. This is the fourth in a series of posts.

"Writers of almost all the nations in the world have denounced the custom, but there will never be any change, for the reason that there is not enough profit in the restaurant business to allow paying the waiters good living wages," wrote bartender extraordinaire Harry Johnson in 1882.

In the eyes of many, the practice of tipping is inequitable but unavoidable. Some even find the custom downright strange: Outside of restaurants, it's pretty much impossible to procure any goods or services without first committing to pay a certain price. For example, try paying for your next movie ticket after the film.

If a restaurant patron bolts without paying his bill, he's committed a crime. Even if he thinks his steak was overcooked and his salad was soggy, protocol calls for him to ante up for whatever he ordered (unless he's sent it back). But if he stiffs his server, he's exercised his prerogative.

So here's a radical suggestion: Why not make service a menu item?

Absinthe drip and sugar cube. Photo: Alex Van Buren.

So we've been all about Bastille Day for the last 24 hours, from petanque to moules frites, brioche burger buns to a gorgeous vegetable tian and even a Francophile-friendly absinthe-spiked cocktail.

We're not the only ones itching to get out the door and toast our friends in the Old Country (or the wonderful eats and drinks they've sent our way). For those who will celebrating the occasion at home, Chow has recipes for three lovely terrines; Serious Eats discovers the tapenades of Provence; and one of Slashfood's own beer columnists breaks down Saison style beer at Gourmet while his colleague tackles eight great aperitifs, several of which are French.

Perhaps the triumph of the online articles, however, is France Magazine's enormous feature on aperitifs. From Lillet to Suze to Noilly Prat, it's all there, and we'll be printing it out and tucking it into our bag. (They've just unlocked the online files especially for Slashfood.) Happy celebrating!