Photo: dohertyseastave.com.

A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.

When is an Irish pub not your typical Irish pub? Well, when the bar has 48 taps featuring some of the best craft beers America has to offer, it certainly sets itself apart.

For the past three years, Doherty's East Avenue in Pawtucket, R.I., has continued to look the part, but don't be fooled by the facade. "When we bought the place, it had a very Irish theme. The building's been here for 60 years," says owner Jack Doherty.

It also had only 12 taps, which was quickly expanded to 48 to accommodate the owner's love of craft beer.

So why keep the Irish angle? "To have a great time on St. Patrick's Day," Doherty happily responds.

Get a glimpse of Doherty's sensational seasonal selection after the jump. ...

British-born, New York-based freelance journalist Mark Ellwood has spent most of his life traveling the globe in pursuit of the finest fashion, furnishings and food. In this brand new series for Slashfood, he highlights the distinctive regional cuisines of his adopted country.

Photo: image415, flickr

Rhode Island is like a gourmet Galapagos, a tiny patch of water-hemmed land that's evolved a separate culture from its surroundings. There are state-specific brands like Del's Lemonade and Autocrat Coffee Syrup, Rhody recipes for jonnycakes and stuffies and even localized tweaks on American staples; only in Rhode Island could clear clam chowder come with an add-to-taste jug of heavy cream to placate visiting Bostonians.

Given locals' culinary passion, it's no wonder this is where the diner was invented by Walter Scott in 1872, who piled up a horse-drawn wagon with pies and sandwiches and stationed it in front of the Providence Journal offices.

How did the smallest state in the union -- barely 1,000 square miles of land -- develop such aggressive, idiosyncratic tastes? In part, thanks to its origins.

"We have this very independent spirit; it's historic, going right back to Williams," explains Linda Beaulieu, author of "The Providence and Rhode Island Cookbook." Indeed, Roger Williams founded the outpost as a rebellion against the Massachusetts Bay Colony's hardline conformism, and that rebellious independence has ricocheted down through Rhode Island's history -- and menus. "Chain restaurants don't do well here at all. In fact a year or two ago, the Red Lobster closed -- people just didn't support it."

Stuffies and quahogs, anyone? Explore more of Rhode Island's culinary offerings after the jump.

• Read about one of Boston's most in-demand bartenders
• Delicious, creamy local goat cheese makes for great croquettes, squash blossoms, tomato soup...
• Want to make our own cheese? Feeling frustrated? Try a kit
• Doughnut Plant has an unbelievable selection of sweet, fluffy pastries, managing to thrive without the hype that so many competitors rely upon
  
• And if you can't make it to Doughnut Plant, try your hand at making your own orbs of sugary goodness
  
• A Boston couple becomes the first U.S. business to exclusively import African wine made by indigenous producers
  
• Find out how the owners of one Rhode Island-based grocery store can afford to keep prices so low
  

For years, doctors, nutritionists and even parents have told people that the key to getting more satisfaction from your food is to eat more slowly. Not only does this allow you to actually enjoy the flavors in your meal, but it was always said to give the brain time to recognize the fact that it was no longer hungry, which would in turn cause you to stop eating. Up until recently, there was no clinical evidence to support that decision.

Dr. Kathleen Melanson, of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, changed all that by conducting a study on college age women to see how much different styles of eating affected their calorie intake. All the women were given a bowl of pasta with tomato and vegetable sauce after eating a 400-calorie breakfast and fasting for four hours. One group of women was given a large spoon and told to eat as quickly as possible, not pausing between bites. The other group was given a small spoon and told to pause in between each bite, setting down the spoon and chewing 15-20 times. The fast eaters ate 646 calories in 9 minutes, while the slower eaters ate only 579 calories in 29 minutes. The slower eaters also reported feeling fuller, longer.

Melanson estimates that eating slowly could reduce the number of calories a person eats by about 210 per day.

Having worked on a dairy farm for a few months, I know how difficult the life can be. At least in that case the final products were artisanal cheeses selling for upwards of $20 a pound. I can't even think what it is like to run a dairy farm selling milk. Even with government subsidies, many of the farmers actually end up selling the milk for less than their costs to produce it. In the Hudson Valley region of NY near me, there were 67 dairy farms in 1997. By 2002 there were only 45, and best estimates are that 23 remain active as of today. All these beautiful old farms are now becoming housing communities the ex-farmers can't even afford to live in.

I am a big fan of buying local and regional products and try to support all the little farmers struggling to make a living. I was very glad to hear about a new member based non-profit company called Hudson Valley Fresh. They buy high quality, hormone free milk from five dairy farms and sell it locally so that consumers can know that their milk is from nearby, not a farm thousands of miles away. The milk isn't certified organic since that is an expensive multi-year process, but it is very good milk that is going to be much fresher than milk that has traveled long distances to get to your store. It may cost a bit more, but the money is passed back to the local farmers who are getting paid much more than the average price for their milk.

New York isn't the only area where local milk is being sold. There are two producers in Rhode Island, Rhody Fresh and The Farmer's Cow offering local milk. So far these local milks are only available in limited quantities but sales are good which means that more will soon be available.. We have to support our local farmers. It's a hard life that requires great dedication and I for one like to know where my food comes from. I also want to keep as many of my dollars in my local community, helping small and family run businesses to not only survive, but to actually make a decent living. I ask all of you to do the same as much as possible I know that it is very difficult to live off of purely local products, but we can all try to do what we can.

It's definitely on the Neanderthal end of the cooking spectrum. It was developed entirely by accident, when George Germon, of Al Forno in Providence, R.I., dropped a steak on the fire without realizing it.

Here's the recipe: take a steak. Preferably a boneless ribeye, and make sure it's "bone dry" - no blood or moisture at all. Burn the wood in your fireplace down to hot embers. Throw in steak. Wait - maybe five minutes per side. Remove. Eat.

Feels a little me Tarzan, you Jane, eh? Betsy Block thought so, too, and while she liked her steak, it just wasn't... what she expected. "But by no means was it -- you know -- breathtakingly good. It didn't taste, say, like a lustful, illicit encounter in a hotel room. What I mean to say, then, is that it wasn't passion on a plate, as I'd imagined. But it was good. It was more than good. It was utterly delicious. Just not like that."

Many of you already know that yogurt contains a helpful bacterium called Lactococcus Lactis that helps maintain a healthy balance in your gut. L. Lactis produces lactic acid, which is used to make cheese, as well as yogurt. Scientists at Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island, have altered the genetic make-up of L. Lactis so that it instead produces something called cyanovirin, a drug that has shown success in preventing HIV infection in monkeys and human cells. Many involved in the project say that this new way of producing the drug could be much cheaper and also serve as a more effective means of delivery than injected vaccines, according to a recent article in Nature. The drug-producing yogurt could be made at regular dairy facilities and it could be taken orally, like probiotic yogurt, or topically as some contraceptives are.