Adam over at Adjab posted a story about how Salt Lake City's One World Cafe and Denver's SAME Cafe are offering customers organic meals and telling them they can pay whatever they like. If you can afford $10, pay that. If you can only afford 10 cents, pay that. And if you don't have any money at all, then you can wash dishes or do other work at the restaurant to pay off the bill.

Seems like a cool idea to me (I've heard of other restaurants doing this too, so maybe it's a trend), though I wonder how political something like this could get. The restaurants ask richer customers to pay more, so they can balance things out when some customers don't pay anything. Seems like a classic Republican/Democrat debate, only at one particular business, a restaurant.

I also like the idea of some sort of barter system for restaurants and other businesses. Though I once tried to buy a new Lexus with a bunch of oranges and they just laughed in my face.

Road trips are the best way to go outside of your comfort zone and dig up some new eats. It's hard to be choosy when there is only one dining option for 50 miles, but how do you know which one of the last 50 diners is the best one for lunch? And is fast food really your only dinner option? Because the Michelin guide is too conservative to take on the whole United States, New York Times writer Christine Muhlke decided to do it herself. With her boyfriend and a 1978 Porsche 911 Targa, they hit the road to eat burgers and fries and to see what local chefs are doing across the country.

Aiming for good food at the rather extreme price points, Muhlke compiled lists of low priced and expensive eats from magazines, chefs, friends and the Zagat guide before hitting the road. On the low side, highlights included a stop at the Cheeseboard Collective in Berkeley, CA and Shotgun Bubba’s BBQ in California, MO. Pricey favorites also popped up at every stop, from Metropolitan in Salt Lake City, UT to 40 Sardines in Kansas City, KS.

The short list won't make it into book form any time soon, but it's still a nice resource if you're traveling.