• What's the secret to cooking the perfect tuna?
• Cognac is back.
• Pot au feu.
• Mmmm...cloned meat.
• Do you stay in for dinner on Sunday or do you go out?
• These guys want to get rid of paper cups.
• Restaurant reviews: Mangia, Owen and Ollie's, and Pie Bakery & Cafe.
• More recipes: Soupa Avgolemono, Linzer Torte, and Indian Pudding.

• Here's an interesting idea: let's get rid of restaurant menus!
• The Best New Wine Lists of 2007.
• A list of products and trends you'll see in the kitchen in the next few years.
• Three interesting burgers to try this July 4th.
• Speaking of the 4th, a French chef shows you how to grill a steak.
• Heading to Richmond, VA? Check out this guide to the city.
• If you're not going to Richmond, how about Paris?
• How to preserve summer flavors.
• This month's recipes: Blueberry-Lemon Parfait, Summer Melon with Crab, Potato Salad with Bacon and BBQ Sauce, Tuna with Provencal Vegetables, Almond Ice Milk, and Cucumber-Basil Martini.

I've always thought it was weird and creepy that food mascots tell you to eat the food that they are representing. Animated chickens tell you to eat chicken, Charlie The Tuna wants you to buy Starkist Tuna, and that annoying talking Mini-Wheats guy helps you with your spelling and wants you to eat him and his friends. Gah.

Suicide Food is a blog that keeps track of all these mascots, and the world of that sort of advertising in general. The site describes itself as "any depiction of animals that act as though they wish to be consumed. Suicide Food actively participates in or celebrates its own demise. Suicide Food identifies with the oppressor. Suicide Food is a bellwether of our decadent society. Suicide Food says, "Hey! Come on! Eating meat is without any ethical ramifications! See, Mr. Greenjeans? The animals aren't complaining! So what's your problem?" Suicide Food is not funny."

While there are worries about mercury and other toxins in seafood, fish is still a healthy source of protein, high in omega-3 fatty acids and other vitamins and minerals, that people love to eat. But adding one more negative strike to seafood is the issue of sustainability. Some species are over-fished and others are simply discarded when caught due to a lack of demand. Farming can be a solution in some instances, but not all, and keeping track of what types of fish are the safest and most environmentally friendly can be a challenge.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a Seafood Watch (SFW) program that is designed to help make seafood consumers' lives easier. Their website aims to provide enough information to help people learn more about sustainable seafood and make more environmentally sound choices. They provide a printable guide that gives you an idea of the good and bad choices in different areas of the country, or you can browse the guide online, if you don't need to take it along with you.

Funny how things come in groups. Just yesterday I mentioned the top tinned tuna recommendations from the Times and today in the Observer Food Monthly more tuna. As part of their store cupbaords taste test OFM recommends the folllowing. But who would pay 5 pence short of twelve quid for 210g of bottled tuna??

• Sangiolaro Tuna (210g £11.95 Harrods) "Strong flavour buit nice. I like the long cuts of the fillets"
• Waitrose Ventresca (120g £3.99 Waitrose) "Really good. Nice big chunks and perfect seasoning. I can eat this on its own"
• Ortiz (220g £6.50 Fortnum and Mason) "Very natural and not too salty"
• M&S Tuna (150g 89p Marks and Spencer) "Very bog standard. FIne for a sandwich, It's got that typical tinned tuna taste"
• Fish 4ever (120g £2.79) "Extremely bland. It just doesn't taste of anything at all"

Tinned Tuna is tinned tuna right? It comes in a tin with either oil, spring water or brine. Not by a long shot people. You can get the cheap stuff full of skin, reconstituted bone scrapings or, at the other end of the scale, the choicest, firmest flakes. A little taste test in todays Times slates Waitrose own and others but recommends -

Ortiz Bonito del Norte En Aceite de Oliva (220g £4.95) "nice and chunky.... tastes as tuna ought to"

John Nest Selected Light Tuna Slices in Sunflower oil (120g £1.09) "Not bad at all. It's never going to be as tasty as tuna steak, but these pink fillets are not overly processed"

Charles Basset Thon Blanc À l'Huile d'Olives (£1/69 80g) "Lots of olive oil here but at least its decent quality and stops the meat being too dry"

Cook's Country had an interesting taste test in this month's issue. They pitted canned tunas against the newer pouch-packaged tunas. The pouch tunas claim to be fresher and less processed, though in all likelihood, the amount of processing that goes into each product is probably similar. Pouches may take up less room in the lunch bag, but cans also have the advantage of being recyclable. With plusses and minuses on both sides, Cook's Country looked for the brand that tasted the best.

Eight brands of solid white albacore packed in water, the most popular tuna variety, were sampled and canned tuna took four of the five top spots. The primary reason was that canned tuna offered bigger and meatier chunks of fish, while the smaller and less-supportive pouches offered a mushier, less appealing, texture. In general, tasters preferred tuna with a mild flavor, too, and their preference reflects in the rankings:

Top Picks

• Chicken of the Sea, canned
• Starkist, canned

Runners-Up

• Starkist, pouch
• Geisha, canned
• Diamonds, canned
• Chicken of the Sea, pouch

Don't Bother

• Bumble Bee, canned
• Bumble Bee, pouch

The big hullabaloo about mercury levels in tuna didn't really include canned light tuna, because, presumably, it has always had a much lower mercury content than white tuna. However, Consumer Reports analyzed the FDA data of canned light tuna and found that some canned light tunas do indeed have at least as much mercury as the regular white tuna.

While most canned light tunas have only about 1/3 the mercury of regular albacore tuna, 6% of the CR's samples had the higher levels, which could pose a health threat to pregnant women and developing fetuses. The FDA has not warned consumers about this potential risk because they do not see it as a problem.

Consumer Reports answers ten crucial questions regarding the mercury levels in canned tuna, and also offer some fish alternatives that have little to no mercury risk.

The warnings abour high levels of mercury in fish such as tuna have been hitting the foodie airwaves for a few months now, even affecting sushi consumption in local restaurants. However, the warning about mercury levels won't appear on canned tuna after Judge Robert L. Dondero of the San Francisco Superior Court ruled in favor of the tuna canners -  mercury levels are not high enough to to require printed health warnings on the product. Furthermore, tuna is exempt from such health warnings because mercury is naturally occurring in fish.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Deputy State Attorney General Susan Fiering say that the ruling is dangerous because poorer women who don't know about the FDA Advisory warning about mercury and who do not have access to information via the Internet will not be aware of the mercury danger.

The tuna companies, however, believe that the ruling favors consumers because such a warning might scare consumers away from a "healthy, economical food."

AdJab picks Orville Redenbacher, Sonny the Cuckoo Bird (cuckoo for CoCo Puffs!), Snap, Crackle and Pop! (they come as a package deal), Charlie the Starkist Tuna, Sugar Bear, Hamburger Helper Hand (which always freaked me out because he doesn't have five fingers), and Colonel Sanders.

Who are the food mascot "men" you remember?

I'm not shy about my opinions on sushi rolls. I don't hate rolls. I just happen to have a personal preference for sashimi and some nigiri sushi, that's all. The fact that most rolls are overly-pumped with ridiculous ingredients, some of which have no place at all in sushi (steak and cream cheese?!?), are accessorized with strangely sweet, creamy, unidentifiable sauces, and are accordingly named WWF things like "Godzilla" and "Monster Crunch" has nothing to do with it at all. Really.

However, there are a few rolls that I really do like. While I do understand that many people simply adore the California roll, especially ones that are made with real kani, I am not a huge fan. However, I love the spicy tuna roll. The thing about spicy tuna is that it isn't even "spiced" with something like wasabi or togarashi. Most sushi bars I've seen use the little green tipped bottle of chili sauce - sriracha. When I see that, I ask the chef to add a little more to the tuna bits to make it extra spicy.

Once, I had a spicy tuna roll that had a little bit ofmayo mixed in with the tuna and spice. I didn't like that one too much.

Tired of sandwiches that get mushy and soggy from the filling soaking in the bread? Most people have learned to avoid this by packing their fillings - such as tuna or sauces - on the side and assembling the sandwich immediately before eating. This technique doesn't work with preassembled, prepacked sandwiches, of the variety found in refrigerated cases at grocery and convenience stores. While I prefer to avoid this type of food, others have worked to turn them into non-soggy lunchtime options. Diana's Homegrown has patented a pull-out pouch system that keeps the filling separate from the bread.

This is a great idea until the reality sinks in that your convenience store sandwich may have been stored for quite some time before you purchased it. In fact, CNN said, "The technology extends the lifespan of an unrefrigerated sandwich by as much as a month." Sandwiches should not last this long. No bread that is worth eating should last this long completely undamaged, even if it is kept "fresh" by refrigeration. This presents an opportunity for another company to sell packaged sandwiched fillings in a wide variety of flavors - which is a great idea - and to let the consumers provide their own bread.

John Ash says he thinks of pasta as the "blank canvas of cooking" and he has the highest and mightiest possible title of a cookbook, ever in Cooking One on One: Private Lessons in Simple, Contemporary Food From a Master Teacher.

Yet the recipe he offers on the wires today is essentially tuna noodle casserole, done beautifully (and simply). His sauce packs a whallop with both tuna (he suggests a higher-quality tuna than this Chicken of the Sea from my *ahem* collection) and anchovy fillets.