Enjoy Copenhagen

So there you are in Belarus, supping on beet soup and rye bread, getting all stinky on kvas. The bill comes and you reach for your wallet. To tip or not to tip, you wonder. You try to remember the advice dispensed in your uncreased copy of Lonely Planet: Belarus, but the details are pretty fuzzy at this point in the night. If you have a fancy phone however, a quick tutorial on Belarusian tipping etiquette is a few pecks away.

The brainchild of Harry Peters, one of the minds behind the site What The F*** Should I Make For Dinner?, How Much Should I F***ing Tip? allows the curious Internet surfer to learn all about tipping customs in different places. Results include suggestions for tipping taxi drivers, waiters, hotel porters and housekeepers, as well as handy notes for enrichment and amusement.

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Courtesy Wordpress

Screenshot of Confit by Wordpress

It's a cry that's been uttered many times: Why are restaurant websites so bad? Why do web designers, in cahoots with chefs and owners, think that we want to see a fancy Flash presentation collage of your restaurant and hear smooth jazz but we have no interest in say, the hours, or address, or access to a reservation?

It's such a confounding problem that last year Slate wrote a whole article on the issue, coming up with a few theories about why even great restaurants tend to have terrible websites, including this one:

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Foodists, dieters and food allergy sufferers can now find dates through a medium that they care about -- dining. Sameplate.com, a new dating website, helps single people find romance through food, the one thing we all have in common. The first and only dating site in the U.S. that matches couples based on the food they eat or don't eat, as well as the diet they follow, Sameplate.com was launched in July 2012 by Jeff Nimoy, an Emmy-winning writer and producer.

Nimoy, who is on an organic food diet, said that he realized he needed to find a woman who has the same diet if he ever wanted to date again. It also occurred to him that sometimes different food preferences are the deal breakers in a relationship.

"Once you are eating together," Nimoy says, "The rest will take care of itself."

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Guzzle & Nosh

Gelato at Gelato Bar

Last week, the Carpigiani Gelato Museum opened in Anzola dell'Emilia, Italy, just outside Bologna; the first in the world, it says, to "delve into the history, culture, and technology of artisan gelato." Inside, you'll learn about the history of the frozen treat, from an 11th century recipe for pomegranate sorbet to a collection of gelato machines. We don't know if the museum also pays tribute to the role of gelato on the liberated woman's journey to self-discovery, but we certainly hope so.

Gelato is the subject of just one of many, many museums dedicated to the food we eat (or, sometimes, don't). Turn the page for a few amusing, sometimes amusingly serious, museums of food.

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El Ronzo via flickr

Zagat published a story on Monday that lists the "10 Telltale Signs of a Good Restaurant." And either these "good restaurants" are stuck in a time warp, or they're seriously trying to get you to spend as much money as possible.

Apparently, good restaurants are the kind that fold your napkin every time you get up, have a coat check, stock expensive soap in the bathroom and have a "bread sommelier."

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Flickr/ravensong75

cows

Kids these days! Who can tell what they want? Nation's Restaurant News, that's who.

The industry magazine, which, to be fair (or actually to be really, really condescending but still accurate), mainly caters to the owners of Applebee's somewhere in rural Ohio, has published a story about the 7 ways to cater to Millennials (that's old people code for young people). Apparently, these young people are attractive to old restaurant owners because there are a lot of them and, while you certainly don't want them on your lawn you do want them to spend money in your restaurants. And so, Nation's Restaurant News has offered some handy advice for what the crazy kids want.

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djjewelz/Flickr

Bánh mì at Red Medicine

In case you missed the latest bird whose feathers are being ruffled, writer and Gilt Taste features editor Francis Lam recently penned a The New York Times piece entitled, "Cuisines Mastered as Acquired Tastes," in which he pondered how American chefs like Andy Ricker become successful in cooking cuisines outside their familial roots. Or, in Lam's words, "New York already has nearly 300 restaurants run by Thais, so it is notable (and more than a little curious) that the man [Ricker] expected to lead the city to the papaya-salad promised land is a white chef from the Pacific Northwest."

In exploring the why, Lam glosses over the various historical -isms (racism, sexism, classism, etc.) that give American chefs a significant advantage over minorities. Instead, he devotes the bulk of the article to the "more complicated reasons" -- as if American privilege were not complicated enough -- for their success, including, "Distance may allow a chef to explore traditions without the baggage of having to follow Mom's recipes to the letter, even if the goal is to stay true to the original dishes."

Cue Eddie Huang, chef and owner of New York's BaoHaus, who disagrees, to say the least. Their conversation spills over to the webpages of Gilt Taste, the transcript of which is printed as one long piece called, "Is it Fair for Chefs to Cook Other Cultures' Foods?"

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www.thejoykitchen.com/

The Joy Website

Sure, we could interpret The Joy of Cooking's new website (!) as yet another sign of the cookbook publishing industry's demise, a near-certain Armageddon of the printed recipe word. If a book that has been in print continuously since the 1930s (and sold nearly 20 million copies) has jumped ship to go online, then maybe we really should all consider using our iPads as cutting boards in protest.

Not to worry, the website is more about The Joy of Cooking brand than about the book. And it's a pretty great place for novice home cooks to learn a thing or two.

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Barbara Fairchild wrote on her Facebook page and on Twitter earlier this afternoon that Real Eats, the weekly digital food magazine she edits, is ceasing publication: "Sorry to report this issue of Real Eats is our last. Was fun while it lasted. Thanks to all my great writers, and the talented crew in NYC." Fairchild confirmed by email that today's issue is the publication's last.

Fairchild, longtime editor of Bon Appetit, was named editor of Real Eats last December, and had been a columnist there for roughly a year before becoming editor. Real Eats has been published by Nomad, which since 2010 has made digital-only publications designed for mobile devices like the iPad. Yesterday Nomad also stopped publication of BodySmart, its health-oriented magazine. It has one magazine remaining, Uncorked, which focuses on wine.

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Screenshot of Yelp.com

Yelpy Insights

Thirtysomething vegetarian looking for restaurants that other thirtysomething vegetarians also enjoy? Now, there's a Yelp! for that: The site recently rolled out two new filters called "Yelpy Insights," which narrows search results based on eateries "liked by vegetarians," as well as those liked by users in their 20s, 30s or 40s.

As Yelp's Official Blog explains, the filters were created based on feedback from vegetarian Yelpers who wanted a better way to search for vegetarian-friendly eateries. While the site does have "vegetarian" and "vegan" categories, they're often under-inclusive, omitting vegetarian-friendly restaurants that aren't categorized as such. A general search for the word "vegetarian," though, is over-inclusive (Yelp's example of a typical unhelpful review: "I'm so glad I'm not vegetarian, the bacon-wrapped filet mignon was great.") To find the happy medium, Yelp analyzed its database of reviews to identify certain patterns. As an engineer explains on Yelp's Product & Engineering Blog, "By combing through our vast review data, we're able to pick out folks who share a vegetarian perspective in their reviews and highlight the businesses that they like."

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