peteoshea via flickr

Does food writing matter? It's a question that food writers ask themselves in moments of self-doubt, and it's a question Monica Bhide asked on her blog back in August. When there's so much going on in the world, does what we eat and cook warrant our time and attention as writers?

Since Bhide posed the question, there have been many responses from food writers (not surprisingly, I've yet to come across a response that says "nahhh ... it's just fun!"). But the one that comes across as most convincing is Michael Ruhlman's, which was published on The Huffington Post's food blog yesterday.

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The Association of Food Journalists conference is taking part right now in Washington D.C., and this afternoon over lunch the ceremony took place for the AFJ's annual awards. 42 winners were announced in 13 catagories.

LA Weekly took home two prizes during the awards: Food Editor Amy Scattergood took second place for Best Food Blog for this here blog you're reading, Squid Ink. Freelancer Beth Barrett took first place in the Best Newspaper Food News Story with her LA Weekly story, "L.A. Farmers Markets Exposed."

I took first place for Best Newspaper Special Food Project for my 2011 Food Issue for Creative Loafing in Atlanta, which focused on the cooks, servers and bartenders of that city.

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Flickr/WordRidden

an éclair

It's worth keeping tabs on the New York-based website The Awl for many reasons, not least being its occasional cooking posts (my all-time favorite: "How to Cook a Fucking Steak"). Yesterday Jane Hu wrote an utterly lovely piece called "Writer Food From A to Z," which isn't quite as irreverent as the steak piece, but is nonetheless pretty fun reading.

In it, Hu -- who also contributes to the Los Angeles Review of Books -- considers the favorite foods of some noteworthy writers. Alphabetically, if you didn't get that part. And because this is The Awl, not only is A for apples and B for booze -- but D is for Dexedrine and E is for éclair fillings. Just our kind of list.

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Anne Fishbein

ink

Remember when you were a kid and you liked to fight with your friends about who would win in a fight between Voldemort and Darth Vader? No? That never happened? OK, bear with me. A recent kerfuffle over on our music blog over the concept of "hipster" got me thinking -- in a fight for what is more distasteful, which word/concept would win? Hipster or foodie?

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Guzzle & Nosh/Flickr

Craft beer at Blue Dog Tavern

Every year, Merriam-Webster updates its Collegiate Dictionary -- you know, that big book of words you referenced every once in a great while, in the era before Google -- with words that, for better or worse, have become part of our lexicon. According to the Associated Press, Merriam-Webster adds about 100 such words to its dictionary annually, "gathering evidence of usage over several years in everything from media to the labels of beer bottles and boxes of frozen food." Evidence of usage for the 2012 update apparently included catchphrases popularized by Oprah (her "aha moment" is now in the dictionary) and "words elevated by foodies" like "gastropub." "Elevated" being a relative term, of course.

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A. Scattergood

the writing on the wall at Bastide

L.A. Weekly's food section is looking for interns. If your idea of fun is writing about tamales or food trucks or which local chef is secretly building a french fry oil-powered food truck in his garage AND you're currently enrolled in school and can get academic credit for an internship, then you might consider giving us a call.

A few prerequisites: This is an unpaid internship, and thus you MUST be able to get academic credit. Literacy helps. Knowledge of the local food scene helps. Being able to blog helps. (Of course my 14-year-old kid runs two Tumblrs, so this is probably a given these days.) Interested? Send us an email with your resume and confirmation that you ARE IN SCHOOL. Because although we commend you for wanting to intern for us if you're a pajama-wearing retiree who likes to blog about Michael Voltaggio from your backyard pool, the academic credit part isn't really negotiable.

B. Rodell

One of the great friendships of my life began at a food writing conference. For the entertainment following a luncheon, the organizers had brought in a gospel choir, and the mainly middle-aged, mainly pasty lot of us were up on our feet, clapping and dancing to the music. The guy beside me, John Kessler, clapped and stepped completely out of time with the rhythm, and as he did so he called out "LAWD GOD ... give me another word for crunchy!"

Kessler is the restaurant critic at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and we've been friends ever since. I recount this story whenever the issue of overused food words comes up -- not because I want the option of saying "mouthwatering" as much as I damn well please, but to point out that there are some words that are hard to avoid. In fact, it's one of the hardest parts of food writing. None of us is above the problem: Read any critic long enough, and certain words or turns of phrase will come up over and over.

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Flickr/Robert Couse-Baker

a fortune cookie

Have you ever turned on the television or the radio or spent the morning trolling the web and wondered who the hell is deciding the programming? Of the political scene maybe, or the Olympics. Why are you watching an interview with Michael Phelps and not something else? Why are you listening to Glenn Beck and not something else? Why are you reading about another cocktail bar or five more ways to grill a steak and not something else? Sure, you can TURN THE CHANNEL, but the issue goes way beyond finding the clicker or flipping the page. People in their invisible rooms decide what you read all the time, and whether it matches what you want is sometimes, well, questionable. So we thought we'd ask the audience. What do you want to read about? Let us know. Because audience participation doesn't end in kindergarten, and sometimes you only get what you want if you ask for it.

Here are some possible examples:

1. Dear L.A. Weekly: I'm a JPL employee in search of a new hobby. Can you guys do a story on how to build a DIY still? Ideally, it would look like something else from the window.

2. Dear L.A. Weekly: Who invented the amuse-bouche and why can't they call it something easier to spell (and pronounce)?

3. Dear L.A. Weekly: My kid won't eat anything but noodles. I'm really tired of noodles. Can you poll local chefs on how to make them some different ways before I ship the kid off to camp permanently?

4. Dear L.A. Weekly: I can't even turn on my stove. Help.

Got a good suggestion or idea? Comment below -- or shoot us an email. And if your suggestion becomes a piece, we'll credit you for the story idea when it's published.

Flickr/Boudewijn Berends

a pig

As animal rights groups celebrate a victory this week with the beginning of California's foie gras ban, a couple of voices are questioning the tactics, arguments and ethical high ground of vegetarianism.

In the Wall Street Journal, New York chef Dan Barber presents an ethical argument for meat eating. He writes:

Butchering and eating animals may not be called kindness, but eating soy burgers that rely on pesticides and fertilizers precipitates destruction, too. You don't have to eat meat, but you should have the good judgment to relinquish the high horse. There is no such thing as guilt-free eating.

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Courtesy Hagop Kalaidjian / KCET

Burger & fries at Apple Pan

On Tuesday, National Geographic released a list of the 10 Best Burgers in the country. Because, you know, National Geographic is such an expert on ... burgers. But the list got a lot of chatter and Internet play, simply because it's a top-10 list and it named a BEST (L.A.'s Apple Pan, incidentally). We are obsessed with "bests." The Internet loves them. Food obsessives especially love them. What gives?

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