The Doggie Bag: Today's Odds and Ends

Washington State University crossed Michael Pollan's anti-big-ag screed The Omnivore's Dilemma off its freshman required reading list, and it's not entirely clear why. The uni says it's all about money (or lack thereof), while just about everyone else assumes agribusiness strong-arming. Grist digs up the controversy here.

FoodGal serves up big-pixel food porn from last weekend's Cooking for Solutions conf at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's an orgy of glistening tobikko and sticky-looking maki.

Don't misconstrue: we love restaurant tipstress the Tablehopper. But a line from her review of Amber India this week made us fidget in our chair: I don't understand why Indian places always have to be cheap and dingy and have buffets and leave you smelling like a tandoori oven when you depart. TH goes on to praise the crossover eateries DOSA and Roti (and counts Amber among them). Still, it made us flash rather uncomfortably on our Great Aunt Kay, who had some very old-fashioned ideas about people she called "minorities." UPDATE: After this post dropped, Marcia Gagliardi (aka Tablehopper) called to complain about what she called our characterization of her as a borderline racist. She said none of her thousands of readers had taken offense at the passage we quoted. We certainly didn't intend to suggest that Gagliardi is a racist, or uncomfortable visiting Indian restaurants. We regret any negative impressions our post might have given rise to. --J. Birdsall