Elisa Ung

Village Voice Fires Twenty-Year Veteran Restaurant Critic Robert Sietsema

newyork.grubstreet.com — Gawker reports that the embattled alt-weekly continued its ongoing series of brutal layoffs this morning by firing three of its most influential writers, New York legend Michael Musto, venerated theater critic Michael Feingold, and restaurant critic Robert Sietsema.

'Bloodbath' Day at Village Voice: Musto, Sietsema, Feingold Out

gawker.com — Last week, top editors at the Village Voice resigned in protest when they learned that management wanted them to lay off several members of their already-decimated staff. This morning, those layoffs came down. They're not pretty. We hear that executives from the Voice's parent company flew in for today's massacre.

Fishy Business | Peter Tasker

petertasker.asia — In recent years, Tokyo has become a gastronomical mecca, harvesting more Michelin stars than any other city, including Paris. But few people are acquainted with the complex supply chain that delivers the dainty morsels to their plates. Naoto Nakamura is a writer, part-time janitor and jazz fan who's been involved with the Japanese fish industry since the late seventies.

100 Rules of Dinner

dinneralovestory.com — 52. The proper cocktail construction: First ice, then booze, then mixer. 53. Nobody uses enough ice. 54. You very rarely feel worse about yourself after cooking dinner. 55. You very often feel worse about yourself after going out and spending $68 for four soggy pepper jack quesadillas, some rice and beans, and a couple of Shirley Temples.

When a Restaurant Screws You

blogs.villagevoice.com — Even the best restaurants make mistakes. Common ones include spilling a glass of water in the lap of a customer, who, of course, has no dry set of clothes; delaying the appearance of a dish by an unconscionable length of time, say one hour after the previous course was taken away; or allowing something aesthetically gross to happen, the most common of which in New York might be a roach running across your table.

Trader Joe’s Versus Whole Foods

joymanning.com — This salad represents a number of different places to buy food. The bed of baby arugula is from Trader Joe's. The pine nuts hail from Whole Food's bulk bin. Those cubes of red are roasted beets are cut from a trio I bought at Acme.