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We read an article recently about what blogs chefs read that confirmed for us mainly that still, no one gets what a blog is— it was more about food news sites like this one, or discussion sites like LTHForum, than actual blogger blogs. But we don't blame chefs for this confusion, at least not as long as there are journalists failing to grasp the same distinction— which there are all the time. For us, a real food blog is something that comes from one person who wants to bring a personal perspective to the subject that hasn't been represented in the mainstream. Contrary to the dismissive notion that this is usually for the purpose of self-glorification and cadging free meals, what we admire is that so many of them labor out of the view of the mainstream, bringing to the subject a depth of engagement that is rare in conventional media... and doing it regardless of whether they have many readers or not. Which brings us to a new blog by our friend Charlotte Tan: Eat And Stage.

We just posed the question on Twitter a couple of weeks ago— was the soup dumpling place in Chinatown, much talked about on LTHForum, gone? We didn't recall its precise location but a recent visit to another restaurant along the same side of Wentworth suggested that wherever it was, it wasn't any more. Mike Sula confirms that, and adds far more about the present state of soup dumplings or xiao long bao in Chinatown in a blog post at the Reader. As he notes, "Soup dumplings, or xiao long bao, are the holy grail of dumplings in Chicago. When they're prepared correctly—and nobody really does them correctly—they're parcels of delicate pleated dough containing meatballs suspended in piping hot broth." By nobody, he means nobody in Chicago— xiao long bao, like ramen, are another of those things that prompt the kind of foodie discussion where no local example ever compares to the one you had in Los Angeles/Vancouver/Hong Kong/that little place with the grandma making them by hand that doesn't exist any more.

Like many Americans, I follow political news for the sole purpose of not being embarrassed during telephone civics surveys. I scan the headlines grudgingly and am easily distracted by things like college football and food. This practice has caused me confusion regarding the so-called Buffett Rule. In reality, the rule has something to do with taxes. But "Buffett Rule" is easily misread as "Buffet Rule," i.e., a reference to the method of distributing food that combines eating old scrambled eggs with the convenience of having to get them yourself. (The buffet proprietor's motto: "We're barely trying.") But during one misreading, it hit me: The buffet industry, currently regulated only by informal etiquette, could use some more substantive oversight of its own.