Seen in the slanting light of a summer afternoon – with an appetizer of roasted fennel batons before me and a Florida clam and Italian prosciutto pizza on the way -- the Pizza Bar looks and feels and tastes like a return to that lower-case democracy. Read up. 

It's a gastropub-inspired spot in Birmingham that serves the best catfish dish I've eaten in a restaurant that sets its tables with linen napkins. Read up. 

Back in December, I agreed, on 24 hours notice, to travel to Kazakhstan for Afar. Here's the magazine piece I wrote, full of fermented camel milk and horse gut sausage. 

The 16th Southern Foodways Symposium is some five months away, but programming for the event—Women at Work—is nearly complete. Click here for a preview on the Southern Foodways Alliance blog.

In this week's column on the SFA blog, I thank the women farmers from Georgia who grew much of the food served at last weekend's New South Family Supper.

In my March 27 post on the Southern Foodways Alliance blog, I discuss the SFA's new book series partnership with UGA Press. Read the whole post here.

In my weekly column for the SFA blog, I talk about why I want to book Candacy Taylor, author of "Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress," for this year's symposium. Click here to read.

Global Growers, an Atlanta nonprofit, focused on new immigrant farmers, is the subject of my latest Oxford American column. Read up. In the process, get a taste of semtok eggplant and Flaming Cheetos. 

In this week's "Director's Cut" post on the SFA blog, I reflect on struggling—and sometimes failing—to fulfill the organization's mission during the past 14 years. Read more here.

The American Way of Eating and Applebee's "Special Salt"

I got a text message from a friend halfway through Tracie McMillan’s talk last night: “So that stuff at Applebee's I thought was salt, turns out to be plastic. Just shoot me now.”

McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields, and the Dinner Table, was in town the last couple of days to meet with University of Mississippi classes and give a lecture. About 400 people came last night to hear her speak... Click here to read the rest of the story.