Blogs

By a genius named Andrew Glines, from the Language Log:

That's the woman who coined the term locavore, by the way.

-Ian Froeb

Tomorrow my colleague and good friend Kristie McClanahan -- author of the RFT's Drink of the Week column as well as its editorial operations manager -- is getting married. Best wishes to Kristie and Brian for a wonderful wedding and years and years of love, happiness and drinks of the week.

Wow. Quite a week, no? From Iron Barley on the Food Network to Gerard Craft of Niche being named a Food & Wine Best New Chef for 2008. Wherever you dine tonight, maybe raise a glass to the city of St. Louis.

Next week: If a restaurant relocates, does its mojo move with it?

Have a great weekend. Eat something good.

-Ian Froeb

If your kids can't behave in public -- and you don't feel the need to discipline them for such misbehavior -- don't bring them to a restaurant.

-Ian Froeb

www.icanhascheezburger.com

Don't remember the cheeseburger in a can? Check out the original post. Later, the AV Club actually tried one.

-Ian Froeb

Next week:

Have a great weekend. Eat something good.

-Ian Froeb

-Ian Froeb

As I've mentioned a few times in the past week and a half, I've been working on an article for another section of the paper, and this has taken away some of my blogging time.

Next week -- fingers crossed -- not only Gut Check will return to its regular schedule, but I'll finally get back to posting some blog-exclusive reviews as well as the news and random stuff we love so much.

Have a great weekend. Eat something good.

-Ian Froeb

-Ian Froeb

www.nelbrokers.co.za

Regular posting will resume tomorrow. (I hope.)

-Ian Froeb

www.sopwithproductions.com

I hope you enjoyed the first annual Gut Check Year-End Bonanza! This year -- both reviewing restaurants for the paper and producing the blog -- has been a blast. I don't know where we're headed in 2008, but I promise Gut Check will continue to grow.

First, though, a rest. Gut Check will return on Wednesday, January 2, with all the usual goodies, including my first review of 2008. Will the new year begin with a bang or a whimper? Here's an awful big hint: We already have a clear -- maybe prohibitive -- favorite for the worst dish of 2008.

Safe travels, if you're headed out of town. Wherever you go, have a great holiday season, and eat something good.

Peace,
Ian

E. coli

www.wikimedia.org

I know, I know. Why would I choose a potentially deadly bacterium as the Thing of the Year?

First of all, it's not a slight against the other nominees. (Especially you, Aaron!) Second of all, it's not an excuse to run that disgusting image again.

When Gut Check spun off from the main RFT blog this spring, I had no idea what it would become. I've been making it up as I go along. For instance, I expected more blog-only reviews than I've written. (Next year, I promise.)

At any rate, what Gut Check has become, more than anything else, is a place to discuss what we eat and why. And this year no topic has been hotter than the source of our food.

"There's shit in the meat," is the disturbing refrain of Eric Schlosser's groundbreaking Fast Food Nation. While this was literally true more than once in 2007, the phrase is an apt metaphor for our concern about the provenance of our food, whether domestic or imported, processed or "organic."

I don't think it's a coincidence that "locavore," a funny term few of us had even heard twelve months ago, was the Oxford Dictionary's word of the year. Even if you don't subscribe to the 100-mile diet, you have to ask yourself: How much is it worth to me in time and/or money to seek out the better product? How do I even know what the "better" product is?

There are no easy answers. But the events of this year have reminded us how great the stakes are. There's shit in the meat.

-Ian Froeb

A quick review of the five nominees for the inaugural Gut Check Thing of the Year award.

Land Crabs

Aaron Proctor

Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt

E. coli

Charlie the Pie-Eating Bichon Frese

The winner will be announced at 4 p.m. sharp!

-Ian Froeb

As part of our year-end celebration, Gut Check is highlighting the people, places and things that have made the blog's first year (well, seven months, actually, but who's counting?) so much fun. There are five nominees for the inaugural Gut Check Thing of the Year award. I'll announce the winner on Friday.

Charlie, the Pie-Eating Bichon Frese

www.lep.co.uk

Pros: As noted haters of eating contests, we fell hard for Charlie after he ate all the pie crusts on the eve of the world pie-eating championship in England.

Cons: The pie-eating championship was held eventually. And we suspect Charlie was acting out of instinct, not principle.

-Ian Froeb

As part of our year-end celebration, Gut Check is highlighting the people, places and things that have made the blog's first year (well, seven months, actually, but who's counting?) so much fun. There are five nominees for the inaugural Gut Check Thing of the Year award. I'll announce the winner on Friday.

E. coli

www.wikimedia.org

Pros: In a year in which food safety dominated the headlines, nothing is a better representative of the risks inherent in the system that produces so much of what we eat.

Cons: I mean, it's E. coli. It could kill you, man.

-Ian Froeb

As part of our year-end celebration, Gut Check is highlighting the people, places and things that have made the blog's first year (well, seven months, actually, but who's counting?) so much fun. There are five nominees for the inaugural Gut Check Thing of the Year award. I'll announce the winner on Friday.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt

Pros: Leavitt's visit to the Bridgeton Schnucks allowed Gut Check its first pretense of actual journalism. He even answered our question!

Cons: That Leavitt was in the news so often this year wasn't good for him -- or any of us.

-Ian Froeb