Confused? Scared? This illustration is explained here. [Illustration: Robyn Lee]

Just a friendly reminder: International Serious Eats Day is fast approaching! It's on Saturday, January 8, 2011.

What is it? A chance to meet up with fellow SE'rs in your area!

How does it work? We're using Meetup.com to establish various self-organizing meet-and-greet-and-eats around the U.S., Canada ... the world!

So far, SE'rs in and near the following locations have started meetup pages. Find one near you! (Don't see one? It's not too late to start your own — more on that below.)

If You Want to Attend ...

You can use Meetup.com to register your interest. Simply use your Facebook account to log in (or sign up anonymously the old-fashioned way — using your email address). Once you're signed in, you can join in the discussion regarding venues and/or time. Many of the cities still don't have venues or meeting times, so do your fellow SE'rs a favor and suggest a good place for a group to meet up!

These are self-organizing, so venue and time are up to SE'rs in the various locations. We originally suggested a 2 p.m. start time, but feel free to deviate from that.

A suggestion on choosing venues: It's probably best to pick a place that can readily and casually handle a group — we chose a large biergarten/bar with a good snack menu for the one in NYC. That way, attendees can pay for their drinks and food as they go — and no one will get stuck with dividing a bill or having to make up for any forgetful person who left early (not that any SE'r would do that, right?).

Proposed Cities and Venues (So Far)

• NYC: Radegast Hall & Biergarten, 2 p.m.
• Bethlehem PA: Wegmans, 12 p.m.
• Philadelphia PA: Venue TBD
• Baltimore: Venue TBD
• Boston MA: Venue TBD
• Rochester NY: Venue TBD
• Richmond VA: Venue TBD
• Toronto, Canada: Venue TBD
• Burlington, Canada: Venue TBD
• Greater Detroit area: Venue TBD (Buddy's in Livonia is being floated)
• Saint Louis: Venue TDB (though 17th Street Bar & Grill in Fairview Heights/O'Fallon IL and Schlafly Bottleworks are being floated)
• Gainesville FL: Venue TBD
• Minneapolis: Venue TBD (suggested so far: Stella's in Uptown; Saji-Ya Sushion Grand in Saint Paul; any of the Punch Pizza locations; Salut Bar Americain, either location)
• Jackson MS: Sal and Mookie's, 565 Taylor Street, 8 p.m.
• Houston TX: Venue TBD
• Austin TX: Venue TBD
• Calgary, Canada: Venue TBD (suggested so far: District, Divino, Anju, Vicious Circle)
• Vancouver, Canada: Venue TBD
• Seattle: Venue TBD (Suggestions so far: Tavern Law, Capitol Hill; Lecosho, Belltown/Pike Place; Staple & Fancy, Ballard; Lark/Licorous, Capitol Hill; Re:Public, South Lake Union; Madison Park Conservatory, Madison Park)
• Las Vegas: Venue TBD
• Portland OR: Venue TBD
• San Diego CA: Basic, 410 10th Avenue
• Los Angeles: The Prince Café, 3198 West 7th Street
• Embsay, England: Venue TBD (This is close to Leeds; perhaps y'all could find somewhere there to meet?)
• Paris, France: Venue TBD
• Hamburg, Germany: Venue TBD

Don't See Your City? Tips on Starting an SE Meetup of Your Own

• Instead of asking here on this post if anyone's interested in XYZ city, just go to the meetup.com page and seed a meetup! Since we don't have the fancy messaging doodads here, the meetup.com page is really going to be the easiest way to do this and keep in touch with SE'rs near you.

• It's best to join the nearest, biggest meetup instead of creating a smaller one. For example: Don't create a St. Paul MN meetup — just join the Minneapolis one! Don't create a Malibu event, just join the L.A. one! We'll get more folks at each one if we don't fractionalize them

Questions? Please don't hesitate to ask in the comments here!