[Photograph: Robyn Lee] A few days after showing up for the Master Chef casting call, I got together at Palace Kitchen with fellow reality show hopefuls to compare notes. We mostly knew each other by our Twitter handles. "Aren't you Seattle Food Geek? (Also known as Scott Heimendinger.) And Salty Seattle (Linda Miller Nicholson), MarcSeattle as well as... hey, isn't that Serious Eats contributor Michael Natkin?" In between bites of sublime bites of Spam—yes, housemade Berkshire pork Spam, served on creamy grits, a poached egg on top—the pleasant conversation focused on, what else, food. One question stopped me cold. Marc Schermerhorn asked me, "What's the worst meal you've ever eaten?" As a former critic, I'm used to being asked... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Since my dining budget has gone from $30,000-plus a year to zero, I don't go out often. That's why it really grinds my corn when meals go terribly wrong. As much fun as I'm having in the kitchen at Alpha Sigma Phi at the University of Washington, I occasionally wish I still had my print platform to write about restaurants that are like that emperor who had no clothes. I may not be a restaurant critic anymore, but that doesn't mean I stopped being a critical eater. The time spent in the kitchen on my quest to try and become a cook have given me new insight about the millions of little details that go into turning... More

It's an awkward but common situation. Your dinner companion doesn't tip fairly and there's no chance to discreetly slip the waiter some extra money. Do you use the "it's not you, it's me" line, throwing down some extra bills? More

With certain friends, ordering repeats is not, under any circumstances, allowed at a meal. Two enchilada orders? Dear heavens, is this some kind of sick joke? Talk about a waste of another sharable dish. For others, sharing food is like sharing gum or toothbrushes. You kind of just don't go there, whether for germ-phobic or territorial reasons. The spectrum ranges from full plate-sharers to nibble-sharers to that food is freakin' mine, step off, anti-sharers. Of course food-sharing varies by culture and upbringing, but for many Serious Eaters, the pro-smörgåsbord mentality allows you to try many things. (Though we can probably all agree that it's not cool to offer someone a taste, only to have them snatch it up like... More

You could eat this...or you could check your email! The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is groggily hobble to my computer, press the space bar to wake it from its sleep stage, and check my email. However, I don't see it as choosing Internet over food; I usually don't eat breakfast. (Yeah, don't remind me that it's "the most important meal of the day"—I've heard it a million times.) Yesterday's New York Times piece profiles people's struggles with technology taking up family time, in particular breakfast being sacrificed for email and other urgent Internet-required activities, such as checking Facebook or Twitter. These days more kids and parents start their mornings with phones and... More

I have been growing a beard lately. Mostly out of laziness. I am just plain tired of shaving. I kid myself that I am saving time by not engaging in the daily ritual of lathering and scraping because the longer my beard gets, the more time I seem to spend trying, unsuccessfully, to keep food out of it.... More

Stop-motion animation + an upbeat dinkly tune = fun educational video on restaurant etiquette! If you're not sure how to send food back at a restaurant, this video will give you some tips. Assuming that the restaurant is at fault, be polite, tell the waitress early on in the meal, and if your dish is still subpar, ask for it to be taken off the bill. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Yup, that's me. Photograph from Sifu Renka on Flickr I'm one of those people who always whips out a camera when I eat out for possible blogging purposes (besides that I'll forget what I've done if I don't take photos—food-related or not). While my friends are pretty used to it—they sit back when the food arrives until they're sure I've taken all my shots—the other people in the restaurant probably aren't. One part of me thinks, "I hope I'm not annoying other people too much," while the other part thinks, "Oh god, I just need one good shot of this burger...no, that was bad, I need another [moves the burger]...and another [moves the burger]..." Helena Echlin of CHOW's column Table... More

Alan Richman, "GQ" magazine food writer. Visiting Sweden? Hope to impress a Swede? Just want to appear worldly and stylish? The French Culinary Institute's Cooking Issues blog has been posting an ongoing series of photos it calls the Skål!/Skoal! Project that can school you in one small social custom. The series includes such food-world luminaries as Jeffrey Steingarten, Harold McGee, Wylie Dufresne, and Alan Richman (above), who has perhaps the most extreme skål to date. More pix after the jump.... More

As times get tougher, for restaurants and everyone else, more establishments have started to impose steep fees for missed reservations. More