Hear I go again, another food crush. Other people can describe their attraction to different foods as a preference, or a love affair, maybe, or a craving.

Here are this year’s best cookbooks, the ones with fine essays, sweet anecdotes, and step-by-step instructions included. That way, you can make your own memories.

Food memories help me anchor, then catalog, time shared, joys and drudgery, humor and complacency. And so it was memories of carrot cake, California onion dip, dry red wine, and seedless watermelon kabobs that assailed me these past three days, ...

Why not just eat fried okra from (drum roll please) a local dining establishment? They have the rituals down, and the trained staff, and the commercial grade oil, and are already making it for all sorts of other diners, so ...

Palavah Hut is a cheery little place, with folk-painted signs and brick walls. They serve takeout only Thursday-Saturday—homestyle specials replete with stews and rice and greens, like Taro root with tilapia in olive oil with fresh herbs and vegetables, and ...

Health benefits with your buzz are a strong temptation to pick a product made far away for an exception to the local food scene, and I can readily envision substituting VeeV for the vodka in my favorite vodka-marinara recipe.

What is a fantasy food? One you can’t have, or at least not right now, for reasons involving geography, the separation of the lands of the living and the dead, or the stubborn resistance of this world of ours to ...

Once a month for the past two years, Joe Bryant sets up at a spot below the I-40 bridge near the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army, and serves barbecue to what Joe estimates is 400-700 people. It’s ...

I do read books, plenty of them. My preferred are Fearless teen-lit paperbacks, graphic novels by Brad Meltzer, and mysteries by Brit Elizabeth George. Oh, and community cookbooks.

Food, good food, is the unification measure this country needs. When you’re swapping recipes or have biscuits in your mouth, who has time for harsh diatribes or mean-spirited political attacks?

Are folks in this area leading the food and dining trends, or just cooking right up to the cutting edge? Either way, the best cookbooks released this year from publishers near and far celebrate the foods we love right here—and ...

With apologies to the Florida Orange Growers, I humbly suggest the slogan, “Moonshine. It’s not just for getting tore up anymore.” I’m addressing the Ole Smoky Distillery, Tennessee’s first legal moonshine producer. Not that they’re really going to need a ...

A few weekends ago, my mom, who lives in my hometown of Williamsburg, Va., fixed us this wonderful minestrone, light on salt, long on flavor, before my sister and I left for my class reunion. Inspired by the vegetable-laden goodness, ...

At most of the places I frequent, the servers don’t let on, but I know. I’m a pain. I’m “that person,” the one who never just orders the #1 combo, or the chef’s special, or says, “Give me what he’s ...

In a matter of minutes, Stacy Varon has me thinking anyone could take up this community gardening for the less privileged—would enjoy it, might even love it. She’s alight with happiness at the prospect. And not just for the Farragut ...