The vegetable starts off in a pot, partially steamed and browned in butter. (Edward Schneider) I will never be Tweeter of the Year. I signed up for Twitter because I was told I was being left behind by the march of time, and I’ve come to enjoy it, as both a consumer and an emitter of 140-character posts (mine are almost always exactly 140 characters, by the way). But I don’t chronicle my every movement, let alone my every thought. I follow very few people apart from those I know in flesh and blood or at least well enough to nod to across the room.

 Hence, it is with mild surprise that I introduce today’s cauliflower dish by saying that I got the technique for cooking it from a series of tweets by the U.K. food writer and critic Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1), who learned a slightly different version from Rene Redzepi of Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant.

Rayner’s four telegraphic but strangely tempting posts ran: 1. “Whole roast cauliflower from @ReneRedzepiNoma . . .” /  2. “Method. Slice base of caul to get flat surface. Melt hunk of unsalted butter. Place caul flat side down. Add rosemary twig. Lid on.” / 3. “Heat down to low. Leave for 30 mins. Gently check to see if caramelised. Carefully turn over to get a bit of colour on top. Should be tender”. / 4. “Put in bowl flat side up. Deglaze butter mess with tea spoon of vinegar. Cook out for a min. Pour over. Sprinkle with sea salt. Er that's it”.

Prompted by the expected Amazon.com launch of Amazon Wine, another leading online wine merchant has unveiled an effort to increase its market share in time for the holidays.

On Monday, Wine.com announced a new Wine.com “Marketplace,” designed to make it easier for consumers to purchase small-production wines domestic and imported.

These are the wines that direct shipping is made for: boutique wineries that do not have widespread distribution through the increasingly hardened arteries of the three-tiered system. These wineries have had to navigate a patchwork of state regulations, permits and fees that often discourage direct shipping even while supposedly facilitating it. Wine.com, headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 1998, has built its online wine business by working that compliance angle with the states.

Hello, my lovelies!  It’s the 10th season of “Top Chef,” and I am hungry, hyper and hoping the show can deliver great food and mad skills this time around. A few of the premiere’s contestants are from the Washington area, or once worked here in the nation’s capital, so let’s see whether they can represent our fair city with the esteem it deserves.

The episode kicks off in the four chef-judges’ restaurants: Craft (Tom Colicchio); Empire State South (Hugh Acheson); Table 10 (Emeril Lagasse); and Cut (Wolfgang Puck). Twenty-one chefs are competing for 15 slots in Seattle, the show’s real locale. Small teams of chefs are grouped with each chef-judge.  

Tom puts his team to work in his busy kitchen at Craft in Los Angeles.  He wants to see chefs who can not only cook, but also “do what it would take to win these competitions.” 

They start with prep. Lizzie Binder forms tortellini. Sweaty Anthony Gray sets to butchering. John Tesar filets and portions salmon. Also-sweaty Micah Fields breaks down a black bass. Jorel Pierce breaks down some chickens. When service begins, the chefs are assigned to various stations to see how they do during the dinner rush. John gets the greenlight and a high five from Tom to join the cast. The rest bust their you-know-whats to earn a spot on the show.  Lizzie gets chosen next.  Jorel and his crazy mustache get sent home. Anthony joins him in the knife packing. Micah joins the cast, despite his sloppy butchering.

Under the proposed vending regulations, food trucks would be prohibited from eight of the 10 most-popular sites in downtown Washington, the DC Food Truck Association determines. (DC Food Truck Association) The language in question from the District's proposed vending regulations sounds innocuous enough: Food trucks may not vend from a parking spot adjacent to an “unobstructed sidewalk” that’s “less than ten feet (10 ft.) wide in the Central Business District.”

But since the proposed regulations were published in October, members of the D.C. Food Truck Association have been trying to determine what those words could mean for their businesses, and what they’ve learned has unnerved them: Eight of the 10 most popular food-truck destinations downtown do not technically comply with the proposed rules as written, according to research done by the association.

Only the Metro Center and L Street NW locations fit the current criteria, notes Che Ruddell-Tabisola, executive director of the association and co-owner of the BBQ Bus.

At an October meeting at the District Department of Transportation offices, however, two officials told the gathered food truck owners that DDOT has no intention of prohibiting street vendors from working such popular sites as Farragut Square, Franklin Square and Union Station. Policy Branch Manager Alice Kelly and Matthew Marcou, deputy associate director of the Public Space Regulation Administration, told vendors that DDOT has the ability to waive the rules to create special Mobile Roadway Vending locations, which would allow trucks to sell food for four straight hours on weekdays. Trucks are currently required to move when the parking meter expires after one to two hours.

“It is my objective, it is Alice Kelly’s objective, to establish Mobile Roadway Vending locations in those areas that you are already using, including Farragut [Square], Franklin [Square],” Marcou told vendors. “So I hope that goes some way toward assuaging your concerns. We’re saying that in an open public forum with scores of vendors here.”

I’ll confess to having a produce bias when it comes to talking about farmers markets since fruit and vegetables comprise most of my diet (those and chocolate, anyway). But there are plenty of producers who offer a wide variety of meat and poultry. If I’ve done my job shamelessly self-promoting, you’re already aware that a bunch of farms are selling Thanksgiving turkeys. This week, you’ll find even more local options for carnivores, including saucisson sec and lardo from Evensong Farm at today’s FreshFarm Market in Penn Quarter; duck quarters from Garden Path Farms at Saturday’s FreshFarm Market in Silver Spring; pork shoulder from Cedarbrook Farm at Sunday’s FreshFarm Market at Dupont Circle; and ground beef from Country Vittles of Critter Hill Farm at Wednesday’s Farmers Market at Maryland.

Details about these and other markets can be found through the link to the map below.

INTERACTIVE: Click the image above to view our interactive farmers market map.

Also available this week:

At today’s FreshFarm Market in Penn Quarter:

This just in

Anchor Nursery: Brussels sprouts; broccoli; cauliflower.

Evensong Farm: chicken stock; saucisson sec and lardo (made in collaboration by Three Little Pigs).

Everona Dairy: beer-washed sheep’s-milk cheese; Stony Man cheese.

Peachy Family Dairy: goat cheese ricotta; Neufchatel; white cheddar.