​Valentines Day is a holiday that's worth ignoring. Restaurants price-gouge. Servers are harried with demanding crowds. It's infantilizing intimacy with all those hearts and flowers, the same genre as rainbows, unicorns, and My Little Pony. I'd rather go to a death metal show.

If you must muscle through the evening with dinner and other festivities, particularly with someone you're not sure is The One, we've put together this ridiculous list for ladies as a bellwether for cheapness. Cheap differs from thrifty of course, as cheap implies having means yet choosing stinginess, which never bodes well for a guy's character. After the jump, five signs your date is cheap: a real life list culled from experience.

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​Pat the Foodie is making its way around the internet, a parody of Pat the Bunny in the same vein as Go the F**k to Sleep. Like its inspiration, readers can touch things, though it's along the lines of scratchy beards and chicken feathers.

Daily Dish from the LA Times cites one of the pages: "'Judy reads lots of food tweets. Now YOU can read lots of tweets too.' And the image of the iPhone on the facing page pulls down to reveal such 140-character bons mots as: 'Farmer Bill's fresh prunes. They really move me.' And 'Chillin at happy hour w/sassy spikers.'" The book hasn't made its way to bookstores but can be found here and purchased here.

This "culinary pull and poke" isn't the first clever foodie book, of course. Three New Yorkers and a Californian have written some of the most interesting children's books for adults after the jump.

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Rockinfree via Flickr Creative Commons

Get your Valentine's Day groove on.

​The hour is drawing nigh. It's time to book your reservations for Valentine's Day dinner or risk being turned away at the door, a rejection that will increase the odds of a rejection later that evening. More >>

Avinashkunnath via Flickr Creative Commons

Football. That's the one with the baskets, right?

​During a recent lunch meeting over tacos, the Clean Plate Charlie crew debated the relative merits of the entertainment juggernaut known as the Super Bowl. While some looked at the sporting extravaganza as a sort of second Thanksgiving -- wake up late, start drinking early, and stuff yourself silly with fattening foods and unchecked levels of bacon-stuffed appetizers -- others were pretty "meh" on the whole affair. More >>

​I've liked The Food List Challenge app on Facebook that lists 100 dishes and drinks to prove you're a foodnik. So far, 335,345 people have tried it, including former food critic for the Washington Post, Phyllis Richman (97) and former New Times critic Gail Shepherd (85).

Some of the items are ridiculous; who hasn't had bagel and lox? But there are plenty of stumpers, since relatively few people are acing the list.

For several rounds of blog posts, we'll find places to try items on the list. After the jump, the first ten.

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Bar snacks are big right now. I'm not just talking about wings, spart dip, and potato skins. The proliferation of small plates means that savory bites on toast, dolled-up vegetables, and crispy fritters show off the creativity, skill, and often sense of humor in the kitchen.

After the jump, here's a list of ten we've found riveting. A note: no sliders or fries for this post, as they're each a category unto themselves.

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Flickr/TalesofanLAAddict

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​The ubiquity of plaid and the renaissance of Pearl Jam, U2, and Nirvana in some circles is making me nostalgic for the '90s. What's a food writer to do but eat and drink a way through the decade? Though some '90s food and drink are making a comeback, many dishes are decidedly dormant. After the jump, some greatest hits from the era.
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Misha Grosvenor

Bottoms up!

​When making dinner plans with friends, I usually ask something along the lines of, "What type of food are you in the mood to eat?" Recently, after two botched outings with friends, I've realized that the first thing I should ask is, "Are you gluten-intolerant?"

Last month, I met with a friend at Palace India and, after being informed of her new wheat allergy a moment too late, found myself eating a plate of delicious samosas by my lonesome -- score! what a shame.

Most recently, I invited a new friend, Brian, to Tap 42, a recently opened gastropub in Fort  Lauderdale, not knowing that he was gluten-intolerant. Fortunately, Tap 42 has plenty of other  options for imbibing, but still, I couldn't help but feel compassion for those who are missing out on all the bounty that gluten has to offer -- namely, IPAs, pilsners, and stouts.

In an effort to help those of you who feel left out while watching your selfish, thoughtless friends play beer pong (no judgment), here is a list of five gluten-free beers to get you back in the game.
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​As much as a massive entrée like homemade spaghetti and meatballs might satisfy hunger or evoke a delicious food memory, a big plate can be daunting. And the tenth bite is never as good as the first.

So these days, I like to graze through dinner, sampling plates and ordering indulgences to get a sense of how a chef cooks or how he sources ingredients. When something from the kitchen or bar elicits curiosity as well as admiration because it's so delicious, that's what makes a plate memorable for me.  After the jump, ten noteworthy bites I've had since August.


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