Dishes

My Mexican grandfather used to say that salads were for rabbits. My Mexican father thinks a good steak cures any stomach ailment. And a Mexican friend used to joke that a pet pig that lived near my old Westside neighborhood would last approximately two seconds in his Eastside neighborhood before being kidnapped, placed on a spit and barbecued over an outdoor pit. Indeed, Mexicans love their meat, and the cuisine is renowned for its carnitas ...

When I lived in the Middle East, I learned that tender tabbouleh salad and crunchy fried kibbeh , the celebrated Levantine croquette, share a key ingredient: bulgur. Since ancient times, bulgur has been a staple in the Fertile Crescent, where it is popular today as pilaf and is used in a variety of other dishes, including stuffed vegetables, lentil entrees, meat stews and stuffings for poultry. In fact, the word "bulgur" comes from Turkish, and southeastern Turkey may be the area where wheat was first cultivated.

Let's be real here. Anyone who orders a meal with three pieces of breaded chicken, a buttery sauce, and mashed potatoes can't be much surprised that it's high in calories. Or that a piece of cake that weighs close to a pound might, as they say, be applied “directly to the hips.” So why would the Center for Science in the Public Interest - advocacy group or nutrition nag, depending on your perspective - give a dubious shout-out to those restaurant choices and several others on Wednesday by handing out “Xtreme Eating Awards”?

Angelini Osteria is almost everyone's favorite Italian restaurant in midtown: an informal room with well-designed trattoria cooking, a place to settle into for a plate of bombolotti or a Sunday saltimbocca, where whatever diet you happen to be on at the time will be accommodated without a fuss. Some nights, it feels as if everybody in the room knows one another, but you're in on the party too. You drink well, you eat well and you go home. A lot of chefs have come out of that kitchen, including Ori Menashe of Bestia.

Everyone who has ever read a diet book knows this tip: Use a smaller plate, and you are likely to put less food on it. Now researchers have found the same is true for children taking food at school lunch. A study showed the “food environment” -- conditions around eating -- counts, the researchers from universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia said. The researchers repeatedly watched 42 first-graders serve themselves lunch at school, using plates and bowls of adult size and half as large.

This is the first Sunday I have left breakfast dishes in the sink. Your Traveling in Style magazine has relived my memories and expanded my education. This new issue is more comfortable to read. I am thrilled that I can pick up the issue or put it aside at a convenient place (a whole newspaper section, no). I never knew the scary things a pilot had to be concerned with about our safety. I agree we do applaud the landings, but of the other very important uncertainties I was ignorant.

It's the 100th anniversary of the birth of Julia Child, the American who learned how to cook like a French chef while living abroad and brought those skills home with "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," published in 1961. Later, Child became a wonderful, batty television host, cooking on the fly for PBS and sipping as much sherry as she liked. Child's cookbook was a success, of course, but it ran counter to midcentury America's enthusiasm for prepared, packaged foods. Boning a duck on your own was about as far as you could get from putting a TV dinner in the oven.

This app (and a website) is for foodies who aren't content with just reading restaurant reviews. It gives them a sneak peek at the dishes. Name: Foodspotting Available for : iPhone; Android in beta What it does : Uses photos of plates of food served to customers to help users discover amazing dishes from establishments of all sizes and locales. Cost: Free What's hot: There are many ways to use this app. Don't miss the "Guides" section if you want good meals before you set off on a trip.

All you need in your pocket or purse to find a hot restaurant. Name: Chef's Feed Available for: iPhone, iPod touch and iPad; Android coming soon. What it does: Profiles award-winning chefs and their favorite dishes at specific restaurants in certain cities. From there, you can map the restaurant, add it to your profile and itinerary, rate the dish and tell your friends about it using Twitter or Facebook. Cost: Free. What's hot: This app is becoming a better tool for business travelers.

You'll be able to sample bulgur dishes and many more Turkish specialties at the Anatolian Cultures & Food Festival, May 16 to 19 at the Orange County Fairgrounds. For more information on the festival, visit anatolianfestival.org.

You'll be able to sample bulgur dishes and many more Turkish specialties at the Anatolian Cultures & Food Festival, May 16 to 19 at the Orange County Fairgrounds. For more information on the festival, visit anatolianfestival.org.

Garlic cloves dipped in dark chocolate? Garlic cheesecake? Garlic beer? Bam! It's National Garlic Day , a day set aside on the foodie calendar to celebrate all things Allium sativum. Garlic, a species of the onion family, has been with humankind for thousands of years, dating back to the Egyptian pyramids. Photos: 10 outrageous ways to use garlic Rich in beneficial antioxidants, this "stinking rose" has been revered for its medicinal and culinary traits long before "antioxidants" were a thing.

We've seen you in restaurants. We know what you're doing.  Taking pictures of your food to share on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and more is great fun.  And it makes your friends jealous.  How can you make those photos look great?  Think about the background and the props. Give it a sense of place The choice of background and props in a food shoot can go a long way in giving a photograph a sense of place. Other elements include lighting and focus. Together, these elements work to give the image a proper mood and look.

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen once compared his corporate strategy to an episode of "Seinfeld. " “You initially didn't know exactly where things were going, but it seemed to all come together in the end,” he said. “This is what is happening at Dish.” For Ergen, that means turning a satellite broadcaster into a telecommunications giant. Concerned about slow growth in the pay-TV business, Ergen has made a $25.5-billion unsolicited bid for Sprint Nextel. A merger would give Dish the ability to package Internet and phone service with its satellite offerings.

Dish Network Corp. is taking a run at Sprint. The satellite television company made an unsolicited $25.5-billion bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. on Monday in an attempt to marry one of the nation's biggest pay-TV providers with the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier. A merger would give Dish the ability to package Internet and phone service with its satellite offerings. "A transformative DISH/Sprint merger will create the only company that can offer customers a convenient, fully integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services," Dish Chairman Charles W. Ergen said.

SoftBank Corp., whose bid for 70% of Sprint Nextel Corp. now faces an unexpected challenge from Dish Network Corp., isn't backing down. In a statement released late Monday, the Japanese telecommunications giant said its deal to invest $20.1 billion in the United States' third-largest wireless carrier was better than the unsolicited offer made by Dish. "SoftBank believes that the agreed terms of our transaction with Sprint offer Sprint shareholders superior short- and long-term benefits to Dish's highly conditional preliminary proposal," SoftBank said.

Meghan and Carter are getting married. Like so many friends of my daughter, they are bright, funny and, sometimes, almost preternaturally serious. A couple of weeks ago, they asked my wife if we would talk to them about how to stay married - and about how to cook. The first, I'll leave to Kathy; after almost 34 years, it's still a mystery to me. But the cooking part is right up my alley, and, even better, I figured it would give me a chance to try out some of the ideas I've been on a soapbox about for the last couple of years.

Making smart choices about food doesn’t begin at the dinner table. The key to eating more healthfully is to slim down a favorite dish without sacrificing flavor. This Allentown Morning Call story explains the thinking behind the "Cook This, Not That!: Easy and Awesome 350-Calorie Meals" cookbook, second in a series that began as a feature in Men's Health. "With more than 150 recipes, it shows you how to turn expensive and diet-busting restaurant foods into healthier alternatives in your kitchen," the story says.

After the coffee. Before remembering how to drive in the rain. The Skinny: I guess I'm getting old, as I had no desire to watch the MTV Movie Awards -- and the tweets told me I wasn't missing too much. Monday's headlines include the weekend box office recap, Dish Network's surprise bid for Sprint and concerns about whether the American Humane Assn. is doing a good enough job policing animal safety on movie and TV sets. PHOTOS: 2013 MTV Music Awards Daily Dose: Edward Pound, a former New York Times and Wall Street Journal reporter has been tapped by Al Jazeera America to oversee its investigative reporting unit.