Rong Hang on Eldridge Street, a Fujianese restaurant

Two years ago, I spent a couple of weeks checking on the state of Fujianese restaurants in Manhattan's Chinatown. There were particularly rich collections along East Broadway and on Eldridge Street, and I must have visited a dozen. My crew and I received a warm welcome in all of them--except one.

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Lauren Bloomberg

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Last night at the Greene Space, Leonard Lopate took a break from hosting his eponymous radio show on WNYC to grill some of New York's biggest locavore icons on the growing popularity of vegetables in restaurant kitchens. If you hadn't noticed, vegetables are hot now as the city recovers from collective heartburn after its decade-long pork-belly binge. The night was divided into three parts: a talk with Blue Hill chef Dan Barber and his main farmer, Jack Algiere; a cooking demonstration by Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli of the growing Frankies empire (including the new West Village location); and a pickling demonstration from Michaela Hayes of Crock & Jar. The first topic? Heirloom heresy.

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e_calamar/Flickr

Fancy a glass? Wein not.

The second annual Summer of Riesling Concert took place last night on a boat. Yes, a mother-effing boat. It was a lovely evening for a cruise around New York Harbor, the crisp breeze off the water offering a welcome respite from the day's heat. There were dozens of Rieslings to sample or swill, depending on who was doing the drinking. And some 200 self-proclaimed "acidhounds" -- lovers of the crisp German wine with the razor-sharp acidity -- were on board. But one important thing was missing.

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Rebecca Marx

The broccoli sandwich from No. 7 Sub was equal parts virtue (broccoli!) and vice (everything else), and as a bonus came with some nifty cookies.

We ate an ungodly amount of food at Choice Eats last night, and, if the crowds were any indication, so did you. What follows is a sampling of what we were able to resist consuming long enough to photograph. Note that although these photos reflect our vegetarian and pescatarian leanings, not to mention an insistent sweet tooth, we're extremely grateful for all of the wonderful chefs and restaurants who lent their time and labor to the event, and helped to make this year's Choice Eats better than ever.

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Martha dumps berries on kid's head as bodyguards and assistant look on.

It was one of those food events that might have been conceived by a comic novelist. Ocean Spray, in an attempt to elevate the flagging popularity of its red berries, decides to create a cranberry bog in the middle of Rockefeller Center. Well, it's not really a bog, because there are no actual plants -- instead it's a 50-foot-long wooden bathtub filled with dodgy water, in which 2,000 pounds of berries bob.

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Le bam. Le pow.

It has now been more than 48 hours since the second coming of Le Fooding, which took over the grounds of P.S.1 on Friday and Saturday nights. Although this year's theme was a staged battle between New York and San Francisco chefs supposedly driven to blind, combative rage by a plate of figs, the event's aftermath is playing out as more of a fight between angry ticket holders and the Le Fooding organizers.

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The congressman arrives.

Embattled Congressman Charlie Rangel arrived around 6:30 last night at 275 Hudson to attend an event showcasing the vegan cuisine of Korean Buddhist monks. Attended by body guards, the legislator -- who has been accused of multiple improprieties -- looked surprised at the traditional garb worn by the costumed greeters at the door, then was whisked inside.

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Daniel examines his raw meat options on Freaky Eaters.

We now acknowledge the primacy of reality TV -- and TV in general -- to the foodie experience. Stand around the water cooler in any office on Thursday morning, and the conversation is likely to turn to who won the Quickfire on Top Chef the night before, or to some stunt that Guy Fieri or Paula Dean pulled on their most recent shows. But the popularity of food-themed television has spawned a dark underside, and I'm not just talking about Andrew Zimmern -- witness the TLC show Freaky Eaters.

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SF Eater

92Y didn't allow photos last night, so here's an old one of the gruesome twosome in San Francisco.

At this point in their respective careers, Anthony Bourdain and David Chang can do their brotherly cynics act in their sleep. So their appearance last night at the 92Y, where they took to the stage for a discussion with Budd Mishkin, wasn't so much a show as a rerun of a show, one in which the audience knew when to expect the F-bombs to drop, the Alice Waters digs to surface, and the "Who, me?" rags-to-riches tales to be rehashed. But give Chang and Bourdain credit: Even though they didn't cover any new territory last night, they gave a fairly amusing tour of the land they long ago colonized.

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