It's actually factory farming that this ad condemns... so I assume it's okay with PETA if we eat an organic, free-range, non-burned, non-kicked, non-stomped turkey on Thanksgiving? Or is going vegan the only answer?

• Congrats to Kamala Saxton (pictured) and Roz Edison.

Seattle's Hawaiian-Korean taco truck Marination Mobile has been voted the winner of Good Morning America's Best Food Cart Challenge. The electorate? The viewers of Good Morning America—very few of whom, presumably, have ever eaten at Marination Mobile or any of the other three finalists (Garden State in Portland, Street Sweets in New York, and Local 647 in Delaplane, Virgina). The modern world is confounding! Still, congratulations to Marination Mobile.

Here's some G.M.A. video about the win. And you can read Dominic Holden's review of M.M. over here.

A few months ago, while I was preparing to win the 2009 ID Spring Roll Eating Competition, I talked with a soft-spoken young man named Erik "The Red" Denmark, who is Seattle's most preeminent competitive eater. Here's a recap of his titles:

Erik "The Red" Denmark is the world-record holder in competitive spot-shrimp eating. He consumed nearly five pounds worth of the animal (fact: the largest shrimp in Puget Sound) in 12 minutes and competes in eating contests around the country. He'll tackle any type of food (9.75 Native American fry breads in 8 minutes, 6 pounds of king salmon in 8 minutes, 4.7 pounds of ribs in 12 minutes), but his specialty is hot and spicy dishes. He's known for his pepper eating (105 jalapeños in 8 minutes, 32 habanero peppers in 1 minute, both with no water during the competition or for five minutes after) and chicken wings ("I like 'em so covered with habeneros that they're black").

Tomorrow at Heaven nightclub in Pioneer Square, Erik "The Red" will win the world record in competitive bacon eating for Seattle. I talked to him over e-mail about it:

What's the current record for bacon-eating? How far do you predict you'll surpass this record? There really is not a sanctioned record; whatever I eat will be the record. In unsanctioned events, people have eaten 6 oz in 6 minutes and 5 lbs. precooked in 8 minutes, so I am definitely at least shooting to destroy those numbers. I want to put up at least 4 lbs. (cooked weight) in 10 minutes. Bacon loses about 60% of its density when cooked so 4 lbs. would equal around 10 lbs precooked weight.

What have you been doing to train for the bacon record? I have honestly been eating bacon every day for the past two weeks, sometimes up to two pounds a night, just to get my body acclimated. I have not done a full 10 minute practice but I have done several 2 minute sprints and never did I feel like I was struggling. I have put my body into a state of bacon dependence so this contest is actually going to be a treat for me, like blood for a vampire.

What are the challenges particular to bacon-eating that you anticipate? Bacon seems like a fairly simple food - thin stips of crisp meat. But sometimes it is the simplest foods that pose the greatest challenge because it removes all technique and it just comes down to raw power and repetition. Since bacon is dry and will not just slide down the throat, I intend to bring a bowl of Tabasco in order to dip handfuls of bacon in to lubricate swallowing, which will in turn require less drinking liquids. At some point the bacon grease will start to take its toll as well, this is why I have been acclimating my body so that when the heaviness starts to kick in the ill effects of bacon fat will be muted. I am hoping that I can maintain a fast and steady pace of about 1 lb. every 1:30 - 2 minutes which will definitely challenge my jaw strength and tolerance the most and should not really challenge my overall food capacity.

Good luck, Erik.

Mark Fuller—chef/owner of awesome West Seattle restaurant Spring Hill—posts the menu of Avila to Twitter. (Prices aren't visible, unfortunately, but entrees range from $16 to $26; ingredients are local, etc.) In the kitchen there: his protegee Alex Pitts. (Fuller, in turn, came from the land of Tom Douglas.)

The Stranger's first reader-review of brand-new Avila:

Delicious, right out of the gate

We went to Avila earlier this week (its first). The room is low key with nice touches. We sat at the counter, with a view of the kitchen. Watched the chef and the owner scrutinize every dish that went out; presentation was, not surprisingly, spot on. Beet and bibb lettuce salads were super fresh and tasty. Entrees were elk (with ginerbread and squash - yum) and the best skirt steak my husband has ever had. Desserts were chocolate mouse and a mille feuille, the latter of which had at least 40 layers. Yum. Wine list is varied and affordable; recommendations were perfect with the food. We left happy and ready to return.

Posted by Did Someone Say Cake?

"Foodie" has been declared dead on seriouseats.com—praise the Lord. (Because figgity-fuck "foodie," for reasons described here.)

Unfortunately, the bastards are trying to inject a little more linguistic preciousness into our lives with "koodie." Now that the "foodie" generation has hit breeding age, they've got to get all cute about their kids:

koodie: -noun Slang. A kid keenly interested in food, especially eating, cooking, or watching reruns of Julia Child. A kid who has an ardent or refined interest in food; a mini-gourmet; usually trained by one or both parents to have an unusual, and sometimes fanatic, desire to eat unusual foods. Evolution from the now-defunct word foodie.

And we all know what happens to parents who try to "train" their children to have certain aesthetics, tastes, or attitudes—they get disappointed. These fools are unintentionally rearing a generation of fast-food and TV-dinner freaks.

Half an hour until free sirloin sliders (three to an order) and fries from the brand-new "Sip. at the wine bar & restaurant" downtown.

Sip. may be found adjacent to the main library at 909 5th Ave., and the freebies occur from noon to 1 p.m.

Sip.'s motto is "Life’s fast. Sip slow." And use a lot of periods.

A free lunch (of sorts) for carnivores/tuberivores: sirloin sliders (three to an order) and fries from the brand-new "Sip. at the wine bar & restaurant" downtown.

Sip. may be found adjacent to the main library at 909 5th Ave., and the freebies occur from noon to 1 p.m. tomorrow.

Sip. preexists in Issaquah and Gig Harbor. Sip.'s Seattle executive chef Cody Reaves has previously cooked in the kitchens of El Gaucho, Pacific Grill, and Sip. Issaquah.

Sip.'s motto is "Life’s fast. Sip slow."

Slog Tipper Jerry says:

"Thanks to an article on Slate.com [about the last meals of prisoners on death row]":

Final meals are generally limited to food that can be prepared on-site. Virginia prisons have a 28-day rotating menu—for example, hot dogs on the first day of the cycle, chili on the second day, etc.—and prisoners facing imminent execution are limited to one of the 28. Other states are more flexible. In Texas, the chef at the Huntsville unit where executions take place tries to accommodate any order. But sometimes that means cooking a close approximate. When an inmate requests filet mignon—which happens a lot—the chef will instead cook up a steak hamburger, since that's what they already have in the kitchen. When a Texas inmate requested 24 tacos, the chef made four.

"I can’t stop reading last words and matching them with the convicted deeds in Texas":

I am sorry, I never wanted to kill your family. I never wanted to kill your family or these people. I am sorry for the way I talk in English. I did it to myself. I was forced to do it. I was a gang member. I never wanted to kill your brother. I was forced to do this. I blame myself. I am not going to blame nobody. I got my mother and my family too. I was forced. I tell you from my heart. I am sorry with all my heart. That's the reality of life, I am sorry. I got to pay for it. To my family, I love you, be strong. They have family too; the way they suffer is the way I am suffering. I am asking you to go and give them hugs. Please accept their hugs. Be strong in the Lord. I love you sister. I love you all, please go and try and talk to the family. I love my family. I understand why I am paying this price. Do not have any excuses for not extending your love. I am ready Warden, I am sorry everybody, I did it. Thank you brother, don't hate nobody, I feel good. I love my family, I love you Jesus. Be strong mama, I love you sister. I love Jesus. Warden I am ready.

"And I am even more transfixed with their final meals!":

Two bacon double cheeseburgers, French fries, onion rings, ketchup, cole slaw, two diet Cokes, one quart of milk, one pint of rocky road ice cream, one pint of fried okra, salad dressing, tomato, and onion

Thanks, Jerry. You've just made it impossible for me to get any work done for the rest of the day.

This week's "Bar Exam" should inspire the dogs-in-bars debate to end all dogs-in-bars debates:

At Norm's Eatery & Alehouse in Fremont, dogs are not only welcome, they're practically required.... Last Sunday at brunch, the place was, if not wall-to-wall, at least partially carpeted with dogs, and no one seemed the slightest bit concerned about the literal hair of the dog getting everywhere. (I found one clinging to my cell phone, which had been stowed in a deep pocket, hours later.) A small brown dog with a green-and-white neckerchief sat next to its owner on the seat in a booth, behaving well but clearly wishing desperately for opposable thumbs. At the bar, two black pugs roosted next to each other on their respective owners' laps. If you do not want your bowl of clam chowder 18 inches from a pug, you should not eat it at the bar at Norm's. (The chowder: quite good, with a light, slightly winey broth instead of any pasty thickness.)

I don't want to eat chowder—however delicious—18 inches from someone's dirty pug. And that makes me a bad man. Discuss.

• wabisabicolumbiacity.com
• Oysters at Wabi-Sabi. I bet this place is good.

In the last three months, a lot of restaurants and bars have opened in Seattle—a lot a lot, and these aren't all places that had huge, unstoppable juggernauts of budgets and planning. And not that many places have closed at all. It's weird.

Brand-spanking-new: Castleberry's at the Summit, a very exciting development for the budgetarily challenged of Capitol Hill; Seth Caswell's emmer&rye in residency one night a week at Wallingford's Art of the Table;* the Swinery on Main, a walkup window from Mr. Gabriel Claycamp in the I.D. where Skillet's walkup window was; tiny bar The Living Room on Capitol Hill; Wabi-Sabi, sushi in Columbia City from the owner of Thoa's and Chinoise; Ventana, new American small plates in Belltown from the chef of the late QUBE (and the same owner as Twist); and the advent of the Pussy Room at Copper Gate in Ballard.

Much, much more after the break (including new places in Bellevue, notable closures, and a change at Faire (no thanks to Tom Carr—don't let the door etc.!).

* Both Castleberry's and this mini-edition of emmer&rye fall into the opposite-of-huge-budget category—places making do, where and when they can. This is great.