Photo courtesy Mike Lewis. If you passed by St. Paul’s Chapel near the World Trade Center site yesterday you may have felt like you’d stepped back through time to the city’s raw, post-9/11 days, when the chapel’s fence was festooned with photos and tributes to the attack's victims. The new Nora Ephron movie Julie & Julia recreated the makeshift memorial, which was dismantled in November 2002. (Using a crane, the crew also pasted leaves to......

We were fascinated by today's Salon article, "Bad Taste," in which prominent food writers chronicle their absolute worst meals ever. Jane and Michael Stern, Regina Schrambling, Steven Rinella, Julie Powell, Michael Ruhlman and Robert Sietsema all chime in with stories of "washcloth steak," "embryonic duckling boiled alive in its shell, one week before birth," (apparently a Filipino delicacy), and "mealy" skate with "low-tide nasty" lobster foam, prepared by Rocco DiSpirito. After reading, we tried to......

Foodies attack the silver screen! In today's Times Arts & Leisure section, the long history and current feast of food in film is given another look. Would there have even been a Big Night if not for the food? In the coming months, Russell Crowe, the first person we think of when the phrase "good taste" coming up, will star as a man who inherits a vineyard and Nora Ephron is working on an adaptation......

After reading the review of Ana Marie Cox's new novel, Dog Days, in the Times yesterday (Cox got praise some of the satire, but the narrative itself was too formulaic), Gothamist wondered what about the other bloggers turned genuine, published (or about to be published) writers and their fates. Are a bunch of online fans enough to make a book successful? But what would be success? Critical praise or bestseller-dom? Link love from the blogosphere?......

Julie Powell, author, Julie & Julia, creator, The Julie/Julia Project...

Gothamist has been a fan of the Julie/Julia Project for quite some time. We were sad to see it come to an end, but at least we knew that Julie had gotten a book deal, so we had something to look forward to. And now, we can revisit our favorite Julie/Julia moments in the form of Julie's new book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her......

In anticipation of the close to the Julie/Julia Project, Julie Powell's marathon cook-and-blog-a-thon to cook every recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blog about it, Amanda Hesser visits Powell and her husband for a meal of veal kidneys, sautéed potatoes, glazed onions and a cherry clafouti. Hesser also finds out more about Powell (secretary at the LMDC) and that the cooking has taken a toll on the marriage (her husband,......