We gobble the various food sections up each Wednesday. Here are our favorite nibbles from Wednesday's offerings. SF Chronicle: Textures and flavors explored by Bay Area restaurant chefs (including Thomas Keller, who's doing a cookbook on the subject) via sous vide "under vacuum" cooking. Dishes discussed include: rhubarb, pork tenderloin, duck breast, and beef short ribs. Food geeks may smile over info from Harold McGee, one of SFist's favorite local food scientists. Cooks of all......

We must mention the do-gooding of local and international food bloggers in the form of Menu for Hope, which is a now annual fundraising campaign for the UN World Food Programme. It was founded by Pim, of Chez Pim. Last year, 17K went to UNICEF. For a mere $10 per raffle ticket, you have the chance to win "amazing food related prizes" in the way of books, meals, signed items and even tea with SFist......

SFist Karen catches some Andy Goldsworthy-esque art on the beach. Meet the Ritual Roasters, the folks behind local politics website Usual Suspects, the guy who produced The Devil and Daniel Johnston, and some hot sexcake talk! Plus: we shamelessly speculate about the "CIA agent" posting notices around town. In sports: Giants (plus the new Barry show), A's, mountain biking, and the end of the women's NCAA tourney. We wish a fond farewell to abecedarian eater......

The SFist test kitchen staff has a tiny list of essential food books. At the top you'll find Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. Our copy's tattered cover and stained pages broadcast our love for this accessible bible of kitchen science. When we use the bright red tome to answer our culinary questions, we say we're "Reading From the Book of Harold." Alton Brown uses this book as a reference. Why should you click......

We loved the empty marketplace we found at the Ferry Building on a soggy New Year's Eve day. Few buyers wanted to come out on the wet holiday. Sadly, many farmers felt the same way, and the thriving market was a shadow of its normal self. Ah, well, we still found some bright green Brussels sprouts to take home for dinner. Brussels sprouts are one of those love-em-or-hate-em vegetables, and we hope you'll use......

Nothing from the garden tastes so essential. The acid-tinged sweet richness is like summer distilled on a plate. - Ed Behr, The Artful Eater. You knew this post was coming. You've seen tomatoes piled up at the farmer's markets, a gumball machine of green, yellow, orange, and red spheres, and you've wondered when we're going to talk about them. Never fear, we intend to take full advantage of this mouthwatering selection. Though supermarket versions have......