food-heavy friday

Walking into Selfreliance Ukranian Credit Union is like entering a cafe in a foreign country. The room is thick with conversation but none of the words make sense. The seats in the lobby are all taken; you find the nearest pillar and lean against it in a way you hope looks nonchalant. You count heads, try to figure out your place in line, until you realize that none of the elderly Ukranian men and women are there to do banking. This is their gathering place, these hard-backed chairs their soapboxes. Everything here is being fiercely debated, bony wrists flying in wild gesticulation, veined hands flapping like birds about to take off.

“All told, farmed animals in the United States produce . . . roughly 87,000 pounds of shit per second.” A review of Jonathan Safran Foer's latest book.

Twenty-four secret restaurant menus. Ordering fast food will never be the same.

What makes a good teacher? Getting kids to pay attention to you, mostly.

So far, Chicago's finest craft beer establishment ain't got nothin' on Monk's.

Image: Yesterday Ben and I got a new mattress! It was like sleeping on a raft made of sky. I'm pretty sure this bed will change my life.