Our Favorite Food Stories From The Week

This week, we lingered over simple pleasures and misunderstood food cultures, while revisiting the rise of foodie culture and its favorite ingredient (yes, we're talking about kale).

We also thought long and hard over one of the bravest, most honest food articles we've read in a while, and we hope you do, too. Here are eight reads to catch up on this weekend.

First, you may love patatas bravas as much as the next guy, but do you really, truly understand what it's all about? The Washington Post dives into the misunderstood culture of tapas and tries to set the record straight. We're down to get it right—however much we have to eat and drink to do so.

WaPo also enlightens us on the crucial role of good food and proper meals, most importantly, the incredible, inspiring female chefs in the military.

Jeff Gordinier captures our attention with one, simple lavash at an East Village neighborhood restaurant. If there's anything better than discovering hidden gems hiding right under our noses, it's this lavash, which Gordinier describes as "the perfect bread for summer."

NPR chats with the incomparable Mimi Sheraton, who has been on a "one-woman anti-kale campaign" for the last couple years. Good thing kelp is the new kale, according to another NPR story.

The New Yorker tells the fascinating tale of Hot Tamale Louie, "a beloved Mexican-food vender, Afghan immigrant and patriarch of Wyoming's now besieged Muslim population," and a though-provoking look at the history of immigration in the U.S.—and where we are now. 

And in one of the most striking, honest essays we've read in recent memory, John T. Edge and Tunde Wey ask the question together: "Who Owns Southern Food?" Don't shy away from this one; the authors didn't, and it's important we don't either.

So, while you're chewing on that last one—don't rush it—take a page out of VinePair's book and figure out the best way to order wine at a shitty bar (and what you should actually order instead). Cheers to the weekend, friends.