Healthy choice: Look at the label
Dietitians are urging consumers to use the 'Nutrition Facts' labels as a guide to daily eating habits.
This pizza wants you. The box shows one slice of DiGiorno Cheese Stuffed Crust pizza magically rising from the pie -- gooey mozzarella tendrils, golden crust and red pepperoni offering themselves in a shameless seductive dance.
( BY ARTHUR HIRSCH, The Baltimore Sun, 02/01/2004 03:01 AM EST)

IN MY OPINION
Talking 'bout my generation? We achieve before we get old
One of my classmates already has started two biotech companies, and he's about to graduate a year early.
( BY ROMINA GARBER, rgarber@herald.com, 01/30/2004 08:54 AM EST)

Micro rave
Eduardo De San Angel: Worthy of a toast, the Fort Lauderdale restaurant is the favorite of Hollywood oncologist Dr. Steve Kanner, second from the left, enjoying dinner with Angela Horevitz, Mary Turick and Billy Erwin. ''It is impossible to get a bad meal there,'' Kanner says.
( 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

Beers to you
Stocking up for the Super Bowl? A brewski banquet beckons: Contrary to what we'll see Sunday on Super Bowl TV commercials, America's young and urban and hip and beautiful, when on the prowl, do not fuel themselves exclusively on nachos, lust and beer.
( BY FRED TASKER, ftasker@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

HOT DISH
Dinner at Carmen's benefits foundation
Chef Carmen Gonzalez has resurrected Feeding the Mind, the inspirational foundation she launched in 1995 to send underprivileged women to culinary school.
( BY VICTORIA PESCE ELLIOTT, vpe@aol.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

CYBER BITE
Shopping for chopsticks
Once you master chopsticks, they become essential. Asian cuisine tastes funny when you eat with a fork. Practice by picking up matches and pennies from a straight-sided dish.
( Knight Ridder News Service, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

WINE
Pop goes the prosecco, to woo beer drinkers
A dry, gently fizzy, unassuming Italian wine is beginning to take on the trappings of a fad. It's called prosecco. It's arriving now in South Florida -- at Joe's Stone Crab, Norman's, Gardner's markets, Portofino Wine Bank -- under the brand name ''Il,'' Italian for ''The.'' Because, one presumes, it's ''the'' new thing.
( BY FRED TASKER, ftasker@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

A FORK ON THE ROAD
Family finds a future in fritangas
Homesick Pinoleros flock to Fritanga Monimbo in the Fontainebleau area of Northwest Dade for a churrasco steak or a simple plate of mashed red beans topped with tangy crema (thin sour cream).
( BY LINDA BLADHOLM, food@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

REVIEW
Saffron's golden but not glitzy
Saffron, the pungent spice, is more costly, ounce per ounce, than gold. Saffron, the Persian restaurant, is a local treasure serving a trove of delicious dishes from the land of the Bible and the Koran.
( BY SUE MULLIN, smullin@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

LABEL LINGO
Even pros have reservations about 'reserve' designation
Factor in a soft economy, an overabundance of grapes and an increasingly finicky consumer and you'll understand why competition among winemakers is fierce.
( By DAVE BUCHANAN, Cox News Service, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

SUPER BOWL FOOD
Win your guests' admiration with tasty homemade dips
You can have your vat of chili, your sprawling, oozing deli platter and your plates of fiery wings. I use Super Bowl Sunday as an opportunity to wander down a path in the supermarket where, for the rest of the year, I dare not tread: The Aisle of Chips.
( BY JEANNE McMANUS, Washington Post, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

REVIEW
Uncle Tai's in Boca deserves its renown
With a dozen Chinese restaurants within a few minutes' drive of our house, several of them quite good, you have to wonder why we're on the highway, headed up to Boca Raton. Can Uncle Tai's really be that good?
( BY CHARLES BUHMAN, cbuhman@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

COCINA
Dominican mangu as addictive as merengue
After a few days in the Dominican Republic, I began to tap my fingers to a merengue beat on every solid surface I could find -- dinner tables, arm chairs, the backrest of my hotel bed: tarrarrarrarrarrá taratatá, tarrarrarrarrarrá taratatá.
( BY MARICEL E. PRESILLA, food@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

DINNER IN MINUTES
Chicken chili hearty but healthful
Chili is always a crowd pleaser. This easy, one-pot version is perfect for two or can be multipled to feed a houseful for Super Bowl Sunday. Chicken and mushrooms gives a light, tasty result. All the ingredients are placed in a large skillet at one time and left to cook on their own. If you wish, serve quick-cooking rice and a ready-to-eat salad on the side.
( BY LINDA GASSENHEIMER, dinnerlin@aol.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

Citrus gets around
GRAPEFRUIT Grapefruit -- it's not just for breakfast anymore. Thanks to selective breeding, the pucker in this citrus fruit has mellowed out and the number of pesky seeds has been decreased. Chefs and home cooks are thinking outside the breakfast bowl and incorporating grapefruit in all kinds of fun and fancy dishes.
( BY LAUREN CHAPIN, Knight Ridder News Service, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

COOK'S CORNER
Scones and clotted cream for tea
Q: Do you know how to prepare Devon cream, or can it be purchased ready made? A: I adore clotted cream, whether from Devon or Cornwall, and can imagine no better mid-morning or afternoon repast than fresh-baked scones with a liberal smear of the cream and raspberry jam.
( BY LINDA CICERO, food@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

Beyond the bowl: a grain-crusted fish
OATMEAL January is the month we buy more oatmeal than at any other time, according to Quaker Foods & Beverages. Last year, Americans purchased 36.3 million pounds of oats -- enough to make 363 million bowls of oatmeal.
( From Herald Wire Services, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

THE EDGY VEGGIE
Penalty-free snack choices
It's Super Bowl season and everyone's jonesing for junk food. So how do you satisfy the urge without dealing your body a crushing defeat?
( BY ELLEN KANNER, ellenink@aol.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

Tips for rookie hosts to ensure no fumbles
GAME-DAY PARTYING For avid football fans, Christmas and New Year's Eve parties are just warm-ups for the main event -- a Super Bowl party.
( Knight Ridder News Service, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

REVIEW
Kon Chau hits dim sum spot
Miami may have prettier and more elegant Chinese restaurants than Kon Chau, but the the family-friendly, utilitarian spot on Bird Road is tops for labor-intensive dim sum.
( BY SUE MULLIN, smullin@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

REVIEW
Corned beef and quesadillas
It was as if the hostess read my mind. Standing in line for dinner at Toojay's Gourmet Deli, I couldn't help ogling the black-and-white cookies in the dessert case -- mini versions of the ultra-sweet deli fave that was my childhood reward for eating all my veggies. The next thing I knew the hostess was offering cookies to everyone in line. They were as good as remembered -- but this time no one cared that I ate my dessert first.
( BY ROCHELLE KOFF, rkoff@herald.com, 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

TAKEOUT
Go gourmet at Estancia
La Estancia Argentina (Coral Gables, Aventura) has everything you'd expect in a gourmet cafe whether you're looking for South American or European delights.
( 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

TAKEOUT
Roly Poly wraps it up
Despite its name, Roly Poly is unlikely to leave you feeling pudgy. The franchise operation specializes in fresh, hand-rolled sandwiches -- ''with all the ingredients you'd expect in a gourmet sandwich, but wrapped.''
( 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)

Kitchen Q&A;
Q: Is the Frugal Gourmet still around? I haven't heard anything about him in ages. A: Jeff Smith, 65, reportedly is retired and living in Seattle. An ordained Methodist minister, he wrote 10 cookbooks and hosted a popular cooking show on public television in the 1970s and 1980s.
( 01/29/2004 03:01 AM EST)