A month before the New York City Marathon, I clocked in a gluttonous seven-hour day of eating at NYC’s Eleven Madison Park (a leisurely lunch, followed by a lengthy dinner). A waiter overheard me speaking about the marathon, and soon, I found myself talking running strategies with a handful of staff members. I knew chef Daniel Humm was a serious runner, but it’s quite possible that Eleven Madison Park may have the most athletic staff in the city. While Humm had to
bow out of the 26.2-mile race due to an injury, wine captain Jordan Salcito did him proud by clocking in at 3:37:05, which qualified her for April’s Boston Marathon.

Here, Salcito’s highs and lows.

Low: “The walk to the UPS trucks after the finish line to pick up my things. At
that point, the adrenaline was gone and my legs had become cement blocks.”

High: ”My husband, wine guy Robert Bohr, sprinted out of nowhere with a bottle
of Clif Quench at mile 24. That, and 'Eye of the Tiger' on repeat, kept me
going strong those last two miles.”

Cru has been my favorite fancy New York City restaurant since it opened. And now I think it’s about to become my new favorite not-so-fancy place. As Florence Fabricant reported in the New York Times’ Diners Journal blog, Todd Macdonald is Cru’s new chef (once upon a time he was sous chef there). And he’s installing a whole new menu that will be more accessible and less expensive but still wildly compatible with Cru’s extraordinary, and now lower-priced, wine list. Maybe even more so. Macdonald is hugely wine savvy: His parents are the kind of foodies whose vacations in France mean hanging out with Burgundian winemakers and eating at least one three-Michelin-star meal a day. Macdonald has even set his own wine recommendations for the dishes he’s just put on Cru’s menu. Crispy octopus with roasted sunchokes, caraway and celery = Grüner Vetliner; fig-stuffed quail with farro and stewed leeks = Volnay. Can he possibly know more about pairings than Cru’s wine superheros Robert Bohr (partner) and Roy Welland (owner)? I’ll just have to go to Cru to find out.

Each year on Halloween, my husband and I carve a jack-o’-lantern and then roast the pumpkin seeds to snack on. So a few days ago, while I was cleaning out a butternut squash to make my daughter’s favorite soup, Curried Butternut Squash and Cauliflower Soup (pictured), I thought, Why couldn’t we roast the squash seeds as well? I cleaned the flesh off the seeds, then rinsed and dried them well. I tossed them with olive oil and salt, spread them on a baking sheet and roasted them for about 10 minutes in a 300-degree oven. (Take the seeds out when they start to pop and get golden, because they keep cooking after coming out of the oven.) The hulls are thinner than those of pumpkin seeds, and I think they’re more delicious as well, with a flavor a bit like popcorn.

Currently showing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: “May Your Glass Be Ever Full: Drinking in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Europe,” featuring glassware like a crystal goblet from 1745 engraved with the words, “The Hell Fire Club.” Here, our own glassware guide with excellent cocktails to serve in each type of glass:

• Coupe: 10 superb cocktails for the coupe like the margarita-like Flor de Jalisco and the grapefruity Hemingway Daiquiri
• Rocks: 10 outstanding cocktails for the rocks glass like the Manzarita, a tequila smash prepared with apple juice and cinnamon (pictured), and the citrusy Hibiscus Petal
• Highball: 10 terrific cocktails for the highball like the almond-flavored Fog Cutter, a classic tiki drink, and El Gusano Rojo, prepared with ginger beer and mezcal
• Martini: 10 exceptional cocktails for the martini glass like the classic martini and the lemon-basil martini
• Flute: 7 great cocktails for the flute like the Americana, prepared with Champagne, bourbon and sliced peaches, and the minty Champagne mojito

After running my first New York City Marathon last Sunday, I’ve been swapping marathon highs and lows with fellow food-world runners. I had a freakishly great race and crossed the finish line in three hours and 21 minutes, with my only low being post-race muscle pain  (I’ve been recovering with a marathon week of eating and drinking). Others weren’t as lucky. Daniel Humm of NYC’s Eleven Madison Park had to pull out of the race due to a stress fracture. Here, some other tales from marathon newbies and vets:

Bobby Stuckey, sommelier of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, CO
Stuckey, an insanely speedy runner,  hit up L’Artusi the Friday night before the race and was spotted eating at Marea on marathon eve.
Low: “Mile 23. My world just got really small and I knew that I needed to dig deep.”
High: “Looking up at the JumboTron and seeing an American wine almost brought me to tears.”
Finishing Time: 2:47:23

Joe Campanale, co-owner and sommelier of L’Artusi and Dell’anima, NYC
Not only did Campanale lose 15 pounds and three toenails while training, he also raised almost $14,000 for his charity, Team Hole in the Wall Gang.
Low: “I had a stomach virus that stayed with me for pretty much the whole race.”
High: “Coming off the 59th Street Bridge and running up 1st Avenue feels like walking onto the field in the middle of the World Series."  
Time: 4:49:29

Chef Olivier Muller, DB Bistro Moderne, NYC
The marathon newbie raised $12,000 for the charity Malaria No More.
Low: “At mile 22 I had a huge cramp. My left leg just stopped mid-stride.”
High: “After the race I had 15 friends waiting at my apartment to celebrate. We ate cheeses, charcuterie, beef short ribs, coq au vin and spaetzle and washed it down with red wine.”
Time: 3:38:57

Joe Bastianich, restaurateur and winemaker
After losing an astonishing amount of weight by running, Bastianich has become a marathon regular.
Low: “Running on Fifth Ave up the hill that you never knew existed, passing by the homes of every rich person in New York.”
High: “Floating over the Verrazano Bridge on pure adrenaline.”  
Time: 3:42:36

Drum roll…Daniel Boulud is headed to London and not just for vacation. He's opening a branch of NYC's Bar Boulud in my favorite London hotel, the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. The menu: bistro, featuring Boulud's terrific terrines and homey French classics. The charcuterie: courtesy of Gilles Verot, who's been called the Pierre Hermé of cured meats. The designer: Adam Tihany, who included a charcuterie bar for Verot's specialties. The design: referencing French winemaking, with vintage oak floors (think wine barrels) and deep-red leather banquettes (think Burgundy red wine). The wine list: focusing on Burgundy and the Rhône Valley, but yes, there will be Old World wines too. The opening date: spring 2010.
 
 

Boy is it exciting to walk past the construction workers and into Maialino, Danny Meyer’s about-to-open Roman trattoria in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park Hotel. First you see the gorgeous burnt-yellow tiled floors (based on a design at the Pantheon). Then you see the long Bar Maialino (in the a.m., it’s for stand-up consumption of espressos and house-baked pastries; the rest of the day, it’s for small plates). Opposite is the marble salumi bar. In the Trattoria, a.k.a. the dining room, tables are topped with blue-and-white-checked cloths and walls are lined with reclaimed wood from the Pantheon (kidding—it's from barns in New Jersey). And let’s note that Rockwell Group reclaimed the wood and designed the place.

In the kitchen, chef Nick Anderer is testing the menu, including stracciatella alla romana (Italian egg drop soup), braised artichokes, divine house-cured salt cod fritters and cacio e pepe ("salt and pepper") made with hand-cut tonnarelli pasta. Me, I loved it. But Anderer and Union Square Cafe’s überchef Michael Romano—who was there in a chef's jacket—thought the pasta could be less chewy, the sauce creamier. So, will Anderer try to recreate the pasta setup at Babbo, where he used to work and where Bill Buford tagged him as "the pasta guy" in his book Heat? “Absolutely not. It’s amazing there, but no.”

I recently came back from Phoenix, where everyone is buzzing about a new restaurant called St. Francis. Chef-owner Aaron Chamberlin (who trained with Michel Richard, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Nancy Oakes) spent nearly three years searching for the perfect spot, finally buying and renovating a midcentury Harold Ekman building on Camelback Road. With the help of his dad and brother, he’s created a hip, industrial-style space with a two-story, window-faced garage door that opens the bar to the outside. There are homey touches, too; his grandmother's old silver spoons are embedded in the stone walls and chairs from San Francisco's old Rubicon restaurant space. There's also an enormous wood-burning stove. The affordable menu balances healthy dishes, like the sweet-and-spicy Forbidden Rice Bowl, with decadent ones, like a French Onion Burger topped with an onion ring, smoked bacon, Gruyère and homemade French Dip. With Pizzeria Bianco just a few blocks away, uptown Phoenix may be Arizona’s next cool food 'hood.

Even though I live in NYC, I obsessively follow the L.A.-based Kogi Korean taco truck on Twitter (more on that in our "10 Best Restaurant Dishes 2009" story in the upcoming December issue). Now I have to figure out how to also keep track of their newest toy: the bright orange Scion Kogi xD Mobile Kitchen made just for Kogi by Toyota. It’s fully loaded in the back with a grill, sink and special grilling-tools compartment (and don’t forget the Alpine sound system). Kogi co-founder Roy Choi promised I could ride shotgun next time I go to L.A. Meanwhile, I’ll keep watching the YouTube video inside the mobile kitchen, including a demo of Kogi’s newest, killer-sounding dish, Silver Peso Pancakes made with Korean flat chives and sesame oil/leaf/seeds, with their special chile vinaigrette.

In Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, Eating Animals (Little, Brown and Company), out today, the vegetarian writer ponders the ethics of eating meat. Here, outstanding dishes for the vegan, vegetarian and almost-vegetarian:

• Vegan: 12 great vegan dishes like a vegetable curry that gets its richness from coconut milk (right), an ultrasimple black bean soup with crispy tortillas, and a spicy chickpea salad, a twist on the classic Indian street food called chana chaat
• Vegetarian: 15 excellent vegetarian dishes like a warm spaghetti-squash salad, a cassoulet of slow-cooked leeks with meaty porcini mushrooms and cranberry beans, and a chanterelle and fontina frittata
• Pescatarian: 15 delicious fish dishes like snapper with lime-coriander broth, Provençal fish soup, and salmon sashimi with ginger and hot sesame oil