As the huge snowpocalypse raged outside a couple weeks ago, I caught up on all the movies that I had been meaning to watch since the summer, including Julie and Julia as well as another one of Meryl Streep’s recent comedies, It’s Complicated. Although I guess it’s pointless for me to make any film critiques now, I have to admit that both movies did succeed in making my mouth water.

This past weekend, I visited a friend living in New York City. After skipping lunch to catch the noon bus on Friday, and spending four and a half hours cooped up in a seat with no leg room, I arrived at Penn Station starving. Luckily, Nan, my host, knew me very well and had already decided where we were eating dinner. Together, in the blustery cold, we headed to the heart of the East Village to a cozy-looking establishment named Veselka.

Every January, after a winter break that is simply too short, I come back to campus with a clean slate, ready to tackle the new semester. I decide that, this time, I will not procrastinate in my classes until the final exam, which inevitably fails for at least one course. Or, maybe, I really will abstain from all that delivery food and stick to eating healthily and exercising regularly (yeah … fat chance). Sadly, this will be my last spring as an undergraduate on the Hilltop, and this fact makes me even more determined than ever to visit local sites and restaurants, take better care of myself

Ever since I found out it was possible, I’ve wanted to get a reader’s ID for the Library of Congress.

In terms of regional food specialties, Maryland is probably most well-known for the way it prepares its Chesapeake Bay blue crabs, not surprisingly one of the state’s most important economic items. Every year, the season for harvesting these hard-shelled sea critters peaks between early October and late November, and the best way to cook them is steaming and seasoning them with a healthy amount of Old Bay.

Spanish food wasn’t new to me before this summer; in fact, the first article that I ever wrote for The Hoya featured a tapas restaurant, Jaleo, in downtown D.C. and Crystal City. But as odd as it may seem, I didn’t become obsessed with food from the Iberian Peninsula until my trip to Hong Kong in June, where I was lucky enough to try jamon iberico for the very first time at the C!tysuper in ShaTin Plaza, a supermarket that could only be compared to Dean and DeLuca in the United States.

I had quite a shock on Monday when I opened my many food-related Web bookmarks and repeatedly saw the headline, “November 2009 Issue to be Gourmet’s Last.” Wah? The magazine, publishing issues since the early 1940s, was one of the most highly respected food publications in the entire industry, and yet Condé Nast, its parent company, abruptly pulled the plug. Could this be true?

As cliché as it may sound, some of my best food memories took place in Paris. I distinctly remember waiting in line for French-style macarons (which are not the same as macaroons, mind you) by Pierre Hermé, known as the “Picasso of Pastries,” biting into a crusty baguette fresh from the oven for breakfast and wandering around some of the most colorful and aromatic farmers’ markets I had ever seen.

It may be surprising to some, but the food industry experiences fads and trends much like those of music and fashion.

If we look at the past couple of years, we've seen the obsession with all things Pan-Asian fusion, the Pinkberry and Red Mango frozen yogurt wars, the cupcake craze and now, pork belly madness - one of the better food fads in my opinion.