For two years, I have blocked out time in November to join colleagues at what amounts to a gigantic, three-day, non-stop culinary carnival. It’s the Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival held at the Culinary Institute of America in Saint Helena. For those of us who live and breathe food (in addition to eating as much good food as we can get our hands on) it is a time of learning, discovery and realizing that the love of food and flavors is indeed global.

It’s also lots of fun. As I sit here at my desk, flipping through this year’s program, I can already taste the ginger and sesame, smell the corn and fish sauce, and feel the inevitable aches and pains of non-stop going, doing and on-your-feet meals the conference brings.

Tucked here and there around my desk are reminders of conferences past. Last year, it was “Savoring Asia.” We learned about Chinese dumplings and noodles, thanks to the incredible research of food personailty Fuchsia Dunlop. Because Dunlop speaks fluent Chinese, she was able to ask and answer questions such as exactly why anyone would need to work with a knife as long as his arm.

I remember chatting about woks with Grace Young, the author of the masterpiece of wok cooking “Breath of a Wok.” I also met Suvir Saran, an Indian cook who has a knack for making Indian cooking seem simple and fast.

The year before, I was too sick to attend the conference on Mediterranean cuisine, but in 2002, it was all about Spanish and Latin American cuisine, including making our own tamales and tortillas, and tasting single origin chocolates. That was the year the representative from Melissa’s Produce sent me home with a massive Buddha’s Hand citrus, which looks like a lemon gone awry — with dozens of fingers going every which way.

This year, we will learn about how the flavors of the ancient world connect with the future of American cooking. We’ll get to hear from some of the most engaging personalities in media today, including R.W. Apple.

I’m very sorry you can’t be there too, but this year, thanks to our All You Can Eat web log, I can blog you in on the highlights and lowlights, giving you a taste of what I see, hear, taste and spit out. Sorry, not all foods are good enough to swallow. The conference gets underway Nov. 3.

– Jolene Thym

Finally, the City is both tasty and earthquake-proof. Elizabeth Hickok’s San Francisco in Jell-O is colorful, edible and downright amazing. A good representation of what the City looks like after a night of hard drinking. Or maybe that’s just me.

– Jenny Slafkosky

I have tremendous respect for winemakers. I appreciate the care and time they take in every step of their winemaking process, from the growing and picking of the grapes to the aging and bottling of the precious juice.

But the reality is that some of the wine that people make just doesn’t quite hit the mark. Some of the wine just needs a tiny little tweak in its aspirations, a chance to become great in an entirely different realm — vinegar.

About 4 months ago, I decided that a bottle of wine I had sampled needed just that kind of redirection in life. Rather than dump it down the drain, I decided to see if I could turn the wine to vinegar.

When I researched vinegar about two years ago, I learned that making vinegar the old fashioned way requires a “mother,” a yeast-like starter. You can go to a supply store and buy “mother” vinegar starter. But if you happen to have any good, unpasteurized vinegar on hand — and if it happens to have been on your shelf a while — you likely have a “mother” in your own cabinet. The “mother” is that cloudy stuff in the bottom of the bottle.

Not exactly sure how much “mother” I needed in the bottle, I haphazardly poured about 1/4 cup of the cloudy vinegar into the bottle and let it sit on a shelf in my kitchen. Every month or so, I would taste it. At first, it was distinctly winey, a flavor that I certainly wouldn’t want on my salad at lunch. But in due time, the transformation was complete. That hideous-flavored wine had become a beautiful, fruity, rich-flavored vinegar, unlike the kind you find in the supermarket. It
resembled some of the boutique vinegars I had tasted and enjoyed _ and paid $8 a bottle for.

After my little adventure, I noticed, I have an entirely different attitude about sub-standard wine. Last week, I opened a bottle of wine that tasted just like the glue that was used on my linoleum floor. It was as smoky as a campfire and wickedly resinous. At first, I was shocked and wondered what had happened to my tastebuds. But after three sips, I was convinced that this was not wine. It was vinegar-in-waiting.

As I rummaged around in the cupboard for some cloudy vinegar to seed the wine, I imagined how lovely it would be if the vinegar retained that smoky flavor. It will be months before it is ready, but I expect that in time, this wine will become a standout vinegar, one worthy of the best salads in the finest restaurants in the world.

I don’t know the formal rules for making vinegar. I don’t know exactly how long it takes to make vinegar because I didn’t count the days. But I do know that making vinegar is utterly simple. And the best part is that you will never, ever have to make do with bad, highly acidic vinegar that has no personality, and basically no flavor.

_ Jolene Thym

Since we launched our new Food & Wine section on Oct. 5, we’ve been devouring all things vinous to see if they’re a fit for our section. We were happy to take a meandering little walk through Red Wine Haiku, a blog by Lane Steinberg.

Steinberg’s haikus are spot-on, funny and definitely entertaining to read. Here’s his take on the Rancho Zabaco Reserve Zinfandel 2000 (California), a definite fruit bomb like most of what that winery produces.

Do I drink this stuff
Or pour it over pancakes?
Deepest of purples

I particularly loved his description of Rancho Zabaco’s Zinfandel Reserve 2001 (California)

Country wine moonshine
Zinfandel, the people’s grape
Big fist slap n’ slam

Read more of Steinberg’s haikus at http://redwinehaiku.blogspot.com. You might be inspired to write your own.

_ Danielle Centoni

Another person might have pouted and become depressed. She might have wasted time being angry and blaming people. But not Martha Stewart. I get the distinct idea that Martha spent the entire time in jail brainstorming ways to bolster her empire; ways to build it bigger, better and stronger than ever. From the instant she was released from house arrest, the jilted Queen of Good Things has been everywhere, if you had not noticed. Her staff is on Saturday morning food television. She’s not just on “The Apprentice,” on talk shows, describing her favorite jailhouse dessert, chit-chatting with pregnant women. She has her own 24-hour radio channel. She’s selling flowers, clothes and Halloween gear. Helping to grow Martha to mammoth and not-yet-seen proportions are her trusted staffers. Next month, Martha Stewart Living’s food editor Susan Spungen is coming to the Bay Area to promote her own cookbook. You can catch her at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 19 at Sur La Table in San Francisco or at noon Nov. 19 at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market. It will be fun to see who turns out to welcome the extended hand of Martha. _ Jolene Thym