sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

Sitting on a platform dangling from a crane high over Paris to eat a gourmet fundraising meal for $1,350 US a person. You're secured to chairs with rollercoaster-style seatbelts. A story at cbcnews.ca Some folks are crazy about bento boxes.

Nanaimo has its sweet bar and Saskatoon its berry. I missed the height of the Saskatoon berry season on a trip to the Saskatchewan city last week but did luck out on a few frozen pies.

Many restaurants have gone to a lot effort to show off their stuff on the web. I often check out restaurant websites before making a visit, to get an advance taste of a menu and a sense of how a place wants to present itself.

Downtown was a crowded place on Sunday, thanks in part to the Fringe Festival (last day), Blues Bash, and the Labour Day long weekend. After watching a Fringe show (Fall Fair - very worthwhile), we went looking for a late lunch.

A faithful correspondent writes: Journalists at this week’s budget lockup were wondering how the tough financial times and record deficit would affect the free lunch. The lockup description is literal – once in, generally before 9 a.m.

I hope you enjoyed the summer of 2009 because by the time our next long weekend rolls around, we'll all be wearing coats again.

Posh, the Vancouver-based sukiyaki restaurant, has just opened an outpost in Victoria. It's at the former location of Med Grill Mosaic, 1063 Fort St. Here's a sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ story from last month .

Yes, I know I don't get out enough. That's why Coffee Crisp and Kit Kat "bites" are such a revelation for me. They're balls of candy -- like chocolate-covered peanuts or raisins -- except they're formulated like Coffee Crisp and Kit Kat.

Well, actually, I'm not sure that it's good food, having never eaten it. But all over the place, I'm bumping into these self-righteous stories about food that isn't good for you. Lots of tut-tutting going on.

Dim sum at Sun Sui Wah in Vancouver. Random dim sum notes. Dim sum: little dishes of food, typically shared among several people.