In a not-too-distant future L.A. where master chefs rule the town like crime lords and people literally kill for a seat at the best restaurants, a bloody culinary war is raging.

On one side, the Internationalists, who blend foods from all over the world into exotic delights. On the other, the “Vertical Farm,” who prepare nothing but organic, vegetarian, macrobiotic dishes. Into this maelstrom steps Jiro, a renegade and ruthless sushi chef, known to decapitate patrons who dare request a California Roll, or who stir wasabi into their soy sauce. Both sides want Jiro to join their factions. Jiro, however has bigger ideas, and in the end, no chef may be left alive!

Get Jiro! by Anthony Bourdain, co-written by Joel Rose, art by Langdon Foss. Described by Bourdain as “…a gourmet slaughter-fest, sort of like Fistful of Dollars meets Eat Drink Man Woman” and “Yojimbo meets Big Night and Babette’s Feast, an ultra-violent slaughter-fest over culinary arcana.”

Coming in Amazon in July 2012.

If you don’t have this book—

—but want to read about one of our generation’s best chefs, head on over to D.T. Max’s New Yorker profile of this remarkable man, “A Man of Taste.” A great read that chronicles Grant Achatz’s fight with cancer as he seeks to attain his ambitions with inspiring drive and tenacious creativity.

A great description of the word “foodie” from NYMag’s “When Did Young People Start Spending 25% of Their Paychecks on Pickled Lamb’s Tongues?”:

[A]vowed culinary agnostics whose central motivation is simply to hunt down and enjoy the next most delicious meal.

A description that couldn’t be closer to the truth, down to the agnosticism. As with the article’s subject, being called a “foodie” makes me uncomfortable because of all the connotations.

I just like delicious food, and I know exactly what I like, and what I don’t—there’s really nothing more to it.

So I just reformatted my blog. The most striking change is that this new theme seems to lend itself more to actual writing than just fatuous photo posts.

Great.

Over the weekend, finished:

Gai-Jin by James Clavell (after two long months!), and

Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas’ Life, On the Line, which I devoured in less than 24 hours. It’s the most absorbing and really, deeply inspiring memoir I’ve read in a while.

Yesterday morning, started reading Lawrence Osborne’s Bangkok Days for some armchair traveling—a return to crazy Bangkok with its ping-pong shows, &c.

Glad to be picking up an unread book from my book pile again. 134 more to go!