As much as I enjoy reading Amanda Hesser’s serious work (with most of her Food Diary entries excluded from that grouping in my mind), I was taken aback to see her filling in as the N.Y. Times’ restaurant critic. I suspect she is well known and recognized in restaurant circles, and although not all critics have been anonymous, it is a preferred qualification for the role. Well, the foie gras almost hit the fan last week when the Times published an “Editor’s Note” to set the record straight on Hesser’s review of Spice Market. Owner Jean-Georges Vongerichten has been a subject in Hesser’s feature writing since 1998, according to the Village Voice, and he provided a complimentary blurb for her book. Critics of this interim critic think she should have skipped reviewing what amounts to a friend’s business. And, unfortunately, in reading this week’s review I had to wonder at her ability to effectively judge a restaurant’s service when she may be easily recognized. The waiter brought her a free half bottle of champagne claiming “I forgot to serve it to another table, and I didn’t feel like taking it back to the bar.” Get her out of the restaurant critic gig, and back to the features before all is lost.

The Pulitzer Prizes have been announced, with the L.A. Times pulling in a total of five. No winner was chosen for the category of feature writing for the first time ever (other categories have gone unrewarded before).

Back in January I mentioned the nine Fabergé eggs from the Forbes’ collection which were to be auctioned off this month. Out of the fifty Fabergé eggs believed to have been made, eight are unaccounted for, and Forbes Magazine has done a round-up of their suspected whereabouts. One was part of a set of Russian treasures that were taken on a tour of U.S. department stores in 1934 to be shown and sold. It may be sitting in a display case somewhere in the U.S. lacking its provenance. Maybe your grandparents have “a sapphire cherub pulling a two-wheeled chariot (possibly gilt silver) containing a golden egg set with diamonds” sitting on their mantle? There are tantalizing descriptions of two other missing eggs: one is decorated with “diamonds, emeralds, rubies– topped by both a large colored diamond and a cabochon sapphire”; another is a gold hen with rose-cut diamonds holding a sapphire egg in its beak. As for the Forbes’ eggs, Sotheby’s announced in February that the entire collection, which included other Fabergé creations, was sold to Russian industrialist Victor Vekselberg. Vekselberg has established a foundation to bring Russian treasures back to his country. The selling price was not disclosed. (via snarkout)

All seven British Airways Concordes put out to pasture for the pleasure of the viewing public have now been sent to their new homes. The final list of display locations: Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport, Filton in central England (location of the factory), Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados, Seattle’s Museum of Flight in Seattle, the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York, and, as of this week, the Museum of Flight in East Fortune, near Edinburgh.

The International Home & Housewares Show held in Chicago last month had a wide enough range of interesting new products that news coverage varied on what was noteworthy. One common point was the continued use of silicone products with fancy-shaped molds for baking, silicone knife handles, and even an oven mitt on display. The Toastabag was mentioned often. It’s a reusable bag that can brown a cheese sandwich in your pop-up toaster. KitchenAid fans may appreciate a new set of attachments that turn the stand mixer into an ice cream maker. But at $99 retail, it’d better have some mighty advantages over the typical $49 ice cream makers. The carefully designed Garlic Twist claims to minces garlic without fuss or muss. And the QuikTop turns soda cans into bottles, complete with the ability reseal using its handy coaster/cup/top.

A quick search through Google News shows that the bubble tea (aka pearl tea, aka boba tea) phenomenon has spread to most metropolitan areas of the U.S. News reports made mention of the tapioca balls appearing in teas in North Carolina, Las Vegas, New Mexico, and even India. Despite having been exposed to bubble tea early on in its journey from Taiwan to Asian American communities, it took me until yesterday to be struck by the recollection that little gelatinous balls in a beverage had been marketed once before: Orbitz Soda. While it’s not the same as bubble tea, whose tapioca balls usually settle to the bottom of the milky tea to be slurped up through specially super-sized straws, I can’t help but think of Orbitz as a strange alien step-relative…ahead of its time perhaps, but alas, just not very pleasant tasting.

Penzey’s, purveyor of pungent spices, is holding a postcard contest to determine where to open their next retail store. Their goods have been recommended to me by many a serious home chef, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have a retail store near my home town, so next time I’m in Connecticut I can check out their wares. Until then, sending postcard votes from Seattle is a grand scheme.

Astound your sports friends with this bit of NFL trivia. Among the new rules approved by the NFL this week, wide receivers can now wear the numbers 10-19. They were previously limited to 80-89. The uniform numbering system was adopted in 1973.

The discriminating and elite cross-section of readers who are fans of both NPR and a certain small, terry cloth monkey will certainly enjoy the fun and detailed monkey tour of NPR’s headquarters.

Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” has been adapted for a 3-hour television “event” that will be shown on May 15, during sweeps. It’s been in the works at Miramax since 2001 and will air on ABC’s “Wonderful World of Disney.” (via TV Picks)