Nigerian food is famous for its spicy aromas and deeply flavored sauces. Delivering that heat is a specialty of chef Lookman Mashood. His New York City restaurant, Buka, has become one of the most popular spots for traditional Nigerian cuisine.
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Sink your teeth into today's top stories from around the globe.

• When table texters attack. - LA Times

• More nuggets, more problems: A 17-year-old girl who has eaten nothing but chicken nuggets since she was two was hospitalized. - Daily Mail

• McDonald's is removing the "pink slime" or ammonium hydroxide from its burger meat. Yay? - Business Insider

• Forget a New England v. Manhattan chowder battle, focus your game day menu on Indianapolis. - Indy Star

• Another bout is brewing in the East Coast-West Coast rivalry: Sierra Nevada expands, chooses North Carolina as its new home. - Seattle Post Intelligencer

Your souffle fell flat, your bechamel broke, or your beef stew was insufficiently delicious. Sometimes it's you. Sometimes it's the recipe.

At least you likely didn't suffer facial wounds like the 14 people who who successfully sued Chilean newspaper La Tercera for printing a churro recipe, that proved quite...explosive.

Seven years after the incident, Chile's supreme court ruled that the oil temperature provided was high enough to cause inevitable injury to anyone who attempted to make the fried dough snack at home. Compensation will be based on the seriousness of the damage (none of which was permanently disfiguring), in amounts ranging from $5000 to $50,000.
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Today, everyone is a member of chocoholics anonymous - January 27 is National Chocolate Cake Day!

Forget the fork and feel free to just stick your face in this decadent dessert; it's guaranteed to help you forget any annoyances and just put a big, silly grin on your face.

We have Dr. James Baker to thank for bringing chocolate cake to fruition, and the masses. In 1764, he developed a way to make chocolate by grinding the cocoa beans between two giant millstones. Cocoa powder was born, and with it came infinite baking possibilities.

Take the ethical chocolate baking challenge on iReport
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Pssst! Got a sec to chat?

We are utterly thrilled when readers want to hang out and talk – whether it's amongst themselves or in response to pieces we've posted. We want Eatocracy to be a cozy, spirited online home for those who find their way here.

Consider the daily Coffee Klatsch post as your VIP lounge – the primary comments thread for readers who'd like to chat about topics not related to the articles we're running. That way, everyone knows where to find each other, and each post's comments section remains on topic.
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5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

January 26 may have already come and gone for our mates down under, but here in the U.S. of A., the Australia Day party is just getting started.

Help us commemorate the first British settlement in New South Wales some 224 years ago with the folks - and Aussie expats - of Kingswood restaurant in New York City.

We're off to eat the delicacies, the wonderful delicacies of Oz.

Five Recipes for Australia Day: Lincoln Pilcher (pictured), Nick Mathers, Nick Hatsatouris and Chef Michael Hamilton
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Politics? Schmolitics. We're in it for the regional foods of the great US of A. We've talked loose meat in Iowa, gorton in New Hampshire, and she-crab soup in South Carolina. Our colleague CNN video journalist Alexandra Willingham is based in Atlanta, but Key West, Florida, has been her lifelong destination of choice.

She's had a lot of practice chowing down while living it up on the island, and says "Forget what you learned from Jimmy Buffett - Key West eats go far beyond cheeseburgers and margaritas. Here are some of the best foods to try while visiting in paradise."

Here are five don't-miss dishes from the southernmost city.

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Sink your teeth into today's top stories from around the globe.

• The etiquette of the doggy bag. - Insatiable Critic

• Auspicious dishes. - BBC News

• Thanks to Conan O'Brien, you can now watch Guy Fieri eat in reverse. - Eater

• No guts? You can still feast on haggis. - Guardian

• First Lady Michelle Obama announces a new Spanish-language food program, "Mi Plato," as part of her Let's Move campaign. - The White House

Shigeharu Asagiri loves beer so much he has even brewed it by the light of the moon.

He’s not a bathtub hootcher with vampiric tendencies, but the boss of Japanese microbrewery Coedo and a man committed to putting his craft beer on the map, no matter what it takes.

His nighttime brewing activity came just after the earthquake that rocked Japan’s Tohoku region last March led to frequent blackouts at his brewery just outside Tokyo.

From those difficult days and dark nights, Coedo has continued to make some award-winning beers that are helping to put the spotlight on interesting microbrews from Japan.
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Start crackin' those shells open - January 26 is National Pistachio Day!

Show some love for the green nut with a great deal of culinary importance. Not only are these little guys good for your heart, but they're just a darn tasty snack.

Pistachio trees were first cultivated in Western Asia, and they flourished in desert climates with saline soil across the Middle East. We can trace these nuts as part of the daily diet all the way back to the late Paleolithic period. The English picked up on this flavorful nut in the 1400s, but America didn't get their first taste in 1854, and even then the plant was introduced simply as a garden tree.
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