The Heirloom Recipe Index exists to make your Grandma (or great uncle, or second cousin on your mother's side) a superstar and preserve their kitchen legacy.

A recipe has the ability to take the taste buds on a journey: one forkful can transport an eater as far away as Kandy, Sri Lanka, for a slice of Shari Atukorala's mother’s date cake.

Shari's mother baked date cake every weekend for tea. She also served the gooey delight, similar in texture to sticky toffee pudding, during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year each April.

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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.

Graham Elliot is the chef and owner of Graham Elliot in Chicago. He was named one of Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs in 2004 and later became the nation's youngest four star chef. He also recently competed on Bravo's "Top Chef Masters.

Since 2009, the music-minded chef has teamed up with the three-day music festival, Lollapalooza, to oversee all things culinary for the head-banging masses.

Top Five Albums to Cook To: Graham Elliot

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Every weekday, we're highlighting a local or regional blogger we think you ought to know about. We can’t be everywhere at once, so we look to these passionate eaters, cooks and writers to keep us tapped into every facet of the food world. Consider this a way to get to know a blog’s taste buds, because, well, you should.

Meet today's featured bloggers and blog:
Who: Adam Winer and Laura Leu, the Navigeaters
Where: New York City, New York
Twitter: @Navigeaters

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

• Tony the Tiger might be onto something. Newly released research shows kids think food tastes better when there is cartoon character marketing involved. - Health.com

• In the mood to rub elbows with some of America's favorite television chefs over Columbus Day weekend? Tickets go on sale today for the third annual Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival. - Official Site

• The era of the pop-up restaurant is upon us. San Francisco food vendors explore how to cook the kinds of foods they love without the financial heartbreak. - The Atlantic

• A growing number of health departments across the United States want health inspection grades to be posted in plain sight at restaurants. - USA Today

Last week, Eatocracy shared a compilation of restaurant pet peeves from friends and colleagues. In turn, we asked “What should we add to the menu of complaints?”

Over 1,500 responses later, and there are clearly two sides to every story. For every customer complaint, there wasn’t a waitstaff counterpoint far behind.

So, we decided to turn the tables: diners, you’re about to get served. Turns out industry folks have just as many grievances as customers do.

And in this corner, the waiters:

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Steven Stern, a former fact checker and a full time food fiend, is here to complicate things help.

Q: What's up with that green plastic leaf thing that comes with my sushi? Am I supposed to do something with it?

A: You mean you don't eat yours?

Just kidding. Those leaves are definitely not edible. They're called baran (sometimes spelled haran), and they're mostly used for decoration. Presentation is really important in Japanese food, even when you're dealing with cheap supermarket sushi. The plastic leaves also serve as dividers in a bento box (a single-portion lunch combo container), keeping your eel nigiri away from your tuna rolls.

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