Yup, we've been in a Mood this week, as evidenced by our crankypants Lunchtime Polls, so we figure we'll counteract the kvetch by sharing a few food-related things that have made us happy lately.

Our pal Paul Lukas of Uni Watch and ESPN column fame has combined two of his great passions, the Mets and meat, together for the first time in T-shirt form. Sez Lukas, "Inquire for special rates for vegetarians and Yankees fans." Get a closer look at Uni Watch.

Filmmaker Nicole Lang Key is seeking funds to finance a film called "Pimento Cheese, Please!" - all about that classic Southern spread, pimento cheese. To help her out, visit Kickstarter or join the Facebook group.

Chef Ron Eyester's cranky weekend Tweets about his restaurant's brunch customers make us gasp - then bust out laughing.
"Seriously considering implementing a "pain in the ass" up-charge...it can be a "sliding scale" charge that fluctuates on weekends."
"Even better, the woman at the "traffic table" mentioned that she doesn't like ice in her water b/c it melts...We've got a winner!"
Follow him @theangrychef.

Mario Batali's Babbo is notorious for its impenetrable reservations line – redial, redial, redial (ad infinitum), perhaps a pickup after half an hour of trying, then on hold for 20 minutes and then...all booked up. Sorry. We've never once been able to score a rez that way, and don't care to pull any strings to get one (it's an ethics thang).

That why it was such a thrill for our managing editor, on the evening of her (poorly planned) fourth wedding anniversary, to walk right in with her husband last night, be told it was a 45-minute wait for the bar but - well, there's a two-top that just opened up in the corner. Huzzah!

The meal included Batali's classic Pumpkin Lune (pumpkin ravioli with butter, sage and a whisper of Amaretto cookie), goose liver ravioli in a thick balsamic reduction, cured sardines, myrtle grappa and a dazzling assortment of sorbetti including olive oil, quince and Concord grape - and, for Karma's sake, a cheese plate sent over to a pal spotted celebrating her birthday at the bar.

Moral of the story - give it a shot. Stroll on in and see if you can score that "impossible" table. Just make sure you've got a fall-back nearby.

At a recent Harvest Festival, our favorite heirloom seed purveyor D. Landreth - the fifth oldest corporation in America - turned us on to the notion of not only enjoying a rich bounty of wildly different flavors of heirloom garlic, but growing some of our own as well. We bought one head of pungent German Red hardneck garlic for feasting upon right now, and another that we'll pop in the ground at the end of October - and forget about over the winter.

According to their website, "There are 6-11 cloves per bulb. One pound of seed garlic will yield approximately 60 plants." That's a mighty zesty investment. Learn more at landrethseeds.com.

It's become an obsession - one we share with our favorite staffers from Your $$$$$. Whoever gets to the "Park Cafe" first alerts the others via e-mail or cell phone picture of the day's so-called "International" theme cuisine. Recent favorites include "Chez l ‘ami Louis, Paris" (truffle butter chicken, a random selection of cheeses and something called "foie gras a la mode"), Joliet, IL (more chicken and "coated" potatoes, alongside a fruit trifle) and "Home." Whose home, exactly, remains a mystery, but it was an abode obsessed with chicken wings, meatloaf, mac & cheese, broccoli and biscuits - all in the same meal. There may have been pudding as well, but we got scared.

Oh, and we're also a little bit giddy when we spot our famous colleagues like Sanjay Gupta and Eliot Spitzer standing in the sandwich line like regular folks, but we try to rein it in.