Ahem. This is seriously worth watching just for menu recitation alone. Oh - and there are plenty of matters of protocol surrounding the feast as well.

Previously - Apple pie and White House honey highlight tonight's all-American State Dinner menu

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Top Chef Masters winners Rick Bayless and Marcus Samuelsson can keep their knives packed.

Though the two provided assistance at state dinners in the past, White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses will be helming the kitchen themselves tonight. They’ll also be bucking the precedent set when the aforementioned chefs served chutney and curry to the Indian Prime Minister and Oaxacan Black Mole and jicama to the President of Mexico.

Tonight’s menu, at the request of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s delegation, will be an all-American feast featuring last summer’s harvest of honey and produce from the White House’s kitchen garden.
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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.

We all have them. Those foods that call to us from the depths of the pantry or refrigerator like a siren’s song. Maybe it’s cereal, maybe it’s Nutella, maybe it’s a Filet-o-Fish - whatever the specific poison, you know very well that you could pummel it into your pie hole until you drift into a food coma and your stomach cries out in agony, “Uuuuuuuuncle!”

We're not recommending you do such on a regular basis, but hey, we're human(ish) and all have our weaknesses - even Kelly Choi, the host of the New York City-based restaurant show "Eat Out NY," and seasons one and two of Bravo's "Top Chef Masters."

5 Foods I absolutely CANNOT Keep in My Apartment Because I Will Dog the Entire Container in One Sitting: Kelly Choi
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Many thanks to our pal Stacia Deshisiku from the White House Political Unit and The 1600 Report for passing on this State Department memo on the Chinese and American-influenced luncheon feast served in honor of President Hu Jintao's visit today.

Luncheon invitees represent the strong and diverse ties between our two countries. From government officials like former Secretaries of State Kissinger, Shultz, Powell and Albright, to cultural figures like Amy Tan, Vera Wang, chef Ming Tsai, figure skater Michelle Kwan, and the first Chinese-American football player in the NFL Ed Wang .

After dessert has been served, renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Roman, a young critically acclaimed cellist, will perform three pieces from Western and Chinese composers.

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Eddie Gehman Kohan of Obama Foodorama reports that an East Wing (that's the residential and First Lady's side of the White House) staffer says there will be no guest chef for the State Dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao tonight.

Instead, Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses will be helming the kitchen and presenting a "quintessentially American" meal at the request of the Chinese delegation.
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From yesterday's comments on our poll about the importance of authenticity, "wasabiguy" wrote:

I'm also tired of someone trying to "Patrick" someone else. Patrick is a friend of mine from college who always had a better experience that everyone else. He would say things like "this is good, but it's not as good as the salsa I had in Spain." Also, if you're in Spain, doesn't everything taste a little better anyway?

Goodness, they're tiresome, aren't they? The one-uppers, the "You haven't lived until you've..." and "Well, when I was in Italy they..." monologists, the food superlatives. Yes, it's wonderful and enriching and indeed quite admirable when someone goes to tremendous lengths to augment their experience and breadth of knowledge, but it's not gonna make the bowl of gnocchi sitting in front of you right now taste one iota better.

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

• In the advertising world, all beer-guzzling men are buffoons.– Sports Illustrated

• A special type of extra-large jalapeño peppers are being bred for very important purposes: the popper. - Popular Science

• In today's newest study, people get drunk at tailgates. No $#@%, Sherlock? - NPR

• Wherein Emily Gould learns a big chunk of the charm of generational recipes is making them with the generations before you. - Gourmet Live

• Our favorite Angry Chef responds to food critic John Kessler's open letter to Atlanta chefs. - Creative Loafing Atlanta

Welcome to the dawn of mobile currency.

For years, tech companies have demoed flashy prototypes of systems that let customers use their mobile phones in place of cash or credit cards. This year, those systems are heading out of the labs and into the real world.

"There's a lot of money at stake if it's done right," says Omar Green, director of strategic mobile initiatives at Intuit (INTU).

Starting Wednesday at Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) stores throughout the U.S., the cashier can now scan your phone to deduct payment for your latté from the balance on your pre-loaded Starbucks card. Splitting the dinner bill with a friend? Download Bump, and you can beam over the cash from your PayPal account.

Read the rest of "Your mobile phone is becoming your wallet" on CNNMoney.

Ming Tsai opened the doors of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts, more than 10 years ago. Since then, he's earned two James Beard Foundation Awards, hosted three Emmy-nominated cooking shows, authored four cookbooks and competed on Season 3 of Food Network's "The Next Iron Chef". Before that young Tsai could be found in the kitchen with his mom and dad at their family-owned restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen, in Dayton, Ohio.

On the eve of a state dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the White House Nicole Dow spoke with Chef Tsai about regional Chinese cooking, the role of authenticity and how an American eater can up his or her chances of scoring the good stuff.
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But apparently he and 'Pete on the Street' reporter Pete Dominic are in there all the time quaffing fancy coffee beverages and chortling at the rest of us office-less Flavia chuggers. It's okay...it's okay. We take our java like we deal with our emotional wounds from imagined slights by our more glamorous co-workers: totally freaking bitterly.

Seriously - call us. We've never met you, Mr. King, but a decent Americano would totally zazz up our work day.

Previously – Pod people: tweaking office coffee