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.

When it comes to pig, it ain't all about bacon. There ... we said it. Holy sow, do we feel better.

Just ask Chris Lusk, the executive chef of Café Adelaide in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He thinks you should quit your swining, praise the lard and embrace the porker from the rooter to the tooter.

Five Pig Parts You Should Be Eating: Chris Lusk

Katherine Dorsett is an editor and producer at CNN. She reeeaaaaalllly loves SPAM.

I admit it. I love SPAM. It's delicious.

I know it's the butt of many jokes, but I don't care. It tastes good to me and I'm clearly not alone, since it has been around since 1937.

The winners of the "Great American SPAM Championship" have been announced, bringing joy to SPAM fans the world over. The competition (an annual event since 1991) this year called for creative macaroni and cheese-inspired SPAM dishes. More than 800 people participated in the contest, with the finals bringing all the winning recipes from state and county fairs across the United States together in a head-to-head battle.

58 year old Linda Graft of Floweree, Montana, won this year's challenge with her "SPAMaroni & Cheese Swaddlers" recipe.
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The Perkins restaurant in Highland Heights, Kentucky is closing its doors. This will likely not make news on anyone's restaurant blog or cause a mass wail and gnash in the chef community. I, however, am deeply saddened. It's the first place I was ever a regular.

As a high school senior in the Northern Kentucky suburbs in late 1989 and early 1990, not especially interested in schnapps-chugging and having ditched the cheerleading squad so I could focus on being a seeeeerious aaaaaaartist, I needed someplace (other than my parents' basement) to bide my time before my grand escape to college. Perkins fit the bill. It was 1. cheap, 2. boasted free coffee refills, 3. open 24/7 and 4. didn't seem to mind well-behaved teenagers camping out, nursing endless cups of java until the wee small hours.
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Sink your teeth into today's top stories from around the globe.

• You scream. I scream. We all scream for breast milk ice cream. Cup (heh) or cone? - Daily Mail

• Qdoba vs. Chipotle: Whose burrito reigns supreme?. - Salon

• McDonald's Shamrock Shake might make you say: "I wanna know where the treadmill at." - Gothamist

• "Gasland," the documentary about hydraulic fracturing, is one fracking good movie. - Gourmet Live

• Rush Limbaugh has said a lot of absurb stuff about food. - Grub Street New York

• Cooking with Chef Google. - Wired

While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday and the most delicious finds on TV.

Break out the salsa and heat up the queso! February 24 is National Tortilla Chip Day.

Seemingly simple yet crushingly complicated, tortilla chips are a snacking staple. You can chow down straight from the bag while lounging at home, dip away while dining at a Mexican restaurant, or munch while mingling at a simple soiree.

The Texas Monthly article “Why Are Tortilla Chips So Damn Good?" said it quite eloquently:

The casual snacker remains blessedly unaware of all that is occurring in her mouth and brain as she bites and then chews that heterogeneous matrix of starch and fat and air pockets, sensing it not only with teeth and tongue but ear and jaw and somehow judging from all sorts of varying information - about how it deforms and how it sounds and what vibrations it causes in the jaw - how crispy it is.

Crispy, crunchy, salty and simply put: perfect.

What's on TV?
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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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