Fame Bites goes inside the belly of the entertainment beast. We're dishing out where the celebrities are eating, what they're eating and who they're eating with.

It's confirmed: we want to be friends with Ryan Miller - the gent pictured right - of acoustic-pop trio Guster. He likes fried okra and wants to lay in a bed of bacon. But then again, who doesn't?
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Fear not, sushi fans - your favorite fish may not be off the menu for long.

Despite early fears from importers of Japanese seafood, once they're back in business, the country's currently imperiled fishing industry may not weather the same tide of consumer suspicion as their counterparts in the Gulf have. In the face of potential contamination from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, U.S. eaters of Hokkaido shrimp, abalone and freshly-flown-in sashimi are putting their faith in the government - mostly the Japanese government.

Ippei Nakao of Medallion Foods Inc., manning a booth at the recent International Boston Seafood Show said, "Consumers believe Japanese food is safe because Japanese standards are very strict."
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Sink your teeth into today's top stories from around the globe.

• Fear not spaghetti eaters on the subway, you can still chow down in relative peace. - New York Daily News

• Is Ruth Bourdain's James Beard nomination "degrading" food journalism? - Dallas Observer

• After having technical difficulties voting for the James Beard Awards, Dallas restaurant critic Leslie Brenner raises questions about whether the voting was fair. - Dallas News

• Amanda Hesser weighs in on Google's new recipe search, and how its results favor content-heavy sites, good Search Engine Optimization and calorie counts. - Food 52

• A woman held hostage in her own home took the high road and served the gunman a hot supper. - KGMH Denver

• In search of an egg's nutritional value? It's on the shell. - Make

Despite being urged not to hoard bottled water, residents of Japan's capital on Wednesday snapped it up in droves after testing showed radioactive material in tap water at levels unsafe for infants.

The city's water agency said the spike was likely caused by problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, located 240 kilometers (150 miles) away. Earlier Wednesday, Tokyo government officials advised residents not to give tap water to infants or use it in formula after tests at a purification plant detected high levels of radioactive iodine.

Read the full story "Bottled water scarce after Japan's tap water shown unsafe for infants" on CNN International.

Officials in Japan's capital Wednesday advised parents not to give city tap water to infants after tests showed it had elevated levels of radioactive iodine – a problem attributed to a nuclear plant damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Radiation exceeding legal limits also has been found in 11 types of vegetables and milk in prefectures surrounding the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, prompting some prefectures to stop shipping these products. The United States is preventing the import of milk, milk products, fresh vegetables and fruit from four Japanese prefectures, though certain products could be allowed in if tests show them to be safe, a Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said.

See brief explanations of how the radiation can get into food and water and how dangerous the food/water contamination in this instance might be.

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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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