Embittered by the sight of happy couples clinking flutes and hand-feeding each other overpriced oysters? Ben Edmunds can help you drink the heartache away.

The Portland brewmaster tells KATU that Breakside Brewery's "Broken Promise" ale is inspired by his own "anti-romantic" sense of humor, rather than a shattered romance.
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

People will spend about $1.6 billion on candy this Valentine's Day, including on those heart-shaped boxes of assorted chocolate. It’s only fitting then that February 14 also happens to be National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day!
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This is the eight installment of "Eat This List" - a regularly recurring list of things chefs, farmers, writers, musicians, politicians and other smart people think you ought to know about. Today's contributor is hip hop star Jean Grae. Stay apprised of her many goings-on at JeanGrae.com and on Twitter @jeangreasy.

If you’re like me, you’re single.

Also, a bunch of other things, but that’s probably not best to get into right now.

So here you are. Standing outside the window of a fancy restaurant watching your ex have dinner with someone...NOT YOU.

It’s raining. The lighting inside of the restaurant is warm, amber, romantic. The tables are filled with couples whose torsos stretch gently over the candlelit tables in effort to be closer to each other, as they speak in hushed, soft tones.

You can hear them smile through the window.

You pull your trench coat tighter around your sweats and thin hoodie.

Is...? Oh no. Your ex pulls out a tiny jewelry box and starts to get out of his chair. His date gasps, brings her hand to her heart.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

On Valentine’s Day, the question isn’t whether you’re going to eat any chocolate; the question is how much? If you need something to strive for, the record for the world’s largest chocolate heart is waiting to be broken: It was set back in 2004 in Madrid, by the seven metric ton heart from Match.com.

But there are infinite kinds of chocolate to indulge in on this great holiday; you don’t need to confine yourself to hearts. The following is a gift guide for all kinds of chocolate lovers, from the pizza fanatics to the sports junkies to the very, very rich.
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Ray Isle (@islewine on Twitter) is Food & Wine's executive wine editor. We trust his every cork pop and decant – and the man can sniff out a bargain to boot. Take it away, Ray.

Pink bubbles are one of the classic Valentine’s Day investments. While not as popular as Sweethearts, for instance—those little heart-shaped candies imprinted with slogans like “Be Mine” or “Oh Hell, A Bear Just Ate My Leg” - of which the Necco company produces some 8 billion annually, pink Champagne and sparkling wine are definitely in the romantic top-seller category, regardless.
 
The hitch, of course, is that as a Valentine’s Day buyer, you’ve basically got one shot (unless you and your sweetheart are robust enough to down two or more bottles of bubbly). And thanks to the boom in rosé sparkling wine sales over the past few years, there are more choices on the market than ever. Valentine’s Day, as we all know, is already charged with mind-bending levels of unreal expectation and absolute panic—some fun, right? So seriously: Do not throw a bad bottle of wine into that mix.
 
To that end, here are a few sparkling rosés at various prices that, regardless of what else you do or don’t follow through on, won’t disappoint your partner.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

Don’t worry if you haven’t booked your romantic Valentine’s Day dinner reservation yet. There are a gazillion restaurants doing lovely things for V-Day candlelit corner tables, red drinks galore, primal meat cuts for two, endless amounts of sexy foods.
 
If, however, you’re at the other end of spectrum, if you’re looking for a good place to say some variation of, “It’s not you, it’s me,” then the following list might come in handy. And remember, there’s always someone better out there.
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Whether you're coupled-up for the long haul, feeling the first flush of love or rolling footloose and fancy-free, you've still gotta eat on February 14, right? Here's our best advice for satisfying appetites of all sorts.

Tales from the Trenches

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Is it hot in here, or is it just the peppercorns? We asked José Andrés, Michel Nischan, Gail Simmons, Michael Chiarello, Sang Yoon, John Besh, Richard Blais and Andrew Zimmern to deliver some serious sweet talk to their favorite ingredients and kitchen tools in the video above.

Hungry for more?
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Once upon a time, I had a perfect romantic meal. It was ten years ago, but that doesn't much matter. The restaurant, by design, existed outside of time – mid-century French fanciness, untouched by fad or fashion. It seemed not outside the realm of possibility that the same tuxedoed waiters had been escorting the same fresh-faced and helium-bosomed young ladies (and their uncomfortably collared "uncles") to starched and sumptuous banquettes since the restaurant's opening in 1960, and that the maitre d' had air-kissed the same doyenne's surgically-taut cheek with the exact vim and deference he had since the year her Chanel suit was new.

It was Valentine's Day, and for a girl who frequently sported combat boots and a battle-scarred heart, this was as close to Hollywood l'amour as I'd ever gotten. In previous Februaries, I'd poured my heart into handmade cards, meticulously-chosen poetry volumes (and the occasional glass of single malt for myself), and had received, on various occasions a power drill, "I dunno - where do you wanna eat?", "Oh shoot...we're doing this?" and inevitably the bill for whatever entertainment ensued.
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Paul Qui’s cooking has wooed diners at Austin, Texas, restaurant Uchiko. Now, the Philippines-born executive chef is also currently winning hearts and minds across America on Season 9 of "Top Chef: Texas."

In homage to the most romantic day of the year, Chef Qui suggests his version of egg-in-the-hole as the sweetest way to feed your Valentine. It’s even a little bit tastier if it's served as breakfast in bed.

"If this dish isn't perfect for that cause, it makes a hell of a hangover cure too," says Qui.
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