Fields Corner, Dorchester (photo: PreservationNation/Flickr)

LOCAL BITES

A New Market Opens
This Sunday, Jan. 8, Dorchester’s Codman Square Great Hall will be the site of a grand opening. The Dorchester Winter Farmers’ Market–called the first step toward a full-scale brick-and-mortar cooperative store in an area of low access — will open its doors as one of Boston’s only winter markets, and the only city market to accept EBT/SNAP and Boston Bounty Bucks. Hours are 12 – 3 p.m. on Sundays, Jan. thru March. The market will feature produce, breads, meats, cheeses and value-added products (jams, honeys, etc.), in addition to local arts, crafts and performances. Mayor Menino, State Rep. Russell Holmes and other dignitaries will attend a ribbon cutting at 2 p.m.

Dine Out
Restaurant Week in the Dorchester/Milton neck of Boston is fast approaching. Save the date, Jan. 15-30, Sun-Thurs night! Nine neighborhood eateries will participate, offering prix-fixe menus for $30.12 and including Savin Bar & Kitchen, Ledge and Ashmont Grill. (Check out the Grill’s Give Back program, in support of the Dorchester Community Food Coop; it’s their market efforts, above!). Online info coming soon. Check back in.

Veg-out a Few Days a Week
Local-food visionary JJ Gonson of Cuisine en Locale is introducing a vegetarian version of her ONCE-a-Week shared food program. This means you can eat local and eat vegetarian, with JJ and gang sourcing and preparing meals for you a few nights a week. Contagious enthusiasm and more info at the Cuisine en-Locale site.

Crushing Grapes
Boston’s Wine Expo begins MLK weekend. It runs a full week (Jan. 16-22), and the seminars look both varied and enticing (Russian River Valley wines, Know your Scotch, Brunello di Montalcino, cheese and wine matching, Knife Skills, etc.) The Expo will also feature a mobile app for cataloging the wines you sample, a farmer’s market and vintner dinners around town. Detailed info here.

 Super Hungry?
The Super Hunger Brunch, now in it’s 30th year, is back. The Greater Boston Food Bank (@gr8bosfoodbank) is again organizing their January fundraiser, with over 20 restaurants offering prix-fixe brunch menus for the weekend of Jan. 28-29. Proceeds will help the GBFB offer meals to folks who need them. Hunger is closer than you think! Choose a restaurant, make a reservation and help battle hunger in New England.

Scottish for a Night, or Three
The Haven in Jamaica Plain is getting reading for its annual Burns Night, honoring writer Robert Burns. Actually, make that three nights featuring poetry, music, traditional dance, Scottish ales and, yes, haggis. It all begins Jan. 23. Don your kilt (if you have one), listen for the bagpipes and be a part of the ritual fêting that unabashedly carnivorous dish. Info here.

NATIONAL TREATS

Food Politics in 2012
NYU prof and respected food writer Marion Nestle sets the stage for what she sees coming in this election year, from the Farm Bill to the vulnerability of SNAP benefits to front-of-package labeling. Read Nestle’s monthly column in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Local v. Organic v. “Transparent”
Writing for the HuffPost, GustOrganics founder and CEO Alberto Gonzalez contributes a straightforward, succinct essay advocating “transparent” food. Otherwise, he implies, the personal choices we make about eating “local” versus “organic” food will remain challenging, indeed.

No Good Deed
Take a deep breath and click. The news isn’t good, but it’s what you’ve already felt: the increasing hit to your wallet at the grocery store. NPR’s The Salt food blog reports. (P.S. The comforting news: it’s still more expensive to eat out.)

The Sunflower: Our Multicultural “Native Son”
The sunflower oil your potato chips are fried in has very interesting, peripatetic, multicultural origins. Huh?? Again from NPR’s The Salt, read “How the Russians Saved America’s Sunflower.”

Vegan Body Builders
Yes! There’s a niche community of bodybuilders out there who don’t consume animal products in any form. Not only do these guys compete, they win. And they’re firmly dedicated to both endeavors. The International Herald Tribune reports.

GLOBAL TASTINGS

Stomach-related Cramps
Have you heard of the fledgling online-reservations companies Eveve and Livebookings?Both are Europe-based and both are cramping the style of OpenTable. CCN reports on the recent fall in price for shares of OpenTable stock, and the combination of factors causing that fall.