By: The Local Dish Team | July 19 2010

Breakfast, of course, is the most important meal of the day. So we here at The Local Dish have a question for all you breakfast-eaters out there: how local is your breakfast? Is your apple from Washington, or from Argentina? Do you live in Florida and eat grapefruit from an orchard down the street, or do you live in Wyoming and eat grapefruit from Florida? What about your eggs? Oatmeal? ...Cold pizza and warm, flat microbrew left out from last night?

Here's how to play. In the comments section below...

1. Tell us where you live (city and state).

2. Name your breakfast items, followed by the number of miles they traveled to get to your house from where they were made. For the sake of fairness and plausibility, your coffee or tea should be from a local roaster (or tea purveyor) -- not Folgers. If you live in Hawaii (the only state that grows its own coffee), we're all jealous of you anyway. Don't rub our noses in it!

3. At the end, add up the miles (or feet) for all the ingredients of your breakfast.

A sample entry comment would look like this:
Ashland, Oregon
Eggs from local farm. 5 miles.
Bread from local bakery. 3 miles.
Berries from back yard. 15 feet.
Butter for toast from nearby creamery, 6 miles.
Total: 14 miles, 15 feet.

If it gets down to the nitty gritty, we'll have you measure the distance from your chicken coop to the back door.

The proud owner of the most local breakfast wins the Edible cookbook. The contest closes at midnight, Pacific time, on August 9.

By: The Local Dish Team | June 01 2010

What is Summer of BBQ?

Well, we're glad you asked. Here's the sched':

June 1 to July 4: A regional tour of the country, by way of BBQ. Kicking off with the South and Texas, we'll move through the West and California, the Northwest, the Midwest and the Northeast, one week at a time. Our regional writers will tell you about what BBQ means in their neck of the woods. Think seafood on the coasts, some kind of pan-Asian twist in California, and BEEF (it's what's for dinner) in the Midwest.

And we hope you'll tell us what BBQ means in your back yard. There's a few bottles of your fave regional sauce in it for you, if you're the winner of a weekly sauce giveaway.

Next question: What is the weekly sauce giveaway? Why, only the best thing since sauce was invented! Every region has a signature sauce. Some regions have several. At the end of the articles about regional BBQ, we will ask you to comment something to enter the giveaway. It might be an epic grilling fail, or win, the best accompanying brew for the meal, or something else. A random commentor will be selected as the winner of several bottles of sauce from the region of the week.

July 5 to Labor Day Weekend: If it can be cooked over flame or charcoal outdoors, then we'll probably be talking about it. That means the usual, like really awesome ways to make chicken, steak and burgers, but also more unorthodox fare (that we won't disclose yet -- the online food world is cutthroat, and we don't want Epicurious or Bon Appétit ripping off our venerable publication).

Something you've always wanted to grill but never tried? Email us and we'll try it!

By: The Local Dish Team | May 31 2010

The Local Dish is celebrating summer! In honor of our loyal visitors we're drawing one lucky name and gifting that person with a bountiful picnic basket stocked with gourmet goodies from special food regions around the country. Will it be you? To enter the drawing, share your best picnic place in the comments section below. Entry deadline is June 18. The winner will be announced on June 21....so we can send the prize along just in time for fireworks! Click here to read TLD contest rules.

So, let's hear it! Where is your all-time favorite picnic spot and what excites you about it?

This contest is now closed.