The first entry on the rag round-up this week delights me to no end. Steven Davey of NOW Magazine reviews M & B Yummy on Queen West in Parkdale, one of my favourite Ethiopian restaurants in the city. Doesn’t hurt that it’s right around the corner from me, but I’m very happy that the rest of the city finally gets to find out about the amazingly delicious (and cheap!) food.

Not only are Yummy’s prices absurdly low, but the portions are huge, most mains easily shared by two. The house vegetarian combo (a whopping $6.14) comes to table on a huge sheet of sour injera flatbread. Tear off a little and tuck forkless into a number of vibrantly flavoured Ethiopian wats, or stews: garlicky curried cabbage, crisp string beans with carrot, an aromatic tangle of chopped collard greens and comfort-food-style yellow lentil dahl. There’ll be leftovers.

Indeed - I can vouch for that. Mind you, I’ve never experienced the super-slow service he mentions, but I usually go at lunch when it’s quite empty. I suspect that will change now.

Elsewhere in NOW, Davey also reviews Mela, the vegetarian café in the old Wanda’s Pie in the Sky location on Yorkville Avenue.

Any Italian restaurant is only as good as its house sauce, and Mela’s is a winner, a beautifully rich and sweet thick tomato purée kissed with basil; it’s proven so popular, Granata sells it by the bottle ($6.99/litre). Find it ladled over house-made tubes of stellar cannelloni stuffed with eggy ricotta and okra as well as hefty tortellini strewn with spinach and snow peas (both $7.50/all prices tax-inclusive).

Sounds delicious. And finally, in the Drink Up column, Graham Duncan sips a sexy little pink rosé from Spain, a very nice Santa Brigida from Tuscany, and some Tio Pepe Extra Dry Fino Sherry to go with your tapas.

Over at Eye, Alan A. Vernon and Don Douloff give Avante Goût only a “good” rating when the local Rosedale haunt underwhelms their tastebuds.

But Hani is a dab hand at organ meats like provimi liver ($17). Attractively cross-hatched from the grill, the liver slices are buttery and tender with a smokiness that takes your mind off the fact that the caramelized onions are hiding beneath a pile of limp, oily frites. And it’s not only the déja vu sauces that bother – what’s also tiresome is that every main is sided with the same green beans and white asparagus.

In the online edition, a special feature by long-time cook Sean Kelly Keenan reveals what the Food Network are really looking for in the latest version of the Superstar Chef Challenge.

A vision for a new show rises into my imagination. Perhaps, not too far in the distant future, we will see Super-Fantastic-Celebrity-Chef-Philosophical-Rantings-Showdown 3000, where the point of the show won’t be to create anything edible, but instead to come up with the best series of 10-second sound bites about a previously unsung ingredient.

Remember back when we were interested in television chefs because they could cook? It was nice then, wasn’t it?