Big dogs, little dogs, good dogs, bad dogs. Jennifer Bain compares hot dogs in today’s Toronto Star, where she looks at tiny portions and high prices at Buddha Dog to the cheap but hefty road dog sausages from a cart, and everything in between.

Also in the Star, Bain’s got info on Coronation grapes, Josh Rubin looks at the logistics of The Festival of Beer and why it’s so hard for the little guy to make inroads in the corporate set-up dominated by the big macro brewers. Amy Pataki interviews a knife grinder and offers some sage advice - never use a dull knife. She’s got a recipe to go with the article for pan-roasted salmon. Vice Squad looks at the new V8 fruit and veggie juices, and Susan Sampson reviews a BBQ cookbook and offers a recipe for Grilled Chicken Tikka Naanwiches.

They’re getting all environmentally-friendly over at the Globe and Mail where Sarah Elton explores the world of solar cookers, while Alexandra Gill attends the Outstanding in the Field event in Vancouver, the only Canadian stop on a 15-city local food dinner.

The culinary road show now roams as far afield as Alaska and New York, celebrating the harvest of the host region. The feast days start early with a tour of the feature farm, ranch or winery, but extend late into the evenings as the purveyors of the meal’s ingredients regale guests with stories between courses.

The organizers provide the infrastructure, which includes everything from cutlery to the plastic kitchen sink. Local chefs, in this case David Hawksworth of West Restaurant, create the menu and prepare the food. Guests are asked to bring their own plates and a hearty appetite.

But seasons change and so has this event. Some of the guests in Vancouver say that this formerly quaint dinner series has been spoiled by its success and is becoming a fad of its own.

“It used to be hippie, now it’s trendy,” one regular attendee laments, rolling her eyes at the thriving crop of Chanel sunglasses and Louis Vuitton handbags rotating through the opening reception.

Those society ladies ruin everything, don’t they?

Also in the Globe, David Andreatta looks at how difficult it is to sell counterfeit wine in Canada, Cinda Chavich celebrates the joy that is bakeapples (or cloudberries to you folks from away (ie. NOT down east). And Alexandra Gill reviews Vancouver’s first “South American fusion” restaurant.

At the Toronto Sun, Joanne Richard interviews Chantal Giroux, the chef for Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza troupe. Elizabeth Baird recaps the Hot & Spicy Iron Chef competition, and reminds us that we all missed the best holiday - National Rum Day, August 16th. There’s still time to make that one up, no?