Want a free meal? Start a food blog and Up might invite you for one. Want a free beer? Subscribe to his Twitter feed and he might tweet you a virtual voucher. Or just beat his high score on P.Y.T.'s Ms. Pac-Man machine.

Unfortunately, the problem with a shotgun-spray approach to food is that even if a few pellets hit the bull's-eye, a lot more are bound to miss the target altogether.

If you're a ginger ale lover, you may be surprised to find out just how easy it is to make your own. If you're a hater, doing it yourself is the best way to end up with something you actually want to drink.

I don't usually go looking for raw oysters in late July — when a warm link in the cold supply chain can do real damage, and when the throes of spawning can reduce the bivalve to a shrunken shadow of its optimal self — but it was hard to go wrong here. I had them almost every way they come.

Rainford's jerk chicken is aromatic with allspice, and has a heat that builds up into a haunting presence rather than smacking you into a sweat at first bite.

Seafood occupies the spotlight here, and for once, the offerings live up to all the lip service about sustainability. Out of the starting gate, chef Steven Cameron has put together a brilliant lineup of fish that the most ardent environmentalist can eat with nary a twinge of guilt.

With meat this expertly smoked and hospitality this genuine, Bebe’s is set to become my biggest temptation on a street teeming with them.

As with any place with a menu as sprawling as this one, The Kibitz Room does enough well to merit the merry crowd that fills it between 11 and 1. The service is quick, the staff cheery, the patrons in uncommonly high spirits.

Lovers and Madmen, which opened in March at 40th and Ludlow, has got me in a tizzy. There's a lot to love, but almost as much that drives me crazy.

What if Prohibition had stalled? Steven Grasse thinks the drink that's come down to us as root beer might have evolved in a completely different direction — one ending not in sugary soda but something rather stiffer. Local tipplers will soon get the chance to taste his theory. It's an 80-proof organic liqueur called ROOT, and it's debuting in Philadelphia liquor stores this month.