Photo/Pam Berry

Perhaps you've noticed bad signs at Super 88 recently -- poorly stocked shelves, the use of C-Mart plastic bags. I've tried to reach management with no success, but today Globe correspondent Christina Pazzanese spoke with attorney Glenn Frank, general counsel for Super 88 owners Peter and George Luu.

She reports here that the Asian grocery chain is closing three of its six stores. The Quincy, Chinatown, and South End locations are closing. There are viable alternatives near all of those branches -- Kam Man, C-Mart, and Ming's, respectively.

It looks as though Super 88's Allston, Dorchester, and Malden stores will remain open. The fate of the Allston branch is particularly concerning because that's where Boston's only Asian food court is located.

Frank says the closings were due to the stores' not performing as well as expected.

Aujourd'hui is introducing Sunday-night suppers, a three-course, family-style menu for $55 per person that starts this coming Sunday, Oct. 12. According to the press release, it will feature chef William Kovel's "Five-Diamond spin on all of your favorite comfort-driven dishes." A sample menu features the likes of lobster and local leek potpie; roasted, herb-crusted pork loin from Stillman's with mashed potatoes, roasted onions, and buttered green beans; and heirloom apple pie with cinnamon ice cream.

Aujourd'hui: now value-conscious. (Globe Staff Photo/John Tlumacki)

It sounds good, and you'll still be able to order from the regular a la carte menu. But it illustrates a shift the dining scene is seeing in the current economy: restaurants turning away from high price points and toward affordability and comfort food. When Aujourd'hui, a bastion of luxury dining, skews that way, change is really in the air. (No, $55 per person is not economy dining in the larger world, but it's all relative.)

The turn toward affordable comfort food is good for diners in ways that are quite clear. It also means that restaurants are less willing to take risks, present something different, create something exciting.

Aujourd'hui's hamachi ceviche with sassafras jelly and cucumber cream is not the kind of thing you'll find on the Sunday menu. (Globe Staff Photo/Dominic Chavez)

Comfort food is comforting, delicious and accessible, a balm for troubled times. It can also be boring. It lets us wallow. Perhaps what we really need is something else -- food that challenges us, wakes us up, food that is forward-looking. Both presidential candidates are spouting change, and voters seem eager for it. There must be room for it on restaurant plates as well.

If all of the restaurants in town start serving mac 'n' cheese and meat loaf, it may help our wallets, but in some ways we'll be poorer for it. A lower mean price point is a good thing. The food doesn't have to be average, too.

The other day I posted about the Butcher Shop's $16 onion soup. It seemed like a lot to pay for a little bowl of soup.

Then, Thrillist alerted me to the existence of Persephone's $100 sandwich.

It's billed on the menu as the "millionaire's sandwich": jamon iberico de bellota, sherried onions, manchego, and membrillo with mustard on ciabatta, served with an arugula, green olive, and marcona almond salad.

No, it doesn't come with fries.

My first question to host and server E.K. Greene was: Is it a joke? No, he says. "It's just a really good sandwich. The ham that it's made out of is phenomenal."

That is true. Jamon iberico de bellota is outrageously delicious, made from acorn-fed, free-ranging pigs in Spain. It's also outrageously expensive: It retails for $100 a pound and up.

But it's not like corned beef. It's rich, meaty and faintly fruity in flavor, enhanced by the thinnest slicing, which is done by hand. You want to eat it slowly, savoring each bite, in the simplest way possible: on its own with a little bowl of salted almonds and a glass of sherry, possibly on a piece of crusty baguette with butter, but nothing more complex than that. To pile it up on a sandwich like any cold cut, with all those other ingredients, sort of defeats the purpose. (And for $100, it had better be piled up.)

It is possible to look at the millionaire sandwich as a bargain, though -- when you order it, you get 5 percent off at Achilles, the boutique Persephone shares its space with. If you plan to buy enough hipster threads, it could pay for itself.

But I'm guessing that to most people, it looks like bad taste. Times are tough? Here's a $100 sandwich!

A second branch of Jamaica Plain's Ten Tables is opening in Cambridge. It will take over Craigie Street Bistrot's current location, pending license transfers.

Coming soon to Cambridge: like this, but a little different.

The new Ten Tables will also be called Ten Tables, though it will have 49 seats. (Almost Fifty really doesn't have the same ring.) The wine and beer license is expected to transfer sometime in December; owner Krista Kranyak says they're shooting to open a week before Christmas.

The Cambridge Ten Tables will feel a lot like the original, with a more extensive wine list, a slightly larger menu, and what Kranyak calls "bigger, rustic European bistro food."

"It will have its own unique personality," Kranyak says of the new restaurant. "These siblings aren't identical twins."

But the new place "will still have the homey, in-your-own-dining-room feeling," she says. "Carry some of that JP romance over to Cambridge."

David Punch will be chef and co-owner of the new location while remaining chef de cuisine at the JP spot. He'll still cook in JP on Tuesdays, but he'll be in Cambridge the other nights. When Punch isn't in the JP kitchen, sous chef Josh Caswell will be running the show.

As for Craigie Street Bistrot, it's closing its doors at the end of the month to move to the old La Groceria space on Main Street; it's currently taking reservations through Oct. 25. It will then become Craigie on Main, with a projected opening in early November.

Just a heads up for those of you who have been wondering about this place: Circle, in the old Bob's Southern Bistro space, officially opened yesterday.

When plans for the restaurant were announced, reactions were mixed. With the closing of a beloved place, the new owner often comes in for some grief, even when the closing is the old management's choice -- see the B-Side. But Bob's has been gone for a while now, with former owner Darryl Settles focusing on newer venue the Beehive, and maybe we can all move on. (Though it will be strange to see the space kitted out in red banquettes and swirly blue carpets: picture here.)

The website doesn't offer much information, but executive chef will be Adam Gendreau, who worked with Jody Adams at Rialto; food will be French-ish. Expect a fresh wave of aggrieved mourning from former Bob's denizens, followed by Kubler-Rossian acceptance and several rounds of sugar-rimmed cocktails.

Scampo's elephant ear walking, a bread almost as thin as a poppadum that's topped with tomato and melted cheese. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

John Mariani writes:

"Two decades ago, at Seasons, Lydia Shire was at the forefront of 'New New England Cuisine,' and as her access to better local ingredients has grown, so has the authority of the menus at her successive haunts. At Scampo, located in a former prison transformed into the new Liberty Hotel (the bar doors still hang), she focuses on Boston's rich Italian-American heritage. With its brick walls and wooden floor, sports bar and open kitchen, the place rings with loud music and the joyful sounds of people passing around dishes like executive chef Mario Capone's spaghetti with cracklings and hot pepper. Don't miss the hazelnut risotto with sweetbreads and vin santo, the quail with a yellow-raisin sabayon and semolina gnocchi, or the massive black pig chop with a sweet spring-onion tart. Finish with a ricotta cheesecake with almond toffee and a shot of fiery grappa. If you can, get yourself seated in waiter Mario Depasquale's section -- his crazy exuberance sets exactly the right tone for a night at Scampo.

"The Liberty Hotel, 215 Charles Street; 857-241-1150; scampoboston.com."

Congrats to Shire, Capone, and crew. It's always good to see a local establishment on the list.

The tiny signature on the right-hand side of this shopping bag is Sheryl Crow's. The brown dot at the bottom says Whole Foods. The bag (large costs 99 cents, small 79 cents) will be available on Oct. 15. Each is made from about four 20-ounce plastic bottles.

In a press release, Crow said, "I am a big believer in doing what you can, even if it’s something as small as reducing the amount of plastic we each use daily that ends up in landfills, whether it is plastic bags, water bottles or product packaging."

You may as well do your bit stylishly.

This old thing has seen better days. It's a mouli-legumes (vegetable food mill) I bought in France years ago when I was a cooking student there. Good street markets often have someone selling hardware, and they're stocked with these dependable hand-puree devices. This one reminds me of a rusting Peugeot. It still works, but where is all that rust going?

This weekend, I replaced that work horse. I'm the proud owner of the updated, ergonomically correct, sleek stainless steel Oxo.

And I made the last-of-the-season tomato soup (this pot made five quarts).

Now it's time for applesauce.

This could be you. (Photo courtesy Miranda Penn Turin/FOX)

Gordon Ramsay brings the heat on "Hell's Kitchen." If you think you can take it, there's a local casting call for the reality show on Sunday, Oct. 12, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

It's at the Park Plaza hotel, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street.

If you're interested in auditioning or plan on attending the open call in Boston, e-mail twinsworld1@aol.com and put "HELL'S KITCHEN/BOSTON" in the subject line. (You don't have to e-mail to attend the open call, however.) Include your full name, age, address and contact numbers, and a photo. Also, explain your culinary experience, why you would be the perfect contestant for the show, and what sets you apart from the rest.

And if you do go, let us know how it went.

Globe Photo by Essdras M Suarez

Indeed, it is not!

Those are the words of one Phil Greenwald, an attorney for LA's taco truck operators, quoted here.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said yesterday that it won't appeal an August ruling rejecting a law that would have required taco truck operators to move every hour or face $1,000 fines and possible jail time.

"After all, they're not selling porn, they're not selling drugs, all they're selling is food," Greenwald told the Associated Press.

Last night, the website Serious Eats posted a guide to Boston eating, with recommendations from Amy Traverso at Boston Magazine. Her picks are pretty spot-on; for anyone visiting Boston, this would be a much better guide than many out there. Here are her choices, plus my take. What do you think?

O Ya: most worth a splurge in my book. (David Kamerman, Globe Staff)

Best Pizza
On Serious Eats: Pizzeria Regina and Santarpio's.
My take: Both good choices. I also like Emma's, Cambridge 1, and Picco.

Best Burger
SE: Bartley's.
My take: One burger? Agh. Ask me in 30 minutes and my answer will be different. Right now I'll go with Radius for high-end, Costello's for a more old-school burger experience.

Best Clam Chowder
SE: Turner Fisheries.
My take: Which style? Oh, I'm horrible at these "pick one best" things. Ask my editor -- I'm inclined to expansion, not concision. Anyway, if I were to go eat a bowl for lunch right now, I'd hit Great Bay. If I was going to recommend a bowl to a visitor, I might say Legal Sea Foods for a more classic, Boston-y experience.

Best Ice Cream
SE: Christina's and Toscanini's.
My take: What she said.

Best Late-Night Eats
SE: Stella.
My take: The Franklin Cafe. Serving till 1:30 a.m.

Best Wine Bar
SE: Bin 26.
My take: Good call. Also Troquet, though the bar can be a strange scene. It's very small, so there's nowhere to hide. But you can get oysters there, which makes up for having to listen to some guy debating whether the pretty girl walking by on the street actually works for him or just looks like the many pretty girls who work for him.

Best Beer Selection
SE: Sunset Grill & Tap.
My take: Publick House. I lurve Belgians.

Best Bargain Lunch
SE: Chacarero.
My take: Noodle soups at Xinh Xinh and Hong Kong Eatery in Chinatown, bahn mi from the Super 88 food court in Allston.

Best Date-Night Spot
SE: Oleana, T.W. Food, Persephone.
My take: I wouldn't sneeze at any of those. But without a doubt I'd have to say Ten Tables.

Best Sushi and Japanese Food
SE: O Ya, Uni.
My take: O Ya. Also a great date night, of a totally different kind. I like to sit at the bar.

Best Fried Seafood
SE: Clam Box, Woodman's, Farnham's, Morse.
My take: Clam Box, Essex Seafood, Tony's on Wollaston Beach. (By Clam Box, we both mean the one in Ipswich, not the one in Quincy.)

Best Cocktail Lounge
SE: Eastern Standard, Green Street, City Bar.
My take: Amy also predicted Drink would be up there when it opened, and after my experience there last night I'd definitely include it on my list, along with Eastern Standard and Green Street.

Most Worth a Splurge
SE: No. 9 Park, L'Espalier.
My take: I repeat myself, but O Ya.

Best Brunch
SE: Eastern Standard.
My take: I am often disappointed by brunch in Boston. But I'll say Centre Street Cafe, East Coast Grill, and dim sum (no place in particular I'm loving at the moment).

Must Eat Before Leaving
SE: Hungry Mother.
My take: Yeah, why not! I love Hungry Mother.

Best Pub Food
SE: The Garden at the Cellar.
My take: That's a good choice. Coda too.

Best Pre-Fenway Spot
SE: Eastern Standard.
My take: Agreed.

Best Food Market
SE: Formaggio Kitchen.
My take: ditto.

Best in the North End
SE: Marco, Neptune Oyster Bar.
My take: I love Neptune too. For Italian, maybe Prezza. This is probably the question I get asked the most. I never feel satisfied with my answer, no matter which one I give. (For fantastic Italian not in the North End, try Benatti.)

Best Streetside Vendor
SE: Formaggio's Saturday barbecue.
My take: Speed's hot dogs.

Best Bakery
SE: For bread, B&R and Clear Flour. For sweets, Flour and Sofra.
My take: Those are good choices for bread. I'd probably say Iggy's myself. I'm torn on sweets: as with brunch spots, there's no bakery I'm completely devoted to. I'll throw Canto 6, Japonaise, and Hi-Rise out there. The few things I've tried at Sofra have been good as well.

Best Steak
SE: Estragon.
My take: Huh, that was a surprise! I'll go with the more traditional choice of Grill 23.

Best Lobster Roll
SE: B&G, Neptune Oyster.
My take: Lobster rolls, like fried seafood, should be served shack-side. Essex Seafood has a good one. In the city, I'll go with James Hook for sentimental, rise-like-a-phoenix value. And Neptune for fancier environs. The last lobster roll I had at B&G was terrible, and I haven't been able to bring myself to try again. That was more than a year ago. Maybe it's time.

So, folks, there you have it. What are your choices for any or all of these categories?

Yesterday was Drink's opening night. The basement level bar is an old warehouse space of brick and wood beams, with plenty of room to congregate: There are three different sections of bar to sit at, and plenty of places to stand.

The bars are made of natural wood or dark steel, with dark metal Marais stools to pull up. Bulbs hang from the ceiling -- the lighting is low enough that the tiny menu of canapes is a bit hard to read, and the music is an impressively subtle backdrop, loud enough to enjoy but not too loud.

Behind the bars are several bartenders facing large blocks of ice, which they chip and crush by hand with a variety of torture-ready implements. They move quickly and efficiently, setting down glassware with precision, shaking drinks aerobically. It's as if they're onstage. Welcome to Cocktail Theater. We hope you enjoy the show.

Pots are filled with growing herbs, ready to be plucked and muddled into drinks. Bitters and other liqueurs and juices are stored in little brown glass bottles with stoppers, and several counters for standing along the walls are made of glass boxes filled with pretty/creepy dead bugs impaled on pins and labeled. The effect is sort of downtown/saloon/pharmacy circa the early 1900s. (It works!)

There's no cocktail list here. (Or wine or beer list, just a very small selection of each.) You can order what you want, or you can tell a bartender you'd like something involving gin or herbs or bitters, and someone will whip something up for you. As promised by John Gertsen in an earlier conversation, this is rock-star bartending. A Sazerac was a cold, bitter/sweet few gulps that went straight to the cerebral cortex. A sidecar at first appeared to have no sugar on the rim, till you looked up close and realized pretty much the entire glass had been finely sugared. All of the components of this deceptively hard-to-make drink were in harmony.

Drink is offering a little menu of canapes (above). It currently includes the likes of Swedish meatballs, gougeres, cocktail wieners, deviled eggs, and foie gras lollipops. (The meatballs are 50 cents each and the gougeres 75 cents, a happy sight after the fussed-over $16 onion soup at Lynch's Butcher Shop.) Sadly, the gougeres were served cold, but the bites we tried were mostly darn tasty. The deviled eggs were light and topped with shreds of fried onion, the Swedish meatballs served in berry sauce.

Drink was full on its first night -- there's no break-in period for a hot new place since that newfangled Internet thing came to town. Everyone knows it's open, and everyone comes. There were a few business types in suits, some Amish-style hipsters, hospitality industry and media folks, and a David Foster Wallace look-alike who made us do a double-take. Lynch mentioned previously that she wants construction workers to come in for a beer. It didn't feel like that kind of place last night, but maybe it will as it becomes part of the landscape.

My only real question was why they installed one of those annoying bathroom door locks that looks like a tiny, protruding nail and is nearly impossible to push. This is sure to lead to many embarrassing moments, as the WC faces directly into the bar and it's pretty difficult to ascertain whether the door is actually locked. I don't think one of those nice, secure, and obvious locks with a bar that slides into place would clash too much with the aesthetic here. It seems to be the only small touch the folks who created Drink have overlooked.

Drink, 348 Congress St., 617-695-1806.

It's not your imagination. Apples really do cost a whole lot these days. If you find your apple budget increasing at an alarming rate, here's why: They're one of 16 basic food items whose supermarket prices shot to record highs in the third quarter, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Same old reasons -- higher commodity costs, higher processing and transportation expenses.

The Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro hosts an autumn harvest dinner Oct. 13, with a percentage of the proceeds to benefit the Verrill Farmstand Fund. The farmstand at Verrill, a Concord institution, was destroyed by fire (above) Sept. 20.

Seatings are at 6 and 8:30 p.m. There are two prix fixe options: a "field" menu and a "pasture" menu. (You may be more familiar with them by the names "vegetarian" and "meat-lovin'.") Dishes include roasted buttercup squash soup, eggplant gratin (field), and suckling pig (pasture). Dinner is $60 per person, with an optional wine pairing for an additional $25.

The Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro is at 25 Charles St. For reservations, call 617-723-7575.

Just two days after country-of-origin labeling went into effect, the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank is closing down.

FARAD is just what it sounds like: a program that helps livestock producers, vets, and regulators avoid drug, pesticide, and environmental contaminant residue problems. In other words, keep them out of meat, milk, and eggs. It needs money immediately to stay open, and long-term funding of $2.5 million per year.

According to this Market Watch story, the American Veterinary Medical Association worked with Congress to have the $2.5 million included in the Farm Bill that passed earlier this year. But the USDA didn't put the funding in its budget, and Congress hasn't provided any kind of emergency funding.

From the story:

"'It's disheartening -- even tragic -- that a program that costs so little yet does so much to keep our food supply safe is not being funded,' said Dr. Mark Lutschaunig, director of the AVMA's Government Relations Division. 'We're talking about a cost of less than a penny per American to help keep meat, eggs and dairy products free of drugs and pesticides.'"

The USDA estimates it will cost $2.5 billion to implement the loophole-laden but popular labeling laws. Kind of makes the FARAD funding seem like small taters.

The AVMA is planning an emergency stakeholder meeting. They hope the USDA or stakeholders will come up with last-minute funding. In the meantime, they're urging people to call the USDA at 202-720-1542 to demand FARAD funding.

Of course, you could just mail them your penny.

Here's more info on the AVMA's food safety site.

In yesterday's online chat about dining, this question was posed:

Bob_Dobalina__Guest_: There has been much debate about the Butcher Shop pricing a serving of French onion soup at $18! Obscene or reasonable in your opinion? And moreover, have you tried it?

(Much of said debate took place on Chowhound here.)

At the time, I had not tried the Butcher Shop's $18 French onion soup. But now I have. And I am here to report that it has become the $16 French onion soup.

And that is still a hefty price tag.

The soup is served in a white bowl with a large rim and a tiny basin. It's about 3/4 cup to 1 cup of soup. It's delicious, don't get me wrong: a deep brown liquid chock-full of caramelized onions and tender pieces of oxtail. So chock-full, I would have preferred more broth. But where is the cheese? Atop the soup floats one toasted slice of baguette, and melted on it is maybe a tablespoon of cheese.

In its favor, I will say the cheese does not overwhelm the flavor of the soup. But when I order French onion soup, I'm picturing a crock of soup topped with bread and a layer of thick melted cheese that covers the whole bowl, probably melting down the sides a bit. When you look at the Butcher Shop's version, you see brown soup with a little bread island floating in the middle; if you look closely you'll notice cheese on the bread. French onion soup for me is about the synthesis of broth and cheese; at the Butcher Shop, the cheese is but an accent, barely there. For $16 I wouldn't order it again.

But $16 is still better than $18.

You can find today's conversation about restaurants, food, and a little bit of movies here.

If you get down to the opening of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway on Saturday -- here's a handy map that shows you the new look of Boston -- you'll find the Boston Public Market in Dewey Square (it's close to South Station) in full celebration.

Rodale is sponsoring the event and will give out totes with $10 worth of purchases (that should not be difficult with beautiful apples, greens, and winter squashes heaped on the carts).

The events begin on Friday. You can take classes in Tai Chi or yogo (early Saturday) or join a treasure hunt (text GRNWAY to 80108 before Friday, Oct. 3).

Effective immediately, federal law requires meat, poultry, fish, produce, and certain nuts to display a country-of-origin label (COOL).

When concerns arise about, say, a Chinese melamine scare or a Mexican chili scare, this will make it much easier to make discerning decisions about what products to purchase. It also puts pressure -- the kind producers actually feel and listen to -- on countries to prioritize food safety. When a country gets a lot of bad press over food scares, consumers will avoid its products; that's a real incentive, not an abstract one. Of course, it tars scrupulous producers with the same brush as less scrupulous ones, which I imagine will make them rather grumpy.

This is something people want. A Consumer Reports poll last year found that 92 percent of Americans agree imported foods should be labeled by their country of origin.

There are exemptions, however. These items don't require labels: meat, poultry, and fish purchased in annual amounts under $230,000; organ meats; processed foods; mixtures; and restaurant and cafeteria food, which includes salad bars, even supermarket salad bars. Most smaller butcher shops and fish markets won't exceed the $230,000. Processed foods could mean anything from peanut butter and roasted peanuts to bacon and Spam to cooked shrimp and smoked salmon. Mixtures includes the likes of frozen vegetable medleys, fruit salad, and trail mix. That's a lotta loophole. Will exporters simply start adding a bit of salt and calling their products processed?

The US Department of Agriculture estimates it will cost $2.5 billion to implement the law, according to a USA Today story. (It's worth clicking on this link, because there's a great sidebar about where the US gets its food, broken down by region. Interesting fact therein: Fully 90.6 percent of lamb and mutton is imported.) Of course, the labeling law will cost producers. (The meat lobby was not for this.) It will take a few months for the labels to be fully implemented. Consumers will still have to be vigilant about what they're purchasing, but now vigilance will be a bit easier.