Vulture: Can you actually make moonshine from torpedo fuel, paint thinner or darkroom chemicals, as Joaquin Phoenix does in "The Master"? -- Emily Weinstein Echo Park Now: One of the Southern Californian vegetarian restaurants we mention in this week's Dining section, Elf Café, is expanding, and is financing the enterprise, in part, with a clever strategy involving gift certificates. -- Jeff Gordinier Equal & Opposite: Today's graphical presentation: Spectrum of Sherries, a handy tool for keeping it all straight. -- Eric Asimov The New York Post: The brunch economy holds its breath as it awaits the big bacon shortage of 2013. ... The New York Times: ... But one breakfast bunch can exhale in relief: the politicians, lobbyists and media types who have temporarily lost their power spot at the Loews Regency. The hotel will move the service two blocks to the Park Avenue restaurant. -- Patrick Farrell Details: How odd that a few of the foods many of us eat for breakfast (oatmeal, nuts, warm milk) are the same ones that are recommended for helping us fall asleep. -- Jeff Gordinier Food52: I employ the "take-no-prisoners" method of frying an egg, one of several perfect-fried-egg techniques described in this tutorial, but others on the list tempt. - Emily Weinstein Time Out New York: As long as everyone's pronouncing Brooklyn the new Manhattan (Paris? Babylon?), here's a guide to its new pantheon of chefs. -- Patrick Farrell SF Weekly: A food truck in the Bay Area serves up a lesson on the importance of balance when you're building a burger. -- Jeff Gordinier The Wall Street Journal: How does the small coffee shop compete with all the others in New York, not to mention Starbucks? Stir the coffee as it's brewing. Start a club for customers. And other highly caffeinated ideas. -- Patrick Farrell BrooklynGuy: The Brook finds the pleasure in shelling beans. Ah, but what wine to serve with these gorgeous beans? -- Eric Asimov Poetry Foundation: An ode to red beans and rice. -- Jeff Gordinier The Washington Post: A D.C. chef keeps his native Persian cuisine alive and looking forward, despite retrograde politics back home. -- Patrick Farrell The Guardian: The discovery of a site in Tanzania where wildebeest, antelopes and gazelles were butchered suggests that humans hunted for meat 2 million years ago, selecting and killing what they wanted far earlier than previously thought. -- Emily Weinstein Laughing Squid: In the spirit of the actors who turn Yelp reviews into dramatic monologues, an award-worthy reading of the ingredients of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Via Gawker. -- Patrick Farrell