Now that we’re a month into the New Year, it’s time to stop talking about a 2012 diet. That moment is gone. Instead of giving up foods, wouldn’t it be great to bring some new things into your life: squirrel, fish bones, black water. Here’s a few things you should start eating immediately to be on the cutting edge of the food world.

Chocolate-Covered Sprouts. Last year Frito-Lay began putting natural foods in their snacks. (Brief round of applause for them.) Now comes junk food that’s having even more of an identity crisis. Lulu Chocolate’s Smoked Sea Salt Almond raw Organic Chocolate Bar (that’s a mouthful) is made with sprouted almonds—sprouts being a supercool health foods these days. Is that better than Shiloh Farms Dark Chocolate Covered Sprouted Almonds? There’s only one way to find out.

Fish Spines. We’ve come a long way from the days when nose-to-tail was a novelty (back in the olden days, about 8 years ago). Even fried fish bones are now almost as ubiquitous as sliders on menus, at least in NYC where I live, at places like En Japanese Brasserie and Brooklyn’s Isa in Brooklyn. The new frontier is fried fish spines. At Blue Ribbon Bar & Grill in midtown Manhattan, they serve specials like fried wild eel spine—it’s the size of a pencil. They’re also eating the gills from wild king yellowtail: first they dehydrate them, then they fry them, and serve them “just for fun,” says Blue Ribbon Manager Rich Ho.

Unnaturally Black Foods. Black foods are nothing new. So it’s foods like squid ink pasta, blackout cake and black sesame seeds (what I like to think of as “naturally occurring black foods”) that have paved the way for this new breed of black foods. Specifically the jet black burger buns that anchor the “Darth Vader” burger which will debut this month at France’s fast food chain, Quick. And of blk., the black health water that’s the brainchild of Albie and Chris Manzo, who you know from the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Like the Manzo brothers, you might not understand exactly what makes the water black, but is that really the point of this water? No, it’s not.

Random Animals. Recently some high-profile people in the food world have offered opinions on what we can eat in the name of causes like saving the planet, and pushing boundaries. Rene Redzepi, chef of Noma in Copenhagen, aka the world’s best restaurant, recommended that people in the States start eating squirrel (he hashtagged them “rabbit of the sky” on Twitter). And Bizarre Foods hero Andrew Zimmern came back from a trip to Beijing energized by a 10-course donkey tasting. “Donkey should be on everyone’s plate in 2012,” he says.

More from Food & Wine:

50 Best Bars in America

Best Pizza in the U.S.

Best Fried Chicken in the U.S.

Andrew Zimmern's Kitchen Adventures

Super Bowl Recipes

(pictured: Black-Sesame Salmon Balls)

Please join Food & Wine's Chefs Make Change coalition today from 3 to 4 p.m. ET for a Twitter party. Tweet live with 10 superstarchefs who are working to make the world a better place.

How does it work?
• Log in to Twitter any time from 3 to 4p.m. ET and follow the hosts: Food & Wine @fandw and Editor-in-Chief Dana Cowin @fwscout.
• Use the hashtag #ChefsMakeChange at the end of tweets to participate in the party.
• Tweet all of your questions about Chefs Make Change, the chefs’ wonderful individual causes and how you can help make change in your own community.

Or just follow along by clicking #ChefsMakeChange.

Here’s the panel of ambitious chefs and organizations:

José Andrés - @chefjoseandres
World Central Kitchen - @WCKitchen

Dan Barber - @bluehillfarm
Stone Barns Center - @StoneBarns

Mario Batali - @Mariobatali
Mario Batali Foundation - @MarioBatali_MBF

Rick Bayless - @Rick_Bayless

Cat Cora - @catcora

Emeril Lagasse - @Emeril

Michel Nischan - @michelnischan
Wholesome Wave - @wholesomewave

Art Smith - @chefartsmith
Common Threads - @Common_Threads

Bill Telepan - @billtelepan
Wellness in the Schools - @WITSinSchools

Alice Waters - @AliceWaters
Edible Schoolyard - @edibleschoolyrd

As the big game approaches this weekend, Patriots and Giants fans are making final preparations for their Super Bowl parties. Beyond menus to plan and guests to invite, there are wagers to be made. A group of northeast chefs just revealed the terms of their “Super Bowl Restaurant Smackdown” to Food & Wine, pitting New England vs. New York. Representing the Patriots are Jamie Bissonnette from Boston’s Toro and Coppa, Tiffani Faison from Sweet Cheeks, Matt Jennings from Providence’s La Laiterie and Farmstead and Gabriel Frasca of Straight Wharf and Provisions. They’re facing off against New York chefs and Giants’ fans Harold Dieterle of Perilla and Kin Shop, Lee Anne Wong of Vynl and Michael Ferraro of Delicatessen. This wager is not about money, it’s about maximum humiliation. Here are the terms:

 

 For seven consecutive days, the representatives of the LOSING TEAM must:

-Wear the opposing team’s jersey in their restaurant .The jersey cannot be removed during work hours for any reason.

-Wear a Statue of Liberty hat (Boston) or a lobster hat (NYC) in their restaurant. The hat cannot be removed during work hours for any reason.

-Feature pastrami on rye (Boston) or New England clam chowder (NYC) prominently on their menu with the following wording:

“In honor of the greatest football team on earth the Patriots/Giants, [Restaurant name(s)] is proudly featuring [name of dish]."

-Tweet a picture of themselves in their hats & jerseys eating the featured dish in their restaurant all seven days.

 

The WINNING TEAM will hand deliver the jerseys and hats to the losing teams and taste the featured menu item.

 

As a Patriots’ fan who now lives in New York City, I’m looking forward to sampling some great clam chowder without the four-hour train ride.

 

For those of you hosting at home check out some of my favorite game-day recipes from F&W.

Spicy Chicken Wings

Double Pork Burgers

Sticky Ribs

More Super Bowl Snacks

 

 

I tried to map the distance from my house in NYC to Fäviken, Magnus Nilsson’s remarkable super-naturalist restaurant in Fäviken, Sweden. I’m not very good with Mapquest; I’ll estimate that it's more than 4,000 miles away (but only about 200 miles to the Arctic Circle). Nilsson saved me the trouble of going all the way up north to see him by cooking at a festival I went to last week, the super-fun International Gourmet Festival in Portugal.

What did Nilsson and his team haul from Sweden for the meal? Not much: some cheese, reindeer lichen (it’s delicious!) and a few lingonberries. Instead, Nilsson shopped locally, scoring some Atlantic bonito at the local fish market and some awesome pork from Mahladinha, a winery that also raises black-foot pigs. And then he foraged a bunch of ingredients from the beach right below Vila Joya, where his dinner took place. He said I could help him find wood sorrel to garnish his pine bark cookies. How thrilling that I’d get to help one of the world’s most brilliant chefs make dinner. But I bailed (clothes shopping emergency). And then happily ate those cookies and the rest of Nilsson’s dishes.

Here are some highlights from that meal. Special thanks to the Russian billionaire who flew his plane to Paris to pick up some caviar and vodka for the cocktail hour.
 
Blood, Roe and Lichens: This dish featured pig blood tartlets topped with trout roe, two things I don't generally eat together (and one thing I don't generally eat, period). Please believe me—it was delicious.
 
Tuna: Atlantic bonito marinated in mushroom juice and served with a brown-butter-toasted-oatmeal sauce.
 
Porridge: Oat, rye, wheat, flax seeds and sunflower seeds made into a creamy, cheesy porridge and served with kale sauce.
 
Heart and Marrow: A sublime meat salad with pieces of beef heart tossed with chunks of bone marrow and an herb that included herbs foraged from the Algarve.

Today, Food & Wine launched Chefs Make Change, a coalition of 10 superstar chefs who are helping to make the world a better place. One of these philanthropists is Michel Nischan, who happens to be guest editing on sustainability topics over at Food Republic all week. His foundation Wholesome Wave strives to make fresh, locally grown produce available in underserved communities. In our February issue, Nischan describes one of Wave’s latest initiatives, a fruit and veg “prescription” program: “Doctors in underserved communities can give an entire at-risk family a farmers’ market voucher that will allow them to increase their fresh-produce consumption by one to two servings a day.” In celebration of his cause, we’re taking a rest from the Chicken Dance this week to spotlight charities and the amazing recipes shared by these formidable chefs, including Nischan’s gorgeous Braised Pork with Cherry Gravy. In preparation for cooking it tonight, you can donate to Nischan’s cause and other chef-run charities by visiting foodandwine.com/donate.

Related: Learn More About Chefs Make Change
More Great Pork Recipes
Delicious Braised Dishes

Mario Batali's vacation house on Lake Michigan made a top 10 list of celebrity chef homes this month, but Batali doesn't have much time to relax these days. He's one of 10 chefs uniting for Food & Wine's new charitable campaign, Chefs Make Change, and he even vows to chop off his ginger ponytail if The Mario Batali Foundation can raise $500,000 by February 7. As if that's not enough of a reason to donate, his programs help feed, protect and educate children. Donate and "like" Chefs Make Change here.

Related: Mario Batali Recipes
Star Chefs' Dream Recipes

Looking for proof that 2012 is going to be a great year? Here you go. LudoBites 8, the next iteration of Ludo and Krissy Lefebvre’s wildly popular pop-up Los Angeles restaurant, has a new reservation system. Now maybe, just maybe, you’ll have luck snagging a seat for Ludo's terrific menu. If you think Krissy and Ludo didn’t feel your pain when you couldn’t get a seat at LudoBites 1 through 007, you’re wrong. “We were looking for a creative approach to provide a fair opportunity for all,” says Krissy, who watched six weeks of reservations for LudoBites 007 disappear in less than 60 seconds.
 
To the rescue: Urbanspoon. The primo restaurant discovery site is providing a lottery-style reservation system on their site, allowing people to enter requests for 24 hours, starting at 11 a.m. PST on January 11; the system will then randomly assign reservations. “We’re supportive,” says Kara Nortman, GM of Urbanspoon. “We wanted to come up with a democratic solution to get people into LudoBites 8. LudoBites 007 caused finger fatigue here, everyone clicking non-stop to get in.”

 
There’s one more way to get into LudoBites 8. From January 7 through February 7, anyone who makes a reservation for an LA restaurant through Urbanspoon and then tweets it out, is entered in a lottery to win a free (free!! whoopee!!) dinner for four at LudoBites 8 on February 20.

Here’s LudoBites 8 information, all in one convenient place.
 
Where: Lemon Moon, 12200 Olympic Blvd. (Ludo is excited to be in the kitchen of his good friends Josiah Citrin and Raphael Lunetta, F&W Best New Chefs 1997.)
 
When the Reservation Process Starts: January 11, at 11 a.m. PST, through January 12, 10.59 a.m. PST.
 
Where the Reservation Process Takes Place: www.urbanspoon.com/ludobites8. (The page goes live when the lottery starts on January 11th.)
 
When You Can Eat At LudoBites 8: Jan 18-20, 23-27, 30-31; Feb 1-3, 6-10, 13-15, 17 and 20-22.

One Last Way to Eat at LudoBites 8: There will be 6 walk-in seats each night at the bar. If the weather is nice (and come on, this is LA, there will be additional walk-in patio seating).

Menu: In process. Will be finalized by January 18.

F&W’s month of Iconversations continued today with a live chat on our Facebook wall with chef Eric Ripert. Best known for his extraordinary seafood at Le Bernardin in New York City, the French chef’s globetrotting show on PBS, Avec Eric, has shown that his talent stretches far beyond fish. In his exotic take on a traditional Burgundian coq au vin, Ripert uses coconut milk to add richness to the cozy winter stew.

Related: Recipes from Chef Eric Ripert
Great French Dishes
Cooking with Coconut Milk

New Year’s Eve: Three words that bring either absolute joy or pure terror to your heart. If you’re a) on the joy side, b) in New York City and c) thinking that Times Square doesn’t have your name written all over it, consider some of the following options. (They’re not free, but remember: You always have the option of watching the ball drop in person, with a million strangers and no alcohol or bathrooms anywhere nearby.)
 
Corkbuzz. At Laura Maniec’s excellent new wine bar in the East Village, there will be a sea of Champagne—from, among other sources, a 15-liter Nebuchadnezzar (a bottle that is 20 times as big a regular Champagne bottle and defies regular pouring)—plus an open bar and loads of hors d'oeuvres, charcuterie and cheese. $150; 646-873-6071 or corkbuzz.com.
 
Monkey Bar. If you’d rather celebrate in one of the city’s more fabulous dining rooms, the Monkey Bar is offering two five-course NYE menus with swanky dishes like pasta with crushed truffles. At the second seating, from 8-10 p.m., they’ll pour Champagne from nine-liter Salmanzar bottles. (I obviously have a thing for big bottles.) $135/$165; 212-288-1010 or monkeybar.com.
 
Locanda Verde. At Locanda Verde, they say NYE is business as usual. Ha! There are no special seatings, and there is the regular menu. But there’s also this: awesome sounding specials like potato and leek ravioli with crème fraîche and caviar; and for dessert, panettone bread pudding with nougat gelato. Plus 2,000 balloons and a midnight Champagne toast. Look for a similar situation with different specials and I'm not sure how many balloons at The Dutch. 212-925-3797 or locandaverdenyc.com.
 
Parm. Before my big 2012 diet, I plan on eating as much as possible of everything that just happens to be on Parm’s NYE menu: hot antipasti, New Year’s lasagna and that astonishing, high-rising ice cream cake. There are three seatings: 6:30, 8:30 and 10:30; at the final one, there will also also be bubbles and the house Scorpino cocktail all night. $60/$90; 212-993-7189 or parmnyc.com.
 
Má Pêche. The special NYE bo ssäm dinner at Ssäm bar is already sold out; don’t even try for it. But Má Pêche is still taking reservations for its epic Beef 7 Ways and its whole à la carte menu, and of course there’s Champagne at midnight. 212-757-5878 or momofuku.com.
 
Chef's Pass at Bouley. For those who want to be practically in the kitchen with one of the world’s great chefs (and who know that this kind of experience doesn’t come cheap), there’s Chef’s Pass at Bouley. At the 12-person table between the kitchen and the dining room, you can watch David Bouley prepare your meal, and/or take advantage of the kitchen’s Skype set-up to talk to your brother in the Caribbean or the Tours, France cheesemonger who aged the fromages you’re about to eat—you can ask him what he’s doing up so late. $550; 212-964-2525 or davidbouley.com.

At Food & Wine, we have big plans to save the world—you’ll hear more about that on January 10, 2012, and in our February issue. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that superstar chef Mario Batali is a huge part of our strategy. But Batali has his own world-saving plans in effect. The Mario Batali Foundation—which he established to make sure kids are well fed, well read and well cared for—has instituted a terrific Molto Dollars matching program. Batali will match every donation up to $100,000 through February 1. And the generosity keeps going: Aperol, the nicely bitter, vibrantly red Italian aperitif, is also matching those donations. With this kind of math, a $20 donation immediately equals $60.
 
So far this year, Batali has used the Foundation’s money to, among other things, create a Books for Kids library on NYC’s Lower East Side and help fund First Star, a summer immersion academy for foster kids at UCLA. Yay Mario!! Now, c’mon: He’s given you so many great recipes. This is a great time to give him a few bucks for the mariobatalifoundation.org.