Angela Garbes has been writing about food for The Stranger since 2006. This was her very first piece. Since then, she's contributed pieces about Hawaiian cuisine, Jewish cuisine ("Seattle is seriously lacking in the Jewish-deli department"), Thai cuisine ("You can't throw a stick in Seattle without hitting a Thai restaurant or a man wearing Crocs"), cheese festivals ("It is easier to trust people who love cheese"), Burien's abundance of closely concentrated ethnic restaurants, and that one block in Greenwood with all the good food. As you can probably tell, she knows a ton about food and she's funny. Here are the first two sentences from a piece about over-the-counter cuisine:

In the end, all that matters is food. While atmosphere and service can enhance a dining experience, when someone places, say, a grilled bone-in rib eye in front of me, I'm barely able to tell the restaurant from my bathroom, the waiter from my brother.

She has also written about food and culture for the Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine, Seattle Met, PubliCola, City Arts, and the Seattle Weekly. She recently spent a year eating her way through markets around the world, including South America, West and East Africa, and Southeast Asia.

She volunteers teaching nutrition and cooking to low-income families through Cooking Matters, she's a dedicated home cook, and at the moment she's spending most of her waking hours "breastfeeding a newborn, which has given me a lot to think about in terms of how we nourish ourselves and others," she says. She'll have a piece in next week's issue of The Stranger, and starts full-time on December 10. We are so excited to have her back.

Send hot food tips to agarbes@thstranger.com