It's Friday. And on Fridays, our brains tend to wander a bit, work seems less interesting, and perhaps we just want to be distracted until the weekend comes. Well, we're here to help with all your procrastination needs. Here (and every Friday from now on) we'll be giving you a bunch of food stories you might have missed from back in the part of the week when you were actually engaged in getting things done. 

If you haven't checked out the new features section on Eater, you're really missing out. Since launching just a few weeks back, there have been some stunning articles, and it's fantastic to have a new outlet for thoughtful, long-form food journalism. This week's highlight was Amy McKeever's article about the MAD symposium, and whether chef symposiums can really change anything. 

Nation's Restaurant News this week published a handy little infographic chart based on the consulting group Andrew Freeman & Co.'s annual report on food, beverage and industry trends for 2015. The chart is set up to tell us what's over in food trends, what's happening right now, and what's coming up next. It's full of brilliant observations such as the fact that appletinis are out. Oh no!! Really? Yes, apparently crap drinks are out. Who knew? But don't fear: old fashioned cocktails are what's next. Asian fusion is also apparently out, but never fear because we're about to get a bunch of banana blossom salads. Cool. 

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Our favorite drinks website, PUNCH, has a report on bartender Alex Day's L.A. cocktail lab, and all the fun gadgetry he uses to make so many drinks across town delicious. 

The LA Times has a nice rant from Bucato chef Evan Funke about diners, as well as some details on his forthcoming Culver City diner Thoroughbred.    

Over on First We Feast, they count down the most ridiculous food mashups of the week, including a ramen doughnut and ma po pizza. There are enough mashups these days that the website is able to have this as a weekly feature, so hooray, I suppose? 

Until next week…

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