You can't replace the feeling of lounging on the couch with a scrunched-up newspaper. But with the web, at least you don't need to worry about getting ink on your hands and bagel. Here's a roundup of some food-related stories from our country's newspapers this week. Lucky for us, it's mostly free. For now. Macchiato optional.

“The butcher is back,” says The Los Angeles Times; plus a review of Umamicatessen.

In The New York Times, food could be upstaging the bands at music festivals; easy fruit and veggie canning; and chefs Thomas Keller and Andoni Luis Aduriz discuss responsible food practices and what it means to lead two of the “World's 50 Best Restaurants.”

How to make “Mom-and-Pop Pulled Pork” in The Wall Street Journal; plans for a cutting-edge kosher restaurant in New York's SoHo; stylish Sachi lunch bags; an easy test checks for antioxidant activity in foods.

The Washington Post offers simple summer recipes — just five main ingredients each.

Gordon Ramsay talks about his new restaurant, Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas, in The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In The Chicago Daily Herald, an Associated Press article says New York chefs are visiting Cuba for a culinary collaboration with private restaurant owners in Havana. “Blending contemporary American, Italian, Japanese, even Burmese cuisines with Caribbean Creole classics, it's a rare culinary treat in a country where many state-run and independent restaurants serve up dull, unimaginative fare. It's also a performance art spectacle that's about bridging the gap between estranged neighbors and socioeconomic classes.”

Over at The Chicago Tribune, an examination of Portuguese influence; a new book suggests farmer's market-based activities for kids; and Chicago's “must try dishes.”

Get thee to Bouchon; Thomas Keller's restaurant (at least the Napa location but hopefully Beverly Hills too?) is making a version of the classic Hostess cupcake (vanilla bean marshmallow, not unidentified white goo) for Memorial Day weekend only. This is why we read The Napa Valley Register.

From The Associated Press in The Los Angeles Daily News, Nelson Mandela's personal chef shares recipes and food stories in two books just released stateside.

From The Associated Press via The Sioux City Journal, a review of a new biography of Craig Claiborne.

Another article on Craig Claiborne from The Orlando Sentinel, this time with a recipe — Claiborne's rum pudding.

At The New Jersey Star-Ledger, Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) re-releases her great-grandmother's cookbook.

There are expensive wines, then there's the 1774 French bottle that sold for $49,200 at an auction this week, reports The New York Daily News.

A Chicago Sun-Times columnist meets friends to eat for 24 hours straight.

Joanne Weir's family of chefs discussed in The San Francisco Chronicle.

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