But whether or not you've read her work at Endless Simmer, you should know this about her: She's simply known as Gansie, a handle that sort of encapsulates her writing style. Informal. Friendly. Fun. She's a writer you want to drink beers with, not one you'd like to go all Joe Pesci on.

The New Jersey native has written for the Express, the Onion's AV Club, the WashingtonPost.com, and BusinessWoman magazine, among others. And starting on Friday, Gansie will start writing for the Young & Hungry blog.  She's going to focus on vegetarian and Japanese cooking, whether in restaurants or in the home.

"One of the best parts of cooking is being creative and a little dangerous with ingredients, even if that means messing up once in a while," Gansie writes in advance of her Y&H debut. "I absolutely hate following recipes. How fun is it to run back and forth to a laptop screen or a cookbook in between stirs?"

Of the two subjects she plans to cover, Gansie has this to say:

I know meat is delicious. I don’t think that’s what’s up for debate. It’s about how much is eaten and where the meat comes from and how that animal was treated. Leading a meat-free life is a challenging endeavor in this country, but deciding on a meal without meat at least once a week is something everyone can try. While I’m not a vegetarian, I have made an effort to explore the vegetable side of life. Without preaching or pretension, readers will enjoy recipes ideas, restaurant dishes, blog resources, videos and tweets that explore how to appreciate a meat free meal.

I ate pig’s heart. Twice. And that was just my first night in Tokyo. I spent a week in Japan in May 2010 and haven’t stopped thinking about the doughy noodles swimming in sea water broth, the difficulty of finding sushi restaurants and the elaborate fake food displays. Luckily, there’s a bit of Japan in the DMV and I’m excited to explore and share.

We should also note the Gansie works a few Saturdays at the Mount Pleasant Farmers Market, "which has only increased my interest in produce with local beginnings. I can’t be certain if one day it’ll be proven that local doesn’t equate to a healthier planet, but for now, I’m sitting shot-gun in the local-is-sustainable crowd."

Please welcome Gansie to Y&H Nation.

Starting Friday, Y&H will be on vacation, far from computers and their crack-like ability to keep me addicted to them. No, I'll be sleeping late, eating well, and trying to hide my spare tire with beach towels.

This is not the news.

The news is Greg Engert, beer director for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, including Birch & Barley/ChurchKey, will be guest blogging on Y&H while I'm gone. He'll be returning to his roots to a certain degree. Before he took a swan dive into beer, Engert studied English literature, with an eye on the professorial path.

Next week, his lectern will be the Y&H blog. He has an ambitious syllabus planned for you.

"I will shed light on what it is like to be a Beer Director, the job people seem to incessantly covet," Engert e-mails. "And I plan on one post being a sort of day-in-the-life of a Beer Director. The blog will offer behind-the-scenes looks at the beer industry, new products, craft beer trends, highlights and lowlights from service, beer and food pairing ideas."

He has many other topics he may touch upon as well, he writes, including:

• What is in my refrigerator
• Why I don't sleep
• Why beer styles are ridiculous
• What Twitter has and hasn't taught me about brevity
• The notion of vintage brews
• Lessons of beer & food: trust cork dorks, be wary of beer nerds
• Best beer blogs
• Cask ales
• New keg techniques
• Rate Beer vs. Beer Advocate
• Glassware and temperature
• Defining craft brewing

Damn, I almost wish I was going to be around to read all this.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Spike Mendelsohn's now-it's-open, now-it's-not pizzeria continued to attract readers in droves to the Y&H blog, probably because no one had any clue when the joint would actually open. It's supposed to launch today.

The week was marked by some other high-trafficked items, including the latest food trucks coming to our streets this summer. Take a look at your five favorite posts from last week:

1. Spike Mendelsohn's We, The Pizza to Open on July 19
2. The Fry Captain and Other Food Trucks Coming to D.C.'s Streets
3. The Early Reviews of 'D.C. Cupcakes' Are Not So Sweet
4. BrewDog Declares "The End of History" (*)
5. PBR for Your Snifter?

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, a popular item among readers, but we’ve stopped counting it.

Taking my place on the blog this week is a writer you likely know already: Sasha Issenberg, the Washington correspondent for Monocle. He may be better known to you as the author of The Sushi Economy, his excellent book on the history, trade, economics, and sheer gustatory pleasure of raw fish.

Issenberg made a strong Y&H debut with a rare weekend item about Atwater's Bakery getting the squeeze from health authorities at the Arlington Farmers Market. He clearly doesn't grasp the idea of creating low expectations so that he can smash them later.

Issenberg will have free reign all week on the blog. Treat him well or I will release the hounds.

Y&H feels so cheap. I did much the same thing that I accused Eater.com of doing — ginning up a little controversy at someone else's expense to generate hits. My "fan" letter to the food site drew attention from coast to coast and elsewhere.

The item was the clear winner of the week. Take a look at the Top 5:

1. A 'Fan' Letter to National Eater.com
2. Red Hook Lobster Pound Finds Street Vending Easier in D.C. Than NYC (*)
3. Ray's the Steaks at East River Opening: 'Gratifying' and 'Challenging'
4. Guess Where Tom Colicchio Ate Today?
5. Vidalia's '24' Gives New Order to the Multi-Course Tasting Menu

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, a popular item among readers, but we’ve stopped counting it.

It was a week in which newcomers — the theme of this year's Best of D.C. issue — also dominated the Y&H blog. The Queen's upcoming appearance on H Street NE (The Queen Vic, that is) drew most of the attention, as is proper, but the reigning royalty of sandwich-making, Taylor Gourmet, was not far behind, with news of its third location in Bethesda.

Take a look at your favorites from last week:

1. The Queen Vic to Make an Appearance on H Street with Eel Pies (*)
2. Taylor Gourmet to Open Third Shop in Bethesda
3. My Day in Chinatown/Penn Quarter Food and Drink
4. Crepes: Are They the New Cupcakes?
5. The Truly Awful Thing About the Cupcake Craze: The Wasteful Packaging

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, a popular item among readers, but we’ve stopped counting it.

Pizza, beer, and controversy. It's a regular menu for success on Young & Hungry. The most-popular posts this week include news of a second location of Pete's Apizza and an internecine battle between a pair of bagel store owners.

The latter, in fact, was the most-read item (well, if you exclude the post about a can of light-drinking toilet water, which we do*). But just wait til next week! That's when you'll get the full story on the bagel wars. It's surreal.

In the meantime, your faves from the week:

1. Goldberg's New York Bagels Coming to Silver Spring
2. The Makeover of the Union Station Food Court Has Begun
3. Pete's Apizza Set to Open Second Location on Wisconsin Avenue
4. 5 Exciting Breweries for 2010
5. POV Lounge Is the Only D.C. Watering Hole Among the Finalists for the Nightclub & Bar Awards
   

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, a popular item among readers, but we’ve stopped counting it.

OK, that's it. I'm tired of including Select 55, that piss-water of a beer, in our weekly count-down feature. Starting this week, I'm officially omitting the perpetually clicked-upon item and noting, with an asterisk (*), where it would have fallen in the Top 5, assuming it would.

With that said, here are your most-read blog posts from the week:

1. Dogfish Head & Sierra Nevada's Collaboration Ale, Life & Limb, Coming Soon
2. Nori Amaya's Friends and Fans Express Their Grief on Her Facebook Page (*)
   
3. P&C Market Takes Upscale Bodegas to a New Level
4. Best Food Writing 2009 Due in Bookstores Today
5. Dish of the Week: Tacos at La Placita in Hyattsville
   

Well, sort of. At about the 1:56 mark in this segment on restaurant critics and anonymity, CNN captures a screen shot of your beloved Young & Hungry blog. I'm still trying to figure out whether CNN used Young & Hungry because we are a marvel of search-engine optimization or because they were trying to suggest that Y&H was cheap and tawdry — for merely writing about Sam Sifton's new gig at the Times and rounding-up what others thought about it as well.

Or maybe we just look good on camera.

Suck it, Gawker!

This week's top blog posts feature a couple of hard-charging items published late in the week, including a campaign to protect Rock Art Brewery from corporate beer behemoths on the warpath.

Here's what you liked:

1. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
2. Rasika Will Be the First Ethnic Restaurant to Earn 4 Stars from Tom Sietsema
3. Sietsema's 2009 Dining Guide Makes Premature Appearance on Web
4. When Should a Critic Just Trash a Place?
5. A True Monster Attacks Rock Art Brewery — Can Twitter and Facebook Help?