It's May Day--go take a quiz on revolutionary writers. (How did the Babu fare? Just call me comrade.)

Sara Dickerson in Slate on the wild world of menu writing: "Menus are the Pavlov's bell of eating out. They are the literature of control." (The Babu wondered idly how Dickerson would have dealt with a menu he treasures from Jaisalmer. It featured Apply Pancakes, Banana Pacakes, Hony Panakes and Livly Pancokes. He was deeply impressed at the writer's insistence on changing spelling to suit each variety of pancake, pancoke and or panake, while grimply hanging on to the 'k' that a lesser talent would have dropped somewhere along the line.)

Food writing also gives the Babu the perfect excuse to link to this column by Julian Barnes on cookbooks: "Avoid books with too wide a compass - anything remotely called Great Dishes of the World - or too narrow a one: Sargasso Seafood or Waffle Wonderment." Enjoy. Barnes in general is good news; Barnes on cookbooks is irresistible.