I have 36 blogs feeding into my Google Reader. With the exception of the very necessary Husker football feed and the highly addictive time waster that is Jack Jackson's Go Take a Nap!, the remaining 34 blogs are all about wine or food. I admit, though, that I don’t read every post from top to bottom.

But I really look forward to a couple of publications which I read from start to finish. John Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet Newsletter is one of those publications. Mariani’s detailed notes on restaurants, food, and wine usually arrives in my inbox just as I’m sitting down for my Saturday morning coffee. I look forward to it each week just as I look forward to reading whatever Matt Kramer has to say in his to-the-point column in each issue of Wine Spectator.

My favorite, though, is Ed Behr’s The Art of Eating. It doesn’t come on any regular basis, which can lead to unnerving anticipation. I believe Ed publishes an issue whenever he believes he’s got enough good content. And it's always good content.

Listening to Ed read from his very first issue at Omnivore Books in San Francisco last week was inspiring to say the least. When asked if he believed a visit to a food or wine region in order to write about it was necessary, Ed said that “until you go you don’t even know what you don’t know.” I love that. He read a story of one of his early visits to Liguria just after he gave up masonry for a career in food and wine writing. Ed visited a focacceria near the beautiful Cinque Terra and described a variation on focaccia col formaggio (foccaccia stuffed with cheese) with such delicious elaboration that we had to change our dinner plans and stop at our favorite Italian eatery on our way home.

Ed calls this “deep writing,” adding that sometimes the wine and food purveyors he meets and interviews in France and Italy (Ed’s geographic specialties) are taken aback by the level of detail he demands of them. Most of the articles are several pages in length and are far too long for the internet's attention span. There's no digital version available; you wait for AOE in the mail. Ed pours his heart and intellect into every issue. It’s some of the very best food and wine writing I’m aware of, and it inspires me to not only eat and drink better but write a little better too. If you're not already reading Art of Eating subscribe here.