Blogs have been falling all over themselves to report on what seems like the buzziest thing to come out of the Association of Food Journalists conference in Charleston, S.C., this week: the idea that the Twitter parodist Ruth Bourdain (who mashes up Ruth Reichl’s Tweets through the personality of Anthony Bourdain) might have been in the group.

But I was there, at the center of the little exchanges that led to the speculation, and I have to jump in and say: not so fast. A more careful reading of the situation (or, if you prefer, a little better reporting) would turn up zero evidence to support the idea.

With all due respect to Lee Svitak Dean, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune food editor, her statement that Ruth Bourdain must be Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice (no relation to our own Tom Sietsema ) seems to me to be based on a misreading of the entire situation. Dean told me that her proof was easy to look up on Twitter: that RuBo very clearly Tweeted quotes from one of the conference sessions that only somebody who was in the room would be able to hear.

But, as I told her, and showed her in a flash on my iPhone, that was simply not the case. Everything RuBo Tweeted was based on other people’s Tweets from the conference.

So they passed out awards last night at the Association of Food Journalists conference in Charleston, S.C., and The Washington Post won top honors for food coverage for newspapers with a circulation of 200,001 and larger.

“What’s great about the award is that it acknowledges more than just the weekly Food section,” says Food editor Joe Yonan, who attended the ceremonies. “It also recognizes the great food coverage we have in other parts of the paper.”

Aside from the journalism of the weekly Food section, the award recognizes Tom Sietsema’s work in The Washington Post Magazine as well as the Dinner Deals in the Weekend section.

In other categories, All We Can Eat — you know, the thing you’re reading right now — won third place for food blog, a drop from its first place finish last year. Sietsema also finished third in the multimedia presentation category for his TV Dinners video series.

You’ll find beets at some of the area farmers markets this week. Their season typically lasts through October, so while they’re around, try these suggestions from our Recipe Finder:

Stuffed Potatoes and Beets in Tamarind Sauce (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) • Chocolate Beet Cake, which stays moist thanks to pureed beets.

• Red Beet Mojito, another unconventional take on the root vegetable.

• Roasted Beet Salad, which might convert any beet skeptic with the help of a zesty vinaigrette and a little cheese.

• Stuffed Potatoes and Beets in Tamarind Sauce, a make-ahead meal that calls for the beet greens as well.

How do you like to eat beets?

Got good ingredients? Then you’re good to go. (Edward Schneider for The Washington Post) Most of the time when people — especially restaurant chefs — tell you that it’s all about the ingredients, they’re being a little disingenuous. Give the same basket of food to a good cook and a lousy cook and, believe me, you’ll soon see it’s also about at least minimal know-how.

But, yes, sometimes ingredients really are, let’s say, 90 percent of a good meal. Like this one, cooked on a trip to northeast England. The fish guy had brilliantly fresh wild sea bass and red mullet, all from nearby waters. There were very good vegetables in the stores, too, and a bottle of surprisingly nice sauvignon blanc from, get this, Slovenia.

This week’s Dinner in 25 Minutes dish, Sesame-Coated Chicken, and special blog-only recipe, Quince Honey Challah Knots, reaffirmed what some of us already knew: That sesame seeds are great on food other than bagels.

If you’re looking for more ways to use up the neglected jars of those tiny, nutty kernels in your pantry, have a look at these ideas from our Recipe Finder:

• Coconut-Almond Granola, which is great on its own for breakfast or worked into cookies.

Open Sesame Meltaways (Michael Temchine for The Washington Post) • Open Sesame Meltaways, a dairy-free cookie with a nice crunch on the outside.

• Seared Tuna With Sesame Seed Crust, a quick-cooking main course served over the mesclun greens now showing up at area farmers markets.

• Udon Noodles With Baby Bok Choy, with an extra dose of sesame in its oil and tahini forms.

How do you like to use sesame seeds?

For our Yom Kippur break-fast this year (which will take place Saturday night), I was looking for an alternative to my usual apple-filled challah when I hit upon using quince, the firm-fleshed fruit sometimes known as golden apple. It can smell of pineapple or guava, and it looks a little like a plumped-up pear.

A slightly bruised quince is fine to use. (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) Quince is generally not eaten raw. I grew up in Israel, where the fruit was a staple at my North African neighbors’ and friends’ homes — often in the form of jams and pastes for tagines.

In this recipe, I’ve used it to fill knots of my very own challah dough — something I’’ve strived to perfect over the years. The unfilled knots seemed to go over well when I served samples to my son’s college soccer teammates.

The dough can be swirled to look like a snail instead of “tied” into knots.

Here’s how to fill and create the knots; the recipe for my Quince Challah Honey Knots follows on the next page.

Fairfax resident Shulie Madnick is a recipe developer and cooking instructor. She blogs about food at FoodWanderings.blogspot.com. Follow her on Twitter @foodwanderings.

(Shulie Madnick)

Steps 1-2. Roll out one of the 16 balls of once-risen dough to an oblong/rectangle of about 10 by 2 1/2 inches. Fill with 2 tablespoons of quince filling, as shown above. Pinch and seal well along the long edges. Looks like a cannoli, doesn’t it?

(Shulie Madnick) Steps 3-4. Pinch toward both ends, then fold over the ends and secure them, as shown above. Carefully turn one end over the other to create a loop. If the seam unravels, no worries; just pinch it again to seal it. It’s a very forgiving dough; keep that in mind for the next step.

(Shulie Madnick) Steps 5-6. Gently tie the filled dough into a knot, like a shoelace, so one end pops slightly through (on the bottom) and the other end distinctly pops above (on the top); two ways are shown above. Transfer the knot to a large, parchment-paper-lined baking sheet (one of two). Repeat to make 15 more knots. Cover with a towel and let them rise for 40 to 60 minutes

(Shulie Madnick) Steps 7-8. Just before you pop the knots into a preheated 350-degree oven, brush them with an egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

If you’re keeping a list of Virginia winemakers to watch, better make sure Tom Payette is on it.

Payette is a consulting winemaker and a regular contributor to Vineyard & Winery Management magazine. Though he’s been a fixture on the Virginia wine scene for years, his fame went public this year when two of his wines won the state’s prestigious Governor’s Cup competitions.

Virginia last year split the annual wine judging into two contests, one each for red and white wines, ostensibly to milk the extra publicity from two awards. This is working out really well for Payette, after the Governor’s Cup for white wines was presented last night in Richmond to New Kent Winery for its 2009 Reserve Chardonnay ($25). (See the full list of winners.)

In February, the award for best red wine in Virginia went to Fox Meadow Vineyards for its 2008 Meritage ($29), also made by Payette. Unlike many of his consulting clients, whether in Virginia or Spain, these wineries credit him as their primary winemaker.

Say what you want about competitions, but having two wines from separate wineries named best in the state in the same year is quite a feat.

A taste of what will be at area farmers markets this week:

At Thursday’s FreshFarm Market in Penn Quarter:

Mountain View Farm: organic sweet potatoes.

Sand Hill Farm: fresh cranberry beans.

At Thursday’s FreshFarm Market by the White House:

Red Zebra: white pizza with smoked cheddar, Swiss chard, havarti, apple salsa and balsamic vinegar.

Spring Valley Farm and Orchard: broccoli; spinach; kale; acorn squash.

Toigo Orchards: pears.

At Saturday’s Columbia Heights Community Marketplace:

Bella Terra Family Farm: pastured roast chickens; sweet potatoes; basil; eggs.

Chesley Vegetable Farms: cider; Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Jonagold, Lowry, Mutsu and other apples; winter squash; tomatoes; peppers; potatoes; onions.

Dragonfly Farms: mustard greens; corn; tomatoes; Asian pears; cucumbers; kale; collards; beet greens; broccoli, green peppers; red peppers; hot peppers; white potatoes; sweet potatoes; butternut squash; spaghetti squash; cauliflower; beets; green beans; eggplant.

Upper Crust Artisan Bread: breads that go with soup, including pain de campagne, rustic Italian boules, foccacia, baguettes and New York rye.

Wisteria Gardens: baby greens; salad blends; baby kale; Swiss chard; braising greens; Asian greens; sweet sugar snap pea shoots; french breakfast radishes; salsa; black bean dip; hummus; serrano ginger pepper sauce.

Dickson’s banh mi is among the fancy fare that you can try at this weekend’s Taste of DC festival. (Evy Mages for The Washington Post)If you’re headed to this weekend’s Taste of DC, make sure you bring your appetite. Dozens of Washington’s poshest restaurants are pulling out their best fare for the three-day festival.

Taste of DC ran successfully for years on a steady diet of kabobs, pizza and eggrolls until the festival simply disappeared in 2003. Beginning Saturday, it’s back for the first time in eight years with higher-end eats that reflect the city’s new restaurant boom.

The festival asked each eatery to offer one dish that you can snag for two tickets, and many are also offering bigger plates for three or four tickets. If you snag the festival’s online-only deal for 20 tickets for $25, each ticket will run you $1.33 apiece (including the small service charge).

So, which booths should you hit?

Somewhere along Starbucks’s path toward world domination, coffee became a subject of serious debate — right up there with presidential candidates, the Mideast conflict and, yes, barbecue.

Back in August, the We here in All We Can Eat ran a coffee poll, which Northside Social won (likely because the shop really knows how to stir up its social networks) and which stirred some little birds to chirp for their favorites online.

A month or so later, Going Out Gurus compiled a list of the best coffee shops in the area. Somewhere, a barista is still stewing over his snub.

Which brings me to some recent social commentary about our increasing obsession over a cup of joe. The first is from singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding, who has lived under the jackboot of Starbucks’s totalitarianism long enough to pine for the softer, Golden Age of the Starbucks empire. A sample lyric from the video above: