Grub Street

There's comfort food — all of it cozy and warming and generally terrific for making you feel better — but what's the most comforting comfort food? Is a roast chicken better than perfect braised short ribs? Who can say for sure? Grub Street can. We've taken thirteen classic comfort foods and ranked them on a scale of 1 to 5 according to four factors: fattiness (self-explanatory), carb appeal (ditto), homeyness (did you grow up eating it?), and warming bubble (how much does a dish's comforting steam just totally envelop your face as you eat it?). When added together, the final tally gives a dish its official Grub Street Comfort Food Index Number (CFIN). Read on to see how everything measures up.

When it comes down to it, would you rather spend your afternoon plugging away at Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities, or just read a lot of tweets written by people who are really high and/or psyched about Free Pancake Day at IHOP? Because, you know, the chain is trending on Twitter, and buttered short-stacks loom large in the collective unconscious of our social media. Carry on, then.

October's storm damaged the Bridge Café, which stands at the fringe of the Seaport just across the street from a Brooklyn Bridge on-ramp. Proprietor Adam Weprin told the Times in December that the restaurant's basement flooded with nine feet of water, while three feet of surge battered the dining room. The restaurant, which occupies a wood-frame building at the corner of Water and Frankfort Streets, was one of Ed Koch's favorites, and is the city's oldest surviving tavern. Eater NY reports the restaurant is now looking for donations to help offset the cost of replacing its appliances, prep equipment, fixtures, floors, and electrical work, all of which was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy's storm surge. The details are here. [My Event via Eater NY, Related]

You probably heard about last month's theft of an ornamental, gilded bronze biscuit that had been hanging without incident just outside the German bakery Bahlsen's office in Hanover, Germany, for 100 years. Bahlsen's makes Leibniz biscuits, and this 44-pound model is emblematic of the company's history; so naturally, Bahlsen's chair Werner M. Bahlsen appealed to the robber through the press, offering 1,000 euros for any information leading to the gold Leibniz's safe return. But, nothing. But then, just days after the crime, newspaper Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung received a really weird ransom note. It was from Cookie Monster.