Scallops are the new fluke crudo

Scallops are the new fluke crudo

Mahira Rivers returns to the inbox with accumulated food thoughts, congratulates Ryan Sutton on his Beard Award win in Chicago, and flags Ligaya Mishan's first-ever four-star NYT review outside New York — for Albi, the Palestinian restaurant in Washington, D.C. Then she gets to the trend: scallops are everywhere, quietly displacing fluke crudo as the raw-fish starter of the moment.

Gobble's Take: Fluke had a good run. The mollusks are not waiting for a formal handover. Source: Perplexity Search

Beijing, Moscow, and a very long game

China-Russia Report says Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing adds to a growing body of evidence that Xi Jinping and the CCP are institutionalizing ties with Moscow in anticipation of a power transition. Beijing is broadening its engagement with Russian elites, a record two million Russians visited China last year, and the visa-free regime has now been extended until the end of 2027.

Gobble's Take: This is not diplomacy. It's infrastructure. Source: Perplexity Search

AI needs more than one metaphor

An essay argues AI is simply too large for a single analogy. It reaches for four: the next Internet, the fourth great economic revolution, something closer to biology, and Norse mythology — framing AI as a god. The piece suggests superintelligence could arrive around 2030 and keep improving toward super-duper-intelligent AI around 2050.

Gobble's Take: Four analogies just to sketch the outline — the vocabulary is already losing the race. Source: How Big Is AI? Four Analogies

By-elections, ospreys, and procedural suspense

Andrew's Previews covers 23 polls on 25th June 2026, with 24 seats up for election across all three countries. Five of them are in Wales, including Rhyl South ward — called after the death of Jeanette Chamberlain-Jones. The preview also directs readers to live coverage from the local osprey nest.

Gobble's Take: Local democracy: the only arena where a by-election preview and a nesting bird share equal billing. Source: Perplexity Search

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• AI in education just got reframed
• Haute cuisine gets a fifth paradigm
• Digital gastrodiplomacy wants a seat at the soft-power table
• The foodie lifeworld is political, whether it wants to be or not