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For this week's column, I offer an assortment of tasty bites rather than a large meal. Sometimes you want to chew something over, and other times you just want to reach your hand into the snack jar.

Becky Stein/Special (ENLARGE)

Riccardo Ullio, owner of Cuerno, demonstrates how to drink cava from a porrón.

John Kessler writes food features and a column about food and more for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution E-mail John Kessler Recent Kessler columns Your fool-proof checklist for Thanksgiving  Hours of low-temperature cooking yield tender, juicy meat  Different things to sample on my new dining menu         More John Kessler Related: John Kessler's blog: Food & More John Kessler's recipes Meridith Ford Goldman's Table Talk Jeanne Besser's Feeding Frenzy Evening Edge Atlanta Restaurant reviews and search Recipes from Atlanta restaurants Favorite Atlanta recipes

This week I am thinking that:

• People can get really excited about falafel. I mean really excited in a Ron Paul-supporter, "Jericho"-watcher, Shar-Pei-fancier kind of way. Following a recent column, I got slammed with so many e-mails recommending falafel places around town that I still twitch when I see the word "falafel" pop onto my screen. Who knew? Expect a follow-up column on the subject after I've had time to visit all these places. Yes, please recommend your favorite, but take pity on me and put "mashed chickpeas" in the subject line.

• It's fun pouring wine from a spout directly into your mouth when you're a drunk tourist in Barcelona.

One of the calling cards at Midtown's new Spanish restaurant Cuerno is the option of getting your wine or cava (sparkling wine) served in a porrón. These glass (or, elsewhere, ceramic) vessels look like a carafe crossed with a watering can with a long, tapering spout. The idea is you bring the spout close to but not touching your lips and pour the wine in your mouth. As you pull it away, you can easily direct the thin arc of liquid into your gullet. Once sated, you pass it to the next person at the table. The practice started in Catalonia and derived from the tradition of drinking from skins called bota.

The last time I drank from a porrón, I was indeed a young, drunk tourist in Barcelona in a bar that catered to such. It was a blast. Now that fustiness has set in, I think I prefer a glass.

• I again find myself obsessed with hwe dup bap. This staple of the Korean sushi bar combines diced raw fish, salad greens, shredded raw vegetables, a sweet-and-spicy chile/vinegar sauce called cho dang, hot white rice and a gentle but absolutely essential drop of toasted sesame oil. It all looks very pretty and distinct until you stir it into the gloppy business it wants to be.

The fanciest version I've ever seen can be found at Tairyou — a newish, high-gloss Korean sushi bar on Buford Highway. ("Tairyou" is a Japanese word that means a large catch of fish; the restaurant also sometimes goes by the Korean equivalent, Dae-Uh.) Here, you receive a beautifully rough-hewn ceramic platter with all the fish (snapper, tuna, salmon, crab) and vegetables arranged like a still life. Remove the platter from its seeming pedestal and discover that the bottom part is actually a matching bowl holding the warm rice with its fragrant drizzle of sesame oil. What an exquisite thing to eat.

Yet, another day I find myself in the food court at the Super H Mart in Riverdale digging into an el cheapo version in a plastic clamshell, with rice in a foam bowl and the cho dang sauce in a sticky plastic squeeze bottle. I almost like the pure snarfability factor of this version better. The salad contains a lot of shredded parilla leaf, which lends a subtle minty/menthol flavor. Also, the squeeze bottle lets you anoint the cho dang sauce bit by bit as you eat, always getting just the right amount.

Try it yourself:

Tairyou: 5953 Buford Highway, Doraville. 770-455-4131.

Super H Mart: 6335 Ga. 85, Riverdale. 678-435-0909.

• This city is soon to be swept up in "Top Chef" fever. Yes, there are two Atlanta contestants in the new season of the reality sautéing show, which premieres next month. There is also a huge amount of gossip in the city about how well these two will fare. I think everyone with an inside scoop needs to button their lips and let the scripted "surprises" of the show play out.

• Serious Eats has become my favorite food Web site. This column has been a snack. Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com) brings a daily smorgasbord of links, recipes, videos, reviews and thoughtful exploration of all things related to food.

It was here that I discovered Wired columnist Lore Sjöberg's definition of molecular gastronomy. Writes Sjöberg: "As the name implies, it is a form of cooking that involves molecules, unlike other forms of cooking that work entirely with superheated fields of floating subatomic particles."

Whatever you do, don't get sick in the particle accelerator.