Blockchains. Yes, those. You don’t know what they are. I don’t know what they are. They seem to be valuable, because Long Island Iced Tea Corporation renamed itself as Long Blockchain Corporation and tripled its stock value on Thursday (the price has come back down a bit on Friday).

Long Blockchain is only the latest company to see its value skyrocket after adding “blockchain” to its moniker, according to Ars Technica. The publication notes this is similar to how companies in the late 1990s increased their stock prices simply by adding “.com” to their names. Nothing bad happened as a result of that strategy, right?

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Much has been written about Japan’s predilection for Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas, but most of it fails to understand just what it is that a cardboard bucket of fried chicken on Christmas exemplifies — KFC, as a Westernized holiday ideal, has come to represent a culturally aligned yearning for a no-questions-asked familial harmony.

Precisely how that happened is opaque. On the website of the Mitsubishi Corporation, which first brought KFC to Japan in 1970 for the Osaka World Expo, it’s noted that by 1974 the Christmas Party Barrel was widely promoted, thus “beginning the uniquely Japanese lifestyle of eating KFC on Christmas.” In some articles, former KFC Japan CEO Takeshi Okawara says that the idea of Kentucky for Christmas came to him in a dream. In others, KFC for Christmas is proffered as the closest substitute to turkey for lonely expats.

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Stranger Things 2, which premiered almost a year after the 2016 presidential election, is a whole different demogorgon. Gone are the ominous blinking lights and the focus on the familial home as a site of potential terror. This season, the entire town of Hawkins is under siege from something much bigger; the monster looms over the town, invisible to most residents, and at the same time, cancerous roots grow below them, spreading rot and decay. We don’t know yet what the monsters want from Hawkins, but we know they’re laying the groundwork to get it.

It is a deliberate pivot from the previous season, and everything from the dialogue to the brands referenced supports this reading. Stranger Things relies heavily on brands to anchor itself in a specific time period; entire plotlines develop around nostalgic names like Eggo and Radio Shack. (The proliferation of Cheetos references this season is certainly intriguing.) And like the toaster waffles of the previous season, one brand came to the forefront in Stranger Things 2: the Russian vodka Stolichnaya.

The hottest side dish this fall and winter is apparently fried squash rings. In the last six months, Danny Meyer’s new wine bar Vini e Fritti, David Chang’s fast-food restaurant Fuku, Greg Baxtrom’s Prospect Heights restaurant Olmsted, Aurora Restaurant Group’s new Evelina in Fort Greene, and popular Carroll Gardens pizzeria Pizza Moto have all added versions of the dish — from onion ring-inspired versions to fluffier ones topped with honey.

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Let’s count the reasons visitors flock to Orlando. There are the endless theme parks, the sprawling convention center, the abundance of world-class golf courses nearby, and proximity to the Kennedy Space Center. Whatever the reason you might go, you’ve got a lot of company: In 2016, 68 million visitors descended upon the area, spending $41.8 billion on lodging, entertainment, and dining, making it the top tourist destination in the U.S.

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The future of food is sustainable, and last week a McDonald’s franchise in Bethesda, Maryland became the chain’s first location to receive Level One certification from the Green Restaurant Association. GRA certification differs from others in that it incorporates all aspects of a restaurant’s business. This is different from something like LEED certification, for example, which applies only to buildings and construction. GRA incorporates LEED requirements, but also focuses on operations and interiors.

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La Mercerie, the cafe, bakery and restaurant in the furniture and design store Roman and Williams Guild, which opens Thursday, is not exactly the kind of place you associate with takeout.

Marie-Aude Rose — a celebrated Parisian chef who has cooked at Pierre Gagnaire and alongside her husband, Daniel, at their now-closed restaurant, Spring — will serve what she describes as “simple but refined” French food. But after enjoying dishes like vegetables cooked in saffron broth beneath a puff pastry dome or buckwheat crepes with seafood in a sauce Nantua, diners can order something to go: the plates, the napkins, the tableware, the candlesticks and even the tables.

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Surprise: Here’s some news to make you feel all warm and fuzzy about the world, even if only for a fleeting moment. In the past few days, Americans have really been getting into the true holiday spirit — they’re leaving servers generous tips and heartfelt messages of thanks.

At a diner near Seattle this weekend, a regular customer left a tip that mathematically works out to about 7,600 percent: Dwayne Clark, a local businessman ABC News says has been eating at Brief Encounter for eight years, left the restaurant’s 12-person staff $3,000 on his $39 meal. He also scribbled a note on the back of his receipt that said, “You guys do a great job! When I was 7, I washed dishes and my mom cooked in a diner like this, we were dirt poor and didn’t have money for Christmas. Hopefully, this will help all of you have a better Christmas.”

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Admit it: You take the occasional food photo on your phone. You might even do it a lot. If you’re not guilty of this all too common practice, you must know someone who is. At some point, you’ve probably patiently awaited permission to dig into your entree while someone’s iPhone hovers over your plate. And, cringing as you witness the unappetizing photo going up on Instagram, you’ve probably wondered how much more space these kinds of humble brags can take up on the Internet.

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Six years ago, an episode of Canadian Top Chef featured a moment that would never be replicated on its American counterpart under any circumstances. Nothing about most of the episode was particularly outstanding: It had a French theme with New York-based chef Daniel Boulud dropping in as a guest judge, and the elimination challenge required each contestant to cook with a different protein common in French cuisine.

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