When the job market craters, ideals usually end up playing second fiddle to practical concerns like rent and health insurance. There is some good news on the employment front, though, for those interested in nonprofits and the so-called “green economy.” Nonprofit job board Idealist reported a threefold increase in environmentally-oriented jobs since 2008, and interest in sustainable and local foodstuffs doesn’t seem to be waning anytime soon. So it makes sense that a job-search site dedicated to just that niche–”meaningful” nonprofit work in the food sector–would pop up. Good Food Jobs, launched last year by Cornell grads Taylor Cocalis and Dorothy Neagle, describes itself as a “gastro-job search tool” that specializes in employment opportunities with “food artisans, policy makers and purveyors, retailers and restaurateurs, economists, ecologists, and more.” Their blog profiles culinary do-gooders and entrepreneurs, to remind us that hard times often bring out capitalism’s imaginative side. If you love food, and need a job, start your hunt here.

When Jonathan Gold speaks, we should listen. He was the first food writer to win the Pulitzer (in 2007, for his work at the L.A. Weekly), and this May he was honored by the James Beard Foundation with the prestigious M.F.K. Fisher award for his compendium of Los Angeles’ “99 Essential Restaurants.” For this month’s issue of Sunset magazine, he went head-to-head with San Francisco magazine restaurant critic Josh Sens, arguing for Los Angeles’ culinary supremacy. In a battle of wits that evoked artist Sandow Birk’s classic “In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias,” Gold of course won.

But an even better read is Gold’s other contribution to Sunset–the “10 Worst Food Trends.” His cantankerous list made my heart flutter with commiseration over maddening restaurant trends like paying for tap water, overly-laden cocktails, and anything sous vide. Most of all, I cheered at his call-out of truffle oil (which is synthetic and tastes like BO smells), and of chefs who insist on serving endangered fish species. “A chef careless enough to leave vulnerable species on his menu is unlikely to mind his pots with the diligence one might prefer.” No one could have said it better.

Become a proud graduate of Pickle U. this weekend at the Farmer’s Kitchen. Think of the class like a Classics 101–no newfangled modernist pickles like squash or peaches, just cukes in their many pickled forms. If you want a degree in Kosher dills, bread & butter, and hotdog relish, this University should be your top pick.

Hollywood’s Farmer’s Kitchen is a new project of the Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles, and an extension of the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. Proceeds from their cafe and classes goes toward nutritional classes and food prep training for low-income locals. A worthy and delicious cause!

When: Saturday, June 25, 2011
9 AM to 1 PM

Where: The Farmer’s Kitchen
1555 North Vine St., Suite 119, Hollywood

The class costs $80, and you get a couple jars of pickles to take home. Sign up here.

Friend of Spooning Anissa Helou will be hosting a series of “supper club” dinners at her fabulous London loft to coincide with the city’s Shubbak festival, celebrating contemporary Arab art and culture. The dinners will include Musar wine from Lebanon, and will feature the cuisines of Syria and Lebanon on July 5, the United Arab Emirates on July 11, and Morocco on July 19. The menus of all three dinners read like a rose-scented love letter from a fantasy mideast “of yore,” one not at all chaotic with revolution or bans on women driving: tabbouleh and maqaneq sausages, quail tagine and broad beans, roast leg of lamb and saffron milk pudding … (Anissa is also promising a “plump belly dancer” if she can find one in time!)

When: July 5, 11 and 19, 2011
8:30 pm

Where: Anissa’s gorgeous loft in Shoreditch, London

The dinners are each £125 per person, with a maximum of 10 diners. To reserve a spot,  send your request to ah@anissas.com. Shubbak events are all over London from July 4 to 24, 2011.