Welcome to this edition of Dimanche (That Means Sunday), a roundup of things that caught my eye this past week.

Fall is in the air. I took a lot of walks around Forest Park last week and I noticed that the leaves are already changing color. It’s kind of hard to believe that summer is coming to an end.

For the first time in a long time though, I’m happy about that. This summer was a rocky time for me and even though some really good things happened, I’m looking forward to closing that chapter and moving on to bigger and better things. I think it’s true what they say about time healing everything.

Plus, fall is my favorite season. I love the cool breeze in the air, the colors, the fact that you need to wear a couple layers but not too many. I like talking long walks under yellow, orange, and red leaves, and lingering outside on the patio a little longer at night. I can’t wait to spend more time outside the next few months enjoying nature, traveling, and seeing places that I’ve never seen before.

Without further ado, here is Dimanche:

The baguette is coming under fire in France. Politicians there are proposing legislation that would cut down on the amount of salt that bakers and processed food makers can put in bread. One member of the parliamentary committee looking into it called the high salt levels in baguettes a “real public health problem.” You can read more about it in this Reuters story.

Red Delicious apples are the worst. Fortunately, this fact was confirmed recently. Red Delicious apples lost the top spot in American orchards, according to a recent report from the U.S. Apple Association. I still think Granny Smith should be number one, but I’ll settle for Red Delicious being bumped from the top spot. This Slate story covers the issue nicely.

Boston restaurants are being shut out of national awards, and one food critic there has something to say about it. Devra First, a food writer for The Boston Globe, penned an article about why eateries in Boston don’t get national recognition. Even though First made a couple good points, ultimately I found her assessment to be condescending. At one point, she says that New York is a bigger city than Boston so it makes sense that they would have more restaurant variety. My response is, a city of any size can make a name for itself in the dining scene (like St. Louis, for example), and New York isn’t the center of the universe. Read First’s column here.

I had one of the best dinners I’ve enjoyed in a while at Farmhaus last night. It was my first time dining at the restaurant and I was blown away. Farmhaus emphasizes local produce and gets most of its vegetables from a garden out back. It makes a difference in the food, which is fresh, delicious, and flavorful. One of my favorite dishes was the sweet potato nachos, which had local blue cheese, pickled jalapeño, and red pepper ketchup on top. 

I really enjoyed this story about chefs in Morocco. A café at a training center in Marrakech is helping women gain culinary skills so they can find employment. You can read more about Amal Women’s Training Center and the women who work there in this NPR story.

I finally made it to the Tuesday Tower Grove Farmers’ Market and it was even better than I expected. The market is smaller than the one on Saturday but it still has excellent vendors and lots of good produce. I got a piece of hummingbird cake from Prioritized Pastries and it was delicious. The owner told me it was her best batch yet and she wasn’t lying. Read more about the market in my recent blog post.

HBO just released the first trailer for its adaptation of “My Brilliant Friend” and I can’t contain my excitement. The series is based on the popular novels by Elena Ferrante. I read them all in more or less one sitting last year. Check out the trailer in this Vulture story.

Last but certainly not least, I love this story about Hawaiian pizza in China. The writer grew up in the United States but whenever she went to visit her grandmother in Beijing, they would eat Hawaiian pizza from Pizza Hut. The story touches on a lot of themes including food culture and Westernization, but my favorite thing about it is the narrative about family. Also, the picture of the grandmother eating pizza with chopsticks is pretty entertaining. Read the Eater story here.

Enjoy your week! Here’s a song to get you started.