Grub Street Grub Street New York

The Forward is taking a behind-the-scenes look at UES shop Kitchen Arts & Letters, the cookbook emporium beloved by chefs (and where David Chang is baller-in-chief). The tour starts upstairs, where new and rare books are kept, and moves to the private basement shelves where owner Nach Waxman keeps a special reserve of even rarer books, including a like-new hardcover of Marco Pierre White's influential White Heat. “This book would be gone in 15 minutes if I put it out on the floor upstairs,” Waxman tells the paper, “I don’t want to sell it to someone who’s going to put it on their shelf like a bowling trophy, but perhaps to someone who’s interested in post–World War II English cooking, to whom this would mean something.” [Jewish Daily Forward]

Speaking of places where people wait in endless lines, The Wall Street Journal says Magnolia Bakery is getting ready for some serious international expansion. There's already a Magnolia in Dubai, but now we're talkin' franchises all over the globe, baby! Per the Journal, thanks to Sex and the City, "the bakery is largely perceived as a luxury brand outside the U.S." Luxury brand, you say? We can think of at least one guy who would be interested. [WSJ via Zagat Buzz]

Last week we took part in a panel regarding chefs and social media: Do they use it? How does it affect business? And is it a worthwhile way to spend your time if you've got, you know, a restaurant or two that you need to run? (The discussion itself was put together in part with American Express's YourBuzz, which helps small businesses manage their online presence, and which also advertises here on Grub.) The panel — Kenny Lao, Cesare Casella, Paul Liebrandt, Zak Pelaccio, and Gilt Taste's Francis Lam — was mixed. Lao said he only uses something like Twitter because he feels like he has to for the sake of his business, while Liebrandt uses his Twitter account to talk about his feelings re: the new Harry Potter. So it's not as if there's a lot of consensus on it.

Filipino pop-up Maharlika's debut at the DeKalb Market in the first week of August (the market opens tomorrow, but some vendors aren't ready yet) isn't the restaurant's only upcoming project. Cofounder Nicole Ponseca tells us she has two more locations in the works, including a planned six-month pop-up at 111 First Avenue in the East Village where brunch will be offered beginning July 30 and dinner will be slowly phased in, with a full bar offered for both meals. On the brunch menu, look for favorites like sizzling sisig and new dishes such as champorado and tuyo, chocolate rice porridge with dried fish. When the evening meal is introduced, you'll find dishes like goat adobo, sweet longganisa sausage sliders, and short rib kare kare, which you might have tried if you caught one of Maharlika's Sunday night dinners at 5 Ninth. The East Village finished space will resemble a "Pinoy home" circa the seventies or eighties, says Ponseca; for warm days, there's a back yard with garden.

Word on the street (ha) is that the "Sainted Arepa Lady" of Jackson Heights will be going to California for a few days next month, and she's taking her spatula with her. Last week, the popular vendor tweeted mysteriously, "Not out tonight, sorry! Oh soon to sell arepas in San Francisco, CA for a day?" So what gives?

Not exactly, but according to Singapore's Straits Times, "[s]ome of Pyongyang's power elites have McDonald's hamburgers delivered to their homes from China." This is, of course, in addition to importing $2.4 million worth of Hennessy, whiskey, and Japanese beer. Over half a million dollars' worth of "class A" beef was flown in, too. We're guessing that figure doesn't include the Mickey D's burger patties. [Straits Times via Gawker]