I’ve compiled a list of some of the more bizarre food superstitions from all corners of the world. I can’t be alone in this world when I say that my life revolves around food.

My last Valentine’s Day spent with a significant other was in 2011. The scene: a White Castle in Columbia, Missouri, complete with candles, waiter service, and a photo booth. It was, without exaggeration, the best Valentine’s date I have ever been on. There’s just something “so wrong it’s right” about enjoying bad food on a day that’s all about fine dining.

Must be my Italian heritage, because associating love and food comes naturally to me. My grandmothers, my mother, my aunts always made sure my siblings, my cousins, and I were never hungry, expressing their affection with a bowl of cheesy pasta followed by a hunk of heavenly chocolate cake. Cue Dean Martin singing “That’s Amore.”

While we don’t eat chicken very often, the co-chef around the house, my dad Jon Dee Graham, has been whipping up “Reckless Chicken” since I can remember. It’s an Italian pasta recipe he got from drummer Jay Nazz of Reckless Kelly, thus duly renamed in our kitchen.

Titaya’s reopened on North Lamar last Monday, and an entire subculture of this great city celebrated. Eleven months of renovations had kept the much beloved Thai food shop shuttered, with rumors concerning its reopening stunning the city upon every mention.

As the lights went down at the Alamo Drafthouse during my first date with my now-boyfriend, my mind was running a mile a minute.

The second annual Austin Chronicle Food Issue hits the streets this Thursday, February 13.

Listen: This new book's humor is more gut-busting than a punch in the belly from the fist of Gojira.

Josh Meyer and Matt Hislope, ladies and gentlemen: The co-directors of Rubber Repertory.