Congressman and überwonk Earl Blumenauer may stir the brain as the week’s headliner on Portland’s vaudevillian variety show, but our own Karen Brooks will get the gut growling as she and fellow Portland Monthly contributor Mike Thelin offer the scoop behind our Best Restaurants 2010 issue. The Friday live show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Alberta Rose Theater (3000 NE Alberta St). To hear, tune in to OPB at 7 p.m. on Saturday, or go livewireradio.org for a podcast.

Thelin is now curating occasional foodie interviews for Live Wire. So be sure to check in to see who he brings to stage out of his voluminous rolodex of local and national chefs, food writers, and other experts in the arts of gastronomy and plain ol’ good cookin’.