This week in notable food-centric links:

◊ Get better, not bitter: Slate writer and Portland resident Adrienne So deliberates hop usage within craft brewing. So weighs in on pros (ensuring that your brew doesn’t taste like watered down horse piss) and cons (disguising flaws in beer) and encourages craft brewers to end the IPA-craze. Her solution? Embrace other facets of fermentation, like new yeast strains or local, craft-malted barleys. 

◊ Don’t know what an IPA is? There’s an app for that. Kevin Jamieson is mapping relationships between beers for his upcoming iPad app Beer Mapper. Similar to Netflix, users will provide input about their beer preferences and the app will extrapolate a 2-D cloud of recommended pints. 

◊ Is that a salami in your pocket? Starting May 28th, you won’t need to smuggle your favorite Italian pork products into the States anymore. The USDA is lifting its four-decades-long ban on salumi from select Italian regions. How about some culatello (also known as the king of charcuterie)? Now there’s something everyone will be happy to see. 

◊ High on the hog, indeed: Pot-fed pigs are now available at Seattle's Pike Place Market. You might want to think twice before ordering “smoked porked” next time you’re in the Evergreen State.

◊ It’s not me. It’s my microbiota! Michael Pollan's recent New York Times feature delves into the current science behind the complex relationship between humans and bacteria. Our gut bacteria, it turns out, plays a critical role in regulating our stress, metabolism, digestion and overall health. Bring on the kimchi.

◊ To trust or not to trust Yelp reviews? That is the question that Wired’s entertaining infographic aims to answer. Spoiler alert: The answer is almost always no.