Our crunchy, healthy-eating title notwithstanding, the Times Dining section was actually rather exciting this week. That broccoli salad was one of the most appealing recipes we've seen a long time - Melissa Clark says that all the vinaigrette in this tangy broccoli salad softens it and makes it bright and compelling. We're compelled. We'll try it this weekend and let you know how it turns out.

More from the Times' Dining section below.

• The Dairies Are Half-Pint, but the Flavor Isn’t: Artisanal dairy and fresh milk, cream, and butter follow produce and meat as the next big local thing. Well, big to some - rural America has known these pleasures for a long time. But now fresh milk and cream are a hot thing in urban areas too; have you ever tried really fresh, non-homogenized milk?

• Rice, Across its Spectrum: The Minimalist makes beans and rice and jambalaya with brown rice - nutty and flavorful.

• Life as a Repast, Not Yet Complete: A review of a new memoir by New Orleans-based Kim Sunée.

• Chianti Steps Out of Its Straw Skirt: The sangiovese grape and its Chianti wine have never been able to present a unified face to the world - plagued by inconsistency and other troubles. But Eric Asimov argues that it is at last coming into its own.