We're Cookin'! RFT Contributor Wins Two Awards

At the thirteenth annual AltWeekly Awards luncheon last weekend in Philadelphia, Riverfront Times contributor Malcolm Gay won first place in the arts feature category for his September 19, 2007, feature ''The Case of the Shanghai Shamus.''

The piece is about the Chinese-born Qiu Xiaolong, a St. Louis poet who has written highly acclaimed detective stories set in his communist homeland.

Gay also took third place for three entries in his popular RFT food column, Keep It Down!

His winning entries were for writing about trying to ingest these delicacies: ''Top Ramen (Chicken Vegetable Flavor),'' ''Domino's Pizza New Oreo Dessert Pizza'' and ''Double Cheeseburger.''

- Ellis Conklin