A crunchy treat with only one ingredient. ... WATCH THE VIDEO
The CHOW Blog 
Insights, tips, and restaurant reports from CHOW editors and Chowhound.
Lazy Man’s Panini
This week's mission: three brands of frozen, microwavable panini. ... WATCH THE VIDEO
One of These Waters Is Not Like the Others
The Government Accountability Office has a new report out (link leads to a PDF file), and this time the target isn’t defense spending or the prosecution of the war in Iraq; it’s bottled water.
The Atlantic’s food blog reports that the desert-dry title says it all: “Bottled Water: FDA Safety and Consumer Protections Are Often Less Stringent Than Comparable EPA Protections for Tap Water.” Add the price thing and the environmental thing, and tap water looks better and better … and, hell, you can throw terroir in there as an added bonus.
Image source: Flickr member Cyron under Creative Commons
A Starbucks in Sheep’s Clothing
Clever, clever Starbucks! On the run from McDonald’s and seeing the fiscal value of local cred, the chain is reinventing itself—on a trial basis—by opening a series of seemingly independent local coffee shops that also serve wine and beer and are named things like “15th Avenue Coffee & Tea.”
A writer for AOL’s Daily Finance site—who does an otherwise admirable job of dissecting the phenomenon—wraps up her dispatch with (and I hate to say this) a bigoted broadside aimed at the noncoastal Dumb States:
“Whether it will play well with consumers here in Portland and Seattle is doubtful; although (and I hate to say this) I can imagine it doing very well in the country’s middle.”
Let’s take the time to throw the dart with a bit more care, shall we? It seems safe to say that the Starbucks faux-local crap will likely go over far better in Indianapolis, Des Moines, and Bismarck than it will in Madison, Minneapolis, or Ann Arbor …
Image source: Flickr member yajico under Creative Commons
The Perfect Beer
Lessley Anderson gets into the yeasty details of Russian River Brewing Company's Supplication ale. ... WATCH THE VIDEO
Gordon Ramsay and Sandra Lee, Internet Punching Bags
The best part of this dizzying montage of Sandra Lee clips? The way she pronounces “ex-presso.”
Another little piece of chef-y Internet nastiness: “So you want to be a CHEF,” reads the title of satiric blog Balloon Goes Bang’s rant against Gordon Ramsay, the überlord of all cursing, yelling chefs. The post has to be read to be believed:
“Because even though you’ve probably fooled yourself into thinking you can handle ridiculously long hours working on your feet in sweatshop conditions, you may not have fully considered the fact that you’re also going to have to suffer an endless deluge of piss and vitriol from every one of your superiors. They’re going to yell at you for not boiling water the right way, for not peeling potatoes like they do in France, for not washing the dishes with clockwise sponge strokes. In fact, they’re going to shriek and bawl and cry and stamp their little feet for whatever dumb reason they like, hour after endless hour, day after day, week after week, just because they can.”
Ha ha, “clockwise sponge strokes.”
Sandra Lee video via Serious Eats
What to Eat at the Ballpark
Chowhound picks for the best food and drink at games across the country. READ MORE
How to Make Your Own Mustard
Using the dry mustard you have in your spice rack. ... WATCH THE VIDEO
