Moving Out from Grub Street

Editor Josh Ozersky says so long and thanks for all the hamburgers.

New York magazine’s food blog, Grub Street, has long owed at least half of its wit to editor Josh Ozersky, whose takes on cultural phenoms like the phrase “I drink your milkshake,” along with his insider restaurant knowledge, spiced things up considerably. Alas, Ozersky is taking his wit elsewhere, as Grub Street announced yesterday. Ozersky, a James Beard Award winner and author of The Hamburger: A History, has been hired away by Citysearch, of all places. According to Citysearch’s press release, Ozersky starts as New York senior editor on September 15, and will write reviews, features, and blog posts, as well as create multimedia content.

For Ozersky’s sake, let’s hope Citysearch makes its site easier to navigate. Right now I’m not even sure where to find the blogs (are there any?)—much less the “multimedia.” And where are the editorial reviews versus the reader reviews? Where are the features? For God’s sake, will I still be able to RSS-feed Ozersky?!

Change makes me cranky. Let’s go back in time, instead, and revisit this highly amusing Click-and-Clack-esque conversation between Ozersky and Adam Platt.

Oh yeah, and congratulations, Mr. Cutlets.

Posted by Traci Vogel | yesterday at 4:25pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: josh ozersky, mr cutlets, grub street, new york, citysearch, the hamburger, new york magazine

Chef Daddy

Cooking for your kids, instilling an appreciation for life at the table.

Some of my foodie friends have had kids recently and are faced with a new cooking challenge: how to prepare food for their little ones. At the moment they are warily eying the baby-food grinder and wondering what to do with it.

Enter Greg Johnson and his new project, Chef and Father. Johnson, a Seattle-based chef, filmmaker, and father of two, is producing a DVD to teach parents how to prepare homemade organic baby and toddler food—but more than that, he is trying to teach an appreciation of food and family and life lived at the table.

As Johnson explains on the website:

I am a working parent, too. Just because I am a professional chef doesn’t mean I’m at home all day cooking for my daughter. So I developed a system that made it easy for me or my wife to prepare a healthy homemade meal in minutes. With our extra time, we spent more nights as a family together at the table and I realized how important this was.

Johnson is personable and down-to-earth, and one can’t help but think he’d make a great cooking-show host (note to Food Network: Grab this guy while you can). His values alone are enough to make one swoon. “It’s about family, it’s about food. It’s about getting them used to all different types of foods from a very young age,” he explains in the online trailer for the DVD. “The memory of a family meal is something that sticks with people for the rest of their lives.”

Posted by Tea Austen Weaver | yesterday at 3:23pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: chef and father, greg johnson, baby food, cooking for kids, making your own baby food, diy baby food

Meat Her on the Int3rw3bs

Blogger Tea of Tea & Cookies is seeking meat recipes to fuel a week of carnivorous abandon.

Blogger (and Grinder regular) Tea, of Tea & Cookies, is working on a book about meat, hanging out with “butchers and ranchers and the nicest charcuterie folks ever.”

In the name of literature, she’s poised to do what Texans do pretty much every week of their lives: eat meat every day for a week. And she’s appealing to the general public for help in coming up with enough scrumptious recipes to fuel the meat feat.

So far, a skim of the copious comments produces an (abridged) list of recipes that looks something like this …

Mexican meatballs
Hoisin baby back ribs
Black bean soups/stews
Malaysian chicken curry
Ham in pipérade
Spicy lamb burgers
Afghan pumpkin kadu bouranee

Holy moly. It’s a tempting enough array to get a vegan eying the butcher’s case … or get a Southerner through lunchtime …

Posted by James Norton | yesterday at 12:57pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: tea, meat, recipes, tea and cookies

Crawdads: The Execution

Scotland has issued a death decree for invasive minilobsters.

Crawdads may be much beloved by the Southern palate, but in Scotland they’ve received a potentially lethal promotion to Public Nuisance Number 1. The BBC reports on the crayfish death order:

Anglers have been issued with a ‘kill on sight’ message to combat the spread of American signal crayfish. Environment Minister Mike Russell made the call ahead of the launch of a new leaflet on the issue at the Galloway Country Fair.

The delectable little dudes compete with native trout and salmon, and bore holes into banks that leave surrounding land more vulnerable to flooding.

If the Scots are at least being pragmatic about the affair, they’ll consult a reputable online resource and whip up a nice étouffée. Or possibly a crayfish haggis. If such a thing is possible.

Posted by James Norton | yesterday at 10:54am | 1 comment
Tagged with: crayfish, crawdads, crawfish, etouffee, haggis, bbc, scotland

Plastic Fantastic

The FDA has just come out with a draft assessment that puts BPA in the clear.

I was consternated a few months ago, when, after investing in a bunch of new Nalgene water bottles so I wouldn’t have to destroy the Earth buying bottled water, it turned out that some of the hard plastic bottles could leach BPA (bisphenol A), a hormone disruptor, into the contents of the bottle. Of course, it’s not only water bottles where BPA lurks—the substance is also found in plastic baby bottles (!) and tin can liners.

Luckily, the FDA has just come out with a draft assessment that, according to the Washington Post, says there is no risk from BPA in food containers: “Exposure to the small amounts of BPA that migrate from the containers into the food they hold are not dangerous to infants or adults,” the draft says.

Of course, this news contradicts, according to the Post, more than 100 studies by government scientists and universities that have found health risks—ranging from breast and prostate cancers to diabetes and reproductive problems—associated with BPA.

Caveat emptor, my friend.

Posted by Miriam Wolf | yesterday at 8:32am | 1 comment
Tagged with: bpa, washington post, tree hugger, bisphenol a, plastic bottles, plastic water bottles, nalgene, water bottles, plastic food containers

King Corn Seizes Agave's Turf

The Arizona Republic has the scoop on corn pushing agave aside in Mexico.

Coca. Agave. Potatoes. All crops prized for their intoxicating end-products (cocaine, tequila, and cheese fries, respectively). And now, all crops being replaced by good old-fashioned corn.

The Arizona Republic reports that leafy cornstalks are replacing agave plants in Mexico, as commodity prices go haywire.

With white corn selling in Mexico for 18 cents a pound this month—its highest price in at least a decade—compared with as little as 2 cents for agave, the switch was probably inevitable, said Martín Sánchez, director of agriculture for the tequila council.

‘We don’t have good numbers, but we know it is happening: People are abandoning their fields of agave and flipping over to other crops,’ Sánchez said.

This isn’t necessarily the end of the world, or even good tequila, for that matter: The agave bust reflects an agave boom in 2002, when the plant was selling for 80 cents a pound. In the wake of that spike, farmers all over Mexico responded by planting agave, as did tequila producers.

Posted by James Norton | last monday at 4:51pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: agave, corn, arizona republic, tequila, commodities prices, mexico

Movable Feast

Details lists its 10 favorite street-food carts.

Street carts are foodier than ever. These movable feasts have come a long way from the days of hot dogs floating in gray water. Carts have their own awards ceremonies and controversies. And everyone has her favorites.

Posted by Miriam Wolf | last monday at 2:02pm | 1 comment
Tagged with: street carts, tamale lady, speed's hot dogs, details, street food, street vendors

Godly Gristle

Seeing Allah in a piece of meat.

We get a lot of Jesus and Mary food sightings in Western media (and this classic Grinder helps explain why), but you don’t often get to see good examples from other religions (this Buddha bubble in a pancake from 2006 is a lovely exception). Muslims don’t see Allah in their food, because to capture his image is an insult—but a recent sighting of the Arabic words for God and Muhammad in a slice of meat has been causing some excitement in northern Nigeria.

Diners have been flocking to a restaurant in northern Nigeria to see pieces of meat which the owner says are inscribed with the name of Allah.

What looks like the Arabic word for God and the name of the prophet Muhammad were discovered in pieces of beef by a diner in Birnin Kebbi.

He was about to eat it, when he suddenly noticed the words in the gristle, the restaurant owner said.

Scholars tell the restaurant owner that the words’ appearance proves that “Islam is the only true religion.” But what do the scholars have to say about Jesus on a pierogi?

Posted by Traci Vogel | last monday at 11:47am | 1 comment
Tagged with: allah, meat, nigeria, jesus, pancake, muhammad, bbc, religious images in food

The Burger Buck Stops Here

Los Angeles approves a fast-food ban, and other cities consider following suit.

Lots of back-and-forth about the Los Angeles moratorium on new fast-food restaurants. If you’ve missed the scuffle, the New York Times has a good summation of it. Basically, the Los Angeles City Council has decided to ban new fast-food restaurants from opening in certain low-income neighborhoods for one year. More than 45 percent of the 900 restaurants in these neighborhoods, says the Times article, are fast-food chains. And, the city council reasons, that’s led to a rash of obesity and accompanying health problems.

For the purposes of the moratorium, a fast-food restaurant is defined as “any establishment which dispenses food for consumption on or off the premises, and which has the following characteristics: a limited menu, items prepared in advance or prepared or heated quickly, no table orders and food served in disposable wrapping or containers.”

William Saletan in Slate argues that the law treats poor people like children. In a riposte, Slate’s Amaka Maduka writes that “it’s deliberately ignorant to suggest that poorer neighborhoods currently have real choices in what they eat.” But Saletan comes back by noting that the law limits choices, it doesn’t expand them. The New York Times article fears that some healthy food choices might get caught in the law’s squishy verbiage, citing as an example a hot dog vendor who offers pasture-raised meat with fresh grilled onions. And an editorial in the Los Angeles Times says, “The real health problems in South L.A. are the result of long-standing food preferences influenced by culture, pocketbook imperatives and the dearth of supermarkets in the community that offer healthy, affordable produce.”

The idea of fast-food moratoriums seems to be appealing to politicians. Support is growing for a similar bill in New York, and San Jose, California, just formed a committee to study a version of the bill, which might also ban new fast-food places being built within 1,000 feet of schools.

Not surprisingly, the National Restaurant Association opposes such bans.

Posted by Traci Vogel | last monday at 10:49am | 1 comment
Tagged with: fast food, ban, moratorium, los angeles, slate, william saletan, amaka maduka, national restaurant association

A Lager for the Ladies

Call out the marketers: Women just aren’t drinking enough beer.

Women just aren’t drinking enough beer.

Or at least that’s the conclusion of brewers in the UK, who, according to the Wall Street Journal, have decided to actively court females with new beers.

But are these efforts misguided? Recently Guinness introduced Guinness Red, a beer that is sweeter and doesn’t have as strong an aroma as Guinness’s traditional stout. According to the article,

At O’Neill’s pub in central London, few women have tried Guinness Red because they don’t know it is different than the traditional version, says manager Frank Donlon. ‘Advertising would help explain that it’s like a watered-down Guinness,’ he says. ‘A TV ad would be good.’

Mmmmm. Watered-down Guinness.

Women apparently also like their beer sweeter than men. Coors’s Blue Moon is targeted to women in the UK (although primarily drunk by men in the U.S.) and served with an orange slice “to accentuate its fruity taste.” Coors encourages bartenders to experiment with how they serve the orange slice, resulting in one pub coating it in brown sugar before hanging it off the side of a beer glass. As a woman and a beer drinker, I say keep your brown sugar far away from my ale.

Posted by Miriam Wolf | last monday at 8:23am | 4 comments
Tagged with: guinness, blue moon, women, wall street journal, guinness red, beer

A Healthier Pizza

Marion Nestle muses on the pie, and Pizza Hut goes natural.

Pizza gets a bad rap. The preferred food of couch potatoes can in fact be “a complete and balanced meal on its own,” says nutrition expert Marion Nestle in the San Francisco Chronicle, a column that’s sure to worm its way into the “I told you so” hands of teenagers. But Nestle is not referring to the monstrous cheese-laden pizza shilled by chains like Pizza Hut. Instead, she waxes rhapsodic about the classic pizza margherita espoused by the likes of Mitchell Davis in Kitchen Sense: More than 600 Recipes to Make You a Great Home Cook:

His classic pizza Margherita starts with a wheat flour dough and adds olive oil, tomatoes, a handful of cheese, and a few leaves of basil. These ingredients take care of many basic nutritional requirements. The wheat and cheese provide protein. The olive oil is a source of good fat, and the tomato sauce provides vitamins and antioxidants. Most of its vitamin C will be destroyed by the high heat of baking, but enough is left to make tomato sauce a major source of vitamin C in American diets. The basil has some, too. And, as Davis puts it, ‘If your crust is flavorful and crunchy, you shouldn’t have to cover it up with loads of junk.’

Even the maligned Pizza Hut appears to want to get in on this action: TreeHugger had a recent post about how the fast-food chain plans to offer ‘The Natural,’ a pie made with multigrain crust, organic tomato sauce, and preservative-free toppings.

Posted by Traci Vogel | last friday at 5:18pm | 6 comments
Tagged with: pizza, healthy, marion nestle, margherita, mitchell davis, kitchen sense, pizza hut, the natural, health, san francisco chronicle, treehugger

Prince Charles, Royally Pissed

The prince says that genetically modified foods will lead to the End of Days. More or less, at least.

Prince Charles has never been shy about his opposition to genetically modified plants. He’s among the world’s best-known organic farmers, after all. But has he ever been this vocal about it? From the UK Guardian:

Prince Charles has warned that the adoption of genetic modification in farming has set the world on course for ‘the biggest disaster, environmentally, of all time’.

In an outspoken assault on GM crops, the prince accused unnamed ‘gigantic corporations’ of ‘conducting a gigantic experiment with nature, and the whole of humanity, which has gone seriously wrong’.

He doesn’t just say it’ll lead to environmental disaster; he guarantees it. This has irritated a lot of scientists, of course, but since they’re English at least they’re colorful about it. A University of Surrey professor told the Telegraph that “[Charles] wants to retain his vision of a rural idyll by telling the poor to eat organic cake while he pours wine into the fuel tank of his sports car.” Which has to be the most overblown insult I’ve seen in a long time.

Posted by Nicholas Day | last friday at 2:29pm | 1 comment
Tagged with: organics, farming, agriculture, genetically modified, genetically engineered, green, prince charles, seeds, gmo

A Wood-Fired Oven to Call Your Own

But are homemade wood-fired pizza and “crisp and chewy breads” worth $9,995?

The Le Panyol wood-fired oven featured on the Epi-Log sure looks like it would be a lot of fun to have in the backyard. But are homemade wood-fired pizzas and “crisp and chewy breads” worth the $9,995 price tag on this thing? I think Epi commenter Chocolatl says it best: “Honey, right now I don’t have this much money for a CAR, let alone an outdoor oven. Although I’m sure it’s wonderful.”

But handy pizza-lovers could, theoretically, build their own wood-fired ovens for a fraction of the price. Instructables offers a guide to building a pizza oven out of clay or mud, and Woodfiredpizza.org provides a slew of info on building even prettier wood-fired ovens.

Seems like a fairly huge project, but some Chowhounds are already bringing their backyard oven dreams to life.

Posted by Kara Zuaro | last friday at 12:54pm | 1 comment
Tagged with: wood-fired oven, homemade pizza, pizza oven, chowhound, woodfiredpizza, instructables, epi-log, le panyol

Move Over, Hard Rock Café

Strange theme restaurants are hotter than ever.

I have a horror of those restaurants where the servers at random moments during your meal all get together and burst into song. “Quit singing and bring me another beer!” I want to yell at them. If the food at a restaurant is good, it—along with your dining companions—should be the focus. But I think I may be in the (curmudgeonly) minority, because theme restaurants are hotter than ever.

In California, the Opaque chain of restaurants wants you to have a more stimulating dining experience by eating grilled salmon and baby arugula with champagne vinaigrette in the dark. Served by visually impaired waiters.

Too ho-hum for you? WebUrbanist has a list of “15 of the Strangest Themed Restaurants,” including old friends like Thailand’s Cabbages & Condoms and oddities like Ukraine’s Eternity, a death-themed restaurant housed in a huge coffin-shaped building and run by undertakers.

If you’re easily offended, beware of clicking: Un-PC establishments like the Hobbit House in Manila—where all the servers are little people—and Mumbai’s tasteful Hitler’s Cross (renamed the Cross after protests) lurk within.

Posted by Miriam Wolf | last friday at 11:06am | 0 comments
Tagged with: theme restaurants, cabbages and condoms, weburbanist, hitler's cross, hobbit house

Purple Is Not a Fruit

And other lessons on healthy eating from The Simpsons.

The Simpsons is a bona fide cultural touchstone, more familiar to Americans than the tenets of the U.S. Constitution, so it makes sense that someone might glean guidance for healthy eating from the animated TV show. That’s what Kris, at the blog Cheap Healthy Good, has done. Her post “Cutting Calories and Saving D’oh: 25 Lessons ‘The Simpsons’ Taught Me About Cheap, Healthy Eating” uses snippets from the show to illuminate some snappy advice. For instance, we all vaguely understand good-advice item number five: “It helps to stay current on news about food, nutrition, cost, and cooking, but don’t believe everything you read.” But how much more vivid does that advice become when we consider the following classic moment from The Simpsons:

Marge: I don’t have e-mail. (crowd gasps)
Homer: Oh Marge, you got to get on the Net. It’s got all the best conspiracy theories! Did you know that Hezbollah owns Little Dolly Snack Cakes?

And, sure, we all know that whole, unprocessed foods “will always be the best way to eat,” but how much more clear does this become when we read:

Homer: Wanna bite of my doughnut?
Lisa: No, thanks. Do you have any fruit?
Homer: This has purple stuff inside. Purple is a fruit.

Well, OK, maybe the lessons don’t become all that much more clear, but they certainly become more entertaining.

Posted by Traci Vogel | last friday at 8:51am | 1 comment
Tagged with: the simpsons, healthy, kris, cheap healthy good, lessons, healthy eating, tips, health

The Ballad of Squeaky the Wonder Pig

Good for far, far more than bacon.

The Houston Chronicle tells the surprisingly heartwarming tale of a 385-pound feral pig living on Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan’s China Grove Ranch in Texas. Adopted by a kind-hearted ranch manager, Squeaky herds cattle, guards against her feral brethren, and causes adorably hilarious mischief.

She’s been known to break into the ranch house and raid the refrigerator to messily slurp up raw eggs and leftover pizza. She considers a wallow in mud to be the height of fashion and doesn’t like to be washed off.

Texas-size—and presumably non-veterinarian-sanctioned—snacks for Squeaky include marshmallows and the occasional bowl of Dr Pepper.

Posted by James Norton | last thursday at 4:41pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: houston chronicle, squeaky, hog, pig, feral pig

Private Equity Eel

A venture capital fund puts its money on sustainable seafood.

Recently the San Francisco Chronicle has run a series of dispatches from the world of sustainable seafood, including a profile of CleanFish, the company that’s hoping to become the pescetarian’s Niman Ranch. But the more surprising story is about a new venture capital fund that invests in sustainable seafood companies.

Founded with a major grant from the Packard Foundation, Sea Change invests primarily in processors and distributors, the middle of the supply chain. It’s a smart move. As the fund’s managing principal says, “Even if people create greater supplies of environmentally preferable fish and even if there is more demand for it from consumers, the seafood supply chain doesn’t always cooperate.”

Sea Change is still a small fund, but it has invested in a few promising companies, including Advanced BioNutrition, “a Maryland biotech firm developing protein-rich algae that can replace fish oil as a food source for farm-raised fish.” These may or may not be good investments—the returns aren’t known yet—but they are critical steps for the ecofish industry: As an Environmental Defense Fund vice president who serves on a conservation advisory committee to Sea Change says, “[T]he transition to sustainable methods requires capital.”

Posted by Nicholas Day | last thursday at 3:02pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: fish, seafood, sustainable seafood, san francisco chronicle, cleanfish, sea change, green, venture capital fund

Unleaded Jatropha

Can the world run on fruit?

This week’s exciting, farm-eating fuel crop is jatropha, a fruit that’s native to South America and traditionally was used medicinally. It’s now believed to have tremendous biofuel potential: China’s betting on it, and there’s a center for jatropha research in India. Also, Air New Zealand is planning a test flight in which jatropha is mixed with diesel. The beauty of jatropha is that it can grow on marginal land, which means that unlike, say, corn it might take over only land where nothing else is growing.

What the story doesn’t mention is that jatropha is toxic. According to an old Reuters article, the plant’s “nuts and leaves are toxic, requiring careful handling by farmers and at crushing plants.” Presumably, the plant would be dangerous to any livestock, too.

Obviously, the solution is to instead turn only tasty fruit into fuel, thus ensuring that plenty of acres are planted. Like mangosteens. Why is no one running for president on the mangosteen-powered-car platform?

Posted by Nicholas Day | last thursday at 12:59pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: jatropha, india, china, biofuel, farming, agriculture, corn, fuel, green

Beer, Beer Everywhere ...

The Chicago Tribune does some on-the-scene reporting at a Czech beer spa in Chodova Plana.

The Chicago Tribune does some solid foreign reporting and sends a writer out to the Prave Pivni Lazni (original beer spa), run by the Chodovar brewery in the Czech town of Chodova Plana.

Alone behind a curtain, I disrobed and stepped in, parting the beer foam that had settled on top of the heated blend of half Il-Sano mineral water and half dark lager. Warmed to 93 degrees Fahrenheit and mixed with curative herbs, confetti-sized bits of hops and yeast, this murky bathwater was far from thirst-quenching, which made the cold glass of lager resting on a nearby empty keg so welcome.

The spa actually sounds genuinely relaxing and potentially curative … at least for the overstressed and overworked.

As for the spa’s key ingredient, it takes a man of the cloth to put it into perspective in the Tribune story: ”’Enjoyed within your limit, beer is the gift of God,’ said Frantisek Blaha, a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Prague, a Roman Catholic religious order.”

Posted by James Norton | last thursday at 11:07am | 1 comment
Tagged with: beer, spa, czech, prave pivni lazni, chicago tribune, beer spa, czech beer spa

We All Scream for Ice Cream Except for the Tongueless Cows

An ice cream festival in Yokohama becomes yet another opportunity for Japan to showcase its love of eccentric food.

Japan, never content to merely dominate the race for Edgy Food Capital of the World, has put yet more space between itself and anyone else who would think to challenge its title.

The Telegraph reports on a Yokohama ice cream festival that did its best to go as far beyond scoops of chocolate, vanilla, and green tea as humanly possible:

‘We have ice cream from all over Japan—from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south—but beef tongue has been the one that people keep coming back for,’ [organizer Manabu Matsumoto] said.

More than 125 varieties of ice cream have been available in the two week festival, including cheese, octopus, prawn and a garlic variety called Dracula Premium Ice. Another favourite was flavoured with very finely sliced pieces of pearl from the traditional pearl-growing region of Japan’s inland sea.

Also popular: raw-horse ice cream. Sure. Why not?

Feeling up for some Japanese summer treats but not up for raw meat in your sundae? CHOW offers a Japanese red bean ice cream recipe that looks exotically delicious without including anything severed from an animal.

Posted by James Norton | last thursday at 9:05am | 2 comments
Tagged with: yokohama, japan, ice cream, beef tongue, horsemeat, horse meat, exotic foods, eccentric foods, ice cream festival, ice cream flavors

Don't Mention the War

Who wants to dine at Basil Fawlty’s down-at-the-heels seaside hotel?

There are many delicious-looking movies and television shows it would be fun to insert yourself into. Who wouldn’t want to slurp noodles at the counter of the shop in Tampopo or go into chocolate ecstasy in Willy Wonka’s factory?

But who would want to dine at Basil Fawlty’s down-at-the-heels seaside hotel? Apparently lots of people, judging by the success of Fawlty Towers: The Dining Experience, a mostly improvised dinner theater that you don’t even have to go to Torquay to experience. Instead, it’s running now at the B’est Restaurant as part of the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.

According to the UK Independent, the show stars Basil, Sybil, and Manuel impersonators who roam through the restaurant making comedy that’s inspired by the classic TV show while avoiding directly quoting from it. (Although, the piece notes, there is “exaggerated goose-stepping.”)

As long as there isn’t a rat in the ratatouille.

Posted by Miriam Wolf | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 4:52pm | 1 comment
Tagged with: fawlty towers, basil, torquay, dinner theater, the independent, ratatouille, waldorf salad, britain, uk, edinburgh festival

Legal Weed for Everyone!

And no, dude, we’re not talkin’ medical marijuana here.

And no, dude, we’re not talkin’ medical marijuana here. Weed Ales and Lagers, a brew label named for its hometown in Northern California, thought it would be funny to mark bottle caps with the slogan “Try Legal Weed.” The gag backfired.

But now, according to Realbeer.com, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has reversed its decision—on the grounds that “the phrase in question refers to the brand name of the product and does not mislead consumers.” In a letter to Weed Ales fans and supporters, owner Vaune Dillmann writes, “Weed fought the law and Weed won!”

Posted by Kara Zuaro | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 3:16pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: weed ales, weed, california, slashfood, realbeer, try legal weed, beer therapy, beer bottle caps

Getting Drunk on Nature's Bounty

A novel system of pub-related barter encourages British tipplers to grow their own produce.

A British pub has adopted a novel method of commerce: Customers, in lieu of cash, can trade fresh produce and game in return for a pint or three. British news source Metro reports:

Cloe Wasey, manager of The Pigs in Edgefield, near Holt, Norfolk, said customers had been offering apples and marrows, mackerel and pheasants. ‘If someone thinks it should be on our menu—and can produce it—we will do a deal,’ she said.

It’s not clear if there’s a -vore-suffixed word to describe trading a bundle of rhubarb stalks to the pub in return for a draft Guinness, but there probably should be.

Brewavore, maybe?

Posted by James Norton | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 1:04pm | 0 comments
Tagged with: pubs, britain, metro, produce, gardens, barter, the pigs, trading food for beer

The Perfect Paella

This take on the classic Spanish dish replaces shellfish and chorizo with rabbit and snails.

When the Wall Street Journal’s Raymond Sokolov set out to find Spain’s most delicious paella, his search brought him to the Paco Gandía restaurant in Pinoso, “a short drive into the rugged highlands from Alicante.” Rather than the expected shellfish and chorizo, this restaurant’s paella featured some earthier ingredients:

The rice was a golden yellow, garnished with tawny, browned pieces of rabbit and snails in their brown-and-white-striped shells. … The Pinoso paella was almost all crust yet each grain remained magically moist.

The snails were equally succulent and provided an amusing diversion as we sucked them out of their shells. The rabbit had the deep, smoky taste of wood-fired barbecue—little pieces of leg with the bone in, breast and even a bit of liver.

At the end of the piece, Sokolov shares a grill-ready recipe that “may not be identical to the paella cooked outdoors in the Spanish countryside over flaming vine cuttings,” but it might be as close to Pinoso as you can get without leaving your backyard. To give it some local flavor, you can try making it with snails harvested from your garden—though we strongly advise leaving your neighbor’s pet bunny alone.

Posted by Kara Zuaro | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 10:52am | 1 comment
Tagged with: paella, paco gandia, pinoso, spain, wall street journal, raymond sokolov, rabbit, snails

Grody to the Max

E. coli linked to Whole Foods beef; dead lizard found in Applebee’s salad.

Last month, federal authorities issued a recall after E. coli–tainted ground beef from Nebraska Beef was linked to dozens of illnesses. Now, ABC News reports that the meat processor has recalled an additional “1.2 million pounds of other beef products that might have sickened more than 30 people.” And some of the contaminated meat has been traced back to Whole Foods. The horror! The Boston Globe says:

Massachusetts health authorities are warning consumers not to eat ground beef bought from Whole Foods Markets over the last two months after seven infections have been linked to meat bought there, some after a national recall.

…

The people who fell ill—five of whom were hospitalized—had all eaten ground beef from Whole Foods last month.

According to eCanadaNow, the recall has expanded into Canada and the following states: “Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, Washington D.C., Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, Wisconsin.”

In other gross-out news, an Applebee’s customer in Bloomington, Indiana, allegedly found a dead lizard in a salad. Feeling sick yet? Our own Miriam Wolf offers some helpful hints on diagnosing (and avoiding) food-borne illnesses.

Posted by Kara Zuaro | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 9:02am | 0 comments
Tagged with: e coli, beef recall, whole foods, nebraska beef, abc news, applebee's, food-borne illness, contaminated meat

One Nation Under Added Fats

A couple of terrific charts show exactly why we’re fatter.

Taking a short New York Times story on “The Overflowing American Dinner Plate” as his starting point, the Ethicurean’s Marc uses the same USDA data to create a pair of brilliant charts. The Times reported that the average American ate 1.8 pounds more per week in 2006 than in 1970. But rather than pounds, the Ethicurean’s charts look at calories—or more precisely, the “average calories produced daily per capita for over 200 basic foods” (adjusted for waste and processing).

The first chart shows that calorie intake from 1970 to 2004 increased more than 500 calories per day, a 24 percent hike (and as Marc notes, since it takes 51 minutes of running to burn that many calories, it isn’t surprising Americans have gotten plumper). The second follows the rise and fall of those calories in different food categories (dairy, vegetables, added fats, and so on). It’s one thing to know that fat, sugar, and refined carbohydrate consumption has jumped. It’s another, and altogether scarier, thing to see a steep spike in added fats and flour and cereal. Hold onto your insurance premiums, kids.

Posted by Nicholas Day | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 4:31pm | 8 comments
Tagged with: usda, ethicurean, diet, obesity, fats, sugars, americans, weight, calories, health

KFC: Going to Katmandu?

Fast food may be coming soon to one of the last international-chain-free nations on Earth.

Nepal—just hearing the name conjures up visions of forbiddingly rugged terrain and raw natural beauty. Tintin landed here on his way to Tibet. Trekkers from all nations come to Nepal to test themselves against the mountains.

And soon, those trekkers may be able to feast on Pizza Hut products.

Nepal is one of the last countries in the world without international fast-food chains, according to Yahoo! Asia News, which reports that the success of a locally grown chain of bakery restaurants is inspiring potential franchise owners to bring fast food to Nepal. The local Pepsi bottler is hoping to open a Pizza Hut by the end of the year, and a KFC may soon follow.

Although it would certainly be nice to imagine there is a place in the world that is unmarred by Extra Value Meals, the reality is that apparently the Nepalese are a lot like us. According to the piece: “The lifestyles of the young in the cities are changing and so are their eating habits. Nuclear families in which both spouses are working are becoming the norm. Eating out has become convenient, and not just on special occasions.” Hmm, sounds familiar. Hopefully this doesn’t mean there will be a load of fast-food wrappers added to the big trash pile on Mount Everest.

Posted by Miriam Wolf | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 2:31pm | 2 comments
Tagged with: nepal, kathmandu, pizza hut, kfc, fast food, pepsico, mount everest, katmandu

Salicornia Is Not a Bean

Anticipating global warming, one scientist turns to a food crop that tolerates salt water.

Salicornia goes by many names, and yet most of them are misleading. It’s called sea bean, but it’s not a bean. Sea asparagus? It’s not that either. It’s sometimes known as glasswort, because its ashes were used in the 16th century to make soda-based glass, but no longer. Another of its popular names is chicken claws, because its scalelike leaves turn pinkish red in autumn.

Salicornia is, in fact, a succulent herb, and it’s a halophyte, meaning it tolerates salt water. This fact makes it of particular interest to atmospheric physicist Carl Hodges. Hodges thinks that as global warming threatens supplies of fresh water, salicornia will become more and more desirable as a food crop. Hodges has been running a test farm in Mexico for the past decade, watering the plants with salt water that’s recycled from shrimp and tilapia farms. He has a bigger vision, however: Hodges wants to create a multimillion-dollar aquaculture project in North America that diverts seawater to fields of salicornia.

According to the Los Angeles Times, he thinks such a project would add millions of acres of productive farmland, sequester vast quantities of carbon dioxide, and help adjust rising sea levels. But salicornia isn’t just a food source, Hodges emphasizes; it also can be converted into biofuel. The Times article contains this tantalizing tidbit: “NASA has estimated that halophytes planted over an area the size of the Sahara Desert could supply more than 90% of the world’s energy needs.”

So, there’s a possibility of lots of salicornia in our future. What does it taste like? In a 2007 blog entry, Clotilde Dusoulier at Chocolate & Zucchini described its flavor as “marine and slightly ferrous like spinach.” It can also be pickled, which reportedly yields a “spicy” flavor.

Posted by Traci Vogel | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 11:31am | 2 comments
Tagged with: salicornia, sea bean, sea asparagus, glasswort, samphire, carl hodges, la times, halophyte, global warming, seawater, pickled, succulent, herb, clotilde dusoulier, chocolate & zucchini

Bickering Over Dinner

All couples quarrel about dinner parties … right?

Perhaps there is sweat beaded on her forehead and a forced smile on her face as she greets you at the door. Maybe he’s sitting on the couch sheepishly drinking a beer, looking like a toddler who’s been put in a time-out. Oftentimes when you arrive at a friend’s house for dinner, something seems amiss. And if you’ve ever hosted a dinner party with your significant other, you probably know what’s causing these weird vibes—a shouting match about whether or not to reheat the Peach Upside-Down Polenta Cake was just silenced by the doorbell.

I love hosting dinner parties, but my fondness for elaborate, multicourse meals doesn’t always jibe with my husband’s taste for simplicity. When I suggest making an authentic Oaxacan mole that will take days to prepare, he says something like, “Didn’t I just buy a taco kit? Maybe we should have that.” Um, maybe not, dude!

But I saw his point of view when I read Tim Hayward’s witty Guardian Word of Mouth post about his significant other’s over-the-top culinary endeavors. Hayward describes the dessert she prepared for a recent dinner party:

[It] was a glazed tarte aux mangues with a concealed custard layer, cunningly flavoured with an evanescent breath of cinnamon. A triumph from its base, a pastry as light and crisp as dragonfly scales to the mathematically precise fans of fruit on the crown. But still. What sort of bastard would do that?

Ha! Are there any couples out there who have figured out the best way to host a dinner party without ending up at each other’s throats? Says one wise Word of Mouth commenter:

Oh no no no no–there is no such thing as planning a menu together. One decides, the other ‘helps’.

Or leaves.

And comes back in time to open the wine.

Posted by Kara Zuaro | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 10:38am | 2 comments
Tagged with: dinner parties, couples, word of mouth, tim hayward, uk guardian

A Menu and a Bag of Rocks

Unusual (and slightly dangerous) ways for restaurant owners to get more customers.

Here in New York, the City Council has passed the Lawn Litter Law, which bans businesses from leaving fliers or menus on your stoop, as long as you post a sign that reads “Do not place unsolicited advertising materials on this property.” This is good news for homeowners who are tired of cleaning up countless circulars, but bad news for mom-and-pop takeout shops that just want to get some local business.

Of course, there are other ways for restaurants to draw people in. Eater SF points us to Bizcovering, a website that has posted a fascinating list of tips for restaurant owners hoping to expand their customer base. The article offers some basic advice on creating an affordable lunch menu, hosting wine-tasting dinners, and starting an email list, but then it mentions an advertising tool that would probably make NYC’s menu-haters go ballistic—the Lucky Rock Bag:

Take a box of sandwich bags, put a river rock in the bag to weigh it down, and include your menu, a coupon, upcoming specials, and locations. You throw these out on people’s driveways. ... Unfortunately, you will have a choice few that will be upset that the bag that actually landed in their driveway was purposively thrown in a bush or on their perfectly manicured lawn. I usually shrug these people off since they have never worked a day in their life in a restaurant. After all, we have free speech and this is a way for you to get your name out. That’s all I tell them.

Seems like a great idea until somebody breaks a window—or one of your friendly Brooklyn neighbors throws the Lucky Rock Bag right back at you!

Posted by Kara Zuaro | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 8:56am | 0 comments
Tagged with: new york city, lawn litter law, takeout menus, eater, bizcovering, lucky rock bag