Slate magazine has an article up on how food is addictive titled, "Is Food Addictive?"
It's an interesting piece especially since it's not presented as a question. Apparently food is addictive. Considering what would happen if we simply gave food up...
I'll admit, I am looking forward to it. Until the NHL playoffs start it will be my guilty pleasure. So I am looking forward to seeing how the three Chicagoans do. Yes, three.
Apparently the first contest will be to "spin" the Chicago-style pizza.
I don't know if having Chicago play host to Top Chef will be good or bad. It could be good. As is constantly mentioned the diversity of the local ethnic food is second only to the quality. We are home to not one or two but several of the nation's top destination restaurants. It's definitely a pissing-contest of sorts when you get into how cities stack up against each other food-wise.
Continue reading "Top Chef Chicago: Ahem, 3 Chicago Contestants?" »
I don't know when this happened but I suspect cheeseburger sales to be much higher than hamburgers. I'd really like to know the percent difference. I had a burger from a friend's family ranch over a year ago and it was really good. Since then I've had good burgers and not so good burgers and have come to one conclusion - the cheese masks a good burger.
Brian wrote about his penchant for Jamon Iberico after some time in Madrid.
Unlike pink prosciutto jamón Ibérico is blood red, more chewy, and has a complex taste and texture. Many of the tapas bars (which in Spain look nothing like Ba-Ba-Ree-Ba and instead are bars that serve a few basic snacks and sometimes meals) have a leg of ham hanging on a hook out in the open where someone can ask for a few slices.
It looks like his prayers are answered.
While watching Iron Chef America (Cora vs. Richards) judge Karine Bakhoum called a martini with chemical-caviar El Bulliesque. Is that pretentiousness or is it another new word?
Not to mention that Cat called cooking carrots in a Ziploc bag sous vide... I always thought that the vacuum seal was what made food's flavors concentrated. Isn't it otherwise a type of pressure cooking?
The current issue of Gourmet Magazine has an interesting article on the conditions of Kobe cattle in Japan. Chef Raymond Blanc went looking in Japan and found that where the assumption is that these premium priced animals are massaged and treated well in actuality according to the article they are crated and remain mostly immobilized in their own feces. They are force-fed beer to restart their faltering digestive system from immobility.
I was frightened by the news of the 900 calorie Hardee's breakfast burrito... had something like 60 grams of fat. Holey Schnikie...
While I'm not used to McDonald's playing catch-up, especially with Hardee's they sure enough come through in the clutch with the McSkillet breakfast burrito.
It's got egg, sausage, American cheese, potato, jack cheese, salsa, a veggie selection all wrapped in a flour tortilla. That's one durable flour tortilla.
The sausage version comes in at 610 calories nothing close to the 900 that the Hardee's breakfast-tube sports... The McSkillet has 330 calories from fat, 36 grams of fat... 56% of your daily value and 14 grams of saturated fat.
All this results in 137% of your daily value of cholesterol. What a way to start your day. If you wondered the 60 grams of fat from the Hardee's option ends up translating into god knows what but I'd speculate that if you're into Hardee's you don't really care.
Nutritional values sourced from Associated Content.
Especially in Maine this has been a moderately big deal with politicians and industry people all taking a stand on how to talk about Langostino.
While it starts with an L it's not really Lobster – even though it tastes more like lobster than shrimp – and costs more like lobster than shrimp. The fallout seems to be that they now refer to the Long John Silver's Lobster Bites "with real Langostino Lobster Tail." If that doesn't clarify the issue, I don't know what does.
Continue reading "The Langostino Battle Continues at Long John Silvers" »
Everyone knows the food pyramid... (the one on the right). The federal government subsidises farming, we know. But it's surprising how the money is distributed. I find it really amazing how fruits and veggies get almost none of the pie.
Good Medicine Magazine has a really interesting article about government subsidies being part of the reason why, in a restaurant or a grocery store, a salad will cost you more than a hamburger... typically. This of course provides less healthy foods to everyone at a discount versus healthy choices at a premium.
It sounds like a joke. Like Homer Simpson deep frying his shirt. Hardees is offering a breakfast burrito that may be the absolute worst thing you could eat first thing in the morning.
From the Kansas City Channel.com:
It is a two-egg omelet filled with bacon, sausage, diced ham, cheddar cheese, hash browns and sausage gravy, all wrapped inside a flour tortilla....
...Hardee's marketing chief Brad Haley said the burrito offers the sort of big breakfast item normally found in sit-down restaurants with an added advantage -- you can eat it in the car.
That's no excuse is it? Here are some things that you could eat within the 900 calorie / 60 grams of fat limit.
That's about 6 doughnuts worth of fat and 2 Quarter Pounders worth of calories. My question is how much sodium.
Breakfast burrito of champions.
I was 89% sure that Levitsky would win. I think that was 50% editing on the show's part. The episode was taped in Chicago... Levitsky was the nice guy (I ignored the saying). He wasn't obsessed with technique. That being said Hung was incredibly proficient and I thought he brought lots of passion to his cooking even though he was criticized by the judges for not showing it.
All in all I was very entertained by the most recent Top Chef. I think the contestants were head and shoulders above almost any other reality TV show. It's now a competition for the industry and that makes for very good TV. That quality shows in the way the contestants deal with criticism and with each other. There were very few blow-ups, just enough to be interesting, and while I disapprove of the cracking down on fighting in hockey, I guess I like cleaner reality shows.
The new issue of Gourmet Sept. '07, focused on Latino foods, has a great article on Chicago's Mexican restaurants. It's so on the money it really reinforces why GQ called Chicago the best restaurant city in the world – even though they did so for entirely other reasons. It's on the newsstands now. Check it out.
They begin with Bayless and they get to Pilsen mentioning the fresh tortillas and handmade molés that simply are awesome. There's also a great picture of Clementina Flores at Sol de Mexico stirring a pot of molé.
mmmm.
Quote from Grant Achatz on Egullet:
I wanted to personally report that I have been very recently diagnosed with an advanced stage of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the mouth. I have consulted several prominent physicians and will likely begin aggressive treatment within the next few weeks. I remain, and will remain, actively and optimistically engaged in operations at Alinea to the largest extent possible. Alinea will continue to perform at the level people have come to expect from us -- I insist on that. I have received amazing support from friends, family, and everyone who has thus far been told of the disease, and I look forward to a full, cancer-free, recovery.
Grant Achatz just won the James Beard for Best Chef in the Great Lakes Region... His restaurant, Alinea, was Gourmet Magazine's 2006 the top restaurant in the country. His style of food is non-traditional to say the least and while his dishes may be challenging in their preparation and presentation, his flavors make his dishes succeed. He is pictured in the Sous vide post below.
A speedy recovery.
Is The Next Food Network Star going to be Rory or Amy? They've got Emeril giving away a Mercury family truckster to the "Next Food Network Star." Flay is handing the envelope to Emeril. Longest drumroll ever... The self-serving quality is numbing. They keep asking the two finalists for comments. They keep giving the same responses.
It's the only show where all of the contestants tried to do well without any of the back and forth you see in Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef, etc. And the winner was.... do you really care?
< ––– The one without the hat.
Continue reading "The Dog (Food Network) and Pony (BRAVO) Show Continues" »
I eat at lots of restaurants that many people might not visit. I've been lucky and never, to my knowledge, been afflicted by food poisoning. Hearing about this past outbreak of Salmonella at the Taste of Chicago sent me a mixed signal. Sure, outside in the heat bacteria thrive but at the same time I worry that people will extend a newly fueled fear of food poisoning to any ethnic eatery. While in no way do I condone filth in a restaurant it should be noted that no matter where you are eating there is a risk. Your meal is literally out of your hands and in someone else's and hopefully they've washed them.
It's apparent when seeing Americans visiting foreign countries that as a nation we have a weight problem. By comparison, most Spanish people are thin, very thin, and their diet isn't what the so-called experts consider "healthy". They eat a lot of fish, yes, but also plenty of fatty pork and beef, plenty of fried foods, and not much salad, and if they do serve salad it is usually with iceberg lettuce.
Continue reading "Why the (Insert Nationality) Aren't Fat" »
Isn't it safe to say that Diet soda is bad for you? A new study links Aspartame to cancer yet the US FDA says there's no reason to review the chemical's safety. From the Sydney Morning Herald:
A US consumer group has called for the review after Italian researchers published a new study that showed aspartame - widely used in soft drinks - might cause leukaemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats.
"This is the second study by the same lab showing that aspartame causes cancer in rats," Centre for Science in the Public Interest executive director Michael Jacobson said.
Their study of more than 4,000 rats showed a lifetime of eating high doses of the sweetener raised the likelihood of several types of cancer.
The reality cooking season is underway. Hell's Kitchen started last week, Top Chef this evening... My season started a little early as I finally caught Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America. It gave me hope. I was very interested seeing near-failure chefs get a makeover courtesy of Ramsay and his profanity. It was nice to see Gordon in his tough-love mode where he actually has chemistry with his masochistic victim.
All that was blown however with this new season's Hell's Kitchen where our tough exterior yet well-intentioned chef transforms into the ignoramus cheap-shot artist that completely ruins his show for me. I love him calling people names but making fun of someone for something that's out of their control is uncalled for and I don't mean Aaron – why that guy's there and how he even got there we'll never know. The constantly crying, nearly passing out Aaron dude needed to go home... he wants to go home. The show is rigged simply because this guy even got on. But Eddie didn't deserve the treatment he got even though he deserved to go home, and I even forgive Gordo for his "fat boy" comments...
Continue reading "Reality Chef Roundup: Top Chef/Hell's Kitchen/etc." »
At a glance it looks like any of the other new mini-can designed energy drinks but then you see 50% fruit juice and that it's marketed to women and you know that aspartame is close behind.
But it's not. I looked. I checked and double checked, looking up ingredients to make sure I wasn't headed to FDAville. Not only are they not diet – they taste good. While I don't mind taurine with vodka, on its own it frankly tastes off. It was met with a sincere dose of skepticism from my roommate. She just isn't into the "power" drinks. A cup of coffee gets her really cranked.
If you watched the news enough, you might not want to ever set foot in New Orleans. Recently it was announced that the National Guard would need to police the city. The media would also make you believe that New Orleans was a ghost town.
Being in New Orleans challenges a lot of widely-held views. News stories would make you believe that Katrina's damage affected mostly the poor. (A three-hour Katrina bus tour showed in fact that many suburban areas were completely devastated, consuming shopping malls and subdivisions.)
Alligators in the sewers? Coyotes at Quiznos? This past week they actually found and detained a real live coyote at the Quiznos in the loop on Adams.
Is it just me or is finding a coyote in a Quiznos on Adams downtown a little strange? It's not like he crawled out of a drain. I don't think I've ever seen even stray dogs downtown.
The best part is that a couple customers hung out eating their lunches and taking pictures of the wild beast... who was apparantly pretty docile. Can we surmise that with their heightened sense of smell Quiznos gets the coyote endorsement?
As a kid I really got into the movie Alligator and even still can picture reptile invasion far easier than coyotes or wolves.
Freakin' mix of Jumanji and 12 Monkeys... that's what it is.
All hail Pateria de Sousa, the problem solvers. It's not that I don't like to have foie gras – it's really tasty. It's the la gavage process that's seems to cause the fuss. From the International Herald Tribune
To animal welfare groups, the obscenity of force-feeding, known by the French word "gavage," is self-evident. But Ginor and his partner Izzy Yanay, who runs the farm, accuse their critics of anthropomorphism and ignorance of duck anatomy and behavior. They say the practice is as benign as it is ancient, since waterfowl lack a gag reflex and have sturdy throats that easily tolerate grains, grit, stones and inflexible gavage tubes. To understand gavage, they say, is to accept it - as they insist poultry researchers have, after examining birds for signs of undue suffering during gavage and finding none.
I visited Hudson Valley Foie Gras recently, seeing gavage for the first time. I saw no pain or panic in Yanay's ducks, no quacking or frenzied flapping in the cool, dimly lighted open pens where a young woman with a gavage funnel did her work. The birds submitted matter-of-factly to a 15-inch tube inserted down the throat for about three seconds, delivering about a cup of corn pellets.
This past Sunday at the Steppenwolf theatre, Grant Achatz of Alinea sat down with writer Michael Ruhlman. I was very intrigued by this conversation and was looking forward to hearing about the correlations between food and art, food as art, etc. The place was packed.
Grant is young. He's been very successful for most, if not all, of his career. Safe to say people really like him. In an age where our most popular food personalities aren't necessarily even chefs, Achatz certainly has a bright future. Considering his past that is a big statement.
Continue reading "Achatz and Ruhlman Talking about Playing with Food..." »
One day a mysterious box of pita chips showed up addressed to Stacy. If your name is spelled Stacy you got one too. A co-worker mentioned that sending a box of free product to every single Stacy in America (all 130,000+ of them) was a great idea. The kicker is the little card that allows all of those Stacy's to give the same box to anyone they want. Talk about a ringing endorsement and an immediate awareness campaign. Brilliant marketing and a pretty good product too.
I think the question is what not to eat on Sunday. Certain sporting events have a signature menu item like a Mint Juleps or even a signature meal - Breakfast at Wimbledon... but the Superbowl oddly enough does not have a consistent food theme. Thanksgiving football has the turducken thanks to John Madden but not the Superbowl. If pressed I would say the potato chip is at the top of the heap, surrounded by other salty snacks on the shoulders of various hunks of meat and 2 liter bottles of soda... empty beer bottles strewn around the mound.
Continue reading "Superbowl and Food... what are you eating?" »
Salon.com has a great article about pasturized milk. It details the medicinal success stories from asthma to arthritis but contrasts it with bacterial risks due to the absence of the pasturization process.
Many people come to raw milk as a last resort; one man I spoke to for this article had terrible asthma, one woman had debilitating arthritis, and another had osteoporosis (which pasteurized milk hadn't improved) -- and all saw complete reversals of their diseases after a few months of drinking it. Their stories were persuasive, but in an age where E. coli is turning up at Taco Bell and even in organic spinach, I wondered: Is it really safe to drink unpasteurized milk?
It was looking like Chicago would beat N.Y. to this punch but New York is the first city to ban trans fats. Considering it doesn't change the menu of any restaurant do patrons even care? I suppose I would like my fries to be as healthy and tasty as possible. Considering you could very well use duck fat to fry those suckers up I'm totally cool with it.
I know restaurants are generally not in favor of this but I would assume that it's strickly a cost issue. If I'm wrong I'd love to hear about it.
Sabri was not only my favorite restaurant on Devon, it was one of my favorite restaurants in the city. It's one of the few places that I posted about more than once and used unfairly as a yardstick to compare other restaurants against. Their nehari was spectacular. Their chicken makhani would be my last meal on earth. Usmania is across the street and down a block or two but it's a different restaurant.
I came back from the holiday to the terrible news that Sabri burned down. A fire stretching from Campbell to Maplewood closed many businesses in addition to Sabri.
Oh alright. The hostess is wearing hot pants. What is the deal? Well she plays an Egyptian princess in the remake of The Ten Commandments so I guess she's qualified.
Top Chef was pretty good last season. It was new. It's not new anymore. Since then I've gotten used to the screaming Englishman in Hell's Kitchen. This season on Top Chef I have come to the conclusion that the staff, hosts, judges, etc. aren't as fun to watch as the contestants. This show is more about the critique than the food. They're brutal. Tom Colliccio's a little stiff and mean. The Food and Wine special projects lady, Gail Simmons, is also a little stiff and mean. They probably aren't really mean it's more likely the decisions the director makes on what to show and what not to show.
Maybe mean is the wrong word. It's hard to find their criticizm constructive. When they say they like dishes they are definitive and when they dislike it they're as definitive. It's the authority I have a problem with. It's not enough that these judges like or dislike something. They need to explain better why they like or dislike things. On Project Runway, even Michael Kors, who did sometimes seem to enjoy the critique, did a good job of helping us understand not only what was wrong but why it was wrong and what would make it better. There's no back and forth... There's no Chef-Assistant or Kitchen
Manager like Tim Gunn on Project Runway.
SO I see this morning that I got about 1500 hits as of 8AM regarding langostino. Apparantly Senator Olympia Snow is causing a stir about calling them lobster.
I find it odd that there isn't anything more important going on politically this morning but so be it.
Is this what the fuss is about?
Almost all pregnant women hear from their docs that sushi is not a good idea for among other reasons mercury levels. The website Got Mercury.org has written up a report on Chicago sushi places measuring the mercury levels. It's not just Chicago with this problem. They compared similar numbers in San Diego and L.A. Given that many restaurants in Chicago use the same supplier, in spite of a small test group, there may be more of a commonality here.
Restaurants in the study include Japonais, Benihana (two locations), Heat, Matsuyz, Ra Sushi, Sushi Wabi and Mirai. They tested across tuna species including yellowfin, bluefin and albacore.
One should note that the FDA warnings should (and do) apply to all restaurants. This test group was specific but the message is that fish on the whole seem to be pushing excessive mercury levels and the solution is federal regulation similar to that in Canada and the E.U.
Continue reading "High Mercury Levels in Chicago (and National) Sushi Restaurants" »
It's interesting, the trans fat ban seems to be constantly compared to the foie gras ban but in reality it's more akin to the smoking ban. The foie gras arguement was an animal cruelty issue while the smoking ban and the trans fat are both bad decisions leading to health issues. Just $0.02.
It seems Chicago is heading back to the front page of the national newspaper. Shortly after imposing a ban on foie gras we're hearing rumbles about a trans fat ban. I've read a couple of stories about it but always come away unsure what exactly the ban would include. Trans fats could be crisco and even animal fats. Would the ban be just synthetic trans fats? Just plant-based trans fatty oils?
I have yet to eat at Schwa on Ashland and now I have another reason to bump it up on my list. This month's Food & Wine includes chef Michael Carlson in its list of 2006's Best New Chefs. He's the only one from Chicago so props to him for keeping Chi-Town on the list.
Continue reading "Michael Carlson–One of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs" »
McCormick place hosted the All Candy Expo last week. From interesting Indian candy to Korean candy with everything in-between, the expo kept me interested for the few hours I spent there.
The news has covered the tongue tattoos and the new M&M's, which I didn't see, but not the candy bikini or the flavored bugs... Since Stacy actually risked her taste buds I feel like I have to let her tell some of these stories.
I guess if GQ says it than it's so. The focus of the press release was Moto, Alinea and Avenues. Three chefs from Trotter's and three restaurants I have yet to try.
The irony is that I've been saying Chicago is the best restaurant city all along for another reason. I can't think of another city that has such diversity and authenticity of ethnic restaurants. Almost more importantly, I can't think of any other city where there is nothing better to do than eat. New York has art and theatre, L.A. has the movies, Boston has colleges, New Orleans has the French Quarter and while that definitely includes restaurants it's very specific restaurants. Closer to home, Milwuakee has bars, Indianapolis has the raceway but what does Chicago have? I'd say restaurants. You could start to name them. Start with A - Alinea and Avenues sure, but there are 26 letters in the alphabet.
Continue reading "GQ: Chicago is the Best Restaurant City in America" »
Now I know there are people who like the way diet sodas taste. I am not one of those people. I think they taste artificial. They do not taste sweet to me. I always assumed that the vocabulary word saccharine was an apt description of the substitute of the same name. Nor do I think that diet sodas taste any better than they did when TAB was using sacchrine.
Coke Blak tastes worse for the same reasons. It tastes more artificial than any diet soda I can remember trying. Sooooooooo bad.
*NOTE- Coke Blak is NOT a diet soda. It just tastes like one.
**Saccharine: Sickeningly sweet or cloyingly sweet
Top Chef is definately better than "Idol" and you could easily make correlations between finalists to some extent but I sensed and shared a reaction to the booting of Dave last night. It seemed that he won one of the three contests and came close the other times. Tiffany came in dead last in all three if you are considering the eaters reactions. Dave forgot a dish in the final round.
Congrats to the Chicago nominees for the 2006 James Beard awards. Check out the James Beard Foundation website for general info. It's like the Oscars for the food industry except the industry actually cares.
OUTSTANDING RESTAURANT:
Everest & Spiaggia
That's 2 restaurants in Chicago!
BEST NEW RESTAURANT
Alinea
RISING STAR CHEF OF THE YEAR
Graham Elliot Bowles, Avenues
OUTSTANDING SERVICE
Tru
BEST CHEF MIDWEST
Carie Nahabedian, Naha & Shawn McClain, Spring
BOOK AWARD: FOOD OF THE AMERICAS
Mexican Everyday, Rick and Deann Groen Bayless
TELEVISION SHOW, NATIONAL
The Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter
RADIO SHOW
The Hidden Kitchens Project, WBEZ Chicago Davia Nelson, Nikki Silva, Jay Allison
Through driving rain I took a fairly significant detour to snag a box (two really- snack size) of the brand-new "Buttered Lobster Bites." Well they were worth the drive. To be quite honest they could be the salvation of the franchise. They're that good.
On the downside it is yet ANOTHER fried item on a menuboard that's virtually completely fried. While the flavor of the langostino is evident and completely satisfying, the "butter" flavoring when combined with the seasoned breading almost competes too much. It almost hides the langostino flavor that you want.
Continue reading "Long John Silver's Lobster Bites - Langostino" »
OK... I have been on a quest for langostino. It's come up several times in the past few weeks. A tv show about Iceland had a bit about them as a local delicacy (though not sure exactly what they were). The proprietor/chef at the Richmond Inn likes to use them and I had a plate of them a few weeks back at Las Islas Marias on Clark north of Devon. So I did some looking around.
It turns out last week that a restaurant, Rubios, in California which was serving langostino instead of lobster in their "lobster burrito" has been allowed to – the courts said it was OK to call it that since it tastes the same...?! Needless to say spellcheck doesn't recognize it either.
And funny how my guilty pleasure - Long John Silver's just started serving lobster bites with Langostino. Red Lobster uses it in their lobster bisque... See what happens when you start digging? It's like the Truman Show. My life revolves around a crustacean of some sort. Even though it's not shrimp, and not lobster either... at least not really.
I started calling fish markets, super markets, and eventually got several "Yeah we have that" answers prices varying from $32/lb to 2lbs for $15. So my escapade for seafood oddity began.
Imagine my surprise this morning when on MSNBC national news, amidst bombings in Jordan and CIA Black Prisons I saw, Andersonville coffeeshop, A Taste of Heaven. Why? The kids. They make too much noise.
Apparantly some mother is calling all her friends to boycott the place because unreasonable people want a quiet area to sit around, read and drink coffee. A sign goes up that says something about "inside voices" which if you've seen the place is definitely not sarcastic. Let the raving begin.
All in all I'd guess that the boycotting people have loud, snotty, germy, wandering children and they don't want attitude with their latte. Who could blame them? But the last thing other people want on a Sunday morning with their coffee and hangover is someone else's kids using their outdoor voices.
Let's be honest. If you have kids, 10am to you is mid-afternoon. But it's like 8am to me. If there are people in a nice quiet place trying to read then what's the big deal? So between Wal-Mart's hiring discrimination and the CIA's Black Prisons THIS is what get's Chicagoan's ire. Or more importantly THIS is what our national media covers...
This town ain't like it used to be.
Right across the street from Ghiradelli's is now The Hershey's Store. I didn't know what to expect when I took a look inside but boy was I disappointed.
I don't have kids though the promise of chocolate is an obsessive diversion for most people. A little girl was the center of attention in the small store as she was urged to shout "I love chocolate!" Upon doing so she was rewarded with a loud rumbling and several fistfulls of candies were sent spinning down an apparatus and into a bucket which was sealed and sold to the little girl's mom.
Eddy is from Vegas and he's bored. So what do you do? Bring nyotaimori to Chicago... Hell, it worked in Vegas.
What better way to compete with the foie gras legal hullabaloo than a good old fashioned naked lady.
Nyotaimori is Japanese sushi presentation on the torso of a naked lady (covered with strategically placed items - so not really nude in the "nude" sense of the word). Though it is, as far as Wikipedia says, not a royal custom but one "generally associated with prostitution and the Yakuza... "
Needless to say, it sounds like damn good business. And, since I promised to head back to Kizoku for dinner, I brought my camera...
The $500 body sushi "all you can eat" is served in the lounge. Meals run about an hour and a half. As it's a pretty dark room, I got some shots and went back to the dining room to eat.
It seems like the body-thing is getting them lots of press. People should be glad that the restaurant is actually quite good and will likely gain some loyal customers.
Chicago is debating a ban on foie gras... the barbaric vs. tasty quotient is at high levels on both sides.
But would you rather chefs take a stand, diners on a table-by-table basis, or the government...?
From the New York TImes:
''Our laws are a reflection of our culture,'' said Joe Moore, an alderman who has proposed banning the sale of foie gras in the city, as he addressed the council's health committee on Tuesday. ''Our culture does not condone the torture of innocent and defenseless creatures. And we as a society believe all God's creatures should be treated humanely.''
Leave it to Canada to recognize and deliver what people want regarding health and human services.
It seems the "ounce of prevention" expression is understood north of the border...
from the Canadian NewsWire
Silhouetteandme.ca is the first Canadian website that provides direct
access to 'live' health professionals
MONTREAL, June 7 /CNW/ - Making healthy choices isn't always easy. With
fast and convenient too often driving our eating habits, maintaining a healthy
lifestyle has become a considerable challenge. Help is now here.
Is the dolphin, whale or pig the most intelligent? Everything's Better with Blubber.
From The Sydney Morning Herald
Almost black and certainly smelly - it's part of Japanese culture, writes Deborah Cameron, Herald Correspondent in Tokyo
The catch of the day is whale. Delivered fresh from the ocean, it arrives before the start of school.
In a couple of hours the bell will sound and primary school children will tuck into the whale, coated in breadcrumbs and fried with a little garlic and ginger.
I noticed that my Google Ads include one for finecaviar.com offering Beluga. I can't pick and choose my google ads... I'm investigating but otherwise here's some info...
The caspian is beinng overfished and the sturgeon are generally not mature...
see this link for more info...
I found this article indicative of the state of affairs in Chicago. It seems to me that there are tons of people looking for a taste of authentic ethnic. There aren't that many people looking for the same authentic ethnic music, movies, dance, art, etc. It seems that food, and not George W. Bush, is the great uniter and the words "melting pot" are standing the test of time. From Madison.com
The nation's palate is changing for many reasons, especially among teens and young adults, market researchers say. This is the impact of the Food Network, more exposure to international travel/travelers, immigration growth and the increased blending of cultures within families.
Apparantly we'll all be wanting a Potbelly's right next to our Starbuck's and Trader Joe's. I like the warm toasty Wrecks and since I can't get them at the Old Navy sandwich counter on State Street anymore... It'll do.
Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz sees the potential for Chicago-based Potbelly Sandwich Works to grow into the next Starbucks.
"Potbelly has the opportunity to build a national brand and a national company," Schultz said. "What they do will be universally accepted."
Something to note that while congress has chosen to name this the "cheeseburger bill" there is only one suit of its kind in the entire court system - while they are debating limiting citizen's "right" to sue.
From Swiss Info:
Nation's Restaurant News, a trade publication, said restaurateurs nationwide remain hopeful that Congress will pass a federal "cheeseburger bill" limiting such suits. The House of Representatives passed such a bill last year.
In the meantime, the landmark 2002 suit against McDonald's is the only pending U.S. action blaming a restaurant chain for obesity.
"There is nothing else like this case," said Richard Daynard, a Northeastern University law professor who has hosted the "Legal Approaches to Obesity" conference in Boston for the past two years and is planning a third in September. "The plaintiffs' bar is not rushing to bring these cases."
From News.com.au
The culinary experts, members of a 3500-strong Eurotoques network of chefs, voiced fears that regional produce such as rich foie gras goose liver or wild salmon could be wiped out by over-regulation or contamination.
Wisconsin is now suing the government... Does anyone know of a good consistent source that keeps track of mercury levels?
Mercury settles in waterways and accumulates in fish. In people who eat those fish, the toxic metal can cause neurological and developmental problems, particularly in fetuses and children.
The U.S. Has Refused Ban:
[Last month] The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that it would deny immediate protection to imperiled beluga sturgeon and instead would allow beluga caviar imports to continue
From Voice of America News
In Soviet times, bans were in place to protect overfishing and prevent pollution. But in the 1990s those bans were lifted and the fish that is the source of the world's finest and most expensive caviar is now reported on the verge of extinction.
From The World Wildlife Fund Fish food for thought
18 Feb 2003
Each year, some 80 million tonnes of wild fish are caught from the world’s oceans. But not all these fish end up on our dinner plates. More than one-third is used to make fishmeal and fish oil. Even this doesn’t all go directly into food or other products: two-thirds goes to make feed for farmed fish.
Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food industries in the world. The growth of the fish farming sector of the industry is largely fuelled by an ever-increasing demand for high-quality fish such as salmon and trout. These are carnivorous fish that in the wild eat smaller fish, squid, and other crustaceans. When farmed, they are fed pellets made largely of fishmeal and fish oil.
From CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Restaurants stocks took a tumble Wednesday after Lehman Brothers slapped a "neutral" rating on the segment, contending that the "days of rapid unit growth" are long gone.
Maybe people will understand the fairly simple rule - hydrogenated oil is bad. Rule number two could be as simple as - corn syrup is bad. Thank you very much. Tip your waiters. From South Mississippi of all places...
Partially hydrogenated oil, once embraced as a cheap and healthy alternative to saturated fats like butter or tropical oils, has been the food industry's favorite cooking medium for decades. It makes french fries crisp and sweets creamy. Packaged pastries made with it stay fresh for months
[Science News]: Two years after the fast-food chain's own deadline for reducing trans fats, the McDonald's French fry has thus far snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
MADRID, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Spain has detected 12 cases of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in the past two months of this year, an Agric
