Posted by Sheryl Kirby in news and media, what's cooking on April 25, 2007 at 4:26 pm

There's a new kid in the Wednesday food round-up starting this week. The Globe and Mail has joined the Toronto Star and The Sun in offering a Wednesday Food and Wine section as part of a new lifestyle category started this week.

The inaugural issue of the Globe's food coverage includes an article about at-home molecular gastronomy and the popularity of fois gras in Quebec - no signs of a ban here!

Beppi Crosariol writes about Chateau Musar, a red wine from Lebanon, and the difficulties of producing wine in a war-torn region. Rob Feenie discusses BC prawns and Tralee Pearce looks at Robby Bubble, a non-alcoholic carbonated kid's party drink, meant to simulate champagne.

There are a number of additional articles in the paper version that are not available online, some from wire services and some by Globe writers. Hopefully they'll get this issue worked out so those of us who prefer not to have trees die so we can know the news can access all of the articles from the website.

Also in the paper version:

• biodynamic wine
• the rise in popularity of wine in China
• the break-up of an illegal caviar ring in Indianapolis
• the increase in popularity of rooibos tea
• new labelling standards for Canadian organic food (I can't believe that wasn't the lead story!)

At the Star, Susan Sampson takes the lead article with 100 cooking tips with great info on everything from keeping your pans from sticking to how to make really nice-looking chocolate chip cookies.

Speaking of chocolate, various chocolate-makers in the US would like to cheap out on their ingredients costs and are lobbying the US Food and Drug administration to allow candy made with vegetable fat (instead of cocoa fat) to be legally called chocolate, instead of mocklate, or the better known "chocolaty-flavour".

Jennifer Bain celebrates the four (female) winners of the Canadian Eastern Regional Barista Competition and winner Kimberly Staveley offers the recipe for her signature drink.

Josh Rubin reviews the hard-to-find Hockley Valley Stout this week, which elicited an exclaimation of "Bastard!" from resident beer geek, Greg Clow, who still hasn't been able to track down the brew. Gordon Stimmell offers his picks for patio-friendly wines.

Linda Nguyen gives a middling review to Sydney's Island Restaurant, and Jennifer Bain offers some healthy recipes made with vegetables.

Since we're all going to have to start paying more attention to the labelling on our chocolate bars, Rita DeMontis' interview in The Sun with Green & Black's president comes at a perfect time. No mocklate here - just tasty organic, fair-trade bars in a variety of flavours.

And finally, Elizabeth Baird explores the wonderful world of mushrooms with information and recipes.