Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 19, 2008 at 8:58 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• TiVo users in the US can now order a Domino's pizza through their TV via their remote control or an on-screen menu. Anyone else see this as the first step on the road to hell?
• Toronto is not the only city working to make backyard chickens legal.
• How many food celebrities actually eat at the chain restaurants they endorse? Not Guy Fieri, apparently.
• Required kitchen tools: a pan, a whisk, a good knife... and a hot tub.
• Life gets more difficult after the holidays in the UK, when the government and ITV band together to get everyone fit and healthy.
• British foods gain in popularity - in Poland.
• And finally - do you fugu? iPhone users can look up potentially scary sushi dishes before ordering with a sushi guide application.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 18, 2008 at 5:18 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• Ontario farm workers earn the right to unionize.
• A Tokyo whale meat restaurant, run by Japan's whaling industry, is set to close. This is being hailed by environmentalists as the beginning of the end of that country's whaling industry.
• Farmers are fighting farmers in Washington state as a 30,000-head feedlot is set to move into the area.
• Confectioners in the UK move to eco-friendly or bio-degradable packaging just in time for the holidays.
• Everything you need to know about baking and gluten.
• Changes in the economy are leading to changes in the kitchen across the land.
• Oh, to be in New Orleans this weekend - it's the 2nd annual Po-Boy Preservation Festival. mmm... sammich.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 17, 2008 at 6:34 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• Most peanuts stuffed up a human nose - turns out the Guinness world records in the food categories are mostly made up on the fly.
• More discussion on the "allergic" versus "I don't like it" issue over at Michael Ruhlman's blog.
• Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food - now that the UK show is over, has anything changed in the way people are eating and cooking?
• Fishing down the food web - the future of fish.
• Are food miles important in the argument for local food?
• Small businesses in the UK face stumbling blocks in an attempt to adhere to a new government health program aimed at reducing obesity.
• Celebrity chefs gain popularity in France as "le snack" throws off the envied French metabolism and sends everyone back to the kitchen for real food.
• And finally, all I want for Christmas is... an edamame keychain.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 14, 2008 at 8:28 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• Europe may be embracing ugly vegetables, but cosmetic standards in Canada will remain the same.
• You might have missed National Pupusa Day, but that's no reason to not eat one. mmmm... pupusa.
• Apparently there's both a science and a protocol to eating a Tim Tam, the cookie of Australia.
• School bake sales may soon be nothing more than a memory in California where strict regulations ban things like cupcakes or chocolate chip cookies.
• Where fast food really comes from - scientists study isotopes in take-out burgers to test for feed and living conditions.
• Anyone wondering what's happening to all the honeybees need look no further than this guy's BBQ. (Note - link is a *huge* JPG file - worth checking out, but it may take a bit to download.)
• And finally - who wants some fresh baked fetuses and milk? I have many things to say about this, but every single one will get me in trouble. Shutting up now.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 13, 2008 at 8:18 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• Oh noes!!! The coffee cups! City hall gives the take-out coffee industry a few months to come up with a recyclable lid. You know - to replace the lid that is already recyclable, except the city doesn't have the facilities to do so. I don't even drink take-out coffee and my money is on Tim's for this one.
• Speaking of coffee cups - would you walk into a restaurant carrying one from another shop?
• Food activists share what they'd say if they got 1 minute alone with Barack Obama.
• Scientists are looking at new ways to protect fresh juice products from strains of salmonella bacteria.
• If you're gonna save money by taking leftovers for lunch, it helps to have stuff that reheats well.
• "Shifting baselines syndrome" - when you can't remember back to when there were fish in the sea.
• And finally - who's your favourite fictional TV or movie chef or cook?

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 12, 2008 at 8:52 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• Do you love your grocery store? I mean, really love your grocery store? No? That's because it's not a Wegman's.
• Hey Obama, please add fixing the food safety system to your "to-do" list along with a garden on the White House lawn and all that economy and Iraq stuff, okay? No pressure, man.
• Europeans will now be allowed to buy ugly produce that previously didn't meet EU agricultural standards. Because someone clued in to the fact that in a food crisis, it was mighty stupid to throw out a cucumber because it had too much of a bend in it.
• The offal truth - tripe and other organ meats will become more popular as a recession continues, but we may already be at a point where "nose to tail" eating is the domain of the wealthy. And why am I not surprised that France has a National tripe confederation?
• Shape of corn, form of... corn!! (Do you readers ever get these obscure pop-culture references I throw in here?) Yes, it's in just about everything, especially processed foods.
• And finally, cool stuff that looks like food. First some nifty food buildings, and then... burger dress.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 11, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• Children who eat junk food usually do so because their parents eat junk food. Big surprise, huh?
• China's food ingredients industry suffers from the paranoia around the Beijing Olympics when many factories were shut down.
• Philadelphia passes tough menu laws for chain restaurants.
• High end restaurants in Washington DC are feeling the economic hit as customers eat out less.
• Or you could just drink it because you enjoy it and it tastes good - bioengineering students muck about with yeast for beer to raise levels of reservatrol, the supposedly beneficial compound found in red wine.
• If you don't like applesauce, don't make it - the practicalities of urban homesteading.
• Got a hunter in your life who's hard to buy for? Then the Ammo Thermos should finish off your holiday shopping.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 10, 2008 at 4:52 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• It's never too early to start planning - New Year's food traditions.
• Would you lie about being allergic to get out of eating a food you don't like?
• Can low income earners afford to eat a healthy diet? It depends where they live.
• This braille wine label makes you wonder why more food packages don't have the same feature.
• How to be a farmers market vendor - a university in Wisconsin is offering a course.
• The downside to free-range farming - exploding eggs. A UK farmer has found that when her chickens are scared of something in the sky (hot air balloons, planes) they run into each other, causing the eggs inside them to explode, eventually killing the birds from infection.
• Keeping costs down by limiting food waste - 15% of every food dollar spent on produce goes in the trash.
• And finally - "Is this really how any serious chef wants to be remembered?" Gordon Ramsay Holdings tops the list of most admired restaurant brands in the UK - two spots above McDonald's.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 7, 2008 at 8:06 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• What - more stringent testing for listeria in processing plants? With a re-instatement of old rules that had been discarded? Lookee - the government finally got it right.
• A new compostable plastic film may soon be in use on packages of dry food such as crackers or pasta.
• What will Obama do for the US food supply?
• In the new economy, meat may be a condiment more than a main course. Particularly when food prices are set to increase more than the rate of inflation.
• Good news for wine drinkers - wine may protect against dementia. (Note - compared to beer or spirits. Supposedly teetotallers can receive the same benefits from drinking red grape juice.)
• They've starting mourning the loss of Whole Foods in the UK before the place has even announced closures (okay, Tim Hayward of the Guardian has started), but with profits dropping, there are predictions the health food chain is not sustainable.
• And finally; bacon wins again!

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 6, 2008 at 8:17 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• Jamie Oliver predicts "a new kind of poverty" for the UK because so many people have no cooking skills to fall back on during the current economic downturn. He's demanding a Minister of Food and limits on fast food outlets, and claims it's too late to try a similar program in the US.
• What will they think of next - floating cutlery.
• Which came first - the egg, or the egg inside the egg?
• Californians passed Proposition 2 in the election on Tuesday, which will abolish veal and sow crates, as well as battery cages for chickens, and will provide all factory-farmed animals room to move around and stretch their legs and wings.
• What? There are people out there who don't like sweet potato fries?
• Toronto continues to be bull-headed and stupid on the coffee cup issue, demanding that national corporations change the already-recyclable lids on their disposable cups just because Toronto doesn't have the facilities to process them. WTF??

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 5, 2008 at 8:29 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• Cup or cone? Apparently ice cream tastes better when licked.
• Farmer Obama? Slow Food and gardening advocates step up pressure for the new US president to install a vegetable garden on the White House lawn.
• KFC in the US is running a $10 family meal Challenge, suggesting that you can't feed a family of four for cheaper than the family meal special they're offering. But it turns out, you can.
• Eat your veggies - California launches a program to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables.
• Sales of economy-brand beers are on the rise in the US.
• "Don't even think about groping the belly dancer - the chef is very handy with a knife." - A Greek restaurant in Scotland has hired a chef who was previously convicted of attempted murder.
• And finally, a food bank program in North Dakota has stopped accepting donations of deer meat killed with lead shot for fear of lead contamination to the meat, but are encouraging donations from bow hunters.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 4, 2008 at 5:42 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• The city of Toronto looks at enforcing BYO mug plans at coffee shops and taxes on plastic bags (yet again, I need to reiterate - HELLOOO??? Just make people use bio-degradable bags! It's not rocket science!) and Tim Horton's gets one up on the potential bylaw by adding recycling facilities to all Toronto stores.
• Sweet, sweet shoogar - why honey and sugar are not interchangeable.
• Food and technology - talking Molecular Gastronomy "technoemotional cooking" with Grant Achatz.
• When we're all eating processed food out of boxes because we think we can no longer afford real food, at least we'll know the crème brûlée is good.
• I'm bored to tears by everything to do with the US Presidential election taking place today, but I'm dying to know how California will vote on Proposition 2, as it's likely to cause a domino effect across the US in terms of factory farming facilities.
• The State of Georgia wants to sell you some blueberries.
• And finally, ironically enough, many of the "belt-tightening" strategies being recommended to cut back on food costs are things the local, seasonal food advocates have been advising all along, like cutting back on meat, planning meals in advance and making your own preserves.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on November 3, 2008 at 4:11 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• People still need to get their heads around the idea that money isn't everything and organic products offer benefits not measured in cash.
• Mmmm... illegal chocolate. Potentially contaminated chocolate bars stolen from a recycling depot in 2006 show up on store shelves again.
• A new study links MSG with obesity. Given that MSG mostly appears in processed foods, there might be more to the issue than that, but cutting back on processed foods is never a bad idea.
• New Country of Origin Labelling laws in the US are making life tough for Canadian livestock farmers trying to sell to the US market.
• Shopping (and eating) differently - looking at food in a different way in the face of a recession.
• Toronto city council aims for a target of 50% local food served through city programs. Let's see how far this gets before one of the right-wing wingnuts starts whining about oranges again.
• And finally, bacon, is there anything it can't do? Just be sure to use a low-wattage bulb for this bacon lampshade - or keep a drip pan nearby.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on October 31, 2008 at 8:24 pm

Happy Halloween everyone! Here's some food for thought for today...

• Can't figure out what to get your favourite pit bull owner for Christmas? How about some (or all 22) of these wines from the Dog Lover's Wine Club, decorated with paintings of the pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick's dog fighting business? Proceeds go toward campaigns to end dog fighting and to fight breed-banning legislation.
• Score another one for the vegetarians - red meat may include a molecule that increases susceptibility to food poisoning.
• No sharing! A man is arrested at an Atlanta buffet restaurant for allowing his girlfriend to eat something from his plate.
• There's more issues with local pizza chain Amato.
• Sales of processed foods (you know, the ones we're supposed to eat less of in favour of real food) continue to rise as consumers look for cheaper grocery options. Too bad more people aren't interested in making an investment in their own health by taking the time to learn to cook whole foods instead.
• And finally, candy corn. The pro stance, the anti stance and the Domo-kum stance.

Posted by Sheryl Kirby in food for thought, news and media, on the web on October 30, 2008 at 8:09 pm

Here's some food for thought for today...

• What's on your pizza box? The Economist is supplying pizza boxes to 20 pizzarias in the Philadelphia area with information on things like wheat and cheese exports. Because learnin' can taste good too!
• How humane are your groceries? What labels like "cage-free" really mean.
• We hear about restaurant staff tainting the food of particularly annoying customers, mostly in the movies or on TV, but most of us never really believe it happens. Until now.
• Napkins - where do you put them when you're done eating?
• Rebranding fish to make them more appealing - would you eat a "slimehead"?
• Oh deer... meat from the abattoir only, please!
• And finally - a teeny tiny harvest table.