weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
Mermaids who ride lobster, and other glamorous menu art of decades past from Smithsonian Magazine. And if you're wondering what an oyster loaf is, read here. Hint, it's from San Francisco.
- AUA’s Resources Working Group is working with the Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project to inventory and map the thousands of urban agriculture projects (urban farms, community gardens, residential vegetable gardens, school gardens, etc.) underway across the Chicago metro area.
- New web service Feastly says it's aiming to be the Airbnb of the food world, creating alternatives to impersonal dining the way that the travel rental company has created an alternative market to generic hotels. "We want to be in every city in the world so wherever you're traveling, you can find a home-cooked meal," Danny Harris, co-founder of Feastly, tells The Salt.
- One of our new favorite ingredients was highlighted in Tasting Table this week in a profile of Chef Joshua Skenes of Saison in San Francisco and his obsession with seaweed. Stay tuned for lots more on cooking with seaweed in our latest culinary project, New Gaelic Cuisine, a cookbook featuring the artists and ingredients of Scotland.
- Food waste, the eco-issue we all feel participate in, but it might be easier than you think to not throw out so much. Food writer Louisa Kasdon explains. "You know “sell-by” dates? Also known as “use-by” dates, or the more euphemistic “enjoy-by” dates. Whatever you call them, it turns out most of them are marketing malarkey with a slim relationship to ensuring that food is actually fresh and safe to eat."
