Friday Faves No. 150

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Is this the face of the new Scottish "super food" above: What Is This Weird Weed, and Why Are Farmers and Health Nuts So Into It? It's chock full of omega 3's. "The EU this month awarded corn gromwell the status of “Novel Food,” a designation to let consumers know that this might be a new thing, but it’s safe and approved for consumption." (Modern Farmer)

Does story trump product? How Millennials Are Changing Wine "Yet with conventional wisdom holding that millennials don’t care about luxury and aren’t loyal to brands, it’s little wonder that wine producers all over the world—like every other business—are scrambling to figure out what they want." (Wall Street Journal)

Because the young ladies who lunch want artisan pizza, Urban Outfitters adds food to hipster empire with Vetri restaurant group acquisition.  (Restaurant Hospitality)

Entrepreneurs Pitch Sustainable Seafood Ideas; Investors Take The Bait at Fish 2.0  "Entrepreneurs presented ideas that ran the sustainability gamut: Licensing schemes designed to keep local family fishermen on the water; developing consumer-friendly, ready-to-cook sustainable seafood products; collecting old nylon fishing nets to recycle into skateboards and sunglasses; cutting-edge technology to monitor everything from a fishing fleet's location to the storage temperature for its catch; land-based aquaculture solutions; and programs designed to create both jobs and sustenance for tiny remote fishing communities in the Pacific." (NPR)

And in sucky news, the FDA approves GM salmon for sale in the US.  (Wall Street Journal and just about everywhere else)

Friday Faves No. 101

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

The San Francisco blog The Bold Italic has a series based on taking four-year-olds to fancy restaurants and getting their views on the food, like this little girl (above) who went to Plum. Unless chicken nuggets are in fact your favorite food, it's not super-informative, but they sure are funny. (Bold Italic)

Bodega Snacks & Wine Pairings: The Definitive Guide Now you know what to drink with wasabi peas & Swedish Fish. (Epicurious)

Bittman tackles talking about "organic" and "GMO" in Leave 'Organic' Out of It "Maybe all I’m saying here is this: There are two important struggles in food: One is for sustainable agriculture and all that it implies — more respect for the earth and those who live on it (including workers), more care in the use of natural resources in general, more consideration for future generations. The other is for healthier eating: a limit to outright lies in marketing “food” to children, a limit on the sales of foodlike substances, a general encouragement for the eating of real food." (New York Times)

It's about time: Seafood Suppliers Get Bullish on Brands “The marketplace has a lot of choices, so you need to position a strong brand, particularly with seafood...if we don’t position ourselves we can’t go to market.”  (Seafood Source)

Per-Anders Jörgensen photographs staff meals at top restaurants  "The family meal has evolved to become an extension of why people work in restaurants in the first place. Now more than ever it is fundamental to their success, and symbolic of what makes a good restaurant great." (Financial Times)

Airpocalypse Now: Jing-A’s New Double IPA Is Inspired by Beijing’s Notoriously Bad Smog
At the launch party, a sliding-scale beer discount was tied to the Air Quality Index.  (First We Feast)

Friday Faves No. 98

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Supermarket by Karl Lagerfeld: Chanel's Fall-Winter Show Took Place in a High-Fashion Supermarket where even the baskets and mayonnaise jars were redesigned. (The Coveteur)

US supermarkets say ‘no’ to GM salmon "According to Friend of the Earth, the total number of companies committed to not sell genetically engineered salmon now stands at more than 60 retailers, including Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, H-E-B, Meijer, Hy-Vee, Marsh, Giant Eagle, and now Safeway and Kroger, representing more than 9,000 grocery stores across the country." (Seafood Source)

What the new US serving sizes really mean – in pictures  (Guardian)

Coming Soon To A Wine Near You: Ancient Amphorae Oregon potters turned winemakers are experimenting with the ancient technique (Forbes)

Is Wall Street Eyeing America’s Farmland? And should we be concerned about that?  (Modern Farmer)

Frank Zappa give wine pimples:Grapevine bacteria named after Frank Zappa “This is the first time it’s been found that a microorganism can switch from a human to a plant.” (Drinks Business)

They disappear fast enough from our cabinets, but if you find yourself with a surplus, here's 13 ways to use all those Girl Scout Cookies (LA Times)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 81

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Eat Drink Vote: an illustrated guide to food politics compiles 250 cartoons that strike at the heart of what's wrong with our food system (like the ones at right). Says the author, nutrition activist Marion Nestle: "I want these cartoons to inspire readers to become active in food politics and work toward a food system that is healthier for people and the planet. Join groups that are working on these issues. Vote with your fork! But food choices are also about politics. Exercise your democratic right as a citizen. Vote with your vote." (Civil Eats)

And Marion Nestle, the noted NYU nutrition professor, public health advocate, and tireless food politics blogger/tweeter, has compiled the cream of this non-genetically modified crop in her just-published book from Rodale, Eat Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics. - See more at: http://civileats.com/2013/09/04/food-politics-illustrated/#sthash.SxarlPJ6.dpuf

Marion Nestle, the noted NYU nutrition professor, public health advocate, and tireless food politics blogger/tweeter, has compiled the cream of this non-genetically modified crop in her just-published book from Rodale, Eat Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics - See more at: http://civileats.com/2013/09/04/food-politics-illustrated/#sthash.SxarlPJ6.dpuf

• Has the world reached peak chicken? Domestic chicken populations are up 262% since 1970. When we will figure out something useful to do with all the spent laying hens? (Mother Jones)

• IRS Rule Leads Restaurants to Rethink Automatic Tips now that gratuities added for large groups will be taxed as service charges (WSJ)

• Last week we took a retro look at the kitchen of the future, but the design brainstorming continues. What Your Kitchen Will Look Like In 2025: smart refrigerators, faucets that detect chemicals and bacteria on produce, and 3-D printed dishes are just some of GE's predictions. (Fast Company)

• And if that's not enough, how about chef robots that stamp out cookies, hologram cooking lessons, and little vacuum-bots that pick up the food you drop while cooking (although having a dog is a good low-tech solution to that problem). (CNN)

• Boston city schools democratize free lunch by offering it to all students, removing some of the stigma of accepting help and opening up access for kids with parents who can't/won't fill our the paperwork that was previously necessary. The move is part of a new federal program. (Boston Globe)

• The debate over the safety of GM food wages on. French researcher who claimed GM food caused cancers in rats says UK should review food safety and assess long-term toxicity. (Guardian)

• New Nordic is everywhere in restaurant news but still has to make its way into American home kitchens. "We now know about strange spices from other countries, and kimchi from Korea," [Marcus] Samuelsson says. "Why wouldn't we want to learn about lingonberries and reindeer?" Hopefully, Scandinavian producers are working on their marketing plans. (Metro NY)

• August was National Bourbon Heritage month. We hate to be late to the party, but it's always the right time to catch up on cocktails, recipes and profiles like a real Southern aficionado with this tour. (Garden & Gun)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 73

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Happy Summer from the Pork Fairy. These bathing beauties make an uninhabited island in the Bahamas their home. (Treehugger)

• Another reason not to underestimate smaller regional markets: the chefs are spreading out. A shortage of qualified cooks to work in top New York kitchen has risen to newsworthy levels. The reasons are the same as they ever were — low pay and high rent — but now there are so many other scenes to be part of. (NPR)

• Despite the economic slow-down, the food business is still booming in the US. "Specialty food sales in the U.S. alone grew 13 percent to $85 billion in 2012. And Americans consumed a record $34 billion worth of wine last year." (Inc.)
  

• In a problem that could be fixed in the stew pot, urban farmers are abandoning hundreds of fashion chickens. Really, it was only a matter of time. (Jezebel)

• Biotech corn seeds that were supposed to keep pests away are faltering, causing an upswing in pesticides. "Steiner, the Nebraska crop consultant, usually argues for another strategy: Starve the rootworms, he tells his clients. Just switch that field to another crop. 'One rotation can do a lot of good,' he says. 'Go to beans, wheat, oats. It's the No. 1 right thing to do.'" (NPR)

• Nursery food is good for you, or at least the nostalgia it inspires. "Nostalgia has been shown to counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It makes people more generous to strangers and more tolerant of outsiders. Couples feel closer and look happier when they’re sharing nostalgic memories. On cold days, or in cold rooms, people use nostalgia to literally feel warmer." Bring on the mac & cheese and a fluffernutter. (New York Times)

• David Hasselhoff is now Thirsty for Love (and apparently iced coffee) in this campier than camp video. In a world of spoof upon spoof, Entertainment Weekly suggests that this is really Hasselhoff as character David Brent from The Office. (Laughing Squid) Which brings to mind another Hoff, this time of the deep sea. "The alien-like crab -- nicknamed the "Hoff" in honor of David Hasselhoff's similarly hairy torso -- was discovered in 2009, living on the perimeter of hydrothermal vents thousands of feet beneath the Indian and Arctic oceans." Really, you can't make this stuff up. (LA  Times)

Sing Along Snacks: AquaBounty Garden

 It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.

The food-centric, satirical Beatles cover band The Eatles goes under the sea to an AquaBounty (that's the company trying to sell consumers a genetically engineered "salmon" that's a cross between three different species) Garden in the shade.

"I'd hate to be under the sea,

in a AquaBounty garden in the shade.

Let's make a wish, no transgenic fish

that they went and died away beneath the truth..."

If this one had you tapping your toes, The Eatles have a full range of subversive titles like Modified Fields Forever, I Am The Wal-Mart, and While the Microwave Gently Beeps.

Plenty to dread

On May 29, 2013 the Guardian UK reported a new study that GM 'hybrid' fish pose threat to natural populations, scientists warn  Study shows genetically modified salmon that breed with wild trout can produce a fast-growing, competitive fish.