Friday Faves No. 139

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

We resisted watching this, but then, Schadenfreude can be sweet: Hugh Acheson Made Kris Jenner's Nachos And if you still haven't had your fill: The 23 Most Ridiculous Lines From Kris Jenner's Kookbook (yeah, that's how she's spelling it). 1) On her casual taste in dishware: "I am notorious for my table settings and my dishes. If I'm cooking an Italian meal, I will grab my red Hermès china to go with the red sauce." (Eater)

Marketing rule #1 — don't insult your customers. Sexist beer ads: why it's time for a cold, hard rethink. "There is a powerful business case for beer companies to abandon the puerile misogyny and step into the 21st century. The Daily Mail reports that the number of female beer drinkers in the UK has doubled to 1.3 million in recent years, and that women make up 31% of weekly beer drinkers." And the real shocker: "The study, which examined nearly 40,000 banner adverts over a six month period, is perhaps another suggestion that sticking a semi-naked woman next to a product isn’t necessarily the most inventive or effective way to sell it." (Guardian)

Ivory Coast president tours country's first chocolate factory. Chocolate to be made in Ivory Coast for first time despite country being the world’s biggest grower of cocoa beans. "Despite its French ownership, the plant represents a small victory in the continent’s battle to profit from its natural resources instead of exporting them to be processed elsewhere." (Guardian)

Does A Pig Fed With Green Tea Taste Better? Some farmers in Japan think so. Apparently, it works with goats too. (Modern Farmer)

A nice personal essay from David Chang on how war and scarcity can shape a culinary legacy. "At the end of the day, you’re not born a great cook. It’s something you have to learn, and you need something to work with." (Lucky Peach)

The Piggly Wiggly way: Businesses should think carefully about continuing to heap work on their customers. Lots of interesting points here: "The reason why so many people feel overworked these days is that they are constantly being asked to do “unseen” jobs by everybody from Amazon to the Internal Revenue Service to the local school board. And the reason why they feel so alienated is that they spend so much time pressing buttons and speaking to machines rather than interacting with other people." And: "If [businesses] never meet their customers, they will lose touch with them. And although self-service is great for saving costs, its effect over time is to train customers to shop on price, and thus to switch as soon as a slightly cheaper rival comes along." (Economist)

'It's like eating a hedgerow': why do hop shoots cost €1,000 a kilo? Sounds like a bit much to pay for something described as "kale-like," but if people are willing to pay... (Guardian)

Friday Faves No. 129

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Even Victorian orphans are foodies now in satirical spins on classic Ladybird illustrations, like one above. (Guardian)

Bone Broth cocktails are now a thing, at least in LA. "For the broth itself, Melendrez boils lamb neck bones for eight hours then clarifies the liquid, straining it through a coffee filter. Instead of a cocktail glass, the hot savory cocktail is served in a shallow bowl garnished with toasted crostini and bits of asparagus, carrots, and cilantro leaves. Does that make it more soup than cocktail? "If you put a Bloody Mary in a bowl, wouldn’t it be like gazpacho almost?" questioned Melendrez. "I’m just trying to change people’s perceptions about what a cocktail possibly could be."' (Eater)

WTF story of the week — Is Kim Jong-Un Really Opening a Restaurant in Scotland? “North Korea is rich in natural resources and we like the taste of Scotch whisky, so [Scotland and North Korea] can be beneficial to each other.” (Munchies)

Despite their smart phone obsessions, Millennials aren't buying their wine online.  (Punch)

Time to buy an extra suitcase for your next visit home, because these are sad times for Brit expat chocolate lovers.

In better news from the UK, the Guardian's video selection was in great form this last week with these two: 

Have you tried the full English breakfast detox? (video) which really sums up what we feel about the detox trend. And then there was 

Americans try haggis for the fist time (video). Some sophisticated souls are on board, some, think of socks. (Guardian)

The Surprising Science Behind Your Favorite Flavors Did our sense of taste make us human? From evolution to culture, a new book explores the science and perception of flavor. (On Point)

Colorado inmates are turing into farmers. "All inmates have to work, whether that’s in the library, or the cafeteria, or somewhere else—you have to do something to keep yourself busy. And over 1,000 guys are on a waiting list for one of the agricultural programs.”

Friday Faves No. 112

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

We don't need much of an excuse to see a movie about food, but Helen Mirren certainly seals the deal. She's staring in the upcoming feature (trailer above) The Hundred-Foot Journey, about a young Indian chef in the south of France and his neighbor/rival French restaurateur. (Tasting Table)

Poland takes the bite out of Russian apple ban Prominent Poles post tongue-in-cheek photos on social media to endorse campaign against Russian ban on fruit imports (Guardian)

Another item in the category "Food is Politics" — South Korean activists launch 'Choco Pie' balloons Choco Pies – banned as a capitalist symbol by North Korea after being traded at inflated prices – carried in balloons across border  (Guardian)

Chefs Move Beyond New York The phrase "only in New York" may no longer apply for many great culinary experiences. A new awareness and engagement with food in cities across the country has given chefs more options — and the rest of the country better food. "What has changed significantly is the audience that greets chefs elsewhere.” (New York Times)

Finding the difference that a grain makes to whisky: A project to determine the perfect grain of barley for distilling whisky could pave the way for barley ‘vineyards’, viewed in much the same way as the world’s wine regions. "This project will analyse which compounds in barley contribute to desirable flavours in whisky, many of which come from the grain." (Drinks Business)

Agriculture is always at the mercy of the elements, sometimes to the point of complete destruction. After years of horrible storms, Burgundy winemakers trial anti-hail nets (Decanter)

If you can't grow bigger, grow better and smarter. What's a producer to do with global competition when their traditional grounds are hitting their max, Champagne makers are wondering. ''We have to increase the quality and increase the technical gap between Champagne and other regions.''  (Good Food)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 84

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

• Guerilla Wi-Fry: Burger King left giant, eight-foot-long fries lying on the streets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago (above), along with free wi-fi in the area, to promote its new crinkle-cut fries. (Design Taxi)

• China buys 5 percent of Ukraine's total land — about 9 percent of its farmland — to feed its growing population."China eats about one-fifth of the world’s food supplies, but holds just 9 percent of the world’s farmland after rapid industrialization. The country has already purchased farmland in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, but the deal with Ukraine represents its biggest investment in foreign farmland to date. (UPI)

• Spotting opportunity from above, airline pilot launches rooftop farming startup in Hawaii where most food is imported and costs are high. (Seedstock)
  

• Korean exporters are looking to make sojus the next "it" liquor, capitalizing on the growing hip-ness of all things Korean, from kimchi to K-Pop,  Gangnum Style to ingredients round-ups in Food & Wine. (NPR)

• We've posted about independent Scottish brewery Brew Dog before because we love their irreverent style. Now US consumers are going to get to know them better through a show on the new Esquire network (see video previews) where they travel around the country making new beers and evangelizing for craft brewing. Audio clip on the show from The World. (PRI/The World & Esquire)

• Global chocolate prices are up due to surging demand. "People are going back to an impulse buy....Chocolate was resilient but not recession-proof...The very high-end products got the brunt of consumption declines during the recession." (WSJ)

•  October 2 is National Kale Day, with a whole supporting web site celebrating all things kale (actually way more about kale than you would have thought possible).

• Can Processed Food Be Healthy? This radio segment explore whether industrial food science can be harnessed for good, from fake meat to seaweed chips. (On Point)