Friday Faves No. 154

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

The art of the perfect bit goes super-artsy with teeny, tiny food installations, like the one above. (Eater)

Refugees solve farm worker shortage: From Bhutan to New York’s Dairy Heartland "The men were once farmers, and then spent 20 years in refugee camps in Nepal, unable to hold legal jobs. Now they worked wordlessly alongside two other milkers, both Mexican immigrants, in practiced repetition. The raw product would soon supply a cross-cultural dairy case: Siggi’s, an Icelandic-style yogurt; Norman’s kosher Greek yogurt; and eggnog for Pittsford Farms Dairy." (New York Times)

Activists Demand a Bill of Rights for California Farmworkers "Many of the bill’s items – which are grouped into wage theft, safety and health, and overwork – simply demand that existing laws be enforced, like respecting required rest breaks and penalizing employers who steal wages. It also calls for educating farmworkers on their rights and establishing a complaint hotline." (KQED)

A New York food institution that was accessible to all of us fades into the history of a quirkier, more fabulous, and less chain-store dominated Manhattan as Broadway Panhandler prepares to close. “'My first question is, ‘What do you like to cook?’...We can help tailor a purchase to suit a customer’s needs instead of just selling sets. We’re more traditional, with just one store. As independent stores disappear, people are going to remember them fondly.'” (New York Times)

The surprising truth about the ‘food movement’ (which probably isn't that surprising): people like to give the right answers more than they like to do the right thing. (Washington Post)

Shrimp oasis: Sahara desert opens biofloc shrimp farm  "The shrimp farm uses underground salty water beneath the oases of the world’s largest desert. Algeria's portion of the Sahara Desert has an extensive underground water source beneath its sand layers, with a salt concentration of 4~5 percent, suitable for the shrimp farm, ministry officials said." (Yon Hap News via Undercurrent)

Friday Faves No. 146

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Fruit squee — the cucamelon! (above) "Tangy, crunchy, and bite-sized—cucamelons are perfect in salads, sandwiches, and fruity salsas. Native to Mexico and Central America, Melothria scabra, or the cucamelon, is also called the mouse melon, Mexican sour gherkin, or “sandita,” meaning little watermelon. Originally part of the Aztec diet, cucamelons are now commonly served in Central America as a delicacy." (James Beard Foundation)

Exploring the soft power of food — What are Conflict Cafes and how do they work? (Eater)

Easily the best thing ever to be served at McDonald’s: Roald Dahl book to be given away with every Happy Meal in the UK. The fast-food chain will offer extracts of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, George’s Marvellous Medicine and Matilda with its kids’ meals, in a campaign backed by the National Literacy Trust. "The scale of the campaign will reach millions of children, including many who haven’t owned a book before, inspiring them to enjoy reading and improving their life chances.” (Guardian)

The Pumpkin Beer Problem: "Yes, I dislike pumpkin beer. Sometimes I dream of seeing a veritable ocean of the stuff spilled out by Prohibition agents, the orange bottles melted down and reused to make tchotchkes for the Dutch National soccer team. But that’s obviously subjective; the numbers say I’m in the minority in a big way." (Gear Patrol)

The Rise of the Fast-Casual Cocktail Bar — Now that drinkers have grown accustomed to cocktails made with fresh ingredients and top-notch skills, bar-owners are starting to offer them in more casual settings—often right alongside their high-end counterparts. "The first wave of the cocktail movement was about educating the public that a great drink—with quality spirits, fresh juice and expert craftsmanship—was worth savoring in a reverential space. But the paradigm has shifted—now that urban drinkers have become accustomed to properly diluted drinks and fresh citrus, they expect a good drink nearly everywhere." (Punch)

One of the greatest meals in New York is at Di Fara Pizza. Find it. Go. We promise, it's worth it. “Only one guy is supposed to make the pizza,” Dom says. “If there’s too many people that make the pizza, [it’s] no good. It’s very hard to explain.” (Lucky Peach)

Sing Along Snacks: Egg Cream

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

Lou Reed rhapsodizes on the classic New York treat, the Egg Cream (which contains neither eggs nor cream).

"When I was a young man, no bigger than this
A chocolate egg cream was not to be missed
Some U Bet's chocolate syrup, seltzer water mixed with milk
You stir it up into a heady fro, tasted just like silk

You scream, I steam, we all want egg cream"

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 50

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

• We found ourselves on a bit of a theme this week with stories from Scotland, and this little gem of a video sealed the deal. Above is a fine example of what the internet was really meant for — a goofy song featured animated Scotch Eggs.

• We love activist kids, and nine-year-old Scottish food blogger Martha Payne has jumped to the top of our list. Her blog NeverSeconds, which she started last May, has engaged kids (and grown-ups) around the world on school lunches. Her school district tried to shut down her reporting (which got covered in Wired and earned her props from Jamie Oliver) but she's still on task. And not stopping there, Martha is using her blog to raise money for UK charity Mary's Meals. She's already raised enough to feed 10,000 school children in Malawi for a year. (For more on the work of Mary's Meals, check out the trailer for the new documentary film Child 31.)

• It's a little geeky but a cool development for fisheries: the James Dyson Award goes to a new kind of net called a SafetyNet (link to a video that explains it all to you). "The goal of the SafetyNet system is to make commercial fishing more sustainable by significantly decreasing the numbers of non-target and juvenile fish caught during the trawling process."

• It's not just happy hour, it's biological diversity hour: Efforts to conserve Scotland's oldest cultivated barley have been boosted by its use in making beer and whisky.

• And now to mix it up, an only-in-New York story of the The Lox Sherpa of Russ & Daughters, famous smoked fish emporium of the Lower East Side. "After growing up on a diet of flour paste, cheese soup and butter tea, Mr. Sherpa now subsists on caviar and pickled herring and wild Baltic salmon. Instead of trekking in flip-flops, he hops the F train to work (when it’s running), and he prefers coffee to butter tea. “Forget about it,” he said. “You have to start your day with coffee in this city.”'

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 49

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

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, our hearts go out to our friends and fellow travelers in food in the Northeast.

We send our best to the farmers who have seen the last of their harvest and their infrastructure destroyed.

To the chefs who will find themselves without a stove once the power comes back and the bills get paid (or not paid).

To the line cooks and dishwashers who can't get to work from the outer boroughs without the subway.

And to everybody who has gone without power, or water or a hot meal.

On a related note, maybe there's hope in one of our favorite foods — oysters. One source for help for increasing storms: plant more oysters argues Paul Greenberg in a New York Times OpEd. "But what is fairly certain is that storms like Sandy are going to grow stronger and more frequent, and our shorelines will become more vulnerable. For the present storm, all we could do was stock up on canned goods and fill up our bathtubs. But for the storms to come, we’d better start planting a lot more oysters."