Interesting items I’ve found around the web in the last few weeks, finally compiled in one place for sharing:

Food science

• CNN Eatocracy 2-part blog series on Food aversions: 1. The psychology of food aversions. 2. Food aversions: Your questions answered.
• Fruitwash Labels Turn to Soap When You Cleanse Your Produce (Inhabitat) Neat.
• Coming to Your Senses: How to Really Taste That Cup of Coffee (The Atlantic) This is one of my favourite articles on this list. I don’t drink coffee often. I love it but it doesn’t love me, nor my wallet, so it’s a treat rather than a drug to which I’m addicted like much of the population is. Along with my love of coffee, I also have hypersensitive senses. For both reasons, this article excited me a little.

Food safety

• Is your Honey Fake? (Fooducate) See that? “your best bet is to locate a local farmer who keeps bees.”! Farmers’ markets FTW.

Image via Wikipedia

Health

• Canada’s 1st Organic Vineyard Makes Bioflavia from Grape Skins (Fiesta Farms) I was excited to read this. I’d heard about the product but not in detail.
• Food Cravings? Here Is What Your Body Really Wants (Daily Transformations) Helpful.

Food policy

• A Food Action Plan for Ottawa (Green Living Ottawa, via OCTA) I’m so glad that Just Food exists in Ottawa.

Boozy links

• How to spot a vile cocktail menu (National Post) – AMEN! I used to have the same opinion about martinis.  My rant went something like, “Nowadays you can put anything in a martini glass and call it a ‘martini’. Put beer in in a martini glass and it’s a ‘beertini’.” Then I decided that I was fighting a losing battle and it was easier to join in. Besides, after a few you stop caring what it’s called. Now that I’m more into cocktails I’m trying to maintain a “to each her own” attitude.
• How to make the perfect drink and stock the perfect bar (National Post) Since cocktails are one of my current hobbies (drinking them, though I imagine graduating to making them), I like an article that begins with the quotation, “I’m going to show you why your Old Fashioneds suck”. If I made them, I’d want to know.

Around the kitchen

• How to cook perfect lasagne (The Guardian) YEAH!
• Meanwhile, Sam Sifton featured lasagne in yesterday’s New York Times. I’m craving it now.
• My Favorite Kitchen Tip, Ever (David Lebovitz) I love this post. It’s my other favourite on this list.

Articles I couldn’t come up with a category for

• Cityline, McDonald’s and Mommy Bloggers (Hypenotic) I remember this contest. I remember wondering what the actual experience would be like and what the actual access would be like.
• Organic Fair Trade Sugar (Fiesta Farms) It’s educational.
• How to host a proper afternoon tea (The Grid) Also educational, and who doesn’t like afternoon tea?
• Last Skillet Street Foods bacon jam was launched in Toronto. The company has now been proclaimed one of America’s Hottest Brands by Advertising Age! See AdAge’s full list. (See my blog post about their launch.)
• Paul Sullivan of Metro News responds to Advertising Age’s list.

Articles I’ve been hording to share. Some are a month old, some are from today, this time with an attempt to put topic tags in front of each one.

• Food science: Food Studies: the science of cookie texture [Grist] You know you can use that leftover Halloween chocolate in cookies, right?

• Food science: Is Liquid Nitrogen Safe? [Modernist Cuisine]

• Cooking: Ooops! I Don’t Have Stock – What to Replace it with? [Well Preserved] I love this one.

• Wine: Will blendering a young wine help it taste mature? [The Globe and Mail]

• Food issues: Produce Problems: How Pigs, Pollution And Other People Taint Our Fruits And Veggies [Huffington Post]

• Food issues: Sharks, blue-fin tuna, and overfished oceans [The New Yorker]

• Food issues: A Letter that all Chefs (and Anyone Who Eats) Need to Read [Mark Bittman] The letter begins, “Hey Chefs: This note explains my thinking about why I believe that you should be pursuing clean agricultural ingredients as standard practice in your restaurants.”

• Food issues: The breadfruit is a remarkable food, but bland [Wall Street Journal] The breadfruit’s proponents say it has unique qualities that could help feed the world’s poor.  I tried some in St. Lucia and couldn’t decide if I liked it.

• Health: Best Foods for Healthy Hair [Joy Bauer]

• Health:Immune-boosting diet: How the right food can increase your immunity [Chatalaine] Regarding cleaning produce with hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, I read yesterday that it’s scrubbing that really gets it clean, regardless of whether you use plain water, vinegar or anything else. That article follows.

• Health:The Right Way To Wash Fruits And Vegetables [Huffington Post]

• Health: 4 Powerful Nutrients for Fighting Migraines [Joy Bauer] (I’d be more likely to go for the mushrooms, broccoli, and spinach than the cereal with milk, but I occasionally eat cereal with coconut milk for dinner.)

• Health:Confessions of a former gluten cheater [Ginger Lemon Girl] I enjoyed this one a lot, and sent it to a friend who needs to avoid gluten but often eats it and then complains. (I mentioned the article first during such an episode, and she acknowledged that I was right, so I wasn’t being a meddling jerk.)

• Health:Feeling fatigued or forgetful? You may be low in B12 [Chatalaine] Of course, you should get your levels tested if you suspect you’re low in B12.

• Health:It’s the day after Halloween and you might have pumpkins. Health Benefits of Pumpkin [Hive Health Media]

• Health:What’s Wrong With Government Regulated Food Guides? [Making Love in the Kitchen]

• Health: Why You Should Not Stop Taking Your Vitamins [Huffington Post] Interesting, and once again Huffington Post takes on controversial health issues. P.S. The top comment is my aunt’s.

• Health: 7 Reasons Kale Is the New Beef [Organic Authority/Huffington Post] I love this one.

• Local: Toronto Life introduces Blue Donkey Streatery, Mississauga’s new electric blue Greek food truck [Toronto Life]

• Local: Toronto’s five best steak frites [Toronto Life]

• Local: Toronto’s five best restaurants to bring the kids along and eat well too [Toronto Life]

• Local, Political, Health:Raw Milk No Longer Legal in Ontario – History of Canadian Dairy and a Global Perspective [Well Preserved] Another fantastic article by Joel with interesting discussion. It’s HuffPo worthy.

• Political, Health:Related to Joel’s raw milk article: The Return of The Milkman [Organic Authority] (Its American and states, “The modern dairy industry in America has turned something wholesome (fresh, raw milk) into something overly mechanized, pasteurized and downright terrifying.”

• Literary, Famous chefs: Adapting Julia Child for E-Readers [New York Times]

• The Business of Food: The cost of keeping kosher [Haaretz]

• Fun: Top 10 Best Chefs to Follow on Twitter [Bon App] I’d add Fabio Viviani (@fabioviviani) to that list, but he also replied to one of my tweets once, amused.

*AKA “Crap, it’s already time to pay my rent” edition, even though this has nothing to do with the content except the date and no one is paying me to write this.

• Better Together: Food Pairings For A Nutritional Powerhouse (Livestrong) ”When specific components in food interact, they have a synergistic effect, producing health-promoting benefits that surpass eating either food alone.” I heard years ago that the iron on spinach is better absorbed with oranges/vitamin C

• Loophole in Organic Standards Allows Toxic Chemicals on Strawberries (Organic Authority) Another one I’ve heard about before.

• So, really: Is soy good or bad? (The Globe and Mail) Ah, a common question.

• Ahimsa: Milk that Really Is from Happier Cows (Organic Authority) I’m not surprised, are you?

• Are You Grateful? How Intention Impacts Food (Organic Authority) Kind of like when mom used to pack “I love you” notes with your lunch.

• Vegetarian Yelper Drops Two-Stars on The Salty Pig (Eater) Hey vegetarians, if you visit a restaurant that’s predominantly meat-focused, don’t get angry about the fact that they won’t adapt to your lifestyle. Though it’s nice if they will, they’re not obligated to. If the grilled cheese really did taste “weird”, I suspect that her attitude & prejudice had something to do with it. I think that our expectations and attitude effect our sense of taste and our minds can play tricks on our taste buds and overall taste experience. It’s also possible that the grilled cheese tasted fine, but she was feeling pissy and wanted to publicly complain.  Also, the restaurant is called “The Salty Pig” (like Cowbell or Beast or The Black Hoof…). Did she think that the name was ironic? Yes, she should have known. Try approaching eating with good intention instead of grumbling that you’re hungry and the meat restaurant is the only thing around. She ruined her dining experience as soon as she chose to eat there.

• Finger Lickin’ Good (Kosher) Ribs in Memphis (Jew and the Carrot) These definitely aren’t pork ribs. I grew up eating spare-ribs from cow, but these aren’t those either.

• Want to learn about salt? Check out the weekly Salt Mining series at Serious Eats that began in September. I want more.

• Praise for Chia Seeds [13 Things to Know] (Fooducate) Chia is pretty awesome.

• Look, Toronto’s Not Far From the Tree made it into The Atlantic!

• Top Chef Judge (and Toronto-raised) Gail Simmons on food trends, her favourite small-scale packaged food, her favourite Top Chef dish from the entire show, common chef mistakes and more. (Huffington Post)

Eat well, be well

Things I’ve read and found interesting since the last time I posted one of these:

• Spice Hunting: Mace (Serious Eats) Mace is the pulp that surrounds nutmeg, which is a fruit. I had no idea!

• The Link between Dopamine and your Unfortunate Addiction to Ice Cream (Health Habits)
• Nestle wants you to be scared of organic food (Grist)
• How we can eat our way out of the seafood crisis (Grist)
• Grass is good: Natural meats benefit the economy and family farms (Grist)
• I enjoyed Corey Mintz’s search for the answer to why we don’t drink pigs’ milk. (Porkosity) And here I thought it had to do with the milk being sow-er.

• Farmers’ markets brace for a potential fee hike that could put them out of business (Toronto Life) Over 2000 people have signed the petition. Be one of them.
• The Long Tradition of Jewish Farming in America (Tablet Magazine)
• American Farmer, PhD? Organic Farming Interest Booms Among College Students (Organic Authority)

• The Taco That Changed the World (or At Least, American Farming) (Organic Authority) – I like Chipotle for this reason. As far as fast food is concerned, I’d rather visit a place like this than a Taco Bell. The quality is superior too. I kind of agree with the animation on Chipotle’s website, which spells out “It’s not just a burrito. It’s a foil-wrapped, hand-crafted, local farm supporting, food culture changing, cylinder of deliciousness.”
• Smaller Plates and Bigger Forks Lead the Way to Healthier Eating Habits (Jew and the Carrot)

• Food and Mood: 6 Ways Your Diet Affects How You Feel (US News and World Report)
• The top 5 nutrition mistakes you’re probably making (stumptuous.com) Krista is one of my favourite experts – I was using her workouts years ago – and I’d trust those who guest write for her.
• The ‘Miracle Mineral’ that Is Magnesium (Organic Authority)
• Turmeric, the Potential Cure for Cancer Found in Indian Food (The Atlantic)
• The Frightening Facts on Food Fortification (Organic Authority)

• Thinking of buying a kitchen scale? This article might help (NYTimes.com)

• Would You Pay $250 For Tickets to an Unopened Restaurant? (The Bad Deal)
• Easy-Bake Loses Its Bulb With 100-Watt Phase-Out (AP)

11 Types of Food Additives [Fooducate]

The Grove food emporium gets set to take over St. Patrick Market [The Grid] – The two main players are people I know. I’m proud of them and it’s a great concept.

Which Diet Should I Follow? [Julie Daniluk]

7 things you need to know about non-dairy coffee creamer [MedBroadcast] – DON’T DO IT!

The Ugly Truth About Non-Dairy Spreads [Organic Authority]

Burger King mascot retires. Gawd that mascot was creepy. [USA Today] BK’s senior marketing vice president says, “People want a reason to go back to Burger King,” I ask, “Why??”

5 DIY Fruit Facials for Outrageously Yummy Skin [Organic Authority]

Bending the Rules on Bacteria and Food Safety [NYTimes.com]

Alejandro Junger, MD on detoxing from coffee [Crazy Sexy Life]

Five ways apple cider vinegar can improve your health [Julie Daniluk for Chatelaine]

Dining at the dollar store might be cheap, but you can feel the effects on more than just your pocketbook [Toronto Star]

The Waitressing Life: The Honor of a Second-Class Profession [The Atlantic]

13 Things You Should Know About Farmers’ Markets [Yahoo]

Why are restaurant websites so horrifically bad? [Slate]

Slate’s article inspired Torontoist to survey Toronto’s best and worst restaurant websites.

Super-size it: Tim Hortons changes cup sizes in Kingston, Sudbury [City News]

If you live in Toronto you might know about La Carnita, the pop up taco stand:
1 guest chef, 2 hours, 400 tacos [Toronto Star] – I was #99 out of 200. Waited about 15 minutes to paid and get my art with the number on it, about 45 minutes for my tacos.

Fun: Watch The World Record For Slapping Someone With Pizza [Eater] Who knew?

Articles and posts that I’ve read & liked recently:

Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables [Mark Bittman in New York Times]

Infographic: The Carbon Footprints of 20 Foods, Shown as Car-Miles – Daniel Fromson – Life – The Atlantic [The Atlantic]

High steaks: Meat eaters’ climate impact [Grist]

McDonald’s ‘Healthier’ New Happy Meals: Still Unhealthy [Marion Nestle in The Atlantic]

Fooducate‘s take on the Happy Meal Makeover

The Folly of Bourgeois Sustainable Food [The Atlantic]

Infographic: Local Farms in the Bronx and What They Grow [Marion Nestle in The Atlantic]

Clingstone Peaches: Worth the Work! [Ontario's Own] – The peaches have been great this year

Toronto bartender’s first barrel-aged Manhattan mostly tastes like wood [The Globe and Mail]

How to pretend you’re an amazing cook [Macleans] – A piece about my buddy Matt Kantor. Also see ghostchef.ca

That’s Not Trash, That’s Dinner [NYTimes] LOVED this one.

Instant Iced Tea: A Refreshing Glass of Potential Dangers [Organic Authority] One of the statements in the article that relates to a post I did recently: “According to School of Medicine researchers, there are dangerously high levels of fluoride in instant tea and iced tea mixes”

Is Gluten-Free Just A Fad? [Fooducate]

Way cool: Food Blog Devoted to ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ Fantasy Series [Serious Eats]

Happy reading!

(Sitting in my drafts folder…)

• The Toronto Food Policy Council and Local Food Plus get shout outs in American magazine Grist.

• 10 Energy Drinks Not Worth The Sugar Rush [Huffington Post] “Munchkins” are the Dunkin’ Donuts/American equivalent of Timbits? Cute. I’ll take the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies over the “energy drink” any time.

• What, your mother never told you to eat your sunscreen? [Sweet Potato Chronicles]

• Cooking With Nonna [Jewcy]

• This one is a year old but it seems like a good time to bring it out again: Grist reviews six non-dairy ice creams. Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss is my current favorite. I have a carton of the Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge flavour in my freezer, along with a carton of Ciao Bella’s Blood Orange sorbet. (Dairy free and sugar free.)

• Joshua Ozersky on the closing of New York City’s H&H Bagels, why hated their bagels and what their bagels represented [Time]

• Lima, Peru is now a GMO-free zone [Organic Authority]

• Scientists have developed grapes used in wine production that are more resistant to insects and fungus, in what may lead to the first commercially available genetically modified wine. [Organic Authority]

• ‘Big Food’ Money Accused of Influencing Science [ABC News]

• Food Combining: More Important than You Think? [Organic Authority] I keep forgetting about this. I know about combining for digestive health but I don’t know if I knew about nutrient absorption.

• Official Gluten-Free Certification Program Now Underway [Organic Authority]

• Toronto hospital, chef team up to find a cure for the common hospital meal [The Globe and Mail] Kudos to Scarborough Hospital and Joshna!

• Yet More Proof That Grass-Fed Meat Is Better – Sustainable Farming [Mother Earth News]

• Is the ‘Clean 15’ just as toxic as the ‘Dirty Dozen’? [Grist] This one’s interesting and discusses the effects of pesticides on farm workers. ” In short, what’s clean for consumers is too often dirty for farm workers, and vice-versa.”

• Mystery Veggies in Your CSA Box? What to do with what’s in your box. [Nourished Kitchen] -Great tips!

• Life on the family fruit farm [Toronto Star] Please buy directly from your farmer when possible.

• You are what what you eat eats, and the most important fish in the sea is one you’ve never heard of. Nutrient packed, they are a staple food for dozens of fish species, marine mammals and sea birds. [Grist]

• Le Creuset opens flagship store in Toronto [Chatelaine.com] Is Sherway Gardens considered Toronto? I’d love to check out the new store but will continue to ogle the Le Creuset merch at Nella Cucina (Bathurst just north of Bloor) and Good Egg (Kensington Market).

Should You Be Eating Seaweed? [Organic Authority]

10 Ways to Reduce Food Waste at Home [Good Food]

The next fried food trend: Deep fried Kool-Aid. Really. [Eater, Globe and Mail, Mashable - for the tech perspective] At the end of their article, Globe and Mail asks, “What are the best and worst fair foods you’ve tried?” How about you?

Kind of like cow patties but you eat them. [Good Food]

5 Vibrant Foods To Boost Your Memory [Organic Authority]

Krispy Kreme has begun a healthwashing campaign. “Krispy Kreme Wants To Be Good For You.” [Blisstree]

KFC Supports Juvanile Diabetes: This one’s been going around. I first saw a reference on Twitter from Lisa Borden to Meghan Telpner. It was originally posted at the Selfish Giving blog and that article was cross-published in Huffington post. Also see: That’s Fit, Grist, Food Politics.

I’ve been curious about dumpster diving/freeganism for years. This guy talks about it.

Where to find cold, tasty ice cream alternatives in Toronto [The Grid]

Are energy drinks a new gateway drug? [Chatelaine] Energy drinks shouldn’t even exist. Also, if kids are drinking them, their tolerance for stimulants could increase, then they need more. This adds to the coffee problem.

McDonald’s Canada’s All-Access Moms [PhD in Parenting] I love this blog post and video

Marketing Magazine wrote about it too. See Meghan’s response there.

It’s strawberry season!
Five health reasons to eat more fresh strawberries [Chatelaine]

The Strawberries That Changed My World [Poor Man's Feast]

• The new “dirty dozen”: An Apple a Day…But the Pesticide Won’t Go Away [Fooducate] Strawberries have fallen from #1 to #3.
• Too Many Antibiotics in Your Meat Lands the FDA in Court [Organic Authority]
• 5 Vibrant Foods To Boost Your Memory [Organic Authority]
• 5 Reasons to Ditch Dairy [That's fit]
• 5 Ways to Clean Your Home With (Yes) Vodka [Organic Authority]
• Apples Help Keep Muscles Strong, Mouse Study Finds [Medline Plus]
• A Bulgarian brings Montreal bagels to Brooklyn. The headline is, “Un bagel? Qu’est ce que c’est un bagel?” [The Brooklyn Paper]
• Local Food Alert: Delicious, Sweet Rhubarb Crisp [That's fit] Those reasons to eat rhubarb look good enough to me!
• How to Get Iron from Vegetarian Sources [Fully Nourished]
• Dieters More Likely to be Duped by Food Labels [Fooducate]
• How to Get the Most Out of Your CSA [The Kitchn]
• By now you might have read about the US government’s replacement for the food pyramind, the food plate. Jillian Michaels weighs in: We Need Policy Not Plates [Everyday Health]
• Volunteer Opportunities at The Stop [via OCTA]

• A reason to keep your digestive tract: Your Brain May Be Controlled by Your Gut [That's Fit]

• The Double Down returns in time for summer. [Marketwire]
  *shudder*

• Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance Presents the 2011 Ontario Culinary Adventure Guide.

• What celiac is and isn’t [The Seattle Times]
  -People are often confused about whether or not oats contain gluten. They don’t, but are often consider not gluten-free because they’re often processed alongside wheat products and thus may be contaminated with gluten.

• Soak Your Celery To Make It Last Longer [Blisstree]

• Is beer a legit post-workout beverage? [Well+Good NYC]
  -I once discovered that Guinness is refreshing after a hot yoga session.

• Joy McCarthey urges you to Just Say ‘No’ to Boring Salads [That's Fit]

• The Cutting Veg offers actions to enhance your relationship with food, and the health of the planet

• If that inspires you, The Cutting Veg needs volunteers on the farm and at the CSA. Learn more and get in touch with them.

• Fiesta Farms wants you to Share Your Pain for a Chance to Win