• U.S. Obesity Trends 1985–2007 [CDC]

• Vegetarian version of Atkins diet lowers weight, heart risks [CBC]
• A slide show of 10 Tasty Fish You Don’t Want to Eat. Among the more popular types of fish on the list: Chilean sea bass (check out the tongue on that thing! It looks like he’s smiling), farmed salmon, grouper/sea bass, monkfish (the image of which reminds me of Jabba the Hutt), orange roughy and skate. [Treehugger]

• 5 Green Reasons to Use an Ice Cream Maker. [Re-Nest/Apartment Therapy network] Reasons include not relying on “big food” to choose your ingredients, going off-grid if you use a manual device and saving on packaging.

• Why bagels are boiled. [The Kitchn]
• For food enthusiasts and geeks: Heinz Introduces World’s Smallest Microwave, and It’s USB-Powered. [Serious Eats]
• The Kitchn on the book Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice, which I mentioned in my post last Friday. I think I have to buy this one asap rather than waiting for its soft cover release. [The Kitchn]

• This gun’s for hire: Dining in the Dark [Globe and Mail]
• A judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a complaint filed by a woman who said she had purchased ‘Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries’ because she believed it contained real fruit. [The Appetizer] Writer Vanessa Farquharson uses that as a starting point for commentary on processed food and labeling but, as into that topic as I am, I’m stuck on being dumbfounded that someone would sue for that reason. Only in the U.S. I love talking about processed food, food labelling and food ethics but I also love to make fun of dumb people. Possibly even more so.

• First Germany, now Jordan. Red Bull banned. [Nutraingredients.com]

• Consuming cheese from ewe’s milk, rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), may decrease chance of heart disease [Nutraingredients-usa.com]

• Junk food commercials in countries such as Canada and the U.K have been banned during kids’ television for awhile but a new study says that many commercials aren’t actually getting banned. [Disease Proof]

• Fairfax sues Krispy Kreme over ruined sewer system [Washington Examiner, via Mark Bittman in the New York Times]

• Ever see the sweetener Xylitol on an ingredient list and wonder what it is? [Dr. Mercola]

• On taxing soft drinks/beverages that can contribute to obesity. [Globe and Mail]

• I like how Corey Mintz describes the Risotto at Harbord Room. As well, I appreciate that it’s descriptive without sounding contrived like Gina Mallett’s prose (that’s one of the nicest things I’ve ever said about Mallett).

Risotto can often taste as redundant as the double-tap, scene change music from Law & Order (“thump thump”). Here, it surprises like a Stravinsky beat, a shock of vibrant spring in Toronto.

Then he goes on to reveal how to achieve a brightly coloured risotto and comments on capturing the flavour of the vegetable that went in. I’ve been wanting to go to the Harbord Room for awhile. [Toronto Star]

• Meghan’s fall schedule of classes, workshops & retreats is up. Oh how I wish I could spend the money on her St. Lucia retreat.

• Not food related, but I felt it important to include: The 20 Cancer Symptoms Women Are Most Likely to Ignore [mercola.com]

**
Tomorrow: A post about cookies.

• 7 thing to know about Nitrites in your Luncheon Meats. [Fooducate]

• An awesome post and comments that I flagged to read “later” last week: Serious Heat: Taming the Chile Fire The accompanying photo is gorgeous. [Serious Eats]

• The 10 Most Disgusting Delicacies to Try Before You Die. WARNING: Contains images. Not for the faint of… anything. I started reading it but couldn’t continue. Duck fetus is on the list. Really. And a bat that can kill you if you eat it. This is way worse than the blowfish, kids. [Culinary Schools.org]

• Grape polyphenols may protect against obesity  [Food Navigator]

• Formulating cakes with sesame oil, hydrocolloids and emulsifiers could replace fat in cakes, leading to low-fat alternatives of family favourites, suggests a new study.  [Food Navigator]

• Who has the freshest candy? Walmart, that’s who. Researchers at Brock University looked at the age of candy bars in eight major retail stores. Results: the average bar was 140 days old.  [Financial Post]

• The Toronto Star on the 8 street vendors approved to broaden the definition of “street meat” in Toronto. Includes a diagram [pdf] of what will be served and where. The Globe and Mail on the same issue, and I include Taste T.O.’s commentary here too because I always like Greg’s snark.

• The Toronto Star asks, “Are you sushi savvy?”

• The Appetizer wants to know what you think is the Best Sandwiches in Canada [National Post]

• The New York Times Well blog asks, What Kind of Chef Are You? I’m healthy, or healthy and innovative. The Internet Food Association discusses.

• Food Navigator report: Beer and red wine marinade may cut cancer risk from beef.

• News from Israel that does not involve the war: High fat diets upset our biological clock.

• Serious “Drinks”: Top 11 Compounds in U.S. Drinking Water.

• I once learned from my grandmother that laying a piece of plastic wrap on top of ice cream before putting the lid back on prevents crystallization. It works.  New research shows that dietary fibres such at oat, apple and wheat may control crystallisation and recrystallisation in ice creams.

• Antibiotics in veggies? I give up.

• Tip: Creamier (and Lighter!) Sauce With Pasta Water. This sounds familiar, as if I’ve read it before or saw it on a cooking show once.

• Feeling gelty after the holidays (get it? gelty?)? Post-Chanukah suggestions for using up less-than-amazing chocolate.

• Tired of raccoons being a pain in the ass? Eat them. Not that I’m advocating this, but hey.

• TV Squad asks, “At which of the Top Chefs’ restaurants would YOU eat?”. I wonder if these restaurants would live up to expectation.

• The power of Oprah: Advertising Age asks,  Will Oprah Bring Down Blue Corn Chips? I can’t believe I still remember David Letterman’s “Uma… Oprah” bit from the Oscars 14 years ago. It was neither good nor funny, but it was memorable. Of course it’s got a section on Wikipedia (I wanted to check the year to see how far back the memory went).

• Taste T.O. wants to help you get the most value out of prix fixe menus.

• For you food enthusiasts (and you are reading my blog), today Slashfood announced the launch of an online cooking community called Mixing Bowl.

• Around the world  there’s talk about what Barack Obama eats and whether or not he’ll replace the current White House chef. The Globe and Mail’s headline is “Chowbama”. The Toronto Sun has two stories. Chicago Sun Times on White House chefs. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis asks, “Will Obama be a foodies’ president?” …and so on. Blogs are abuzz as well.

Photo links:

Pretty clementine granita (Click photo for more info.)

Is this cool or what? (Click photo for more info.)

Happy eating.

Post script: I’ve just added the tag “food pr0n”. Will be interesting to see if I’m denied access to posts tagged as such while at work. It won’t let me view mightygodking’s award-winning blog (mightygodking.com) or certain posts at other food blogs.

Around the local newspapers on Wednesday -
From the Globe and Mail:
- Their fetish is fermentation. Foodies are turning to live microbes to aid digestion and ward off disease. The paper version – which I read first – includes a sauerkraut recipe that I can’t find on their website.
- Too good to spit up: feeding toddlers regular food, the way Italians do.

The Niagara Falls Review:
-Eating local food supports local farms and Just add watermelon.

The Toronto Star writes about Mangosteens- which I still want to try, vegan dishes – along with a conversation about honey not being vegan-friendly and sea asparagus – of which I’d never heard and am now curious about.

The Oregonian on lemon curd. Includes recipes. I want to make it and freeze it popsicle-style.

From the blogs…

-The Urban Vegan on 101 fast recipes for inspired vegan picnics.

-I posted a similar link once before, but this one is different: How To Build a Cheap-Ass Grill for Under $10

- Food Words in 2008 version of Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. The list Includes “pescatarian” (that’s me! – generally) and prosecco (yum). Non food words, as read here, include webinar, fanboy, Texas Hold ’em, jukebox musical and “air quotes” [insert gesture here].
I don’t like the word “webinar” and am slightly surprised that it took so long for “fanboy” to make it.

-I don’t have a grill but I look forward to making a variation (either on the George Foreman Grill or under the broiler) of Grilled Tuna with Mango Dipping Sauce.

-Yesterday Slashfood rsported that FDA rules that high fructose corn syrup is natural and ran an item about cooking with coffee. I want to vegan-ize the coffee chili recipe.

-Apartment Therapy on Maple Sugar. I like all things maple. Yum.

-Chocolate chip cookie fleur de sel on top.

-Slashfood on sourdough starter.
**

In personal food news:

Dinner last night was actually a snack, and it was great: Blanched and chilled peas in their shells dipped in sesame ginger salad dressing. I realized yesterday (Thursday) that I still had salad mix, peas and broccoli from my trip to the farmer’s market 8 days prior and so I washed all the lettuce and stored it properly (wrapped up in a dish towel in a big plastic tub) and blanched all the peas. I need to find a use for wilted broccoli. Stir fry or soup, I suppose. As much as I like local lettuce I do enjoy the convenience of the pre-washed stuff. I washed and rinsed the salad many times yesterday and I still wasn’t sure if the water was completely clear. I also have no salad spinner.

I think I need to bake this weekend.

This Stuffed Fiesta Burger recipe came to my inbox today via Kraft Canada’s What’s Cooking newsletter.

A Caesar Burger recipe from the same source.

A photo of a basil burger that appeared at Slashfood yesterday.

A blog called A Hamburger Today connected to the Serious Eats website.

The history of hamburgers and hamburger facts according to Wikipedia and H2G2 (aka The Hitch hiker’s Guide to Earth, which I believe predates Wikipedia).

NPR on hamburgers, multimedia.

In other news,

Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled a commercial featuring Rachael Ray wearing a scarf because Michelle Malkin, a conservative observer in the U.S. who writes for The Conservative Voice, determined that the scarf looked too much like a keffiyeh.  In an attempt to be clever (I was mildly amused), Malkin refers to the keffiyeh as “hate couture”.  Sometimes I wonder if conservative extremists believe that they’re trying to sell, or if it’s all about grabbing the headlines and cavorting in the spotlight so that people know who they are. Ratings ratings ratings. In other news that isn’t, Rachael Ray is still selling out to Dunkin’ Donuts.

PETA wants you to vote for the world’s sexiest vegetarian in their fourth annual poll. Currently Natalie Portman (hot, vegetarian, and Israeli by birth) and Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance (that’s what the kids consider “sexy” these days?) lead the poll. Notice the generation gap between the nominees. There’s someone on that list for your parents and your kids (or younger siblings). I think they nominated every living celebrity vegetarian.

The Kitchn lists 9 Best Quick Desserts for Spring. The list is drool-worthy.

On the topic of desserts, Perfect Chocolate Mousse according to David Lebovitz and Julia Child.

Ever wonder what the difference is between organic eggs and cage free eggs? There’s a discussion about it happening in the Talk section of Serious Eats.

Same place, a discussion about olive oil. (Does it show my age that Popeye comes to mind?)

From the New York Times: “Flavor tripping” with a “miracle berry”. I predict that “flavour tripping parties” will hit Toronto by the end of the year, hosted at venues such as Lobby.

“The Fruit Hunters,” a new book mentioned in the article, was reviewed in the Globe and Mail today. It also has a Facebook group.

Closer to home, StatsCan reports that Canadians are filling their shopping carts with more fresh fruits, cartons of low fat milk and red meats and skimping on oranges and breads.

Taste T.O. talks summer beers. One from their list that I’ve tried and really like is Unibroue Éphémère Apple. I associate drinking on patios in the summer with KLB Raspberry Wheat or Hoegaarten, which I had a pint of on Sunday, on a rooftop patio.

According to Taste T.O. I’m not the only one who doesn’t understand the Sex and the City phenomenon and would rather watch Sarah Jessica Parker in Square Pegs.

The Globe and Mail on tequila tastings, and I’m reminded of an aged tequila that Katrina used to keep on the shelf. “In case of emergency”. It was bought in the days of the tequila shortage (agave cacti were threatened or something). That stuff went down smooth.

Eco News that has nothing to do with food (unless you free associate):
Coca-Cola Co. pledged yesterday to reduce its carbon footprint by buying 100,000 beverage coolers fitted with new environment friendly technologies. Story.

Coke launches fleet of hybrid trucks that are nicer to the environment. Story.