Tag Archives: links

Tasty items from the past week

Posted on by
Reply
  • Tom Colicchio on his new cookbook [Slashfood]
  • An interview with Robert Kenner of Oscar-nominated ‘Food, Inc.’  [Slashfood]
  • Foodie paradise in Berkeley [Los Angeles Times] – Coincidentally, I saw this linked on Serious Eats at the end of a day spent in Berkeley. I used the washroom in Saul’s, saw the Cheese Board, had lunch at Chez Panisse, bought a pair of shoes next door to the Juice Bar Collective, strolled on Shattuck Ave. and went to the Peet’s on Solano in North Berkeley, where I bought a Peet’s mug for my office. I also went to the Berkeley Bowl (West), a big independent supermarket that the article didn’t mention. The closest Toronto analogy that I have to the Berkeley Bowl is Fiesta Farms. Next time I’ll spend more time in the city and do some more wandering. There are only so many hours in a day.
  • An interview with “Dairy-farmer-turned-food-activist” Michael Schmidt. [Eye]
  • Meat Might Be Behind Many Unidentified Allergic Reactions [Medline Plus]
  • Kids’ Peanut Allergies Might Be Tamed: Study [Medline Plus]
  • Sarah Polley pulled her name from a short film five days before it was scheduled to air during the Oscars because she learned that the film was being used for product promotion. [Toronto Life, CBC, Globe and Mail] Good for Sarah. She’s a cool chick. It’s also an example of corporate sponsorship of non-profits.

Have a great weekend. Eat well, be well.

Links for the week

Posted on by
Reply
pomegranate seeds
  • The Best Bakeries in Toronto, selected by BlogTO readers. [BlogTO]
  • What’s Toronto Really Eating? Analysis of what’s inside that take out. [Post City Magazine]
  • As if I needed another reason to yearn for a food dehydrator (which is low on my list on gadgets for which I yearn): Ingredient Spotlight: Dried Pomegranate Seeds [The Kitchn]
  • Critics Slam Fast Food Franchises in U.K. Hospitals [Slashfood] The food they serve patients isn’t much better. Preservative and sugar laden fruit drinks (not even juice), Jello…  but I won’t rant.
  • McCain’s announces new line of frozen pizza and potato products, and remove ‘top 10 worst ingredients’ [National Post]
  • Q & A with Michael Pollan on his new book, “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual” [New York Times]
  • The (in)accuracy of calorie counts on fast food menus. You may be surprised. [Fooducate]
  • In this week’s “Hot Dog Of The Week”, Serious Eats looks at Toronto street meat. [Serious Eats]
  • How do food companies determine “serving size”? [Slate]
  • Fiesta Farms is looking for website content from grandmothers willing share their culinary traditions.  Maybe Sheryl will find her “kickass gefilte fish recipe” as a result. [Fiesta Farms, via TasteTO]
  • Before Meghan left to lead a retreat in St. Lucia she asked her Facebook friends for suggestions for blog entries to be written before she left and scheduled for while she was away. The result: “Purse (+ Briefcase) Food” [Making Love in the Kitchen]

What others are talking about

Posted on by
Reply

Curry+Spices_2248_19444044_0_0_7039592_300Link roundup.

  • Meghan was recently featured on CBC”s book club. Check it out. That also lead me to watch David Sax‘s interview promoting his book “Save the Deli” (I missed a launch party for it because I had somewhere else to be).
  • Curry spice ‘kills cancer cells’  [BBC] and Tikka masala could save your life [National Post]
  • Interesting: In the U.S. “The Institute of Medicine has a new report out on setting standards for school meals.” and New York City’s ever active health department did a study on the availability of fruits and vegetables in low-income areas and found few, if any, supermarkets carrying fresh produce.  [Food Politics]
  • Wow. “Meatless Mondays in Baltimore Schools – Under Attack”  [Fooducate] Read it to see criticism from the American Meat Institute, Pork Magazine and The Animal Agriculture Alliance and Missouri Beef Council. Gotta love those marketing boards and interest groups.
  • An interview with Not Far From the Tree founder Laura Reinsborough. [Torontoist] I recently blogged‘ about Not Far From the Tree and will be at their End-of-Season Celebration this evening.
  • The Best All Day Breakfast in Toronto [BlogTO]
  • Local Food Plus: Sustaining the Local Food Movement [TasteTO]
  • Local restaurants participating in November, helping raise money for prostate cancer [TasteTO]
  • Kosher School Kids Can Now Nosh on Subway Sandwiches [Slashfood]

Eat well, be well

Food holidays: October 26-November 1

Posted on by
Reply

*The usual disclaimer: These are noted official US holidays but I post them anyway. Occasionally there are “international” days.

Did I just type “November 1″? Yes I did. Sorry to depress you but the month is coming to an end. (Or maybe you’re happy about that. Maybe you had a bad month.)

Some weeks I’m light on the links or do little research. This week I’m trying to be diverse, linking to local companies where I can and trying to avoid biased websites where health claims are concerned.

This being the final week of October (I said it again), it’s also Chicken Soup for the Soul Week: The book series. Wikipedia on chicken soup.

  • October 26: Mince Meat Pie Day. I feel an expression of disgust on my face as I type this.
  • October 27: National Potato Day. According to that link, there are 60 different kinds of phytochemicals and vitamins in the skins and flesh of 100 wild and commercially grown potatoes.
  • October 28: National Chocolate Day and Wild Foods Day. Check out that second link. It’s a shout out to Forbes Wild Foods, based out of Toronto.
  • October 29: National Oatmeal Day. Yum. Healthy and so easy to make.
  • October 30: National Candy Corn Day and Buy a Doughnut Day
  • October 31: Of course with it being Halloween, it’s National Candy Apple Day.

But wait! There’s more!

November is…

  • Georgia Pecan Month
  • Good Nutrition Month
  • National Pepper Month
  • National Pomegranate Month
  • Raisin Bread Month. I’ll eat some raisin challah to celebrate.
  • National Fun with Fondue Month. My favouite cheese fondue memories: Switzerland with my parents when I was 13, and my Swiss-German boyfriend making me his family recipe when I was 19 or 20, and the fact that it’s the same recipe my family had – because it came from his family in one of those small world situations.
  • Vegan Month

You know what else?

[I always like this version better than the original example of how something so silly goes viral.]

National Peanut Butter Lover’s Month (Wikipedia on peanut butter), which means that I have another excuse to link to the video above! Do you prefer your peanut butter smooth or crunchy?

And finally…

November 1: National Deep Fried Clams Day and National Vinegar Day. Check out numerous uses for vinegar!

Enjoy, and excuse all my exclamation marks. Either I’m still buzzing from this morning’s run and subsequent latte, or I still have Michel’s post about this form of punctuation simmering in my subconscious.

Eat well, be well.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

What others are talking about

Posted on by
1
  • Survey reveals little progress in Canadian eating habits [CBC]
  • The Toronto Star reviews the ActiFry, a new French fry making machine from T-Fal. [Toronto Star]
  • Burger King Japan’s 7-layered Whopper for Windows 7 release. [Engadget] 7 Burgers, for ¥777 and it’s only available for…you guessed it, 7 days.
  • Want to see the burger in action? The Windows 7 Whopper. [Mashable] I love it when my geekdom for food and my geekdom for tech collide.
  • Mark Bittman on how to make creamy, soft, mouth-filling polenta without standing by the stove stirring constantly for a half-hour or longer. [New York Times]
  • Fooducate asks, Can We Trust Industry Funded Food Research?
  • 6 ‘Healthy’ Foods You Can Probably Live Without [NPR] Obvious, but okay.
  • Autumn Dinner Party Menu: A Polenta Bar! [The Kitchn]
  • A Lego kitchen island [The Kitchn]
  • Dana comes from a long line of blood thirsty hunters and asks, How blood thirsty are you? [Dana McCauley]
  • Focus on Toronto-based non-profit Local Food Plus [GoodFoodRevBlog]
  • Jess of Sift Dust and Toss attends an event organized by the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance and learns about aquaculture while eating some great seafood and talking with fish farmers. [Sift, Dust & Toss]

Whopper

In the world of food

Posted on by
Reply
  • Who knew that sephardic Jews eat beef lung, beef heart and beef cheek on Rosh Hashana? Not me. On Serious Eats>Talk “rabbiswife” wants to know how to prepare them. [Serious Eats]
  • Rosh Hashana, Tunisian style [LA Times]
  • The invention of the chocolate chip cookie: A delicious accident. [Serious Eats]
  • Probiotic-containing apple wedges may offer dairy-free alternatives [Decision News Media]
  • 10 Dirty Little Restaurant Secrets [Slashfood]
  • 7 Ways to Reuse a Banana Peel [ReNest]
  • Who Contributes More to Your Health – Doctors or Dietitians? [Fooducate]
  • Their followup post on the subject  [Fooducate]
  • Dannon settles class action suit filed last year that alleged that the company knowingly misled consumers in its marketing activities around its Activia yogurt line.  [Fooducate]
  • Restaurant That Invented Caesar Salad Closes [Serious Eats]
  • Cost a factor in Canadians’ diets [CBC]
  • In case you missed it last week: Following her controversial horse meat story Dana investigates fois gras. 18 comments (not including her own) before someone questioned whether she had any life left in her soul. [Dana McCauley]
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Food news

Posted on by
1

News_IconSome of these go back to last week, but I didn’t have enough links to justify a post until today:

  • Make Your Own Fruit and Vegetable Wash [re-nest]
  • 9 Secret Toxins Lurking in Your Food [Dr. Mercola] – Little that I didn’t already know (I didn’t know about cans being lined with BPA), but it’s a reminder.
  • Buy some blueberries while they’re in season. According to Disease Proof they help prevent mental decline. Contains a nice 4 minute video.
  • Healthy eating ‘disorder’ on the rise [Decision News] “An obsession with healthy eating is on the increase, but cutting out of large number of foods, or foods that contain certain ingredients may increase the risk of malnutrition.”
  • Chocolate again linked to better heart health (again) [Decision News]
  • Why Potato Chips Aren’t Always The Worst [vending machine] Option [Fooducate]
  • Behind the Barn Door: The Hidden Facts about Canada’s Horsemeat Industry. [Dana McCauley] In an introduction to this article Dana writes,

The impetus to write this article arose after I posted about the culinary aspects of horsemeat last month. I received many comments and questions that left me with no ready response;  it became obvious that I needed to learn more about this topic. The result is about 3,000 words of interviews, stats and opinions. I know you might not have time to read all of this piece when you click through today, but I hope you’ll bookmark this post and come back to it when you have more time.

(My comments are there along with some interesting conversation.)

  • More from Dana: Topline Trends Tuesday: Natural food colourings [Dana McCauley]
  • DineTO reviews O.Noir, where you dance dine in the dark. This gun’s for hire.

***

…Shockingly, the “food” folder in my RSS reader is now empty. I can’t remember the last time that happened. Usually I have items flagged for later as new items are added.

Links of the day

Posted on by
Reply
  • “…if a food containing corn or soybeans is not labeled Certified Organic or GM-free, you should assume it is GM.” [Marion Nestle]
  • I like this: 5 Powerful Reasons to Eat More Slowly [Dr. Mercola] I still forget to eat mindfully and consciously even though the concept was repeatedly raised in the food ethics course that I recently participated in.
  • 10 signs Your Next (restaurant) meal will suck. [Macheesmo] What are signs to you?
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Friday's links

Posted on by
Reply
  • What a bogus marketing campaign: Burger King wants you to have it your (healthy) way [CliqueClack Food]
  • Salads ‘rival Big Macs for fat’ [BBC]
  • Toxic chemical in plastic pallets could be leaching into food [Foodproductiondaily]
  • An extract from propolis, the waxy resin collected by honeybees, may reduce the detrimental effects prolonged exercising in hot climates, according to a new study.  [NutraIngredients]
  • McDonald’s Europe to showcase “sustainable farming” [The Ethicurean] What’s good for the bottom line…
  • Health and the Mediterranean diet. [The Appetizer/National Post] (I’ve seen this news in multiple places.)
  • When ‘Certified Organic’ is a Lie  [Mercola.com]

Eat well, be well.

Wednesday's links: Something for everyone

Posted on by
Reply
  • Staying sober a challenge in the alchol-heavy hospitality industry. [New York Times] I found the personal stories in this article very interesting.
  • Treehugger proposes a weekday vegetarian diet [Treehugger]
  • Ever wonder why lemon makes milk curdle? It involves protein, negative charge and bondage (er, bonding). [The Kitchn]
  • Creating satisfying food is central to home cooks and chefs — as well as to companies that have produced foods that have helped lead to the obesity epidemic. Mark Bittman on Making Food Satisfying. [New York Times]
  • In his article Bittman links the article “How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains“. It’s fascinating. Quote: “[Kessler] offers descriptions of how restaurants and food makers manipulate ingredients to reach the aptly named ‘bliss point.’”
  • According to this newsletter, the average child gets 5+ servings of pesticides in their food and water each day and the pesticide Atrazine is so toxic it is banned in Europe, but it is used so widely in the U.S., that it is found in 71% of the U.S. drinking water. (Thanks to my mother for forwarding me the newsletter. I went to the online archive so that I could share it with you.)
  • One woman’s changing relationship with food and what she’s learned in the process of doing so while getting healthier. [In The Raw] There’s some great tips in there. The theme of conscious eating comes up (in my life) again and again I forget to exercise it, in part because I eat while doing other things. She touches on multitasking while eating.
  • Torontist on Toronto’s a la Carte food cart program. Not all good news.
  • Meghan weighs in on milk and advises you not to drink conventional milk. [Making Love in the Kitchen] Milk bad. I know this and yet I can’t seem to give up cheese even though avoiding cheese would fit the reason I rarely eat meat.
  • Food industry propaganda: New Organic Logo Will Provide More Opportunities For Organic Producers. [Canadian Food Inspection Agency] “Canada’s Organic Products Regulations (OPR)…set out rigourous standards for the certification of products as organic by accredited certification bodies. Products that meet the production requirements and contain at least 95 per cent organic content may be labelled as “organic” and feature the new Biologique Canada Organic Logo.

No links for tomorrow likely because I’ll be away from a computer all day. However, I do need to write a post about Food Share’s open house from last weekend. I’d forgotten.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]