Recently in Food news Category

Hadn't heard of this one:

According to various sources, pine nut mouth is the result of a sensitivity to imported pine nuts, which are actually the seeds found in cones of pine trees. While it's not life-threatening, it can be, in Hennesey's words, "brutal" for the seven to 10 days sufferers experience it. Last year, 53 people reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that they suffered some form of "pine nut mouth." In France, some 800 cases have been reported to the USDA's counterpart since 2001.

But except for a few blog mentions on foodie Web sites and a short 2001 study available on the Internet, very little is known about "pine nut mouth."

They're importing pine nuts from everywhere now, so maybe some varieties might have this issue, or they just might have been rancid. I'm willing to be more selective in what I buy, but I'm not making pesto without them!

Walmart Bests Whole Foods in Blind Taste Tests

"WE SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS," read a sign at an Austin Walmart. I didn't see any farm names listed in the produce section, but I did find plastic tubs of organic baby spinach and "spring mix" greens with modern labeling that looked like it could be at Whole Foods. My list was simple to the point of stark, for a fair fight. Some ingredients seemed identical to what I'd find at Whole Foods. Organic, free-range brown eggs. Promised Land all-natural, hormone-free milk. A bottle of Watkins Madagascar vanilla for panna cotta. I couldn't find much in the way of the seasonal fruit the restaurant had told me the chef would serve with dessert. But I did find, to my surprise, a huge bin of pomegranates, so I bought those, and some Bosc pears. The sticking points were fresh goat cheese, which flummoxed the nice sales people (we found some Alouette brand, hidden), and chicken breasts. I could find organic meat, but no breasts without "up to 12 percent natural chicken broth" added--an attempt to inject flavor and add weight. I wasn't happy with the suppliers, either: Tyson predominated. I bought Pilgrims Pride, but was suspicious. The bill was $126.02.

At the flagship Whole Foods, in downtown Austin, the produce was much more varied, though the spinach and spring mix looked less vibrant. The chicken was properly dry, a fresh ivory color--and more than twice as expensive as Walmart's. My total bill was $175.04; $20 of the extra $50 was for the meat.

I haven't seen anything like this in our area yet, but I'm hopeful. I sure miss Sprouts, but I'm able to find reasonable good produce at Meijer, though their meat department is not great.

(Photo: TPC's Grilled Jalapeño Poppers with grilled Hot Wings. For Julie's take on my bacon cooking "prowess", click here.)

Tim Love says the bacon craze has gone too far:

To professional and amateur chefs alike, it has become more than just a potent tool for infusing fat and flavor. It has become a ubiquitous ingredient in everything from cocktails to crockpots, used by chefs a bit too liberally in favor of that big, familiar taste you've known since Mom first put it on your plate before school. Bacon coffee, bacon cereal, bacon ice cream--America, cut it out!

I hope Biggles and Chilebrown don't figure out where he lives.

Popular Science has a cool article for the gadget geeks. It's a infrared radiant fryer that sounds very promising:

It's essentially a glorified heat lamp, using 10-12 infrared emitters with different wavelengths. Each has a different purpose -- some cook the middle, some heat the surface, and so on. Jalapeno poppers work well because the inside can be cooked at a much lower temperature than the exterior, for instance. "We just literally change the dial on our emitter setting," Keener said.

Even if it's years before we can have them in homes, as someone who's drained a lot of fryers, I'm all for it!

Bravo has announced, via NRN, the chefs that will be competing this year. Some familiar names, but lots I don't know.

(Photo: In-N-Out's Double Double, grilled onions for me thankyouverymuch.)

The title of the article is a bit silly- In-N-Out Burger vs. McDonald's: Guess Who Won?, but some interesting insight into how much better regional chains do at satisfying customers compared to the (inter)national brands:

In a survey of 94,000 users last year, In-N-Out Burger of Irvine, Calif., was the top winner in overall customer satisfaction, which takes into account, among other things, quality of food and service, cleanliness and value for the money, in the 2008 Quick-Track Awards of Excellence.

"It's probably easier to maintain the highest standards if you're only operating in a couple of states," says Paul Clarke, vice president of sales and marketing at Sandelman & Associates. "So, customers recognize the difference."

There's much more pressure when you're a publicly traded company to increase profitability even when sales are down. In-N-Out, I know, is family owned. Check out the article to see the results of the poll.

(Disclosure: I've been a Starbucks shareholder over the years, and if I was masochistic enough to look at a brokerage statement these days I could tell you for sure if I'm in the stock now.)

I haven't been a Starbucks fan for quite a while now for one main reason- their coffee has gone way downhill since their meteoric expansion. They've been a victim of their own success- it's much, much harder to source a million pounds of quality coffee beens than it is to procure 100,000 pounds. I get that, really.

You either buy into the whole half-caff mocha java tall/grande/venti one Equal one Splenda no foam whip Frappicino thing or you don't, but my main beef is the quality of the coffee and the mass produced pastries that are so heinously overpriced it offends me when I have to spend money there while at an airport.

Having said all that, I was fascinated by an article I came across today that really made me aware of the nasty coffee war going on against Starbucks:

McDonald's has erected a billboard in sight of Starbucks headquarters declaring, "four bucks is dumb."

If Dunkin' Donuts' taste test commercials were the schoolyard equivalent of blowing spitballs at the coffee giant from afar, then the latest from McDonald's is like pulling a wedgie. Starbucks employees driving northbound can see the billboard on their way into the city.

Another billboard slogan jabs, "large is the new grande." The two phrases are displayed on 140 billboards in Western Washington, some of them near Starbucks cafes.

Ouch.

Have a favorite coffee? I pick up a few coffees I like at Sprouts, but I've enjoyed a lot of Peet's coffee over the years.

Interesting feedback from someone named Vasachi about the ZSweet post I did a while back:

I just received my order of Zsweet. First thing I did was open the container and taste it. It is almost as sweet as regular table sugar, hardly can tell the difference. I couldn't wait to make a pot of coffee to try it out. Normally I use 2 teaspoons of sugar in my coffee. It took 2.5 teaspoons of Zsweet to make my coffee taste the way it does when I use regular sugar. There is absolutely no after taste and no bitterness. I bought it in granular form next I will try the powdered form for baking. I am very pleased indeed. I just hope that down the road I don't find out it has something hidden in the "natural flavoring" that is not good for me. It has become difficult for me to trust any company making sweetners after the Aspartme lies. If anyone else has information regarding Zsweet please post it. Thanks and I hope this has been helpful.

Anybody else tried it?

I knew there was a reason I made guacamole on Sunday...:

2. Guacamole If you're craving something creamy, look no further. Avocados are loaded with B vitamins, which stress quickly depletes and which your body needs to maintain nerves and brain cells. Plus their creaminess comes from healthy fat. Scoop up the stuff with whole-grain baked chips-crunching keeps you from gritting your teeth.

Lots of other good stuff we've been making a point of eating, too.

They're good for ya!:

The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

The new research found that cells lining mice's blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents' blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is "no doubt" produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

Obviously the healthiest scene in movie history, then...