food

Some stories around 4food's beta launch last night: CNET | Eater | Thrillist| Gizmodo | NYT | SlyOyster. We open full time on September 9.

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You may have been hearing that chef Jamie Oliver wants to change the world through better food. And he has a show on ABC to help him accomplish just that. In this teaser video, he goes to a school in "America's unhealthiest town" (Huntington, WV) and shows the kids tomatoes, an eggplant, and cauliflower. The kids don't recognize any of them. --ADM

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Walmart is now selling locally-sourced food. They call it "Heritage Agriculture." Just another case of greenwashing? Let's find out: The Atlantic has a full report, including a blind taste test with a panel of foodies, comparing the offerings to the local Whole Foods'. --ADM [via BAR]

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The end game of food porn: Food Gawker. -RX

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Clearly the strangest part of the NYT Mag's interview with Ruth Reichl:

[Gourmet] has a legendary renewal rate. They would never tell me exactly what it was. I kept asking: "What does that mean? What are you talking about?" And they just kept saying: "It's great. People buy Gourmet forever."

This reminds me of NYTimes.com's lead editor saying he has no idea of their metrics. I understand why editors might want to shield their publications from the vagaries of metrics, but to completely ignore them seems like suicide.

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The greatest drunk on earth? Modern Drunkard thinks it knows: "You won't find it in the Guinness Book of World Records, but Andre the Giant holds the world record for the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting. These were standard 12-ounce bottles of beer, nothing fancy, but during a six-hour period Andre drank 119 of them." It also says he drank 7,000 calories of booze per day.

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The World's Top 100 Restaurants. Per Se (NYC) and Alinea (Chicago) are the only two American entries in the top 10. Others: The French Laundry (Napa), Le Bernardin (NYC), Jean Georges (NYC), Masa (NYC), Momofuku Ssam Bar (NYC), Daniel (NYC), Chez Panisse (Berkeley), Babbo (NYC), Manresa (Santa Cruz), and Del Posto (NYC).

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Your favorite Tumblr for the next five minutes: Scanwiches. More yummy details at Gizmodo. [via]

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Your favorite new Tumblr for the next five minutes: This Is Why You Are Fat.

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Drop 10 friends from your Facebook account, get a free BK Whopper. AdWeek story: "The fast-food chain has released the Whopper Sacrifice application on Facebook. The app rewards people with a coupon for BK's signature burger when they cull 10 friends. Each time a friend is excommunicated, the application sends a notification to the banished party via Facebook's news feed explaining that the user's love for the unlucky soul is less than his or her zeal for the Whopper."

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NYT Styles: "If absinthe were a band, it would be Interpol, third-hand piffle masquerading as transgressive pop culture. If absinthe were sneakers, it would be a pair of laceless Chuck Taylors designed by John Varvatos for Converse. If it were facial hair, it would be the soul patch. If absinthe were a finish on kitchen and bath fixtures, it would be brushed nickel."

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NYT on SF's cocktail scene, which actually does seem more advanced than anywhere else in America.

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Worst trend of the year: not drinking.

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For foodies: an upcoming HBO documentary about Le Cirque.

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If you walk into Starbucks today and tell them you voted, you get a free cup of coffee. If you walk into Ben & Jerry's today and tell them you voted, you get a free scoop of ice cream. If you walk into Krispy Kreme today and tell them you voted, you get a free donut. If you walk into Babeland today and tell them you voted, you get a free sex toy. So vote!

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"I have a theory that you can tell how much a restaurant thinks about its food by the quality of its veggie burger." I like this theory.

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Harper's: The Food Network at the frontiers of pornography.

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The reactions of Chinese people who encounter fortune cookies for the first time. (As you know, fortune cookies are an American invention.)

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Sioux City, Iowa is very, very excited about their new Olive Garden. [via]

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14 Ways Starbucks Has Tried to Revitalize its Brand. If you've noticed freebie offers for repeat visiting (#12), free WiFi with a Starbucks Card (#13), and others... [via]

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I don't get many chances at crossover links like this, so here goes... some of you from Minneapolis might remember Taavo Somer, the architect-turned-restaurateur who made a splash in duh big city with Freemans, which cited The Loring (RIP, sigh) as his primary inspiration. (If you've visited from the Midwest, I've taken you there, nostalgically. Taavo also did the whole "Morally Bankrupt," "Emotionally Unavailable," etc. t-shirts for Barneys, before your mom had a t-shirt line.) New Yorkers know him as the guy who also created The Rusty Knot and Gemma. Now that the table is set, the link: a new NY Mag profile of Taavo, the sorta thing that drives people like me crazy with the bleak feeling that we should be doing more.

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The NYT Mag column on Brawndo, which was in the swag bag at ROFL Con, reveals that the faux-turned-legit soda's creator is also behind the energy drink Cocaine.

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Idea for vegetarians: faux endangered food.

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Salad Flavored Water. Oh, Japan. [via]

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Regional Pizza Styles. [via]

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New restaurant: I Fucking Hate Mondays. (More funny in concept than execution, but whatevs.)

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Slate: Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses. And more importantly, it includes numbers and explains how it differs from Wal-Mart.

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The Most Expensive Drink at Starbucks. A 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel = $13.76. [via]

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Onion A/V taste-tests the energy drink Brawndo, which was the fictional-turned-real "thirst mutilator" from the movie Idiocracy.

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Slate's new video section has been somewhat disappointing so far, but this report from the prison food convention is pretty fascinating. I never would have even thought about the implications of "weapons-free food."

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Because of BuzzFeed, I just bought a case of MonaVie. I sorta hate myself for falling for this. But I bet it mixes great with vodka!

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Wine 2.0: Snooth.com.

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File under: random thing that seems worth knowing. In its biggest purchase ever, Coke is buying the maker of Vitamin Water. In other news, NYT had an interesting Coke vs. Pepsi infographic.

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The Onion: Pizza Hut's New Pizza Lover's Pizza Topped With Smaller Pizzas.

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Biz Week: Interview with Chipotle CEO. Fast food with "integrity"?

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When I moved to Seattle, I assumed every corner market would offer fresh options for my favorite hand-food delicacy: bahn mi. These little sandwiches, which I occasionally describe as "the delicious side of colonialism" or "history visualized as food," are basically a mashup of French bread and Vietnamese nummies, invented during the French occupation of Vietnam. Alas, you might think this delectable wonder would be readily available in culture-rich Seattle, but the bahn mi is actually segregated to the International District, which is one of those neighborhoods you never end up being near. Anyway, a Seattlest post got me started on this rant, which leads me to only one conclusion: I must start a bahn mi shop in Belltown.

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New Yorker: The History of Vegetarianism, which is a review of the book The Bloodless Revolution. See also, HuffPost: Vegetarian is the New Prius.

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Meth Coffee. Gimme.

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A new Whole Foods recently opened a few blocks from my place in Seattle. I've only been a minor fan in the past -- there's something too precious about getting carrots there. But this new store is so full of delicious stuff that exists nowhere else, so it will probably become my regular grocery store. ANYWAY, Slate has a story about Whole Foods' stock tanking even though it shouldn't be. [via]

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I started emailing my friends in Brooklyn as soon as I saw the ad for Domino's "Brooklyn Style" pizza. WTF? NYT clears it up. Fascists.