Gut Check is a new column that will, in author Ezra Klein's words, be "a provocative look at the policy and politics of the plate. It's about the high cost of cheap meat, and whether eating local actually makes any sense, and why the world might be better off if Congress dissolved its agricultural committees." In the inaugural installment Klein reviews Food Inc. and talks to Eric Schlosser, who consulted on the film....
Continue reading »
Photo from the Washington Post The Washington Post has a great piece from Jane Black (occasional Serious Eats correspondent) about the “Sardinistas”—a group of fishermen and biologists near California’s Monterey Bay, dedicated to elevating America’s perception of the lowly sardine. "We want to value what these fish can give to us from an ecological standpoint and a health standpoint,” sardine fanatic Mark Shelley tells Black. “And we think there are real ways to enjoy them." In service of the sardine, Shelley and others are planning to produce a new line of canned sardines, raise awareness about their health benefits, and re-brand the fish in the American marketplace. It’s an uphill battle, but one that the “Sardinistas” are passionate about....
Continue reading »
A few weeks ago, we brought you Meat Cards—business cards made of beef jerky, with your information laser-etched in. But Joe Yonan at the Washington Post went ahead and got a batch. The result? Each card is "surprisingly delicate," he writes, and "a little hard to make out in parts." But it looks pretty great in his bacon-patterned wallet....
Continue reading »
Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, Washington Post Two items out of Sustainorgania are making the rounds on the food sites today. The first, more attention-grabbing one, on The Atlantic Food Channel, has Bill and Nicolette Hahn Niman (of Niman Ranch fame) calling on the Obamas to become chicken farmers. "The idea may sound far fetched, but is it, really? At the dawn of the 20th century, chickens were literally everywhere." The Bay Area ranchers would like to see "a flock of egg-laying hens for the White House grounds." This comes, of course, on the heels of the news about the new White House vegetable garden. As Eater cleverly put it, "Give those locavores an inch and they'll take a mile.... Also...
Continue reading »
The Bill Moyers Journal teamed up with the PBS series Exposé: America's Investigative Reports to follow the trail of Washington Post reporters who uncovered more than $15 billion in "wasteful, unnecessary, or redundant expenditures" that went from Washington to America's farmers. With grain prices skyrocketing and the federal deficit out of sight, this would seem the moment to cut back on those tens of billions of dollars that taxpayers shower on milk producers, cotton and rice farmers, and growers of corn, soybeans, wheat, and sugar — subsidies that keep coming whether they're needed or not. Our farm policies frankly are a ramshackle, a costly mess — a monster jerrybuilt by politics. What was supposed to be a temporary financial...
Continue reading »
For Easter, the Washington Post decided to have some fun and so they held a Marshmallow Peeps Diorama Contest. They expected about a dozen or so entries and got over 350 from across the US and beyond! The grand prize winner was freelance graphic artist and photographer Charles Johnston, who spent two weeks working on his Peeps Are A Girl's Best Friend (above); the WaPo staff was "rendered speechless by the diorama's meticulous craftsmanship -- from Marilyn Monroe's sculpted hairdo (made of clay), to her curve-hugging pink papier-mache dress (her rump is made of a whole Peep), to the fine details of the tuxedoed Peepmen, each made of 61 pieces (their toes are coat hangers bent into L shapes,...
Continue reading »
Erin Hartigan's Sure-Fire Rules for Sparks in the Kitchen is about the do's and don'ts of cooking as a date activity: "When it comes to cooking together, an otherwise compatible new couple can break down faster than a sauce sabayon. The annals of my own dating history are singed with kitchen mishaps. During a triple first-date cooking night at my best friend's place, each couple helped produce a meal of chicken pot stickers, spaghetti with meat sauce and Key lime pie. Nobody wanted to take control; we socialized as pasta turned to mush and pots boiled over. What began as a promising soiree ended early, with six scowls and three inedible courses." Other highlights: In A Drink to Make You...
Continue reading »
