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Lucky Dip – Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

If you need a reason to spend a bit more on produce at a local farmers market over buying imported stuff from the supermarket, this story about fruit farmer Duncan Smith should convince you. [Toronto Star]

Not so great with the chopsticks? Even if you’re not, it’s a good excuse to buy this totally cute panda game that helps improve chopsticks skills. [Bon Appetit]

I’m looking at this list of tips for reading restaurant menus and I can’t help but think that they’re geared towards mainstream chain places with marketing departments. Certainly, I never took a “how to fleece your customer by manipulating how they read the menu” course in culinary school. [Toronto Star: Moneyville]

Soup from a tube? Cool? Ick? Weird? [Food Manufacture]

Snack attacks and mindless eating – could this be what’s causing people to gain weight? [National Post]

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The Restaurant Website – What the Hell Are You Doing?

I just rebooted my computer.

Who cares, you might ask. But I had to reboot my system because I was visiting the website of a local restaurant and the PDF file of their menu caused my operating system to freeze. This would be mildly annoying if it was the only time I ever encountered it, but it actually happens on a regular basis. Between the PDFs, the crap flash websites and sites that are just never updated, restaurants make my job of writing about them like pulling teeth, only with a lot more tears and crying.

Look, I get the fact that not everybody is good at (or interested in) everything. Cooks wanna cook, they don’t want to waste their time mucking around with computer stuff or marketing campaigns or anything that isn’t, well, cooking. I get it. Just about everybody who works in a creative field, making things to sell to other people, feels the same way. Farmers hate dragging their produce to market, craftspeople hate dragging their wares to shows, authors hate doing book tours, and chefs hate taking time out of the kitchen to deal with paperwork.

But it’s a reality of life.

One that more restaurants should embrace, because your website is the most important tool you have in marketing your business. It’s a 24-hour-a-day business card that can make people want to try your food or never set foot in your place ever. More than Twitter, Facebook or any other online social networking site, their own website is where restaurants need to be concentrating their efforts.

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Lucky Dip – Monday, July 11th, 2011

CSA programs have worked for vegetables, cheese and meat-producers… why not a brewery? And if it happens to help the environment by allowing said brewery to add solar panels and reduce their hydro usage, all the better. Plus, the prospect of of some great one-off beers for the next three years is icing on the cake. [Toronto Sun]

It’s free Slurpee day at 7-11’s everywhere (get it? July 11? 7-11?). Before you go, know how the brain freeze you are about to experience really happens. [Food Republic]

If you didn’t pick serviceberries last week, you might be out of luck now, the heat has turned them into raisins that are only good for the birds. My friend Charlotte and her daughter Maggie went serviceberry picking for the first time this year and have a great story to tell about it. [Not Far From the Tree]

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but when everyone’s still half asleep, it helps to keep things simple. [Well Preserved]

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Lucky Dip – Thursday, July 7th, 2011

The response to Jennifer Bain’s request to visit people’s homes for dinner was so overwhelming, the Star has turned it into a regular column. The first article (and I suspect the rest will be as well) is a voyeuristic look into one couple’s cupboards. [Toronto Star]

See, now this… THIS is how you do an underground, pop-up, flash-mob dinner. [New York Times]

Happy anniversary to sliced bread. [EuroNews]

The question you were thinking, but were afraid to ask… no, Brad Moore of School is not impressed with the inaugural theme for the Drake‘s new pop-up dining room. [NOW]

And I’m delighted that Steven Davey digs Ortolan – the place is adorable, and this review reminds me how good those dandelion greens were the last time I was there. [NOW]

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Lucky Dip – Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

One penny per pound. That’s the only thing separating Florida tomato pickers from earning enough to support themselves. Would you pay the extra penny at the supermarket? Of course you would. So why won’t supermarkets agree to the deal and get these people out of virtual slavery? [Zester]

Hey, no fair! EU shoppers will see more Canadian organic products on supermarket shelves. Canadian shoppers continue to be SOL. [Toronto Sun]

Here’s a thought – instead of banning shark fin, or the process of finning, how about everyone follow the lead of the Bahamas, where they’ve banned shark fishing outright? [New York Times]

Okaaaay… while I’m as down with a tiki-themed bar as any gal with an Esquivel! collection, I’m thinking someone made this list up while munching their way through a tub of chocolate ice cream after smoking some of those funny-smelling cigarettes. What could have been a really good article just got a little silly. [Toronto Standard]

Price elasticity – the rule by which kids’ weight increase in proportion to food price decreases. In other words, cheap food = fat kids. [Food Navigator]

Pucker up, it’s lemonade season. [Toronto Sun]

What’s so great about coconut water? Everything! Okay, I am addicted. But I was addicted before it got all trendy. Now I just have multiple brands to choose from. [Sweet Potato Chronicles]

Chop chop. The meditative release of chopping vegetables. [Globe and Mail]

Lucky Dip – Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Will city council get the message that their job is about more than balancing the books – or will Toronto lose the local food procurement policy we’ve worked so hard for? [Joshna Maharaj]

And the winner is… Top Chef Canada finishes its first season with an upset, at least for the hometown crowd. [National Post: The Appetizer]

This is very bad news for someone who eats out for a living – eating at restaurants boosts risk of obesity. [Orlando Sentinel]

Gah! The price of palm oil is declining due to “increased supply”, AKA more deforestation. Come on you guys, stop eating shitty food made with palm oil and save some rainforest already. [Bloomberg]

See those weeds? Those are good eats. And plenty of them around the city. 10 foods you can forage in the city. [Toronto Tasting Notes]

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Lucky Dip – Monday, July 4th, 2011

“Chefs are not sane people. If you were sane, you wouldn’t be working 14 hours in a kitchen. So all I’m saying is that there is a lot of ill-will in the kitchen towards certain people.” Chef Christopher Lee on the death of fine dining, bloggers, Eater, and food celebrities. [Food Republic]

This is wrong, on so many levels, but I really can’t help wanting one. Lobster stuffed in a waffle. [Orange County Register]

All that work to add calorie counts to menus? yeah, the kids don’t even care. [Toronto Sun]

Once considered a tool of the devil, we now find it impossible to live without the fork. [Gizmodo]

There are some places ice cream shouldn’t go and some things that plain out don’t belong in ice cream. [CNN Eatocracy]

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Mango Tango

Mango purists (and I count myself among them) will rant about which mangoes are best until the cows come home. We’re pretty unanimous in our hatred for that hard red football known as Tommy Atkins, the variety that most often passes for “mango” in these parts, especially in the off-season, in the way that Macs or Golden Delicious tend to be what most people think of as an apple, neglecting the hundreds of other varieties.

In my local supermarket lately, there has actually been an assortment of mangoes. Old Tommy Atkins is there, but as mangoes are in-season right now in the Caribbean (the season in India, specifically for Alphansos finished in early June), there were a trio of options. Since it’s rare to find so many varieties all in the same place – at least here in Toronto – we bought one of each to compare.

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Lucky Dip – Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Remember how excited we all were when Toronto announced a policy to buy local food for government services like schools, seniors’ homes, jails and daycares? Yeah… here come the Fords, and nothing is safe anymore. [Toronto Standard]

It’s Pride weekend people, and you need to know where to eat. Steven Davey’s got a list of new places along Church that you need to check out. [NOW]

You know, there’s lots of weird shit for sale in Kensington Market, but moonshine, out of a bakery, no less, has got to take the cake. [Toronto Star]

The quandry of the quarry. Your food could be at risk. [The Grid]

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Lucky Dip – Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Some Toronto bars have taken up brewing their own beer – with great results. [Open File]

I gripe sometimes about living in a building where I have no yard and no balcony. But then I read pieces like this and remember just how gross it was to live in a house and have to smell someone else’s BBQ stink wafting over the fence. [CNN Eatocracy]

Looking to lose weight – avoid the diet soda. [Toronto Star]

And this is what happens when you sign a contract with a discount coupon company and then ignore all the clauses – like the one that says to not do the same deal with another company for 90 days. I don’t think anybody has any sympathy for The Butchers and the coupon mess they got themselves into. [Toronto Star]

Okay, seriously, what restaurant manager doesn’t know that they have to allow service dogs? That’s always the excuse trotted out in situations of discrimination – and, no, you can’t know the law and then discriminate because there are too many dogs, either. [The Consumerist]

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