Category: lucky dip

Lucky Dip – Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Has science found a way to turn off food allergies? Even more interesting to me is the similarity/comparison  to multiple sclerosis. I have a friend who swears that her MS gets worse when she’s suffering from food allergies – she literally can’t walk if she eats wheat. Really intrigued to see where this goes. [MSNBC: Vitals]

Is the now-ubiquitous Italian trattoria replacing the doughnut shop and pub? [The Grid]

Are we pushing the holidays or is everybody just excited to find out what “pine sugar” really tastes like? Heston Blumenthal’s mince pies go on sale in the UK this week. Last year they were fighting in the aisles and selling them at a 300% mark-up on eBay. [Guardian]

The pizza in a cone thing is not new – but it’s new to Toronto. The Mad Italian offers it at both Toronto locations. [Toronto Star]

8 ways to cut your food waste. [Culinate]

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Lucky Dip – Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Everything old is new again. The next food trend won’t be about trucks or foam – it will be about history. [Wall Street Journal]

Your peanut butter is about to get expensive – even if you buy the local stuff. Time to stock up. [Toronto Star]

They don’t get to choose what they’ll eat, and to protesters there to have their say against corporations like Monsanto, than might mean dinner is a choice of prepared foods made with GMOs or nothing, but the folks occupying Wall Street are eating pretty well. [New York Times]

Canada is the only G8 country without a national school lunch program. Will we ever get one? [Globe and Mail]

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Lucky Dip – Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Congratulations to my friend, colleague and mentor Jennifer Bain, for winning the Best Newspaper Food Column in the Association of Food Journalists Awards Competition. A well-deserved win by an outstanding writer. [Toronto Star]

Those vegetables in your dinner may have been harvested by a child. Don’t believe me? Watch the trailer for this new documentary. [Village Voice: Fork in the Road]

Don’t shit where you eat – and by that I mean don’t treat restaurant servers poorly. And if you just can’t help yourself, then at least remember to pay cash before you steal the tip jar and tell the waitress she’s fat, since if you use a credit card, you just might find your personal info plastered all over the intarwebs. [Globe and Mail]

Dear marketing companies – can we please get past this idea of products like beer and soda being for “girls” or “boys” only? Leaving aside all of the issues with diet soda in general, a product marketed just to men is as lame-ass and douchey as that shitty pink beer meant for women. As consumers, we’re above it. This little “girls stink/boys are dumb” game you’ve got going is insulting to everyone – and isn’t making you look particularly brilliant, either. [Toronto Star]

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Lucky Dip – Friday, October 7th, 2011

Could it all be for naught? As the city considers banning shark fin, they’re finding that it’s a law that should really be made on a provincial or federal level. [Toronto Star]

If you ever see a host or maitre’ d at a fine dining restaurant gesturing oddly, he might be using restaurant sign language. (With thanks to my pal Alan for the link to this one.) [New York Times]

Ah, Health Canada, watering down restrictions – like these ones of energy drinks – so they’re essentially meaningless. Your tax dollars hard at work. [Globe and Mail]

Can’t afford real truffles? There’s always truffle oil… or not. Most of it has never gotten close to a real truffle. [Bon Appetit]

Even if you don’t make the trek to Foodstock next weekend, you’ve got to agree that a quarry that could affect the water table on some of the best farmland in the country is a bad thing. [Toronto Star]

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Lucky Dip – Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Michael Schmidt continues his hunger strike after the courts ruled against him last week in his efforts to sell raw milk. [Toronto Star]

The difficulty of converting cookbooks to eReader format. [New York Times]

Dave Bidini’s new column Coffee Run explores the allure of Krispy Kreme. [National Post: Posted Toronto]

Okay, the “sexy” Halloween costume thing really needs to be over. Sexy fruit salad? Sexy Chinese take-out? Eesh. [Village Voice: Fork in the Road]

Go ahead, eat that sushi – it really is good for you. [Globe and Mail]

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Lucky Dip – Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Good lord, no… not the Danish butter cookies! Denmark rolls out a fat tax. [Globe and Mail]

Between the war on obesity and food-related stereotypes, soul food (fried chicken, collards, et al) is dying a fast death in the US. Should we be destroying cultural foodways that are linked to health problems and racism, or rushing to save them? [Zester]

It’s an ongoing joke in the beer community that some brewers will put just about anything in their experimental beers. And it’s actually true; check out this list. [Bites]

What chefs and restaurateurs think about you folks who make reservations and then don’t show up. (Does you back hurt? Because there might be voodoo dolls involved.) [Eater]

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Lucky Dip – Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

The more warts, the better the flavour. Why you should be considering funky-looking heirloom pumpkins for your Thanksgiving cooking. [Toronto Star]

The two flavours of hogtown – might meaty and virtuously vegan. [NOW]

Could you eat for just $30  a week? That’s the equivalent that an American on food stamps is working with. [KETV Omaha]

How sweet it is. Mostly from amounts hidden in processed foods, Canadians consume 26 teaspoons of sugar every day. [Globe & Mail]

Foods that should be aphrodisiacs, but aren’t. [Funny or Die]

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Lucky Dip – Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

Sketchy Toronto restaurants, be on notice – DineSafe is now available via a free iPhone app. We can now all easily find out the results of your last safety and sanitation inspection. [BlogTO]

Some people have too much time on their hands. How else can you explain a Christian group wanting Ben & Jerry’s Schweddy Balls ice cream removed from shelves? [Village Voice: Fork in the Road]

You know how you have that dream of buying a country estate and finding an authentic Victorian kitchen hidden away in the basement, untouched by time? (Come on, I’m not the only one who has that dream!) For these folks, it came true. [Daily Mail]

Canada imports piles of dried legumes to India. You should import some to your dinner plate, because they’re good for you. [Globe & Mail]

Nobody likes an overly-demanding customer, but there are a few things that it’s okay to complain about in restaurants . [Chow]

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Lucky Dip – Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

You know all that food you throw out every week because you buy ingredients to cook like the chefs on TV but end up eating take-out instead? Yeah, it adds up. [Today: Bites]

The US food media seems out of joint about Alton Brown’s “fanifesto” for his upcoming book tour, but go and read it. Not one word of it is even marginally unreasonable. [Eater]

Stock up while you can – there’s a pumpkin shortage down south, which could mean fistfights in the grocery aisle over the last cans of pumpkin pie filling, like we saw a couple of years back. [CBS Boston]

That joke about university students living on cheap ramen and beer is kind of true. Food bank usage on university campuses is way up. [Toronto Star]

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Lucky Dip – Monday, September 19th, 2011

The best brewery in the country – is a little place in New Brunswick called Picaroons. [National Post: The Appetizer]

Can’t get a recipe to work? It might not be you, in these days of lean times at publishing companies, skimping on testing and editing is pretty standard. [Guardian: Word of Mouth]

Although it’s probably been brought on by the popularity of the restaurant Noma, the trend towards Northern European foods explains the sudden plethora of hip German, Alsatian, and Croatian restaurants around town. [Food Navigator USA]

And so starts the tide of Toronto food trucks. Let us now brace ourselves for the tsunami of bitching by self-entitled foodies when said food trucks are not in the locations previously publicized. [Toronto Life: The Dish]

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