Meet The Team / Lindsay Damast

We attended a product-tasting event yesterday afternoon in a three-story restaurant with wood-paneled walls and modern accents, where people were using the free wifi and enjoying complimentary manicures. Sounds fancy, eh? The restaurant, by the way, was a McDonald's. (And those manicures were exclusive to the event.)

This Golden Arches location -- one of five in New York featuring the modern renovation -- set the scene perfectly for an event at which McDonald's executives and representatives made it loudly known that they care about the quality of their ingredients, they are constantly innovating and they base many of their actions on customer feedback.

The products being unveiled included Angus Snack Wraps, McCafé Real Fruit Smoothies, and McCafé Frappés (which have been rolling out nationally for the past few months). On hand to chat about the products were McDonald's Director of Culinary Innovation, Chef Dan Coudreaut, and the Director of Product Innovation and Development, Danielle Paris.

The Angus Snack Wraps will launch in New York on June 14, and will go nationwide on August 10. They'll come in the same three varieties as their larger counterparts: Deluxe (lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, American cheese, mayo, mustard); Bacon & Cheese (onions, pickles, American cheese, ketchup, mustard, a strip of bacon); and Mushroom & Swiss (sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese, mayo). Each flour tortilla wrap contains half an Angus patty and the various toppings.

In honor of National Doughnut Day, on June 4th Dunkin' Donuts will be offering customers a free doughnut of their choice with the purchase of any beverage.

National Doughnut Day has occurred on the first Friday of June every year since 1938, when the Salvation Army first honored the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I. "Donuts have a special place in our country's history and culture," said John Costello, Chief Global Customer and Marketing Officer at Dunkin' Brands. He added that "this classic American snack...[brings] people together at home, work and at play."

Our colleagues have been talking about a Pop-Tart commercial where you're shown how to sandwich ice cream between two Pop-Tarts, insert a popsicle stick, and voila -- you've got your very own ice-cream-truck-worthy concoction. Seriously? We immediately associated it with the fast-food gluttony exhibited by KFC and IHOP. Do we really need to be encouraging Americans (and specifically children) to combine a sugary pastry with ice cream?

Kellogg's brought back this marketing campaign (it first appeared in 2009) just in time for summer, presumably because toasted baked goods aren't as appealing when the temperature spikes. At least they're pushing the treats as a dessert, not breakfast. (We're not convinced the tarts should be considered "breakfast" to begin with.)

All that said, our curiosity got the better of us. With all the flavors of Pop-Tarts and the limitless varieties of ice cream, what sort of sandwiches could we create that would mimic our favorite desserts?

Click on the gallery below to see which eight combinations we tried; find our favorites after the jump.

Many creative dishes were served at viewing parties across the land for last night's epic Lost series finale (our friends at TV Squad noshed on "Desmond Hume-mus" and "Jacob and Man in Black & White Cookies"), but we think the best themed dish of the evening came from this blogger, The Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn.

Rather than making food inspired by the characters or recreating the castaways' meals, the Mistress served up a jello representation of The Island, complete with different colors (and flavors) to mark the jungle and mountainous terrain, the sandy beach, and the vast, dark blue water.

The pistachio-coconut-blueberry mold is appropriately tropical in honor of The Island itself (the series was taped in Hawaii), and we think it earns bonus points for its ability to better withstand the pool of streaming tears the emotional episode evoked than, say, a plate of cookies.

Have you ever sat down in a Thai restaurant and found yourself confused by the menu and so went with the most seemingly innocuous item? However adventurous or timid an eater you might be, there are certain cultural differences that once explained, would enlighten your ordering.

Pailin Chongchitnant, a culinary student and guest writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, first noticed the drastic differences between Thai and North American culture when she moved from Thailand to Canada. Having been hit with this culture shock, Pailin offers her personal guide to ordering Thai food, to enable you to venture beyond curry and partake in a more authentic Thai dining experience.