The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau wants you to have the greatest dining experience possible on you next trip to the Bay Area. They've added Taste as an additional website to the official visitors bureau site, and it's completely dedicated to food.
I was particularly interested in Taste, as I am going to San Francisco later this summer and I want any dining info I can get. Taste does offer plenty of dining information, especially of you have plenty of cash to spend on your trip. There's a mini blog, Foodie 411, and a calender of upcoming food events. Also, you can check out restaurants based on different categories like 'price', 'dining adventures', and 'al fresco', even the area of town. Overall the site is interesting and east to navigate.
There is one area that I think Taste is deficient in. Taste has a section dedicated to drinks, and it is awful. There is only one brew pub listed and no wine bars, even though they have several wineries listed. I'm not sure what's going on with that, but my guess is that the brew pubs didn't sign up with the visitor's bureau. Either way, if you're planning on going to San Francisco this website can help with dining choices, but definitely use as many resources as possible for the food aspect of your trip to San Francisco.
Hopefully by now you've heard of Flickr, the popular online photo-sharing website. If you ever look at the photo credits for images on Slashfood, chances are you'll see a lot of them come from Flickr. If you are familiar with Flickr, then you might know they've recently added a video sharing option, and some people are not happy about that.
I really don't understand it, but according to Wired plenty of Flickr users are joining groups like "No Video On Flickr". Some other users, though, have a different opinion. A group has popped up to mock the anti video sharing crowd, and this group demands that Flickr give everyone a donut! The "We Demand Free Donuts" group proclaimed that if they got 20,000 members Flickr would have to give in to pressure. Well, Flickr gave in, even though the group only has about 2,500 members so far. If you happen to be in San Francisco today you can go to the meet up and get a free donut.
The budgeting families offered tips like buying whole chickens instead of just pricey breast meat, reducing meat consumption, eating beans and lentils and getting more organized.
Longing for bright and crisp flavors after a winter of soups and stews? Check out this noodle salad made with buckwheat noodles and lots of fresh veggies.
Need a quick dinner for your family? Try this puttanesca sauce. The best part about it is that you've probably already got most the ingredients in your pantry.
The Baja meets the Bayou with fish tacos and accompanying fiery salsas, beets get an undeserved bad rap, the Roving Feast goes to Berlin for Potato Salad and Big Meatballs, and a Hae-muhl Pah-jun, Korean seafood "pancake," pairs well with wine.
Cooking Bold and Fearless was originally published by the folks at Sunset Magazine back in 1957. My copy dates from 1961 and was one in the stack of books I picked up back in December at a Portland thrift store (which one it was escapes me right at the moment). I bought it because of the cover, all those colors and that grandiose title made me think that it might contain some good stuff (or at the very least, some highly entertaining kitsch).
All the recipes in the book come from the magazine's column "Chefs of the West," in which they regularly published recipes and short articles penned by home cooks and backyard grill masters from up and down the West Coast. (Does anyone know if this column is still included in the magazine? It's been years since I've had my hands on a copy of Sunset, so I have no idea. My guess would be no, though).
The recipes range from the frighteningly retro to the interestingly timeless. The most intriguing thing about this book is that all the contributors seem to be men. I guess Sunset assumed that only those of the male persuasion would be interested in cooking boldly and without fear.
On the dining scene, SIV gives new tapas joint Bar Pintxo 1½ stars and Fraiche is doing so well in Culver City, it's already thinking of expanding to additional locations.
Several brands of alfalfa sprouts are on recall in western U.S. states over fear of salmonella contamination. Salad Cosmo USA Corporation recalled shipments of sprouts from Save Mart Supermarkets and Lucky Stores across California and Washington Saturday. A day later, Trader Joe's recalled tubs of Nature's Choice Alfalfa Sprouts in their California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington stores. The recall only applies to the TJ's sprouts with a "Sell By" date of March 9 or earlier.
Apparently no illnesses have been reported but still better safe than sorry. If you can't find good sprouts try some finely chopped green peppers or a little watercress in your sandwich instead.
McDonald's is really reaching now. They're in the process of converting hundreds of their restaurants into feng shui havens to create soothing environments for their customers. The first restaurant to undergo the transformation is, where else? Los Angeles.
Feng shui is a philosophy that manifests in very specific arrangements of space and arrangement of objects. In this first McDonald's with a feng shui environment, earth tones, plants, and running water replace the circus red and yellow of old.
So you can relax while you're throwing down a couple of Big Macs now.
Last week, our friends over at Yumsugar had the enviable task of attending the menu unveiling for California's Governor's Ball. It's made even more drool-worthy by the fact that it was Wolfgang Puck who was doing the unveiling. Sadly, they didn't get a chance to taste any of the goodies. Luckily, picture taking opportunities were many (it's nearly as good as tasting, right?) and there is a gorgeous gallery of food pics up on their site. We have but one warning for you: don't click over if you haven't eaten lunch yet, as these images are certain to make you hungry.
It sits alone and untouched at the end of a long buffet table -- a bowl full of apples and bananas, maybe a seedy orange tossed in as an afterthought. Don't let your fruit salad meet this awful fate, spruce it up instead!
The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau wants you to have the greatest dining experience possible on you next trip to the Bay Area. They've added Taste as an additional website to the official visitors bureau site, and it's completely dedicated to food.
As we all know, food prices are going up. In response, the Oregonian's FoodDay editors challenged four families to reduce the amount of money they spend on groceries for one month without squeezing the joy out of eating. 
Cooking Bold and Fearless was originally published by the folks at Sunset Magazine back in 1957. My copy dates from 1961 and was one in the stack of books I picked up back in December at a Portland thrift store (which one it was escapes me right at the moment). I bought it because of the cover, all those colors and that grandiose title made me think that it might contain some good stuff (or at the very least, some highly entertaining kitsch). 
The Chronicle names their picks for rising chef stars: Ian Begg, Richard Corbo, above, Jonnatan Leiva, Christopher Kostow and Jeremy Fox and Deanie Hickox Fox
Several brands of alfalfa sprouts are on recall in western U.S. states over fear of salmonella contamination. Salad Cosmo USA Corporation recalled shipments of sprouts from Save Mart Supermarkets and Lucky Stores across California and Washington Saturday. A day later, Trader Joe's recalled tubs of Nature's Choice Alfalfa Sprouts in their California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington stores. The recall only applies to the TJ's sprouts with a "Sell By" date of March 9 or earlier. 
Creating the ultimate Mother's Day gift for the carnivorous mom
Create less clutter with your Mother's Day gifts
Gifts for the vegetarian (or vegetable-loving) mom
