A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:
Learn some new holiday cooking and baking skills with this roundup of Thanksgiving cooking classes across the nation.
Not surprisingly, an Aloha, Ore., man was fined $300 for calling 911 to complain about his botched McDonald's drive-through order.
Design icon Isaac Mizrahi will sell tartan-topped cheesecakes from Junior's on QVC in early December.
Los Angeles' popular Kogi Korean Taco Truck gets a tricked out Toyota Scion Kogi xD Mobile Kitchen that's fully loaded with a grill, a sink and an Alpine Sound System.
Restaurant consulting firm Baum + Whiteman released its 2010 food and dining trend forecast, which claims "fried chicken is the new pork belly."
Former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni sold the TV rights to his memoir, "Born Round."
Few American festivals celebrate a foodstuff as archaic as this weekend's Buckwheat Festival in Preston County, W. Va., which annually showcases a dish the New York Times deemed outdated nearly a century ago.
"According to millers, the consumption of buckwheat has fallen off not less than 30 percent in the last five years," the paper reported in 1910. "Where once the mounds of well-browned flapjacks, flanked by the molasses jug, reigned supreme at the breakfast table, now the patent breakfast foods alone are to be seen."
Corn flakes weren't the only culprit in buckwheat pancakes' disappearance from the American table: As new chemical fertilizers facilitated the farming of wheat, most growers abandoned the substitute crop. Buckwheat fields -- which occupied more than 1 million acres of U.S. land when the Times printed its buckwheat lament -- accounted for just 50,000 acres in 1964, when the USDA last bothered to count.
A few of those buckwheat farmers, no doubt, lived near Preston County, which pinned its economic hopes on the plant during the Depression.
Cold Stone Creamery last month introduced an ice cream that doesn't melt, which has led New York Magazine to say this week that Cold Stone's Jell-O-like dessert is proof positive that ice cream has become the latest playground for culinary innovation.
Indeeed, the world of frozen cream is much changed from those triple-threat Neapolitan cartons of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry many of us grew up with.
Just last month, our editors were smitten by Vosges' new curry coconut ice cream at the Fancy Food Show, Gourmet recently featured the wackiness that is San Francisco's Humphry Slocombe shop (prosciutto ice cream, anyone?) and Jeni's in Columbus, Ohio, peddles Thai chili ice cream alongside not so plain honey vanilla. In New York, Wylie Dusfresne serves a perfect miniature "everything" bagel -- made entirely of ice cream, naturally -- at his restaurant wd-50.
If the answer is yes, then you are considered to be part of a minority, or so claims a recent study of 3,000 eaters by the NPD Group, a marketing-research company. According to an article from the Chicago Sun-Times, the reason why people are not using recipes is because the No. 1 food for dinner in the U.S. is the sandwich. Can this really be true?
Perhaps, a lot less shocking is the trend towards using online recipes instead of cookbooks. Fellow blog, The EpiLog is also surprised by NPD Group's "sandwich theory" to explain the fact that people are not using recipes. The EpiLog states that people may not be using recipes, because they are cooking family meals from a "basic stable of a few standard dinners that are familiar, easy, and keep everyone happy." But, to me, what also seems a huge factor is the little time that people have to devote to meal planning.
Just because someone is not following a recipe that does not mean we should assume that this person just eats sandwiches. Perhaps, people are cooking omelets, pasta and a number of other dishes that do not necessarily require a recipe. Check out the poll below and let us know what you think.
One of the best gastronomic experiences is the gooey rich creaminess of caramel slowly melting on one's palate. Over the past few years, we have seen an increasing number of products, such as Poco Dolce's burnt caramel toffee, adding salt into the caramel equation. A recent New York Times article explains how this extraordinarily sweet and savory combo went from elite chichi Parisian pastry shops to the American mass-market (stores such as Wal-Mart) and the soon-to-be Obama White House.
The article suggests that the financial success of this exquisite pair is due to a fortunate profitable trend cycle. Parisian pastry chefs initiated American chefs' obsession with the caramel-sea salt blend. Then, it ended up in specialty food magazines and food shows. Soon enough, chain restaurants, like the Cheesecake Factory, began selling them. Finally, Wal-Mart picked up on the trend. Of course, it would not have caught on so quickly if it were not for Americans' long-established taste for salty mixed with sweet, a flavor picked up gracias to dulce de luche from South America and Mexico.
As fellow blog Salt News states, the NY Times focuses on the financial and cultural success of the caramel-salt mix without ever delving into the gastronomic sensations it elicits. The title of the article, "How Caramel Developed a Taste for Salt," is misleading since there is never any substantial information explaining how this caramel concoction developed in small villages in the region of Brittany in France. I'm left wondering whether or not caramel indeed activates a desire for salt. Instead, the article gets carried away with Obama's love for salty caramel delights as though it would be hard to imagine. Could you blame him?
All month, magazines and blogs have abuzz with forecasts for the 2009 food year. Some take their roles as psychic seriously, others skewer and flame-broil the whole concept. I, for one, find both approaches pretty entertaining. Whether earnest or facetious, most lists include something about fad diets and sustainability, as well as at least a couple recession-related predictions, whether that means home cooking or casual restaurants. Bacon, yet again, figures into more than one list.
Apparently the world is consuming more chilies. A recent article from the Economist explains that "bland diets of Europe and the Anglosphere" have spent the past 50 years becoming more tolerant towards hotter chilies with the popularity of curries, salsa, and tabasco sauce.
The Economist article mentions the increasing popularity of chilies in nearly every dish from rice and jelly to chocolate. Tesco, Britain's largest supermarket chain, now sells Dorset naga which rates 1.6m units on the Scoville scale, measurement of hotness. Pepper spray used in riot control scores 2m.
Despite this obsession with the heat of the chili, many connoisseurs argue that the level of heat does not define the flavor profile. For them, it's like judging wine based on its alcohol content rather than its quality. These gourmets are more struck by the presence of chili in many more foods than in the past. It could be due to the fact that chilies have a chemical called capsaicin which causes the release of endorphins that create a natural high. In fact, the more chilies you consume, the better this high gets. Also, the Economist explains that capasaicin excites a nerve that makes us more receptive to other flavors.
During the first couple of days of July, I nibbled my way through three floors of New York City's Javits Center while attending the Summer Fancy Food Show. Several other folks from AOL Food and Epicurious were also there, tasting chips, cheese, chocolates and dips. We discovered that there are quite a few people making artisanal chocolate, flavoring things with lavender and pear-ginger and doing amazing things with live foods among many other, tasty things.
We've all sorted through our samples, press kits and memories, trying to bring you what we think was the very best of the show in one fun, appealing slideshow that you can find over at AOL Food. Head on over, take and look and then come back over here and let us know what you think. Did we pick anything you love? Or did we happen to hit on a product you've tried and not liked? We want to hear what you think!
And we thought it was just the European Union that had crazy ideas about fruit -
you know, like bananas had to be straight and other such stuff (which, admittedly, is usually made up by the popular
press).
But the regulator that looks after food in Australia and New Zealand plans on disqualifying most stone fruits and
apples as healthy as they contain more than 16g of sugar per serving. The article at the New Zealand Times reports that in the past, eggs,
spinach (something to do with the acidity), fish (mercury) and red meat have all fallen foul of the "food
police" at one time or another. But ready meals and the added sugar and preservatives in food have not.
They also point out that the Food Standards board fail to recognize that fresh fruit scontain valuable minerals,
vitamins and fiber.
Now that we know how foods gain acceptance,
there are a few items poised to rise in the eyes
of mainstream eaters in the upcoming year. Some of these are just making their way onto the plates of foodies, while
others are already beginning to appear in widely available products. The popularity of all of these items is sure to
rise over the coming 12 months. Chimichurri is an Argentinean dipping sauce that has a spicy,
intense flavor, though, like salsa, its ingredients and heat are highly customizable. Already a regular at high-end
eateries, it is beginning to show up on mid-range menus, too. Churrasco is a Brazilian style of
barbeque in which fire grilled meats are both roasted on and served from a large skewer. The meal also usually includes
tapas-like appetizers, which had gained tremendous popularity in the past few years. Premium
breads are fast making their way into homes across the country, with ordinary grocery stores carrying decent
baguettes and fast food restaurants offering their sandwiches on ciabatta or artisan sourdoughs. There are whole chains of restaurants that have sprung up around artisan-style
bread, indicating that it is only a matter of time before people can properly discern between French and focaccia. Regional Mexican is developing the same way that knowledge of regional Italian developed over the
past 40 years. Spices and dishes from the Yucatan and
Oaxaca, including unusual spice rubs and moles, are fast gaining
recognition as people begin to view Mexican food as having more than just meat, cheese and hard taco shells. White Tea is high in antioxidants and has piggybacked into a larger recognition on the tailcoat of
its well-known relative, green tea. Lacking the slightly grassy flavor of green tea, which skyrocketed into national
sight after being widely publicized by Starbucks this year, white teas are being offered in increasing numbers by
purveyors of tea. Dulce de Leche is a creamy, caramel-like sauce made of sugar and condensed
milk. Its rich taste and familiar appearance have led to a growing fondness for the treat, which has already appeared
in many high end, but widely available ice creams.
Food trends aren't sudden and flashy like the styles clothing or iPods; they tend
to ebb and flow; few foods gain universal acceptance, few ever die out entirely. The trends of one year will overlap
with those from the year before. You'll see many of these on the lists of 2004 and 2006, and probably a few on 1952,
2035. There were some undeniably 2005 phenomena, like cold sake and sous vide. Others are just a bit more
hip this year than last.
The food fashions of 2005 run the gamut from the saucy to the silly to the sublime. Our
ratings? They're completely subjective. Let us know what you think.
During the first couple of days of July, I nibbled my way through three floors of New York City's Javits Center while attending the Summer Fancy Food Show. Several other folks from AOL Food and Epicurious were also there, tasting chips, cheese, chocolates and dips. We discovered that there are quite a few people making artisanal chocolate, flavoring things with lavender and pear-ginger and doing amazing things with live foods among many other, tasty things. 
And we thought it was just the European Union that had crazy ideas about fruit -
you know, like bananas had to be straight and other such stuff (which, admittedly, is usually made up by the popular
press).
Food trends aren't sudden and flashy like the styles clothing or iPods; they tend
to ebb and flow; few foods gain universal acceptance, few ever die out entirely. The trends of one year will overlap
with those from the year before. You'll see many of these on the lists of 2004 and 2006, and probably a few on 1952,
2035. There were some undeniably 2005 phenomena, like cold sake and 
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