"apricots" news and stories

A festival of scrapes/green garlic - the flower shoots of the garlic bulb - featuring green garlic dip, green garlic souffle, penne with green garlic and pancetta, chicken with green garlic aioli. Lots of recipes!

Picking the food for your same-sex wedding reception? A lot like picking the food for your heterosexual wedding reception. Who would have guessed?

The White Lily flour plant is moving from Knoxville to the midwest after 125 years; Southern bakers are freaking out that their biscuits won't ever be the same.

The Minimalist makes paletas, Mexican-style popsicles, with the adorable mini-Minimalist.

Eric Asimov discusses the brunello di Montalcino scandal, wherein unapproved grapes went into the wine.

David Karp, the Fruit Detective, talks apricots. Try the ultra-sweet CandyCot.

Source

• Three breakfast treats using apricots.
• How to cook a whole fish.
• Bake Me A Wish is sending cakes to troops overseas.
• Kids learn how to cook in a South Boston kitchen.
• Restaurant reviews: Flapjacks, Grezzo, and Center House of Pizza.
• This week's recipes: Cheese Biscuits, Buttermilk Pancakes, Plumped Ginger-Caramel Shrimp, French Toast with Lemony Cream Cheese and Warm Rhubarb Jam, Seared Baby Artichokes, and Marinated Chicken with Spring Vegetables and Ginger-Garlic Sauce.

Here's the latest battle in the "U.S. said/China said" food wars.

China has impounded shipments of apricots and orange pulp because of "excessive bacteria and mold." According to this article, some believe that this is in retaliation for the various problems the U.S. says it has been having with food and other products imported from China in the past several months. China warns that rules and guidelines about food from the U.S. could be tightened.

It's not only food that the U.S. has complained about. It is also faulty tires, unsafe fake toothpaste, lead paint in toys, and that whole nasty business with pet food.

If you had asked me 15 years ago what I thought the healthiest foods were, I probably would have said salad, pasta, bread, rice, and water. If you had asked me 35 years ago, I probably would have said Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Quisp cereal, pretzels, Pepsi, and Sara Lee pound cake.

We all know better now, of course (for example, Sara Lee pound cake should only be eaten 20 or so times a week), but do we really know what the healthiest foods are? We've talked a lot about healthy foods before, but never like what you'll see after the jump...in video form! The video isn't the best quality, and waiting 30 seconds for the next food to be listed is rather annoying, but the info is interesting. Besides, it's like a game. You can take those 30 seconds to place bets with your friends! What will be next in the video...apricots? Avocados? Broccoli? Read on...

I noticed a lot of comments about the name of the potential Ben & Jerry's flavor "Apricotabra." Whether or not the flavor - vanilla with apricot preserves - sounded appealing, most people didn't seem to like the name. I, too, found it awkward to think about, let alone to say aloud. The reason is that they word is a play on "abracadabra" that does not work for all English speakers because there are two entirely different ways to pronounce the name of the small stone fruit: ah-pricot and ape-ricot (I'd put the significantly more accurate phonetic transcription for any linguists out there, but my IPA fonts would probably not be visible on your screens via the Slashfood interface anyway).

If you take the ape-ricot pronunciation, they play on words that is supposed to be there just doesn't quite work. Doubtless, this would not be a selling point for Ben & Jerry's, who probably want people to be able to speak the names of their flavors aloud without stumbling over poor constructions. It may taste great, but no one will ever know if they're disinclined to buy it in the first place.