More than six months ago, Whole Foods decided to ban the sale of live lobsters and soft shelled crabs in their stores because they determined that the practice was inhumane. The sea creatures, in Whole Foods' study, were not "treated with respect and compassion" on their journey from sea to market and until that issue could be resolved, no lobsters were to be put into the sale tanks in the fish department.

Since the ban was enacted, the natural foods store has not found any companies that meet its standards for the human treatment of lobsters. Until now, that is. Whole Foods is opening their first market in Maine next week and the Portland store will be stocking live lobsters. They have contracted with the Little Bay Lobster Co., a New Hampshire-based company, which will keep lobsters in private compartments for transport after catching them to reduce their stress.

Stocking live lobsters doesn't mean that they will be selling live lobsters, though. In the stores, an employee will use a "110-volt shock [to kill them and] to spare them the agony of being boiled alive in a pot of water."

Maine's lobster fishermen aren't thrilled with this plan. First, they are offended that a company that so heavily promotes its support for local farmers and fishermen would choose an out-of-state company when there are so many local ones to choose from. Second, the fishermen say that "they tell us we're doing everything wrong, obviously it doesn't sit very well with us," noting that using "a lobster electric chair" to kill the lobster sounds like a gimmick that won't impress consumers. Especially not in a state that loves its lobsters.

For a foodie, especially a Slashfoodie, one of the best things about winter is that it signifies a changing of the guard, so to speak, when it comes to produce. Apples, pears and citrus replace the berries and melons of summer, opening up a whole new season of possibilities. Capogiro Gelato expresses all these possibilities with their seasonally changing menu, now geared up for winter. I was fortunate enough to sample some of the flavors from their summer line earlier this year and, this week, had the opportunity to indulge in a few of their winter offerings, as well.

While they still have their classic Italian and chocolate flavors available, Capogiro's holiday table menu is extensive, including Apple Cider with Clove Sorbetto, Castagne (Chestnut) Gelato, Cannella di Saigon (Cinnamon) and Melograno (Pomegranate). The flavors I tried were Zucca (Lancaster County Neck Pumpkin), Apple Cider with Clove, Sweet Potato with Pecan Praline, Meyer Lemon with Vodka, Moro (Blood Orange) and Pure King Leo Stracciatella.

Hannaford Bros. operates 150 grocery stores in upstate New York and throughout New England and is implementing its own system, perhaps in lieu of a nutritionist at each location, to let customers know the nutritional value of the foods they're planning to buy. Their rating system assigns stars to food items based on USDA guidelines, adding points for nutrients and taking away for high levels of fats and sugars, but not taking calories into account. The system is:

• 1 star: good choice
• 2 stars: better choice
• 3 stars: best choice
• 0 stars: no nutritional value

The store stocks over 27,000 items and only 25% of them got one or more stars. Some staples, like cooking oil, were not evaluated. Is it a perfect system? No, but it does accomplish its goal of giving consumers a general idea of the nutritional value of foods without requiring "a nutrition degree to understand." A store survey said that 8 out of 10 customers wanted some form of nutritional guidance and they're trying to deliver it in a basic form.

The Udder Delight Ice Cream House in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware makes some of the best ice cream you'll find anywhere. In fact, their Peanut Butter and Jelly ice cream won the World Series of Ice Cream in 2004. To be sure, all of their flavors are very high quality - which is Udder Delight-speak for very high in butterfat - because they use dairy with extra-butterfat for all of their ice cream bases, and the best ingredients they can find as flavorings.

As you might guess from the Peanut Butter and Jelly ice cream, they offer some unusual ice cream flavors. They have Cappuccino Stout Beer, Cake Batter, Honey Fig and Pear Green Tea, and while they don't have a super spicy flavor , they do have Memphis Barbecue and Bacon. That's right, bacon. The bacon ice cream has small chunks of actual bacon in it, which puts some people off it entirely, but fans have likened the texture to pecans.

Bacon ice cream probably won't catch on any more than bacon cereal will, but if nothing else, it is worth a taste when you stop by to sample their other excellent flavors.

I am a big fan of Tastykakes, but they are in limited supply here in California, so I tend to pick up an extra box or two when I travel back to the Philadelphia area and tuck them into my freezer for safekeeping when I get home. One of the newest products available to Tastykakes fans is Tastykake ice cream. Made with Turkey Hill Ice Cream, there are three decadent flavors to choose from. The Peanut Butter Kandy Kake flavor has vanilla ice cream with cake pieces, chocolate chips and swirls of peanut putter and fudge. The Oatmeal Raisin Bar is cinnamon ice cream with pieces of Tastykake Oatmeal Raisin Bars and plump, juicy raisins. The newest flavor offered, a limited edition, is Chocolate Cupcake, which has milk chocolate ice cream with chocolate cupcake pieces and a chocolate icing swirl. Frosting in ice cream? Now that sounds like the recipe for a sugar rush!  

Unfortunately, I don't think that the ice cream is doing to hold up as well as the snack cakes do in my suitcase. I guess I'll have to wait to try these for myself, but if anyone has had them, let us know what they taste like in the comments - they all sound delicious!

Cook's Illustrated has featured their taste test of bottled barbecue sauces on their website as we head into the summer grilling season. They sought out all the "original" flavored BBQ sauces that they could find in their local (Boston, MA) markets and tested them as dipping sauces for chicken tenders. Barbecue sauces are clearly a personal matter, but the tasting panel looked for a balance of sweetness, smokiness and spices that had a good tomato flavor and a relatively thick consistency. While 30 sauces were tested, only 8 made the final cut.

I have a couple issues with the test, the first one being that not all of these sauces are nationally available, though I wouldn't expect them to test every brand in the country. The bigger issue is the fact that the winning sauce had a "thick, coarse texture" and seemed "unprocessed." Even when I make barbecue sauce, I try to have it thick and smooth, not chunky or textured. Also, do most people eat their barbecue sauce purely as a dip? Was this really the best way to compare how the sauces would hold up to, say, grilled foods? It's hard to know, but here are their results:

I mentioned this story briefly in the roundup of this week's NY Times dining section, but didn't elaborate there because it really deserves its own post. Frank Bruni, the food critic known for his love of the finer foods in life, hit the road in a rented Ford Taurus and ate his way through 42 fast food restaurants, mostly in the southern half of the country. His goal was to find out the best fast food chains in the country, "from familiar national chains, relatively unfamiliar regional chains and tiny local chains [he] had never encountered." He stopped in at places like McDonald's, Dairy Queen, Chick-fil-a and Whataburger, eating burgers, fries andother fried foods in pursuit of his goal.

 

Steakhouses, as a rule, all used to market themselves the same way. The place was presented as a sanctum sanctorum, an all-male preserve where men could drink whiskey, eat charred beef, and revel in their temporary liberation from the tyranny of women.

But times have changed; and the New York steakhouse has changed with them, giving yesteryear's cultural baggage the heave-ho. A few classic exemplars of the old school persist, and are rightly celebrated as temples of meat-worship; but now they compete with a new generation of steakhouses, all of whom bring a new, metrosexual take to the most primal of all restaurant concepts.

Typical of this breed is Quality Meats, a tarted-up meatery from the corporate group that brought you 78 different Smith and Wollensky restaurants, not to mention Cite, Maloney and Porcelli, and the Post House.

With the endearing name of Chocolate Cherry Chip Bada Bing!, the hit HBO show, the Sopranos, has its own ice cream flavor. The ice cream sandwiches are made up of two large chocolate chip cookies with a cherry flavored ice cream in between. The sides of the sandwich are rolled in chocolate chips.

Strangely, CoolBrands International, which released the ice cream, trademarked the name several years ago. When HBO began to hint around that they were looking to expand the Soprano's brand, the coincidence of the frozen novelty sharing the name of Tony Soprano's strip club was too great to overlook and HBO signed up. Product placement and a small percent of the profits are rumored to be part of the deal.

Currently, the sandwiches only seem to be available in the New York tri-state area. where they retail for $$4.29-$4.89

It appears that in some pockets of the country, consumers and marketers alike are cluing into downsizing portions and substituting  cut apples for french fries. Nowhere is that more apparent than at O'Natural's, a fast food restaurant that serves up a menu consisting entirely of organic food. The East Coast chain, which currently consists of four different eateries, first opened just four years ago. Since opening, the owners have received over 800 requests for franchises, both in the United States and abroad. With profits increasing by as much as 20 percent in the past year, the franchise looks like a smart opportunity for investors. In addition, the cost of opening an O'Natural restaurant is a modest $1 million, far less than that of the average fast food joint upstart investment.

Aside from the financial aspects of the chain, the food and the cost of a meal are reported to be wonderful. Items such as carrot ginger soup and bison meatloaf burgers are part of a well rounded menu, and some sandwiches are just $6, a comparable price with the big fast food chains. As the waistline of the average American is quickly increasing, it is heartening to see healthy consumerism in a capitalistic role. Perhaps by proving that organic food can be tasty, colorful and affordable, O'Natural's will inspire more restaurants and entrepreneurs to follow along a similar path.

Delis will always have something for everyone. For some reason, their menus are the biggest you are likely to see in the restaurant industry. One deli that comes to mind (unnamed because their food is definitely not so hot) has over 600 items on the menu, for example. But it can be hard to get everything right when your kitchen is producing everything from Reubens to fettuccini alfredo to teriyaki stir fry, though when at least half of the menu is excellent, patrons don’t mind an omelet that is simply acceptable when their dining partner can get pizza and potato latkes at the same meal. A good deli is a great thing, though. And Brent’s is just about the best in LA, according to the huge crowds that gather in front of it every day.

Brent’s Deli has been around since 1967 and has won too many awards to count. Not only do they have a great neighborhood feel, they are widely regarded as the best deli in Los Angeles and Zagat called them the “Best outside New York.” Their goal is “to be the best family owned & operated delicatessens & restaurants in the country”, and if you’ve ever eaten there, you’ll know that they’re not far off that mark. Everything is always fresh, helped in no small part because thee restaurant is always packed. The only thing that takes longer than getting a table is trying to find a parking spot in their lot around lunchtime. Park across the street, if you can help it.