"good food" news and stories

When I was in the fifth grade, I went through a phase where I wore hats to school everyday. I had a beloved felt fedora I picked up at a thrift store, a wide black hat (I think it would look a little Amish to me now), a huge straw hat designed to shield your face from the sun at the beach (my teacher made me take this one off, as it blocked my classmates' view of the chalkboard) and a burgundy one with a black ribbon (which made me feel like an English school girl).

What I did not have were any hats made from meat. And, according to the website, Hats of Meat, that means that I've been missing out on incorporating an enduring fashion accessory into my wardrobe. According to the Hats of Meat website, "In this country, the Pilgrims are generally credited with first realizing that meat is really a more sensible alternative to cloth or wool in terms of headwear." Makes sense to me!

Before the food waste folks come after, me I want to state that yes, this website is a joke. But it does an amazing job of maintaining the spoof for the entirety of the site. Reading through it is like stepping into an alternate reality, where people really to turn to whole chickens and beef steaks to keep themselves warm in the winter. It's a fun, harmless read and I'm certain you'll find a few giggles on the site.

[via Good Food]

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Interesting piece over at The Boston Phoenix. The writer asks several chefs what dish they order in a restaurant to see if the kitchen knows what it's doing. That one meal that you would judge the entire restaurant by.

Rialto chef Jody Adams orders a simple pasta dish, because she says that if a restaurant can screw that up, then they'll probably screw up a more complex meal. Michael Schlow (who is chef at two Boston restaurants, Radius and Via Matta), has a different dish for each type of restaurant. At Japanese restaurants, it's the rice. At steak houses, he goes by the side dishes and the wedge salad (what the heck is a wedge salad?). Michael Leviton over at Lumiere goes by the simple dishes at Asian restaurants: Shrimp and broccoli, drunken pasta, and for Italian restaurants it's the risotto.

I'll have to agree with the author of the article and say I often go by the chicken dishes, since they're a pretty basic dish, and I also go by the salads. But then again, I've had some awful meals at some restaurants where everything else I've had is first-rate, so I go back. Readers, how do you judge restaurants overall?

Though pricey bills are another strong contender, hospital food is the number one complaint from patients and their families during a hospital stay. The meals that are presumably scientifically designed to be low fat, low sodium and necessary for a healthy recovery are also low in flavor and overall appeal. Some medical experts say that, perhaps as a result of cost-cutting over the past two decades, some hospitals make only a minimal attempt to make their food palatable. Instead of generating meals to the specific dietary needs of patients, one meal that is bland and basic enough to serve to the majority of people is provided.

But not for long.

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