"junk food" news and stories

Ever wondered what chefs and food critics eat when they're behind closed doors? Guess what? It ain't foie gras. Our friends over at The Daily Meal asked a slew of tastemakers -- such as Alton Brown and Ruth Reichl, April Bloomfield and Mario Batali -- about their secret food indulgences, and got some surprising answers. GQ's food guru Alan Richman has a soft spot for garlicky sausage, and gets his fix with Katz's Deli's knoblewurst. We won't ask which party he's going to after he loads up on garlic.

And what does the doyenne of Italian food, Lidia Bastianich, snack on when she has a sweet tooth? Nope, not a tiramisù. Lidia joneses for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Frankly, so do we.

Who's the chef who loves to nosh on Popeye's fried chicken?
Discover all the food vices at The Daily Meal.

Baby carrots are getting an extreme makeover.

It seems the only people who turn to the diminutive vegetable for their afternoon snack are guilt-ridden dieters and toddlers, but a $25 million re-branding campaign by a consortium of carrot growers is aiming to change that.

Forget the fact that carrots are good for you. Instead, the campaign appears to be focused on a crafty bit of marketing-based camouflage: if you put baby carrots in a snack-sized potato chip bag and give the bag the tricked-out POW! of, say, a bag of Doritos, can you convince people to "Eat 'Em Like Junk Food," as the new slogan says?

Of course, it doesn't take a Ph.D. in semantics to note the comparative simile there. "Like junk food" is a slightly hipper way of saying that they're not junk food. Yes, they're orange; yes, they're oblong; yes, they crunch -- but for better or for worse, they're no Cheetos.

As part of the campaign, carrot growers are also planning seasonal tie-ins (such as "scarrots" for Halloween), some weird-sounding phone app of people actually eating carrots, and TV commercials that, according to USA Today, "tout baby carrots as extreme, futuristic and even, yes, sexy."

Happy National Junk Food Day!

According to the International Food Information Council, roughly 75 percent of Americans are concerned about their weight -- which is at least a start, given that a whopping 63 percent of Americans were categorized as overweight or obese by a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey from 2009.

While we obviously suggest somewhat conscientious eating on a daily basis, why not take advantage of today's gluttonous food holiday to temporarily say diets be damned! Whether eating whatever you want involves allowing yourself to eat junk food you usually deny yourself, or creating random meals by raiding your pantry, enjoy a food-oriented day.

What are your favorite peculiar snacks? Spill your strange indulgences in the comments!

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• The most anticipated opening at Lincoln Center: Jonathan's Benno's new restaurant.
  
• Wondering if aphrodisiacs really work? On Valentine's Day, collect some anecdotal evidence.
• At Gramercy Park's Novita, "the pastas are just ridiculous" -- in a good way.
• Cantonese, Sichuanese, Hunanese... been there, eaten that. Now try Dongbei Cai.
• President Obama is taking out the trash -- out of school cafeterias, that is.

• A transplant patient has developed an insatiable craving for junk food - after receiving a new heart from a teenager with a taste for fatty snacks.
• A recent inspection of nearly 800 restaurants at 10 airports found dangerous food conditions.
• Pounded by the recession, restaurants are hoping that some menu magic with the right combination of prices, adjectives, fonts, type sizes, ink colors and placement on the page can coax diners into spending a little more money.
• Feeling especially lazy in the morning? Try this coffee mug that stirs itself.
• In Detroit, a man with a 5-inch knife in his chest stunned patrons when he walked into a diner, ordered a coffee and waited for an ambulance to arrive.