"the atlantic" news and stories

The walls here at the Slashfood offices are hung with a number of flat-screen TV's, all broadcasting various news channels 24 hours a day. As of late, many of those screens are filled with painful images of oil-coated wildlife and a spewing brown plume that never sleeps. It's fair to say this sad event is weighing heavily on our collective minds, which is why this astute article from The Atlantic caught our attention: Writer Hank Cardello draws clever parallels between BP's mishandling of the oil disaster with another national nightmare -- obesity.

If executives take away his three lessons, maybe something good will come out of this nightmare after all.

[The Atlantic]

Gin and tonics. Photo: Daveybot/Flickr

There's no denying that the Brits give good gin, but it turns out Americans aren't too shabby when it comes to distilling the drink, either. As Clay Risen points out at the Atlantic Food Channel, each of these Six American Gins Worth Tasting not only stand up to "the best of the British" brands, they're affordable, too.

Risen isn't the only one with gin on his mind this summer. While sipping gin and tonic over the weekend, we ran out of the latter. Necessity being the mother of invention, this resulted in the surprisingly delicious (if admittedly somewhat lowbrow) cocktail: one part gin, one part 2-calorie citrus soda Fresca and a hunk of lime.

While British gin distillers might turn their noses up at such a combo, perhaps Americans are more forgiving? Tell us your favorite gin cocktails in the comments and weigh in on our poll.



[Via the Atlantic Food Channel]

The Atlantic has an interesting piece up about a writer's newfound obsession with imported whole-wheat pasta. Though he'd never been a fan before sampling the Morelli family's toothsome noodles, now he's sold.

Among the interesting tidbits we gleaned: A century ago, before milling techniques evolved to enable refining of the wheat germ, folks were primarily eating whole wheat pasta. Maybe they were in better health too.

Whole-wheat pasta is supposed to be a relatively good-for-you carb. If our trusty copy of "The Food Lover's Companion" is to be believed, imported dried pasta is also considered superior, taste-wise, to its domestic counterpart. So we're going to look up these here Morellis.

Have you ever tried whole-wheat pasta? What'd you think?