dunkin donuts

Need an excuse to kick off your Friday with a sweet indulgence? Now you've got one. It happens to be National Donut Day, and to celebrate, Dunkin' Donuts is giving away a free doughnut of your choice with the purchase of a drink (excluding bottled cooler beverages).

Interesting fact: National Donut Day, which customarily takes place the first Friday of June, was established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army as a way to honor women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I.

Although Northern California isn't lucky enough to be home to a DD location just yet, no doubt a healthy chunk of the chain's 5.3 million daily customers will be walking away with the likes of free Bavarian Kreme and Chocolate Frosted Cake doughnuts. Will you be one of them?

Source: Flickr User DislOck

• The history of tequila. — Salon
• Speaking of tequila, is the margarita ready to reclaim its cool status? — Grub Street NY
• Five things you don't know about Daniel Boulud, Dan Barber, and Wolfgang Puck. — The Feast
• Dunkin' Donuts is going public. — Huffington Post Food
• Must make: roasted jalapeño tomato salsa baked goat cheese. — Chaos in the Kitchen
• If you love tea, here's an app for you. — Daily Dish
• Watch a preview of PBS' new show Kimchi Chronicles. — Eater
• Learn what foods Giada de Laurentiis makes for her daughter. — Today
• What exactly is coconut milk? — Baking Bites

The fast food breakfast war was one of our biggest headlines of 2010, but it looks like the battle of the breakfast sandwich isn't over yet! Our friends at Slashfood decided to put Starbucks' and Dunkin' Donuts offerings to the test. The coffee chain and donut shop aren't known for their egg sandwiches, but that didn't stop the Slashfood team from digging into Starbucks's veggie artisan sandwich and Dunkin's wake-up wrap. To find out how they tasted, head over to Slashfood now!

Source: Elizabeth Hait, AOL

Looks like Burger King wants its own piece of the coffee and breakfast pie. The number two fast food chain has become the latest restaurant to enter the on-the-go breakfast market. In an announcement yesterday, Burger King said it plans to offer Starbucks-owned Seattle's Best Coffee in 7,250 of its US restaurants by September.

In addition to hot coffee drinks, the new rollout, which begins this Summer, will also include iced drinks with the option of vanilla or mocha flavor and whipped topping. Pricing for the drinks will be up to the discretion of franchise owners, but suggested prices range from $1 to $2.79. The coffee beverages will be sold all day.Burger King is ditching its BK Joe coffee brand once the Seattle's Best Coffee takes over. In addition to the new drink offerings, "You should expect to see new and improved products from Burger King at breakfast," said marketing vice president John Schaufelberger.

One thing's for sure: McDonald's McCafés, Dunkin' Donuts, Subway, and even Seattle's Best parent company Starbucks will soon face stiff competition. Would you be apt to buy Seattle's Best joe from Burger King?

Source: Flickr Users rachaelvoorhees and aabrilru

In this economy, even the savviest of fast food diners have a hard time stretching their dollar. But if the rumors are true, value-seekers may soon find it a lot easier to fill up for a buck early in the day. According to the Chicago Tribune and the Wall Street Journal, McDonald's plans to reveal a nationwide breakfast dollar menu.

Based on internal documents obtained by the two publications, the McDonald's breakfast dollar menu will begin a national advertising run in January 2010. Although McDonald's has declined to comment, the burger giant tested a breakfast menu with $1 items in August in its Chicago stores, offering items such as a sausage McMuffin, breakfast burritos, and hash browns.

The chain, which is also rolling out the Mac Snack Wrap nationwide in January, will face some stiff competition.

Burger King recently added the quarter-pound Double Cheeseburger to its menu through March, and Dunkin' Donuts just rolled out a temporary $0.99 menu in Chicago. If two leading newspapers are publishing stories on it, the alleged menu can't be too far from the truth. What would you hope to see on a $1 breakfast bonanza?

Yesterday, Dunkin' Donuts temporarily pulled its Dunkaccino and hot chocolate drinks off store menus after discovering that one of its suppliers' facilities may have been contaminated with salmonella. The doughnut chain's supplier, Plainview Milk Products Cooperative, voluntarily recalled several of its products, although no illnesses have been traced back to the contamination. Dunkin' Donuts is confident the drinks will be back in stores soon, but yesterday's recall is simply one more to add to a rapidly growing list of food contamination concerns. At the end of last month, Nestlé pulled 30,000 cases of Toll House refrigerated cookie dough after dozens of illnesses were traced to the product, which contained harmful traces of E. coli bacteria. Then over 380,000 pounds of beef were recalled across the country because the meat was also tainted with toxic E. coli. More than 12 people have been hospitalized as a result.

Food contamination appears to be a concern for Americans now more than ever. In March, following recalls of spinach, jalapeños, milk, and peanut butter, President Obama addressed food-safety issues and reassured Americans that he would aid the FDA in strengthening the country's food-safety system. Yet the situation only seems to be getting worse. Are you as frustrated with the FDA's lack of diligence as I am?