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Multi-Purpose Restaurants: Love It or Hate It?

YumSugar — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:00:18 -0700

Recently, I laughed out loud while reading an article about a flu-shot clinic held at a wine bar. The wine-and-flu-shot setup got me thinking about restaurants that serve other functions along with their food. In San Francisco, you can grab a beer while you run your laundry load at Brain Wash Cafe & Laundromat, or fix your motorbike over breakfast at MotoJava. If I ever move to New York, I'll try the Ribs, Oil & Filter Special at Mogridder's in Bronx, NY. What do you think of multifunctional restaurants? Is it brilliant to be able to hit two birds with one stone? Or should restaurants be focused solely on their core competency: food?

Source: Flickr User Stepan Mazurov

World's Largest Burger Among New Record-Setting Foods

YumSugar — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:00:43 -0700

It's a tale that'll go down in burger history. At an event this week in London, Guinness World Records revealed a host of new record breakers, among them a 185-pound, $499 whopper of a hamburger, which is officially the world's largest. The record belongs to Mallie's Sports Grill and Bar in Southgate, MI. Owner Steve Mallie, who said the bun must be baked for eight hours and the burger for 15 hours, remarked, "Being in the book is the greatest accomplishment we've ever done. I've worked my entire life to build this restaurant and being able to have the notoriety of Guinness makes it just that bit more rewarding."It seems, in today's world, that everything bigger is better. This week alone, Westhoughton, UK, garnered attention for serving the world's most massive English breakfast (10 sausages,10 rashers of bacon, 10 slices of toast, 10 eggs, fives slices of black pudding, and tomatoes, mushrooms, and black beans); Sacramento, CA, made headlines for a 42-foot-long, 1,200-pound tamale; and Valencians in Spain managed to assemble the world's longest restaurant table. At this rate, the next record will need to be for the world's most capable scale. Are these feats, like the Mallie's burger, legendary stuff, or simply gross?

Source

Trend Alert: Publications Peddling Wine

YumSugar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:00:59 -0700

As newspapers and other media outlets have struggled to bring in revenue, they've begun offering a different kind of paid service to customers: wine clubs. Most have little to do with their publications' wine columns; rather, these services compete directly with online wine retailers.

In September last year, the Wall Street Journal joined the likes of Forbes and Sunset to become the first countrywide paper with a wine club. For $69.99, customers get a 12-bottle case of wines from around the world through WSJwine. Despite the unconventional business model, other competitors soon followed suit.

Last month, The New York Times Company introduced its very own wine club. The company is "hoping to delve further into our audience and bring them products and services that basically enhance the bond with The New York Times," the company's VP of strategy said. Earlier this week, the nation's top-selling newspaper, USA Today, jumped on the bandwagon with the USA Today Wine Club.

It seems that newspapers are hoping readers might pay for wine, even if they aren't willing to pay for exclusive news content. Would you be inclined to subscribe to a wine club run by a paper?

Coming Soon to a Store Near You: Camel Milk Chocolate

YumSugar — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:50:04 -0700

So you're willing to eat mushroom-flavored chocolate - but what about chocolate made from camel milk? Soon, chocolate addicts with adventurous palates will have the opportunity to try the world's first camel milk chocolate. Dubai confectioner Al Nassma, which claims to be the first chocolate made of the unconventional milk, announced yesterday that it plans to expand into other Arab markets, Japan, Europe, and the United States.

"We aim to be the Godiva of the Middle East," the company's general manager, Martin van Almsick, said. He rattled off the benefits of camel milk, including more vitamin C than cow milk, less fat, less lactose, and more insulin, which makes the chocolate a better option for lactose intolerant and diabetic consumers.

Would you try eating camel milk chocolate - or drinking the milk straight up? Is camel milk poised to become the next soy milk?

Source

Salad-Topped Sandwiches and Pizzas: Love It or Hate It?

YumSugar — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:30:59 -0700

With a growing emphasis on farm-fresh vegetables, lately I've come across many renditions of lightly dressed salads - and not just as stand-alone items. In restaurants around town, salads have become common add-ons - from the black forest ham, fig jam, and arugula sandwich at Sellers Markets to the pancetta, lettuce, and heirloom tomato pizza at Gialina. At this weekend's Great American Food & Music Festival, Anne Burrell even gushed about how much she loves adding arugula to pizza. How do you feel about salads reinvented as a topping for other dishes?

Poor Economy Spawns "Recession Flexitarians"

YumSugar — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:30:14 -0700

With cost increases, the economic downturn and a focus on all things green, could meatless meals be poised to become the next great food trend? Last month, Ghent, Belgium, made headlines when it became the first city to go meatless once a week. Then a recent vegetarianism poll generated surprising results: more than 25 percent of you said you're vegetarians, and nearly another quarter of you eat fish and not meat. But all of this comes as little surprise to Gourmet, which argues that the country's financial woes have prompted a new wave of meatless eaters: recession flexitarians.

More than half the shoppers surveyed by the American Meat Institute say they have reduced the amount of meat they eat as a result of the economy. Many of them have become flexitarians, or mostly vegetarian consumers who occasionally eat meat. The USDA estimates that every category of farm animal will experience a drop in meat production for the first time in more than 35 years, and the publishing industry has seen a wave of new books focused on eating less meat.

Since forgoing meat will also help address increasingly popular issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, obesity, and world hunger, the growing number of meat-free eaters seems to make sense. Still, I can't help but wonder whether America will return to its steak-gnawing ways once the economy improves. What do you think? Have you found yourself eating less meat?

Source

Have You Jumped on the Gardening Bandwagon?

YumSugar — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:45:37 -0700

Now that Spring has sprung, there's one thing that can't stop growing - the urban gardening rage. First Alice Waters was all over the news, then the Obamas planted a garden in the White House, with California's first lady following suit shortly thereafter. And a few days ago, we told you this dainty mixed-herb garden was one of our must haves for April. With the promise of warm weather for the next half year, this booming craze is only bound to get bigger. Have you caught the gardening bug yet? Tell us what you grow below.

Custom Blends: Frozen Yogurt's Newest Trend?

YumSugar — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:00:04 -0700

If the new pomegranate flavors from Pinkberry and Red Mango don't do it for you, consider this: what if you had an endless number of flavors to choose from?

High-tech blending processes may be the next big wave in the frozen-yogurt trend. That's what I discovered when I visited the San Francisco outpost of Yogen Früz, a fro-yo chain with a high-tech yogurt concept. First, I chose from single-serving packages of a base yogurt in various flavors (low-fat vanilla, nonfat vanilla, or low-fat chocolate) with probiotic cultures.

Then I chose two toppings out of a large selection that included frozen fruits (strawberries, cherries, mangoes, lychees, blueberries, etc.) and dry toppings (Cap'n Crunch, almonds, coconut flakes, granola, and the like). Together they went into a proprietary machine. Twenty seconds later, I was enjoying my lychee mango vanilla creation, which was whipped, creamy, and studded with icy chunks of mango and lychee.

Yogen Früz may have pioneered the idea, but - with specially designed yogurt-blending machines available on the web, other boutique yogurt bars have caught on. Have you tried this type of yogurt? Now that the fancy frozen yogurt trend is waning, do you think custom blended fro-yo could be the next big thing?

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Hoping to Heat Up Sales, Chains Turn to Jalapeno Burgers

YumSugar — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:00:01 -0800

Last month, we got acquainted with Burger King's Angry Whopper, a spicy take on the chain's bestselling burger. But as it turns out, the highly anticipated, spicy-hot sandwich available for a limited time only isn't quite as unique as it might seem. Restaurant chains across the country have enhanced their menus with jalapeno-laden specials, hoping consumers' fiery appetites will lead to sizzling sales at the cash register.

In addition to the Angry Whopper, which is available in stores through the end of March, casual chain Red Robin recently unveiled its new Burnin' Love Burger, which includes, among other things, pepper-jack cheese, salsa, and fried jalapenos. Because good things can't last forever, the spicy creation is only around through April 5. Fast-food spicy burgers are nothing new, last year Wendy's aimed for something similar with its Spicy Baconator, a twist on its highly successful Baconator sandwich that included pepper-jack cheese, chipotle ranch sauce, and - what else? - jalapenos. The Spicy Baconator was available across all Wendy's locations in the US, but only for about a month.

Have you noticed any other restaurant chains with peppery new sandwich offerings? Do you think the fact that they're all seemingly limited-edition items makes them more coveted?

Happy Hour: Lavender Martini

YumSugar — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:00:12 -0800

Much like hibiscus, lavender has become an increasingly popular ingredient at the table. I'll admit that when I first tried lavender in food, I wasn't crazy about it, as I'd always associated the flower's aroma with spa treatments.

Lavender first began to grow on me last November, when I tried Loft, a new line of flavored organic liqueurs and proclaimed the line's lavender infusion as my favorite. When a friend sent me a gift of lavender-and-thyme cookie mix for my birthday, I discovered I could appreciate those, too. I realized that, when used sparingly, lavender can lend an herbaceous, lemony quality to food that's floral, yet not overwhelmingly so.
My latest fixation is enjoying lavender infused in a sophisticated drink. If you're looking for something fresh yet simple, read more.

Lavender Martini
From Loft Liqueurs

Ingredients

1 ounce Loft Lavender Liqueur
3 ounces vodka
Ice

Directions

Combine vodka and lavender liqueur in a shaker with ice.
Shake vigorously, strain and serve in a martini glass.

Makes 1 martini.

Print recipe with images | without images