YumSugar

Your Political Leanings May Determine What's on Your Plate

YumSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:20:37 -0800

Everyone says that you are what you eat. But could your political party affiliation be the driver of what goes on your plate, too? That's what food trend analyst Phil Lempert (of koodie fame) is arguing. Examining 2009 data from Hunch, he found conservatives opt for "mainstream, comfort food staples," while liberals are likely to gravitate toward "international and exotic cuisines."

According to Lempert, conservatives correlated with foods like pizza, macaroni and cheese, and peanut butter and jelly for lunch, plus fried chicken, meatloaf, and steak for dinner, with Italian food being the cuisine of choice.

Liberals, on the other hand, preferred Asian: Thai and Indian for lunch, and veggie burgers and green curry for supper. His findings indicate they also tend to make more nutritionally sound choices, such as eating vegetables more often and fast food less frequently, and making dishes from scratch.

Those looking to toe the bipartisan line should stick to mutually-loved foods such as hot dogs, bacon double cheeseburgers, ice cream sans sprinkles, romaine lettuce, and salt on a margarita glass. Do these findings line up correctly with your political leanings?

Source: Flickr User thebittenword.com

Bacon Fat Candle: Love It or Hate It?

YumSugar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:00:44 -0800

Most of you prefer crispy bacon to its chewy counterpart - but how about bacon in candle form instead?

Rather than oh-so-predictable bacon vodka and bacon chocolate, Rick Gresh, the chef at David Burke's Primehouse in Chicago, is serving guests bacon candles. The votives are made of rendered bacon fat and a vegetable-based wick, and as they melt, are poured over dry-aged steaks and rare scallops to impart a rich, smoked aroma.

What do you think of the newfangled idea? Does it hold a light to this year's other bacon innovations?

Source

Tart Frozen Yogurt: Love It or Hate It?

YumSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:00:47 -0700

Since I require a weekly fix of tart frozen yogurt with fresh fruit, it wasn't until last week when I taste-tested Häagen-Dazs's new tart natural fro-yo that I discovered a whole contingent of co-workers can't stand the taste. What do you think of it?

Source: User insertinanename

US Immigration Has Influenced Sales of Ethnic Foods

YumSugar — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:45:16 -0700

Tonight, I'm cooking curry - and it looks like I'm not the only one. Sales of ethnic foods have hit an unprecedented high of $2.1 billion this year. According to market research firm Mintel, this segment has increased by more than 17 percent in the last five years.

Mintel conducted a survey in which "ethnic food" encompassed Asian and Mexican products, as well as other ingredients such as chutneys and noodles. Mexican food comprises the largest percentage of purchases at 62 percent, but Indian and Asian foods have each grown 11 percent between 2006 and 2008. The cause? More than a million immigrants have become permanent legal US residents since 2005, "piquing Americans' interest in new cuisines," according to a Mintel analyst.

Perhaps the staggering sales numbers and statistics will prove to be an auspicious sign; incidentally, today happens to also be World Food Day. Have Americans' palates become more open to the culinary ways of the world? How often do you cook ethnic food at home?

Source: Flickr User avlxyz

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?

Do You Eat Truck Food?

partysugar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:15:08 -0700

This year street food has gone sophisticated. In San Francisco alone there are countless food trucks that sell everything from creme brulee to gourmet hot dogs - there's even a golf cart that delivers cupcakes! Reuter's covered the trend over the long weekend stating that both "entrepreneurs looking for opportunities in the recession and diners seeking cheap eats" are cause for the increase in mobile dining options. While I've enjoyed a bacon-wrapped hot dog from a more traditional food truck, I've yet to try some of the more culinary offerings. How about you?

Source: Flickr User current events

Would You Eat Deep-Fried Butter?

YumSugar — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:15:08 -0700

The biggest buzz all over the blogosphere is deep-fried butter. Even though it's nothing new - apparently Paula Deen's sung the praises of it before - it's one of eight contenders vying for the Big Tex Choice Award at this year's State Fair of Texas. "Pure butter is whipped, then injected with different flavors, surrounded by dough and fried," described The Dallas Morning News.

I'll try anything once, but I'm pretty sure this invention has taken deep-fried food one step too far. At 810 calories per stick - and that's before it's been deep-fried - I'm pretty sure even the biggest butter lover, Julia Child, would find it a bit obscene. Would you eat it?

Source: Flickr User sfllaw

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?