Gung hay fat choy, people. Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, celebrated by a number of Asian cultures. And recently, since everybody likes a good party, I’ve noticed it’s been creeping into the mainstream. I am all for this. The holiday usually falls at the end of January/beginning of February...
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I’ve got a little secret to tell you about cooking beans from scratch. You know that whole “soak beans overnight,” thing that is guaranteed to make you turn the cookbook page? Well, you don’t have to do any such thing. Just check through the beans for stones and then cover them in a good...
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Fast-food franchise managers have shown a little fast thinking in San Francisco’s Happy Meal toy ban brouhaha. Starting this month, restaurants are banned from putting toy giveaways in kids’ meals that don’t meet nutritional standards. So, no more Happy Meals with a cheap plastic toy in them right? Not exactly. Local McDonald’s franchises no...
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The food revolution met Occupy Wall Street over the weekend when about 30 people protested outside the The French Laundry in Yountville. Napa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Doug Wilkinson told the Napa Valley Register that a SWAT team was called in case they were needed for crowd control. But, in fact, the Friday night protest, believed...
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The new Michelin star ratings for San Francisco Bay area restaurants came out today and in a sign of the times the first word to the dining public came via Twitter. Guide officials decided to notify chefs before making an official announcement, which meant the news trickled out by way of 140-character blurbs...
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Interviewed cookbook author, actress and Top Chef host extraordinaire Padma Lakshmi this week. I had a feeling she’d be delightful to talk to and I’m happy to report that I was right. I’ll save the details for my story, which will run later this fall, but I did want to share this one party...
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You know how sticking the word “French” in front of things makes them seem ever so much more glamorous and exciting? French kiss, French lavender, French fry …. Well I am sorry to tell you that this does not work for French colds, which is what I brought home with me as a little...
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Interesting story in the New York Times today about a study showing that beer can help marathoners recover after their exertions … providing the beer is nonalcoholic. As a longtime fan of no-alcohol beer (sorry, wine world, sometimes only a frosty one will do) I was particularly interested in these findings. I am not...
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Like cooking? Like winter? Really, really like winter? I may have just the job for you. NANA Services, which manages operations and food services at the McMurdo research station in Antarctica has posted a job opening for a chef. Evidently researchers are interested in the science of gastronomy along with astrophysics, medicine, etc. The...
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