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The legal status of absinthe in this country is still kind of up in the air, but we now have two producers of the spirit: St. George's Distillery in Alameda, Calif., which began selling it last December, and now the newcomer Sirene Absinthe Verte from North Shore Distillery just north of Chicago. The latter hit the market just this month after debuting at WhiskyFest. Chicagoist has some tasting notes from the event:

The 110 proof white absinthe has a sharp, herbal bite to it. the 124 proof green absinthe is, oddly, smoother than the white. It also has an amazing mouthfeel. With absinthe shaping up as the year's new hot spirit, this should sell well.

Until just last year, the importation of absinthe was prohibited, and the only way to get it was to very carefully hide it away in your luggage and hope that no one in customs felt the need to verify your declaration. In 2007, a few brands were approved for sale, but they had to meet the FDA's ban of thujone in consumable products.

Thujone's the bad guy here, the one that's been blamed for all of the evils supposedly brought about by absinthe consumption. It can wreak havoc on your brain and nervous system if consumed in large quantities. But by the time you've drunk enough absinthe, which can be up to 75 percent alcohol, to experience any effects from the thujone, you're dead from alcohol poisoning.

We're not exactly running out immediately to try absinthe — we've never been particularly fond of anise-flavored foods — but we love the ceremony involved with drinking absinthe. The special spoons, the cube of sugar, and the precise way of pouring the ice cold water over it.

Introducing Sirene Absinthe Verte [North Shore Distillery]
St. George Spirits [Official Site]
Absinthe [Wikipedia]
Sorry, Absinthe Trippers: Scientists Say You're Just Really Drunk [Wired]
Chicagoist at WhiskeyFest [Chicagoist]

Wednesday, April 30
•Tonight, Tasca Spanish Tapas is having a Spanish wine dinner, featuring five wines paired with some of their signature tapas. At 7pm, the event costs $49. [Tasca]
•Umbria is also hosting a wine dinner, featuring wines from California's Coturri Vineyards, at 6:30pm, for $85. [Umbria Ristorante]

Friday, May 2
• Happy birthday, Cambridge Brewing Co! Why does it seem the celebration is for us? This free event is both Friday and Saturday, from 5pm to 1am. [Cambridge Brewing Co.]

Saturday, May 3
• Go to Vinalia for their Spring Wine Fest. The event lasts from 7:30pm to 2am, so plan accordingly! Tickets range from $79-95. [Vinalia]

It didn't take long, once the new Grand Theft Auto IV was released yesterday, for foodie/gamer/blogger Adam Kuban to take a virtual tour of the game's eateries. He found that many of the spots bear a striking resemblance to actual New York establishments. That's not surprising, as Liberty City is basically supposed to be a virtual New York.

What is surprising is the level of detail with which the game portrays its fictional Big Apple. Unlike previous versions, which included major landmarks, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Capitol building in GTA: San Andreas, GTA IV gets right into the neighborhoods to portray actual local foodie faves. They've also got hilarious take-offs of other local institutions such as the musical Banging On Trashcan Lids For An Hour (Stomp) Check out the screenshots over on New York Eats.

It's just too bad the virtual world doesn't (yet) include smell and taste. Of course, that would make games such as Cooking Mama a lot more fun, too.

The Real-Life Restaurants in New York City from 'Grand Theft Auto 4' [New York Eats]
GTA: IV [Official Site]
Cooking Mama [Official Site]
Adam Kuban [Wikipedia]

After a long day at work, when we are world-weary and don't feel like cooking, all we can come up with for dinner is elementary school staple macaroni and cheese. Sometimes, it's true, we resort to the blue box we knew so well, containing cheese powder in the most fluorescent orange we have seen to date. We try no to do that so often. Aiming higher on occasion, we will have any of the all-natural brands that we turned to in high school, but alas, these things still come from a box. Really, there's no reason we can't go out for the same gooey comfort food we require. Here are just a few places that offer some of the classier mac and cheeses in the city.

•We recently went to a show at the Orpheum, and met at Silvertone Bar & Grill first. Everybody at the table ordered the bread crumb-topped macaroni and cheese. Not at all disappointing, and it comes with field greens on the side to make you feel better about yourself.
•Located between Inman and Lechmere, cozy Atwood's Tavern offers a lot of other warm comfort food, but the mac and Vermont cheddar cheese is tough to beat, with a choice of sides and the option to add grilled chicken.
•Veggie Planet Pizza does not only serve pizza! As the name would suggest, there is some health added to your guilty pleasure, which in this case is organic whole-wheat pasta with cheddar, tomatoes, scallions, and broccoli.

Silvertone [Official Site]
Atwood's Tavern [Official Site]
Veggie Planet [Official Site]

[Photo: Quarter Notes]

You know what marginal group of tens of millions of people are being put at risk for poor nutrition by the global surge in food prices? American's school children! Back in the salad days of 2006 when money grew on houses, glowing accounts abounded on plans to revamp the way kids eat at school, trading the fattening and soulless frozen pizzas and burgers that fueled the childhood obesity crisis (remember that?) for the new religion of local/seasonal/organic.

Now that reality has set in, schools are swapping fresh for canned, seeing higher demand for subsidized lunches, and wondering how they'll cope with 30% to 50% cost increases while the federal per-meal subsidy remains static at an unrealistic 23 cents. Probably not all that well! Our youngest citizens have been historically poor budgetary advocates for themselves, so when their slice of the pie shrinks, that's generally the end of the story. Federal law will see to it that students are provided with a minimum number of calories each day, but that's also true for prisoners.

In this rapidly shifting environment for school meals, you have to wonder, just what are the children eating? Thanks to the wonders of the internet, hundreds of cafeteria menus are available for our inspection. Here's a sampling from around the country of what's being served for lunch today:

• Wicomico County, Maryland — Pork dippers with dipping sauce and dinner roll or hot dog on bun and potato rounds, cole slaw, pears

• Fulton County, Illinois — tortellini, pork tenderloin/bun, baked potato, salad bar, uncrustable PBJ, garlic bread, tossed salad, pineapple chunks, shape up in cup

• Fond du Lac County, WIsconsin — Grilled cheese, chicken noodle soup, raw vegetables and dip, mandarin oranges

• Pinellas County, Florida — Cheeseburger, Cuban pork with yellow rice, cheese stick munch and dip, potato wedges, beans, broccoli, Cuban toast

• Tate County, Mississippi — Salisbury Steak w/Gravy, Baked Chicken Nuggets, Fruit and Yogurt Salad, Ham & Cheese on Bun, Black-Eyed Peas, Straight Cut French Fries, Seasoned Cabbage, Chilled Peach Slices, Mixed Fruit, Fruit Juice, Central MS Cornbread, Rice, Saltine Crackers.

Illuminating! Almost everyone is eating pig products for lunch, and there also seems to be a preponderance of dippable items. Regional themes are clearly in play, like the Cuban toast in Florida and the intriguing "Central MS Cornbread" in Mississippi. It's heartening to see that, however unhealthy the dishes and low quality the ingredients, there's still a nod to culinary heterogeneity. Every school seems to be offering fruit and vegetables in some (unexciting) form, but that's a legal mandate; and besides, one of the articles mentioned that broccoli is now cost-competitive with flour!

But even as our school lunch program is stymied by high costs and crappy product, at least we don't have massive food poisoning outbreaks at our nation's cafeterias! For now, anyway.

Economic crunch seen in school lunch rooms [Bradenton Herald]
Food Crisis Forcing Cafeteria Managers To Try New Menus [AHN]
Food prices take bite out of school lunch menus [Star-Ledger]

[Photo: pingnews/flickr]

So much to report this week! What is going on over there?

Openings
Brookline: When Pigs Fly will be setting up shop in Coolidge Corner, but rumor has it that the bread will be baked in Maine. And our sources say Genkiya will be serving organic sushi in the old Nori space. On top of all that, Bottega di Capri sets up shop in Brookline Village. [Brookline TAB]
Harvard Square: A warm welcome to Crema Cafe, and the folks at Daedalus open a pizza place to add to the Harvard pizza wars. [Chowhound]

Closings
Back Bay: Panificio has left that lovely space on Mass Ave. Who will move in? [Chowhound]
Brookline: Yes, that's right: Nori is closing (to be replaced by Genkiya). So is Bottega Fiorentina (soon to be reincarnated as Bottega di Capri). [Chowhound]
Davis Square: Neapolitan eatery La Spina closes its doors. [Chowhound]

Reopenings
Back Bay: Ken Casey is opening a new baseball bar. Will he still have time to write a new Red Sox anthem? [Dropkick Murphys]
Downtown Crossing: Cafe Marliave is back in business, just in time to use their upstairs terrace! [Boston Real Estate]

[Photo: Kodachi]

With grain prices skyrocketing, corn doing double duty between the gas tank and the table, and beef still reeling from that gigantic recall back in February, the American food industry seems strained, to put it lightly. This might be a good time for a new, more streamlined meat product to start making inroads in the market.

And, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article re-printed in Restaurants and Institutions, that's just what's happening with goat meat. Would you call it the soccer of meats? Maybe:

"It's the No. 1 consumed meat in the world," said Scott Hollis, a goat specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "It's very popular - except here."

Goat is especially popular with Muslim, Hispanic and some Asian communities, particularly around certain holidays, such as Greek Easter, which was Sunday, Cinco de Mayo, and the end of Ramadan, which comes in the fall.

Until recently, though, it was difficult to find American goat meat. If shoppers found goat in stores, it was likely to be imported frozen from New Zealand or Australia, the world's largest exporter of goat meat.

That is starting to change as American farmers get into the meat goat biz - which, as it turns out, doesn't require all that much.

Goats aren't expensive to buy and don't need nearly the land that larger livestock does. That means more small-scale "hobby farmers" have gotten into the business as word of new demand has spread.

While goat meat burgers may not appear on the menu at McDonalds any time soon, we're glad to see a more worldly, eco-friendly meat treat gaining popularity. A brief internal poll revealed MP staffers overall like the stuff in curries, Jamaican jerk-style, in burritos and whole on the bone. MP Chicago editor Adam Peltz remembered a particularly transcendent cut he ate in Lima: "so i got this amazing leg of kid — so succulent and flavorful for juvenile meat."

As for us, eight years of vegetarianism stunted our meat discovery growth, but just as it is gaining fans in the American marketplace, goat is on its way to the top of our meats-to-try list. Now, if we could just find a local restaurant that serves the stuff...

THE OTHER RED MEAT? Goats find way to U.S. plates [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
The American Meat Goat Association [Official Site]
Largest Recall of Ground Beef is Ordered [NY Times]
Photo: Mark Verner [Flickr]

Last weekend we took our cousin, new to Boston, to the Four Seasons for afternoon tea. Having never been to tea before, she had many questions, as many people would. What should she wear? What kind of tea is there? Can we get a bite to eat first?

We assured her that she needn't worry too much about the dress code. While jeans are likely a no-no, a string of pearls is not a requirement. Everybody's chair gets pulled out for them, regardless of designer choice.

The tea, as one may imagine, is delightful. We couldn't decide between the Black Currant and the Blue Flower Earl Grey, but eventually settled on the latter.

The thing that many people don't realize is that a somewhat formal tea service features a lot of food that, while often tiny, can leave you full. The Four Seasons experience is no different. After choosing our teas, a three-tier display of finger sandwiches and the like was brought to our table. The top tier featured sweet bread and a cranberry and white chocolate scone, the second tier was laden with more savory options, including the must-have cucumber sandwiches. Last but not least was a dessert tray with a most unusual (but nevertheless tasty) creme brulee and apricot tart.

At the end of our meal, our cousin remarked that she couldn't eat another thing, which meant we could claim the rest of the jam, devon cream, and lemon curd. Discreetly.

Four Seasons [Official Site]

[Photo: Four Seasons]

• Rice: food crisis caused by 1) demand 2) distribution difficulties/costs 3) biofuels [IndiaTImes]
• UN: don't forget about commodities speculators! (and the craptastic dollar) [CanadianPress]
• Senate wants to add $200m to the $350m already requisitioned for food aid [NYTimes]
• Following Mars-Wrigley's megadeal, small candy members disheartened [Tribune]
• PM of Thailand, a former cooking show host, to personally make dinner for PM of Myanmar [AP]

It's time, folks: Take a long lunch, get your car/bus/train fare together, buy a magazine or two for the wait. Ben and Jerry's Free Cone Day is tomorrow, and the lines will be phoenomenal!

Nah, we're just being dramatic. It's great. Ben and Jerry's feel-good ice cream company has been giving out free cones since it's one-year anniversary in 1979. Now, on it's dirty 30th birthday, the secret has somehow gotten out. Expect a bit of a wait, but it just may be worth it. You can find participating stores here, and a fun little B&J history lesson here.

No, they're not bribing us with any more free ice cream than you get.

Ben and Jerry's [Official Site]
Photo: Cresny [Flickr] Free Cone Day 2007

Blogston Proper is your weekly roundup of Hub-related food writing from all over the Internet. We read the blogs so you don't have to. But you should anyway, just to be nice.

•So it isn't the old Brigham's, but it's on Centre St. in West Roxbury, selling Brigham's ice cream? Universal Hub sniffs out motives. [Universal Hub]
•Former Doyle's patrons, not entirely pleased with newer management, set out to find a new watering hole. [Harrumph!]
•We Are Not Martha has a delicious-looking new take on Lo Mein.[We Are Not Martha]

[Photo: We Are Not Martha]

Add this shocker to the list of things we have in common with Drew Carey: A love of bacon-wrapped hot dogs. During our long tenure in San Francisco, we developed a late-night affection for the singular street-treats while stumbling home from bars in the Mission district.

The pork masterpieces are available from carts in many U.S. cities, as well as all over Mexico, so we know it's not just a local cuisine. Who wouldn't want a grilled, bacon-wrapped hot dog smothered in grilled peppers, onions, salsa, crema and sometimes even guacamole?

For starters, the Los Angeles Health Department, according to this fine piece of reporting by Drew Carey for Reason.tv. Take a look at the saga of an intrepid street vendor and her struggle to give the people what they want. And then try to walk away from this and not stop for a package of hot-dogs and one of bacon on the way home. Bet you can't eat just one!

Food Fight: Battle of the Bacon Dogs [Reason.tv]
In Videos: Drew Carey in 'Food Fight: Battle of the Bacon Dogs' [Required Eating]

Something strange is happening here. Trees are turning greener by the day, magnolias are already shedding their blossoms, and flowers are in bloom (and not just the forsythia - tulips). What is this? It's spring, even for us! Welcome to picnic season in Boston! And where better to go than the Common, where you can see the skyline up close while listening to the sounds of the local tee-ball league? Here's where we recommend you pick up some nosh.

•Nearby Sam La Grassa's offers a wide array of truly delectable sandwiches. The "fresh from the pot" corned beef sandwich is the best we have ever had, and pickles that are a color normally found in nature are refreshing and crisp.
•b.good offers some of the tastiest burgers this side of the river. Vegetarian? There are two bean-based veggie burgers to choose from - white and black.
•Need something healthier than a sandwich? Take advantage of the Souper Salad on Berkeley St. and pick your favorites from their extensive salad bar.

Sam Lagrassa's [Official Site]
b.good [Official Site]
Souper Salad [Official Site]

[Photo: Radical Hack]

• UN calls meeting with 20 organizations to strategize about food crisis [BBCNews]
• Rice rationing in Vietnam much more serious than Costco's fake rationing [Reuters]
• Sweetened up by Warren Buffett, Mars buys Wrigley's for $23 billion [NYTimes]
• Fat activists working to pass size non-discrimination laws [Tribune]
• 400 lb man slims to 300 lbs in jail; files lawsuit claiming malnutrition [AP]

•The new Clover machines make sure that Starbucks coffee doesn't taste like soil. [MP: Boston]
•The last paragraph of this post contains probably the raunchiest joke ever made on MenuPages. [MP: Chicago]
•No matter how much you love Obama, it's probably unsanitary to purchase his half-eaten breakfast. [MP: Philadelphia]
•OMG, San Francisco has a chain called Pizza Orgasmica! [MP: San Francisco]
•Eating on the sand seems precarious. What if the wind blew it into your food? [MP: South Florida]

We know we keep talking about the weather, but it's true that such warm sunny days so early in the year can give us Bostonians a heavy dose of Spring Fever - more than in other regions, we think. Today is projected to be the last balmy day for some time, but before we don our wool outerwear again, we'd like to have one last hurrah. The ideal dinner for the occasion? Tapas! Here are some of our favorites.

• While we are ever impressed by their dark and dream-like atmosphere, Dali near Inman Square does not disappoint the palate, either. You'll notice that anyone you dine with here has a dish they must get and not share with anyone. In those cases, get two, because your friends are probably right. In the past, we have ordered two of the stuffed squid in its own ink, as well as the braised rabbit with red wine, juniper, and garlic .
• We really like that Masa's website plays a wonderfully appropriate song by Calexico on a loop on their website. The food is wonderful, too. For only $1 each at the bar, you can order such little plates as the grilled chorizo with cranberry chutney salsa.
• Before we were old enough to know the taste of sangria, we were in awe of the beautiful people eating at Dali's sister restaurant Tapeo on Newbury Street.. Now that we are well-versed in the different sangria recipes of the world, we are delighted to know that three tapas and a dessert at this restaurant go for only $35. That, we figure, is a small price to pay to eat chicken breast in rosemary sauce and still be one of the beautiful people.

Dali [Official Site]
Masa [Official Site]
Tapeo [Official Site]

[Photo: Sangria Tapas Bar]

America's most exclusive restaurant? It's not what you think. Not Le Cirque or Momofuku Ko or the French Laundry. Nope, the single-table Talula's Table, in tiny, historic Kennett Square, PA, about an hour outside Philadelphia, only accepts reservations one year in advance, and you have to be damned lucky to get one at all.

An upscale market by day, they convert to a restaurant after hours and do one seating a night for their renowned tasting menu. NPR reporter Alex Chadwick visited recently and reports:

A single farm table becomes center stage for one of the country's most exclusive dining experiences. A dozen lucky people gather around it to share an eight-course meal that runs from egg custard with Jonah crab to osso bucco made from pork, all prepared with local ingredients by husband-and-wife proprietors Bryan Sikora and Aimee Olexy.

Because of the restaurant's popularity and its single nightly seating, [proprietor Aimee] Olexy has devised a special system for selecting diners. Though the phone often begins ringing with requests at sunrise, she does not pick it up until 7 a.m. on the dot. The caller is then offered a reservation exactly one year later. Requests for earlier or later are denied, as are attempts to play the VIP card to skirt the procedure entirely.

Talula's: The Toughest Reservation in the U.S.? [NPR: Day to Day]
One restaurant, one table, and a year-long waiting list [Slashfood]
Talula's Table [Official Site]
Photo lifted from Hypsography

Your weekly Boston restaurant review roundup, in convenient haiku form!

Hee hee hee, LolCats.
The Dig can has cheezburgers
and pasta and soup.

Nadeau goes to Church:
it's no Eastern Standard, but
it's still quite alright.

MC Slim JB
eats standout Vietnamese
at the smart Xinh Xinh.

First gives Banq a try.
Loud, overstimulating,
but food is quite good.

Southie's Sophia's
brings food to condo-dwellers.
Surprise! It's tasty.

Sauce tries Da Vinci.
The menu is so simple,
but food is lovely.

Schaffer will school you
on Boston's dim sum options.
Nom nom turnip cake.

• Ban Ki-moon laments global food crisis for the bazillionth time [AP]
• The stalled farm bill contains much-needed relief for poor families [Tribune]
• Reuters has two detailed writeups on the food crisis that review the causes and recount the latest woes, of which there are many [Reuters, Reuters]
• Our pretend cousin Nelson Peltz just bought Wendy's for $2.3b [NYTimes]

Psst. Ever wanted to have you own hot dog cart? Maybe you've entertained dreams of making your own dirty water dogs. Maybe you've read A Confederacy of Dunces one time too many. Or maybe you're just a rich person with too much free time on your hands.

Either way, Hammacher Schlemmer is here to help. We just got word that their catalog now features an "Authentic New York Hot Dog Vendor Cart. Here's the word from HM:

"Made of durable food-grade 18-gauge stainless steel, the cart rolls on two 20" pneumatic wheels and a locking caster with two handles that provide easy maneuvering. It has three removable 360" cu. stainless steel steamer trays that can each hold up to 20 hot dogs or sausages. The front of the cart has a storage ring and hook-up for a propane tank (not included); propane provides fuel for the dual burner assembly housed in the rear interior of the cart directly under the three steamers; burners may be individually controlled by knobs in the cart's rear. A top-loading 3,000" cu. ice cooler keeps your beverages and meats cold; a drain plug on the bottom of the chassis allows you to drain meltwater. The front of the cart houses a two shelf storage or display area for drinks, buns, or condiments; additional storage area is located underneath."

The best part? The cart can be used to make Chicago-style dogs as well.

The Authentic New York Hot Dog Vendor Cart [Hammacher Schlemmer]

We are a dairy lover. We do not follow a vegan diet, but we are sure cutting corners here and there would improve our health significantly. That said, we do work with a number of vegans, all of whom felt a little snubbed at last summer's ice cream social. Sorbet, as we understand it, can only take you so far at the sundae fixings table.

This year, things will be different, because we will buy a couple pints of soy-based, non-dairy ice cream for vegans and the lactose intolerant alike. Choices in the freezer section, however, are slim to nil.

Enter Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream. The carry countless delicious-sounding flavors of vegan ice cream, going so far as to create new ones for special events. They say that if you can think it up, they will design it. Best part: they are opening a shop on Mass Ave! In...early April? We ourselves have visited the site, and the store still appears to be under construction.

We are sure there is nobody more ruffled by the late opening of Boston's branch of Wheeler's than the Wheeler's folks themselves, but the ice cream social is fast approaching, and we need answers. We anxiously await any hot tips you can provide on the matter.

Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream [Official Site]

[Photo: Wheeler's Ice Cream]

There's a very enticingly titled post from Tuesday on Bon Appetit's editor's blog. It's called How To Start A Cooking Club. That sounds like a great idea. We (densely) never even thought of it before, but it's a club where a bunch of friends get together and cook interesting stuff. Fun, right?

While the body of this particular blog entry doesn't specifically outline instructions on cooking club formation &mdash rather a series of jealousy-inducing photos of the author's own cooking club's latest accomplishments &mdash the author sends readers to the extremely handy Bon Appetite Cooking Club page, which does feature pdf downloads on the basics of starting and organizing a cooking club, as well as monthly menus, including recipes and a game plan.

This is definitely the season for getting out of the house, sipping wine on the fire escape, lollygagging with your friends in the park and destroying the kitchen with way-too-ambitious recipes. Get out there and do it, folks!

How To Start A Cooking Club [Epicurious/BA Blog]
The Bon Appetit Cooking Club [Epicurious/BA]
Photo: Aftermath, by Dishevld [Flickr]

As you may have already heard, the Harvard Square Starbucks is one of six locations in the country that has the new Clover coffee machines. You haven't heard of it? It's a very space-age machine, apparently worth $11,000 a pop. We needed a tutorial before trying it, so we thought we would provide you with the same.

While we are not the coffee snobs who require espresso not touched by air, we do appreciate a good cup of coffee, and the one we had brewed by the Clover (for a little extra cash) did not disappoint.

Le Gourmet TV [Official Site]

• Our little Sam's Club rice sales limit tagged as "food rationing" [Guardian]
• Japan's butter shortage initiated by dairy cow cull two years ago [Salon]
• More countries (Uganda this time) telling their citizens to garden [AllAfrica]
• FDA to animal feed manufacturers: no more mad cow prions in the mix [Reuters]
• Farm bill, still unresolved, is increasingly out of step with reality [NYTimes]

Just as the country has finally re-embraced carbs after the whole Atkins nightmare, now we're all going to be forced onto low-carb diets by rising food prices. First, wheat. There's the worldwide rice shortage that will soon be seriously affecting us. Now beer prices are increasing because of the scarcity of hops and barley.

Two ingredients — hops and malted barley — are behind much of the price increases.

Hops produce the chemicals that give beer its distinct flavor. Some varieties are used to bitter the drink. Others impart its floral aromas. Most commercially grown domestic hops come from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

After water, malted barely is the next-biggest ingredient in beer. It provides the sugars that turns into alcohol when the beer is fermented.

Barley prices have risen because of worldwide demand for grains, including wheat, corn and rice. Philip Sutton, owner of Skyscraper Brewing Co., a small brewery in El Monte, said the price of a 50-pound bag of malted barley had jumped to $22, or 57% higher than a year ago.

Hops prices are soaring even more. Sutton paid $3.40 to $4.70 a pound for hops a year ago. The least expensive hops he has found this year were $12.63 a pound, and he's paid all the way up to $22.45. But that's only if he can find them.

"The hops that we like to use just aren't available," Sutton said. That has forced him to substitute other hops in some of his beer recipes "and that makes a different beer. It's still good but isn't what we would ideally have," said Sutton, who has raised his prices 20% to 30%.

Rising beer prices hard to swallow [Los Angeles Times]
Asia limits rice exports as prices and uncertainty rise [Christian Science Monitor]

Photo, of barley: Shandchem [Flickr]

Sunday, April 27
• What better way to start the week than a Cabaret Night at L'Espalier? Says their site, "Expect a bit of Cole Porter, some Sondheim, a dash of Copland, food (glorious food!) and a wrap up of wine." For $75, what more do you want? [L'Espalier]

Monday, April 28
• In Boston? Check out the Boston Center for Adult Education for their Blind Wine Tasting at 7. Tickets are $32-36. [BCAE]
• Wine not your thing? Surely chocolate is. Go to Chocolate Madness at the Cyclorama in the South End! It's possible to make it to both events, as this one starts at 7:30. Tickets are $25. [NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts]

After reading yesterday's item in trade mag Restaurants and Institutions about a drive-through dispute that resulted in a double stabbing in Texas (!?), we got just curious enough to Google the term "fast-food rage" (but without the quotes).

Turns out there are all kinds of examples of idiots wailing on one another while in line or in the parking lots of fast food restaurants. Usually, it seems to have to do with vehicular disputes, more like road rage that happens to be taking place in the parking lot of a McDonalds, though there is this one case in Georgia back in August where a woman got so mad at perceived line-jumping inside the store that she tried to run down a couple outside. Yikes!

But none of these fights seem to stem from the one behavior in fast food restaurants that makes us seriously consider throwing a punch: the jerk who takes too long at the self-serve coffee machine. Seriously, if you don't drop that cream in and mix it as you're walking away so the rest of us can get our fix, we think manhandling you out of there should be a viable option.

But a Google search for "coffee rage" (with and without quotes) turned up only this incident in Boston, to speak of, where a couple of customers got into it in the drive-through of a Dunkin Donuts. Again: road rage, not coffee rage.

People, here this now: You're spinning your wheels fighting each other over French fries and drive-through windows. If a state of terror existed around the self-serve coffee dispenser, the world would be a better place.

Fast food drive-through rage leads to double-stabbing [Restaurants and Institutions]
Fast food flare-up: Possible road-rage at McDonald's [KTVB Idaho]
Angry Woman Gets Revenge At McDonald's [Associated Press]
Food Fights Across Boston [Universal Hub]
Photo: Coffee Rage album cover, lifted from Mad Blasts of Chaos

Today is Administrative Professionals' Day. Do you have one of these handy helpers in your office? You're lucky - imagine what the office would be like without him or her! Hold that thought and take your administrative professional to a nice lunch.

• In Boston or Natick, visit Sel De La Terre for Southern French cuisine inspired by New England's own finest ingredients, like the Nicoise salad. Also worth checking out is their $21 prix fixe menu, which changes regularly.
• Working at one of many labs in or around Kendall Square? Give Atasca a try for authentic Portuguese food. Pork loin medallions sauteed in white wine, garlic, and a touch of mustard will show your coworker your appreciation.
• Not far from Fenway, one can go to Eastern Standard, and we highly recommend it. Mussels frites with Vermont cider and fennel - do we need to go on, or are you calling in your reservation already?

Sel de la Terre [Official Site]
Atasca [Official Site]
Eastern Standard [Official Site]

[Photo: Flickr: anniebee]

• PETA offers paltry $1m for construction of artificial meat lab [AP]
• Bad press forces meat industry to support banning downer cows [PE]
• Another cause of the food crisis: structural adj. programs [AllAfrica]
• Congress mad at USDA for sucking, in wake of herapin scandal [VOA]
• In sign of times, McD int'l sales way up, US sales way down [Tribune]

A torrent of articles from around the country have made certain what we noticed anecdotally the other day at the supermarket: America is in the grips of a severe matzo shortage. While there was just enough to go around for seders on Saturday and Sunday nights, observant Jews are scrambling to find supplies of the unleavened bread to sustain them for the rest of Passover, another five or six days of dietary restriction.

Theories for why this is happening this year abound, but are ultimately limited in scope. The aforementioned articles have pointed to recalcitrant retailers like Trader Joe's who have declined to carry matzo this year, stymied suppliers like Manischewitz that couldn't make Tam Tam mini-matzos because of equipment failures, and cantankerous consumers who didn't plan ahead and rushed to buy the limited cache of matzo all at once.

But these explanations ignore the reality that, while matzo is certainly a niche product, what this amounts to, more or less, is a bread shortage. As people around the globe are increasingly — and for many, painfully — aware, the price of wheat has DOUBLED in the past year. Matzo, as you may or may not know, is made of NOTHING BUT wheat! So it costs more to make, and less was made. We're merely implying causality here, but let's put aside our lack of hard evidence and consider the following:

All of a sudden, the people of the developing world are rapidly increasing their average daily calorie intake while the land, water, and energy resources used to grow food products are rapidly diminishing in quantity and quality. The wealthiest ten percent of the world has been materially unaffected by this imbalance, but billions are forced to sacrifice and hundreds of millions are on the brink of starvation. It is unfortunate that the richest decile of the world's population — the people who are in the best positions, politically and economically, to address the food crisis — have little in the way of structural incentives to make the sort of wholesale systemic changes to the global food/energy system that is necessary to ensure sufficient, reliable and equitable supplies of foodstuffs.

Earth Day and Passover are just the kinds of navel-gazing opportunities we need to encourage us to consider how to go about feeding ourselves in this new era of unprecedented high demand and low supply. While many await a technological panacea to rescue us from our present conundrum, no real solution is possible without a shift in attitude by the world's producing class (that, or we could start eating a hell of a lot less meat). The matzo shortage story may not exactly be a warning shot across the bow, but it's certainly a sign that no one's entirely immune to global commodities turmoil.

It’s Passover. Who’s Hiding the Matzo? [NYTimes]
Matzo in short supply for Bay Area Passover [SFGate]
Hit or miss with finding matzo as Passover looms closer [MercuryNews]
As Passover nears, matzo in short supply [Contra Costa Times]
Matzo shortage at many Reno stores looms for Passover [Reno Gazette-Journal]
Price Volatility Adds to Worry on U.S. Farms [NYTimes]
In Lean Times, Biotech Grains Are Less Taboo [NYTimes]
Rising Demand for Meat Takes Toll on Environment [NPR]

[Photo: no more matzo, in any language (missapril1956)]

N.B. Special bonus! There's also a shortage on Kosher-for-Passover margarine because farmers planted ethanol corn in lieu of cotton last year. Hope you like your flourless chocolate cakes dry!

Do you have a hot tip about a restaurant opening or closing? Let us know!

Openings
•Brookline Village: Brookline residents, get psyched to have Venezuelan, and not sushi, as the South End's Orinoco opens on Harvard St. [Boston Magazine]
•Central Square: Chowhounders find it strange that Four Burgers is going into the space formerly occupied by Gandhi. [Chowhound]

Closing
•Back Bay: Area foodies not terribly surprised that the Back Bay location of Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizzeria is closing. So much space - so few people! [Chowhound]

[Photo: Harvard Medical School]

As America gets ahold of itself in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit, the time has come for parsing and analyzing every little thing His Holiness did while abroad in our native land. Not the least of these is what he ate.

Last week, former Cardinal John Ratzinger visited the United States for the first time since becoming the Catholic church's 265th pope in 2005. While in New York City, celebrity chef, local restaurateur and cookbook author Lidia Bastianich, along with a team of high-profile chefs cooked for His Holiness. Bastianich emigrated from Italy in 1958, when she was 12, with the help of Catholic Charities. From the New York Daily News:

Bastianich was asked two months ago if she would like to cook for the Pope, and didn't even believe it at first. "I looked around behind me, to see if they were talking to someone else," she says. "The Pope even looks like my father, and I kind of feel as if it's my father coming to dinner. For me, it is an opportunity to welcome someone as family and make the Pope feel comfortable."

You can take a look at the full menu on Serious Eats, as well as some recipes on ABC's website. There's also a website dedicated to the visit with a full roundup. We simply can't imagine the pressure Bastianich must have felt, but she seems to have pulled it off. Congratulazioni, Lidia!

Bastianich plans a meal fit for the Pope [NY Daily News]
Cooking for the Pope: Lidia Bastianich Comes Full Circle [Serious Eats]
Recipes: Cooking For The Pope [ABC]
United States Papal Visit 2008 [Official Site]
Lidia Bastianich [Official Site]
Photo: Nuncatrezeamesa [Flickr]

Picnicking season has arrived in Boston, and we love nothing better in our basket than the perfect BLT. We've had them at the odd New York deli and don't see what all the fuss is about. Here are just a few places where Boston does the BLT right.

•The All Star Sandwich Bar in Inman Square is a natural choice, as these folks know their sandwiches. This is especially evident in the BLT (featuring the freshest tomatoes available and a tasty herb mayonnaise).
•Were you aware that The Pour House on Boylston St. has a BLT and chowder as their Wednesday special every week? What a winning combination! Just to make it that much more sinful and delicious, temper the salt fix with a chocolate frappe.
•We spent many a winter break afternoon bleary-eyed, eating chocolate chip pancakes with friends at Martin's Coffee Shop in Brookline Village. We still go for the pancakes, but now that we've grown up a bit, we eat afternoon-appropriate meals. Sit at the counter and make yourself a regular.

All-Star Sandwich Bar [Official Site]
Pour House [Official Site]
Martin's Coffee Shop [Official Site]

[Photo: Wild Bean Cafe]

• Fast food calorie listing rolls out in New York to yawns [NYTimes]
• Food safety art project terror professor's case dismissed [TimesUnion]
• Federal crackdown on raw milk not sitting well with farmers [Tribune]
• WFP: 100m more people on food assistance than six months ago [BBC]
• Slow Food movement looks for a hook in Asia's fast lane [Reuters]
• Matzo shortage raises more questions than it answers [NYTimes]

see more crazy cat pics

Omg, lolcatz are soooo cute. You know who agrees? Jones Soda. They luv the little guys so much they haz contest for label! And you can vote!

For the uninitiated (anyone, anyone?) lolcatz are the hilariously cute photoshop jobs where people make "capshuns" of pictures of animals &mdash usually cats &mdash in lolspeak, "teh furst language born of teh intertubes." They come from the site icanhascheezburger.com.

Now the way hip marketing staff over at way hip Jones Soda (known for using customer-submitted snapshots on its labels) has this very fun idea to make lolcatz labels for its bottles. They did a call for submissions, and now there's a post up where you can vote on the favorite. It is, no surprise, getting a lot of hits, but the funniest part is the ire raised in hardcore lolspeakers posting comments about how their submissions didn't get picked:

i uhgri meh copeez have ben owevrluked. maybeh dis kitteh site needz mawr hutzspa awl mai cheezez neber make it wen i iz lauffin 2 much at mai own. theez wunz nawt sew hyoomoruss

Blogston Proper is your weekly roundup of Hub-related food writing from all over the Internet. We read the blogs so you don't have to. But you should anyway, just to be nice.

• At Athan's European Bakery, apricot almond strudel, like most things, does not disappoint. [Cave Cibum]
• Desserts salvage an otherwise so-so trip to the South End. [Chowhound]
• Improv troupe named after one of everyone's favorites - chocolate cake! [Hot, Buttered, and Toasted]

[Photo: The Husband Project]

Have you ever heard of meat, actual meat, that does not come from an animal? Well, it exists, and according to the New York Times, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants it to take over the food world.

The animal rights group has offered a $1 million reward for the “first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.”

In vitro meat is the laboratory-grown meat substance based on stem cells taken from live animals. it's been around for a few years, but so far scientists haven't found a way to make its mass-production economically viable.

The attraction to PETA is obvious: Get lab-grown meat main-streamed and you reduce the amount of animals getting slaughtered for actual meat. But according to the Times, the move caused something of a schism in the PETA office.

Lisa Lange, a vice president of the organization, said she was part of the heated exchange. “My main concern is, as the largest animal rights organization in the world, it’s our job to introduce the philosophy and hammer it home that animals are not ours to eat.” Ms. Lange added, “I remember saying I would be much more comfortable promoting eating roadkill.”

PETA’s Latest Tactic: $1 Million for Fake Meat [NY Times]
In Vitro Meat
[NY Times]
Evil Monkey’s Guide to Kosher Imaginary Animals [Ecstatic Days]
Photo: Andreyphoto.com [Flickr]

Have a date, but low on cash? Calm down! To some, the Bostonian cheap date is a myth. Allow us to prove it possible!

•Share Piattini's little dishes, like the Ravioli di Zucca Gialla (we assume this means "absolutely delicious butternut squash ravioli in apple cider, brown sugar, and sage" in Italian). Each food listing has two wine recommendations from their extensive list.
•Check out some local folk music where Bob Dylan and Joan Baez hung out in the 60s. Order food from Veggie Planet Pizza while you take in a show at Club Passim. Diners rave about the Portobello Redhead and what breaks the ice better than food you can eat with your hands?
•Check out The Dogwood Cafe in JP for their local art and warm, dim atmosphere. The food is great, too - brick oven pizzas named after trees are served on top of enormous cans of tomato sauce. Try the Willow, topped with spinach, goat cheese, caramelized onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and mozzarella.

Piattini [Official Site]
Veggie Planet [Official Site]
Club Passim [Official Site]
Dogwood Cafe [Official Site]

[Photo: The Marketing Fresh Peel]

• Ban Ki-moon issues his daily reminder on the direness of the food crisis [TPA]
• If the food crisis is bad now, what happens when there are 9 billion of us? [CSM]
• For starters, we'll have to give up our opposition to GM crops. Oh well! [NYTimes]
• Meanwhile, crop prices are wreaking counterintuitive havoc on farmers [AP]
• China's new food safety laws carry a maximum punishment of life in prison [Guardian]
• Gullible Australians believe the stupidest food safety myths [SMH]

•"When in France (even though this loaf is not a French native), one must have a nice and crusty bread to have on the counter, in case of emergency (or spontaneous company)." [MP: Boston]
•"Pastries are funny." [MP: Chicago]
•"Philadelphia is every bit as much a hamburger town as New York." [MP: Philadelphia]
•"Discounted drinks and cheap eats; there’s nothing better to get the reluctant tax payer spending again." [MP: San Francisco]
•"Sure, we want restaurants to have sufficient toilet paper in their restrooms, and we like it when they offer up the daily specials' prices. But it's not really something that needs to be legislated." [MP: South Florida]

We are not so good at running. We greatly admire those who can, and do, run the Boston Marathon every year, but we are more comfortable as spectators. So, for the 112th Boston Marathon, we will celebrate the way we have since birth: eating, watching other people run over Heartbreak Hill. The dilemma remains: where shall we eat? It depends on how involved we want to be.

•Big fan? Have a prime spot on Boylston just before the library? We are impressed. Have a trusted friend watch the chair for a bit and jog (lightly - don't want to get a stitch) down toward Arlington St. for a sandwich at the Parish Cafe. We try to have anything but the Zuni Roll, but the memory of cranberry sauce, turkey, and bacon keeps calling us back.
•Not committed? Sure, you like the marathon, but there's no need to spend your entire day off watching the event. Before dropping by the route to see the race's progress, go to the the Mall at Chestnut Hill and treat yourself to brunch at Aquitaine Bis. Eggs Benedict Provençal, anyone?
•Avoiding the crowds altogether? Sudden influx of tourists not your thing? Can't wait to have your city back? Don't go too far! Ten Tables in Jamaica Plain is still within city limits, but skirts the crowd issue by having - you guessed it - only ten tables. Try the housemade chorizo with white beans and orange and forget about the race altogether.

Parish Cafe [Official Site]
Aquitaine Bis [Official Site]
Ten Tables [Official Site]

[Photo: The Jimmy Fund]

Your weekly Boston restaurant review roundup, in convenient haiku form!

The Dig explores wings.
Whose cuisine will reign supreme?
Eh, they're all quite good.

Nadeau tries Shiki.
Welcome even in Brookline,
it's not just sushi.

MC Slim JB
visits Rincon Limeno,
finds eclectic fare.

First one-stars Lobby.
It does more than it needs to
and not all that well.

Over in Westie
at Viva Mi Arepa
Cheap Eats rejoices.

At Hungry Mother,
Sauce finds exquisite balance
and cocktails in jars.

Oceanaire gets C.
Why would they open in Hub?
Schaffer is puzzled.

• The global food crisis and riots aren't going away [NYTimes]
• Guyana's idea: give everyone seeds for gardening [AP]
• USDA brazenly says slaughterhouse oversight sufficient [Baltimore Sun]
• Will the country-of-origin labeling bill go far enough? [LATimes]
• Walmart to pull the plastic baby bottles w/ leaky chemicals [Tribune]

Last night we had the great pleasure of attending the Haas Avocado Dinner at Ole Mexican Grill in Inman Square. Chef Erwin Ramos put together a phenomenal five-course meal, all of which featured Haas avocados from Mexico. We were beside ourselves - what is not to love about avocados?

The meal started with three small samplings of ceviche, featuring mahi-mahi, shrimp, and marinated halibut. The second course was three tiny tostadas, one of which was topped with roasted cactus! The pozole verde was a postively delicious soup with hominy and radishes - our neighbor wanted to take home a quart for tomorrow. It isn't surprising that main course and dessert were most impressive. Seared duck in a delicious pecan-prune mole practically melted in diners' mouths. How do you put avocado in dessert? Put it in ice cream! Avocado-coconut ice cream was the perfect compliment to the warm chipotle brownie and fresh corn cake - and served with tomatillo and hibiscus sauce!

We are sorry if you couldn't make it, but this was just the preview of their menu for the week of Cinco de Mayo - needless to say, we'll be back.

Ole Mexican Grill [MenuPages]
Ole[Official Site]

[Photo: Cafe Aman]

We didn't need a jacket yesterday, and that was thrilling enough. It is supposed to be warmer today, and warmer still tomorrow. What will make all this sunny weather even better? Iced tea! There are so many places to choose from, we can't pick just one.

•Tealuxe is the natural first place to look for a nice iced. And why not? Countless bins line the walls of their Harvard Square, Newbury St., and Providence locations. Typically they'll have three "on tap" - or brewed specifically with iced tea in mind. If those don't suit your fancy, pick any of their others and ask them to double-brew it.

•Espresso Royale Cafe can also be found in a number of locations near the larger universities of the city. We would highly recommend the Thai iced tea with vanilla soy milk.

•Last but certainly not least, the iced tea at Algiers Coffee House on Brattle St. is one of the cheapest things on the menu. The atmosphere alone is enough to make one want to sip their iced tea in their spacious rooms or on their rooftop patio.

Tealuxe [Official Site]
Espresso Royale [Official Site]
Algiers Coffee House [MenuPages]

[Photo: Rubinville]

• The next chapter of the food crisis will be about Asia's lack of water [AlterNet]
• Half a decade into drought, Australia gives up on growing rice [NYTimes]
• Bangladesh, of all places, expects bumper rice crop this year [AFP]
• EU, eager to set an example, to avoid food export protectionism [BBC]
• World Bank/UN food plan puts blame on, opposed by rich countries [Guardian]
• A core inflation figure that excludes food and energy is unhelpful [Union-Tribune]
• Intern takes the heat for McCain recipe plagiarism mini-scandal [AP]

Even food can be divided along party lines! At least so say the pollsters quoted in today's New York Times story about it. Actually, they divide it even further: by candidate. We'll start with cereal. Can you match the cereal to the candidate? (No peeking at the article! Answers are after the jump.)

1. Bear Naked Granola
2. Kashi Go Lean
3. Fiber One

The first thing that comes to mind is the high fiber content of each of these cereals. Go America! Most of you are starting the day right.

As far as beverages are concerned, Republicans like Dr. Pepper, bourbon, scotch and red wine. Democrats like Pepsi, Sprite, gin, vodka and white wine. (Pepsi? Seriously? All the Democrats we know, most of whom are under 30, are Diet Coke drinkers.)

So political strategists actually use your food habits to target you with propaganda for their particular candidates. Which strikes us as amusing, really, because we imagine that food is not exactly the best indicator of the way someone will vote. Especially given the increasing popularity of natural/organic/hormone-free/local foods, which are apparently favorites of Obama supporters. As the article mentions, there are often a number of different reasons for eating natural foods: environmental (traditionally left-wing), health (bipartisan) or quality (also bipartisan — Republicans like local heirloom tomatoes too).

Still, we must admit, this kind of stuff is fun.

What's for Dinner? The Pollster Wants to Know [New York Times]

Photo, of some political cheese at Zabar's in Manhattan: msnyc111 [Flickr]

Answers: 1. Obama; 2. Clinton; 3. McCain

Diner's Agenda is thrilled about today's sunny forecast.

Thursday, April 17
• Just in time for the lovely weather we are due to have, Vlora is hosting a Spring sangria party (complete with delicious Mediterranean appetizers) on their outdoor patio! Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Call (617)638-9699 to make a reservation. [Vlora]

Sunday, April 20
•The Fireplace kicks it Colonial style with their Patriot's Day Salute. Dishes originated in Thomas Jefferson's White House will be paired with Colonial spirits. The fun runs from 3pm-4:30pm and reservations, which cost $30, may be made by calling (617) 975-1900. [The Fireplace]
• Time to celebrate the retirement of Fidel Castro! Head to Chez Henri for live music, Cuban cocktails, even a Cuban trivia contest. Best of all will surely be the three-course, $39 prix fixe menu. This marks the start of the restaurant's Latin Dinner Series. [Chez Henri]

We consider ourselves to be relatively knowledgeable in the area of French food. Having just returned from Paris, the staples of French cuisine are fresh in our minds (and on our palates). Feening for Bostonian substitutes, we take to the streets.

La baguette: This is not a stereotype. When in France (even though this loaf is not a French native), one must have a nice and crusty bread to have on the counter, in case of emergency (or spontaneous company). Alternatively, one may desire a delicious sourdough. Might we suggest a boule from Roslindale's Fornax Bread Company?

Le pain au chocolat: While we may not have found the perfect copy of the croissant aux amandes, many a local bakery has taken a well-aimed stab at this delectable pastry. Iggy's Bread of the World in Cambridge never ceases to delight. While you're at it, you should try their brioche. Formidable!

Le sandwich: Have the aptly-titled Parisian specialty sandwich at Harvard Square's landmark Cardullo's. On a baguette, green apples cut the rich taste of creamy brie cheese with your choice of mustard. Feeling fancy? Try the Catherine the Great, with sevruga caviar and creme fraiche, also on a baguette. Pretend you're having a pique-nique on the Champs du Mars.

Fornax Bread Company [Official Site]
Iggy's Bread of the World [Official Site]
Cardullo's [MenuPages]
Cardullo's [Official Site]

• Good news: we're 15 years maximum from non-food crop biofuels [Telegraph]
• France up and passes law banning prorexia propaganda, confusing public [WaPo]
• Should we be concerned that China's food prices are up 21% this year? [BBCNews]
• Psychographic pollsters say you vote what you eat. Mmm...granola [NYTimes]
• With Philly restaurant name, tradition trumps empathy and understanding [Tribune]

Two openings and two closings of note. Do you have a hot tip about a restaurant opening or closing? Let us know.

Openings
Quincy: Alba, a Mediterranean steakhouse, is moving to a new location with entirely new staff! Apparently, they are not moving far, from 1495 to 1486 Hancock St. [Craigslist]
West Roxbury: Since the closing of Brigham’s and Yoo-Hoo’s, those who have found themselves in the Centre St. area on a hot summer day have been without the refuge of an ice cream parlor. Fret not: iScream Works is on the way! [Parkway Blog]

Closings
Belmont: Cushing Square will likely miss New Asia, for all its round tables and lazy susans (perfect for sharing!) - Belmont and Watertown residents cross their fingers for a nice Chinese sit-down restaurant replacement. [Chowhound]
Brigham Circle: Café Italia, we hardly knew ye! Tony Oliviero’s reasonably-priced Brigham Circle location has closed its doors. For a more formal dinner, you can still visit the Marblehead and East Boston locations. [Chowhound]

[Photo: East Boston: Povo]

Yes!

Virtually all of you will be getting a $600 tax refund this spring in an ill-advised scheme to restart the U.S. economy. The myopic goal of the refund is for us to spend the money immediately on consumer products and services, so why not blow it all on one epic restaurant meal?

Let us cast aside the $1000 sundae (gold foil) at Serendipity 3 and the $1000 omelet (ten ounces of sevruga) at Norma's — both in New York — as pure silliness, and instead focus on tasting menus, but sans alcohol. If you added in wine pairings, you could go over $600 on the first sip.

It's remarkable, isn't it, that you can spend $10,000 easy on 750 milliliters of fermented grape juice, but it is extremely difficult to imagine a $10,000 meal that doesn't involve kilos of truffles and caviar and the like. Can a $100 meal provide as much palate pleasure as a $1000 bottle of wine? We'd posit so; the price to quality ratio for wine is logarithmic, but only geometric or maybe even just arithmetic for food. Suffice it to say, a $600 meal is going to be really, really, really good, and a lot less risky of a financial investment than a $600 bottle of wine. So where, on Tax Day 2008, are our $600 meals going to come from?

Well, not too many places in America — sorry, Uncle Sam! Even the most renowned and priciest restaurants in the United States are hard-pressed to get you up to the $600 mark on food alone. French Laundry, Thomas Keller's landmark fresh/seasonal restaurant in Yountville, CA, charges a mere $240. Alinea, Grant Achatz's cutting-edge molecular gastronomy spectacle in Chicago is all of $195 for twenty-odd courses; possibly one of the best deals in the country, and actually worth some fraction of your refund.

Superexpensive restaurants tend to cluster in money cities, which is why Joel Robuchon chose unseemly Las Vegas for his first venture in the United States; his eponymous restaurant in the MGM Grand has a $385, sixteen course tasting menu that's nothing to sneeze at. Right now, the menu includes a dish with abalone (which retails for over $100 a pound) and baby leeks in a ginger bouillon, for example.

America's ultimate money city is, of course, New York. Where else could those aforementioned $1000 dishes exist without shame, and even find customers! The second most expensive restaurant in the city is Per Se, Tom Keller's other restaurant. The prix fixe there is $275, not much of a premium over the rural California version.

Our winner today is Masa, the country's preeminent sushi restaurant (at least if you use cost as your primary metric!) It was opened by Chef Masa (there's a surcharge for the surname) in 2004, with the only menu option being a $350 omakase, exclusive of drinks, tax and a mandatory 20% tip. The prix fixe has only risen $50 in the past four years (only!), but don't fret: you can tack on a supplement of Wagyu beef from Masa's home prefecture of Tochigi to nudge it up to $600, thus fulfilling the mission of wasting your tax refund.

Meanwhile, Wagyu beef is the culprit at the most expensive restaurant in the world, Tokyo's Aragawa steakhouse. There, a twenty ounce cut of some of the best-quality meat in existence runs a shade over $600, depending on the exchange rate. For a single piece of steak! And the service and decor are shoddy! Still, wow.

French Laundry [Official Site]
Alinea [MenuPages]
Alinea [Official Site]
Joel Robuchon [Official Site]
Per Se [MenuPages]
Per Se [Official Site]
Masa [MenuPages]
Masa [Official Site]

[Photo: your tax refund, in meat form (at Aragawa, via dottyguy/flickr]

It’s April 15th. Isn’t there something we need to do on April 15th? It’s right on the tip of our tongue…TAXES! Be sure to file your taxes!

Then, be sure to reward yourself. Number crunching can make one thirsty. May we suggest you leave the house and…

Celebrate your civic duty at the People’s Republik in Cambridge. Focus on the fact that the check you just wrote to the feds isn’t half as high as Marx and Engels would have suggested while sipping a Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA or the Magic Hat offering of your choosing.

Enjoy your Lifelong Learning credit with your fellow students at The Publick House. Try the Fin du Monde on tap, a Rauchbier, or the most difficult to pronounce beer on their extensive list. Just make sure you balance it out with a hearty sandwich – maybe the Smuttynose Chicken, marinated in New England’s popular IPA, fruit juice, and garlic.

Escape the memory of adjusted gross income, and picture yourself in Manila. Try a super-exotic lychee martini at Pho Republique in the South End.

Can’t decide? At least head to Dunkin' Donuts for Tax Day relief. Buy a coffee, and they’ll give you a free donut!

The Publick House [MenuPages]
Pho Republique [Official Site]
Dunkin' Donuts [Official Site]

[Photo: The Illustrated Librarian]

• American policymakers still in denial about ethanol's role in food crisis [NYTimes]
• The IMF estimates that 100m people are severely affected by food crisis [FWI]
• Bush releases $200m from food fund for immediate stability aid [CNN]
• The World Bank wants to raise $500m for food aid, especially in Africa [MG]
• Haitian food riots, having taken six lives, finally quiet down [VOA]

Since we're all about vacation today, perhaps it's time to show you this video of a restaurant we're just a tiny bit obsessed with. It's part of the Hilton in Maldives and is, according to this video and others, the world's first underwater restaurant. There's no narration here or anything. Just pretty pictures. Cool, eh?

Blogston Proper is your weekly roundup of Hub-related food writing from all over the Internet. We read the blogs so you don't have to. But you should anyway, just to be nice.

•Bouchee's salads could be better, could be worse. [A Boston Food Diary]
•Their mac and cheese, on the other hand, is great. [We Are Not Martha]
•Also, what's up at Boston Public? We've heard a lot of odd service stories coming from those parts lately. [Boston Food & Whine]

[Photo: Flickr: eyeliam]

We're taking a vacation in Mexico this week &mdash Mazatlan, to be exact &mdash and thought we'd share a few photos of what we'll be consuming. These are all from other people's Flickr photostreams, but they give you a good idea of what's going down the gullet in the Pearl of the Pacific.

There will definitely be plenty of these:

It's especially delicious with a couple of these:

More jealousy-inducing photos after the jump:

You have to be careful of the dangerous and apparently cannibalistic wildlife:

But seafood in Mexico isn't always cooked. Just throw some lime juice on there, marinate and you've got a wonderful ceviche:

You don't always have to eat seafood in Mazatlan. These people got to go to a party back in 1986 that included puerco, a whole roast pig (though they do still make this today). Check the classic apple in the mouth of the dinner and the extra-classic sta-prest pants on the diner.

If you need a bite on the run, you can stop by a taco stand for a snack that will likely cost less than a dollar and taste a million times better than almost any fast food in the U.S.

Finally, for dessert or maybe breakfast, there's got to be a stop at the Panederia. These pan dulces are super good and not too sweet:

There's just barely time to catch the last rays over the Pacific. Awesome:

Photo: Cassadota

Note from Leila: We'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Jess Mullen, who will be contributing her considerable Boston dining expertise to the MP: Boston blog. We're incredibly excited to welcome her to the MenuPages family. We'll let her introduce herself.

Hello, readers! My name is Jess Mullen, and I am eager to step up to the challenge of filling Leila’s shoes as a blogger for Boston MenuPages. Don’t worry: just as Leila did, I'll be posting every day, keeping you up to date on all things Boston and food. I feed off of reader commentary, so if there is anything you want to know about the Boston food scene, or if you just want to say hi, please leave a comment!

You may be interested in knowing that I am a Bostonian, born and bred. When I’m not writing I work at a bookstore and teach English as a foreign language. I’m an absolute Francophile, but I promise to talk about foods that aren’t French, as well. I should warn you, though, that I’ve just returned from Paris, and I am looking high and low for an almond croissant in Boston comparable to the ones I brought back in my suitcase from the Left Bank – any tips would be most appreciated. I’m a fan of the local music scene, the VP of my kickball league, and a frequent patron of the Delux Café in the South End. Sound familiar? I’ve been on this blog before.

I look forward to writing for you. More news tomorrow!

• At global economic conference, food crisis trumps credit crisis [NYTimes]
• France says: the EU really needs to do something about the food crisis [BBC]
• One reason food prices are up: vastly increased farm input costs [WSJ]
• South St. Paul stockyard, once largest in the world, shutters [Post-Bulletin]
• Singles are eating black noodles for love on Black Day in S. Korea [Reuters]

•Is it really appropriate for a restaurant called Gandhi to offer an all-you-can-eat buffet? [MP: Boston]
•Should certain cuisines always be cheap? [MP: Chicago]
•Can restaurants withhold tips from its workers? [MP: Philadelphia]
•Will there ever be a disagreement-free "best-of" list? [MP: San Francisco]
•Is there anything wrong with a four-egg omelet? [MP: South Florida]

Passover starts a week from tomorrow and, if you're like us, you're just starting to get a little bit nervous about your total lack of plans for, say, making a meal. That's where The Metropolitan Club comes in.

The restaurant will be offering a variety of foods to take home for your Seder, ranging from the traditional (brisket, macaroons) to the wildly unconventional (baby poussin with matzo stuffing, meringue and berry napoleon). Orders must be made by next Wednesday and may be picked up on either Saturday or Sunday. What about the several days of Passover after Seders are over but before dietary restrictions are lifted? The Met Club has you covered there too. From Saturday-Friday, the restaurant will offer a three-course kosher for Passover prix fixe dinner for $42 and a two course lunch for $15. There now: that's not so intimidating, is it?

The Metropolitan Club [MenuPages]
The Metropolitan Club [Official Site]

[Photo: Flickr: ilovemods]

What's the best way to nab that unattainable table or bounce back from a missed reservation? It's not necessarily bribery. An article in Restaurants and Institutions this week indicates that the best solution may be a mix of common sense, basic manners and flexibility.

If you are so late that your table has been given away, apologize and ask, "Is there anything you can do for us?". Most restaurants get far more last-minute cancellations than they'd like to admit, so the chances are slim that there will be nothing available for you all night. Many restaurants also have at least one reserve table that they reluctantly bring out for unexpected situations.

If the restaurant truly cannot offer you a table, try eating at the bar, as you'll get a sense of the restaurant's items and the chef's style, and the food might even be cheaper. As a bonus, you can forge a relationship with the staff, increasing your likelihood of getting -- and keeping -- future reservations.

But other solutions are equally as practical and more employable. for example:

Problem: The waiter tells you all about the special but doesn't mention the price.

Solution: A good way to get at the question without seeming rude is to ask, "What price point are the specials?" This phrasing is a little less specific and better than saying, "How much is that?" If you are with people you don't know well or are treating someone and don't want to seem stingy, keep in mind that specials are generally the same price as the more expensive menu items.

Experienced diners know all this stuff, but it makes good reading anyway. And even you, savvy Menupages reader, may pick up a hint or two.

Restaurant Etiquette 101 [Restaurants and Institutions]
Momofuku Ko [Official Site]
Image: Timon [Flickr]

Middle Eastern shops
from Allston to Roslindale
have such great products.

Nadeau's at Small Plates,
finds globe-spanning dishes fun,
likes creative touch.

MC Slim JB
breakfasts at Blunch, finds great food
without pretension.

At Persephone,
First loves the fun atmosphere,
enjoys the fine food.

Brookline's Rizelli
wows Cheap Eats with Turkish fare.
Don't miss patlican.

Sauce stops by MRKT
to find a rare "grown up" spot
with trendy cocktails.

Schaffer: B-
for Union's Highland Kitchen.
It's good for the hood.

What is it about formerly McDonald's-owned Mexican chain Chipotle that gives it such a ferocious cult following? Fast Company tried to find out. Apart from commiting the sin of calling Chipotle "the Bono of the fast-food business" (!), they think it comes down to a combination of quality food and a social responsible message:

"Good food wrapped in a socially responsible message has created legions of Chipotle fans -- and a superhot business. Acquired by McDonald's in 1998 when there were only 14 Chipotles, the company went public in 2006 with 500 stores and watched its stock rise from $22 to $110 in 18 months. The now-independent outfit is enjoying an 80% revenue run-up over three years, and by year's end, it will have 840 stores and top $1 billion in annual sales."

Chipotle is influencing America's food supply chain as well — both Burger King and Wendy's have started considering imitating their humane-pork options.

Chipotle [Official Site]
Ode to a Burrito [Fast Company]

[Photo: Carnitas burrito, Flickr: skeptict]

Are you a prix fixe fanatic? Want to upgrade your dining life just a notch? Switch to the tasting menu. Unlike a prix fixe, which provides a limited (usually three course) menu for a set amount of money, a tasting menu generally changes near-daily according to the chef's whims. There are few better ways to gauge a chef's style and philosophy. The catch: tasting menus can get rather expensive (at L'Espalier, for example, the menu costs $175 and a wine pairing will run you an additional $95). Just because you're on the hunt for bargains, however, doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the tasting menu experience. Below, three solid tasting menu values.

•There are two unusually great things about the $45 tasting menu at Lineage. First, it focuses entirely on lobster, which appears in everything from tacos to gnocchi. Second, the wine pairing is a la carte, that is to say $12 per course. Trust: a full wine pairing where each course gets its own glass can get a little...intense and result in you getting drunk at a very nice restaurant, which is embarrassing.
•No. 9 Park's tasting menu is, admittedly, not cheap at $95 for seven courses ($150 with a wine pairing). We would argue, however, that it still qualifies as a bargain, given the elegance of the food, the gorgeous setting and the exemplary service.
•Sometimes, you just want a fun dinner rather than haute cuisine. That's where Tremont 647's $45 tasting menu comes in. Not only is the food great and thoroughly unpretentious, but the $25 wine pairing is one of the best deals in town.

L'Espalier [Official Site]
Lineage [MenuPages]
No. 9 Park [Official Site]
Tremont 647 [Official Site]

[Photo: Foie gras at No. 9 Park, Flickr: Charles Haynes]

We all know how strongly food can affect mood. Ever been hangry? It's not a pretty sight. But in an environment where very little else has the power to elevate, the role of food moves from attitude adjuster to a hook on which to hang your sanity.

This NPR story from Daniel Zwerdling takes a pretty fascinating look at the roll of meals and cooks on possibly the most remote outpost on earth: McMurdo Station, Antarctica. There, according to one worker, the quality of meals can "make or break morale of the whole station."

We've heard of prisoners rioting over the loss of peanut butter or some such dish, but at least they get a few hours of sunlight a day. In Antarctica, when it's night, it's dark for months on end. During that time there is literally no other sustenance than what comes out of the kitchen. From NPR:

Occasionally, diners lose it. Despite all the menu options, the institutionalized feel at McMurdo can often push people's buttons. Ebel, the maintenance worker, says he went "berserk" once in 1994 because he thought the cooks were always flavoring dishes with curry.

"I cleared that galley once, I cleared the whole serving area," Ebel recalls. "They were peeking around the corners at me, 'Mike calm down!' And all the food and plates got in the way."

Think about that as you head to the farmer's market for spring vegetables. They're sold out of asparagus? It could be so much worse.

Food is Morale Booster or Breaker in Antarctica [NPR]
Photo: Antarctic Sunset #4, Peterkelly [Flickr]

Exactly one year and two hours ago today, this here MenuPages Boston blog went live. Since then, we've written well over a thousand posts, seen the Red Sox win a second World Series, and truly come to appreciate our city's food scene. It's been an honor to spend the year with you, dear readers and we hope you stick with us as this blog heads into its toddler years. For now, just let visions of the below cake dance in your head.

So, What Is This "MenuPages Blog" Anyway? [MP: Boston]

[Photo: Flickr: hfb]

• As Haitian food riot violence continue, PM urged to step down [AFP]
• US & EU complicit in global food crisis, and must act to mollify it [NYTimes]
• WHAT FOOD CRISIS? Meet the $100k kitchen that's sweeping the nation [NYTimes]
• Defying government regulation, raw milk sales continue to skyrocket [AP]
• Post smoking ban, UK pubs report an increase in food sales [Mirror]
• In display of vulgarity, Seoul to put on Guinness Records food fest [Chosun]
• UK closer to banning food additives linked to child hyperactivity [Telegraph]

There's some weird stuff going on in restaurant kitchens these days. In the video (which should be edited down to, say, three minutes, but is still interesting — just ignore the annoying blond woman), chef Stuart Sage of Tang in Dubai demonstrates how he uses liquid nitrogen like a deep fryer to cook food — in this case, a tomato espuma — at ridiculously cold temperatures.

What freaked us out was how he scooped the espuma out of the bowl full of liquid nitrogen and immediately presented it to the woman. We'd be terrified to eat it, for fear that our tongue would immediately freeze and break into 100 pieces, and then how would we taste food. (Shudder.) Of course, the nitrogen had likely evaporated at that point, and besides, we breathe it in and out every day, right? Still. Just a teensy bit scary.

Restaurants - Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen in the Real World [YouTube]

Thursday, April 10
•Taste of the Nation, Share Our Strength's annual fundraising extravaganza, returns to Boston with a gala featuring more than eighty of our city's best restaurants. The fun starts at 6:30pm at Hynes Convention Center, and tickets, which cost $85, may be purchased online. [Share Our Strength]

Saturday, April 12
•Hopefully, Rialto's blind wine tasting won't leave you blind drunk. Wine Director Kelly Coggins will lead participants through tastings of four wines. Class runs from 1pm-2:30 pm. Call (617) 661-5050 to save your spot. [Rialto]

Sunday, April 13
•Beacon Hill Bistro kicks off its Sunday Market Menu dinner series with a $40 three course prix fixe focusing on early spring's bounty (fava beans, etc.). Call (617) 723-7575 to reserve. [Beacon Hill Bistro]
•Carolyn Johnson is the Chef de Cuisine at Rialto. Her boyfriend, Billy Flumerfelt, holds the same job at Icarus. This Sunday, the two will join forces to create a $40 three-course dinner at Rialto. Cute! Call (617) 661-5050 to feel the love. [Rialto]

An upcoming vacation has us stocking up on pulp novels, and it was impossible to resist breaking into Ian Fleming's Moonraker a bit early. James Bond novels often include wonderful descriptions of classic meals and this is no exception, starting with dinner at M's mythical Blades card club in London:

"Well," said M. "Caviar for me. Devilled [sic] kidney and a slice of your excellent bacon. Peas and new potatoes. Strawberries in kirsch. What about you, James?"
"I've got a mania for really good smoked salmon," said bond. Then he pointed down the menu. "Lamb cutlets. The same vegetables as you, as it's May. Asparagus with Bernaise sauce sounds wonderful. And perhaps a slice of pineapple."

But that's just our own latest exposure to the vivid descriptions of Bond's culinary escapades. Throughout the series the meals keep coming, including crab legs and pink champagne at "Bills on the Beach" (rumored to be a thinly disguised description of Joe's Stone Crab) in Miami, langouste in France and an endless stream of scrambled eggs and bacon all over the world. He even manages to scare up eggs Benedict and a bottle of Old Granddad on a train in Japan in You Only Live Twice.

Fleming can cook a meal on the page that hits as close to the gut as anything that doesn't actually consist of food. In fact, we would submit that many of his descriptions come off more satisfying than the real thing. We'll take a dining chapter of Bond over a real-life Egg McMuffin any day.

It's unlikely, on our upcoming trip, that we'll enjoy a "delicious lunch served by an even more delicious stewardess" on Continental, as Bond does in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. As long as there is a Fleming novel or two in the beach bag, the real-life menu can't hope to compare. We'll let it try, though.

So What is James Bond's Favorite Drink? [Accidental Hedonist]
James Bond food and eating [The James Bond Dossier]
Joe's Stone Crab [MenuPages]
Joe's Stone Crab [Official Site]
Photo: Pink Champagne (a Bond favorite) by Gareth Lowe1 [Flickr]

We'll admit it. We're fully obsessed with pork bellies. The belly, for those of you who aren't total gluttons, is the part of the pig that, when cured, can be used to make bacon and pancetta. It can also be cooked whole for a vast variety of delightfully rich dishes. Below, three of Boston's best.

•Kaya offers a feast fit for a king with their Bo Ssam: steamed pork belly, napa cabbage and homemade sauce. The cabbage cuts the belly's unctuous richness just enough that you won't feel too decadent afterwards.
•The pork buns at Myers + Chang are very similar to those at New York's Momofuku Ssam Bar, but since they're also one of the world's most delicious substances, we'll forgive any lack of originality. Braised pork belly is tucked into steamed buns, along with a brandied hoisin sauce and cucumber for heaven in your mouth.
•At Radius, the pork belly comes out crispy and surrounded by bok choy, manila clams, mussels, cilantro, and a coconut nage. Clams and pork belly are basically the best combination ever, so the dish is a winner from the description alone.

Kaya [MenuPages]
Myers + Chang [Official Site]
Momofuku Ssam Bar [Official Site]
Radius [Official Site]

• LA's Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles sues Chicago's Rosscoe's Chicken & Waffles [Tribune]
• EU Development Commissioner brashly calls African food crisis a "tsunami" [BBC]
• Minnesota Twins ballpark signature food item to involve walleyed pike? [Star Tribune]
• On farms, environment losing ground to little-known foe called CAPITALISM [NYTimes]
• Food riots in Haiti continue for a third day; UN peacekeepers worried [Guardian]
• Mich. closer to issuing food stamps bimonthly, encouraging produce purchases [MLive]

Potatoes are a terribly versatile starch; you can mash them, smash them, fry them, scallop, dice, puree, bake, roast, gratinate, chowederize and latkefy them...they take well to almost any preparation. Now that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has decided that they are the food of the future by dint of their caloric yield per acre (a critical metric in an era of unmitigated cereal price spikes), there will be opportunity for even more permutations of potato dishes, like some of these exotic specimens:

"Tornado Potato" — as purchasable on the streets of Seoul (superlocal):

After the jump, spuds galore!

Potato and Bacon Galette — may look like a pastry, but in reality, so much better (Loua):

Scotch Quail Egg with Purple Potato Salad — presented as a way to use leftovers, but worthy of primacy (Biggie*):

Sweet Potato Green Tea Soft Serve a.k.a Asabu Sabo — because potatoes can do anything (tychenyt):

Tofu Wrapped in Potato — potatoes can act as a powerful exoskeleton (tofu666):

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad — is it chicken? is it croutons? Guess again! (su-lin):

Red Potato Pizza — of course it tastes good (QuintanaRoo):

Potato Candy — these are made with a queen's ransom of sugar (pixchica):

Shimiimo a.k.a. Dried Potatoes — a traditional wintertime preparation in Japan; apparently they taste like mochi when fully dried (mistubako):

What is the strangest thing you've ever done with a potato? Actually, on second thought, maybe we don't want to know.

Potatoes seen as 'food of the future' [Food Navigator]

In this week's edition of the Tuesday Report, three restaurants take crucial steps to expand and Sweet Finnish has a not-so-sweet finishing. Do you have a hot tip about a restaurant opening or closing? Let us know.

Openings
Back Bay: Word on the street is that the owners of La Voile are planning to open a cafe and boulangerie on Newbury, near the current location. Developing! [Chowhound]
Dorchester:Dot-to-Dot Cafe, a soon-to-be coffee spot on Dorchester Ave has its sign up and has started interior work. [Lower Dot]
Downtown Crossing: Temple Place is slated to get another dining option when The Ivy's owners open Stoddard's Fine Food & Ale, a "classic American" restaurant. Look for a September opening. [The Beantown Bloggery]
Fields Corner: Shabu-shabu is coming to Fields Corner with the opening of Osaka Shabu, the first-ever Japanese restaurant to open in that part of Dorchester. Bostonians: just can't get enough of shabu-shabu! [Chowhound]
North End: Rumor has it that Finale is in discussion to open a location in part of the former Martignetti's site. Because there's not enough dessert in the North End? [Hanover & Prince]
North End: The Matarazzo Family Club, a "prestigous center comprised of a daycare, an all Italian restaurant and a shopping area" will be coming soon to Purchase Street. Will this move cause the stroller brigade to migrate from the South End to the Financial District's condos? Only time will tell. [Craigslist]
Post Office Square: Z Square continues its rapid expansion with a third location in Post Office Square (perhaps in the spot planned for Todd English's doomed burger venture?), slated to open this summer. [Boston on the Go]

Closings
Allston: It was not exactly a restaurant, but nonetheless, the Paradise will be deeply missed. [Bostonist]
Central Square: Gandhi Restaurant is no more. As one Chowhounder points out, it's difficult to imagine why a restaurant named after Gandhi would offer an all-you-can-eat buffet. Here's hoping for a more appropriately-named spot to take its place. [Chowhound]
Jamaica Plain: Sweet Finnish has closed after three years in business. Rest assured, there is still no shortage of JP bakeries. [JP Gazette]
Needham: Needham's branch of Pho Pasteur has closed and is being replaced by another location of Somerville's Tu Y Yo. [Chowhound]

Changes
Jamaica Plain: The Blue Frog Bakery might be hopping from Green Street to Centre. How fiendishly clever of them to do so just as Sweet Finnish shuts its doors! [Dishing]

[Photo: Flickr: kenziebella]

What is it with Germans re-enforcing their own stereotypes? The country known for efficiency and automation, birthplace of the automat, has now debuted a new kind of mechanical restaurant that uses a fantastic series of tracks, screens and conveyor belts to deliver fresh, often locally sourced food. From the BBC:

Supersonic sausages, high-pace pancakes and wine bottles whizzing down to the customers' tables with the help of good old gravity. One pot is spiralling down so fast, it looks like an Olympic bobsleigh (but it's only Bratwurst).

What's more, at the 's Baggers restaurant in Nuremberg, you don't need waiters to order food. Customers use touch-screen TVs to browse the menu and choose their meal....

Up in the kitchen, it is man, not machine, that makes the food. They haven't found a way of automating the chef, just yet...

Then it is put on the rails and despatched downhill to the correct table. Manna from heaven, German-style.

The restaurant is the brainchild of local businessman Michael Mack.

"I wanted to come up with a complete new restaurant system," Michael tells me, "one that would be more efficient and more comfortable".

We don't think the waiters of the world need to worry too much about their job security in the face of this latest development in automated foodservice. It is fascinating, though, and as the BBC reporter (who strangely doesn't get a by-line in this story) points out, there is no need for a tip in an automated restaurant.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., we're working on new ways to hilariously add steps to the food preparation process. What if Michael Mack and the Rube Goldberg competition guys got together on a project? The result could be the most entertaining mechanical comedy of a restaurant ever. We really hope they consider it.

Fast Food, German-Style [BBC News]
's Baggers restaurant [Official Site]
Automat [Wikipedia]
Burgers The Excruciating Way [Menupages Blog]
Bamn! [MenuPages]
Bamn! [Official Site]
Photo from 's Baggers' Website

After a long cold winter, Opening Day is finally here! Things kick off in just three hours...can you feel the excitement? We can and so can local restaurateurs, who are offering up some great deals to kick off what will hopefully be another stellar season for the best damn team in the MLB.

•All of the Boston-area Chipotle locations are offering free chips and guacamole to anyone in Red Sox gear. You know you're wearing your (please God, not pink) cap today...why not get some free food out of it?
•Jacob Wirth Restaurant isn't giving out free food per se, but they are offering dollar hot dogs and two buck drafts of Bud Light. Sadly, the Friday night piano man probably won't be present.
•J.P. Licks is kicking off the season with free ice cream and frozen yogurt at every location all day. We suggest hitting up multiple spots.

Chipotle [Official Site]
Jacob Wirth Restaurant [Official Site]
J.P. Licks [MenuPages]

[Photo: Hood]

• Cloning-for-food moratorium still USDA modus operandi [Reuters]
• Genetically modified taro moratorium in effect in Hawaii [AP]
• Food riots are the new energy, water riots in developing world [UKPress]
• British mildly upset that food additives lower kids' IQs [UPI]
• Also, they throw away $6b worth of fruits & veggies a year [RWM]
• China plans 24/7 monitoring of food factories during Olympics [Guardian]
• Calls for food sovereignty in Canada...sounds like energy independence [SunTimes]

The April, 2008 issue of Budget Travel includes a wonderful piece on pay-what-you-want restaurants worldwide. We had no idea this was even a trend, but this little roundup gives four examples, including two in the U.S., one in Europe and one in Australia.

The idea is that you go into one of these restaurants, eat like normal and then pay what you feel is appropriate by dropping some cash into a box or using a customer-operated credit card machine. This seems, weirdly, both intimidating and welcoming. It's nice to feel like you're trusted, but it might be intimidating to feel you're essentially rendering judgment on the place by the amount you leave. What if it wasn't that good? Should you stiff them?

While the pay-what-you-like trend reminds us of these underground kitchens that are taking hold in various urban centers, it seems there is much more at stake. The casual dinners thrown at someone's house are simply a nice thing to do and would stop if they weren't fun and/or financially viable.

These restaurants, on the other hand, pin the financial health of the owners and staff on the fair-mindedness and generosity of their customers. It seems to us an experiment that puts a huge amount of faith in humanity and would be very depressing if it failed.

Pay-what-you-like Restaurants [Budget Travel]
Pirates of the Kitchen [Menupages SF]

Blogston Proper is your weekly roundup of Hub-related food writing from all over the Internet. We read the blogs so you don't have to. But you should anyway, just to be nice.

•Troquet has an insane wine list. [The Epi-Log]
•No one is more excited by the proliferation of Wagamamas than those of us who've studied in London. [A Boston Food Diary]
•There's killer clam shack food to be had in Weston of all places. [We Are Not Martha]

[Photo: Flickr: nodame]

For anybody who has worked in a kitchen or watched a professional cooking show, you know efficiency is possibly the most important trait one can bring to the table, er, workstation. Just the opposite in the annual Rube Goldberg competition. This year, contestants built machines whose sole purpose seems to be to make the heads of people like Gordon Ramsay or our old restaurant boss Larry explode in a burst of professional fury. Ha.

The winning entrant and home team at the Purdue University-hosted event took 156 steps to construct a hamburger, using a patty that had already been cooked. Hilariously, the machines seem really bad at making their burgers while taking way too long to do it. But the competition isn't about making burgers, it's about making teamwork and ingenuity, which gets done in spades.

By the time they're done working on these contraptions, the teams in this competition could probably knock out breakfast for a couple hundred people without breaking a superfluous egg. Maybe they can come down to our local diner and give a lesson. Larry should come, too.

A hamburger in 156 easy steps [Slashfood]
Purdue's 156-Step Burger Maker Wins Rube Goldberg Contest [Gizmodo]
Rube Goldberg Contest At Purdue [Purdue News Service]

Is there any better time to be a Bostonian? Spring is just beginning to...well, spring, new restaurants are popping up all over the damn place, and tomorrow afternoon, the Sox are back in town, going up against the Detroit Tigers in their first home game of the season at 2:05pm. 2:05? That means you have time to eat lunch before you head to Fenway. Below, three very different options.

•Looking for a quick bite? Head to UBurger for their appropriately-named Cowboy Burger: a quarter pound of ground sirloin topped with BBQ sauce, Monterey jack, bacon, and mushrooms and wash it down with an Oreo frappe.
•If you're in the mood for a more leisurely meal, try Trattoria Toscana where a dish of orecchiette with pancetta, tomato, and pesto will hold your hunger at bay, no matter how many extra innings happen.
•If you feel like fulling embracing the Opening Day insanity and its attendant crowds and lines, you won't do better than at La Verdad. Settle in for some awesome guacamole, a few smoked tongue tacos, and a margarita or four. What better way could there be to ramp up your pre-game excitement?

UBurger [MenuPages]
Trattoria Toscana [MenuPages]
La Verdad [MenuPages]

[Photo: Trip Advisor]

• Italian food undergoing an (ethnic) identity crisis in Italy [NYTimes]
• Humorous Absolut ad prompts boycott calls from silly Americans [Tribune]
• Embattled Atlantic City casinos cutting food and drink comps [USAToday]
• India's structural economic problems exacerbating food shortages [BBCNews]
• Might the World Bank implement a "New Deal" for African agriculture? [AllAfrica]
• Food riots in southern Haiti leave four dead [Reuters]

•Oxtail obsession: totally justified. [MP: Boston]
•Exemplary empanadas: cheap and tasty! [MP: Chicago]
•Obama's omission: how can you go to Philly and skip the cheesesteak? [MP: Philadelphia]
•Agricultural art: controversial in Mexico. [MP: San Francisco]
•Deceased delis: won't someone please think of the pastrami? [MP: South Florida]

For the second year in a row, a Hub chef has been named as one of Food & Wine Magazine's best new chefs of the year. This year, the magazine has honored Tim Cushman of O Ya. Congratulations are in order for Chef Cushman who, at 55, is the oldest of the ten chefs so honored. Between this award and the restaurant's recent acclaim from the New York Times, it is shaping up to be a very good 2008 for Chef Cushman.

Meanwhile, last year's local Best New Chef winner, Gabriel Bremer of Salts, was hailed as an up-and-coming celebrity chef by Forbes Magazine. Congratulations to Chef Bremer as well! It's a good day to be a Bostonian foodie, no?

Best New Chefs 2008 [Food & Wine]
O Ya [Official Site]
O Ya [New York Times]
In Pictures: Up-And-Coming Celebrity Chefs [Forbes Magazine]
Salts [Official Site]

[Photo: Kinmedai at O Ya, Flickr: jkaw]

Like many foodies out there, we're always looking for little ways to stymie the onslaught of love handles that comes with our chosen pastime/profession. We'd rather not join the charmingly dubbed Fat Pack. So this headline in the Hot Sauce blog was eye-catching: "Eat hot sauce, lose weight?" Hey, could there really be some kind of slimming magic in that little bottle of capsaicin we love so much?

Yes, it turns out, but it is a terrifying and black magic. In addition to simple appetite suppression and encouraging water consumption, part of the "hot sauce diet" includes Pavlovian-style conditioning:

Hot sauce is toxic and can make your face flush and feel uncomfortable. This discomfort creates a situation of aversive conditioning.

However, part of the plan seems like a stroke of genius. We all get periods of near-uncontrollable hunger, where some outside help seems necessary to supplement the will-power. For us, it's late at night, for Dr. Spiro Antoniades, who developed this hot-sauce weight-loss method, it was right after work, when he would gorge before the family dinner.

Antoniades employed his “pushback” — one teaspoon of hot sauce in a glass of tomato juice — to calm his appetite, pique his thirst and cause him to drink water. He found that, by using his pushback, he was able to eat dinner normally.

Eat hot sauce, lose weight? [Hot Sauce Blog]
The Fat Pack Wonders if the Party's Over [NY Times]
Photo: Fat Kid Sauces [Official Site]

Eating at the bar
is fun, says the Dig. We think
just if you're alone.

Nadeau loves Vee Vee:
vegetarianism
executed well.

MC Slim JB
visits Villa Mexico.
Best gas station food!!!!!

First's at Oceanaire.
Not bad for a Midwest chain,
but not great either.

Cheap Eats tries Mulan
delicious Taiwanese fare
is so flavorful.

Empty Benatti
is quite good, opines the Sauce,
but oh so pricey!

Schaffer gives Clink C:
the space is quite beautiful
but the food is meh.

Quincy's Grumpy White's
makes Sinaiko quite happy.
Simple fare for all!

• When Polish artisanal family farms and EU regulations don't mix [NYTimes]
• Miller to craft-ify their Lite beer, destroying both in the process [AP]
• Corn hit six dollars a bushel yesterday. That's really scary! [Guardian]
• What do Texas, the NFL and award-winning wine have in common? [Tribune]
• World Bank: well, it's possible Asia will survive food price spikes [Reuters]
• Bomb defused near Istanbul McD's could be any number of angry parties [CNN]

Burger King has just licensed out their name for a series of, err, "potato snacks." Not potato chips. Potato snacks.

We just got word from snack makers Intensely Different that they have officially unveiled a line of Burger King potato snacks. The chips/snacks/whatever come in two flavors: "Ketchup & fries" or "flame broiled." Yes — hamburger flavored chips. Are they the American version of British bacon flavored crisps? Who the hell knows. But, because we love you, here's the company's description of the "flame broiled" chips:

The BK™ spin on chips is nothing short of a revolution. Our hearty flavor now packs a crispy punch. A savory bag of crunchy, bite-sized flame-broiled taste whenever you want it.

Meanwhile, we admit this sounds like an April Fool's kind of post. I mean, hamburger flavored potato chips? But it's not. However, here's a fast food related prank for you.

Intensely Different [Official Site]

When we last checked in on the escalating Ball Square Breakfast Wars, Sound Bites had just opened in its new location in Ball Square after being forced out of its original location at 704 Broadway and was being challenged for neighborhood breakfast supremacy by 704 Broadway's current tenant Ball Square Cafe. Ball Square Cafe is, of course, owned by Mike Moccia, Sound Bites' erstwhile landlord. Relations between Moccia and Sound Bites owner Yasser Mizra haven't been cordial for some years now, but in the eight months since we last reported on the matter, the situation has escalated sharply. The Somerville News reports that not only have the police been called in to mediate disputes between the Moccias and SMizra, but even Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone has noted the tension.

Now, however, Moccia is, apparently, trying to reconcile. The News reports that he recently sent a letter of apology to Mizra, who, as longtime Sound Bites patrons may have anticipated, is having none of it. Mizra curtly told the news that "I don't want to respond to his letter, I don't want to be civil, I just stay away from him." Such drama! Such strife! Will no one think of the multigrain Belgian waffles?

Sound Bites [Official Site]
Ball Square Cafe [Official Site]
Truce Offered, Rejected in "Breakfast Wars" [The Somerville News]

[Photo: Flickr: Eric Kilby]

God bless animators with too much time on their hands. They come up with hilarious stuff like the below video. We've enjoyed the combination of hip hop style and food media in the past, but this takes the cake so far. Idolator blogger Anthony Miccio astutely points out that Snoop Dogg's "butternut reduction" line is kind of addictive. Well, you just watch. It's great:

I Cannot Get "Butternut Reduction" Out Of My Head [Idolator]
Akon Calls T-Pain [Superdelux]

Food and love: there's no question that they go together. Both can make you feel more incredible than anything else in this world, but when they go bad, can leave your stomach in an awful state. But let's not focus on that part now! Let's focus on the fun part, the first dates. Most people take a foodie first date to mean dinner and a movie. Boring! Why not get a little more creative with these food-focused adventures that are perfect for getting to know someone?

•What could be more romantic than a picnic, especially now that the weather is (almost) warm enough? Stop by flour bakery + cafe to stock up on provisions (we recommend the applewood-smoked-bacon stuffed BLT and literally any one or five of their baked goods), then head to Union Park, nestled in the middle of the prettiest street in Boston. Can you feel the heart fluttering?
•The great thing about taking a cooking class together on an early date is that it gives you a concrete thing to discuss and, even if the date sucks, afterwards, you've learned something besides the fact that you'll never date a vegan construction worker/singer-songwriter again. BCAE has a slammin' one and a half hour chocolate tasting course coming up on May 15th, so start scheming of ways to ask that cute boy/girl at the bookstore now.
•You know what makes every date better? Alcohol. Take your date to a free tour at the Sam Adams brewery in JP before dinner at Vee Vee where you can feast on goat cheese and caramelized onion pasta while drinking (wait for it) more beer. Excellent.

flour bakery + cafe [Official Site]
Chocolate Tasting: From Bean to Bar [Boston Center for Adult Education]
Boston Brewery Tours [Sam Adams]
Vee Vee [Official Site]

[Photo: Pretty, pretty Union Park: Flickr: garethkay]

• Stem rust scare threatens Asia's wheat crop; it could wipe half of it out! [ATimes]
• Seattle to ban foam containers and tax paper and plastic bags [SeattlePI]
• Food costs make up 1/3 to 1/2 of families' budgets in Asian countries [Bloomberg]
• Argentine farmers, 3 weeks into strike, back to the fields during talks [NYTimes]
• N Korea's food crisis now bad enough to force elites to ration food [RadioNeth]
• Nigella Lawson gains a few pounds and doesn't care. Keep it on, sister! [Telegraph]

We are so happy that baseball is back. We managed to get tickets to Opening Day at Dolphin Stadium; the Marlins lost to the Mets (boo!), but it was still a great time.

To celebrate, we thought we'd present a photo essay of ballpark food from each of our cities. We've actually visited and eaten in each of the parks listed, except for the two in the Bay Area. We'll start with our favorite: Philadelphia.

Citizens Bank Park

We hate the Phillies. But we think their ballpark is great, and we love the fact that we can get a Tony Luke's roast pork Italian sandwich for about the same price as at the restaurant. Whenever we go to a game there, we arrive early to get our sandwich before the game starts, because by the third inning, the place is mobbed.

US Cellular Field

We had to get one of these at every White Sox game (and we went to quite a few throughout our college career), sans ketchup of course. The sauteed onions really were key, and you could smell them as soon as you walked into the stadium.

Wrigley Field

We heard that there were Chicago-style hot dogs at Wrigley Field, but we were never able to find any. Were they reserved for those sitting in the lower level? (We sat there once ... in the bottom of the ninth inning when the Cubs were being blown out.) Every hot dog we had at Wrigley was boring (frankfurter, bun, mustard, maybe raw onions), but the photographic evidence indicates that interesting hot dogs do exist there. So clearly we weren't looking hard enough.

Fenway Park

So there's the Fenway Frank. It's famous. We're not quite sure why. We remember having a hot dog at Fenway, but we don't remember much about it. Conclusion: it was forgettable.

AT&T Park

After a quick image search and a chat with San Francisco editor Adam M, we learned that garlic fries are the way to go in both stadiums. And boy do they look good. The ones above are paired with a Polish sausage that has been ruined with ketchup. We'll never understand that.

McAfee Coliseum

See? More garlic fries. And a Chicago-style hot dog. It doesn't look completely authentic (poppy seed bun?), but hey, they're trying.

Dolphin Stadium

We've been to about 20 times as many games here as at the other ballparks, yet we can't remember the last time we actually purchased food at the park. Two reasons: 1. When you go to so many games, that overpriced food can get expensive. 2. The concession stand money goes to Wayne Huizenga. Not a good thing.
There's a Caribbean food area where you can get Cuban sandwiches and jerk chicken, which aren't bad options. But really, the best option is to bring your grill and tailgate (see above). That's what the enormous parking lot is for.

Photos: tumblebunny, 81timesayear, Thinking Violet, andrewmalone, fancydee, mojo!, nicaorgullo [Flickr]

Thursday, April 3
•UpStairs on the Square hosts the fine folks from California's Abundance Wineries for a four course dinner featuring treats like green garlic soup with a poached egg. Dinner costs $65 and you can save your place by calling (617) 864-1933. [UpStairs on the Square]

Monday, April 7
•South Africa produces some of our favorite wines, so we were quite excited to hear about Picco Pizza & Ice Cream's dinner focusing on the wines of the country. $40 gets you four courses. Call (617) 927-0066 to reserve. [Picco]

Wednesday, April 9
•Opening Day Opening Day Opening Day WOOOOOOOO! Um. We're a little excited. Celebrate Boston's greatest day at the Get Your Sox On party at the Greatest Bar. The fun happens from 6:30pm-10pm. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door and may be purchased online. [Boston Event Guide]

Aside from April Fools Day, the fourth month of the year carries a few holidays of note: Passover, Thomas Jefferson's birthday, ummmm... Okay, maybe those are the only ones, but what we celebrate around here is National Grilled Cheese Month, which lasts all of April.

Among the cheesy, gooey reverie taking place:
-Registration is now open for the First Sixth Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational, taking place April 19 in Los Angeles
-The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board has a bunch of recipes and tips and even a video up on its site
-Surely, millions of Americans will cook millions of grilled cheese sandwiches all month long without even knowing it's a holiday
-The Grilled Cheese Blog, while so far quiet on the subject, will likely explode, just a little bit, in a fervor of enthusiasm over this unsung celebratory month.

After the jump: A recipe and a very creepy video

First Sixth Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational [Official Site]
Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Sandwiches [WMMB]
The Grilled Cheese Blog [Official Site]
Photo: Esther17 [Flickr]

For us, the best grilled cheese is cheddar on wheat, with a bowl of tomato soup, a pile of dill chips and some brown mustard on the side. In case you are from Mars and don't know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, here is a recipe for the simplest one ever, from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board:

8 slices firm-textured sandwich bread
Mayonnaise, optional
Mustard, optional
1/2 pound (8 ounces) Wisconsin Cheddar cheese, mild, medium or sharp, grated
3 to 4 tablespoons butter, softened

Cooking Directions:
Spread bread slices with a thin layer of mayonnaise and/or mustard. Evenly divide the grated Cheddar over four slices of the bread. Top with remaining four slices.

Heat half of the butter in a large (12-inch) skillet over medium heat. Place sandwiches in skillet. Spread remaining butter over top slices of bread. Cover skillet. Cook about 3 minutes, until underside is golden brown. Carefully flip sandwiches with spatula and continue cooking, uncovered, 2 to 3 minutes, until cheese is melted and underside is browned. Serve immediately.

Tip: Using 2 to 3 ounces of processed cheese to replace part of the Cheddar imparts a creamy, silky sandwich. Processed cheese was traditionally used in grilled cheese sandwiches.

And, just so you don't think we focus solely on good, wholesome tastes around here, witness one of the creepiest YouTube videos ever, courtesy of the Grilled Cheese Blog, on hideously mocking making the classic sandwich in the microwave. Gross:

Despite a name that's descriptive as could be, the first time we had oxtail, we didn't realize that it was, literally, the tail of a cow. We're not sure exactly what we thought it was, but the idea of eating an animal's tail hadn't yet occurred to us. Now that we've tried it however, we can't get enough. Oxtail is richly meaty with a compelling texture after it's been slow-cooked. There's no shortage of oxtail in Boston. Below, three of the best options.

•Pot-au-feu is probably one of the world's few truly delicious boiled dinners. The Butcher Shop's version is filled with plenty of oxtail, a plethora of root vegetables and horseradish cream for kicks.
•At Mamma Maria, oxtail appears as a filling for the appetizer ravioli, which come topped with a cacciatore sauce. Not for the faint of heart, but thoroughly delicious.
•Sorriso Trattoria goes hearty with their slow-braised oxtail stew, served with parmesan polenta and pine nut gremolata. Meaty, cheesy, nutty: our kind of dish.

The Butcher Shop [Official Site]
Mamma Maria [Official Site]
Sorriso Trattoria [Official Site]

• As conventional farming input prices rise, organic gets competitive [NYTimes]
• Japan, not satisfied by USDA assessment, to study cloned animal safety [Reuters]
• Feed a cold: study shows your immune system is sensitive to diet changes [ScienceDaily]
• Melamine pet food maker starting to settle lawsuits with aggrieved owners [USAToday]
• American Airlines to begin testing on-board a la carte meals [CNN]
• Pernod may have overpaid for Absolut; liquor industry in a tizzy [ Tribune]

Today is the only day besides Halloween when we purposefully make our food appear to be something that it's not. Ironically, unlike on Halloween, April Foods deceptions are actually intended to "trick" the targets rather than simply gross them out. Since the attempts usually aren't that convincing, we settle for mild amusement. To whit:

• "Grilled cheese sandwiches" by seachelle323:

• "Dessert sushi" by Dot D:

Many more appetizing simulacra await you after the jump...

• "Spaghetti & meatballs" by deb33:

• "Fish sticks" by Karrie20:

Karrie20's description of her creation:

"Fish sticks" (Twix bars rolled in toasted coconut), "Mashed potatoes with gravy" (Vanilla ice cream with caramel syrup), peas & carrots (Peanut butter cereal dipped in green candy melts and small caramel pieces dipped in orange candy melts.)

• "Meatloaf cupcakes" by whisperawish:

• "Poo cupcake" by traoki/flickr:

• "Spilled coffee" by Zeroth57:

• "Poissons d'Avril" by rubykhan:

Another kind of April Foods joke we've encountered takes the form of offering someone something spoiled; we think this is more April Cruel than April Fool, and do not condone it.

And remember, the best time to do an April Foods joke is some random day in August. They'll never see it coming!

[Photos: flickr]

In this week's edition of the Tuesday report, dollar oysters in Roxbury and ice cream insanity in Westie.

Openings
Roxbury: Pacific Restaurant, a new Chinese spot from the owners of Jade Pacific in Billerica, has opened in Newmarket Square. Apparently, it offers both oysters and giant scallops in the shell for a mere 99 cents each. Sounds like a good deal to us! [Chowhound]

West Roxbury: It's been a sad few years for ice cream lovers in Westie since Brigham's and Friendly's closed their doors. Now, however, all of that is poised to change as Champs Ice Cream comes to Centre near Belgrade and The Real Deal starts selling ice cream from Emack and Bolio's. Now, if we could only get a J.P. Licks up in there... [West Roxbury Bulletin]

[Photo: Flickr: SignalPAD]

Yes, we know what day it is. Just because it's April 1 doesn't mean every crazy idea you hear is a joke. For example, this video about human cheese (only moderately safe for work--there are two topless shots with the naughty bits blacked out) is obviously a spoof, but the whole concept might not be so crazy.

A friend forwarded a very convincing post on Why Travel To France about a dairy in Singly that apparently specializes in the stuff. We know from precedent here at Menupages that the sale of human milk is legal and that there is some kind of demand for it, so why not?

Also, after a trip through Alta Vista's Babelfish translator, the site for Le Petit Singly sounds very straight-lipped. So is it a joke? Find out after the jump!

Cheese Made of Breast Milk [Trendhunter]
Human Breast Milk Cheese Made In France [Why Travel To France]
Le Petit Singly [Official Site]
Question Of The Day: Human Breast Milk In Restaurants [MP Chicago]
Photo: Why Travel To France

This is what you get if you try to order human cheese (we ran the French text through Babelfish, hence the awkwardly translated English):

Then you, one proposes to you to eat cheese made starting from HUMAN mother's milk and that connects you? A small precision is essential at this stage: ALL the ELEMENTS, EVENTS, NAMES, MARKS, PLACES and LABELS purely fictitious and/or are used in a diverted way. On the other hand, we would be strongly interessés to have your "hot" reactions. Hesitate-therefore not with us to communicate them by e-mail. While waiting, the 5 last gogos to have been made here, have héhé:

Full disclosure: as we're writing this, it is 10:20am and we just finished a yogurt. We shouldn't be hungry for lunch. We certainly shouldn't be hungry for a massive lunch of ribs and cornbread and maybe just a little heap of pulled pork. That, however, is just the power of the below video, which depicts some of the goods on offer at Smoken Joe's in Brighton. Feeling inspired for your own lunch? Consider heading to one of the seventeen restaurants on MP that serve barbecue for lunch and don't forget to wear a bib: barbecue sauce looks so sloppy on a suit.

Smoken Joe's [MenuPages]
Smoken' Joe's in Brighton Center, Boston MA [YouTube: beneeball]

• Global poor complacent, forgiving of their gov'ts as food prices rise [Reuters]
• American farmers planting just the right amount of corn and soya [NYTimes]
• Study: most Americans haven't noticed food or fuel cost changes [AP]
• Gov't & farmers unite to efficiently and effectively combat global hunger [Reuters]