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]

Photo: diana.lundin [Flickr]

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]