• August gets two and a half forks, and is found to be "understated" and "terrific." Everything sounds like tasty, stick-to-your-ribs Italian, although you "won't find typical south Philly red-gravy fare here." What's more, entrees top out at $19 &mdash for the sake of our wallets, and all.

• The end of the World Series does not signal an end to drinking days! Quite the opposite, my dears, or at least so sayeth Joe Sixpack. Excuse the first: Election Day. Excuse the second: The Sixers! There is always a good occasion for beer-swilling.

Happy Halloween, guys!

Via MP:Chicago comes word of a spook-tacular Halloween deal from Chipotle.

Tonight, Chipotles across the nation will be giving free burritos to customers who come in dressed up as burritos. Although the humiliation (not to mention labor-intensiveness!) of a burrito costume seems out of proportion to the relative cost-benefit of getting a free burrito, you still have time to wrap yourself in foil and run over to a Chipotle.

Cons: the closest locations are in Bala Cynwyd and Ardmore; you'll have to drape yourself in burrito fixings and foil. Pros: free; burrito; free.

Chipotle [MenuPages]
Chipotle [Official Site]

[Photo: burrito riding the train via: ang_410/Flickr]

We're going to depart, today, from our usual Friday movie, so that we can give a nod to the ongoing Sandwich Duel, in the New Yorker's Cartoon Lounge. Yesterday's entry was especially entertaining because it was all about New York Times restaurant critic (and birthday boy) Frank Bruni, who we read all the time. And it's hilarious. Like this part:

You’re not going to impress Frank Bruni by making a sandwich. The guy has eaten Emeril’s muffuletta, out of Emeril’s hand. The guy has had the big important pastrami thing at Katz’s. He has been to Foxington Whiddle, Sandwich, Northumberland, where the sandwich was invented, and he has had his picture taken in the exact spot, in the ruins, where the Earl of Sandwich took the first bite of the first sandwich. You can’t just “make” Frank a sandwich. So I didn’t.

I set down a clean white plate with a small music-box motor in the center. Frank set the guitar upright in the deep grass and pulled his chair to the table.

“Interesting,” he said, almost too quickly. “They’re doing something like this at Adria’s this season.”

I smiled politely. “No, they’re not,” I thought.

[The Cartoon Lounge: Sandwich Duel, Part 19 [New Yorker]
Happy 44th Birthday Frank Bruni [Eat Me Daily]

• Harrowing Halloween cocktails! [MP: Boston]

• Bloodcurdling butt sizes! [MP: Chicago]

• Eerie economic times for restaurateurs! [MP: Philadelphia]

• Shocking "screaming orgasm" salads! [MP: San Francisco]

• Spine-chilling snakes! [MP: South Florida]

• Burger King's profits have risen 2% in the last quarter. Yay? [Washington Post]

• Also on the rise: diabetes, probably due to obesity! [Boston Globe]

• The former CEO of the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant is now being facing federal charges for hiring illegal immigrants. [New York Times]

• A Texas man was jailed after refusing to pay for his meal at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Classiest dine and dash ever! [AP]

• What's tainted today? Animal feed! [Chicago Tribune]

• Table Talk covers the opening of Butcher & Singer, which is high-end, but not in the same way as Stephen Starr's other high-end steakhouse, Barclay Prime. That's because this new one is more of a classic throwback, while Barclay is all contemporary, and whatnot.

• Yesterday marked the last day of the existence of Rick's Steaks in Reading Terminal Market. The closing is born from "a nasty landlord-tenant battle that cost Olivieri $310,000 in legal fees and resulted in the eviction of Rick's Steaks." Loyal customers lined up to have one last steak.

• Rick Nichols ponders a Tuesday night in the bistros that populate "the western edge of Queen Village gives way to Bella Vista." Though not dead, things are awfully quiet.

• Wondering what to do with the abundance of pumpkins? Dianna Marder has a breakdown of several varieties of pumpkin and what they give, as well as some recipes for your salvaged jack-o'-lantern.

As Election Day nears (only four more days!!), it seems like most people we know are living on a figurative diet of electoral projections. From the sophisticated (like FiveThirtyEight or Real Clear Politics) to the intensely simplified and straightforward (as in the case of How Is Obama Doing), there is really no shortage of corners of the web for people to stay on top of political polls.

But! In case you were worried about the soundness or veracity of these polls &mdash both in terms of methodology and outcome &mdash 7-Eleven, Culver's Custard, and Domino's have all got you covered. After the jump, some very important data, factoids, research methods, and maps!

First up, 7-Eleven! As you can see from the map pictured directly below, by 7-Eleven's projections, Barack Obama is the sure winner:

7-Eleven conducted its poll by inviting customers to vote with their cups (exactly what it sounds like). As you can see on the map, many typically red states do not have 7-Eleven stores, which has likely skewed the date in favor of Barack Obama. Furthermore, there is no limit to the number of votes, so an especially ardent Obama supporter could go in several times a day, purchasing coffee in a blue cup each time. On the other hand, per the "Fun Facts" section of the 7-Eleven site, their "George W. Bush cup outsold Al Gore's cup by just 1 percentage point." Also, "the 2004 7-Eleven results tracked identically with published national election results," so, there you have it?

Meanwhile, Culver's Custard has "Reese E. Buttercup" (John McCain) and "Heath Toffeebits" (Obama) going head to head, and here's what those results looks like:

For clarity, the two "candidates" are ice cream sundaes, and although the Obama stand-in is winning, is it possible that this has less to do with politics than with deliciousness?

Finally, Domino's. (If you'd like an image, we recommend clicking through to the post about it on Pollster.) This poll was less about political projections, and more about pizza preferences tied to political parties (sidebar: check out that alliteration!). Among other things, they found that:

Republicans spend more money per order and use credit cards more than other consumers. They also like specialty pizzas more than most and are most likely to order online. Republicans are also more likely to pick up their pizzas.

Democrats are more likely to pay with cash and like more variety with their orders, more often adding side items and beverages when ordering pizza.

Ready to turn away from FiveThirtyEight or CNN now?

"Coffee and Custard Polls Swing Towards Obama" [The Food Section]
"On Pizza and Politics" [Pollster]

In these lean times, almost any expense can be hard to justify, especially spending more than necessary on food. This, obviously, makes it hard for restaurants that sell anything fancier than a Big Mac to stay in business.

So what's a struggling eatery to do? Clearly, the answer is to practically give the food away and hope things get better. We've seen a couple reports lately of restaurants offering real, legitimate, non-big-mac meals for less than $1. This keeps customers walking through your door, and, hopefully, buying more expensive stuff once they have money again.

You may have noticed in yesterday's FYI the item about the Spanish restaurant offering an "anti-crisis" lunch for one euro. There was also an item on Marketplace the other day about the Four Crosses pub, outside Birmingham, England, where they're offering full pub meals for a pound, a deal that instantly brought in customers by the hundreds.

The manager is happy. He says his booze sales are up five-fold since he introduced the credit crunch menu. Many similar promotions are expected around Britain in the coming months.

We've heard of fewer such offers stateside (the one in the photo notwithstanding). Ironically, New York City's Gray's Papaya chain recently raised the price on their ever-popular recession special--two dogs and a drink. Of course, they don't serve booze, a luxury on which few seem hard-pressed to splurge when the going gets tough.

Spanish restaurant launches 'anti-crisis' lunch menu for one euro [China Daily]
British economy shrinking fast [Marketplace]
Gray's Papaya [MenuPages]

Photo: Via Reverend Andy/flickr]

Maybe not the most dignified of titles, but whatever! THE PHILLIES WON THE WORLD SERIES. This is: crazy, exciting, amazing, historic, vindication of sorts, triumphant, and so much more! In fact, it is so much these things that we are not really of a mind to think of restaurants and dining out... and as it turns out, neither are you!

See, a funny little thing about the oft-mentioned reviews here at MenuPages is that they are often subject to the vagaries of current events. By this we mean that during the Summer Olympics, there was a marked drop in the number of reviews being left each day &mdash particularly during all of the men's swimming events. The logical explanation behind this tapering off of reviews was that people were so glued to their TVs that they dined out less that week, or at the very least, stopped leaving reviews because once they got home.

Well, the World Series have had an even more extreme, incredibly noticeable, effect on MenuPages user reviews: there haven't been any new reviews since around 4pm yesterday. Nary a one! Just one tiny little measure of how swept up this town has been by Phillies Phever.

[Photo: Philly.com]

• A panel of scientists has come out with a report pretty much tearing the FDA a new one over its ruling that bispenol-A is safe. [NYT]

• A restaurant in Hamburg, NY was closed after officials discovered staff had butchered road kill in the sink. [CBS/AP]

• Golfer John Daly was found drunk and unconscious outside a North Carolina Hooters. [LA Times]

• Melamine turns out to be a somewhat common additive to Chinese animal feed, a practice the Chinese press called an "open secret." [AP/Chicago Tribune]

• The original Starbucks team is back in charge, but could the "back to basics" company turnafound be too little, too late?. [NY Times]

• When a restaurant shuts its doors, only to open them again, comparisons between the two "eras" of the eatery are inevitable... and Minar Palace is not exception. This week's City Paper goes there (both figuratively and literally!) and finds that, well, it is a bit of a "letdown."

• Between Halloween and Election Day, there is a lot going on in the upcoming week! We are looking forward to November 4th with the same level of anticipation that a 5 year old exhibits for Halloween, so it seems fitting that they are in the same week. Anyway. This Week In Eats has some activity/event suggestions for you, like a) a pie tasting, b) Halloween hijinks at McGillins, and c) and Election Night party at Johnny Brenda's.

• Home Slice, the pizza place that opened at the end of the summer, serves up distinctly above-average pies, but seems to be undiscovered. Don't let it languish in obscurity, says Trey Popp! When even the vegan slice is good, you know a place is worth checking out.

• If the whole Halloween/Election thing happenings make you want to hibernate more than anything else, the Top 5 is kind of a love song to you &mdash or at least a chance for a night of escapism. All about one-stop dinner and a movie places, suggestions range from renting a Bollywood flick at Tiffin to the prix-fixe dinner and ticket deal at 12 Lounge.

The baseball season may end tonight when Game 5 of the World Series resumes. The Phillies and Rays were tied at two after five-and-a-half innings on Monday when rain forced them to stop playing. The Phillies, up three games to one in the series, could win it all tonight. Here's hoping the Rays can stay alive (though fans in Philly may disagree).

In addition to great pitching and defense, the teams have another thing in common: both hail from cities (or in the Rays' case regions) renowned for their excellent treatments of pork in sandwich form. Why Philadelphia is known more for its cheesesteaks than its mouthwatering roast pork sandwich (with broccoli rabe and sharp provolone) is beyond me. Tampa claims to be the home of the Cuban sandwich — though that's disputed — and restaurants there make some of the best versions of the sandwich in the country.

Why not toast to your preferred team with a roast pork or Cuban sandwich? If you're up for spending some time in the kitchen, check out this recipe for an Italian roast pork sandwich Tony Luke's-style. As for the Cuban sandwich, follow the Three Guys From Miami's instructions, and then add a layer of salami to make it a true Tampa-style cubano.

Not up for cooking? There's no shortage of roast pork sandwiches in Philly, but we'd recommend going to the aforementioned Tony Luke's. Meanwhile, for your non-homecooked Cubano, head to Pura Vida to pick up a sandwich, and in the comfort of your own home, add a few slices of salami to make it Tampa authentic.

Tony Luke's Italian Roast Pork Sandwich [Recipezaar]
Sandwich Cubano [Three Guys From Miami]

Tony Luke's [MenuPages]
Pura Vida [MenuPages]

Photos: tumbebunny/flickr and bueller2/flickr

Alison two is now fully open, for both lunch and dinner, and the new menu is being entered into our system as this is being typed. We're pretty eager to hear about experiences there / read reviews / go try it out for ourselves, because the menu looks incredibly eclectic (it's based on Alison Barshak's global travels) and interesting, and because of the reputation carrying over from Alison at Blue Bell, of course.

What's on the dinner menu, for example? Take a look at the dinner menu after the jump!

Appetizers
Neck Pumpkin Soup, 5 Spice Roasted Shrimp & Chervil Creme Fraiche
Charmoula Rubbed Lamb Loin Chop, Cucumber Mint Relish, Chick Pea Puree
Chopped Salad, Romaine Lettuce, Maytag Blue Cheese, Poached Egg, Organic Baby Carrots, Tomato, Asparagus, Grilled Herb Toast
Roasted Wild Mushrooms, N.C. Heirloom Grits, Aged Sonoma Jack Cheese, Sherry Reduction
Lump Crab Cake, Green Mango Salad, Madras Curry Vinaigrette
Hearts of Romaine, Lemon Anchovy Vinaigrette, Prosciutto, Roasted Garlic and Artichoke Toast
Roasted Chioggia & Golden Beets, Goat Cheese Bavarian, Arugula, Walnut Vinaigrette
Fried Oysters, Rajas, Tomato Chipotle Sauce, Mizuna
Ginger Fried Squid, Mango Slaw, Wasabi Drizzle
Mussels, Cured Chorizo, Caramelized Onion, Piment d’ Espelette, Rioja Broth

Dinner Menu
Halibut, Celery Root & Blue Bay Mussel Risotto, Celery Heart Salad, Saffron Broth
Skate Wing, Cauliflower Puree, Shaved Fennel and Radish, Cardamom Vinaigrette, Roasted Lemon
Sheep Head Snapper, Smoked Cipollini Onion, Roasted Fingerling Potato & Spiced Shallot Veloute
Grilled Tuna Cha Ca Style, Toasted Turmeric, Dill & Ginger Broth, Rice Noodle Salad, Peanuts
Whole Steamed Fish, Ginger, Lemongrass & Scallion, Baby Bok Choy, Toasted Garlic Jus
Hanger Steak, Potato Frites “Boulangere” Cherry Tomato “Chili,” Veal Reduction
Roasted Chicken Breast, Preserved Lemon, Carmelized Brussels Sprouts and Pearl Onion, Salsify Puree, Cider Reduction
Sea Scallops, House Made Gnocchi, Mushrooms, Truffled Mushroom Sauce
Painted Hills Ribeye, Potato Gratin, Stewed Onion, Blue Cheese Fritters & Cabernet Reduction
Braised Pork Cheeks Al Pastor, Pineapple, Onion, Cilantro and Lime, Crisp Corn Tortilla
Tandoor Monkfish, Yogurt-Marinated, Lentils, Mizuna, Wheat Naan Bread, Ginger & Cilantro Chutney

Unlike Alison at Blue Bell, Alison two is not a BYOB. Before you get too sad though, the freedom to bring your own bottle of wine has been supplanted with a truly terrific looking bar and cocktail menu (it has a mix of both classic and original cocktails), so hurray to that.

It's not exactly restaurant-related, but we were still fascinated by the howstuffworks article linked on Cold Mud today, detailing the history of why we're so terrified of strangers poisoning our children's Halloween candy. Did you know most such cases turned out to be frauds, perpetrated by the parents themselves? Disturbing:

There have been at least two confirmed deaths linked to tainted Halloween candy, but strangers didn't cause them. In a 1970 case, family members sprinkled a 5-year-old child's candy with heroin to hide the fact that he'd gotten into his uncle's drug stash. In the other case, which occurred in 1974, a man named Ronald Clark O'Bryan of Houston, Texas, laced his son's candy with cyanide and the child died. The motive was a big insurance policy that O'Bryan had taken out on his son. To make the poisoning appear random, O'Bryan also poisoned his daughter's candy and the candy of three other children. None of them ate it, however. He was eventually convicted of murder and died by lethal injection.

[Photo: Via rochelle et. al./flickr]

• Calorie counting is back, or so says The New York Times. Didn't realize it had ever really fallen out of favor. [NYT]

• The LA Times editorial board calls for all food from China to be tested for melamine. Here's a better idea in the meantime: if a food product says "made in China," place it back on the shelf. [LA Times]

• Environmentalists are urging the FDA to re-evaluate the agency's position on bisphenol A, which is found in most plastics and has been deemed safe in small quantities. [AP]

• A woman who's had a bit too much to drink gets on a mechanical bull at Johnny Utah's in New York. Now she's suing the restaurant for causing some injuries (which are unspecified) by allowing her to a) get on the bull drunk and b) cranking up the speed to get her to fall off. Isn't that the point? Someone please dismiss this case. [Newsday]

• A restaurant in Gijon in northern Spain is offering a one-euro recession special lunch menu that sounds like an amazing deal: seafood soup, ribs with rice or chicken or anchovies with a salad, bread, dessert, and a drink. According to a manager, the restaurant isn't losing money, but it's not making any either. [China Daily]

New York Magazine (disclosure: kind of our parent company) has a piece up on their site about winter travel. One of the little itineraries that they've come up with is for a quick jaunt down to Philly ("Two nights + Iron Chef tasting menu + Colombe coffee = $320 for a two-nighter"). It actually sounds like a fun, if just-scratching-the-service trip, and of course we're on board with the Distrito recommendation.

Here's what they have to say:

Philly’s reputation as a cheaper version of New York is well deserved, and not just because of its cut-rate artists’ lofts and liberal BYOB policies. The city’s cheap-dining scene has also gotten awfully New York–y lately. In July, Iron Chef winner Jose Garces opened Distrito, where nothing runs more than $16, and even a three-course chef’s tasting menu of flatiron-steak tacos only costs $40 (grg-mgmt.com/distritorestaurant.com). The Japanese meat-on-a-stick trend just arrived, too; Yakitori Boy does $1 yakitori skewers on Tuesdays (yakitoriboy-japas.com). And Philadelphia Java Company (215-928-1811)—serving La Colombe coffee and Middle Eastern snacks—might as well be on St. Marks Place.

It's sort of annoying to be the one city on the list that gets described in the context of New York, but c'est la vie, or something? Overall, props to NYMag for picking out Distrito, pointing to the awesome BYOB-ness of Philadelphia dining, and for making it an itinerary more about food than those for any of the other cities.

"Sample Another City: The best of what is new, artsy, and delicious in competing concrete jungles." [NYMag]

Distrito [MenuPages]
Distrito [Official Site]

• Pub & Kitchen "is comfort food prepared with the finesse and ingredients that sates the appetite and the soul." Between this review and the idea that diners are going to rush toward comfort foods in this flailing economy, it sounds like Pub & Kitchen is set-4-lyfe.

• Tim McGinnis has an interview with Brian Ricci, the sous chef at Pub & Kitchen. The bit about working the line is pretty good: “Service cooks often work in a state of hyperawareness. It’s often be a collective feeling that allows us to cook, plate and move in harmony. It’s like a performance.”

• Did you know that Cuba Libre sells paella kits? Well, they do! $25 gets you "a thin paella pan, Calasparra paella rice, a recipe and shopping list, pimentón and a saffron mixture," so that you can make it at home. There's nothing to fear in the prep &mdash unless you are cowed by your fishmonger.

Be afraid, college students and the creative underclass. Be very afraid. No, it's not because jobs are drying up faster than ramen noodles to an unwashed pan. It's not because you'll never get another student loan again, and Sallie Mae will send a death-squad to your house to collect on the current one. It's not even because this is the year you realize waiting tables is going to be the highest-paid job you've ever had (provided you get paid, that is).

You should be afraid, underpaid people, because the latest product to fall victim to a contamination scare is none other than the staple of your diet, Cup Noodles.

Okay, so we're being a touch dramatic. But still, most of the half-million cups of freeze-dried noodles recalled Friday over fears they were contaminated by insecticide had already been sold in Tokyo-area stores, according to Asia Pacific News Service:

The product was made at a Nissin factory in Japan. A series of previous scares have involved food imported from China.

The health office said on inspecting the Cup Noodle they had discovered paradichlorobenzene, the key chemical in bug repellent, but no puncture or other abnormality in the cup.

Nissin was voluntarily recalling around 500,000 cups made on the same factory line the same day, a company spokesman said.

They were sold at supermarkets in Tokyo and neighbouring areas with most of them already gone from store shelves, he said.

For the rest of us, let's just marvel at how darned many cups of noodles must enter the world in a day. If one production line of one factory cranked out 500,000 of them, and the company has 29 factories worldwide, according to its website... We don't know how many production lines are in each factory, but still, that's a whole freaking lot of Cup Noodles.

Fortunately, for you, and ironically unfortunately for Nissin, the immense popularity of Cup Noodles and similar products has led to a sizable trend of ramen restaurants popping up in cities all over the United States. It may not be the $0.50 meal you're used to from the cup, but trust us, a bowl of ramen will at least be a lot tastier and better for you than anything freeze-dried.

[Photo: Via Mappi 1322]

Everyone's all abuzz today over the launch of MTVMusic.com — a massive repository of basically every music video ever made. We are particularly psyched because there are many many awesome food-related music videos (and songs!) that really get our juices going. Please rock out on these for the remainder of the day.

Bjork's "Venus as a Boy" — quite possibly the best use of a fried egg since "this is your brain on drugs."

Three more classics (including a fearsome man-burger hybrid, a life-size chicken, and millions of peaches) after the jump!

ZZ Top's "Burger Man": The tale of a common, everyday man who falls into a pit of toxic sludge and becomes a burger-shaped quasi-monster. Bonus: Hot chicks on spaceships!

Most people don't realize that POTUS's "Peaches" is not a weird novelty rock song; rather, it is actually a thinly-veiled critique of the anti-locavore movement:

Cibo Matto's "Know Your Chicken." Starring Man, Woman, and Chicken!

Millions of other music videos (okay, tens of thousands) are at mtvmusic.com.

• Various big names in the retail food business are voluntarily adding easily visible nutritional icons to their packaging. [NYTimes]

• Wal-Mart removed some Chinese eggs from their shelves. You guessed it — melamine! [AP/SF Chron]

• ... but the World Health Organization just announced that Chinese eggs are a-okay. Unless you eat, like, twenty a day. [AFP]

• The original Slow Food conference opened yesterday in Turin, Italy, and is drawing comparisons to the Olympics. [SF Chron]

• Vermont (yes, the state) has set up speed-dating sessions between its local farmers and various buyers — supermarkets, restaurants, colleges, etc. In our humble opinion, this is the cutest thing ever. [AP/WaPo]

The economy &mdash and how it relates to food and dining &mdash has been the topic of a lot of conversation recently, and with good reason. Just last week, the New York Times has an article about restaurants in Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the way in which they are coping (or not coping) with the hard times. For that matter, the topic was covered in both the Chicago and South Florida MenuPages blogs, by the respective editors.

Today, we had the chance to go "Top Chef: Taste of the Five Boroughs (call-back to last week!), where we ate a lot of food, and also watched a quick panel with Daniel Maurer, Tom Colicchio, and Stephen Starr.

The title of the discussion? "Being A Restaurateur In Today's Economy." Maurer asked both restaurateurs about how things are going for their restaurants, given the grim economic outlook, and it sounds like business is a pretty mixed bag. Both Morimoto">Morimoto in New York City and Buddakan (also the New York one) are doing fine. In fact, business at Morimoto is up from last year, and Buddakan has stayed level. Starr's Philadelphia restaurants are another matter, though. Although definitely not doing poorly, he did say that "in Philadelphia however, we have seen a small drop."

What else? Nothing too revolutionary. He also said that people are eating a lot of food, and drinking much less, as well as ordering fewer appetizers. Apparently, we have Europe to thank for bolstering our restaurant industry thus far (Stephen Starr on this subject: "thank God for Europeans!"). It seems that everyone else is buying booze at liquor stores and going home to drink it (for the record, Starr calls this "people being smart").

He also tried to shake the "big box" label once more (okay! We get it! You don't like it!) and the ways in which kitchens can be "engineered" to cut costs (think four and a half egg omelets, instead of six egg ones). Mostly though, the mood was confident. He closed by espousing how firmly he believes in Darwinism, declaring that "the better restaurants will survive this."

Morimoto [MenuPages]
Morimoto [Official Site]

• Parc gets two solid bells from LaBan in Sunday's Inquirer. It's crowded and noisy, which all makes sense given pretty, pretty Parisian looks of the place. And hey, guess what? The food is pretty good too.

• Feeling the pinch, but not willing to sacrifice decent wine? LaBan to the rescue with a recommendation for a ten buck bottle of Spanish wine! Still &mdash if only Trader Joe's wine were a viable option.

• Believe it or not, but East Passyunk is fancying up, at least dining-wise. One of the more recent additions to the stretch is Izumi, a slick little Japanese spot. The chef has made the Starr rounds (Pod, Buddakan, and Morimoto) and the food mostly shows it.

The idea of recycling kitchen grease into diesel fuel is probably not news by now, but grease is certainly not the only by-product of food production produced by commercial kitchens. Can we find an alternate disposal method, then, for things like cans and utensils? How about art projects? Boing Boing Gadgets has hit on an artist in London who is doing just that. Check it:

Giant skull made out of kitchen utensils [Boing Boing]

[Photo: Via Boing Boing]

The weekend''s food news seems to have been dominated by the eminently disgusting story of the family that is accusing an Australian hotel of intentionally serving them a particularly unsanitary bowl of complimentary ice cream.

We don't want to help proliferate that story (well, not any more than we just did), but we mention it because it served as a pretty perfect comic backdrop to Slashfood's Saturday list of decent foods with dirty-sounding names. Some, like spotted dick, just come naturally, while others, like buttered crumpet, are really only funny because you're already thinking dirty. But for some reason, this variety is so funny.

It was such a relief to find something so innocently juvenile among all the true reports about people acting as rotten and petty as they do in that hotel story. The way we read it, it seems the family was nasty to the waitstaff, the staff reciprocated in kind with a nasty prank, and now each side has lawyers to be professionally nasty to each other.

In that context, wouldn't it be nice if the grossest thing you had to think about all day was the middle-school interpretation of the name, "Fluffernutter?"

Pub accused of serving ice cream contaminated with human excrement [Telegraph UK]
Spotted Dick and other foods that sound dirty but aren't [Slashfood]

[Photo: Via Cupcake Girls]

• A grim reminder that the financial crisis is about so much more than jobs, foreclosed homes, and retirement funds: it's also calamitous news for the global food crisis. [WaPo]

• On the plus side... potatoes? Cheap and less subject to market fluctuations than grains, they are a promising solution to global hunger. Just don't tell the Irish, circa 1850, mkay? [NYT]

• Oh, China. Although it's fun to write out sentences like "another day, another melamine contamination disaster!" at this point, we'd rather hear that all is A-OK with your food supply. Sadly, this time, it's a melamine-tainted egg scare. [AP]

• Crazy weather patterns in Europe = ideal mushroom growing conditions. Okay, global warming. You win this round. [Chicago Tribune]

• The Massachusetts Oyster Project is sowing oysters in the Charles River for the purposes of water clean-up. Neat idea, even though it means they will be off limits for nomming (pollutants and all). [Boston Globe]

Well, how do you them apples:

We don't especially need new excuses to love Distrito, but it doesn't hurt to add more, does it now?

If baseball is still not your thing, no matter how many drink specials you're plied with, there probably are other things to do this weekend, but to be honest, we haven't given them much thought.

Distrito [MenuPages]
Distrito [Official Site]

As most everyone knows by now, Stephen Starr's latest restaurant, Butcher and Singer, is having its opening night this coming Monday. Housed in what used to be the Striped Bass

Starr says he wanted the old Striped Bass to look like the Original Delmonico’s Steakhouse in New York, the Brown Derby in L.A. and/or Philly's long-gone Frankie Bradley’s. Menu includes such old-timey stuff as steak tartare prepared tableside, Caesar salad prepared tableside, lobster Newburg, surf-and-turf (filet and cold-water lobster tail), steak Diane, and baked Alaska. [The Insider]

That all sounds very good &mdash and classic old-fashioned chophouse is a pretty reliable recipe for success or something like it. But, it hasn't escaped our notice that this venture was planned before the economy collapsed like a failed souffle, and we've been wondering both how Butcher and Singer is going to fare and what kind of restaurant Starr might be cooking up for his next project.

This week's Table Talk mentioned that Starr

had a signed agreement of sale for the low-slung building that houses Letto Deli, still operating at 13th and Chancellor Streets in Wash West. Letto's owner and the building owner have not returned my calls over the last week. Starr's ideas for the place are Love Burger (a long-in-the-planning-stage gourmet-burger joint) or a pizza/wine/beer restaurant with a cool aspect he's not fully talking about yet. [Table Talk]

This certainly sounds like a pared down, more humble project than Butcher and Singer, or even Parc, so we accepted it as pretty solid intel on what the next Starr joint would look like.

That is, until today, when we read a post on Grub Street. Apparently, Daniel Maurer over there talked to Starr over the phone just today, who told him that [post-Butcher and Singer] his plan is "to open in Philly a fifteen- to twenty-seat, chef-driven restaurant, though he won't give the name of the chef or the restaurant." What's more, "Starr acknowledges 'you can’t make any real money with that many seats,' but at the same time he believes the era of the 'big boxes' (a term that, incidentally, he isn’t fond of) is a thing of the past."

This update doesn't necessarily discredit the possibility of a pizza/wine/beer or gourmet burger restaurant, but at the same time, it sure doesn't sound like the same project to us. So what is it? A tiny chef-driven restaurant or one of the first two options? Or (OMG), could it be both? Either way, we're looking forward to finding out more.

On a related note, Starr will be at "Top Chef: Taste of the Five Boroughs” in New York City this Monday... and so will we! He'll be answering questions in a discussion with Tom Collichio and the aforementioned Daniel Maurer, and we will be sure to report back.

"Exclusive: Stephen Starr Will Open Tom-Like Restaurant in Philly, Says Big Boxes Are Over" [Grub Street]
Parc [MenuPages]
Parc [Official Site]

[Photo: via Butcher and Singer]

There's no accounting for why we're so obsessed with finding old Sesame Street videos on YouTube, but for some reason this week has been all about digging up old clips of that "falling baker." Remember him? He'd come out of the kitchen with a pile of messy treats in whatever number they were singing about, announce them, then promptly fall down? Worked for us when we were five, and apparently our sense of humor hasn't matured one bit.

On this lazy Friday, please enjoy the number 10. If you have time to kill, click through to the video page, and you'll see nos. 1 through 9, as well. Chuckles all around.

• What do a Boston-area restaurant and a bookmarking site have in common? Confusing names. [MP: Boston]

• If you want to make Alinea's smoked paprika taffy at home, you'd better plan ahead. [MP: Chicago]

• As Philly anxiously awaits the outcome of this year's World Series, they snack on pretzels and mustard. [MP: Philadelphia]

• Celebratory dinners with group checks are the worst. Even worse than the worst? When your go-to restaurant for such shindigs closes. [MP: San Francisco]

• You know who could use a bailout? Miami restaurateurs. [MP: South Florida]

• A soon-to-air episode of a Belgian food show teaches viewers how to prepare Hitler's favorite meal (trout with butter sauce). Unsurprisingly, this has drawn some serious ire. [Boston Globe]

• North Korea is facing its worst food crisis in a decade. [New York Times]

• "Sushi bullies" (sushi chefs who dictate what you will and will not order) are on the rise. [Wall Street Journal]

• Scientists confirm what we've suspected for a long time: holding a cup of coffee makes you happy. [New York Post]

• Food allergies are up 18% from ten years ago. [Washington Post]

Between the World Series and Obama, there have probably never been so many can/can't memes &mdash and it's doubtful that there ever will be again. So why can't us? Well, hopefully yes we can!

We can at the very least take advantage of all of this from a food perspective. For one thing, there are all those free food deals floating around with the national chains (Taco Bell is doing one again, for example). For another, there is a whole slew of Philly-centric foods to be eaten in honor of the hometown, which are pretty handily covered in the Inquirer and the Daily News.

Jim Coleman has a list of foods that he matches up to specific players. ("Soft pretzels with a variety of mustards: Jimmy Rollins, aka J-Roll. Because if anyone has some good spicy mustard in him, it's got to be J-Roll.") Notably, there are no hot dogs on his list, because

If I'm going to serve hot dogs, then I'm just going to have a hot dog and beer party. It could be fun and easy in that comfortable-as-a-worn-out-glove kind of way, but it wouldn't be very memorable.

Meanwhile, the Inky has a piece up on what the players are eating, so you can always go the homage route. It's all pretty healthy, so neither as decadent, traditional, nor fun as the Jim Coleman party menu. Still interested? Well, here's a staring point

For day games, Swanny's main meal is breakfast, pregame. He's making egg-white sandwiches to order, then serving up a limited light meal after batting practice ends, typically chicken or fish with rice. And there's a full entree afterward, when players are famished.

And if that's not enough, there's always this list of 10 special-for-the-series drinks. So yeah! Why can't us?

"World Series party fare: Pair players with fave foods" [Daily News]
"Feeding the Phils" [Inquirer]

• H.O.M.E. Page Cafe is a venture totally worth of just about everyone's support. Operating from the Parkway Central Library, the collaboration between the Free Library and Porject Home, is staffed by the formerly homeless, and is "a bright, crisp oasis".

• Novita Bistro is a good bet for cozy fall food. The food is mostly Italian, although chef Hassan Zanzoul is Moroccan-born, and it is "suitably hearty for the season."

• Also seasonal and delicious? Hot pockets! They do not need to be synonymous with "unhealthy" or fattening, and can, in fact, be packed with nutritious ingredients. Wait, did we say hot pockets? We meant haute pockets.

• In a heavily sweets-weighted Table Talk, we learn of changes at More Than Just Ice Cream (new owners!), a little bit more about Butcher & Singer's opening, and the eventual openings of both Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Bald Man and a second Naked Chocolate Cafe.

We've been reading a lot this week about the new sustainable sushi guide that was put out by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Blue Ocean Institute. The idea behind the guide is that lots of seafood is a) not healthy, what with mercury and all, and b) not fished or farmed in an ecologically sound manner.

The guide is great in many way: it's available as a printable pocket-sized PDF, very straightforward, and categorizes fish into three categories (best choices, OK choices, and worst choices). If you've been concerned about the fish you were eating at sushi restaurants, this cuts out the step of quizzing the chef on what fish is sustainable or healthy, and just generally being a high-maintenance customer.

On the flip side &mdash and we're mostly just playing devil's advocate here &mdash although it's great that attention is being brought to this issue, it seems sort of improbable that the pocket guides (and one dedicated week for eating sustainable sushi) is going to make that much of a difference.

After all, we know that beef is not great for the environment. We are fully aware that most chickens are raised in horrendous, inhumane, conditions. And if you take stock in the locavore movement, everyone who lives outside of California is basically taking a gun to Mother Nature's head by eating fruits and veggies shipped from all corners of the Earth.

That said, if any sustainable eating thing has a chance of catching on, this really seems like it might be the one. To be good about cattle, there's not much recourse other than giving up beef eating. To follow Michael Pollan's advice on eating locally, most of us would have to resign ourselves to never eating another orange, mango, pineapple, or any leafy greens outside of summer. Maybe now is the time to take this to heart! Print the guide, slip it into your wallet, and the next time that you are ordering sushi at Morimoto, Shiroi Hana, or whatever is your preferred sushi spot, give yourself a little pat on the back for being so nice to the planet.

Morimoto [MenuPages]
Morimoto [Official Site]
Shiroi Hana [MenuPages]
Shiroi Hana [Official Site]

[Photo: pea soup via [puamelia]/Flickr]

'Tis the season for putting out new products, eh? Michelin's dropping city guides like they were bad habits, and now, just in time for Halloween, Zagat has released its 2009 edition of America's Top Restaurants. The national guide covers 1,516 restaurants in 45 cities and regions, according to their press release.

And, the new user-input-generated survey sheds a little light on our national dining preferences. Turns out we just can't get enough Italian food, we want greener, healthier, and more low-key dining options, especially in the form of spin-offs of higher-end places (think Vetri cousin, Osteria). Also, the economy is a big, whopping deal on everybody's mind. From the press release:

According to Zagat Survey CEO Tim Zagat, "Americans are still eating
out in restaurants, they are just making smarter choices. They're dining in
high-end restaurants for lunch instead of dinner, seeking out value prix
fixe meals, and taking advantage of more causal neighborhood eateries.
Regardless of how the economy is doing, people still have to eat."

Changing Habits: Still, the financial uncertainty has had an effect:
When asked what effect the weakening economy had on their dining habits,
33% said they are eating out less and being more sensitive to menu prices;
28% said they are eating in less expensive places, and roughly 20% said
they are cutting back on alcohol, appetizers and desserts. Only 34% of
surveyors report being unaffected by the economic downturn.

[Image: Via Amazon]

• Scientists are working on making drought-resistant crops to fight hunger abroad and fatten wallets at home. [NYT]

• That Michigan pizzeria that put a cheese-and-tomato bounty on McCain signs has canceled its offer. [AP/Chicago Tribune]

• A Canadian E. coli outbreak seems to be linked to a North Bay Harvey's restaurant. [Canada.com]

• Michelin releases its Las Vegas restaurant guide. [Vegas Eye]

• And elsewhere, more scientists are working on modifying foods so that they make you feel full. Wait a minute... [AP]

• Trey Popp posits that Privé will be the one. The one to save a "stale" Old City dining scene, that is! Not entirely free of new restaurant hiccups, there's still an "admirable variety and ingenuity in Privé's small plates, all of which are big enough to give a party of four several bites." The question is, will it be the one shining new opening that keeps things alive, but doesn't quite resuscitate them? Or will it be the start of a new wave?

• Haverford's Philadelphia outpost, Du Jour @ Symphony House also gets a City Paper write-up. Although quite a few dishes are found to be cloying, it is, for the most part a good little place: affordable and sophisticated. We wanted to make a joke about reverse white flight here, but couldn't figure out how to do so without being awkward.

• Oops, a bit of a Philly Weekly repeat with the pumpkins beers! Dogfish Head, Elysian, and Weyerbacher all make a second showing. Wolaver's and Smuttynose are new.

A Detroit-area pizzeria is stirring up some controversy by offering free pizza to anyone who brings in a McCain/Palin sign. According to the pizzeria's owner, after McCain essentially gave up on Michigan by canceling any further visits or ads, she encouraged McCain supporters to give up on the candidate and bring in their signs.

The problem here is that once you present this promotion to the average broke, pizza-hungry teenager, it takes him or her approximately three nanoseconds to come up with this plan of action: find nearest McCain/Palin sign, swipe it, get free pizza. Local Republicans are, naturally, upset with their disappearing signs. The pizzeria owner says she never advocated theft and clearly stated on the promotion to "bring in your McCain sign," but it's hard to believe she didn't see this coming.

The image above is just a screen shot; there wasn't any easy way to embed the video, but click here for the full story. It's definitely worth a listen.

Restaurant Offers Free Pizza for McCain Signs [Fox 2 Detroit]

At left: Anthony Morley, At right: Damian Oldfield

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Remember that British chef/gay pinup model we reported on a while back, who was found guilty for murder after killing his lover, then seasoning and frying up part of his leg? Anthony Morley, 36, got life in prison this week, and will do a minimum of 30 years.

Well, recognizing talent, regardless of its vessel, officials at the Leeds jail where the former Mr. Gay UK has been housed, assigned him to work in the kitchen. He's serving time and lunch, according to The People:

[Friend] Michael Graham, 25, said: "I reckon some of the other inmates might get a bit worried if they knew who was serving up their food but I'd eat it. Whatever he's done, Tony can cook. He's a brilliant chef. They obviously knew about his talent with food so they offered him the chance to work in the canteen.

"He was really angry that they weren't letting him use any knives. He asked me, 'How the hell am I supposed to do this without knives?'"

Graham went on to say that Morley's green Thai curry is "mouth-watering."

Morley was arrested in April after he showed up at a takeaway joint wearing a bloody robe, saying he'd just killed a man who tried to rape him. Police later told the Telegraph that he'd carved, seasoned and cooked flesh from the leg of victim Damian Oldfield, 33, after slashing his throat and stabbing him.

According to the BBC, Judge James Stewart, CQ, said,

"Before this case I had associated cannibalism with eras long gone, with the tale of Robinson Crusoe. No longer.

"You have plumbed depths rarely encountered in our court."

Cannibal chef given life sentence [BBC]
GAY CANNIBAL KILLER'S JOB AS A PRISON CHEF [The People]
Former 'Mr Gay UK' charged with murder amid fears victim's flesh was 'prepared for cooking' [Telegraph UK]
Man Eater Mans The Eats [Gawker]

[Image: via Blurbberry]

• A judge awarded $4.6 million in back pay and damages to 36 delivery workers for New York's Saigon Grill, where they had previously earned as little as $2 an hour. [NYT]

• The UN gets in on the whole melamine crisis, suggesting to China that the country should probably revamp its food regulations. [AFP]

• If you're going to skip out on the bill at a restaurant, make sure you remember your purse. If you forget said purse, do not return to the scene of the crime to retrieve it, especially when you have marijuana tucked away inside of it. [FOX News]

• Wal-Mart helps stock the shelves at New York state food banks with a $577,000 donation. [Newsday]

• And in news you already knew: diets heavy in meats and fried foods are more likely to give you heart problems later on than diets rich in fruits and veggies. [Star Phoenix]

Apparently, famous paintings recreated in cured meats are quite the thing in Russia these days. We have to say that although this carnivorous reproduction of Van Gogh's sunflowers is somewhat impressive, it frankly does not look all that appetizing.

So, thank you, but no thank you? We'd rather just pick up charcuterie at DiBruno Brothers' Pronto and eat it in a less artistic, but more delicious fashion, thanksverymuch.

DiBruno Brothers' Pronto [MenuPages]
DiBruno Brothers' Pronto [Official Site]

[Photo: meat reproduction via English Russia]