Here's your hastily thrown-together roundup of the San Francisco Chronicle's Wine section, typed with fingers itchy with anticipation of getting off the keyboard and around a Halloween drink. Happy haunting!

• We get a look at some good import deals that will help keep your cellar stocked during the lean times. [Wines from around the world to help you stretch your dollar]

• Selections rounds up some Ribera del Duero varietals, made with Spanish tempranillo grapes. [Ribera del Duero]

• The Cheese Course samples a Camembert that is said to closely resemble the real, French, thing. [A Camembert worth buying]

• The Sipping News offers a pretty funny drinking game for election night. [Election drinking game: After the polls close]

• And Spirits gets back to basics with some old-fashioned gins. [Original gin: older styles find their way back into cocktails]

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]

Aright, we've done the best we can without leaving our chair to provide you with a substantial list of options for places to watch next Tuesday's election. We're not giving any more ink to the bash of all bashes, aboard FDR's old yacht, the USS Patomac, because we're super mad we can't go, but here's a roundup of some decent second choices. Please comment if you'd like to suggest more. Perhaps we'll run a follow-up next week.

First, you've got your bars and restaurants with television sets and maybe some bunting and theme drinks something. Here are a few::

• Eddie Rickenbacker's, will serve red, white, and blue shots.

• The Edinburgh Castle will have an "open mike [sic] for rants," er, which sounds really, um, great. But hey, they've got a big screen, and you can get fish and chips and think about our colonial past.

• The Retox Lounge is listed on CultureMob as having an election party, but it seems to consist of DJs and no news coverage or drink specials, so we're wondering exactly what is election-y about it.

• Cantina seems to have the most comprehensive and serious-minded election-night drinking binge. They're teaming up with the Commonwealth Club and showing a few channels' live results.

• The League of Young Voters is doing a thing at El Rio, showing the results on a big screen, and promising "lots of cheap shots (of the alcoholic and Palin variety)." Hilarious.

• Finally, another CultureMob tip points us toward the Riptide, in the Sunset, where they'll be having, get this, depression-era drink prices and election coverage by the Daily Show. So, um, there seems little reason to go anywhere else.

Then there's the bigger venues — movie theaters, event halls, um, jazz clubs, doing their best to make capacity:

• Yoshi's has apparently already sold out their "Green 960" party, but maybe you can get a last-minute ticket at the door or something.

• The Balboa Theater, out in the Richmond, will show the results on the big screen. This should actually be really fun. That place is a riot.

• There's the official, Democratic Party-Sponsored Barack Obama victory party at the Mezzanine.

• The Yerba Buena Center is doing some sort of something that is free but has a cash bar.

Finally, there's the breed of election night party that caters to that rarest of minorities: The San Francisco Republicans. We found one so far:

• The Jones Roadhouse, which the SFGOP insists on calling the "Jones Bar" for some reason, hosted our elephantine contingent during both debates. Now, it will welcome the tusked ones once more for the final act of this two-year drama known as the 2008 presidential campaign.

• 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]

T.G.I.F, Ladies and Gents. We had one heck of a week and we can’t help but anticipate a night of further tomfoolery considering the following:

1. Halloween will be running amuck without the confines of the Castro to keep things predictable.
2. Critical Mass.
3. It’s raining.

The only really promising thing on the list is the rain and not just because California is about to revisit the early 90s with its frightening lack of water (we have fond memories of bricks in toilets, buckets under faucets, and 3 minute showers), but also because it means menus across town will start to adjust accordingly.

We’ve actually been hoping for some precipitation and a drop on the thermometer because colder weather means we have an excuse to wear more clothing, but more importantly, it means we also have the excuse to drink more hot beverages.

It’s supposed to rain through the weekend and if you’re planning on being out in the rain in your "sexy" [read: skimpy] costume tonight you may want to check out our suggestions for concoctions sure to warm you up.

If it’s a hot cocktail you’re after, Toronado serves mead when it gets chilly, Luna Park does a Hot Buttered Rum, and The Buena Vista has their famous Irish coffee.

For an innocent, yet richly delicious cup of hot chocolate, check out Tartine Bakery for a house-made recipe, or one of the many hot chocolate bars in town including Bittersweet The Chocolate Cafe on Fillmore, CocoaBella Chocolates in the Marina (they also have a location in the Westfield Mall Downtown), Christopher Elbow Chocolates in Hayes Valley and the recently opened Coco-luxe Confections on Upper Haight.

Even Starbucks is getting in on “Artisan” cocoa with their new Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolates—we had a sample of the Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate and surprisingly didn’t see much need for improvement (the smoked sea salt is a nice touch) except maybe calorie intake.

So while we have our Mouseketeer costume all ready to go for tonight, it won’t take much to convince us to trade in the mouse ears for fuzzy slippers and cuddle up indoors with some cocoa and a copy of "It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

Toronado [MenuPages]
Toronado [Official Site]
Tartine Bakery
Tartine Bakery [MenuPages]
Tartine Bakery [Official Site]
Luna Park [MenuPages]
Luna Park [Official Site]

[Photo: Via P_R/flickr]

• 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]

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]

Sorry, there's not much to this thread except that this one Chowhound apparently waited forever and never got her, um, "screaming orgasm" salad at Nara Sushi. It's just, as with cocktail lists that include sex on the beach, or British joints that serve spotted dick, things like that bring out the 12-year-old in us, big-time.

Though, you know, there's something pretty bold in just up and walking out of a restaurant half an hour after ordering. You've got some time invested, and by then you're probably pretty darned hungry. We give it up to Carrie 218 for holding her head high and proud while her stomach growled for that orgasm. We'd have started banging cutlery on the table and chanting the above.

Nara Sushi: I walked out! [Chowhound]
Nara Sushi [MenuPages]
Nara Sushi [Official Site]

[Photo: The "sexy roll" at Nara Sushi. What is it with these guys? rick/flickr]

It's a good day to be a Subway or Trader Vic's employee in San Francisco, but it's an even better day to be District Attorney Kamala Harris. The good DA is all about her latest victory, the conviction and sentencing of a man who robbed a series of restaurants in the city, dating back to 2006:

Gregory Garrett, 54, was arrested Jan. 14, 2007 inside a South of Market Subway restaurant, where he and another man had locked two employees inside a walk-in freezer while Garrett stole $240 cash, according to prosecutors.

A third employee called police from the restaurant bathroom, according to prosecutors.

Earlier the same day, the pair was thwarted while attempting to rob a Trader Vic's outlet when an employee couldn't open the restaurant safe and didn't have any cash on her, prosecutors said.

The restaurant robberies date back to January 2006, the district attorney's office said.

Garrett was convicted July 8 of three counts of robbery, two counts of attempted robbery and one count of burglary, according to the district attorney's office.

In a statement, District Attorney Kamala Harris said her office is getting tougher on robberies and has upped its prosecution of the crimes by 34 percent from last year.

SF: Man Sentenced For Series Of Robberies, DA Touts Higher Prosecution Rate [CBS / BCN]

[Photo: Via Cake Rocks The Party]

Oh Food Not Bombs, how we love thee. All that dumpster-dived food slung out of big, white buckets on UN Plaza might be a little gross, but we really love the idea of you. And now you've gone and made yourself extra-appetizing by promising deep-fried!

That's right, everyone else, Food Not Bombs is apparently leaving the realm of watery potato soup and dumpstered bagels, and expanding into beer-battered territory. They're having a Deep Fried Not Bombs party next Wednesday, where you bring (vegetarian) things you want deep fried (preferably rescued from the Rainbow Grocery dumpster, we assume), and they'll bring the hot oil. Talk about a party! Also, and again, this wasn't on the flier, but we're just assuming: Deep Fried Not Bombs [SFFNB]

Wow, election day is coming up fast, eh? You know where you'll be during polling time next Tuesday, but where will you be to watch the blue and red tides come rolling in? We'll put together a nice list for you soon, but in the meantime, the Chron's got sort of a region-wide master list going on. Check it.

Bay area plans election celebration parties [SF Gate]

Oh, dear lord, Bunrabs, how you mock us. But you couldn't know: A million years ago, we put in something like seven or eight months (a semester and a summer) as a waiter at a Hahn's Hibachi in Oakland, before school schedules forced our oh-so-welcome departure.

It's not a good place to work. Food like that is heavy, and comes drenched in this sticky sauce that gets everywhere and sticks seems to cling to you when you leave. Gross. Mostly, though, the smell of that barbecue haunts you. It never comes out of your clothes, and now, years later, we can recall it exactly.

Then, today, Gutenberg sticks a photograph of that greasy mountain right up on his website, and it all came flooding back. This thing is like a meaty Madeline, Proust-style:

To Hahn's credit, though, the food's pretty good in normal doses. You just don't want to have its smoke blown on your for six hours a day.

Pile O' Pork [Bunrabs]
Hahn's Hibachi [MenuPages]
Hahn's Hibachi [Official Site]

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]

• 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]

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? Here in San Francisco, you've got a few Cuban sandwich options. Head to Paladar to pick up a sandwich, and in the comfort of your own home, where there are no Miami Cubans to gasp in horror, add a few slices of salami to make it Tampa authentic. Philly roast pork sandwiches are a bit harder to find — in fact, we know of none within the city limits (suggestions welcome on that little problem). Of course, there's always the cheesesteak: try Jay's Cheesesteak or Cheese Steak Shop.

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

Tony Luke's [MenuPages]
Paladar [MenuPages]
Paladar [Official Site]
Jay's Cheesesteak [MenuPages]
Cheese Steak Shop [MenuPages]
Cheese Steak Shop [Official Site]

Photos: tumbebunny/flickr and bueller2/flickr

Watch Brooke Arthur, bar manager at Range, make her signature autumnal cocktail, the Fall Fizz. Then go to Range and get one, because good luck trying to copy her recipe from this video.

Range [MenuPages]
Range [Official Site]

Welcome back to On The Road Again, our new feature (on which we're so stoked) that looks at restaurants based on the transportation used to get to them. Last week, you'll recall, we did restaurants that could be a part of a mid-length road-bike ride. This week, we're looking at our other favorite form of transportation: Sailing.

This is actually the perfect time to sail around these parts, with the blustery summer weather gone, and the feezing calms of winter not yet upon us. The Bay is littered with places where you can tie up the old plastic classic for a week, a night, or just a meal. Some of those little havens dot our very own coastline.

• The Ramp is one of our favorite spots in town, regardless of how you travel there. They've got an outdoor patio, a guest dock, a great bar, and they don't look at you askance if you order a shot of tequila on the AM. You can get a proper lunch and brunch there, and bar food in the evening. Our only complaint is that they don't stay open very late, and you can't tie up overnight. So make sure you designate a tiller-person for the sail home.

• One great thing to do if you own a boat, or can schmooze your way onto one, is to sail to a Giants game. South Beach Harbor, adjacent to the ballpark, has guest docks, but you'd better make a reservation pretty far in advance. Parking is no easier on the water than on the road. Once you're ashore, Town's End Restaurant & Bakery is a great option for a civilized meal. If you just want beers and a dog, there's a plethora of mediocre options along Second Street, but we think your best bet is to head into the park for that.

• Here's where we'd bring up the St. Francis Yacht Club, but seriously? If you can go to the St. Francis, you're probably already a member, and you don't need to read about it here. So instead, we're going to direct you to the Bay Area's most coveted secret guest-dock: The Presidio Yacht Club.

The club, nestled in Horseshoe Cove, just on the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, is part of Fort Baker. You can see it as you sit in traffic, waiting to go up to Marin County. It's only for members of the military, National Parks employees, and Coast Guard auxiliary. So you probably can't join. But you can sail over there for an afternoon and grab some chili and a beer at their bar. We discovered this on a bike ride once when we stopped to plead with them for a bathroom. Turns out they're all really nice, and totally welcoming, and they'd love it if you stopped by and visited. Just don't stay.

[Photo: The guest dock at the Ramp, via oniondeath/flickr]

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]

Get out your Speedos and burn cream, everybody. The The Buena Vista Cafe is planning to celebrate the birthday of its original, iconic cocktail by making one juuuuust big enough to hot-tub in. According to the Examiner:

Towering more than 3 feet from the bar and holding more than 15 gallons, bartenders will be going after the Guinness World Record crafting a giant Irish Coffee that everyone in attendance will get to sample.

Anyway, if you just want to go sip and celebrate, the big boy is scheduled to go up on the bar at 1 p.m. on Nov. 10, as part of a three-day festival celebrating the drink's 56-year anniversary. Sláinte, everybody!

World’s Largest Irish Coffee To Be Served To San Francisco Faithful
The Buena Vista [MenuPages]
The Buena Vista [Official Site]

[Photo: Via summer park/flickr]

Ooooh, pretty! The Chronicle's food section got a face-lift. We like! Let's look inside, shall we?

• Why pay for the breast when you can get way more out of a thigh? Hey, we're talking chicken, here! [The thighs have it]

• Nut allergies are no joke, but avoiding nuts on Halloween doesn't have to kill all the fun. [A nut-free Halloween? Not so tricky]

• Michael Bauer is not terribly impressed with Circolo, which he says doesn't quite "connect" with its cuisine. [San Francisco's Circolo tries to hit all the angles]

• We get a little insight into the history of Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), and the foods the holiday has inspired. [Celebrating Day of the Dead's delicious side]

• And a chef shuffle involving former Myth honcho Scott Howard, a new bakery in the works from the The Slanted Door's Mutsumi Takehara, and a Bushi-Tei spinoff slated for the winter.

• 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]

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.

Forget your normal food-porn fetishizing El Bulli or Momofuku Ko. Those joints are played. Remember that bento box flickr stream? Also played. Today's Newsday spread on school lunches represents the hottest, edgiest realm of lascivious food photography. Or something.

Anyway, the story is that Newsday profiled three different school lunches, examples of "typical," "ideal," and "dream" offerings, two of which (on the higher end) hail from Berkeley. That's where self-styled "renegade lunch lady" Ann Cooper comes up with school meal plans, and writes books. Here's what she serves some kids in the 510:

Impressive. Our school meals always looked a lot more like the "typical" example. Check out Newsday for that and a whole bunch of other exciting action shots from school kitchens. Hott.

A profile of 3 school lunches [Newsday]
Lunch Lessons [Ann Cooper's Official Site]
Momofuku Ko [MenuPages]
Momofuku Ko [Official Site]

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 at Asuka Ramen & Curry will at least be a lot tastier and better for you than anything freeze-dried.

Japan's Nissin recalls 500,000 noodles over insecticide fears [Asia Pacific News Service]
Nissin Foods [Official Site]
Asuka Ramen & Curry [MenuPages]

[Photo: Via Mappi 1322]

• 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 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]

We’re still not sure what to make of Halloween in San Francisco. The Castro was getting out of control and even before it became dangerous it became boring (too many spectators, not enough costumes) so we’re not exactly laminating the loss of Castro Halloween.

But we’re still wondering where we can make the most out of our costume this year, and with Halloween being on a Friday, we’re in it for the long haul.

Home For Halloween has a lengthy list of just about everything going on this Friday, Halloween-related or not, so people can’t complain there’s nothing to do. But what seems to missing is a restaurant section, and we thought we’d fill you in on your festive dinning options.

The Fat Lady, in Oakland, has supported this holiday for the last 20 years, transforming into the “Halloween Pleasure Palace” and making sure their outrageous decorations and costume contest add to your dining experience.

Here in the city, Terzo in Cow Hollow will be having a Halloween dinner, proceeds from which will go to benefit STREETSMART4 Kids, a non-profit organization that benefits local city youth and family programs. And on the flip side, Teatro ZinZanni will turn into Teatro ZinZombie: A "Macabre Ball" where you can dress up and enjoy a five-course meal, Halloween cocktails, and a haunted cabaret.

And of course, there will be a city-sponsored event over by the Ballpark at “Lot A” that runs from 4 p.m. to Midnight, and while they discourage the debauchery that put the Castro Halloween on the map, there will be a Taste of San Francisco Food Pavilion to make sure you don’t go hungry while checking out the haunted house and the exhibits from the Burning Man crew.

Home for Halloween [Official Site]
The Fat Lady [Official Site]
Terzo [MenuPages]
Terzo [Official Site]
Teatro ZinZanni [MenuPages]
Teatro ZinZanni [Official Site]
Halloween in San Francisco [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Guilherme Kardel/Flickr]

First came the demise of Mother's Cookies, in Oakland. Now say goodbye to your own mother's cookies, as the Chronicle reports on the waning days of the school bake sale.

Seems those cookies and pies and bundt cakes violate state restrictions on selling junk food at school.

The state guidelines, passed by the Legislature in 2005 and gradually being implemented at districts around the state, require that snacks sold on campuses during the school day not contain more than 35 percent of calories from fat, 1 percent of calories from saturated fat and 35 percent sugar by weight. Snacks must also not exceed 175 calories at elementary schools or 250 calories at middle and high schools.

School bake sales victims of nutrition rules [SF Chronicle]

[Photo: Via Joelf]

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

Darn, well, that was short-lived. The Mission Street Food truck, in its up-until-recent incarnation, will be no more, according to its blog. Instead, it will move to the great indoors, to an as-yet-undetermined location, where a different guest chef will man or woman the burners each week.

It's nice they're going to keep the thing going, and they'll even get to serve booze, but it is too bad that the actual truck will not last. Though they always had planned to push pause for the winter. At least this way we know the food will be available no matter how bad the weather. And no more jerks can come in with their jerkiness making everybody's life difficult. That'll be nice.

From Mission--Street Food to Mission Street--Food [Mission Street Food]

[Photo: Via Bobby Rullo]

• 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]

Here's your San Francisco Chronicle wine section, digested, metabolized, and expelled as vapor, just in time for happy hour. Cheers!

• Northern California vineyards have been dealing with climate change forever. This global warming business should be cake. [Five ways California vintners are weathering climate change]

• Selections takes a trip to check out some Pinot Noir vintners between San Louis Obispo and Santa Barbara. How "Sideways." [South Central Coast Pinot Noir]

• Pairings offers up a hearty mushroom and sausage stew to ground those big ol' reds. [Barley stew echoes earth in Pinot Noir]

• The Cheese Course looks at Rolf Beeler's latest discovery, a small-scale, small-sized Swiss. [Napfkäse is not just another Swiss cheese]

• And the Cocktailian drags the skeletons out of his liquor cabinet for Halloween. [Why there's no Hubbub in a haunted tavern]

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.

There is some justice in the world. Seems the two brothers who fatally shot a man at an Oakland taco truck back in January have been found guilty of the crime, and face life in prison. Deandre Hill, 19, and his brother Darryl Hill, 22, tried to rob Abel Martinez Mejia, 41, as he waited at an Oakland taco truck on his lunch break from his job as a truck driver for Standard Iron and Metals Co. When he resisted, Daryl Hill shot him in the head, according to the San Francisco Chronicle

Brothers convicted in Oakland taco truck slaying

• 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 Seriesl, 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]

Dang! Why, oh why couldn't MPSF have waited a week to report on Mission Street Food truck? Perhaps we could have witnessed the dust-up last night between "James the Hater," as Burrito Justice has dubbed him, and the unflappable crew of Mission Street Food. Here's what BJ says:

A bit of drama tonight before the opening — “James the Hater” from Vanguard Properties (the stone building on the corner) came out all agro, getting in the MSF team’s face, yelling that their permit was bogus, they were dirty, they had no right to be there, etc. (MSF does have a permit, they hose down the sidewalk after closing, pick up after themselves and are nice people.)

Anyway, the guy was a douchebag. I don’t think he likes sandwiches. Or people. Was he attacked by a taco truck as a child? Maybe he had just come down from Medjool and was disoriented. So if you see him, tell him to hug it out and buy him a Mission Melt. Karen gets big points for unflappability, especially since The Hater came in with no intent of listening to anyone but himself.

Mission Street Food — Drama! [Burrito Justice]
Mission Street Food [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Mission Street Food]

Readers with roots on both coasts may know about Gray's Papaya, the Manhattan hot dog chain with the famously cheap "recession special," two dogs and a drink for, up until recently, $3.50. It's as much of a staple to many Manhattanites as the El Farolito burrito is to Mission dwellers.

Call it coincidence, then, that just a couple days after we heard Gray's would be jacking up the price of its famed deal, we heard of another joint offering its own Recession Special, a bit closer to home. Travel site Mapplr has blog entry up about Potrero Hill's Axis Cafe, which is offering a much more San Francisco-oriented deal of a half-sandwich, soup, and small salad, for $9. Not exactly change for a five, but still, you could eat lunch for plenty more in this town. And as former Potrero Hill workers ourselves, we know how easy it is to overdose on JB's Place.

San Francisco lunch favorites: Recession special at Axis Cafe hits the spot [Mapplr]
El Farolito [MenuPages]
Axis Cafe [MenuPages]
Axis Cafe [Official Site]
JB's Place [MenuPages]

[Photo: Gray's Papaya in the West Village, via irina slutsky/flickr]

We don’t often enter Starbucks, but in order to bear the heat we found ourselves in desperate need of an iced tea earlier this week, and stopped in one of the many downtown locations. In addition to our unsweetened Black Iced tea, we were met with an advertisement for free samples of their new Piandini sandwich.

Piandini?

We had no idea what, exactly, a Piandini was, so we did some web searching and found out that it’s Starbucks’ attempt to replicate the Italian Piadina, a type of flatbread.

Ask different people what they think of when you say piadina and you’ll get different answers. “A great pizza bread” or “an Italian tortilla.” Whatever it is, most people seem to agree that the most important quality of the lard, salt and water dough is that when cooked properly, it’s fairly inflexible, causing it crack or break when bent.

Interesting, considering the Stratbucks Piandini sandwich is flatbread folded into quadrants. Of course, all things considered, we’re not really all that surprised that Starbucks took some liberties with the Italian kiosk food.

What we really want is to try some of the real stuff, but we could only find a couple of places in San Francisco that boast it on their menu — Uva Enoteca on Lower Haight and Chiaroscuro downtown — both restaurants seem to be trying to do the bread justice based on descriptions, though we haven’t had the opportnuity to try them.

In all honesty, we suspect you might be able to find triangles of the bread on tables in North Beach accompanied with some mozzarella and prosciutto unassumingly gracing the table like any other warm bread before a meal.

Starting today we’re on a mission to have our first real piadina experience, and we’re sure when we finally do it won’t include a Frappuccino.

Piadina [Wikipedia]
Uva Enoteca [Official Site]
Chiaroscuro [MenuPages]
Chiaroscuro [Official Site]

[Photo of Starbucks Piandini via Alexis Wright]

• 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. [