Apocalypse Now
Yet another the climate-is-going-to-hell piece, this time about Vietnamese bee farmers who are being forced to change their time-honored practices. [Mail & Guardian] —Todd Kliman
This sounds like a horror movie but isn’t: Hungry Maine lobsters are turning to cannibalism and eating each other. [NPR] —Sophie Gilbert
Walmart gorges on the American food system: an infographic. [Grist] —Jessica Voelker
Oh, and hey, more Starbucks! A lot more Starbucks. [USA Today] —JV
Booze You Can Use
In case you needed further proof that bourbon > vodka, read the story of a New Zealand man who went blind and regained his eyesight with the help of a bottle of Johnnie Black. [Gawker] —Tanya Pai
Critical Reads
You often hear the critics’ take on the chef, but what about the other way around? The Daily Meal releases a chef-rated scorecard of well-known critics, and DC has names on both the very top and the bottom. [The Daily Meal] —Anna Spiegel
Pete Wells answers questions from New York Times readers, including several who wanted to know more about his scathing review of Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar. “And I thought I had a lot of questions about Guy Fieri,” Wells deadpans. “The place was confounding on so many levels that I knew I had to write about it.” [NYT] —SG
Season’s Eatings
Food-themed holiday gift guides abound—including some excellent ones of our own making—but it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Ruth Reichl’s thoughtful, one-idea-a-day approach is a nice break from the mega-slideshows. [Ruth Reichl: Journal] —AL
Smart Diet
The omega-3s found in fish are of enormous benefit to you; fish oil supplements, however, are not that valuable: [The Guardian] —TK
Consuming Politics
I would love to get my hands on a bottle of Leninade, a pinkish liquid in a bottle with a hammer and sickle. Would love to drink it while out somewhere wearing my New Deal Cafe T-shirt—whose Art Deco frieze of workers working was so unsettling to a patron of a cafe a couple of years ago she took to lecturing me about Obama and socialism. [HuffPo]—TK
Wine of the Times
In DC, vandals throw stones at Metrobuses. In Italy, they drain vats of vintage Brunello di Montalcino. America exceptionalism, everybody! [Diner’s Journal] —SG
Food as Art
A chef and a photographer have taken it upon themselves to recreate Rothko masterpieces with rice. And in my professional opinion at least, the resulting works look more like Battenburg cake than oil masterpieces. [NPR]—SG
Proving it’s better than okay to play with your food: Charles Phoenix’s “meativity” scene. [Laughing Squid]—TP
Culinary Collections
Jason Liebig sounds like the subject of a TLC show: His Queens apartment holds a meticulously kept collection of over 10,000 candy wrappers. [Narratively]—AL
As obsessed as I am with Bon Appetit’s burger-friendly “special sauce”—I throw together a batch almost every week—I’m thinking this adaptation of the spicy, cherry-pepper-based sauce served at Torrisi and Parm in New York would be another worthy addition to the homemade condiment arsenal. [Food52]—AL
Food for Thought
For word nerds: The Atlantic explores the origins of the word “groggy.” [The Atlantic]—TP
A thoughtful musing on the deconstructed dinner. [Financial Times]—TK
Food companies were responsible for more than half of Business Insider’s list of 2012’s biggest PR disasters. [Business Insider]—TP
Potluck
In honor of Tuesday’s National Cookie Day, a few of the most, er, creative cookie ads from around the world. [BuzzFeed]—TP
Man vs. Food star Adam Richman is finally reduced to tears—not by a three-ton pile of extra-spicy tacos he has to ingest in less than five seconds, but by Tottenham Hotspurs’ soccer stadium. To which we say: Really? [USA Today] —SG
The Onion shows you how to make simple, gluten-free pancakes. [The Onion]—TK
Now you don’t have to hang out at Pizza Hut for a few hours to smell like you’ve been hanging out at Pizza Hut for a few hours. Eater National has the lowdown on the chain’s new pie-sce
nted cologne. [Eater National] —AS
And because it’s Thursday: “Before you write copy for the Williams-Sonoma No Spill Gravy Separator . . . you must become it. [McSweeney’s] —AS
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
