Slashfood

• Street cart cuisine: Details magazine determines the finest food on four wheels
  

  Filed under: Restaurants, Business, Food Quest, America, Fast Food, Local Eating, Guilty Pleasures

  Last fall, in the beginning of my first year in New York, I discovered the Vendy awards. Sponsored by the Urban Justice Center, the awards honor the city's best street vendors. I was particularly interested because of Mohammed Rahman, proprietor of the Kwik Meal cart on 45th Street and Sixth Avenue.
  
  On some days, when I had a little extra cash, I'd grab my lunch at Mohammed's stand. While his menu was, ostensibly, the same as most other halal...
  



• Beware kids' menus!
  

  Filed under: Restaurants, Health & Medical

  
  A new report shouldn't be the least bit surprising, but it is definitely sad.
  
  The Center for Science in the Public Interest has published a new study about the reality of kids' menus, which is jam-packed with fatty doom. They've found that 93% of the kid' options exceed the 430 calories (a third of the recommended daily calories for children from 4-8) at 13 big US chains like Taco Bell, KFC, and Burger King. And they're not talking about 10 or 20 calories over.
  
  For example, a "Big Kids" meal with a double cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk at Burger King weighs...
  



• Bizarre ice creams: Beet sorbet is just the beginning
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Restaurants, Comfort Food, Sugar, Artisan Foods

  While I pride myself on my willingness to accept a weird culinary challenge, this trait has led me to put more than a few strange things into my mouth. Codfish pancakes? No problem! Raw fish in Tijuana? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Scorpion vodka? Slightly chitinous tasting, but it did the job. Rendered pork fat on toast? Well, once was enough...
  
  Recently, however, an Asylum post about weird ice creams made me realize that there might be limits to what I'm willing to consume. Forget red bean ice cream and wasabi...
  



• Hendrick's & Honeydew from James
  

  Filed under: Restaurants, Recipes, Magazines, Gin

  
  Last night I went to a party at James, a lovely little restaurant in the Italian Market section of Philadelphia. It was in celebration of the fact that the chef and co-owner James Burke had been named one of Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs for 2008. It was a far swankier event than I am accustomed to attending, but ended up being lots of fun (even though I forgot to change out of my flip flops before I left the house and so spent some time feeling embarrassed about my flat, plastic shoes).
  



• Chicha morada: The perfect Peruvian pick-me-up!
  

  Filed under: Juice, South America, Restaurants, Recipes, How To

  Unlike Manhattan, which is revered for its cuisine, or Queens, which is famed for its ethnic variety, the Bronx is known for its outstanding little Italy, its collection of Puerto Rican cuchifrito joints, and little else. However, in my constant search for the ultimate neighborhood restaurant, I sometimes find wonderful little gems. A few months ago, I wandered into the provocatively-named "Pisac: Peruvian Food and Pizza." Having tried a few Peruvian dishes in college, I was eager to try some more, and Pisac seemed like the kind of hole-in-the-wall joint that ends up becoming a favorite.
  
  Over...
  



• Exploring the wonders of infused vodka!
  

  Filed under: Vodka, Restaurants, The Best ... in All of New York, America, Spirits, Artisan Foods, Raising the Bar

  There are some people who it is just plain good to know. When you're in college, for example, the guy with a truck is incredibly helpful, and when you go in to business, the understanding accountant and the slightly unethical lawyer are almost necessities.
  
  A few years ago, my friend John became one of these fabulously helpful people. A lifelong resident of southwest Virginia and a trained chemist, John had a skill set that was uniquely...
  



• Bennigan's chain to close?
  

  Filed under: Restaurants, Food News

  
  According to the Dallas/Ft. Worth NBC affiliate station, Bennigan's, a nationwide restaurant chain with nearly 800 locations, is closing the doors on all their stores, effective immediately. Calls to the the national headquarters, located in Plano, TX, are going unanswered and managers have been asked to call their staff members to tell them not to come in.
  
  Upon hearing that they were shutting down, I placed a call to Philadelphia's local Bennigan's. My call was answered on the second ring, and while there was definitely noise of activity on the other end of the line, the woman who answered my call...
  



• The New York Times in 60 seconds: Soft-serve, Slow Food and cheesecake
  

  Filed under: East Coast, Restaurants, Business, Recipes, America, in sixty seconds, Local Eating, Summer

  
  Soft-serve gets a makeover at upscale ice cream joints. Think spiced cantaloupe topping, balsalmic cherries, a "creamsicle" of white nectarine granita and jasmine tea soft-serve.
  
  The Slow Food movement plans a Labor Day Slow Food Nation festival, to be the "Woodstock" of food festivals. Hope they bring more porta-potties than the original.
  
  The Rutgers Tomato Project brings back the Jersey tomato.
  
  The Minimalist does a no-bake summer cheesecake with blueberries.
  



• That costs what?
  

  Filed under: Frugal Food, Teas, Restaurants, On the Blogs, America, Food News

  In some sectors, it's practically de rigueur (and awfully hilarious) to rip on the rarefied findings of NY Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, but I've gotta say I tend to dig his indignation as expressed through the fewer-holds-barred medium of the website's Diner's Journal. I certainly jibe with his notions of the judiciously applied dress code and the diner's right to doggie bags, but I'm almost irrationally delighted by his use of the bully pulpit to call out the stealthy price jabbings of high-end restaurants.
  



• Where do your favorite chefs like to eat?
  

  Filed under: Restaurants, On the Blogs, Lists, France

  Have you ever thought about real chefs, from high ranked restaurants, and wondered where they like to eat? Well, Bloomberg.com writer Richard Vines has answered.
  
  He spoke to a multitude of well known chefs, mainly from London, and asked them what their favorite restaurants were. Did you know, for example, that Alain Ducasse loves a sushi restaurant in Tokyo called Sushishou? Richard Corrigan of Bentley's adores Gambero Rosso in San Vincenzo, Italy. Gordon Ramsay gave...