Welcome to Food Week February 9. In addition to the usual brilliant insights and Shavian wit that comes with the weekly update, we have some new things. First, I have added a new section called the Drink Corner for your overall beverage edification. And we will be adding updates to Bluesky, which may or may not be the successor to the declining Twitter. Enjoy.
MACRO
- The recession that never was.
- In 2023, the US bought more from Mexico than from China for the first time in decades. However a trade dispute between the US and Mexico may raise the price of your tomatoes by 50%.
- And to the north, Canada has been trying several schemes to deal with food inflation. No one is happy.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- A website that denudes recipes and just gives you the instructions instead of the BS.
- Another rant against self checkout. And some real life irritation.
- One of the problems with most yogurts is that they are so full of sugar that you don’t get any real benefits from the probiotics. So Yoplait now released a no sugar added line
- Stanley cups have a lot of lead in them. Not that users are going to absorb it, but lead is lead and not good for your environment.
- Snoop Dogg in a fight with Post and Walmart over cereal, saying they didn’t really support the hip-hop brands after rollout.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Franchisees are struggling financially. Combine them with weak QSR brands and you have a recipe for bankruptcy.
- Starbuck’s Howard Schultz is convinced people want olive oil in their coffee. This reviewer tried it and decided that she didn’t like coffee that tasted like olive oil. which I think is going to be the overwhelming reaction.
- With a few exceptions (ahem, Phoenix) tap water in the US is perfectly fine and less likely to have forever chemicals or microplastics. However, many restaurants will ask you ‘Bubbly or Still?” This is so they can sell you bottled water. Answer ‘tap’.
- A Cowboy steak is type of cut can be a Delmonico, but a Delmonico is not a cut but a descriptor. Got it.
- Guy Fieri is as valuable a social commentator as he is a chef. That is, worthless.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- This is pretty close to a eulogy for cultivated meat. The promise and the hype has not matched the practicality or the science, even with falling costs. (Somebody ought to tell the soybean farmers, who are all excited to sell the producers.) However, in Singapore, if you can find lab-grown meat and you want to keep halal, you can partake.
- Relatedly, planet based alt- proteins have turned to animal sourced ingredients. Its for better taste and texture but it kind of undermines their mission.
- Meanwhile, drought has cause cattle – and beef – prices to skyrocket.
- Nixtamalization is not only fun to say, it was crucial in turning corn into a human staple. (Basically it is cook the hard kernels in water and wood ash to soften the hard kernels.)
- Some good news: Scientists discover method to recycle plastics in 24 hours. Established methods take 12 weeks and release greenhouse gasses.
DRINK CORNER
- Mexico City has a fantastic cocktail culture. A place I need to go to is Tlecan, which specializes in beverages and cocktails based on the historic cultures of that country.
- Use store bought almond milk to make Orgeat!
- The craft beer boom is over. Microbreweries closing left and right. About stout.
- A Hurricane recipe for Mardi Gras
- Bar Moga in New York is unhappy with American ice. Imports theirs from Japan. Whiskey made from rice, kind of inevitably, from Japan.
FOOD WEEK FEBRAURY 9 LAGNIAPPE
- Since the 11th century, Weihenstephan Brewery has been producing beer.
- Meet ube, the Filipino staple and avatar for a whole cuisine?
- New York’s Black oyster king ran a renowned restaurant and a stop on the underground railroad.
- Who created butter chicken? We know it was an Indian. We just don’t know which Indian.
- Century eggs are based in 2 lies. They are not a hundred years old. And they are not edible.