Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 60

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• These cones were made for walkin: Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has created a line of shoes where the heel is decked out with a sparkly ice cream cone (right) or Brazilian plastic footwear brand Melissa. Another great find from fave blog Laughing Squid.

• NPR's On Point featured an interview with New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter on the problems of antibiotic use in livestock. The shocking out-take: as many people die of antibiotic-resistant superbugs in the US now as die of AIDS.

• And just to prove that it doesn't have to be that way, The New Pork Gospel is a loving profile by Barry Estabrook of Russ Kremer, the pig farmer that inspired Chipotle's commercial in praise of small pork producers.

• Here’s a project in Brazil that takes a different spin on the food truck concept: food trucks that, rather than selling food, are training people how to prepare food and manage their own culinary businesses (and maybe even their own food trucks!)

• The Beastie Boys' Mike D Runs a Free Food Truck in the Rockaway neighborhood of New York City, helping out residents hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy.

• For your weekend reading pleasure, we've found a new favorite food journal find in London-based The Gourmand. And it doesn't hurt that their logo looks a bit like the Pork Fairy.

• We will leave you with a few words of wisdom from Chef Thomas Keller on why it's desire and not passion that make the best cooks. "It’s not about passion. Passion is something that we tend to overemphasize, that we certainly place too much importance on. Passion ebbs and flows. To me, it’s about desire. If you have constant, unwavering desire to be a cook, then you’ll be a great cook...(more)"

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 56

 weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• What makes the perfect pig? An Iowa farmer has set out to recreate a rare German breed, as seen in this great New York Times video. His pig won a San Francisco Cochon 555, which the farmer calls "the superbowl of pork." We have to agree.

• NPR looks at how our brains evolved to equate food with love. In primates "sharing food appears to be a way of strengthening the alliance and ensuring future cooperation, he says, not unlike a business lunch."

• A voyeuristic view into strangers' refrigerators. What does your fridge say about you: "For more than four years, photographer Mark Menjivar photographed the contents of strangers' refrigerators for his exhibit "You Are What You Eat," which has traveled to museums and universities across the country. In a short article by Mark Wilson at the Fast Company website, Menjivar said, 'One person likened me asking to photograph their fridge to me asking them to pose nude for the camera.'"

• Steak — the new branded university swag and a grat way to generate revenue after harsh budget cuts. “Schools are looking for new ways to generate revenue, but there is more entrepreneurial thinking in colleges and universities than ever before, too,' said Brian Wansink, a professor of consumer behavior at Cornell and the director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab."

Sing Along Snacks: Gimme A Pigfoot

It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.

This week we're going way back with the blues and Bessie Smith with her drop-dead 1933 rendition of Gimme A Pigfoot.

"Give the piano player a drink because he's bringin' me down
He's got rhythm, yeah!
When he stomps his feet, he sends me right off to sleep
Check all your razors and your guns
We gonna be rasslin' when the wagon comes
I wanna pigfoot and a bottle of beer
Send me 'cause I don't care
Slay me 'cause I don't care"

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 42

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• A good reminder to think critically, a 1947 ad singing the praises of DDT as a "benefactor of all humanity" in a round-up of the worst products ever advertised.

• Squid — funkier than you thought. Apparently, they're deeply musical, and they can change colors to the beat, as this video shows.

• Noodle-bots, taking over a Chinese noodle stand near you. In the video, you can see them (looking very vintage Lost in Space) shaving noodles right into the pot. Prep cooks everywhere, beware.

• For pointers, and experienced words of caution, listen to the dangerous art of ham-cutting in Spain that covers the how-to's of slicing Iberian ham, which can send some 60,000 Spaniards a year to the emergency room. Maybe a ham-bot is in order.

• Fastcompany profiled 8 Future Farms to Change How We Grow Food, from aquapods to personal indoor urban farms.

• The part of farming that still has a long way to go — labor issues. Introduced with the attention getting headline Your Food Has Already Migrated! a new report "Hungry for Change: Borderlands Food and Water in the Balance—reminds Americans just how much of their entire food supply is dependent upon labor, expertise, ingenuity, seeds, seafood, and water originating in Mexico."

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 36

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

This week we're dedicating ourselves to one of our favorite themes — beer.

• Is it really true that everything good in the universe can be combined into one experience? Rouge Ales is giving it a try with it's new maple, bacon, doughnut beer. 

• First they brought us couches. Then it was meatballs. Now Ikea is in the beer business with the debut of their new dark lager. When they come out with a movie channel, their take over of our living rooms will be complete.

• Las Vegas has a new use for it's most renewable resource — empty beer bottles. 500,000 were crushed and turned into building material.

• From 19th century bound volumes on the best beer to a cache of labels, check out a gallery of beer advertising through the ages.

• We had no idea that London ever fell out of love with beer, but according to the Washington Post, the romance is back on.