Top 10 Links of the Week: 5/21/10 – 6/3/10

Sweet readers! I missed last week’s links due to fun family things/receiving the most awesome meat thermometer in history. Subsequently, this week’s links are bigger than anything, up to and including certain Guatemalan sinkholes. Buckle up!

1) Forbes: Snake Oil in Your Snacks - Foods masquerading as drugs have become a $160 billion business.
Have you ever bought bread because it says “OMEGA 3!” on the package? Or yogurt that claims to help your immune system? Yeah, me too. But this spectacular article on the largely unsubstantiated health claims made by food manufacturers might convince you to shelve those products permanently. Absolutely required reading.

2) Men’s Health: 20 Worst Drinks in America 2010
Jaw dropping! The amount of sugar in one Dairy Queen Moolatte is roughly equal to that found in one dozen Bavarian Crème Dunkin Donuts. (Note: As is my understanding, these aren’t the caloric equivalents, in which other ingredients factor, but the sugar equivalents. It’s an important distinction.) (Still pretty shocking, though.)

3) Deadspin: The Public Humiliation Diet – a How-To
Hilarious dude’s take on a 60-pound weight loss. Surprising how many strategies line up with what’s proven to work (weigh yourself, eat quality sweets, etc.) Due warning: obscenity abounds, but it’s for a good cause.

4) Seattle Times: An unemployed restaurant critic finds a different kind of culinary satisfaction
He used to have a $1300/monthly expense account for restaurants. Now he’s on food stamps, happy with whatever comes his way. Ed Murrieta’s story is alternately moving, sympathetic, and lately, disturbingly relatable.

5) Jezebel: Famous Foodie Has a Problem with Feminists
Love Jez, hate this piece. Pollan might have a somewhat unrealistic view of a working class family’s day-to-day existence. (The guy teaches at Berkeley. What do you want?) But it’s glib, sensationalist, and dangerously misleading to interpret his message as, “Get back in the kitchen, broads!” Painting him as a lady hater misses the forest for the dang trees.

6) Get Rich Slowly: Get Your Kitchen Gadgets for Less at Your Local Restaurant Supply Store
Fortunately, NYC is crammed wall-to-wall with these things, where you can buy whisks, graters, knives, and pots for a fraction of what you would at Crate and Barrel. (Not to be confused with Cracker Barrel.) Checking your ‘hood for one will be worth the research.

7) Wise Bread: Bargain Shopping at Whole Foods – 12 Strategies for Success
Whole Paycheck (note: Whole Foods) is intimidating to a lot of us (note: everybody), but WB (note: Wise Bread, not Warner Brothers) has some excellent pointers (note: devious tips) on how to buy there without losing your shirt (note: Whole Foods does not actually hold topless contests).

8) stonesoup: How to Stock a Minimalist Pantry
A.k.a. What to Do With Your Kitchen When Space and Time are More Limited Than You’d Like. Eat your heart out, Bittman. (P.S. Obsessed with this blog lately. Look around if you get the chance.)

9) Chow: When Are Cheap Eats Too Cheap?
Apparently, there’s a lower limit to what fast food joints can charge for their goods. Because when you offer a double cheeseburger for less than $1, it’s not profitable anymore. Incidentally, what goes into a double cheeseburger that costs less than a buck? Do we really want to know?

10) Slashfood: The Bad Tip Follow-Up
What Can I Get You Folks, about restaurant etiquette, is Slashfood’s best recurring feature. Last week, it tackled The Bad Tip: should a waiter ever ask a customer why he got stiffed? I say … no, but I can be convinced otherwise.


HONORABLE MENTION

The Atlantic: Cheap Chickens and Industry Fat Cats
Think what you will about the immigration debate, but: the reason many of us can afford decent food at all is because illegals work tirelessly to give it to us for negligible money and zero benefits, while corporate interests make millions off of their backs and our paychecks. Wanna fix things? Start with the Chairman of the Board, who buys golden toilets while the rest of us scrounge for coupons.

Casual Kitchen: How to Master the Last Minute Meal
It’s 6pm. You’re hungry. You don’t know what to make for dinner. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?

Chow
Babies in Bars
Hey Stranger, Help Me Start a Business
Refrigeration Reformation - What should stay cold, colder, and coldest in your fridge
Link #1: Sweet Home Alabama, anyone?
Link #2: How to fund food startups.
Link #3: Learn to arrange your fridge for maximum efficiency.

Food Politics
The Bisphenol A saga heats up
Dismal Reports on Dietary Supplements
Food Politics: The Slaughterhouse Problem
Link #1: More on the canned goods controversy, and a neat tutorial from Slashfood on how to avoid the stuff.
Link #2: News flash! Gingko biloba, St. John’s Wort, and other supplements are more useless than a cotton spork.
Link #3: Problem - we have a lot of humanely-raised animals, and no place to make them into meat.

Jezebel: Your Fetus Can Taste Your Food
Ooo! Neat! A study found that, “Infants whose mothers ate a lot of fruit during pregnancy are more accepting of fruit when it is introduced to them during weaning.” Subsequently, eating produce during gestation could mean your baby will dig healthy foods.

The Kitchn: Bring Back Home Ec?
Come for the post, stay for the 76 comments. (Note: I took Home Ec in high school, learned very little, but think we need it anyway. Howzabout you?)

Low-Calorie Diet: 4 Healthy Foods You Thought Were Junk
Oh, beef jerky. You complete me.

Man vs. Debt: Eating Yourself Into Debt
If you’re wondering how much bad food can ultimately cost you, this should inform/give you a heart attack.

Money Saving Mom
Being Frugal in a High Cost of Living Area
Play the Drugstore Game
Link #1: Live in the big city without going broke! Read this!
Link #2: Good reminder why shopping at CVS, Walgreens, etc. can mean big savings.

Neatorama: Figs and Wasps
Do you really want to know about the wasps that live inside figs? Yes and no. On one hand, EEK! On the other hand, they need each other to survive. No harm, no foul.

New York Post: Crooks to cooks - Rikers has Top Chef con-test
Love this story about young inmates training to cook in a professional setting. The best rehab.

New York Times
Digital Meal Planning
Their Future, Made By Hand
Link #1: Nice review of the Emealz online meal planning system, which looks like it might be worth the dough.
Link #2: We’re here! We’re unemployed! We’re making you an empanada!

Politics of the Plate: Regional, Not Local, Sourcing May be the Solution to Our Broken Food System
Think local, eat regional. Makes sense.

Serious Eats
10 Tips to Take to the Farmers’ Market
How to Make Risotto
Studies Continue to Prove: Nuts, in Moderation, Are Really Good For You
Link #1: More tips for your weekly jaunt.
Link #2: surprisingly healthy, always impressive.
Link #3: Mmm … psmashios.

stonesoup: The Number 1 Mistake of New Vegetarians and How to Avoid it
In short: you gotta plan for this, yo.


AND ALSO

Serious Eats: A Pint With David Flaherty, Terroir/Hearth
This is my friend Dave! He is awesome.

Epic Win FTW: ATTACK!
Heh. Heh heh. Heeeeeee. Hee hee hee. Heh.

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