Quite a list today, but some very juicy stuff if you’ll bear with me!
Interesting ingredient alert: tomato water is the newest spinoff of the summer staple, showing up in kitchens across SF: (full story)
Google’s been a lot of things to a lot of people, but a food authority? Yesterday they acquired Zagat: (full story)
If you’re like me, you love the sound of a friend biting into a crisp apple; if you have misophonia, that sound probably makes you panic: (full story)
Researchers at the New England Complex Systems Institute have found a causal relationship between critically high food prices and social unrest; when a certain price point for food is crossed, citizens begin to look at their rulers differently: (full story)
Two Stanford d.school students have launched Culture Kitchen, a culinary school where women (or more specifically, grandmothers!) share their family recipes and insight into their cultural backgrounds: (full story)
Speaking of diverse cultural influences, this Forbes article suggests that Trader Joe’s has gained a competitive advantage in a crowded space by embracing the “immigrant perspective”: (full story)
And as for that crowded space, traditional supermarket chains are faltering, squeezed by expensive purveyors of organic, local and artisanal products on the high end and discounters like Costco and Wal-Mart on the low end. Fresh N’ Easy from British chain Tesco is not yet profitable stateside but has ambitious expansion plans in this space in SF and beyond [Sam is quoted in this one!]: (full story)
Beyond the romantic notions the phrase “locally grown” has come to elicit, in Eastern Kentucky vegetable growing is a means of feeding people who have trouble affording standard groceries from the store: (full story)
Vineyards across Sonoma County are emerging as a threat to the coho salmon, as a dwindling number of coho must contend with water-hungry vines and a frost-prevention method that can suck smaller tributaries dry: (full story)
And Sonoma’s Gravenstein Apple is another victim of the region’s emerging monoculture; the crop is threatened since land is more profitable when used to grow wine grapes: (full story)