New York Salt Initiative Leaves Me Feeling Salty.

New York has always been on the forefront of food laws and change. The McDonalds in NYC were the first to add calories counts on all of their products. Something that left most of us fast food lovers cringing. 


I know it's for the best, and every American should know what they are putting into their bodies. But frankly, I'm not going to McDonalds to count calories, or 'watch what I eat', I'm going there to stuff my face with greasy food and salty french fries. 


Yes, French Fries. And this leads us to Mayor Bloomberg's new initiative, the "National Salt Reduction Initiative". According to sources, New York wants you to reduce your salt intake and has partnered with 16 companies and restaurants who have agreed to reduce salt in their products by 25% over the next 5 years. 

"According to New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Americans get 80 percent of their salt intake from packaged foods and restaurants in the form of preservatives. Adding salt yourself only accounts for about 1 percent of salt consumption. About nine percent comes from sodium that occurs naturally in food. Health organizations recommend about 1500 to 2400 milligrams of salt per day per healthy adult.

Reducing salt intake has been shown to help reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes; city officials say that as many as 23,000 New Yorkers could reduce their risks of dying from those problems.

Officials promise that the reduction will be gradual--and that New Yorkers won’t even notice the difference." 

Some of the restaurants that are part of this initiative and pledged gradual decrease --

• Starbucks
• Heinz
• Au Bon Pain
• Subway
• Boars Head 
• Goya

I'm all for every American's right to eat as much crap as they want. I'm a big fan of junk food and I don't think that there should be restrictions on personal choice. However, I have to agree that decreasing salt in some restaurants and companies is a good idea. 


The initiative is voluntary so needless to say McDonalds and my other favorite food establishments (ahem-chicken joes) won't be taking part. Thank God. But for establishments like Subway and Starbucks, and companies like Goya and Boars Head I think it might not be such a bad gradual change.

Why not? If you start out with less salt, you can always add more. This is why, when the initiative takes a hit, and I'm left with less delicious/salty foods, I'll just bring my own salt everywhere I go and add it to my dish as I wish. Take that Bloomberg, you can't stop my salt intake. 

Cross-Breeding Food!

This is a pineberry, it's a mix between a pineapple and a strawberry. It will be available in the UK soon, weird, right? Would you eat it? It looks like a zombie strawberry. 

Bacon pancakes? Is this an Iowa thing? I've never heard of the two being combined, makes me want to try it though. Also makes me wonder why it hasn't stuck and that's probably because it tastes like shit. 

Thoughts on the merging of these foods? 

Screw Earth Day, I Love Jellybeans!

Aside from being Earth Day, it's also National Jelly Bean Day! 

My favorite source Wikipedia taught me something I felt was worth passing on to you all - 

Did you know that in the 1920s, the term "jellybean" was used to describe a young man who dressed stylish and tried to pick up women; also a synonym for pimp. The term was memorialized in the 1940s Phil Harris song "Jelly Bean (He's a Curbstone Cutie)"

It wasn't until the 1930s that they became associated with that ass-hat the Easter Bunny because of their egg-shape.  Crazy, right? I say we bring the slang term back because Jellybean is way more fun to say than 'pimp'. Thoughts? 

Did you know? I like all flavors of jellybeans except black licorice and white. 

Here's a video from Discovery Channel's "How It's Made", Jellybean edition -- 

Earth is great and all, but I prefer to celebrate the great things on this Earth invented by man - electricity, the wheel, fire, and jellybeans. 

Peace. 

German's Didn't Know What Cupcakes Were? WTF??

I could not live without cupcakes. 

APPARENTLY, up until recently German's didn't know what cupcakes were. Thanks to America, in the form of McDonalds, they now know what cupcakes are. Shitty cupcakes, but cupcakes none the less.


Mcafe just introduced New York themed cupcakes to it's menu. Nicholas Kulish from the New York Times went to Berlin to try them out.
He writes, "The cupcakes themselves were rather small for the price of $2.40, and cold from the refrigerated display case, which made the icing hard. The cake itself was dense rather than fluffy and more sweet than flavorful." Yuck. A 26 year old engineering student described them as "artificial". Boo. 

The four cupcakes are New York themed, they go as follows -- 

Chelsea - Chocolate

The East Village - Cappuccino 

Central Park - Strawberry 
SoHo - Vanilla 

I don't know why we are bothering giving these German's bad cupcakes, they are unnecessary. I love cupcakes so much that I'm ashamed an American brand name is being associated with such crap. If we keep good ol' fashion Funfetti Cupcakes from Germans and the rest of the globe, I don't know what kind of world citizen's we think we are. 

Cupcakes for everyone! 

Love Burgers? Me Too.

Food is Art. Yummmm... 

The Naked Chef's New Show is Mmm..Mmm..Gooood.

Resident Food Network hottie Jamie Oliver's (aka The Naked Chef) new television series on ABC premiered this past March 21st to 6.20 million viewers (thanks wiki). I watched an episode, and I must say - as cynical as I am about network television, it was actually entertaining. What am I talking about - I love everything else Ryan Seacrest has done (Kardashians, American Idol), just nothing he says. 

Jamie Oliver takes on an entire town - Huntington, West Virginia named the unhealthiest state in America. His goal is to reach schools, children, restaurants, individuals, and even the non-believers. He is determined to drastically change the way Americans think about food.

Ok, opinion time --- I think that all the kids being obese these days is outrageous, and very sad. I have a thirteen year old brother and a ten year old sister and I can hardly imagine how having a young active healthy child around the house can lead to obesity, if anything the two of them growing up kept the rest of us active. Laziness has just become accepted and its our own faults for letting it get this way. However, i'll be the first to admit that taking vending machine's and soda dispensers out of public schools is not the answer.

The show is pure entertainment. He uses striking visuals to get his point across. He shows an elementary school what a year's worth of their fat intake looks like in a dumpster. He shows a critical radio host a funeral parlor that caters to the overweight boasting caskets that look like king sized beds. He asks young children to identify fruits and vegetables and it is immediately clear that they can't tell a potato from a tomato. Jamie Oliver gets angry, he jokes and has fun with the kids, and -spoiler- he even cries! Haha.

I think it's a great idea for a show, the right kind of show we need in this fatass country right now. No more bachelor or biggest looser, enough changing individuals physically, this sexy brit is gonna teach us how to change our minds. Just make sure you sit down to watch it with a heaping bowl of potato chips or popcorn (extra salt and butter).

New Domino's Pizza: Slightly less crappy then before.

After admitting that they have faults and generally shitty pizza, Domino's has revamped their image and released their new pizza recipe. 
The NY Daily News reported that the amount of curious customers led to quarterly profits doubling to $23.6 million. 


I'm almost ashamed to be one of these customers. It's not that I don't want Domino's to do well, it's just that people are trying their pizza based on curious interest alone, not on their need for delicious pizza. 


Maybe I've just been spoiled by New York Pizza and my theory that no New Yorker should ever order pizza from Domino's, ever. We have the best pizza in the entire country, or world, depending on your preference, so why settle for a crappy chain pie like Domino's? 


What I will give them, is that they have changed for the better. While they can't compare with many local pizzeria's, they have significantly improved the quality of taste in their dough, sauce, and cheese. 


Well done I guess Domino's, I didn't know you had it in ya! 

Cupcake Car

Neiman Marcus has introduced the CUPCAKE CAR

it's worth taking a look at. i like it, i want one.

look out for me on north avenue in it. 

And You Thought Cake Boss Was Good

Move over Buddy Valastro, step aside Duff....

Meet - Amazing Mike of Mike's Amazing Cakes

yep, that's a steak cake alright. 

In my search of the most extravagant and elaborate cake decorators, I've stumbled across this internet gem of a website... Mike's Amazing Cakes. His photo gallery of cakes blows anything food network has ever seen out of the water. Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me. You'll be amazed! 

Queen of Food Porn

Director Tim Burton based the White Queen from his upcoming movie "Alice in Wonderland" off of English cooking goddess Nigella Lawson. The LA Times reported Burton saying of Lawson,"She's really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there's this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, 'Oh, whoa, she's like really ... nuts.' I mean in a good way. Well, maybe. I don't know."

In the movie, the white witch is played by Anne Hathaway, an actress who can balance the nice and the naughty in even the most challenging of roles (remember The Devil Wears Prada?)

Born to Nigel Lawson and Vanessa Salmon, the English food writer, journalist and broadcaster has released several books (How to be a Domestic Goddess) and dozens of cooking series', including, Food Network's Nigella Feasts, Nigella's Christmas Kitchen, and Nigella Express. She has also been featured on Top Chef and Iron Chef America: Super Chef Battle.

She has been dubbed the 'queen of food porn' because of her lack of traditional training and her carefree and flirtatious manner in the kitchen.

There is much to be learned from this independant woman. Making your own path through the world of culinary media, and paving your own way is just as good as learning and training with the best.

It's no wonder she inspired such a powerful woman as the charachter of the White Queen.

2010 Olympics

Gold Medalist skier Lindsey Vonn shares her banana bread recipe on her Facebook. 

Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn was the first American woman to win a gold medal at the 2010 Olympics. Born in Saint Paul Minnesota, the 25 year-old has won four previous medals in the 2009 and 2007 World Championships.  As far as her personal life, she's kept that strictly skiing as well - marrying Thomas Vonn a 2002 Olympian and former United States Ski Team member.  

She reveals a personal recipe on her Facebook page - 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Mix these ingredients in a medium bowl:

1/4 cup butter 

4 old bananas 

1 cup sugar (organic brown sugar is good) 

1 egg 

2-3 big scoops of organic apple sauce

In a big bowl, mix these ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 

1 tsp. Baking soda 

1/4 tsp. Salt 

A dash of nutmeg and cinnamon

Then, mix both bowls together. Once that is mixed put it into a non stick bread pan and bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown.

*You can also substitute the butter with one more scoop of apple sauce!

I tried the recipe and it's as gold as her medal. Right out of the oven the bread is warm, comforting, and melts in your mouth. Although I didn't use organic brown sugar,applesauce, or whole wheat flour (just light brown sugar, all purpose flour, and original Motts) it's organic counterpart is surely just as delicious if not moreso - not to mention they are healthier. Sometimes it's just not what you've got in the kitchen and alterations need to be made. However,  while I enjoyed the bread with a cold glass of milk I finally felt like it was okay that I wasn't in training for the Olympics and that I had traded in the whole wheat and organic for the all purpose and store bought. 

Whether you chose to eat like an olympian and go organic, or well...eat like me, the Banana bread recipe on Lindsey Vonn's Facebook is easy to make and even easier to eat.