May 23rd, 2013
10:30 AM ET
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You could call this a case of an early bird not wanting to catch the worm.

All high school student Derrick Holt wanted was a quick bite to eat when he purchased a Sausage McMuffin at a McDonald’s in Buckeye, Arizona.

What he says he got was a disgusting surprise, a stomach problem that’s kept him out of school and mixed messages from the restaurant that served him.
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Filed under: Fast Food • Insects • McDonald's


May 22nd, 2013
04:15 PM ET
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Video via KOMO

Talk about your potted pork! Bucking Boars Ranch, a longtime vendor at Seattle's Pike Place market is now selling meat from pigs that have been fed with marijuana plants.
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Filed under: Pork • Weird News


National strawberries and cream day
May 21st, 2013
09:00 AM ET
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

Mmmm...dreamy. May 21 is National Strawberries and Cream Day!

How could we forget one of the most obvious uses for all those strawberries you’ve been picking? We speak of course, of strawberries and cream.

The beauty of the dessert lies in its simplicity – it really is just strawberries and thickened cream. Kitchen types aren’t known for leaving well enough alone, so there are a few ways to dress up this basic dessert.
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Filed under: Breakfast Buffet • Food Holidays • Fruit • News • Spring Vegetables


National strawberry picking day
May 20th, 2013
09:00 AM ET
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While you're frying up some eggs and bacon, we're cooking up something else: a way to celebrate today's food holiday.

When fresh fruit comes along, you must pick it. May 20 is National Strawberry Picking Day!

Nothing says springtime like fresh fruit, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as picking your own. This time of year fruit farms across the country open their gates to let the general public help themselves to their latest crops.

Picking your own fruit isn’t only a fun outing with family or friends; it’s also an opportunity to meet and support local farmers. You get a better sense of how the food you enjoy is cultivated, and smaller farms often use more sustainable growing practices.
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Filed under: Breakfast Buffet • Farms • Farmstands • Food Holidays • Fruit • Local Food • News • Spring Vegetables


May 17th, 2013
11:00 AM ET
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According to a recent U.N. report, insects could be a solution to some of the world's food and health problems. They're nutritious, eco-friendly and abundant. Many countries already consider them a staple part of their diets.

So if we're all to start consuming locusts and scorpions, we can start in Southeast Asia for guidance.
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Filed under: Insects • Taboos


Finding my gateway bug
May 15th, 2013
11:45 AM ET
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I ate bugs for lunch. This time it was on purpose.

By some experts' estimates, the average person inadvertently downs about one pound of insect parts a year, in foods as varied as chocolate (which can contain 60 insect components per 100 grams by law in the United States), peanut butter (30 insect parts per 100 grams) and fruit juice (up to five fruitfly eggs and one to two larvae for every 250 milliliters).

In light of the United Nations' recent plea for increased insect consumption, I decided to take the insects by the antennae and join the 2 billion people worldwide who deliberately make creepy, crawly creatures a part of their regular or special occasion diet.
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Filed under: Ingredients • Insects • T1 • Taboos


U.N: Eat insects, save the world
May 14th, 2013
10:00 AM ET
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Nicola Ruotolo is an intern in CNN's Rome bureau

Insects are the ideal food of the future, according to a new United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report.

In "Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security," presented at a news conference in Rome on Monday, the group's etnomophagy experts shared compelling evidence suggesting that increased intake of insects would promote health, wealth and a cleaner environment for both rural and urban communities around the globe.

Consumption of insects like locusts, crickets or larvae is very common in parts of Asia, South America, Mexico and Africa, due in large part to their high nutritional value. Insects beat out both meat and fish in protein content and quality, and they're also rich in fiber and healthy micronutrients including copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium and zinc.

Insects adapt so quickly to climate change, that there would be few barriers to gathering from the wild or farming at any altitude or latitude around the planet - making them a cheap and eco-friendly food source. They also have a very low risk of transmitting disease to humans, unlike farmed beef, pork and poultry.
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Barbecue loses a legend
May 8th, 2013
10:00 AM ET
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Editor's note: The Southern Foodways Alliance delves deep in the history, tradition, heroes and plain old deliciousness of barbecue across the United States. SFA filmmaker Joe York wrote this remembrance of pitmaster Ricky Parker after attending Parker's funeral on Wednesday, May 1, in Lexington, Tennessee.

They buried Ricky Parker yesterday. A few miles down the road from the cinder block pits where he cooked whole hogs for more than half his life, from the sliding glass window where he sold sandwiches, from the creosote-stained door where he hung the “SOLD OUT” sign every afternoon to let the latecomers know not to bother, they gathered to say they were sorry, to say goodbye, to say that they didn’t know what to say.

They dressed him as he dressed himself. In blue Dickies, a tan work shirt with a pack of Swisher Sweets peeking from the breast pocket, and his burgundy and brown ball cap resting on the ledge of coffin, he went to his reward. The only thing missing was his greasy apron. I imagine it hangs on a nail somewhere back by the pits where he left it.
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Filed under: Barbecue • Barbecue Digest • Bite • Content Partner • Favorites • Meat • Rituals • Southern Foodways Alliance


May 6th, 2013
09:15 AM ET
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Police in China have spent three months seizing bogus meat, some of it fake beef or mutton made out of fox, mink and rat.

They snatched up around 20,000 tons of illegal products, according to state news agency Xinhua.

In 382 cases, officials arrested 904 suspects for passing off counterfeit meat, meat injected with water or diseased flesh to consumers, the news agency said.
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Filed under: Food Safety • Ingredients • Meat • Taboos


With Cinco de Mayo around the corner, Mexican food is in the spotlight
May 4th, 2013
01:00 PM ET
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With Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, we thought this would be the perfect time to shed some light on Mexican cuisine that goes beyond tacos, nachos and burritos.

This week, the Mexican restaurant Pujol was chosen by Restaurant Magazine as one of the world's 50 best restaurants, landing in 17th place.

In 2011, Pujol placed 49th and in 2012, 36th. This is the first time Pujol broke the top 20 on an international best restaurant list.

Chef and owner Enrique Olvera's culinary technique is described as both ancient and modern, all while using local ingredients.
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Filed under: Cinco de Mayo • Holidays • Insects • Mexico • Travel • Uncategorized


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