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World-renowned chef, author and Emmy winning television personality Anthony Bourdain visits Quebec in the next episode of "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," airing Sunday, May 5, at 9 p.m. ET. Follow the show on Twitter and Facebook. This week, Anthony Bourdain bundles up - then bundles up again - to head to the Great White North where he finds nostalgia for the cuisine ancienne in the French-speaking province of Quebec. Amid the snow, ice fishing, rogue hockey games and beaver snaring, he finds a deeply impassioned community, hell-bent on preserving their francophone identity that is culturally, spiritually and linguistically different from the rest of Canada. Chef Martin Picard of Au Pied de Cochon, and David McMillan and Frédéric Morin of Joe Beef share their pride and affection for the old world charm of their beloved land and show Bourdain how they honor the tradition of the French table. As McMillan says, "You always have to travel well and eat properly." Dive into the food that Bourdain and guests enjoy in the episode: On Monday, Restaurant magazine revealed its annual "World's 50 Best Restaurants" list in London - and it ended up being a family affair. Three brothers - Joan, Jordi and Josep Roca – returned the top title to Spain by way of their restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca, in northern Catalonia. The last Spanish restaurant to hold the top spot was Ferran Adrià's elBulli restaurant in 2009, which has since closed and been converted into the elBulliFoundation. For the past three years, the highest ranking belonged to Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark. World-renowned chef, author and Emmy winning television personality Anthony Bourdain visits Los Angeles' Koreatown in the next episode of "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," airing Sunday, April 21, at 9 p.m. ET. Follow the show on Twitter and Facebook. Roy Choi created a brave new world of gastronomy almost single-handedly with his Los Angeles-based Kogi BBQ taco truck. A Korean-American who grew up on the fringes of Mexican and hip hop culture, Choi's food reflects a new American idea of natural fusion - culinary influences that grew up next to and with each other. In this episode of "Parts Unknown," Anthony Bourdain examines the meeting point of Asian, Latino, Mexican and even Bangladeshi culture in modern L.A. Koreatown. There comes a time in every food writer's life when they must reluctantly remove thine fancy trousers and succumb to the sugar-fueled enthusiasm the public expresses for mass market Easter candy. Last year, Americans spent nearly $2 billion on Easter candy alone, including milk chocolate bunnies, cream-filled eggs, jelly beans and, of course, the cherished, brightly colored marshmallow critters known as Peeps. The iconic chick- and bunny-shaped confections are made by family-owned candy manufacturer, Just Born, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The factory hatches an estimated 4 million Peeps a day, which is enough to give to one Peeps treat to every person in Croatia. (You're welcome.) Should you find yourself hopped up on too many of the blood-sugar-spiking 'mallows come Monday, make the leftovers melt into memory with homemade Peeps ice cream. One of a bagel’s greatest virtues is that it's a single serving of fresh-from-the-oven bread, baked just for you. Even better: if you do the baking yourself, there's usually at least 11 more just like it cooling nearby, creating a perfect excuse for a weekend get-together. Bagel lovers, especially New Yorkers and people of Eastern European descent, have strong opinions about what makes a bagel great - or not so great. For the owners of Surfside Bagels in Far Rockaway, New York, the hand-rolled boiled and baked bread should be dense and chewy. Its exterior, shiny; its interior, yeasty but not too sweet. Fortunately, they’re willing to spread their knowledge. On a cold, rainy day, people lined up around the block for supplies from a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center in Far Rockaway, Queens, one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy. More than 100 days after Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast, leaving power lines, houses, family heirlooms and human lives decimated in its wake, it's a clear sign residents are still figuring out how to cope. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the recent storm would cost New York State alone nearly $42 billion. Despite the odds, the recent reopening of small businesses, like a tiny, neighborhood bagel shop, indicates a new day is dawning. From midtown Manhattan, the trip to Far Rockaway takes a little more than two hours. That’s because there is still no subway service past John F. Kennedy Airport. To access the Rockaways, riders have to transfer to a shuttle bus, then back onto a fare free shuttle train, which only started service in late November. It’s a couple more transfers than residents are used to, but it’s better than the lack of transportation they were saddled with for quite some time. Nutritional experts have long lauded breakfast as the most important meal of the day, but reports that 17 military bases stopped serving hot breakfast have one congressman up in arms. On January 17, Congressman Bruce Braley wrote to Secretary of the Army John McHugh to express his concern. According to Jeff Giertz, Communications Director for the United States Congressman's office, he was prompted to do so after being contacted by the mother of one of his Iowa constituents who is serving abroad in Afghanistan. "I am troubled that the Army would deny any deployed troops three meals per day, regardless of force size," Braley wrote in the release. “These men and women put their lives on the line every day to protect the very freedoms we cherish. The exhaustive mental and physical labor that is required by soldiers to fight in harsh and unforgiving conditions is tremendous. We shouldn’t deny our troops something as fundamental as a proper meal." As of publication time, Braley had not heard back from the Army Secretary. While Braley and the mother were concerned that the troops weren't getting adequate nutrition, Army officials note that is simply not the case. If you are what you eat, you might be having an identity crisis. A new study on food fraud was released Wednesday morning by U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), a scientific nonprofit organization that helps set standards for the "quality, safety and benefit" of foods and medicines. The group runs a searchable online database of food fraud reports at foodfraud.org and nearly 800 new records were added as part of the study - a 60% increase from last year. Food fraud, as defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is the adulteration, dilution or mislabeling of goods. USP further defines food fraud in the study as "the fraudulent addition of nonauthentic substances or removal or replacement of authentic substances without the purchaser's knowledge for economic gain to the seller." At Eatocracy, we eat like it's our job - because it is. There's no crystal ball for food editors to peer into or a Ouija board that contacts Escoffier from beyond the grave for culinary guidance. Instead, we rely on the tastemakers – the chefs, the farmers, the artisans – and our own eyes, ears and mouths to keep us informed of the latest movements in the food world. This series, Next Course, looks into what’s coming up in the food world. "Pssst! Hey buddy, you looking for any of that there...fish goo? I know a guy." An unusual product, popping up in hushed conversation among chefs and their fishmongers, may soon be swimming to a restaurant near you. It's fish marrow. Yes - bone marrow from fish. Once the domain of dogs' dinners and the working class’s cucina povera, in recent years, bone marrow oozed into chef territory. Platters of sawed-open bones with rich marrow soon popped up on high-end menus across the country. Anthony Bourdain coined it "butter from god," and it gained a devout following accordingly. |
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