Photo: epicbeer/Flickr
LOCAL BITES
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
So many venues and so much time to celebrate this year because St. Paddy’s Day is on a Saturday! Drink your grains responsibly, but don’t forget to eat your greens. It’ll make for a kinder Sunday.
Eat Your Grains
Award-winning, local cookbook author Maria Speck will be speaking this coming Monday, March 19, as part of the Pepin Lecture Series offered by BU’s Metropolitan College. The topic: ancient grains, what to do with them and just how good they taste. Tickets are $25/pp. Read more.
Local Cocktail MashUp
Hosted by BU’s School of Hospitality, the American Idol/Iron Chef Mashup Cocktail Competition is being held March 19 at The Hawthorne. True to Iron Chef form, the finalist bartenders will be given ingredients only moments before the action starts. The best style, taste, creativity and skill win the day. Tickets are $25 for this fundraiser — you’ll get cocktails and light nibbles, courtesy of The Hawthorne.
Taste of South Shore
Featuring 28 top chefs from the area, the 16th Annual Taste of the South Shore, sponsored by the South Shore YMCA, is being held Thursday, March 22, 6-10 pm in Randolph. Admission is $100 per person. Proceeds help children and families in need.
The Potential Health Benefits of Short-Term Fasting
Would you skip a meal or two a day if it decreased your risk of caner or Alzheimer’s? Four researchers look into the potential long-term health benefits of restricting your food intake. The Globe reports.
Reminder #1: March is Maple Month in Massachusetts
Get yourself to a maple shack! It’s good, clean (sweet) fun. Visit one or both of the following sites for information on sugar shacks in your area and maple-related events: Mass Grown and Mass Maple Producers Association.
Reminder #2: It’s Restaurant Week in Boston!
From March 18-23 and March 25-30, Boston Restaurant Week is back. Here’s your chance to check that restaurant off your bucket list. Prix fixe lunch menus for $15 or $20, and set dinner menus for $33. Reservations a must.
NATIONAL TREATS
Risky Behavior
But this kind is legal. A new study provides the strongest evidence yet that red meat is bad for your health. Allison Aubrey of NPR’s The Salt reports.
Return of the Slime
Nancy Huehnergarth of Huff Post Food muses on the USDA’s response to the outcry over “Lean Beef Trimmings” (aka Pink Slime) in the American food supply. Label it, she says. But others say, Get it out of school lunches entirely. The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
We’re Still A Fast Food Nation
So says Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, now ten years old. But Schlosser cites new reasons for hope in this essay published at the Daily Beast.
Breathing New Life into Irish Coffee
This is exactly what Patrick Farrell does, writing for the NY Times in this article tracing the history of Irish Coffee. Farrell plugs for a new rap for this Irish-American drink. Thumbs up?
Chefs in White
A fascinating, thought-provoking report about the whiteness of professional kitchen staff and America’s culinary schools, but we’re not talking the uniforms. “Where are the black chefs?” from the Chicago Tribune.
GLOBAL TASTINGS
What Meat Has to Do with Politics in France
A debate over halal meat, the Muslim slaughter ritual, has erupted at the center of the French presidential campaign. Not unlike the “pink slime” controversy unfolding here in the US, the debate in France centers on labeling — but with the added complexities of election-year politics. Eleanor Beardsley reports for NPR’s Morning Edition.