Photo: Wolfrage/Flickr
LOCAL BITES
Portsmouth Eats
Restaurant Week in Portsmouth, NH, and The Seacoast begins tonight and runs through next Saturday, March 31 (weekends included). Over 40 restaurants are participating, with lunches at $16.95 and dinners for $29.95. Read more.
Munch Madness
The Boston Globe’s annual spin-off of the college hoop tournament has begun. Have you voted for your favorite restaurant? Munch Madness is your chance to be a taste-setter in Boston! Last year, after fierce match ups, Hungry Mother and East Coast Grill faced off in the final round.
Cooking For An Age-less Cause
An impressive line-up of Boston-based chefs will come together Friday, March 30, from 6-10pm at the Seaport Hotel. They are all Cooking A Cause: proceeds for this fundraiser will benefit the East End House in Cambridge, which supports a variety of programming for infants through to the elderly. Tickets are $125/pp.
Just a Spoonful of Ginger
Joanne Chang, Jacky Robert and Wesley Chen are a few of the chefs who will participate in the Joslin Diabetes Center’s 8th Annual A Spoonful of Ginger fundraiser from 6:30-9:30 p.m. on March 26th. The venue itself is ‘delicious': the Art of the Americas Wing at the MFA. Proceeds will support the Joslin’s Asian American Diabetes Initiative (AADI). There are lots of ways to donate, including purchasing a ticket ($250/pp).
Truck Stops
The City of Boston Food Truck Program officially launches on April 1. Where will you eat first? Here’s the schedule, for you planning purposes. There are new sites and new trucks.
Fun Out of the Sun
If you still haven’t bit the bullet and signed up your kids for camp this summer, here’s another option to consider: cooking classes! The Culinary Underground is offering half- and full-day classes in July and August for kids ages 8-17. Here are a few to whet your appetite: Cake Commandos for teens and Cooking in Color for younger kids.
A Bull Market: Progress Downtown
If you are keen on following the progress of the long-incubating Boston Public Market, here’s a summary of last week’s open meeting, where the Boston Public Market Assocation presented its proposal for the site. (This past Monday, a state commission voted to make the BPMA the official operator of the market.) For those of you wanting to deep-dive, the BPMA’s proposal is available online.
NATIONAL TREATS
History in a Box
This is fun. From the Wall Street Journal, a slide show of vending machines, past and present. Such variety. Such styles!
Go for It: DIY Yogurt
I was sceptical, but it really sounds easy. Here’s a straightforward account of how and why to make your own yogurt, from Andreas Viestad’s “The Gastronomer” blog in the Washington Post.
The Most Important Kitchen Tools
Your hands. And you’ve got two of them! From the Chicago Tribune, encouragement from chefs and cookbook authors to ‘get in there’ and get your hands dirty when you cook.
GLOBAL TASTINGS
Adding Injury to Injury: The Long-term Effects of Food Poisoning
I might have simply regarded this report from MailOnline as “interesting” were it not for a close friend of mine who is still on bedrest after a brief bought with food poisoning caused by campylobacter — four weeks ago. Turns out that numerous forms of food poisoning can have long-term effects on your health. The takeaway: practice safe food preparation habits, and stay on top of routine health tests!
In African Villages, It Takes A Woman
If we want to continue feeding our planet and ensuring that no one goes hungry, the key is supporting female farmers, particularly in Africa. So goes the recommendation in this fascinating report about the impact that African women in agriculture could have if they are allowed to farm, and the cultural barriers that stand in their way.