Vittles for the Week: Cake Pops, Pig Problems, Slow Food, and the Best Burger in NYC

Food related links from the interweb...

PRECIOUS! How to Make Cake Pops: What a charming idea for a dessert! Looks pretty easy to make too...
Via: Apartment Therapy and Bakerella

A Pig Problem: 2 Commentary pieces (Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health, and Pathogens in our Pork) by Nicolas Kristof detailing the health risks that Americans may encounter because of the overuse of antibiotics on livestock. "Seventy percent of all antibiotics in the United States go to healthy livestock, according to a careful study by the Union of Concerned Scientists — and that’s one reason we’re seeing the rise of pathogens that defy antibiotics."
Via: The New York Times

Alice Waters and Slow Food: She seems slightly affected, but her accomplishments are commendable.

Via: CBS Videos Online

BLIND New York Hamburger Taste-test: Not sure if I agree with the results...
Via: Always Hungry.com

Cheap Chow: Another restaurant guide for the budget conscious. Will be hitting some of these places soon.

Via: Three Buck Bites

Was there an actual General Tso?: A very speedy and articulate explanation of the origins and evolution of Chinese food in America. This came out a few months ago, but I stumbled across it this week, so fascinating I had to share...
Via: Ted.com

Vittles for the Week: Sweet Burgers, Cereal, First Foodie Family

Food-related links from the interweb...

The Sweetest Little Hamburgers!  Via Smiley's Sweets and Creations

An Homage to Discontinued Cereals:  How I miss Frankenberry...  

Via Gunaxin.

Kevin Tries To Eat the Entire Vending Machine: Man meets machine in this episode of "What Will Kevin Do For Ricky's Money?" 

Via College Humor

The 20 Most Terrifying Pictures of Ronald McDonald EVER! 

Via Unrealitymag.com

A website for the poor, hungry,8.1%-ers :  Ueatcheap.com 

The Obama Diet: The First Foodie Family With a Filipina chef to boot! 

"Michelle Obama, who declined (Alice) Waters' offer (along with Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl and New York restaurateur Danny Meyer) to choose a new White House chef, in order to stick with Cristeta Comerford, a Filipino who is both the first woman and the first member of a minority to hold that position, continues to up the ante on the food front. "  

Via SFWeekly.com

Guity Pleasures:  Trader Joe's Corn Dogs and Andy Capp's Hot Fries

Via Papawow

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: Book Recommendation

For Christmas, my cousin gave me Thomas McNamee's book titled, Alice Waters and Chez Panisse:The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution. Truth be known, I didn't know who Alice Waters was (ack!) and only vaguely knew of the gourmand's nirvana, Chez Panisse, located in Berkley, CA, outside of San Francisco. I used to travel to San Francisco for work, but only experienced the region mostly through the confines of soulless, corporate hotel rooms and early morning van trips to Silicon Valley (made interminable by the unnerving merriment of eager work colleagues). I suffered through bland buffet dinners, tolerable room service and twizzlers on the road, I never experienced what is called "Californian Cuisine" the movement , or result of the "food revolution" that Alice Waters led by way of her highly renown restaurant, Chez Panisse. Peppered with gossipy tidbits of behind the scenes kitchen shananigans and power struggles between chefs and restaurant owners, this book mostly tells the story of an ordinary woman with no real, classical food training, who had a dream to start a restaurant commited to utilizing fresh, local, seasonal ingredients, reflecting her tastes and appreciation for French food aesthetics. Her passions and dedication, along with the talent and collaboration of her colleagues, availed to Waters the realization of her dream. I took the book with me to read, while I was in Argentina--a place known for its exquisite beef and excellent Malbec wines. When I sat down to eat, I started to question the origins of the ingredients in the dishes and really started to taste food and wine in a completely different way. An entertaining and inspiring read for anyone interested in starting a business, restaurant culture, and locavore cuisine.