Free Republic

TEL AVIV/FRANKFURT, March 12 (Reuters) - Two years after scientists cooked up the first test tube beef hamburger, researchers in Israel are working on an even trickier recipe: the world's first lab-grown chicken. Professor Amit Gefen, a bioengineer at Tel Aviv University, has begun a year-long feasibility study into manufacturing chicken in a lab, funded by a non-profit group called the Modern Agriculture Foundation which hopes "cultured meat" will one day replace the raising of animals for slaughter. The foundation's co-founder Shir Friedman hopes to have produced "a recipe for how to culture chicken cells" by the end of the...

Gazpacho: Drink your Salad! This is one of my husband's favorites of the things that I make routinely. I first learned the recipe when one of my Virginia cousins served it as an appetizer at a Christmas party. I was surprised to learn that it is an old Virginia favorite, found in many old cookbooks and served at Williamsburg restaurants. I've never made it in the authentic Spanish fashion, with bread; but here's a link to a somewhat different recipe that does: http://www.history.org/almanack/life/food/fdgzpcho.cfm When I can't get good tomatoes for this, I use a can of tomatoes for the part...

At 25, Russ Crandall was the picture of health. In 2005, the Navy translator—fluent in Russian and Indonesian—was so fit that he was often enlisted to whip out-of-shape recruits into, well, shape. And then, out of the blue, everything changed. "I had a stroke, and my body just stopped working the way I was expecting," the force behind paleo blog The Domestic Man told Yahoo Food. “The doctors couldn’t figure out why. They were like, ‘Figure out how to write again. Figure out how to walk.’” Within six months, Crandall had relearned both—he credits the speedy recovery to his youth...

BRIDGING a gap in the market between fast-food joints and full-service restaurants, fast-casual chains such as Shake Shack, Nando’s chicken restaurants and Chipotle Mexican Grill are enjoying success across the world. The combined sales of American fast-casual outlets rose by 10.5% last year, compared with 6.1% for fast-food chains, according to Mintel, a market-research firm. There are four main reasons why these outlets have been winning customers. First, they promise “fresh” food, meaning at the very least not frozen. Chipotle also says it uses, where possible, meat from animals raised without hormones or antibiotics, and organic and locally grown vegetables....

Black Eye Peas - and Cilantro! When I was growing up, we always had black-eye peas on New Year's Day, a tradition from my Southern Granny. But we had them throughout the year as well, and I grew to like them very much. I found this Sara Moulton recipe for Black-Eye Pea Cakes with Salsa Mayonnaise many years ago, and it's become a favorite. I think it was my first introduction to cilantro; they say one either loves or hates cilantro, and I'm one of the lovers. Sometimes, if I don't want the mess of frying, I make these a...

When second grader Richard “Trip” Klibert, 7, was unhappy with his LaPlace, La., school’s decision to nix the popular “Taco Tuesday” lunch menu, he did what any other go-getting kid would do — he went straight to the top.

According to a new court ruling A New Jersey man who was burned by a plate of hot fajitas while dining at Applebee’s can’t sue the restaurant over his injuries, according to an appellate court. Hiram Jimenez took the chain restaurant to court because he said his waitress failed to alert him that his meal was hot. After being served, the court ruling says he bowed his head to pray over the crackling plate, and some oil popped and burned his face. Jimenez says he then panicked and knocked the plate in his lap, causing more burns, none of which...

The loud sounds echoing through Katz's Deli are almost definitely fake. It's a little after 4 a.m., and a group of two men and two women are at the famed When Harry Met Sally table, re-creating the equally famous scene shot in the restaurant. The other customers don't really seem to care much, and I suspect this is something of a gleefully obnoxious ritual at Katz's this time of night. At least it probably has been since around 2012, the year the restaurant first made the move to staying open all night on Friday and 24 hours on Saturday, which...

WESTAMPTON, N.J., A New Jersey appeals court rejected a lawsuit from a man who alleged he suffered burns from his Applebee's fajita when he bowed his head to pray. Hiram Jimenez's lawsuit alleged he visited the Westampton restaurant in March 2010 with his brother, Rafael, and they decided to pray over their food. Jimenez said he bowed his face over his steak fajita, which was served on a skillet, and he soon heard a loud sizzling noise followed by a grease pop that led to a burning sensation on the left side of his face, including his eye. Jimenez, who...

A turf war is brewing between a Jewish food cart vendor and Muslim competitors vying for prime real estate in midtown Manhattan, according to the New York Post. Dubbing it an "intifooda," the Post reports that Yisroel Mordowitz, who serves kosher brisket and pastrami sandwiches, is being blocked from setting up near Rockefeller Center by by the "hallal mafia." “This guy is hungry – hungry for money,” said Mohamed Mossad, one of the Muslim food purveyors fighting to keep Mordowitz and his cart, the Holy Rollers, off the corner of 48th Street and Sixth Avenue. “Why doesn’t he go to...

Grub Street never needs a reason to celebrate our city's esteemed roster of delicatessens, but since this week marks the New York release of the new documentary Deli Man, we're going all in on the subject today.There’s an elaborate backstory behind every venerable deli in New York City, but the story behind David’s Brisket House, which has been serving brisket and pastrami sandwiches to the good people of Bedford-Stuyvesant for more than half a century now, is more elaborate and convoluted than most. The original Dave was a Russian Jew who sold the deli to a Romanian Jew, who inherited...

Richard "Trip" Klibert, 7, of LaPlace became pretty upset last November when he began noticing changes in his lunch at St. Joan of Arc School in LaPlace. His main complaint was about the new wheat tortillas and pizza crust. His taco shell and pizza just weren't as tasty anymore. So concerned about these changes, he voiced his displeasure to his second grade teacher, Margaret Cerami, who suggested he learn more about the lunch changes, and perhaps, write a letter to the person responsible for the changes, First Lady Michelle Obama. What began as an expression of displeasure turned into a...

"I'll take 'Origin Of City Names' for 500, Alex." "The Saint that Saint Louis is named after." Beepbeepbeep "Harry Reid!" "What is Las Vegas, Alex?" "No, it's not Las Vegas." Beepbeepbeep "Nancy Pelosi!" "What is California, Alex?" "No, Nancy, California is a state. It's not a city." Beepbeepbeep "Joe Biden!" "What is orange, Alex?" "..........Honestly? You think there is a Saint Orange, Joe?" Beepbeepbeep "What is yes, Alex.?" "Joe, take your thumb off the buzzer." Beepbeepbeep "What is no, Alex?" "OK, Harry. Your thumb off the buzzer, too. I've never seen so many idiots." Beepbeepbeep "What is The State Department,...

SEATTLE — The nation’s first citywide composting program based largely on shame began here in January. City sanitation workers who find garbage cans filled with aging lettuce, leftover pizza or even the box it came in are slapping on bright red tags to inform the offending household (and, presumably, the whole neighborhood) that the city’s new composting law has been violated. San Francisco may have been the first city to make its citizens compost food, but Seattle is the first to punish people with a fine if they don’t. In a country that loses about 31 percent of its food...

The state that includes Mumbai, India’s financial capital, this week became the first in the country to ban the possession and sale of beef, imposing fines and up to five years in prison for violations. The ban in the populous western state of Maharashtra, which was passed this week, came as an amendment to a 1972 law prohibiting the slaughter of cows, which has been expanded to ban the slaughter of bulls, bullocks and calves. The slaughter of water buffaloes will still be allowed, subject to permission from the authorities.

Attacks the past two weeks on at least 16 farms across several rural South Carolina counties killed an estimated 300,000 chickens and cost the owners roughly $1.7 million. Clarendon County Sheriff Randy Garrett said someone familiar with alarm systems used in chicken houses is responsible. Those alarms also control the heat, air conditioning and ventilation units and notify farmers by cellphone when buildings get too hot or cold. Chickens can die in about an hour if the ventilation and heating systems are turned off. “The chicks, you have to maintain the temperature at 95 to 100 degrees, and when they...

An international team of university researchers, including from Simon Fraser in Vancouver, coined the term leanwashing last year. It was in response to a trend in advertising that links eating junk food with increasing physical activity. In 2010, Michelle Obama launched a campaign called Let’s Move to end childhood obesity. Originally, there was a lot of talk about reducing junk food and eating healthier. But apparently the U.S. food industry objected to such criticism coming from its government and reportedly engaged in lobbying that resulted in Let’s Move becoming mostly about moving.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is having a tough time getting millennials to crack open a can of Budweiser. The world’s biggest brewer said Thursday that falling unemployment and “premium” brands are boosting overall beer sales in the US, its biggest market. But the company is struggling to market Bud — the 139-year-old American brand with blue-collar roots — to younger drinkers, who prefer craft brews and bourbon.

Michelle Obama said Thursday that the U.S. has undergone a “culture change” in the five years since she started raising awareness about childhood obesity. But as she celebrated achievements on multiple fronts, the first lady also warned that the progress that’s been made is “incredibly fragile.” That’s because special interests “whose first priority is not our kids’ health” are “waiting for us to get complacent or bored and move on to the next trendy issue,” Mrs. Obama said at an annual health summit. She cited the fight over a recent child nutrition law as an example. “Even today, some folks...

This week's thread is about Cooking With Kids. When I was in elementary school in the early 1960s, every year the school would hold a book fair; students could look at new books and pick some out to buy. One year I bought 'Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls', originally published in the late 1950s. I loved looking at this book, and learned a lot using the recipes. For a children's book, it's a surprisingly comprehensive guide to basic cooking, with a lot of interesting presentation ideas, and even some decorative crafts. AND it includes campfire cooking! I wanted...