our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Happy 2015! We took an break from the blog over the holidays. We rested. We planned. We drank Champagne and ate lots of cookies. Here's a few stories that caught our eye.

A clip (above) from one of our new favorite boards on Pinterest — all food illustrations.
Have you been to visit us on Pinterest yet? Come over.

7 Ways The Utensils You Use Change The Taste Of Food. The shape, weight and color of your cutlery can significantly alter the way you perceive the fundamental aspects of food, from how sweet it tastes to how much you think it costs. (Fast Company)

ConAgra food truck. Where to begin... (Modern Farmer)

Getting bumpsy and poggled: A History of 'Drunk' Words, a new book explains the evolution of synonyms for "intoxicated," including how English got "wasted," "bombed," and "lit." (Atlantic)

A great interview with Ruth Richel on restaurant reviews. (OpenTable)

Foie gras is back on the right side of the law in California. And it's all anyone wants to talk about. (Eater)

Sherry with a Chance of Onion Rings What to expect next year in restaurants, bars, cookbooks and more. (Tasting Table)

Barbarians at the farm gate. Hardy investors are seeking a way to grow their money. "Farmland has been a great investment over the past 20 years, certainly in America, where annual returns of 12% caused some to dub it “gold with a coupon”. In America and Britain, where tax incentives have distorted the market, it outperformed most major asset classes over the past decade, and with low volatility to boot." For more money to flow in, financiers and farmers will have to learn a lot more about each other....Farm investing requires patience; it is ill-suited to flipping and trading. But those willing to climb over the barriers could reap big rewards. The investment thesis is as simple as they come, as Mark Twain realised long ago: “Buy land, they’re not making it any more.” (Economist)

This Icelandic Chef Has Use for Your Marijuana Grow Lights (Munchies — have we told you yet how much we love this food site?)

Let's Talk Chicken — everything you ever wanted to know about your favorite bird, but were afraid to ask. (On Point)

Best armchair travel piece: Profile of The Hunter-Gatherer Chef of the Scottish Highlands (Gear Patrol)

Christmas might be over, but it's never to late to up your baking game. Listen to Science Friday's Cookie Science Secrets (Science Friday)

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Sushi Cat Island (above, full video here), courtesy of Japan. Sometimes, it doesn't help to ask why. The world, and internet videos, are mysterious.

Ecologists Turn To Planned Grazing To Revive Grassland Soil "'When I learned about it, that style of grazing, the basis was everybody was producing more grass," said Andrews, a fifth-generation cattle rancher in eastern Colorado. "It's hard, as a producer, to argue with more grass. Because we never have enough grass.'" (NPR)

Monday was National Oyster Day and it's never too late to celebrate. Chef Chef Eric Woods of Blue Water Grill gives a quick Oysters 101. (CNN/Eatocracy)

The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest, "the site drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined." (Fast Company)

The most exciting/disgusting food story of the week (depending on your point of view) is the world's first lab-made hamburger that was debuted in London and bankrolled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. (Guardian)

Craft beer — the rising tide that lifts all boats: All kinds of businesses ride the wave with local breweries "You look at the (beer) businesses popping up, you’re not seeing any of them going out of business and a lot of them are in peculiar spots." (Register-Guard)

“Global Appetites: American Power and the Literature of Food” An interview with author Allison Carruth explores the intersections of food production and power: "My argument is that we cannot understand a concept like globalization or history of the U.S. rise to becoming superpower without looking closely at changes in how we grow and consume food." (Modern Farmer)

An affordable housing project in the Bronx has a sparkling urban hydroponics farm on its roof, built by the company Sky Vegetables. (Agri-Tecture)

The trailer for A Year in Burgundy (a documentary film on Burgundy winemakers that Polish has done publicity and promotion for) has been viewed 11,000 times by people in 128 countries. Have you seen it yet?

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