Ann Arbor’s Project Grow is an extremely popular and often over-subscribed program under the auspices of which gardeners without the space (or who may want more space) can pay a fee to have their own little slice of black to grow gardens limited only by imagination (and the Project Grow rules, of course). Gardeners who [...]
by Francis Lam Slayers of elitists and other warriors of the downtrodden: Look! I bare my throat to you, fleshy and fat and ripe for the kill. But before you draw your blade, let’s talk about this for a minute. Is the increasing cost of food in America an entirely bad thing? A report in [...]
Yelp. Yelpers. Yelping. If you’ve not visited the online food community Yelp.com, you’re missing out on some of the most frank, honest and spot on restaurant reviews around. The Ann Arbor Yelp.com community is full of reviewers whose writing is as good, if not better, than that of local restaurant reviewers who get paid to [...]
TKWU, my favorite Chinese restaurant, doesn’t use Styrofoam takeout containers, but our favorite burger place does, and so do loads of other local restaurants, as well as local food carts. Takeout orders at TKWU are packaged in durable plastic containers which we hoard. The black plastic containers are roomy, tough, and dishwasher safe. We have a [...]
According to research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1920 the average American woman spent 30 hours per week preparing meals and cleaning up from them. By 1950, the number of hours per week women spent rustling up chow dropped to 20 hours per week. Today, American women spend, on average, 5.5 hours per [...]
The Atlantic is at it again. February/March thinking person’s publications, including The Atlantic, Salon.com and even the Chicago Tribune took foodies and locavores to task for, well, “pomposity” and “sermonizing.” It was a tough month for the local food movement crowd. This month in The Atlantic, James McWilliams, an Associate Professor of history at Texas [...]
April 1-10 is Restaurant Week in Detroit. The irony of beginning any Restaurant Week on April Fools Day is, in many ways, perfect. Restaurant Weeks are imagined fantasies by both restauranteurs and diners. The restauranteur imagines money coming in during what would be a slow time of year. Diners imagine (or are led to imagine) [...]
On February 11, 2011 the World Bank issued a warning concerning a predicted sharp rise in global food prices. As a result, food sellers have been making concerted efforts to pass along the rising cost of ingredients to consumers. In the Wall Street Journal, it was reported that: Prices of staples including milk, beef, coffee, [...]
February/March has been unofficially dubbed “Lash Out At Locavores” month at two of the most influential thinking person’s haunts. First, at Salon.com, chef Eddie Huang, owner of BaoHaus restaurant in New York City, and a blogger, had this to say about hip food trends: You know what happens when you sell trends? You sell crap. [...]
Ann Arbor Restaurant Week is baaaaaaaack and runs from January 16-21. I last wrote about the first annual Restaurant Week in Ann Arbor on January 15, 2010. The title of that entry, “The Politics of Food: Ann Arbor Restaurant Week Hype? Caveat Emptor, Epicurians,” could be the title of this entry, as well. The hype [...]
