No French lunch without wine for an Iranian president and other food and drink news and views

Hollande-Rouhani lunch scrapped after Elysée Palace 'refused to remove wine from menu' - France, unlike Italy, has reportedly refused to take wine off the table for Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, meaning he will lunch alone during his historic trip to Paris – the first for an Iranian leader in 17 years. As anger mounted in Rome on Wednesday over a decision to cover up nude statues with large white panels so as not to offend Mr Rouhani, the French have already made it clear that no such cultural concessions would be made regarding its cherished gastronomy. In Rome, alcohol was not served at an official dinner held in Mr Rouhani’s honour – a standard Italian diplomatic gesture for visiting Muslim dignitaries. But in Paris, an originally planned lunch at the Elysée Palace with François Hollande was dropped because the French refused to cede to the Iranian presidency's demand for halal meat to be served and for the wine to be left off the table, citing “republican traditions”.

Why Tokyo is the World’s Best Food City

Chile overtook France as top wine exporter to Japan in 2015

The Wine Trend No One's Talking About (Yet): An Insider's View - Lower Alcohol Wines for Boomers

Everything You Need to Know About the Wine World's Next Big Thing - the organically farmed, unfiltered, low-to-no-sulfur natural wine movement. 

 
Aldi joins new push to stock alcohol in supermarkets - The debate to stock alcohol in supermarkets has started to bubble again as Aldi joins the push to sell liquor in its soon-to-be-opened South Australian stores.

Meet The Most Pampered Vegetables In America - There's a small corner of the restaurant world where food is art and the plate is just as exquisite as the mouthful. In this world, chefs are constantly looking for new creative materials for the next stunning presentation. The tiny community of farmers who grow vegetables for the elite chefs prize creativity, too, not just in what they grow but in how they grow it. They're seeking perfection, in vegetable form and flavor, like this tiny cucumber that looks like a watermelon — called a cucamelon. The Chef's Garden is a specialty vegetable farm in Huron, Ohio, about an hour west of Cleveland. It's a family farm, where three generations of the Jones family work side by side with about 175 employees. It's a place where vegetables are scrupulously selected and then painstakingly coaxed from the ground.

Israeli veganism takes root in land of milk and honey - Veganism has become so prominent in Israel that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has started catering to followers in its ranks by offering vegan-friendly ration packs, non-leather boots and wool-less berets.

World's Oldest Tea Discovered In An Ancient Chinese Emperor's Tomb

First US vegan 'butcher' shop open in Minneapolis

Almonds Are Getting Cheaper, But Here's the Catch - The wholesale price for almonds—the one paid by supermarkets to stock their bulk bins, or by processors to make their trail mixes—has fallen from a high of $4.70 last August down to $2.60

Is nothing sacred any more in France? Bistros facing quick death and other food and drink news

My instant translator tells me: France has lost hundreds of thousands of cafes since the 1960s, especially in the villages. Initiatives are multiplying to save these drinking places.

Is France facing the quick death of its sacred bistros? - The bistro - one of the most culturally recognizable things in France - is dying out, a new study suggests. ... There were a grand total of 34,669 bistros in France in 2014 - which absolutely pales in comparison with the 600,000 cafe-bars that existed in France at the beginning of the 1960s The stats come courtesy of pollsters Ifop and were published by Le Parisien newspaper on Wednesday. The researchers found that these 35,000 bars are spread across a total of 10,619 towns and villages - meaning that there are 26,045 towns and villages in France that are officially a "no-bistro zone", according to the paper's calculations. Things have got so dire in some rural areas that the inhabitants of one in three villages have not only lost a bistro or café in their own village, but also in the villages around them.The finger of blame for the huge number of closures was pointed at the smoking ban, the exodus from the French countryside towards the cities, and the rising cost of drinks.

In Search of Japan’s Hidden Culinary Revolution - From Tokyo to Kanazawa in this food-obsessed nation,

sampling the culinary wizardry of a new wave of creative chefs.

Italy's mysterious hallucinogenic drink - The subject of local legends, this mysterious ruby-coloured cocktail is known for its high alcohol content, obscure ingredients and hallucinogenic effects: Tamango, prepared with a mix of African plants and roots, gets its red colour from roselle leaves (a species of hibiscus), which, according to Di Lorenzo, prompts a sense of euphoria and a desire to dance.

Germans cheer 500th anniversary of beer purity law, but some craft brewers feel restricted

Reviewers, smaller cornettos, opium poppies as a food additive and other news and views

Trend that strikes at the heart of the restaurant business - Chefs who drop à la carte rebrand themselves as artist-performers whose work we pay to experience

A Conversation With Pete Wells - The New York Times’ restaurant critic on puncturing pretension in fine dining, the rise of foodie-ism, and why nothing tastes better than Oreos.

Q. Do you think you write too often about restaurants that are out of reach?

A. You know, I think about it. On the one hand, yes, a lot of these places we’re talking about are very small and not many people can get in, and some of them only do one seating a night or two seatings a night, or they’re open three or four days a week, and I do wonder about how many people they’re actually serving. On the other hand, the very places where the food is extremely creative and thought-out and a lot of care is taken, they do represent the higher end of refinement. There’s a little bit of tension there about wanting to write about places that regular people can actually go to and feel like I’m covering, for lack of a better word, advances in the field.

US fine wine sales to rise in 2016 as overall market shrinks – forecast

China finds restaurants using opium poppies in food - Thirty-five restaurants across China have been found illegally using opium poppies as a seasoning, officials have revealed. ... Poppy powder, which contains low amounts of opiates, is banned as a food additive in China. However, restaurants have previously been caught using it.

A Cooking Class Where New Immigrants Learn The Recipe For English - On a recent Wednesday afternoon, 20 recent immigrants and refugees to the United States streamed into a shiny commercial-size kitchen on the fourth floor of the Free Library of Philadelphia's central branch. They were here to partake in the library's take on teaching English as a second language. The program, dubbed Edible Alphabet, is run through the library and Nationalities Service Center, an organization that helps settle refugees when they arrive in Philadelphia. By offering English instruction in the form of a cooking lesson, organizers hope to provide a familiar setting for the students — who hail from over 10 different countries — to connect to each other.

Magnum and Cornetto ice creams to shrink - Unilever said the move was to help consumers "make healthier choices." From the spring, "single serving" portions will contain no more than 250 calories.

Eating for life: Live Well challenges restaurants, helps patrons - People say they want to eat better and live heathier, but how can they when restaurants are high-calorie dens of temptation? Fatty entrees, huge portions, endless drink refills — you know the gut-bulging feeling. The Live Well Restaurant program of the Allegheny County Health Department has an alternative — places where consumers are offered good-for-you meals, nutrition information and options that make for healthy choices. On Thursday the department rolled out the first five restaurants that will be able to display the Live Well sticker.

Investors toast Treasury Wine's earnings

The art of restaurant reviewing and other food and drink news

'Times' Restaurant Critic Dishes On Guy Fieri And The Art Of Reviewing - Pete Wells, restaurant critic for The New York Times on beginning his very critical review of one of New York City's most expensive restaurants, Per Se, by describing the poor service as "the slow creep of mediocrity":

There is often with restaurant reviews in particular, I think, this kind of impulse to be deferential and bow down to the greatness of the restaurant and the greatness of the chef, and then with great regret to say, "And yet, all is not as it should be in the kingdom," and I didn't want to do any of that. I just think that we show an awful lot of deference to chefs in our culture and maybe not enough deference to customers, and I wanted this review to come out and say, "Yes, this is a very respected chef, but are the people at the table being respected in the same way?"

Note: read more about Per Se and the death of fine dining at The end of fine dining and other food and drink news

Diet Foods Are Tanking. So The Diet Industry Is Now Selling 'Health'

Hillary Clinton's Elixir: Can A Hot Pepper A Day Boost Immunity? - If you're a chili head, you may have more in common with Hillary Clinton than you knew. Turns out, the presidential hopeful has a serious jalapeno habit. She told All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro it started back in 1992, when it was her husband, Bill Clinton, who was running for the White House. "I read an article about the special immune-boosting characteristics of hot peppers and I thought, well, that's interesting because, you know, campaigning is pretty demanding," Clinton told NPR. Now, Clinton says she eats a fresh, hot pepper every day and it's "maybe ... one of the reasons I'm so healthy, and I have so much stamina and endurance." So, hot peppers as a health elixir? "It's not an entirely crazy idea," says John Hayes, who teaches food science at Penn State University. "It's certainly possible that some of the compounds found in chili peppers could be protective of health," Hayes tells us.

The Audacious Korean-American Chef Who Mastered 'Mission Chinese Food'

Good bye to the a la carte menu and other food and drink news

Michelin-starred restaurants axe a al carte menus to reduce waste - A number of Michelin-starred restaurants in the UK have decided to take a la carte options off their menus in an effort to reduce waste. French chef Stephane Borie of Michelin-starred Wales restaurant, The Checkers along with fellow French chef Claude Bosi of London’s two-starred fine diner Hibiscus, have both decided to trade in their a la carte offerings in favour of set menus. Speaking with the Financial Times, Borie says that the move to a set menu could see wastage at his restaurant reduced by up to 50 percent. “It is difficult to evaluate, but we’re hoping to halve our food waste,” says Borie. “With a la carte we never wanted to run out of anything, so we’d cook a little bit of everything. [This way] we’re choosing for people what they’re going to have, so we control the waste.” Editor of the UK Michelin guide, Rebecca Burr says that she’s witnessed a decline of a la carte dining over the last few years, adding that diners in the fine dining space often prefer tasting menus as they can offer a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience.

Aztec Gold: Watch The History And Science Of Popcorn

From Candy To Juleps, Persians Left Imprint On Many Edible Delights

Almond prices crushed by demand slump and bumper harvest - After several years of defying gravity, almond prices have been crushed. The market for standard almonds, which hit a record high of $4.70 a pound last August, has almost halved to $2.60 as the market was taken by surprise by a larger than expected harvest last year.

Thou Shalt Not Toss Food: Enlisting Religious Groups To Fight Waste

How mutton flaps are killing Tonga

Sydney restaurants seek workers for $10 an hour

The end of fine dining and other food and drink news

At Thomas Keller’s Per Se, Slips and Stumbles - Dinner or lunch at this grand, hermetic, self-regarding, ungenerous restaurant brings a protracted march of many dishes. In 2004, the year Per Se opened, the price for nine courses was $150 before tax and tip; last week, it went up to $325, with service included. ...

The kitchen could improve the bacon-wrapped cylinder of quail simply by not placing it on top of a dismal green pulp of cooked romaine lettuce, crunchy and mushy at once. Draining off the gluey, oily liquid would have helped a mushroom potpie from turning into a swampy mess. I don’t know what could have saved limp, dispiriting yam dumplings, but it definitely wasn’t a lukewarm matsutake mushroom bouillon as murky and appealing as bong water.
It’s a bit of a mystery what pickled carrots, peanuts and a date wrapped in a soft crepe were supposed to do for a slab of Dorset cheese from Consider Bardwell Farm, but a good first step would have been allowing the washed-rind cow’s milk cheese to warm up to a buttery softness; served cold, it was rubbery and flavorless.
Even canonic dishes could be mangled. One time the sabayon in “oysters and pearls” had broken and separated, so fat pooled above the tapioca.

Mr. Keller wrote in “The French Laundry Cookbook” that poaching lobster in butter “cooks it so slowly and gently that the flesh remains exquisitely tender — so tender some people think it’s not completely cooked.” There was little danger of anyone’s making that mistake on two occasions when the lobster was intransigently chewy: gristle of the sea. The first time, it was served with a sugary Meyer lemon marmalade and a grainy chestnut purée that tasted like peanut butter to which something terrible had been done. Subsequently, it was paired with a slick of cold oatmeal.

The Times’ Brutal Per Se Review Is Another Nail in the Coffin of Fine Dining - People have spent years predicting the death of fine dining in New York.This week's unsparing review of Per Se in the Times, in which critic Pete Wells cut the restaurant down from four stars to two in unprecedented fashion, may have finally killed it. At the very least, the write-up will help to further convince people that a certain style of fine dining — extended, Michelin-geared tasting marathons in luxury rooms with an army of service staff constantly circling the tables — is a relic of the past.

From the UNESCO website

The wine legend who helped put Burgundy on the world map - Aubert de Villaine, the French winemaker whose prestigious Romanee-Conti is one of the world's most expensive wines has helped put the vineyards of his beloved Burgundy on the global map of cultural landmarks. De Villaine, a reserved 76-year-old, took up the mantle to get the Burgundy region's unique wine-growing tradition onto the UNESCO World Heritage list. That effort succeeded in July and led to his being named a 2016 "man of the year" by the monthly French Wine Review.

The Real Problem With Lunch - School meals reflect a society's true food culture, as well as its regard for its children.

Eating chickens bred to eat, grow and die very fast, and sometimes in poor circumstances

Poultry excuses - Feel like chicken tonight? Plenty do. It’s the world’s most consumed meat. In the US alone they eat nine billion birds a year. Chicken’s cheap. Fast growing. Religiously neutral, crossing multiple cultural boundaries. Chicken provides a blank canvas for myriad cuisines. ... But please, please, don’t kid yourself about what you’re eating when you go to these sorts of modish ­places (and I intend to soon). You’re eating chicken produced in lousy conditions. ... You’re eating chickens bred to eat, grow and die very fast, and sometimes in poor circumstances.
Death to small bars - In all seriousness, licensed establishments operating in our midst are serving up martinis in Heinz tins and drams of whisky in syringes.

Heartbreaking Yelp Review Says It’s Just Nice To Eat A Meal Around Other People https://t.co/k5DwokCBS6 pic.twitter.com/ephIuZqaWP

— The Onion (@TheOnion) January 15, 2016

2016: The Year of the Bowl? - There are plenty of innovative new dining trends to get excited about in 2016—high-octane cocktails, vegetables pickled in Kool-Aid, desserts made with bee pollen. But the dark-horse candidate of this year's trend forecast is a slightly more traditional item: the bowl. According to the Wall Street Journal, the use of bowls among American diners is on the rise. The tableware company Fiesta reported a 17 percent jump in bowl sales last year, which account for a third of the company's overall business. “People are eating from them, not serving from them,” Rich Brinkman, VP of sales and marketing at The Homer Laughlin China Co., which owns Fiesta, told the WSJ.

Online music videos 'expose teens to smoking and drinking' - Online music videos are heavily exposing teenagers to positive depictions of smoking and drinking alcohol, research suggests. Such portrayals posed a "significant health hazard that requires appropriate regulatory control", researchers said. YouTube videos of songs in the top 40 singles chart were examined by the University of Nottingham study. The British Board of Film Classification started putting age ratings on online pop videos last year. The research, in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, said girls between the ages of 13 and 15 were the most exposed to cigarettes and alcohol in videos.

The birth and boom of the baby carrot and other food and drink news

Baby carrots are not baby carrots - The smooth, snack-sized tubes that have come to define carrot consumption in the United States are something different. They're milled, sculpted from the rough, soiled, mangled things we call carrots, and they serve as an example, though perhaps not a terribly grave one, of how disconnected we have all become from the production of our food.

Restaurants Counter Outside Cakes With Cakeage Fees

The Best Italian Wine Comes From… New Zealand? - You don’t have to go to the source to drink world-class Sangiovese or Montepulciano. Turns out, some of the finest Italian wine is made in Middle-earth.

How an Israeli Chef's Cauliflower Recipe Took Over the World - Roasted whole cauliflower seems to be everywhere today, but the dish's origins can be traced to an Israeli celebrity chef and a Shabbat dinner a long time ago.


Could campaigns like Dry January do more harm than good? - Lack of evidence that such campaigns work and don’t have unintended consequences, concerns Ian Hamilton. But Ian Gilmore thinks they are likely to help people at least reflect on their drinking.

The Secret Sex Lives of Crop Plants - What distinguishes food crops from other plants has nothing to do with taste, nutrition, or whether they contain poisons. The plants we eat are atypical because of their particularly dull sex lives.

Little Miss Korea

Darwin NT Korean barbecue 0800

Restaurant	Little Miss Korea
Street address	Austin Lane
Suburb	Darwin
State	NT
Postcode	0800
Phone	08 8981 7092
Website	facebook.com/LittleMissKoreaDarwin/
Style	Korean
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"A DIY Korean barbecue"
Reviewer	Fairfax food guides 15/12/15
Reviews & Notes
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Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Aloft

Hobart TAS 7000 Contemporary

Restaurant	Aløft
Street address	Brooke Street Pier
Suburb	Hobart
State	TAS
Postcode	7000
Phone	03 6223 1619
Website	aloftrestaurant.com
Style	Contemporary
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"... an inventive menu pushing Asian flavours into new territory with interesting produce; the warmth, verve and professionalism of staff; a manifest Taswegian pride."
Reviewer	John Lethlean - The Australian 19/3/2016 4/5
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Long Chim

Perth WA 6000 Thai - David Thompson returns to Australia after 14 years

Restaurant	Long Chim
Street address	Corner of St Georges Terrace & Barrack Street
Suburb	Perth
State	WA
Postcode	6000
Phone	08 6168 7775
Website	longchimperth.com
Style	Thai
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"The Australian-born chef of Bangkok's Nahm​ restaurant literally wrote the book on Thai street food. After launching Long Chim in Singapore, he's now bringing it home, installing an incendiary green chicken curry and a fermented pork and rice sausage under the elegantly restored State Buildings in Cathedral Square. Hot plate Pad Thai of prawns, peanuts and bean sprouts."
Reviewer	Fairfax papers 15/12/15
Reviews & Notes	"At Long Chim you’ll find what is almost certainly the best Thai food Perth has ever seen. Possibly Australia. And certainly better food than most of what I ate in Thailand for three weeks last year. It’s all to do with self-confessed “aged wok jockey” David Thompson: the Sydney-raised, Bangkok-domiciled chef who has made a career for himself as a scholar of Thai cuisine."
Reviewer	John Lethlean - The Australian 13/2/16 4/5
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Owner's note

The Paddington

Paddington NSW 2021 Contemporary with rotisserie chicken highly recommended

Restaurant	The Paddington
Street address	380 Oxford Street
Suburb	Paddington
State	NSW
Postcode	2021
Phone	02 9240 3000
Website	http://merivale.com.au/thepaddington
Style	Contemporary
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"Best bit: Anything from the rotisserie."
Reviewer	Terry Durack - Sydney Morning Herald 8/12/15 15.5/20
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Owner's note	Much more than a pub and not your standard restaurant

Salaryman

Surry Hills NSW 2010 Ramen Japanese noodles

Restaurant	Salaryman
Street address	52 Albion Street
Suburb	Surry Hills
State	NSW
Postcode	2010
Phone	02 9817 4618
Website	salaryman.com.au
Style	Ramen
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"Salaryman is something new for Sydney ... ramen realised with top produce and surprisingly serious and elegant skill. It's also likeable, theatrical and fun ..."
Reviewer	Terry Durack - Sydney Morning Herald 15/12/15 14.5/20
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Belles Hot Chicken

Barangaroo NSW 2000 Fried Chicken

Restaurant	Belles Hot Chicken
Street address	Wulugul Pop-Up, Wulugul Walk
Suburb	The Streets of Barangaroo
State	NSW
Postcode	2000
Phone
Website	belleshotchicken.com
Style	Chicken
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"This is food with maximum flavour, and provided you don’t mind eating standing up, it’s also food geared to maximum fun."
Reviewer	Myffy Rigby - Sydney Morning Herald - 15 December 2015
Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Annata

Crows Nest NSW 2065 Contemporary

Restaurant	Annata
Street address	69 Willoughby Road
Suburb	Crows Nest
State	NSW
Postcode	2065
Phone	02 9437 3700
Website	annatasydney.com
Style	Contemporary
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"Finessed food in a fun setting."
Reviewer	Terry Durack - Sydney Morning Herald 12/1/16 14/20
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note