| Newcomers Sweep Chowderfest Judges' Awards
North Adams - A trio of first-time WinterFest Chowderfest participants captured the top awards decided by a judge panel during yesterday's day-long celebration of winter. Two of the winning restaurants are new to the city as well. First Time's The Charm Judges Award chowder winners are first place, Freight Yard Pub, second place, Red Sauce Ristorante, and third place, the Hot Dog Ranch. The pub is at the Western Heritage Gateway State Park, the "ristorante" is on Ashland Street, and the "ranch" is on State Street. The chowder-tasting event drew a large crowd to the Holiday Inn. Event organizer Rod Bunt, of the Mayors Office of Tourism and Culture, mixed and mingled with the crowd. "I'm ecstatic with the turnout," Bunt said. "This is one of the biggest crowds we've ever had." The crowd had their say in the chowder competition.
Whole Foods Market set to open at end of next month
Whole Foods Market has announced March 29 as the opening date of its much-delayed location on E. Houston St. between Bowery and Chrystie St., beneath the Avalon Chrystie Place apartment complex. The Lower East Side store, originally scheduled to open in 2006, will be more than 80,000 square feet and will employ more than 650 workers.
In addition to the natural and organic foods the chain is known for, the store will also feature a culinary center, natural cotton clothing and a line of body products. But, much to the relief of many nearby small businesses, it will not be selling alcohol.
Whole Foods was planning to open a wine store in conjunction with its Lower East Side location, but the State Liquor Authority has twice unanimously voted against its application for a liquor license.
Allergy Alert - Undeclared Milk Protein in Great Value Brand White ...
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Wal-Mart Canada Corp. are warning people with allergies to milk protein not to consume certain Great Value brand cake and brownie mixes described below. These mixes may contain milk protein which is not declared on the label. The following Great Value brand cake and brownie mixes are affected by this alert. Chocolate Cake Mix, 524 g, UPC 6 81131 81149 1. Devils Food Cake Mix, 524 g, UPC 6 81131 81152 1. Fudge Brownie Mix, 454 g, UPC 6 81131 81153 8. Yellow Cake Mix, 524 g, UPC 6 81131 81150 7. All codes of these products are affected by this alert. These products made in U.S.A. were distributed nationally. There has been no reported illness associated with the consumption of these products. Consumption of these products may cause a serious or life-threatening reaction in persons with allergies to milk protein.
We're soaking it all up
There are some television series you can sink into the way you would a warm bubble bath. Desperate Housewives, back on TV2, (Mondays, 8.30pm) has reached that stage of utter reliability. Any fears that the writers would run out of steam vanished with an array of wild new plot twists, which again leave you with the old question: how do they dream this stuff up? For instance, here is handsome Mike the plumber, in that old melodramatic staple, the indefinite coma. He's been like it for six months, and silly Susan has been visiting him and tending to him relentlessly in the hospital, and before you can even begin to worry that this will soon grow tedious, the producers send in Dougray Scott, playing a debonair new character, Ian, whereupon most women viewers will have vowed to watch this series in its entirety, however bad it may get.
Broome, Tioga schools to serve the same lunch menu
Starting in September, elementary school students in Broome and Tioga counties will eat the same school lunch on the same day under a plan being developed by food service directors in Broome and Tioga counties. A coalition of 12 food service directors, who administer programs in 15 public school districts in Broome and eastern Tioga, plan a single, coordinated lunch menu in September for all kindergarten-through-fifth-grade students, officials said. The directors will prepare the daily menus that will be reviewed by Molly Morgan, a certified dietitian-nutritionist based in Vestal, said Mark Bordeau, director of food services for the Broome-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services. Financial considerations are one reason for the centralized menu, Bordeau said.
Rivera's Healthy Compromise
The City's Department of Health was set to enact harsh new rules on City fast-food eateries in regards to how those restaurants display their nutrition information, forcing those establishments to display the calorie counts of food on menu boards in a similar size font as the menu item itself. City Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera stepped in and offered a compromise, proposing a bill that would instead allow fast-food eateries to display that info in a number of different ways based on their own logistics, such as handouts or information kiosks, rather than the menu-board option the Department of Health proposed. For his work, national fast-food leaders are raising their milkshakes in a toast to Rivera's leadership on the issue. "We are pleased that Councilman Rivera, chair of the Council Health Committee, has introduced reasonable legislation that offers an alternative to the mandated menu-labeling regulation enacted by the New York City Board of Health late last year," said Peter Kilgore, the president of the National Restaurant Association.
The cheese dip stays the same
Jerry M. Haynie can't say for sure that Mexico Chiquito was the first Mexican restaurant in the Little Rock area but it's likely. Blackie Donnally and his wife moved up from Texas in 1935 and opened their “little Mexico" restaurant in the Protho Junction neighborhood of North Little Rock. Mrs. Donnally knew about food and brought the recipes, some of which are still in use. “Blackie was a front-end kind of person," Haynie said. “People knew him. Some of them called it ‘Blackie's Place.' " The original restaurant is gone, replaced by a string of Mexico Chiquitos in the area. But, “We still have people who come in and remember the dirt floors at the original," Haynie said. He bought Mexico Chiquito in 1979 from the Ballentine family, which had bought it from the Donnallys and owned it for 16 years.
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