Michael Pollanasked for your food rules. You gave them to him, and recently, he announced 7 of them:

-Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
-Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
-Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store
-Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot.
-It is not just what you eat but how you eat.
-Eat around a table at regular meal times.
-Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.

Plus, here are 4 bonus Michael Pollan Food Myths!

Myth #1: Food is a delivery vehicle for nutrients.
Myth #2: We need experts to tell us how to eat.
Myth #3: The whole point of eating is to maintain and promote bodily health.
Myth #4: There are evil foods and good foods.

If there's anything on the internet that proves a brand will try ANYTHING to stand out, cornpops.com is it. I don't understand what's going on, but there's definitely an aspect of Choose Your Own Adventure. I imagine the pitch for this going something like, "OK, so we're going to get the most ridiculous shit together and tie it all loosely together and then people will talk about it." And, look, it worked, I'm talking about it. And now you are. (Thanks, Joe.)

One explanation for why the bourbon and whiskey from Kentucky (and really, is there any other kind?) is so good? The water:

Kentucky's water is special. It flows through limestone, which makes it high in magnesium and calcium—minerals that also contribute to the magnificence of the state's racehorses— and low in iron. These characteristics are good for fermentation and for the eventual flavor of the whiskey.

Also, by legislation, whiskey must be aged in a barrel for 2 years before it can be referred to as bourbon.

Another contender for "best sandwich in the world:" knockwurst or capicola, slaw, and French fries. Color me intrigued.

About a year and a half ago, I bragged about having crafted the best sandwich in the world. I made the sandwich for my dad yesterday and he allowed that it was, in fact, a righteous sandwich, but he didn't think it was better than his more than forty-year-old memory of a sandwich he ate during his stint as a folk singer in the Catskills. Dad described a Chinese/Italian/American restaurant that served a sandwich of Chinese roast pork on Italian garlic bread. I have to admit, that does sound damn good.

And what do you know? It exists!

By all accounts, the sandwich was created sometime in the mid-1950s at Herbie's in Loch Sheldrake, New York. It was the most popular Jewish-style deli-restaurant in the area. According to Freddie Roman, the Borscht Belt comic who years later starred in the nostalgia show Catskills on Broadway, Herbie's was where all the entertainers would gather after their last shows at the hotel nightclubs. "Specifically for that sandwich," says Freddie. "And everyone else had to eat what the celebrities ate."

Herbie's sandwich of Chinese Roast Pork on Italian Garlic Bread was so popular among the summer crowd in "The Mountains," that it was imitated back in "The City." I remember when it was introduced at Martin's and Senior's, two fabulously successful, middle-class family restaurants on Nostrand Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

In just a few years, it seemed Chinese roast pork on garlic bread became so popular in the southern tier of Brooklyn communities -- from Canarsie through Mill Basin to Bay Ridge -- that every diner and coffee shop made it. The sandwich even made it to Manhattan in the 1960s, at a place called The Flick, an ice cream parlor and casual restaurant near the then-new movie houses on Third Avenue.

Count my dad as one of the "celebrities," I guess. There's even (sort of) a recipe at the link!

Anyone else ever tried this? Any other greatest sandwich nominees?

This type of article comes out once in a while and it never makes me feel better. In fact, it makes me want to stop eating anything, ever. I don't want to eat anymore bug parts.

Peanut butter — that culinary cause célèbre — may contain approximately 145 bug parts for an 18-ounce jar; or five or more rodent hairs for that same jar; or more than 125 milligrams of grit.

In case you’re curious: you’re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it, a quantity of insects that clearly does not cut the mustard, even as insects may well be in the mustard.

(Via Boing Boing)

This is an oldie, but goodie. Put a frozen strip of bacon into your Wake N Bacon. 10 minutes before you need to wake up, it starts cooking so you can wake up to the tasty aroma of bacon (and smell like bacon for the rest of your life)!
Thanks, Chris.

A couple weeks ago, the New York Times had an article about an Alabama Sheriff who, underfed inmates in his charge and pocketed the difference.

And that is just what the sheriff, Greg Bartlett, did, to the tune of $212,000 over the last three years, despite a state food allowance of only $1.75 per prisoner per day.

Interestingly, an Alabama law allows lawmen to keep the money left over after feeding the prisoners so while underfeeding the inmates probably is illegal, keeping the money probably isn't.

Doing some rithmaticking, I figure that Sheriff Bartlett was feeding the inmates on about $1.10 per day or about 63% the daily food allowance. You want to take bets on how long until this guy has a weight loss / money saving reality TV show?

The Massachusetts legislature is debating a bill to declare an official sandwich. The bill, (H-2932), submitted by Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein (for the second time, actually) is "An Act designating the fluffernutter as the official sandwich of the commonwealth." (Full disclosure: As a resident of Union Square, Somerville, where Fluff was invented, and a lifelong Fluff fan, I wholeheartedly support this bill.)

This got me curious about whether there are other Official State Sandwiches out there. Via FoodTimeline.org, I found that 2 states have sandwiches known as "traditional foods" (Iowa's Loose Meat Sandwich and Nebraska's Runza Sandwich), but this is obviously not the same thing. Even a state in Mexico has an official sandwich (Vera Cruz's Pambazo). Someone suggested, as a joke, that the Oreo become the Official State Sandwich COOKIE of Utah (which doesn't count because it's a cookie and a joke), and in response to the bill being submitted in MA, a Florida radio duo began lobbying Florida to declare a official state sandwich.

Meanwhile, bloggers in Indiana and New Hampshire have previously begun movements agitating for a state sandwich of their own. Delaware's might be the Bobby, but there wasn't anything definitive on the nets, so send me a message if you're in the know and I'll add a link. As far as I can tell, though, the only "Official State Sandwich" out there is Carle’s Bratwurst, the Official State Sandwich of Ohio (recognized as such in a 2006 omnibus bill recognizing 64 other people, places and things as official symbols of Ohio).

Finally, I would be remiss if I neglected to link to the official Marshmallow Fluff Homepage, complete with history, recipes, and fun. Obviously the Fluff Festival as well.

(This post was inspired by my friends at Grand, an awesome shop in Union Square that is celebrating their one year anniversary this weekend. (No Fluff was promised to me for this plug.))

"Elaborate Bacon: Piece in heart, Fragrance in mouth." (Thanks, Karmen!)