A Full Belly

sustainable agriculture and barbecue

Bitter Greens Journal on sustainable agriculture and barbecue.[thanks, rcb!] The July 2005 issue of Gourmet includes a profile of Ed Mitchell, famed NC pitmaster, who is "now working with small-scale African-American pork farmers in his area to identify a pork breed and develop a raising protocol that can produce pork worthy of the smoking pit." Unfortunately, Mitchell's restaurant closed earlier this year as he faces multiple felony and misdemeanor tax charges.

Ice cream machines reviewed

Which machines whip up the best ice cream? Not too surprisingly, the most expensive one--the Musso 4080 Lussino Dessert Maker. She's a beauty, but at nearly $600, I'd have to make A LOT of ice cream and ice cream lovin' friends to justify the purchase.

SF 4th Street's mini-restaurant row

SF It's official: 4th Street's mini-restaurant row is back. Bizou has been reborn as Coco500 and Cafe Monk as Zuppa. Both are open for lunch and dinner. I snapped a photo of Coco500's menu (click on the image to the left for an almost legible view),and peeked in a full (and loud) Zuppa last night. Plans to dine at both soon...

goodbye to good cheap food

NYC Yesterday's Special: Good, Cheap Dining. In a nutshell: high-quality neighborhood restaurants are fast becoming a thing of the past in Manhattan because of painful rent increases. *cries*

assam double wall ice tea glass

Assam Double Wall Iced Tea Glass. Gorgeous glasses that keep your drinks colder for longer and won't sweat in weather that's got you drenched. Ah, science. $40 for a set of two. [via A Whole Lotta Nothing]

mmmm, lobster

After reading about it on Chowhound, I visited the recently-opened Black Pearl on Avenue A with friends last month to check out their Tuesday Night Lobster Special: $14.95 buys you an entire lobster + a load of tasty fries. We also really liked the seafood platters and steamers, can't go wrong with those, and the bar they share space with, Julep, is very low-key. It's a good place to have a meal and then drinks with people and not have to worry about any sort of scene.

Black Pearl's specialty is lobster rolls but at $20 a pop, I haven't gotten around to trying them yet, and maybe I'll hold off for a while since despite being deathly allergic, the Village Voice's Nina Lalli has put together a great list of places to have lobster rolls in the city: To Die For: It's Lobster Roll Season in New York. My belly appreciates her courage in the face of danger.

cream puffs

Cream puffs rise to meet demand. USA Today piece on how cream puffs are making a comeback nation-wide, powered by two Japanese chains. I'm personally crazy about Beard Papa's—I'd have a cream puff every day if my wallet (and body) could afford it, but there is no real point in any of the special flavors, the original is by far the best. I imagine the green tea cream puff would sell so much better if it was strongly flavored, instead of barely. [via amuse-bouche]

threadless submissions

Super awesome t-shirt company Threadless lets users rate designs others have submitted for possible production and sale. Here are a few current submissions I think A Full Belly Readers might be interested in:

• Get In My Belly!
• I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing
• la crevette
• Hardcore Sausage
• Mmm... eggs!!
• Math is Yummy

Get In My Belly! is one of my life mottos, but I think Hardcore Sausage is the one I'd be most likely to wear around.

sausage champion

Kolbász Bajnok ("sausage champion") is a blog dedicated to sausage, written completely in Hungarian. [via randomWalks]

Burritoeater

SF Reason 1,543 I love the internet: Burrito Eater has saved us the trouble of tracking down the best burritos in the city and the accompanying indigestion that comes with visiting  over 150 San Francisco burrito shops and trucks. Each taqueria visited by Burrito Eater receives an "OMR," Overall Mustache Rating, and burritos are rated on 12 key elements, including "burstage abatement." See the list of top taquerias.