Torontoist: Terroni Abhors Your Unsophisticated Palate. the service is usually sub-par at the queen street location. luckily the pizza is great.

City Cafe in Kitchener, ON doesn’t have a cash register. another example of simply trusting people to pay and focus on what actually creates value.

Seven New Sandwiches Try to Make It in New York - New York Times. i do love me a good sandwich.

eggbeater: Chef Owners Who Work The Line. random write-up about working at the French Laundry and the restaurant business.

Necessary Ingredients “Four top American chefs talk about the custom designs and unique tools that define their celebrated kitchens.”

Gordon Ramsay eats his own words - Telegraph. it’s insane how the restaurant business works. being a chef strike me as a terrible job.

A conversation with chef Thomas Keller - Charlie Rose. great interview about food and the restaurant business.

dishola. review restaurants by the dish. maybe i’ll find some new gems in seattle this way.

I Love You, but You Love Meat - New York Times “I’m not a vegangelical”

Tests find hazardous levels of mercury in tuna sushi in New York - International Herald Tribune “Eight of the 44 pieces of sushi The Times purchased from local restaurants and stores in October had mercury levels so high that the FDA could take legal action to remove the fish from the market.” holy crap. via josh.

BBC NEWS | In pictures: From edible to incredible. i think the 2nd one is most impressive. via amanda.

amazon fresh

So Amazon is currently trying out a grocery delivery business in Seattle. They’ve been operating it for employees for a couple months now with pick-up in the offices and limited delivery in a couple parts of town. I never tried it out because I live 1 block from a grocery store and don’t even do that much grocery shopping. The big problem I have with my local QFC grocery store is that some items are oddly overpriced, especially produce. And since the majority of food I make at home is boring-ass pasta with lots of veggies the overpriced produce seems to add up. Well, after paying $6 for a pound of asparagus the other day I decided I’d give Amazon Fresh a run.

They’ve expanded delivery to lots of Seattle proper and it’s open to the general public. Delivery options are pretty decent. There’s two pick-up locations open to the public and employee-only pick-up at the offices of amazon, google, eddie bauer, and some other local companies (not microsoft at the moment). Pick-up doesn’t have any delivery fees. Delivery to your house has some interesting options. You can get unattended delivery (as in they’ll leave it at your front door) for either pre-dawn (before 6am) or after dinner (post 7pm). If you place an order at night you can get next day pre-dawn delivery, which is pretty cool. The option is only available for houses but there is a program to get your condo/apartment signed up to allow the delivery person access to the building. Unattended delivery is free with orders over $25. Attended delivery is available within an hourly block (like between 5pm and 6pm) from 7am to 10pm on weekdays (until 6pm on weekends). Delivery is free for orders over $50 or a $10 fee if it’s below. I’ve only done office pick-up so I can’t comment on the quality of the delivery service.

The variety of items on Fresh is quite good and the website is easy to use. I’d say that the only glaring omission is that the products really lack further description and you don’t currently have access to ingredient or dietary information that you can find on a product box. But since I’m mostly buying produce and stuff I already use, I didn’t really care. The best thing about the site is the prices. Compared with my local grocery store I was able to find lots of things 30 to 50 percent cheaper on Fresh. Apples, 30%. Bocconcini and Goat cheese, 40%. Red Peppers, 50%. Pesto sauce, 40%. Things like milk and cereal were the same price. You can even buy local artisan bread from both Macrina Bakery and Essential Bakery.

Anyways, I’m very happy with the site. Guess I’ll now have to get my apartment building signed up for pre-dawn drop-off.

Anthony Bourdain | The A.V. Club. interesting interview. think it’s time i read Kitchen Confidential

Food prices | Cheap no more | Economist.com. somehow it all comes back to corn subsidies and the demand for oil.

Move over, espresso | Economist.com. article about the clover, a super fancy coffee brewer. i had some once in vancouver, it was good.

Reduce Reuse Recycle: My phobia of marriage: shark fins. on chinese wedding culture and eating shark fins. via ram.

Penny Foolish - New York Times. Seems the fast food nation really wants to stick it to migrant farm workers. “In 2006, the bonuses of the top 12 Goldman Sachs executives [who are majority owners of Burger King] exceeded $200 million — more than twice as much money as all of the roughly 10,000 tomato pickers in southern Florida earned that year.”

Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts - New York Times. it’s amazing how badly we fuck over africa with farm subsidies.

Bourbon’s Shot at the Big Time - New York Times. i’ve become a fan of bourbon since moving to the states.

CTV Toronto - T.O. City Hall discusses putting bottled water tax. “Chicago approved a five-cent tax on bottled water in their 2008 budget”