Food and Wine
April 24, 2025 — John Hinderaker
To be fair, I don’t think it ever went away, as far as our readers are concerned. But the New York Times grudgingly admits that meat is more popular than ever: Meat’s reputation has taken a pounding over the last few years. Blamed for poor health, implicated in climate change and attacked for cruelty to animals, it played the villain while plant-based burgers, grain bowls and four-star vegan dishes took
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October 21, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Scott notes below the statement from McDonald’s that while they welcome President Trump’s appearance, they are non-partisan, and that they invite Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to visit one of their locations, too. There is zero chance Harris or Walz will take up this invitation, and not merely because they can’t look like they are hopping to Trump’s tune or because they can’t compete with Trump’s stagecraft. The real reason
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September 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker
France has a long history of well-heeled elites telling other Frenchmen how to live. These days, those prescriptions mostly have to do with the environment. Or that is the claim, anyway. So the Mayor of Paris wants municipal employees not to eat so much meat: The vegetarian meals given to Paris’s 51,000 council workers are being touted as a victory in the fight against global warming. Yet many of the
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June 11, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Sad news of the passing, at age 95, of Warren Winiarski, the founder of one of Napa Valley’s early and legendary wineries, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. If you know your Napa lore, you know the famous story of Winiarski’s 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon—the first ever from his new venture—winning the “Judgment of Paris” blind tasting in 1976, which scandalized the French, who couldn’t conceive the possibility that a California wine could
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December 21, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Time for a holiday note, even if a bit cranky. Friday’s Wall Street Journal “Arts and Culture” section has a feature entitled “How to Become a Wine Snob in Five Easy Steps.” I’m thinking the article is ironic, deliberately intended to annoy serious oenophiles. Like me. Herewith the headlines for the five steps, with brief commentary: 1. Talk about your “wine journey.” How ’bout not. I might hit you. 2.
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May 8, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Left’s campaign to replace meat with insects in our diet–more specifically, your diet, not theirs–continues apace. From the Wall Street Journal: “Switzerland Wants Children to Eat Less Chocolate, More Insects.” Switzerland in 2017 became the first country in Europe to allow insects to be sold as food for humans after a lobbying campaign by edible-insect startups. That was the easy part. Now the companies must overcome what entomologists call
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April 30, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Left has launched a comprehensive war on modern agriculture. One aspect of that war consists of attacks on animal husbandry, which to some degree ties in with longstanding crank theories espoused by vegans and others. However, contemporary attacks on meat are mostly climate-based. As such, they are dangerous to your family’s health. The Telegraph reports: Meat is crucial for human health, scientists have warned, as they called for an
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April 29, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Forget the Russia-Ukraine War. The oldest war of all—the War Between the Sexes—has a new front opening this summer: the Battle of Barbecue Grill. Someone on Twitter named @Judiana (“Ruckus Causing Redhead”) blasted out this bellicose manifesto: We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity . When a man volunteers to do the
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March 28, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Liberals aren’t just coming for our automobiles, gas stoves and air conditioners. They also want to change the way we eat, because of the climate, doncha know. What else? The Telegraph recounts a particularly nasty instance of liberals’ nouveau food: fake woolly mammoth meat. A mammoth meatball has been created using the resurrected flesh of the long-extinct animal. It was produced by a cultivated meat company as part of a
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June 29, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Several decades ago I subscribed to Bon Appetit magazine. In those days, it was all about good food, consisting of articles about, and recipes from, excellent restaurants. But, as in so many areas of contemporary life, those days are gone. Bon Appetit survives–barely, I think–but its primary mission these days seems to be wokeness. Check out the magazine’s InstaGram feed to see what I mean. Here are some examples: A
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January 21, 2022 — Steven Hayward
I’m not a fan of meat loaf—the baked dish—or Meat Loaf, the musician who passed away today. Still, I am always sorry to hear of the passing of any artist who attracted a mass following. I am, however, a huge fan of Weber grills, and regard the Weber kettle one of the great products of modern science, worthy of the Nobel Prize in physics. The green egg and other designs
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August 4, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Never mind rising crime, runaway homelessness, and other afflictions of California; have you heard the latest madness? California may be on the verge of making bacon a contraband substance, or at least a scarce luxury good. From the AP: Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that
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July 11, 2021 — Steven Hayward
I know you’ve all heard of the famous “plant-based” impossible burger, which is deeply confusing because I’ve always thought every one of my burgers was “plant-based”—cows eat plants, and then I eat the cow. QED. Now comes news that someone is trying to make “plant-based bacon,” and count me skeptical. Actually, if you do a web search, you will find lots of links to “vegan bacon,” which has to be
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July 5, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The New York Post documents some of the hilarity occasioned by the lame White House tweet celebrating the saving of 16 cents for the food cost of a 2021 July 4 barbecue over last year. The Post story notes the pitifully stupid puns with which the White House advertised the Farm Bureau’s annual update on July 4 food costs (below). With an unprecedented humanitarian crisis at our border, soaring gas
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July 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
We noted in one of our Crazy Chronicles recently that Trader Joe’s was said to be following Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben in expunging product names (like “Trader Giotto” and “Trader Jose”) that someone—it turned out to be some hopped-up 17 year old kid—found offensive. Trader Joe’s has corrected the record with this announcement: A Note About Our Product Naming In light of recent feedback and attention we’ve received about
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July 4, 2020 — Steven Hayward
By popular demand we’re bringing “Lucretia,” Power Line’s International Woman of Mystery, back to the show, and we’ve decided to start our own “Three Whisky Happy Hour,” because why should Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty have all the fun (and the booze) with their Three Martini Lunch. As Lucretia is a champion whisky drinker, we decided to offer up American bourbon, Scotch (the more bracing Islay and Highland single malts),
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September 15, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Now here is someone who takes no chances when it comes to ensuring sufficient meat consumption: Here’s a stomach-churning feat: A woman from Arizona devoured not one, but two 72-ounce steak dinners in about an hour at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo. The woman, identified as professional competitive eater Miki Sudo, posted a short video on Instagram of her polishing off that second steak. She’s won the women’s
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