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☆ First Drought, Then Flood. Can the West Learn to Live Between Extremes?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Brooke Jarvis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Since New Year’s, storm after storm had pummeled the state, dropping epic quantities of water and snow. Houses and farms and dairies flooded, and people were using excavators to hastily build earthen dikes around their properties. In a valley where powerful interests had long jockeyed for access to water, the arguments were now about who would bear the flood. A froth of brown storm water started to spread toward the houses. Had someone intentionally cut the levee, jeopardizing Allensworth, not to mention someone else’s farm, to save his own?

Persons: Deanna Jackson, Gonzales, Ruben Guerrero, Floodwater, Jack Mitchell, Allensworth, ” Guerrero, ”, Kiara Rendon, Denise Kadara, Allen Allensworth, Kadara, Rendon Organizations: Cal Fire, Navy Locations: Year’s, Tulare, Allensworth, ”, California, farmworkers

☆ 'The Little Mermaid' defied backlash and review-bombing by opening at No. 1
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

"The Little Mermaid" debuted this weekend and was "review-bombed" on some movie-review sites. Since Disney announced its live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," the film has been targeted with online hate, namely racist complaints about Halle Bailey being cast as the mermaid Ariel. But that didn't stop it from taking the top spot at the weekend box office upon its release in the US. Despite backlash and review-bombing, the film had a notable opening weekend for box office earnings: The film was the fifth highest-grossing release on Memorial Day weekend in history, per IMDb. 'The Little Mermaid" ticket sales did beat out Disney's 2019 live-action remake of "Aladdin," which grossed $116.8 million when it opened on Memorial Day.

Persons: Halle Bailey, Ariel Organizations: Disney, Rotten

☆ Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ rakes in $117 million at the US box office on opening weekend
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( David Goldman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Disney’s live-action movie “The Little Mermaid” brought in $117.5 million at the US box office in the fifth-best opening for Memorial Day weekend in history, according to Box Office Mojo. Despite the controversy, the movie was among the most successful films ever to debut on Memorial Day, Box Office Mojo reported. Last year’s “Top Gun Maverick” tops that list with $160 million at the US box office over the long holiday weekend. That came in a hair lower than “The Little Mermaid” with an opening weekend haul of $116.8 million. Including international ticket sales, “The Little Mermaid” brought in $185.8 million over the weekend.

☆ Ayvalık and Cunda: Turkey's prettiest Aegean coast resorts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Feride Yalav-Heckeroth | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Alongside classic beach towns like Bodrum and Alaçatı, two of the coast’s loveliest spots are the little-known seaside town of Ayvalık and the nearby island of Cunda. Near the Taksiyarhis Memorial Museum, in a beautifully renovated historic house with large arched windows, is Moyy Atölye. For a truly Aegean dining experience inside an olive grove, Karina Ayvalık is worth the 10-minute drive south to the village of Küçükköy. “I can breathe in the Aegean air and feel history as I walk through the old streets with their historic houses. Getting lost on Cunda leads to discoveries – like the Cunda Taksiyarhis Rahmi M. Koç Museum inside a renovated Greek Orthodox church with a collection of antique cars, motorcycles and toys.

☆ Cacti, wild coffee and false bananas: Scientists sketch out the menus of the future
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

While the shortage has more or less abated, it did highlight the fragile nature of our food system and the huge importance of food security. "Between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021," The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report said. In June 2022, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, listed several sources of food that could play a big role in future diets. They include seaweed; cacti like the prickly pear; a type of wild coffee able to cope with far warmer temperatures than Arabica coffee; and enset, also known as the false banana. A fruit tree may also be perennial, he noted, "but it only produces its fruit at a certain time of year — so you either need to consume it then or you need to store it."

☆ The Secret to Better Salmon Is Salt
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Sam Sifton | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

J. Kenji López-Alt went full Kenji recently and dove deep into the process of dry-brining salmon to achieve firmer, juicier, less albumin-stained cooked fillets. Which means if I can get to the store early today, I can make Ali Slagle’s new recipe for teriyaki salmon or my old one for pan-roasted salmon with jalapeño (above) this evening, and eat it with steamed rice and Mark Bittman’s salad of asparagus ribbons tossed in sesame oil and rice vinegar. As for the rest of the week. “Just made this and mid-meal felt the urgent need to come here and rave about it,” one subscriber noted on the recipe. “Super easy and super quick to make!”

☆ The German couple who moved to Italy and opened a pizza restaurant
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Silvia Marchetti | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —Living la dolce vita in Italy isn’t just about snatching a cheap dwelling in a charming rural village. Making pizza in Italy and satisfying Italian palates is not the simplest of missions. Only one other place to eat is open year-round – a restaurant serving regional dishes but no pizza. Marco MolinariPaying homage to her Germanic origins she makes pizza with sauerkraut, sausages and veal shin, with tomato salad, pizza kebabs, pizza with goat cheese and pizza with salmon – the latter being the most wanted by clients. There’s Pizza Irene with mozzarella, gorgonzola, arugula and mushrooms.

☆ Getting to the Heart of Mexico, One Chile at a Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Belkis Wille | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Finally, we found the right cluster of buildings amid the agricultural fields, the largest one a sea of agave plants, their blue-gray rosettes extending into the distance. The chile de agua was vibrant, and just as delicious as its scent — sweet, sour and earthy — had suggested when one of them had served as my mezcal tumbler the day before. I had come to Mexico to learn about chiles and try to put their essence in a bottle I could open up back in my kitchen in Kyiv. I could buy bags of dried chiles, bring them to Kyiv and cook the salsas, moles and stuffed chiles exactly the way I had been taught by everyone on my journey. Belkis Wille, an associate director in the Crisis & Conflict division at Human Rights Watch, is based in Kyiv, Ukraine.

☆ MSG: The world's most misunderstood ingredient
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Maggie Hiufu Wong | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Case in point – he has the letters “MSG” tattooed on his arm, and his restaurant’s menu includes a signature drink called the MSG Martini. “Things just taste better with MSG, whether it’s Western food or Cantonese food,” the chef tells CNN. You’ve probably been playing with glutamate, inosinate and guanylate in your own cooking without even realizing it. We season our food with MSG a little bit – it’s different from heating water and adding MSG and serving it with noodles,” he says. “Our mission from the very beginning was to show people what Cantonese food is and what Cantonese food can be – it’s always going to be playful, fun and approachable,” says Eng.

☆ Here’s what’s getting cheaper at the grocery store
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Those menu prices went up by 0.6%. Shoppers started seeing relief in the grocery store in March, when grocery prices fell for the first time since September 2020. In the year through April, food prices went up by 7.7%, with grocery prices jumping 7.1% and menu prices increasing 8.6%. Ham got 6.5% more expensive, poultry prices rose 5%, and fish and seafood rose 2%. Prices in AprilEven though prices food prices overall have been high this year, April was an easier month for shoppers.

☆ GrubMarket: 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Despite the scale of industrial farming, the produce supply chain, in which wholesalers and distributors get their produce to customers via grocers, local markets or restaurants, has remained fragmented. The goal, according to CEO Mike Xu, is to digitally transform the American food supply chain industry, while reaching $100 billion in sales — it is nowhere near that today — along the way. The company works directly with farmers and growers, as well as buyers, with a suite of software solutions that include inventory, warehouse management, grower accounting and mobile apps for food wholesalers and distributors. GrubMarket is now one of the largest suppliers of South American produce in the U.S. Last year, it was in the top 10% of suppliers for meat, peppers, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and oranges in the country. It supplies 5% of all grapes and is the country's largest distributor of South American cherries.

☆ The buffet is back. Thank you, inflation.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Diners are looking for a good deal as inflation keeps restaurant prices high. Now, they're becoming destinations again, with society mostly open and inflation forcing consumers to stretch the money that they spend on eating out. Now, with restaurant prices rising fast thanks to inflation, all-you-can-eat buffets are attracting diners looking for a good deal. Golden Corral is one of the buffet chains that survived the pandemic. Some, like the company behind Furr's Fresh Buffet and Old Country Buffet, filed for bankruptcy and permanently closed locations.

☆ Inflation’s real benefits beat theoretical costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Felix Martin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Yet economic theory has a remarkably hard time identifying the social costs imposed by a rising price level. A more serious charge is the uncertainty that rising prices introduce into financial planning. If the theoretical costs of inflation are elusive, the potential advantages it has to offer are more concrete. U.S. house prices, meanwhile, peaked last year at a full 45% higher in real terms than when Rogoff made his plea. In the end, the practical benefits of inflation will trump its theoretical costs.

☆ The all-you-can-eat buffet line is crowded again
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The owner of Old Country Buffet and Furr’s Fresh Buffet filed for bankruptcy in 2021. “The higher quality concepts that stuck it out are reaping some rewards, like Golden Corral and Pizza Ranch,” said Jonathan Maze, the editor-in-chief at trade publication Restaurant Business Magazine. “People wanted the buffet back,” Golden Corral CEO Lance Trenary told the trade publication. The company plans to add up to 250 more Golden Corral buffets around the United States over the long run. The median household income of Golden Corral, Cicis and Pizza Ranch customers is below the national average, according to Placer.

☆ Italians judge Spanish pizzeria as the best in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Enter 50 Top Pizza, an international guide run by Italians that produces a series of annual rankings rewarding some of the best pizzerias on the planet. The 2023 European list has just been published – and, according to 1,000 anonymous “inspectors” across the continent, the best pizza in Europe is in… Spain. The entity – a pizza guide, which has been ranking restaurants since 2017 – has separate listings for the 50 best pizzerias in the cradle of pizza. The best pizza was judged to be Panatieri's "Salsa de tomates cherry asados, mozzarella y holandesa de albahaca." Today this is not the case.”As for the Italy rankings, they will be revealed in Rome on July 12.

☆ Best rice dishes: 20 delicious specialties from around the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Terry Ward | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

And while famous rice dishes such as sushi, fried rice and paella are among the most prominent in the global spotlight, there are so many more rice recipes out there to put on your radar – and seek out on your travels. Wali wa kukaanga, KenyaWali wa kukaanga is Kenya’s answer to fried rice, and translates to just that in Swahili. So it’s no surprise that the Polynesian island country’s most popular rice dish, alaisa fa’apopo, has ties to the coconut, too. Thai fried rice (Khao Pad), ThailandThai fried rice uses the layering of flavors that's characteristic of the country's cuisine. ArenaCreative/Adobe StockWhen it comes to fried rice, the Chinese version tends to steal the spotlight.

☆ The Star Wars timeline: All movies and shows in chronological order
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

These details are pulled from the official “Star Wars” resources “Ultimate Star Wars” and “Star Wars Character Encyclopedia,” as well as experts from outlets like USA Today and the AV Club. ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ (animated series)Ahsoka is Anakin's padawan in "The Clone Wars," and he lovingly calls her "Snips." ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’"Solo" shows how Han and Chewie became best friends. ‘Star Wars Rebels’Kanan Jarrus, Zeb Orrelios and Sabine Wren take on the Empire in "Star Wars Rebels." ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’Heroes attempt to find the plans to blow up the Death Star in "Rogue One."

☆ China approves safety of first gene-edited crop
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, May 4 (Reuters) - China has approved the safety of a gene-edited soybean, its first approval of the technology in a crop, as the country increasingly looks to science to boost food production. Shunfeng claims to be the first company in China seeking to commercialise gene-edited crops. Several additional steps are needed before China's farmers can plant the novel soybean, including approvals of seed varieties with the tweaked genes. Getting gene-edited crops onto the market is expected to be faster however, given fewer steps in the regulatory process. Aside from the United States, Japan has also approved gene-edited foods, including healthier tomatoes and faster-growing fish.

"Because of higher prices, people are buying smaller amounts of groceries overall and may have become more careful not to waste food." "Despite all of that, (there are) 8% to 12% missing items on shelves," he said. "This has created a major, major issue around out-of-stock" in most of the 16 Middle Eastern countries where the company operates, he said. Laurent Thoumine, Accenture's Europe lead for retail, said supermarkets in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have had the worst stock issues. Products that are scarce in some stores include ketchup, pasta, chocolate, tea, potato chips, toothpaste and pet food, according to Nielsen IQ's Data Impact.

☆ Restaurant Review: Naro Makes New Magic From Classic Korean Dishes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Pete Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At their groundbreaking restaurant Atomix, Junghyun and Jeongeun Park seem to have the keys to a secret room filled with flavors that New York’s older Korean restaurants barely hint at. Nearly every course on the elaborate tasting menus is made up of a dozen or more ingredients. You can, for instance, eat a sorbet flavored by the fleshy seed stalks of the Japanese raisin tree. But novelty is not the main point of this younger restaurant. While Atomix tries to expand our notions of what modern Korean cuisine might contain, Naro’s executive chef, Nate Kuester, takes a different tack.

☆ Eva Longoria shares 5 essential Mexico experiences
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Marnie Hunter | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Editor’s Note: CNN Original Series “Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico” airs on CNN Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Here are just five of the essential experiences Longoria recommends to Mexico visitors. “There are so many indigenous cultures still vibrant in Mexico,” Longoria said. El Tajín “is one of the best-preserved pre-Hispanic cities in Mexico,” Longoria says in the Veracruz episode. With a conchaActress reveals daily ritual when she's in Mexico City 00:40 - Source: Eva Longoria: Searching for MexicoExploring requires stamina – and maybe a little sugar and caffeine.

☆ Vegan food blogger Nisha Vora tried ChatGPT for recipes. She says they're edible — but not exactly great.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Nisha Vora is a vegan recipe developer and the creator of the popular food blog Rainbow Plant Life. She tested a cauliflower curry recipe written by ChatGPT to evaluate the bot's recipe-writing skills. Vora is the creator of Rainbow Plant Life, a vegan food blog that she updates with new recipes weekly. She also has her own recipe for a vegan curry with cauliflower and tofu that is well-liked by her readers. Chat GPT's 'cauliflower curry' recipe Prompt: I have tomatoes and onions and cauliflower.

☆ Amazon's $300 million new spy series 'Citadel' debuts to mediocre reviews and could be another high-profile miss for the streamer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon's ambitious new spy series, "Citadel," starring Priyanka Chopra, premiered today. Costing as much as an estimated $300 million, it stands to be one of the most expensive series ever made. It has a 56% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 41 reviews. Amazon has a lot riding on its new ambitious spy series, "Citadel," but so far critics are less than impressed. Rotten Tomatoes deems a 60% score or less to be "rotten."

☆ I’m Growing Flowers Instead of Vegetables This Year. Should I Feel Guilty?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Michelle Slatalla | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

THE NEW TENANTS The author looks forward to seeing bouquet-ready blooms where her evicted veggie plants were. Photo: Kendra HuspaskaLIKE A LOT of homeowners, I got through the pandemic by planting a victory garden. But I can’t say the past three years’ crops were much of a win, for me anyway. After what seemed like thousands of hours of work, I was able to can six small jars of tomatoes. And at the first sign of warm weather, the lettuce bolted like there was a warrant out for its arrest.

☆ Nemo’s Garden: The future of farming could be under the sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Michelle Cohan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Nemo’s Garden uses hydroponics – a technique that uses water-based nutrients instead of soil, the same method used in most indoor vertical farms. Studies ranging in nature from pharmaceutical to culinary have been conducted on Nemo’s Garden. “In our studies Nemo’s Garden has 58% more fish than the surrounding environment, so it has a repopulation effect,” he adds. Equipment inside Nemo's Garden is powered by renewable energy like solar panels and wind turbines. The team at Nemo’s Garden has plans for even bigger biospheres in the future, as well as other locations.

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