Landmark Steakhouse McSettles after racist receipts

​A federal lawsuit filed by an African-American against a Newport Beach steakhouse that repeatedly listed him on credit card receipts as "McStinkyNigger," "McNigShit" and "McCottonwood" has been mutually dismissed, according to records at Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Orange County.

Court files show that lawyers representing plaintiff Mark McHenry and Landmark Steakhouse of Corona del Mar agreed to a stipulated settlement of the lawsuit on Feb. 2 -- a month before the case was scheduled to be heard by a jury.
More >>

​

For a country where the average person, according to data from Nestle, only consumes three cups of coffee per year, the Chinese are downright pissed that Starbucks is raising prices. They took to the Internet to bemoan a two yuan price hike that the Seattle company announced last week--a change that will impose about a 32-cent increase on all coffee drinks sold there. The Wall Street Journal reports that this means a "tall" latte will now be around 27 yuan, or $4.20.

More >>

The Delboeuf illusion.

More >>

ProfessorSalt.com

​
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Truck is parked in Santa Ana until April, offering free classes on healthy cooking for the community. Today, from 3 to 7 p.m., the massive mobile kitchen is holding an open house to which the public is invited.

Santa Ana-based organization Latino Health Access and the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation are co-hosting the classes, which are geared toward stopping the childhood-obesity epidemic by empowering families to prepare healthy, home-cooked meals that can be made as quickly as going to buy fatty, processed fast food.

More >>

Dave Lieberman

​Ever walked through the pedestrian plaza on Second Street between Sycamore and Broadway? You walk past the Gypsy Den and Memphis, then Lola Gaspar and the soon-to-open Road Less Traveled and Belly Sprout stores, and then, on your left . . . scaffolding and an indescribably ugly fence closing off what looks as if it were Paul Revere's house plunked down in the middle of Southern Califas.

This beautiful building, which once housed offices of The Gas Company, has sat empty for as long as I've lived in Orange County. It is destined, finally, for public service once again: Jason Quinn, formerly of the Lime Truck and current enfant terrible at Playground on la Cuatro, intends to open a restaurant there.

More >>

​Jamie Oliver scored a victory last week. McDonald's has announced that they will stop using ammonium hydroxide in their beef, a substance that the crusading chef once labeled as "pink slime".

The chemical is added to beef scraps to kill off bacteria such as E. Coli and is approved by the USDA. But in the Food Revolution demo shown in the linked video below, the chef says, "We're taking a product that would be sold in its cheaper form for dogs and after this process, we can give it to humans."

More >>

​If Cooking With Dog isn't the most popular cooking channel on YouTube, it is certainly the most beloved. The series of cooking shorts that details, step-by-step, the creation of more than 70 Japanese dishes was recently selected for a YouTube Japanese Award. Our sister blog SFoodie shares our love and did a list of Top 5 Cooking With Dog Episodes a few weeks ago. More >>

Photo by Christopher Victorio

​I think I speak for all of us here on Stick A Fork In It when I say I'm a huge fan of KCRW's weekly Good Food radio show and the work of host Evan Kleiman, producer Harriet Ells, their reporters and engineers. We're such big fans that OC Weekly brought Evan down to Orange County for two Happy Hour events in 2011.

As members of KCRW ourselves, and as guests on the show (Gustavo - regularly and myself - sporadically), I remind you that producing such an awesome, wide-ranging show isn't cheap. While you can enjoy their hard work for free, you could also listen as a member of the station instead, and the ongoing pledge drive is the time to put your money where your food-loving pie-hole is. Speaking of which, have you downloaded Evan's Easy as Pie app?

More >>

OK State Senate website

Senator Shortey

​Soylent Green will not be manufactured in Oklahoma. Not if that state senator Ralph Shortey gets his way. The freshman Republican introduced a bill this week in the state legislature "prohibiting the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses." So anyone out there planning on marketing human balut or roasting up a suckling person better steer clear of the Sooner State.

We weren't aware that eating human fetuses was even a thing, and we have watched a lot of Bourdain and Zimmern shows. 4 out of 5 cannibals we surveyed said, "Eeeeeeewww! That's gross" to this report (not really, we made that up).

Perhaps Mr. Shortey should have an etiological conversation with his spiritual advisers: when does cannibalism begin? At birth, or at conception?

More >>

CBS News

​Readers of this blog should now be familiar with Jason Quinn's expletive-fueled and "Burn in hell" retort to an unhappy customer on Yelp. But what may have sounded like an ill-advised move last week is now looking like it could be a boon for the restaurant...that is, if you believe that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

If the latter is true, this could be the case study to prove it. A nearly three minute segment on the local news where Quinn gets the last word? That's free advertisement you can't buy. How soon before the national news outlets pick up on this story? Set your timers...I'm betting about a week.

See the segment below.

More >>