Sampler Platter: GrubHub launches in L.A., Susan Orlean considers the chicken, Superior Grocers opens in South LA, Vegemite renamed as iSnack2.0

A new Japanese restaurant, a new grocery store for South L.A., a new name for Vegemite and more in today's food news roundup.

--Superior Grocers is the first full-scale supermarket to open in the South Central Avenue corridor in at least five years. Los Angeles Times
--Susan Orlean considers the chicken. The New Yorker
--Agura Japanese Dining coming to La Cienega. Blackburn + Sweetzer
--Naming Contest Fail: New Vegemite spread to become the ever so catchy iSnack2.0. News.com.au
--Angry child's "bacon is good for me" rant gets remixed. YouTube
--GrubHub, which lists all the restaurants in your area that deliver food, launches in L.A. Click this link from Thrillist and get a $10 discount if you're a first-time user.
--Californians may soon be paying increased deposits on drink containers because lawmakers have been raiding the state's recycling fund. Los Angeles Times
--Folgers holds a contest (Sep. 30-Nov. 7) where five winners will receive a seven-day, six-night trip for themselves and up to three guests to travel to their hometown. (Restrictions apply.)

--Elina Shatkin

Photos: Top left: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times. Top right: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times. Bottom right: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times. Bottom left: Christina House / For The Times.

Sampler Platter: Novel Cafe expected to close, advice to Starbucks, sugar prices shoot up

Whale meat, pizza, goofy names for otherwise reasonable dishes and a giant tuna lead today's roundup of food news.

• Detroit's Peaches & Greens produce truck encourages healthful eating. NPR
• Top chefs pick their favorite fast food. Esquire
• There's a big, delicious rumor that N.Y.C.'s Magnolia Bakery might come to West 3rd Street. And it's a fact that D’Amore’s Pizza is open and serving late-night slices in the area. Blackburn + Sweetzer
• A beautiful ode to whale meat. YouTube
• Novel Cafe on Pier Avenue in Santa Monica will likely close. LA Observed
• Sugar prices shoot to 28-year highs, on shortage fears. Los Angeles Times
• Seven restaurant dishes that are too embarrassing to order by name. Consumerist
• Calgary, Canada, restaurant pays $25K for giant tuna. CBC
• Advice to Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz from someone who actually works there. Fortune

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: A fisherman slaughters a Baird's beaked whale at Wada Port, Japan. Dating back to the 16th century, coastal whaling is a tradition in Japan, and Wada is one of the last ports where fishermen hunt in Japanese waters. Credit: Franck Robichon / EPA

Sampler Platter: Sonoran hot dogs, Central American chicken, coffee taste test

Sonoran hot dogs, Central American chicken, bad meat becoming good power, BBQ at Verdugo and more in today's food news roundup:

• Tesco's program to convert spoiled meat into power outrages vegans. Los Angeles Times
• Is is Lars Kuprik Backman the real Swedish Chef? ABC
• Coney Island Nathan's could be saved by landmark status. N.Y. Daily News
• Robot chefs run restaurant in Japan. Fox News
• Wolfgang Puck sued for "overly slick" floors. TMZ
• Sabores Sin Fronteras: The Sonoran hot dog crosses the U.S.-Mexico border. NPR
• Kokomo owners may turn Eat Well space on Sunset into K2. Eater LA
• BBQ and beer at Verdugo next two Sundays. Eating L.A.
• Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's both beat Starbucks in Slate's coffee taste test.
• KCRW's Rob "Martini Shot" Long loves Central American chicken. LAist
• LA Foodie checks out J N J Burger & Bar-B-Q.
• A con man who claimed to be friends with Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay has been jailed for fraud. BBC

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Pollo Campero's three-piece chicken meal. Credit: Pollo Campero

Sampler Platter: Umami, Cacao Mexicatessen, Flavors of Belize

Mexican delis, Venezuelan coffee, Belizean restaurants and a few new resto openings and closings in today's roundup of food news.

• Jonathan Grahm of venerable Compartes Chocolatier has been chosen as Oprah.com's "chocolate expert" and gives a tour of his shop and factory. (Get his recipe for English toffee.)
• Cacao Mexicatessen opens in Eagle Rock. Food GPS 
• Flavors of Belize to open on La Brea. Grub Street Los Angeles
• Cobras & Matadors closes in Los Feliz; new Umami outpost to open soon. Eater LA
• Crop scientist seeks niche growers for mirai, the world's sweetest corn. Telluride Watch 
• Venezuela seizes processing plants of two of the country's biggest coffee companies. BBC 
• Favorite drinks of the rich and famous. (Oliver Reed's list includes almost everything except rubbing alcohol.) World's Biggest Cookbook 
• Bikini-clad baristas fill cups at Torrance coffeehouse. Los Angeles Times 
• A Japanese couple who were charged a $1,200 lunch bill at a Rome restaurant turn down a free trip to Italy. ABC Australia 
• LAUSD looks to regulate companies whose foods are sold at school fundraisers after salmonella-tainted frosting is recalled. Los Angeles Times 
• To celebrate Barack Obama's birthday, Domino's Pizza outlets in Washington gave away samples of their new Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake. In other news, the pizza chain that can barely turn out edible breadsticks is trying a lava cake. NBC Washington

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: One of Jonathan Grahm's chocolate creations, which uses organic Vermont maple syrup and a beautiful antler print. Credit: Angela Smith / For The Times

Food news of the weird: Christina Aguilera helps end world hunger, unlimited Slurpees for kids and un-branding Starbucks

A few items crossed my desk this morning that made me laugh and sigh at once.

The first was an announcement that Christina Aguilera is the new global spokesperson for Yum! Brands' World Hunger Relief campaign. Yum! Brands, in case you're not up on your fast-food speak, is the hairy, one-eyed monster behind KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and more. Given the fact that Yum! Brands is arguably partly responsible for a fair amount of obesity both in America and abroad, it smacks of opportunism (and weirdness) for it to sponsor a world hunger relief campaign. It's kind of like Camel cigarettes sponsoring a Healthy Lung festival. On another note, is a needle-thin diva who looks as if she hasn't eaten more than cotton puffs for weeks on end really the best choice of spokesperson?

Next up we have a news release stating that 7-Eleven presented a 9-year-old boy from Orange County with a year's supply of free Slurpees and a certificate of heroism for "having saved the life of a drowning toddler on June 20 near his home in Garden Grove, Calif." According to an Orange County Register story, two of the boy's favorite things are Slurpees and his dream of becoming a cop. That's really cute and all, but note to 7-Eleven, giving a year's supply of what essentially amounts to a cup of high fructose corn syrup to a 9-year-old child is just bad form.

Finally, I bring you word of what is perhaps my favorite weird news story of the day, courtesy of the Seattle Times via Consumerist. Apparently, faced with growing public dislike and plenty of recession-friendly coffee options, like the ones being pushed by McDonald's, Starbucks is working to un-brand itself. The story talks about how the mega-corporation has been sending reps into mom-and-pop coffee shops to see what they are like and how they operate. The reps have been spotted carrying folders with "Observation" written on them. In what is perhaps the most glorious part of the story, Starbucks is reportedly considering changing the names of its shops to " 'community names' like 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, in Seattle." Maybe this will catch on, and chains across America will begin stealth mom-and-pop shop campaigns. McDonald's could open a shop in Tucson and call it Big Jim's Saguaro Burger. The possibilities are endless.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Christina Aguilera, global spokesperson for World Hunger Relief, watches as a young girl participates in a public service announcement by making a donation, Wednesday, July 15, 2009, at Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles. Credit: AP Photo / Yum! Brands

Sampler Platter: Luxury cupcakes, school lunches and sake facts

Teen chefs, Louis Vuitton cupcakes, school lunches from around the world and the results of Zagat's annual fast-food survey lead Monday's lineup of food news.

• Luxury cupcakes inspired by Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin and Betsey Johnson. Luxuo
• School lunches from around the world. What's for School Lunch
• Results of Zagat 2009 fast-food survey: Starbucks has No. 1 coffee (but is No. 8 in overall experience); In-N-Out has No. 1 burger; McDonald's has No. 1 fries; Panera has No. 1 salad. Subway, In-N-Out and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf are No. 1 in service.
• Even Jose Andres messes up in the kitchen. James Beard Foundation
• Chef Greg Grossman, 14, signs deal to star in his own reality show. The Hollywood Reporter
• A look at Virginia-based burger chain Five Guys Burger and Fries, which recently expanded into Carson and Cerritos. USA Today
• Twelve things a beginner should know about sake. LA Examiner

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Elina Shatkin / Los Angeles Times.

Sampler Platter: Lard is the new olive oil, food writing cliches, speakeasies return and the house that Pinkberry built

A small town beats government bureaucracy, Anthony Bourdain's bucket list, the worst cliches of food writing, lard's moment in the sun (will it melt?) and more in this jam-packed midweek food news roundup.

• Anthony Bourdain lists "13 Places to Eat Before You Die" in the June issue of Men's Health: Salumi (Seattle), Hot Doug’s (Chicago), Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue (Kansas City, Kans.), elBulli (Girona, Spain), the French Laundry (Napa Valley), Russ & Daughters (New York City) and more.
• A remote New Hampshire town fights to save its French bakery -- and wins! New York Times
• Epicurious' list of the top 5 most annoying food-writing clichés -- "decadent dessert," "cozy interior," "yummy," "wash it down with" and "save room for" -- sparks a flurry of comments.
  
• Today, Slate celebrates food with a special issue featuring six food-themed stories. Everything from lard ("its moment is finally here") to the Federal Writers Project funding foodies.
• From the Top 10 Creepiest Fast Food Mascots to the Top 10 Most Disgusting Candies to the Top 10 Anthony Bourdain Insults on Food TV, Endless Simmer compiles the Top 10 food-themed Top 10 lists.
• Baristas lose as court reverses ruling on Starbucks tip lawsuit. Seattle Post Intelligencer
• Speakeasies are still popular, according to the New York Times. Wait... When a speakeasy is mentioned in a major newspaper, doesn't that defeat the underground nature of the bar? Not if  a speakeasy is just a decorating theme and not a survival strategy.
• The house that Pinkberry built is a glossy Malibu manse filled with Philippe Starck ghost chairs, Le Klint lamps, Alessi kitchen gadgets and $4,000 Hermès suits. Wall Street Journal

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: The scene at Varnish, a bar-speakeasy inside Cole's restaurant in downtown L.A. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times.

Taco trucks are feeling the crunch across the U.S.

 

The demand for food from mobile vendors grows as the Latino population increases. But officials in some places see the vehicles as nuisances and create laws to curb their operation. Read the full story here.

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'Cupping' with the boutique coffee titans in San Francisco

Last week, some of the most respected coffee buyers in Northern California met to taste the product from a top-rated farm in Panama called Esmeralda. Never one to miss an opportunity to see obsessive coffee people at work, I decided to drop by. 

The tasting (it's called a "cupping" in the coffee world) was held at Flora Grubb Gardens, a nursery in San Francisco. It was a pretty, if unusual, place for the cupping. The initial mood was light. The tasters, six men and one woman, discussed coffee things such as altitudes and acidities. Then the coffee came out and the mood got more serious. 

The price of Esmeralda coffee can get expensive -- two years ago, a bidding war for one lot of its beans (one lot = 300 pounds) went for $130 a pound, breaking all previous coffee price records. It is unlikely that Esmeralda coffee will be that expensive this year, but the price is almost certain to be too hefty for each of the five roasters represented to buy an entire lot themselves. Hence the group tasting, which might lead to group buying.

McDonald's gunning for Starbucks

McDonald's -- never known for a delicate marketing touch -- is about to drop the mother of all campaigns on you, an everywhere-you-look, invade-your-dreams ad campaign in support of its McCafé specialty coffee drinks that will be not so much viral as bubonic. An estimated $100-million mega-buy across TV, Web, radio, print, outdoor and social media, the McCafé push beginning today will be, according to the company, its biggest "menu initiative" since it began serving breakfast in the 1970s.

Personally, I'm diving for the nearest McBomb shelter.

--Dan Neil