Tax day deals for those tax day blues

 

Restaurants are offering an edible tax break today. Among them: T.G.I. Friday's and P.F. Chang's. At T.G.I. Friday's, diners earn $5 Bonus Bites cards for purchases (excluding alcohol and taxes) of between $15 and $25 or $10 cards for purchases of more than $25. P.F. Chang's is offering 15% off your food bill. McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants is also offering cheap drinks, a $10.40 menu, and diners can get a $10.40 certificate toward future purchases.

$10.40, get it? 10-40?

-- Rene Lynch

We're all a-Twitter @LATimesFood

George Wilhelm / Los Angeles Times

Bag the fancy beans? The best coffee may be one of the cheapest

When you coffee drinkers stumble to the coffee maker each morning in your fuzzy slippers, what are you grabbing for? Starbucks? Dunkin' Donuts? Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf? Lovingly handpicked beans from Groundwork? Or, what seems like everyone's trendy favorite, Intelligentsia? And do you grind your own beans?

Well, Consumer Reports says you could be wasting your money.

It just released a report that ranked Eight O’Clock Coffee 100% Colombian at No. 1 in a taste test of 19 ground coffees. It costs just $6.28 per pound, earning it the magazine's coveted "CR Best Buy" label.  It's in the March issue of the magazine -- and unfortunately it's behind a pay wall online, or else we'd link to it here.

As you might imagine Eight O'Clock coffee is thrilled with the designation, which coincidentally comes as the brand is celebrating its 150th birthday with a makeover. (Worth mentioning because voters could win a $5,000 grocery spree at Coffeemakeover.com.)

What do you think about this CR report? Have you tried Eight O'Clock Coffee? Is it enough to make you rethink your coffee bean of choice?

And in case you are wondering, here's a link to CR's look at coffeemakers.

-- Rene Lynch

Photo credit: Eight O'Clock Coffee

Ever see a cup of tea interrogated? Watch this

We recently asked whether tea was the new coffee -- and boy, did we get a debate brewing.

Many of you offered advice on how to make the perfect cuppa. And some of you scoffed at the very idea that coffee could be outdone. Yet there is something about tea right now. Our new president drinks it. And since everyone seems to want to get a piece of Barack Obama — be it art or other merchandise, perhaps more Americans will be inspired to sip the leafy beverage.

The tea industry certainly hopes so.

The Tea Council of the USA recently held its annual Calm-A-Sutra video contest, in which the organization ask students to submit two-minute videos that educate viewers about the health benefits of tea. The grand prize is a $20,000 scholarship. Not bad, eh?

The most recent winner was John Ford, a student at the American Film Institute here in L.A.

Check out his short, “Interrogation.”

'Cause if we really wanted to get to the bottom of tea’s health benefits, why not ask the tea itself, right?

-- Lori Kozlowski

Is tea the new coffee? Ask Barack Obama

There’s no doubt that coffee holds a unique place in our culture. You know the routine by now. A colleague wants to talk to you about a project — let’s have coffee. You want to catch up with an old friend — let’s have coffee. Someone wants to ask you out on a date, but is either too chicken or doesn’t really want to pony up that much cash — let’s go get coffee.

But tea -- cold or hot -- is giving coffee some competition. It is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world. (The first is water.) We’ve recently been bombarded with messages about the ancient drink’s health benefits. Starbucks is unveiling a new line of tea drinks — London Fog Latte, anyone? And as it turns out, bottled tea beverages are one of President-elect Barack Obama’s favorite things.

However, Seth Goldman, president and co-founder of Honest Tea –- a bottled tea favored by the president-elect -- rejects the notion that tea is the new coffee.

“Tea is the new tea," he said. “Tea is the world’s second most popular drink. It has been around for thousands of years. People are moving away from soda and looking for healthier options. Tea is its own thing.”

Goldman said Honest Tea came together about 11 years ago, when he and co-founder....

'Whopper virgins' to reveal all -- but do you care?

Where will you be when Burger King's big reveal takes place?

You are sitting at your computer monitor, waiting for the results of the "Whopper virgin" taste test, right?

The fast-food chain that is not McDonald's has launched a advertising campaign that takes viewers to a remote region of the world in search of "Whopper virgins" who will decide whether Burger King has the best burger. What do you want to bet that they choose the Whopper?

Check it out for yourself here. What do you think? Will this "documentary" sell a gazillion Whoppers around the globe? Or will it rival Burger King's failed "Where's Herb?" campaign?

--Rene Lynch

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post wrongly said the big reveal would be at 10 a.m.

Can Nintendo teach you how to cook?

Nintendo: It's not just for kids anymore. Or at least that's what Nintendo of America Inc. is banking on as it unveils a new interactive Game Boy-like device called Personal Trainer: Cooking. Using Nintendo DS technology, Personal Trainer: Cooking is basically a small gray hand-held box -- with a touch screen and voice recognition -- that stores more than 245 recipes from around the world.

Once you decide on a recipe (based on country of origin, cooking time, ingredients, calorie count, etc.), a little animated chef with a monotone electronic voice and a bushy mustache talks you through the steps to making the dish. Videos of the more difficult steps are available for viewing. There is also an interactive shopping list function that helps would-be chefs check off ingredients as they buy them.

The official website for this strange little device (although it is high-tech, it looks weirdly primitive -- maybe just because it's geared for novice chefs) has a video of two teens cooking crab cakes using their Personal Trainer. It's worth watching for its sheer awkwardness and unintentional tawdriness. The girls sit at a kitchen table giggling and wondering what they can make with crab meat. The Personal Trainer suggests crab cakes and the girls giggle their way through more than five painful minutes of footage as they wonder whether to pull crab meat from a shell using their fingers or a fork.

Geoduck is for lovers

We're not in the business of mocking press releases (might as well shoot fish in a barrel), but every now and then something comes across our desk that's so goofy, we can’t help ourselves.

"When gift packages of panties get old, or adult toys are no longer a funny gift to find under the tree, show your lover you really care with high-end sensual food gifts," MarxFoods.com suggests. You could go for aphrodisiacs ranging from the obvious (oysters, chocolate) to the odd (truffle honey, lobster-filled heart-shaped ravioli). But "for the adventurous couple" (in and out of the dining room) there's the geoduck.