Delicious snapshots of how people eat

Boy, how Americans' eating habits have changed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a fascinating, and quite detailed, report on food availability and per-capita food trends over the last century. The report, as well as a searchable interactive map titled Your Food Environment Atlas, helps consumers see what’s happening in their own backyards (and in their grocery baskets).

The data were collected from producers and food distributors or estimated by government agencies using sampling methodology, the USDA said. And the result is some delicious snapshots of how people eat: Whole milk and beef consumption have generally declined since the mid-1940s, with the end of World War II, while that of nonfat milk, cheese and chicken have steadily grown. Fruit juice consumption slumped nationwide to 93 gallons per person a year in 2008 --  when the recession began being really felt -- down from 106.3 gallons a year earlier. Read more here:

-- P.J. Huffstutter

Photo: One woman watches as another prepares dinner. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Bug tacos, healthier movie fare, green beer, stinky corned beef and more

--Yum or yuck? Bug tacos. Whatever you think, this photo gallery is a must see.

--Anheuser-Busch to make a "greener" beer. (No, this is not a St. Patrick's Day thing. It's an eco-friendly thing.) By the end of 2012, the company plans to whittle down its worldwide water use by 30% to 3.5 hectoliters of water for each hectoliter of product. In case you do not already know, each hectoliter is about 26.4 gallons.

--Ahem. Remember your manners: The BA Foodist offers tips for camera-happy diners.

--Hold the popcorn: Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton told the nation's movie-theater owners that the industry should do a better job of serving healthy snacks. Great, can't wait to pay $7.99 for a banana. (Find out who gets the credit for that joke here.)

--Can't stop the frying: Everything is OK at OK Donuts.

--A sugar cube for your espresso? Sweet eats in Death Valley.

--Twip of the Day: @kogibbq is offering up this special: "the stinky Leprechaun corned beef and cabbage burrito from Limerick $6."

Photo credit: Jenny Newman, 27, of Los Angeles, at Machine Project's "Eat Bug Eat" event, presented by the San Francisco-based group Critter. The night afforded Angelenos the opportunity to taste edible insects, including wax moth larvae. Credit: Colin Young-Wolff / For The Times

A closer look at how restaurants are serving up sustainability [Updated]

 

Whether for the bottom line or for the highest of ideals, more restaurateurs -- such as Neal and Amy Knoll Fraser, who are moving their restaurant Grace to downtown, and the new salad chain Mixt Greens -- are working toward "sustainability."

[Updated 3:32 p.m.: A previous version of this post spelled the name of a salad restaurant as Mixed Greens.]

There's no legal definition for a sustainable restaurant, but sustainability — in restaurants, economies or relationships — generally means serving the needs of the present while preserving the ability to meet the needs of the future.

Chefs often take that to mean using locally grown produce, buying supplies from companies that respect the environment and encouraging frugal practices in their kitchens. By turning off lights, installing water filtration systems, recycling cooking oil for biodiesel and using hybrid vehicles for delivery, owners have branched out from just buying chickens that toddle free around a farm. Read more here.

Photo: Erica Gillespie tends to the lettuce growing in planter boxes at Mixt Greens in Los Angeles. The sustainable greens and herbs are fed with water lines and grow-lights. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times 

Channel your inner Andrew Zimmern at 'Eat Bug Eat'

Channel your inner Andrew Zimmern at Machine Project's 'Eat Bug Eat' event this Friday, where all sorts of creepy crawlers, including wax moth larvae in the form of gourmet tacos, will be available for epicureans and entomologists alike.

To wash it all down, the folks from CRITTER will be pouring the sweet fermented bee's nectar known as mead. 

The dinner starts at 8 p.m. Friday, March 12. Believe it or not, the event is currently booked, but CRITTER encourages intrepid eaters to swing by, as there might be extra space the night of the event.

Machine Project, 1200 D North Alvarado, Los Angeles, (213) 483-8761

-- Krista Simmons

Follow me on Twitter @kristasimmons

Photo: Water bugs stuffed with chicken at Typhoon in Santa Monica. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Today's headlines: A journo tries cooking school, how to glow like Jen, S.F. vs. S.D. and more

Headlines from today's L.A. Times:

-- Inspired by "Julie & Julia," our Phil Zimmerman headed to cooking school -- at Philo Apple Farm Cooking School, 120 miles northwest of San Francisco in the bucolic Anderson Valley wine country.

-- So many wineries, so little time. The Golden State is home to nearly 3,000 wineries. So how to choose? Here's your guide to California wineries.

-- Every year, millions of people find themselves craving a vacation from Greater Los Angeles. Many of these people don't want to cross state lines or climb mountains or contend with deserts, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, redwoods, Gold Country or Mickey Mouse. Which leaves them facing this question: San Francisco or San Diego? Let the debate begin.

-- Want to have a red-carpet glow à la Jennifer Aniston? Eat your veggies.

-- At McSorley's Old Ale House in New York's East Village, established in 1854, Geoffrey Bartholomew plays both poet and bartender.

Photos: At left, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge at dawn. Credit: Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times. At right, sunset over Coronado Bridge in San Diego. Credit: Micha Pawlitzki / Getty Images

What we're reading now: iron chefs, paint chips, edible mysteries and the New Yorker

 

Wake up sleepy heads! Here are your morning must-reads, should-reads and wanna-reads:

-- Is "Pirates Cove Peach" a Ben & Jerry's flavor? Or a Pottery Barn paint chip? The cool kids over at Mental Floss.com put together this quiz that will challenge you to tell the difference. (I barely passed. I am taking it as a sign that I need to buy more ice cream. You know, to study the flavors.) 

-- Why cast iron is a "green" choice for cookware. I was especially intrigued by the detailed seasoning tips. Now, where did I put that lard ...

-- It's only Tuesday, but I'm already calling this my food blog find of the week: Mystery Lovers' Kitchen. Come for the foodie-ness of it all, stay for the books. Who knew there were so many food-related mysteries? (A few that caught my eye include author Cleo Coyle's coffeehouse mystery series or the White House chef series by Julie Hyzy, which has such catchy titles as "Eggsecutive Orders," "State of the Onion" and ... wait for it...."Hail to the Chef.")

-- The New Yorker' has a colorful and intriguing profile of John Mackey, the co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market who defied the critics who said he'd never make it selling "hippie food to hippies." Or, as the current issue of the magazine puts it:

The man who has perhaps done as much as anyone to bring the natural-foods movement from the crunchy fringe into the mainstream is also a vocal libertarian, an orthodox free-marketer, an admirer of Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, and Ayn Rand. In the 2008 Presidential election, he voted for Bob Barr -- Ron Paul wasn’t on the ballot.

Save this one for breakfast. It will take you awhile -- but it's worth it.

-- Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch

Illustration credit: Mental Floss.com

Here come the trendy end-of-year lists: Epicurious makes its forecasts

Looking back and looking ahead. Must be December. The Epicurious website has come up with its predictions for 2010 trends. Fried chicken will be big, and burgers will move to the back burner, Epicurious says. Also ready to move to the spotlight: lamb, homemade beer and potluck dinners, as well as the profession of butchering. There's more.

In case you're keeping score, among the Epicurious predictions for 2009: the rise of Peruvian food, noodle bars and smoked food.

-- Mary MacVean

(Photo by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

The churro man tries to get ahead in the slow lane

El Churrero -- the Churro Man -- sidesteps tamale carts, squeezes between bumpers and beggars, working 24 lanes of idling vehicles.

He walks through shimmering exhaust clouds, hawking sombreros teetering atop his head and sweets held aloft in a blue basket. His churros are warm and moist. "Churros here," he yells. "If they're not hot, you don't pay."

Deciderio Mauricio Cantera first waded into the sea of traffic at the gateway to California in 1968 and set eyes on the bored and the hungry as they waited, fidgeted and honked, inching toward the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

This isn't a traffic jam, thought Mauricio. This is a swap meet on wheels.

To American border crossers, the ragtag knots of vendors have long evoked wonder, pity and annoyance -- symbols of disorder and desperation at the shabby entrance to the developing world.

But there's much more to it than that. Read the rest of Mauricio's story here, in this special report from the border:

Photo: Deciderio Mauricio Cantera moves through traffic at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Foodies: The latest foot fetishists?

Gourmands have been known to like the funk of a good Camembert, but drinking out of a shoe? That's stepping across the line.

After stumbling across these Bread Shoes from DaDaDa studios, I began to smell a trend: Footwear designers seem to be steering their creative energy toward foodies. What's next, gladiator sandals with bacon straps?

True, the inside of a fresh baguette is pillowy and soft as an Ugg boot, but are these leavened slippers really meant to be worn? Or eaten with a slathering of, um, toe jam?

Christian Louboutin and Piper Heidsieck say that history is the inspiration behind their stiletto champagne flute collaboration. The shoe was influenced by the age-old Russian tradition of drinking out of the Bulsoi ballerinas' slippers. Their press release states that the practice was then "taken to new levels of excess on the stages of the Moulin Rouge in Belle Époque Paris. The practice evolved, with champagne served from a courtesan’s shoe becoming emblematic of an era when Europe was living life to the fullest."

Today, Louboutin's Hollywood boutique is hosting a party to celebrate the launch of the line, where guests will have their feet bathed in the champagne. (Recession? What recession?)

Baileys Irish Creme is also getting into the game; designers Alejandro Ingelmo, Farylrobin, Rafe, Shree Moni and Vanessa Noel have each partnered with the brand for the Baileys-inspired shoe line, which is set to debut this weekend at a pop-up shop on Robertson Drive.

Is foot fetishism the future of food?

--Krista Simmons

Photo: Bread shoes courtesy of DaDaDa Studios and Christian Louboutin

Piper Heidsieck champagne stilettos courtesy of Peter Lippman

Going crazy for goji berries

 

Can it be that goji, the supposed legendary miracle fruit of ancient Tibet, is being grown in Dinuba, Calif.?

Nothing is surprising when it comes to this tiny orange berry. Virtually unknown in the United States five years ago, it is now seemingly everywhere -- in martinis, granola, nutritional supplements, even Lindsay Lohan’s tanning spray.

But so far, this much-hyped “superfruit,” so trendy and expensive, is available only in processed form, in imported juices, powders and dried berries; the fresh berries themselves, eagerly sought by aficionados, have been unobtainable in the United States. That may be changing.

-- David Karp

RECENT & RELATED

Market Watch: David Karp's weekly look at local farmers markets

Cooking through the seasons: Your guide to buying the freshest produce out there -- and what to do with it once you get it home

Visit The Times' new interactive database of Southern California farmers markets to explore your local market. We hope you join the conversation, sharing your favorite markets and vendors and helping us make this the most comprehensive resource for local farmers markets.

Photo: David Karp / For The Times