First Annual L.A. Sriracha Festival

L.A. Sriracha Festival

Three hours is not enough. That’s how long the First Annual Sriracha Festival will last.

Randy Clemens, author of two of the easiest books ever to be written in the history of ever (The Sriracha Cookbook: 50 “Rooster Sauce” Recipes that Pack a Punch and The Veggie-Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook: 50 Vegan “Rooster Sauce” Recipes that Pack a Punch) is behind the idea along with Josh Lurie of Food GPS.

Considering that Sriracha goes with everything, perhaps there will be some surprises at the L.A. Sriracha Festival. It will cost you about $50 to find out on Sunday, October 27, from 3 pm to 6 pm at LOT 613 in the downtown L.A. Arts District. Or, you could just take that $50, go grocery shopping and just squirt some of that delicious, delicious hot sauce on anything and everything you buy. It will taste good.

Then again, the festival is officially sponsored by the maker of the iconic condiment, Huy Fong Foods and David Tran will be making a special appearance. Shaking the hand of the man who changed condiment history might be worth it alone. Be sure to lick your fingers afterward.

Campbell’s Soup K-Cup For Keurig Coffee Maker

Campbell Soup Co. to make K-cup soup packs that can be made with Green Mountain's Keurig single-serve coffee machines.

Let’s just start things off with a quote:

“Consumers told us we should put Campbell soup in these machines.”
–Green Mountain CEO Brian Kelley

I want to know who these consumers are. First of all, I’m not even sure that the idea of putting coffee in these machines is acceptable! These machines, of course, are the single-serve monstrosities like the Keurig coffeemaker that serve up coffee drinks one K-cup at a time. Ugh. Yes, I get it: convenience wins, it makes sense with multiple users like in an office… and well, that’s all I can think of. “These machines” are glorified coffee vending machines.

Which brings us back to soup. Now, Campbell’s Soup will be available in K-cup form. Stick the soup pod in your coffee maker, press the button and watery soup will be yours to enjoy. If it didn’t happen to be September, I would think this to be an April Fools joke. What, the office doesn’t have a microwave? Ugh. Glad it’s Friday and this thought will be outta my head soon!

Via AP

Twinkies Tell The Truth

Twinkies: "The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever"

Twinkies are back and this time they mean it. It is being reported that the iconic snack cake will have a shelf life of 45 days. Hostess Brands recently went through reorganization and it appeared that the fabled snack was in trouble. But you can’t keep a good sponge cake down. Or let it expire.

Somehow, without changing much (or any) of the 37 ingredients that go into a Twinkie, the shelf life has been increased from 26 days to 45 days. The new Hostess company says they still won’t last forever, but… yeah, right.

To participate in “The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever” just visit your local grocery store. Twinkies are set to reappear on July 15th.

(Via AP)

Dunkin’ Donuts Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich

Dunkin’ Donuts Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich

The Dunkin’ Donuts Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich is coming in time for National Donut Day on Friday. Really, it is a wonder it took this long.

This savory and sweet breakfast treat, which consists of a fried egg and cherrywood-smoked bacon inside a split glazed yeast ring donut for 360 calories, will now be a permanent menu item at participating U.S. DD restaurants.

You can read all about it at Dunkin’ Donuts. (In case you were wondering, they suggest “the perfect beverage to go with the Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich is a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts Original Blend Coffee.”) But really, what more do you need to know? Bacon. Donut. Egg. Friday.

Twinkies Return!

Hostess Twinkies Box

Twinkies are coming back. After falling apart in bankruptcy, Hostess Brands Inc. has emerged as a new company, Hostess Brands LLC. Buried in this news is an interesting tidbit.

From the WSJ:

But Mr. Metropoulos and his son, Daren, the co-CEO of Pabst Brewing Co. who is also heading up the reborn Hostess’s marketing strategy, expressed confidence they would be able to find skilled, nonunion workers near the four plants, which are in areas with high unemployment.

That’s right, Beer Twinkies! Finally, we can stop trying to make our own.

Oh, and there’s that whole union debate thing too: Teamsters vs. Hostess.

(Via That’s Nerdalicious!)

Hey California: Vote Yes On 37?

Yes on Prop 37

Yes.

This proposition would require food manufacturers to label genetically modified foods.
That’s it. This is only about labeling food.

Here’s why I am voting yes on Proposition 37.

1. I don’t know enough about GMO foods. You don’t either.
2. You are what you eat.
3. Imagine purchasing food without a list of ingredients. This is a turning point, folks.
4. Again, all this proposition does is make it so food is properly labeled. Honestly, this should have happened long ago.

Direct from the Official Voter Information Guide:

A YES vote on this measure means: Genetically engineered foods sold in California would have to be specifically labeled as being genetically engineered.

It’s really that simple. Yes on 37.

CARightToKnow.org

UPDATE 11/7/12: Well, it looks like Big Food won this round by scaring everybody into thinking this would lead to higher food prices. Prop 37 was defeated 53% to 47%.

Too bad. If this line of reasoning made sense we would never see the words “New look — Same great taste!” slapped across package design. Labeling products simply would not have been an expensive undertaking.

However, GMO foods are not going away anytime soon. It’s a pretty good bet this consumer rights issue isn’t going away anytime soon either. Stay tuned.