Food and Cooking

Despite tea’s astounding popularity globally, the United States has long lagged behind many other countries when it comes to tea consumption, and that conception of tea has mostly been limited to iced black tea. This, however, appears to be changing, with the U.S. importing far more tea — in the hundreds of millions of dollars — this decade than it did 30 years ago, with millennials in particular the most likely to be tea drinkers. Matcha is, obviously, everywhere; according to the New Consumer, it usurped chai as the leading specialty tea drink in cafes. A lot more tea, it seems, is about to follow, as new tea-focused businesses sprout up across the country and as tea sees increased applications as a flavor element in food, desserts, and cocktails in addition to its consumption as a standalone drink.

Across the country, teahouses with a similar ethos to Enoki’s are catering to the desire for another kind of space: one that feels slower and more intentional than the average coffee shop, and which offers a different experience than yet another restaurant or high-end cocktail bar.

On March 18, Ron Vachris became the first CEO in recent memory to go viral for something positive. That day, he was featured in a 41-second Instagram video he took on his lunch break. In it, he orders one of his company’s signature $1.50 hot dogs, sits down at a food court table, unsheaths the quarter-pound-plus frankfurter, and takes a huge bite.

While he’s polishing off that famous Costco weiner, he looks into the camera and says, “The hot dog price will not change as long as I’m around.” The clip piled up nearly 9 million views in a single day.

As soon as the post went up, Vachris started receiving messages. Most of them, he tells me over email, went something like this: “It looks like you have enjoyed many hot dogs over the years.”

The overwhelmingly enthusiastic response to the video surprised Vachris, who started at Costco as a forklift driver. “This was done with a cellphone in a warehouse,” he says. “And that’s us, no frills!” He knows the truth: The flowers were not for him. “The Costco hot dog is the star,” he says before dressing up his zinger with a little extra mustard. “I was just along for the ride.”

That might sound like cheeky corporate propaganda, but Vachris is right. There is no fast food item as beloved as the Costco hot dog. For a buck fifty—the price has stayed the same since it was introduced in the ’80s—you get an all-beef dog and a fountain soda (or now, a bottle of water). In the 2025 fiscal year, the warehouse club reportedly sold 245 million of those combos. There’s a reason why Julia Child herself used to eat two Costco dogs at a time with mustard and sauerkraut.

The fact that the Costco dog is inflation proof doesn’t hurt its case, either. “It costs $1.50, and it doesn’t taste like nuclear waste to most people,” says Jamie Loftus, author of the book Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs. “Because there are other $1.50 hot dogs out there. They’re very, very rare now. But even rarer is that you would recommend them to someone or eat them out of anything other than a need for survival.”

In a world where the McDonald’s Dollar Menu is long gone, a 7-Eleven dog costs over $2, and it’s a challenge to stay on budget at Taco Bell, the Costco frank stands alone. It is America’s greatest hot dog. And the country’s last great deal.

For cheesemongers in the United States, these should be creamy times.

“The Big Cheese,” a documentary about mongering, opens at the IFC Center in Manhattan next month, bringing the arts of slicing, wrapping and spieling great cheese to the big screen. Last year, the gold medal at the Mondial du Fromage, a biennial cheesemongering competition in Tours, France, was won by an American for the first time, the culmination of the home team’s decade-long quest to gain the respect enjoyed by European mongers.

There are reasons to celebrate on the public-health front, too. A wedge of cheese reigns in glory near the top of the newly inverted food pyramid the federal government put out in 2025.

Few mongers are cheering, though. They are deeply anxious about the future of their profession.

A chaotic barrage of tariffs and a war in the Middle East have driven up the prices of many cheeses, both imported and domestic. Grocery chains increasingly stock grab-and-go hunks of cheese vacuum-sealed in plastic, slashing jobs for mongers and selling at prices that independent counters can’t match. Smaller stores have trouble finding bright, curd-curious young people who will take minimum-wage pay or just above it to work on their feet all day caring for dense wheels streaked with entrancingly pungent blue mold and luxurious triple-cream rounds that drip like honey.

Kind of a local post for the Pittsburgh region.

Our local Turners Dairy informed my grocery store that they had a new time-limited Strawberry Lemonade, so my manager bought a case. It came in today, and I snagged one to try it. (I'm typically a Snapple kind of guy).

Ok, so not trying to be too rude to Turners here, but what they actually did was combine their Lemonade with an orange concentrate, which they are marketing as Strawberry Lemonade. Total bait and switch. It has no strawberry at all. Not ingredient-wise. Not taste wise.

I for one think its total shit. If you are in this region, and are curious to try it, just don't. And if you work for Turners, please learn to understand the difference between strawberry and orange. They're not even in the same family of taste.

https://biancazapatka.com/en/best-vegan-lentil-soup/#recipe

I just made some, pretty much like this recipe. It tastes amazing. Always buy the cheap veggie broth powder, not the organic one. The organic one lacks msg, which makes it very bland.

I just found this really interesting. I went to Sbarro a lot in high school, but I'd not seek it out now.

Apart from the sage all of them have been grown from plants I got at the nearby convenience store. Had the most success with basil and spring onions so far, but oregano sage and mint is looking promising. Thyme and coriander has not worked yet. Hoping to get to where I don't need to buy much of them anymore and always have these on hand.

Inside a teaching kitchen south-east of Seoul, I coat a whole chicken – cut into eight parts – in batter and dip the pieces carefully into a bowl of powdered mix until covered in a light, fluffy layer.

A chef watches intently. “Don’t rub it,” he says. “Keep it delicate.”

The chicken, already brined in what I’m told is a secret marinade, goes into a fryer filled with an olive oil blend, heated to 165C. I slowly lower the pieces a third of the way, then drop them in away from myself to avoid splashing. I set a timer for 10 minutes.

This is Chicken University, a sprawling campus with a giant chicken statue at the entrance. It exists to train would-be owners of the BBQ Chicken franchise chain through a two-week residential programme. More than 50,000 people have passed through its classrooms.

This humble dish is relatively simple, and is not even traditional Korean cuisine, but it is part of a national obsession that has gone global, both physically and culturally as part of the K-food wave. The country has been only half-jokingly dubbed the Republic of Fried Chicken.

South Korea has around 40,000 fried chicken restaurants – just a few thousand short of the number of McDonald’s branches worldwide. Most are small, family-run operations. But now, Korean chicken brands operate more than 1,800 stores in around 60 countries, nearly double the number of stores a decade ago. From London to Los Angeles, Korean fried chicken appears on the menu.

Founded by engineer Anyell Sanmiguel and research chef Palmiro Ocampo, CCORI promotes food sustainability through optimal cooking, a methodology that trains people in culinary techniques that make it possible to use all the food – preserving it, recycling it, and adding value to all its parts.

For example, the trainings highlight the nutritional value of citrus peels – such as lemons, mandarins, and oranges – and how they can be processed and used in various dishes.

“It was surprising to realize how much we were wasting. Seeing that every product you buy at the market is useful – from the seeds to the pulp to the peel, all of it – is exciting,” Llanos said, speaking in Spanish like everyone interviewed for this story.

Peru, while a source of tremendous food biodiversity, is the Latin American country with the highest levels of food insecurity and one where more than 50% of organic waste – including food – is discarded. Globally, it is estimated that nearly one-third of food ends up in the trash.

Decomposing food contributes to methane emissions that warm our atmosphere and drive climate change. Although food loss occurs throughout the entire supply chain, the kitchen is one place where individual actions can help.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/45012342

i've been preparing mine the same few ways for a while and i'd like to get some more ideas and make a change. how do you prepare yours?

Recipe: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/cinnamon-roll-skillet-pancake-recipe but I subbed strawberries for the cinnamon swirl

I was going for this https://youtu.be/PQOEjQ-vWvs

But I used turnip greens, scallions and pine nuts, and didn't listen when management said I was using too much filling.

Still some how tastier than a pile of mash next to a pile of greens.

So that the meat is tender I'm letting the meat simmer for 4 hours. I put ingredients like onion, ginger, mushrooms during that period. But potatoes I only put them near the end. I also sometimes add apples or pears for some sweet ingredients. Would it be best to put the apple at the same time as the potatoes or is ok to put them before?

The hed isn't really answered to my satisfaction, but it's an interesting look into things.

I made this video because after my Breakfast Bahn Mi video, people were asking how to make the pickled carrots and daikon. So I recorded my girlfriend making it.

Enjoy.

You gotta make this! It's delicious!

Ingredients: •300 g King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour •60 g active sourdough starter (100% hydration — equal parts flour & water) 10/25/25 •8 g table salt •250 g water (room temp to lukewarm)
• 14g olive oil in dough
· 35g olive oil in pan and on top

Hello all, im looking for a new big food chain resturant to try, preferraby in the west coast area, looking to expand my tatse palet this upcoming year, im a very picky eater, thank you!

After conducting research into restaurants, I have noticed a trend: large restaurants reviewing websites have some helpful tips, but can be overwhelming and not as helpful when looking for a unique dining experience. Instead, I tend to find the most useful information about unique dining experiences from websites dedicated solely to specialty types of restaurants.

Each specialty restaurant website caters to just one type of restaurant, thereby providing a lot of in-depth information about that type of restaurant. You are provided with recommendations based on local culinary traditions and cultural aspects related to the cuisine in question.

Coffee lovers in Chicago might appreciate BestCafeChicago.org , which focuses entirely on the city’s café scene. Cafés are organized by neighborhood and specialty drinks, making it easy to find a quiet work spot, a weekend hangout, or a great espresso nearby.

And for anyone navigating London’s constantly changing food scene, London Best Eats offers regularly updated restaurant rankings. The weekly updates make it especially useful if you want recommendations that actually reflect what’s good right now.

For example, Chicago Taco Spot , which specializes in Mexican cuisine, provides only Mexican-style tacos. The website provides detailed information about the different styles of tacos and where they can be found as well as the restaurants that are known throughout Chicago for being authentic. The advice you feel you are getting from Chicago Taco Spot does not come from an algorithm that has been programmed with your preferences; rather, it is coming from a local that loves to eat tacos and has experienced every taco restaurant in Crystal Lake.

If you're a fan of steak, the Steakhouses NY website provides a comprehensive directory of steak houses across New York State. Instead of searching extensively through tons of information, simply click on the state where you wish to dine and you will be presented with a comprehensive list of the best steak houses in that area.

Then there’s HaitianFoods.org , which goes beyond restaurant listings. It celebrates Haitian cuisine and culture, sharing traditional dishes, stories, and restaurants from around the world. It feels less like a guide and more like a cultural space built around food.

These specialty restaurant review websites remind me that local and community-based restaurants provide a better way to identify a restaurant that will offer you a dining experience that will be both personal and rewarding.