Splitting the bill at the end of a large meal can be a challenge — and a friendship test. (Any person who cannot honestly and quickly settle a bill in a shared meal is no kind of friend, and someone who is willing to short a group of friends after…
Umami Burger is something of a California icon. The restaurant has more than a half-dozen locations in L.A. and scads of accolades including GQ’s “Burger of the Year.” By most accounts, it makes a fine burger for two main reasons: 1. It uses quality meat in its ground. 2. Those…
In light of Yelp extortionists and other less-than-awesome experiences at restaurants across the nation, perhaps there is a market for Talk to the Manager, a new service that provides anonymous communication between consumers and the restaurants they eat at. TTTM acts as a digital middlemen between customers on a business…
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently proposed a ban on the sale of sodas larger than 16 ounces in an effort to combat obesity. The ban would prohibit the sale of these sodas in pretty much every public place in NYC except for the supermarket. We could dwell on the…
Nathan Myhrvold used to be the chief technology officer for Microsoft, then he retired and co-authored the $625, six-volume cookbook, “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking.” The book embraced the burgeoning field of molecular gastronomy and used some extreme techniques, including sawing cooking equipment in half, to demonstrate…
Editor’s Note: Obtaining a basic business account through Yelp is in fact a free process as is responding directly to Yelp reviews. Generally, here at Chow Bella we tend to report on restaurant owners behaving badly. Whether that be Amy’s Baking Company’s Yelp tirade or Tina’s Ethiopian Cafe’s comment section…
If you’ve been following the news out of Florida these last couple of weeks, you might be kicking yourself for not sauntering down to the survivalist expo earlier this month. In that spirit, let’s talk about what is possibly the most impractical awesome drinking vessel ever milled out of a…
Japanese illustrator Mao Sugiyama had his genitals removed on his birthday, March 31. A couple of weeks later, he served those genitals — scrotum, testicles and penis — at a special dinner where six “lucky” individuals paid the equivalent of $250 to consume them. Sugiyama advertised this unique meal via…
Mirth, which announced its existence at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NYC convention, bills itself as a business-friendly alternative to deal programs like Groupon and LivingSocial. A Mirth account is attached to your credit card and automatically recognizes when you’ve gone to an establishment twice in a single month. This makes you a…
Food festivals have been a point of contention here at Chow Bella and among our treasured readers. Our resident food critic even put the question of their worth to local chefs, and though the response was generally positive, there were some notable dissenters. Let me suggest that’s because we don’t…
This is potentially the ultimate in truth in advertising, perhaps even the anti-Fauxbe beef. Brazilian fruit juice company Camp wanted to take their claims of being “made with 100 percent fruit juice” one brilliant advertising step further. Advertising firm Ageisobar spent two years developing molds that would allow them to…
Have you ever polished off a $6 burger at Carl’s Jr. and said to yourself, “By Jove, what I need now is another smaller burger made of ice cream”? Probably not, but the food scientists at Carl’s Jr. certainly did and, by their will alone, have brought The Brrrger into…
Popcorn is delicious and provided you don’t slather it in faux butter, it’s reasonably healthy for you too. But have you ever wondered what popcorn looks like when it actually pops? Have you never been dumb enough to open a pot coated in boiling oil and look for yourself? Do…
The food science news has been pretty dire the past couple of months. Our fancy beef isn’t what it claims, the tacocopter was a hoax, red meat will probably kill you in your sleep, etc. The Good News: This week, researchers at the National Cancer Institute released a study peeking…
Play the video before you continue reading. Trust us, it’ll enhance the reading experience and really set the mood. Rebuilt from the hull of a Douglas DC-3 the Space Shuttle Cafe started operation in 2005. But the history of the underlying vehicle stretches back to WWII. It was converted from…
Laura dropped a list of her favorite metro Phoenix gelato joints earlier this week and fortuitously, the fine folks over at Cool Gelato Italiano passed along a coupon good for a buy one, get one half-off deal. But first, a PSA from the friendly Vegan Police:…
Alinea is one of those restaurants with a webpage that doesn’t make it immediately clear whether they serve food or design furniture for Ikea. The type of restaurant that counts a derivatives trader as part of its creative team and partnered with a science equipment manufacturer to create an “Anti-Griddle,”…
The end of foie gras in California is rapidly approaching. On July 1, the full provisions of SB 1520 will go into effect and both foie gras production and sale will be prohibited. SB 1520 was signed into law by Arnold Schwarzenegger way back in 2004. The law gave a…
We know many of you fine folk went to see The Avengers last weekend. We know this because The Avengers has smashed its way through a bunch of records in its opening week. If you haven’t seen it, let us give you two bits of advice: 1. Stay through all…
Do you crave long hours, low pay, and near-constant verbal abuse while you’re filmed under unflattering lights? Then, boy, does Fox have a job offer for you! Celebrity chef and professional firebrand Gordon Ramsay has a new season of Hell’s Kitchen coming out, and a casting call for his show…
Last week, Popchips released a series of faux dating ads staring Ashton Kutcher in a number of roles and targeted for the ever-popular viral market. One of those ads, featuring Kutcher in brownface and aping an Indian accent, went viral in all the wrong ways. After an uproar on social…
We’re not sure what’s funnier, the tongues firmly set in cheeks of the models, or the guy at 1:20 who “sexily” removes his apron while LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” throbs in the background. Hopefully no first-graders will be suspended from their home economic classes after being exposed to…
