Category Archives: Plant-Based Food & Drink

Plant-Based Food & Drink

10 Must-Attend Veg-Fests in the U.S.

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With the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Samuel L. Jackson, Jay Z, Beyonce, and Bill Clinton touting the benefits of vegan diets in the mass media, meatless eating is making its way into popular culture in a big way. There’s no question that the number of folks on a plant-based diet (or at least veg-curious) is rapidly growing.  And with rising numbers of vegan eaters, more cruelty-free options are hitting the market, from grocery store items to restaurants to food festivals.

Food festivals, for instance, used to be the domain of meat eaters and cheese fiends, headlined by chefs famous for their foie gras creations and maple smoked bacon. But lucky for the meatless among us (and the animals of course), there are a whole host of cruelty-free celebrations popping up these days, from New York to San Francisco to Miami. Here are 10 must-attend meatless events across the U.S.

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

The Future of High-Tech Meat Substitutes

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Today’s average American hamburger comes from a cow – but it may not be long before it comes straight from a lab in Silicon Valley.

A growing number of companies are using high tech to create meat and animal product replacements that look like the real thing – but are made with anything but.

And their target market isn’t vegans — it’s true blue carnivores.

From startups like Hampton Creek Foods and Beyond Meat (both backed by Bill Gates) to old-timers like Gardein Protein, the landscape of meat-free products is rapidly expanding. According to a 2013 study by the research firm Mintel, consumers are increasingly interested in beef, poultry and even fish alternatives.

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Animals, Plant-Based Food & Drink

City of South Miami Passes Meatless Monday Resolution

It’s not always easy to be meat-free in Miami. Heck, half the city’s bread is infused with lard. But thanks to a progressive mayor and a dedicated volunteer, vegetarianism just got a major boost with the City of South Miami’s Meatless Monday resolution.

In official language, it’s “in support of comprehensive efforts to protect the environment, our health, and animals, and encouraging residents to participate by choosing meat-free, plant-based meals at least one day a week.”

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

Hampton Creek Foods Seeks to Replace Eggs With Plants

Fast forward a couple years, and it’s likely that those scrambled eggs you eat every morning will have grown in a garden instead of a chicken’s lady parts. That’s thanks toHampton Creek Foods, a food tech company that’s revolutionizing the egg industry with their plant-based substitutes.

The Bill Gates (among other tech heavyweights)-funded startup has been making major waves with their line of eggless eats, from the recently released Just Mayo (now flying off Whole Foods shelves nationwide) to the scrambled egg substitute Just Scramble, hitting shelves early next year.

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

London’s Borough Market is the world’s most amazing food court

In the London district of Southwark, there stands a massive emporium of eating; a world-famous landmark, a bounty of gourmet delights since the 19th century known as Borough Market. Stalls piled high as far as the eye can see with plump, pink radishes; brilliant emerald-colored lettuce; periwinkle carrots; fragrant, golden mushrooms; soil-dusted beets, hearty gourds — and that’s just one lone produce stand.

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Highlights, Plant-Based Food & Drink

South Beach Food and Wine Festival (SOBEWFF) Coverage

Grand Tasting Village: How to Navigate the SoBeWFF Big Event

The Whole Foods Grand Tasting Village is like the open bar at a wedding reception. It’s where everyone wants to be. And when 70,000 foodies gather en masse, you can bet your monthly food budget there’ll be plenty of action.

There have been plenty of unforgettable, Instagram-worthy, LOL-inducing moments over the years. Plus, the food is superlative.

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Anne Burrell Talks Karaoke, Diamond Dishes, and Women in the Biz

Anne Burrell is the Food Network’s bubbly, blond ambassador of good times and great eats. A frequent face on the network, she’s taken turns on Iron Chef America and Best Thing I Ever Ate, hosted Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, and just kicked off season four of Worst Cooks in America and season two of Chef Wanted With Anne Burrell. Her second cookbook is set to be released later this year (her first was aNew York Times bestseller), and she’s participating in a whole host of events at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. She’s kind of a dynamo.

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SoBeWFF: Does the Glass Make a Difference When It Comes to Beer?

Mason jar, can, funnel: prevailing wisdom has generally dictated that almost any vessel is good enough for beer. But times they are a changin’. And as beer evolves from college dorm endeavor to serious palate pursuit – glassware is evolving right along with it.

Yesterday, Spiegelau hosted a seminar entitled, “Beer Tasting With Spiegelau: Does the Glass Make a Difference?” And after sitting through the 90-minute show and tell, we can honestly say — it totally does.

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SoBeWFF: Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson Drink PBR; Talk Tattoos, Runny Eggs and Christopher Walken

Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson might be the hottest culinary duo since bacon met the frying pan. And yesterday, the Taste stars took the stage together at the SoBeWFF.

Lounging on a couch, the two talked significant others, guilty pleasures and Christoper Walken. Oh, and drank beer. Seriously, PBR has never seemed so sexy.

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SoBeWFF: Stocking Your Home Bar With Tony Abou-Ganim

The party follows Tony Abou-Ganim. One hour with the modern mixologist, and we felt like we’d signed up for grown-up spring break. As he himself said, “it’s no coincidence negroni rhymes with Tony.”

And in fact, we learned more from yesterday’s “Stocking and Tending Your Home Bar” seminar than we did in four years of high school Spanish. Adult education at its best.

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SoBeWFF: With Enough Wine, You Too Can Cook Like Robert Irvine

Robert Irvine is kind of a bad ass. In addition to his buffed up bod (which we’ve been lucky enough to see shirtless at last year’s SoBeWFF), he’s got the vast array of knowledge to school many an amateur (and pro) chef. Last night, he was on hand to help sauced up cooks prepare pasta tableside.

Irvine took the helm at the Barilla interactive dinner at the iconic Biltmore Hotel, and tipsy attendees learned a lesson or two from theKitchen Impossible chef.

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

Why Broward County needs a food policy council

Like most issues in our labyrinthian modern lives, the concept of eating locally can be a lot more complicated than it looks. From a lack of local farms to dubious sourcing by supermarkets, it can be tough for consumers to make the right decisions, even with the best of intentions behind them.

Michael Madfis, owner of Fort Lauderdale Vegetables and advocate for decentralized farming, thinks that one of the key elements to upping our consumption of locally grown food is to start a Food Policy Council (FPC). An FPC is, essentially, a group of stakeholders from different food-related sectors that examine how the food system is operating and figure out how to improve it. And Madfis thinks South Florida needs one, stat.

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

Creepy foods for Halloween

Let’s face it – a party is an exercise in one-upmanship. If you don’t impress your neighbor, your college roommate and the guy who sits in the cube across from you, it was a failed proposition. And when it comes to grown up Halloween parties – the ickier, the better. (Unless you’re the squeamish type, in which case, stick to cupcakes and pumpkin pie.)

As kids, spaghetti entrails and peeled grape eyeballs might have cut it, but as adults, it’s time to upgrade to some seriously creepy Halloween grub. We’re talking bloody hearts, oozing brains and dismembered heads. Yum.

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

Food fails list

When it comes to our favorite brands, it seems we’re more likely to remember the epic successes (Doritos Locos Tacos anyone?) than the equally epic failures. But failures, there are aplenty.

Dangerous, disgusting, or just plain absurd, these gastronomic gaffes may be fun to laugh at now, but it wouldn’t be so amusing if we were all forced to drink New Coke, now would it?

From Four Loko to KFC’s Double Down, here’s our round up of some of the food industry’s most notorious creations.

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

Wood burning pizza truck hits Miami

If you thought pizza on wheels only went as far as a teenager going door to door for Domino’s, think again. Miami’s latest pizza phenomenon is a converted bus complete with what the owners say is Florida’s first wood-burning oven on wheels. It’s a saucy ride, all right.

Inspired co-owners and couple Katy Westman and Chris Noe converted a former handicap transit bus into a pie-making machine — with a little help from their friends, natch. Their fire-engine red Firewall Food Truck is one of the newest additions to the South Florida scene, and certainly one of the most unique.

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