World on a Plate, champion of New England from here in the Northern California, has uncovered a new food novelty product, the Cool Dog Sundae an ice cream hot dog cradled in a sponge cake bun. According to the New York Times, who's obviously as excited as I am about the product, the creator, Peter Franklin, spent years perfecting molding technology to get an authentic looking hot--complete with pleats at the end. The next innovation are the toppings--ketchup (raspberry) and mustard (mango). Competition comes from the more established, Good Humour Choco Tacos. Distribution is limited to amusement parks, BJs Wholesale ($7.99 for 8) and of course, Fenway Park, home of the 2004 World Series Boston Red Sox.
Chiquita, the world's largest banana producer, is purchasing pre-packaged salad producer Fresh Express. This diversifies Chiquita's product mix and provides a leadership position in the pre-packaged salad market. Bananas made up 85 per cent of their annual sales. According to the news article, "Fresh Express pioneered ready-to-dress salad greens in 1989 and now dominates 40 percent of the $2.7 billion market." Fresh Express also supplies McDonald's, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut with salads an d more recently with fruit. No doubt the benefit of a higher profit margin had a hand in the decision.
Happy Birthday! Epicurious is 10. Born as a recipe database of 500 to CondeNet, a division of publishing giant Conde Nast it's evolved into a 20,000 collection from Gourmet and Bon Appetit. New user enhancements are expected in the coming year such as a recipe contest, "a series of 10 contests will kick off in March, inviting users to show off their creativity in the kitchen. Each contest will be based on a culinary theme." Another planned feature is Epi to Go, "enables users to download recipes onto their mobile phones or PDAs."
New York City cheese lovers looking to expand your horizons can now take classes at The Cheese Course. The school owned by Murray's Cheese Shop covers subjects such as pairing beer and cheese, intro to Spanish cheese, and also the more serious matter of , 'Can Pastuerized Taste as Good as Raw?'. Full details and schedule of classed can be found at their website.
Image credit: Cool Dogs website
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