Food And Drink

Labels like "wild" and "Gulf" are often inaccurate

Shrimp may be America’s most popular seafood, but that doesn’t mean we know much about the crustaceans on our plates.

A new study by Oceana, a marine conservation advocacy group, finds that 30% of shrimp products are misrepresented — either mislabeled as the wrong species, called or implied to be “wild” when in fact it was farmed, or mixed in a bag with various species. In one instance, the researchers found an aquarium species not meant for human consumption that was mixed in with frozen wild shrimp.

Misrepresentation varied by region; in Portland, Ore., where shrimp are especially popular, only 5% were labeled in a misleading way. In New York City, of the grocery stores that were visited for the study, 67% sold shrimp that was misrepresented.

The issue stems in part from a lack of general information available when purchasing these products, the researchers said. In many cases, retailers and restaurants don’t offer information about the shrimp’s species or country of origin, or whether it was farmed or caught in the world. Oceana argues that improving traceability of seafood would help decrease label fraud and enable consumers to make sustainable choices.

The company says the move does not come in response to a Palestinian activist-led boycott

SodaStream announced Wednesday that it will move a controversial facility located in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. The company said that their reason for moving was “purely commercial,” and not due to pressure from Palestinian activists.

The Israeli company will relocate its operations from Maaleh Adumim in the West Bank to Lehavim, northern Israel by 2015. “We are offering all employees the opportunity to join us in Lehavim, and specifically, we are working with the Israeli government to secure work permits for our Palestinian employees,” SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum said, according to the Associated Press.

Palestinian activists launched a boycott of the company because of its location in the West Bank, land that Israel has controversially laid claim to since 1967. Up until now, the company has maintained that shutting down its facility—which employed 500 Palestinians, 450 Israeli Arabs and 350 Israeli Jews—would not benefit the cause for Palestinian statehood or the Israeli-Palestine peace process.

Scarlett Johansson was swept up in the controversy earlier this year when the actress stepped down from her position as an Oxfam International ambassador over her role as a spokesperson for SodaStream. The Avengers actress said she had a “fundamental difference of opinion” with the international charity, which opposes all trade from the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Johansson later defended the ad: “I’m coming into this as someone who sees that factory as a model for some sort of movement forward in a seemingly impossible situation,” she said. “Until someone has a solution to the closing of that factory to leaving all those people destitute, that doesn’t seem like the solution to the problem.”

Meanwhile, SodaStream has been having a hard time convincing U.S. consumers to buy at-home soda machines. Its third-quarter earnings dropped 14% from last year.

[AP]

Here's what to eat and drink on October 31

This article originally appeared on Food & Wine.

One of the worst parts about being an adult is that, unless you want a weird neighborhood reputation, you can’t go trick-or-treating anymore. But one of the best parts about being an adult is that you can buy as much candy as you want and don’t have to wait for your parents to meter it out to you. Not only that, but now you can also drink while you eat it. To help us choose appropriate wines, we enlisted Alpana Singh, owner of the Boarding House in Chicago, judge on Food Network’s Food Truck Faceoff and the youngest woman to ever become a master sommelier (she was 23). Here are her recommendations for what to pair with whatever your favorite candy might be (NO CANDY CORN).

1. Sour Patch Kids and 2012 Hogue Late Harvest Riesling, Washington State ($9):

A mouth-puckering Riesling with sweet and sour notes of green apples, apricots and honey make for a seamless match with Sour Patch Kids.

2. Laffy Taffy and 2013 Quady Electra Moscato, California ($11):

Be it banana, green apple, watermelon or strawberry taffy, this versatile, slightly sparkling dessert wine with flavors of apricots, honey and green apples is sure to out a smile on your face.

3. Butterfinger and Pellegrino Sweet Marsala, Italy ($13):

Marsala isn’t just for making chicken. Enjoy the sweet raisin flavors with notes of toffee and buttered nuts with the slight salty and nutty flavors of Butterfinger candy.

4. Nerds and Dr. L Sparkling Riesling, Germany ($13):

Nerds are inherently sour and then sweet which perfectly describes this sparkling wine. The bubbles also act as a palate cleanser to get you ready for your next bite.

5. Mr. Goodbar and Sandeman Tawny Port, Portugal ($15):

Milk chocolate and roasted peanut flavors meld beautifully with the caramel, raisin, toffee and nutty notes of this delightful Port.

6. Nestle Crunch and 2012 Dashe Late Harvest Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley ($24):

Sweet raspberry and strawberry flavors really bring out the crunchy milk chocolate goodness.

7. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Emilio Lustau Solera Sherry, Spain ($37):

The raisin, caramel and almond flavors enhance the creamy peanut butter filling.

More from Food & Wine:

• 10 Ways to Fool People Into Thinking You Know About Wine
• The Ultimate Candy Guide
• 10 Chocolate Candy Recipes
• Candy Remix Recipes
• Before Cronuts: 50 Years of Pastry Hybrids

Life would be better if going to the doctor were like going to the bar

This article originally appeared on Food & Wine.

Life would be better if going to the doctor were like going to the bar. Way back in the days of yore, it used to be. Apothecaries, which were like pharmacists and doctors and herbalists rolled into one, often prescribed bitters and tinctures (alcohol-based infusions) to their customers. Now, sadly, your doctor won’t write you a script for Angostura—but mixologist Albert Trummer will. The man who brought the apothecary-influenced Apothéke to New York City is opening The Drawing Room at the Shelborne Wyndham in Miami this October. There, he’ll use his “little formula book” to make elixirs and cocktails designed to cure customers’ ailments.

Don’t expect to find aspirin-laced martinis or even medical marijuana-infused Manhattans on the menu. “I don’t want to compete with Pfizer,” Trummer says. His cocktails, elixirs and bitters are all made with natural (and legal) herbs, spices and fruits.

Here, a few of Trummer’s most useful prescriptions.

Ailment: Stress
Cure: Gin & Tonic from the Market
For his green market take on a classic gin and tonic, Trummer pours an herbaceous gin like Bombay Sapphire over fresh thyme, basil and cucumber. He tops it with Fever-Tree tonic water and house-made herbal bitters. Both thyme and rosemary are known to be natural stress relievers—and, of course, the alcohol content doesn’t hurt.

Ailment: Back pain
Cure: Aztec Medicine
For this painkilling cocktail, Trummer mixes muddled pineapple with Santa Teresa Rum, fresh lime juice and, the key ingredient, his own elixir #5. He makes the elixir with a tequila and mezcal base. “The Aztecs used to muddle blue agave and brew it to help relieve pain,” Trummer explains. Also in the elixir: herbs, habanero peppers (spicy peppers are known to help relieve pain) and aloe (whose curative powers anyone prone to burns will know well).

Ailment: Jet lag
Cure: Vanilla Negroni
“I practice this drink on myself because I have to fly all over the place,” says Trummer. He mixes a super-herbal sweet vermouth like one from Torino with Campari, gin and a few drops of his vanilla elixir. The vanilla doesn’t add sweetness, just the essence of vanilla. “I have two of those and I am over the jet lag,” he says.

Ailment: Insomnia
Cure: Red Wine Sangria
“No Champagne, no tequila, no mezcal,” says Trummer. “You need a red wine–based cocktail like sangria with cloves. If you do yoga on the beach and drink a couple of glasses of clove-heavy sangria, you’ll have a really good sleep.”

Ailment: Congestion
Cure: Saffron-Infused Bourbon
For people with blocked-up sinuses, Trummer serves a saffron-infused bourbon with rhubarb, celery and lavender essences. “It’s very cleansing,” he says.

Ailment: The Blues
Cure: The Healthy Brain
“I think there’s a happy hormone in Champagne,” Trummer says. To lift spirits, he recommends the occasional morning glass of Champagne with his own chocolate bitters made with cocoa beans, Cognac, a few drops of Angostura and some melted Valrhona chocolate.

More from Food & Wine:

• 12 Garden-to-Glass Cocktails
• Campari Cocktails
• Reinvented Classic Cocktails
• 15 Beautiful Cocktails

Sadly, it's not edible

It’s time to move to Japan.

Not only do they get the goth-meets-gross black chicken sandwich at Burger King, snake-flavored ice cream and a tear sommelier, but now they are getting a KFC-branded fried chicken keyboard, too. It’s the perfect thing to write your resignation letter on as you pack your bags and head east.

A contest run by the Japanese branch of KFC is offering a chance to win KFC swag like a fried chicken keyboard, a fried chicken drumstick mouse that will make you drool all over the keyboard, and a fried chicken thumb drive that will have you backing up data in style.

Unfortunately, the contest is only open to KFC fans who are residents of Japan. Guess we’ll have to type on our boring old keyboards and console ourselves with waffle tacos and taco socks and terrifying Happy Meals. Or move.