Our weekly serving of off-the-menu items—a few popular favorites from the week as well as a few morsels that may have slipped your notice.
The Story of Patel Brothers, the Biggest Indian Grocery Store in America
The beloved recipe and cooking tips site Food52 is expanding their editorial coverage and this personal profile of the Patel Brothers grocery store, founded in a storefront on Devon Avenue in Chicago in 1971 and now a $140-million emporium with 51 locations stretching from the Midwest, down the East Coast to Texas and across the country to California.
Beyond Meatballs
Can the world’s largest furniture manufacturer transform the future of food? IKEA announced the launch of a food innovation incubator program, inviting startups to spend three months in one of the company’s labs in Sweden with access to the prototype shop, a test lab, and access to their team of food scientists.
Most of the World’s Bread Clips are Made Here
Atlas Obscura takes into some of the less known corners of our weird and wonderful world and in this week’s food edition, they share a brief history of Kwik Lok Closure, the company that produces most of the world’s bread clips.
Beans, Beans, They’re Good for Your Heart…
Could eating beans be the magical solution to climate change? Researchers at Loma Linda University propose that swapping out methane-heavy beef production for beans. According to the study, 42% of cropland currently used for beef production would be liberated for other uses if we shifted to bean and legume production.
Fermented, the Film
We’re huge fans of fermentation so we’re looking forward to traveling with Chef Edward Lee around the globe as he delves into the history and culture of one of our most primitive cooking technique. Fermented is the newest film project from the producers behind Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and Mind of a Chef and will debut next week at the Seattle International Film Festival.
Sculptural Suggestions of Sweetness of Fruit and Nature
At “Body Variations,” artist Heather Rasmussen’s solo exhibition currently on view at Acme gallery in Los Angeles, fruit and limbs are arrayed in sculptural vignettes, speaking to the long tradition of the vegetal as stand ins for the delight of the flesh. On view through June 10th.
