Slashfood

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Things are heating up in the FIFA World Cup, with the Quarter-Finals beginning tomorrow, and as Slashfood's World Cup of Beer continues, we imagine you taste testers are getting quite tipsy. Funnily enough, none of the remaining contenders for the world's best beer are actually still in the running for the real soccer trophy. Nevertheless, we carry on in our mission to anoint the winner for your favorite brew in the world.

If you're just tuning in, let us give you the instant replay of what's transpired thus far: Slashfood chose 32 beers to represent each country playing in the World Cup, and then opened voting across two days in our 2010 World Cup Beer Tournament. You narrowed the suds down even further by voting in our Knockout Round, resulting in 8 teams that will face off in our Quarter-Finals: France vs. USA; Nigeria vs. England; Japan vs. Portugal; and Denmark vs. Switzerland.

You'll have until 5PM on Monday, July 5 to weigh in on which beers you think should advance to the Semi-Finals. Feel free to vote by the polls (after the jump) or via Twitter or Facebook.

Need a beer refresher? Josh Bernstein gives an in depth look at all 32 beers in the brackets. (Click on the chart to enlarge.)

Vote for your favorite beer(s) after the jump, via Twitter or on Facebook.

What goes around, comes around -- and in Seattle these days, that's truer than ever. Seattle's restaurants may have taken a blow when the city began requiring compostable serviceware, but the world of compost is about to boom. The city's new law goes into effect this week, and according to the Seattle Times, at least one company is preparing to pick up some major new business.

Cedar Grove, which has one location in the Seattle suburb of Everett, WA, has reportedly contracted with about half the 3,400 or so restaurants in the Seattle area, and is readying itself for the onslaught of biodegradable cups, trays, and wrappings. Cedar Grove spokesperson Susan Thoman told Slashfood, "Historically we've experienced incremental increases, but we're totally prepared and ready to take in new volumes that come in from the new ordinance. We do have the capacity, and we're working collaboratively with the city."

They may be the most expensive menus in the world -- and we're not talking about the price of the truffle mac 'n' cheese.

It's the menus themselves: at a restaurant in Sydney, Australia, the hostess doesn't hand you a boring old paper menu, but a brand new iPad.

We've got to admit, that's pretty cool.

The custom app at Mundo, in North Sydney, not only allows you to touch screen your way through the restaurant's selection of internationally inspired tapas, but when you've decided between the Szechwan Calamari or the Kingfish Ceviche, you can send the order to the kitchen yourself.

Whether it was baked chicken or a grilled steak, it's likely that the meat you had for dinner last night contained an array of pharmaceuticals. Alarmed by potential drug resistance in both animals and in humans, on Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called for more judicious use of antimicrobial drugs in the production of animals raised for food.

Antimicrobial drugs were introduced to industrial farming more than 50 years ago as a way to prevent disease in animals. But the FDA is concerned that many of the drugs have lost their effectiveness due to the development of drug-resistant microbial strains. The government agency wants meat producers to stop using the drugs to boost production and promote growth.

"Limiting the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals only for assuring animal health. Unfortunately, many operations use antimicrobials to increase production, or to produce larger animals, which contributes to the misuse of the drugs and raises the possibility of antibiotic resistance," FDA officials said in a statement.

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• Color yourself patriotic with red, white and blue recipes.
• Boonies or Big City? -- you decide.
• This princess cake isn't a one-dimensional Disney character.
• John Besh serves a midday mudbug meal.
• If Art Smith can lose weight, you can too.
• Heat up Independence Day with jalapeño nacho cheeseburgers.

What with their D.C. locale and early-summer season, we expected Top Chef to go big on the Fourth of July this year. We just didn't know how big. Would the cheftestants be catering a Tea Party tea party, complete with reactionary finger sandwiches (or do Tea Partiers prefer Hot Pockets)? Would they be providing fruit and veggie snacks at the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings?

Alas, our current-events obsessed fantasies were better than the truth: pie, grilling and a White House intern picnic. That's the best they could come up with? It's going to take more ammunition than this to reverse those lackluster ratings. Luckily, with each passing week, the cheftestants bring the crazy -- in both their behavior and their ingredients.

Ergo, an apple pie is not an apple pie without a bunch of curry and dates in it (courtesy of the perpetually teary eyed Steven). Grandma's banana cream pie recipe isn't complete without a dollop of foamy celery spuma (Ed). And "Bananas Foster with currants and Chinese five spice," while not the words we'd use to describe a pie, is downright restrained when it comes to a Top Chef dessert.

Grilled corn-on-the-cob is Mexican street food the way street food should be. After it hits the grill, the roasted corn is slathered with a creamy blend of mayo, chile, and white, salty Cotija cheese and the juice of a fresh lime. Cotija is part goat's milk and part cow's milk, it crumbles easily and when aged (anjeo) tastes a bit like parmesan. (You can substitute a good parmesan or pecorino if you can't find Cotija.) If you're ready to barbecue like you're in Michoacán, Mexico, even if you're in Missoula, Montana, try this Kitchen Daily recipe for a version of this grilled corn.

And for roasting tips, and another corn-lime-and-chili recipe, see this Slashfood post.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool for a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

While you're whiling away the afternoon at Uncle Joe's barbecue on July 4th, we won't blame you if your mind drifts to more exciting places. Life & Style Weekly and Slashfood.com want to know: