Slashfood

Halfway through this hellaciously hot summer, and I sound like a broken record. Not a sweaty day passes when I don't bemoan the fact that my shirt is sticking to my back -- and my desk chair, where I'm typing these words.

This oppressive heat has made me daydream about blizzards, ice storms and a single-digit wind chill factor. But while Christmas is still months away, I can still pretend it's St. Nick season thanks to Short's Brewing's most curious new release, Spruce Pilsner.

That northern Michigan's Short's would brew a beer with the tips of blue spruce trees is not surprising. Over the last half decade, founder Joe Short has crafted crazy-inventive beers. His Bloody Beer was concocted with roma tomatoes, horseradish, dill and other bloody Mary seasonings. The S'mores Stout incorporated graham-cracker crumbs, marshmallows and milk chocolate. Über Goober is an oatmeal stout packed with peanut-y goodness.

New York City's Serendipity 3 restaurant has a history of doing stunts to make the Guinness World Records. They've scored twice before -- with the World's Most Expensive Ice Cream Sundae and the World's Largest Hot Chocolate -- and on Friday, they did it again with the World's Most Expensive Hot Dog, which will sell for $69.

So how do you get a hot dog to cost nearly 70 bucks? First, you start with a regular Serendipity 3 foot-long beef hot dog, which already sells for $8.50 -- a little more than your average street dog in New York (and a lot tastier, I'll admit). Then you use the tried and true pre-recession stunt of chefs around the world: Add foie gras, then add truffles, repeat as necessary until the price tag explodes. (The other surefire fancifier -- caviar -- would taste a little gross on a hot dog, though Serendipity 3 puts it on a burger.)

To be more specific, this particular "Haute Dog" (as it's being marketed) is grilled in white truffle oil and is served on a chewy pretzel-bread bun (sort of like a cross between a soft pretzel and a baguette) that's toasted with white truffle butter. It's topped with foie gras pâté with black truffles. Condiments (served on the side) include Dijon mustard with black truffles, caramelized Vidalia onions and ketchup made with heirloom tomatoes (more like a tart tomato relish).

I tasted the dog this morning (breakfast of champions), and I've gotta admit, it was darn tasty. My notes, after the jump.

It looks like some folks in British Columbia are aiming to give purveyors of Kobe beef a run for their money. If they have their way, wine-fed Okanagan beef may soon be turning up next to Japan's prime bovine on the menu of high-end steakhouses.

That's right, "wine-fed" cattle -- as in, each cow gets a liter of Okanagan Valley red wine mixed into its feed every day for the last 90 days before it is processed. Yes, it seems strange at first, but when you stop to think about it, red wine and beef are one of the most classic pairings imaginable. What seems even stranger, then, is why didn't someone think of this sooner?

According to the Vancouver Sun (Vancouver is about four hours west of the Okanagan Valley), the genius credit here goes to Janice Ravndahl, a local meat purveyor from the town of Kelowna who also happens to come from five generations of Canadian cattle ranchers.

You might want to think twice before rinsing off raw chicken in your kitchen sink.

Recent studies by the British Food Standards Agency show that rinsing chicken can potentially spread bacteria on work surfaces in a three-foot radius, The Daily Telegraph reported. The report says up to 75 percent of consumers wash poultry before consuming it.

The FSA says 65 percent of raw chicken is contaminated with campylobacer, the most common cause of food poisoning, the paper reported. And while cooking will kill the bug, Campylobacter causes more than 300,000 cases of food poisoning and 15,000 hospitalizations a year in England and Wales.

The newest food stuff to come under scrutiny isn't a member of the fast-food circuit but rather of Native American culture: fry bread. This doughy hole-less puff is best centered under a helping of chili, soaking in juices to be eaten by the finger-pluck-full.

But according to Health magazine's June 29 report, it's among the 50 fattiest foods in the country, reports Argus Leader, a local newspaper of Sioux Falls South Dakota, whose large Native American population named fry bread the state bread in 2005. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that one slice of fry bread the size of a large paper plate has about 25 grams of fat," the magazine's report notes. And a recent episode of fitness show "Losing it with Jillian" depicts the bread as "poisonous," the Leader reports.

• Here are the best grilling tips for the top five cuts of pork ribs. No ribbing.
• The Trib has a recipe lost-and-found. (You can kiss the next half hour goodbye.)
• You know to eat your blueberries and walnuts. But what about kamut and chia seeds?
• Wondering where the Chicago-area farmers markets are? Look no further.
• Chicago researchers have found that people are bringing happy hour home these days.

Here's what I call gutsy: Take a food you've never eaten before, and instead of making it into something simple and traditional, just to see if you'll like it, make something really out there and weird. Weird in a good way. That's what blogger habeasbrulee has done with this fava bean and cherry salad. Huh? I mean, there's Middle Eastern ful, and there's a soup, or there's a side of favas with a spritz of lemon. But this adventurous soul, who'd never tasted a fava, sautéed the beans in ramp butter (!), added sweet cherries and minced preserved lemon, and claims the salad is delicious. OK, I'm game. See her post for more. For more recipes featuring fava beans (none of which involve ramp butter), see this Slashfood post.

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

While no one knows who will be duking it out in Super Bowl XLV next February in Dallas, the Taste of the NFL celebrity food fest held before the big game is on track to be the largest in history, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Event organizers say they expect to sell more than 3,000 tickets for meals made by at least 45 celebrity chefs, making it a record-breaker over 6 months before the first course is served on Feb. 5, 2011, the paper reported.

"This will likely be our biggest event from a ticket sales standpoint," spokeswoman Linda Bendt told the paper. "Anything over 3,000 would exceed previous events."

It is the twentieth Taste of the NFL event to be held on Super Bowl Eve to raise money to fight hunger.

Organizers say they're trying to limit ticket sales to make sure the chefs aren't biting off more than they can chew.