We're a sucker for any cooking show that's procedural and not competitive, so we're kowtowing PR's bidding here. Food expert Aida Mollenkamp is having a Q&A show on the Food Network where she will answer viewers' most pressing questions about the culinary arts. And since the questions will be posed in video form and shown on TV, you can use up your 15 minutes of fame by asking her how to make the a......

Oh no. Here it comes again: Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day. For those of you who eat, tomorrow B&J is celebrating their 30th birthday by handing out free cones of ice cream. (We hear their new flavor Cake Batter is downright spectacular, by the way.) Here are a few stores where you can grab some sweet, icy lovin' for nothing: Ben & Jerry's Argonaut 475 Jefferson Street San Francisco, CA 94109 415-263-7233 Ben......

No! Due to the awesome unseasonably cold weather the Bay Area has experienced over the last few months, an estimated 10 to 15 percent of Sonoma County's $400 million vino crop has succumbed to frost damage according to an NBC 4. (An aside: love NBC 4! Most entertaining newscast in the history of the world, ever!) The crisp and energizing weather has also affected vineyards in Mendocino and Lake counties, "where damage to the......

So far eight businesses in the East Bay have been held up by robbers in the past couple of weeks. Last night at around 9 p.m., two suspects hit Restaurant Furenzu on Adeline Street in Emeryville, according to CBS 5 (via Bay City News). While police can't be sure that last night's heist is related to the other ones that have been hitting East Bay restaurants, it does follow the same pattern: "[o]ne of......

(Image credit: hailtothethief21) Is this for real?......

Over at Eater, we noticed that Restaurants & Institutions has released this year's list of the 100 highest-grossing independent restaurants in the U.S. The top of the list? That honor goes to someplace called Tao Las Vegas Restaurant & Nightclub--which sounds like trashy, coked-up fun--followed by that restaurant that was in Tootsie, New York City's Tavern on the Green. But the highest-grossing restaurants in SF? The top spot goes to Fisherman’s Wharf's Scoma’s (23)......

Is this for real, or one of those ridiculous made-uppy New-York-Times-imagined-it problems? Apparently, the times reported a month ago that in SF, there are some low-income students who would rather starve than accept government-subsidized food. And now, at last, the SF Schools Blog offers a loooooong rebuttal with loads of context. Here's the gist: yeah, it's a problem, it's a problem everywhere, but we already knew about it and we're trying solve it. (The......

Although Peet's Coffee kiosks will open up at lucky BART stations later this year, it seems that you won't be able to drink your morning drug while riding to work. Pft. A heavy fine for being caught drinking or eating on Bart, according to the Oakland Tribune, can cost you $250 and up to 48 hours of community service. (BART Police Patrol Bureau Cmdr. Travis Gibson tells the Tribune that "[r]iders can eat and drink inside 'free areas' outside the fare gates ... [b]ut, once inside the 'paid area,' which includes the platform, sipping and chewing are strictly forbidden." Jesus.) Strange, since BART has been giving away free coffee certificates over the past few months....

Herb Peterson, inventor the the McDonald's Egg McMuffin, died this past Wednesday at the age of 89 in his Santa Barbra home. Peterson started his career with McDonald's as vice president of the fast food chain advertising firm, D'Arcy Advertising, where he came up with the questionable slogan, "Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day."...

Photo credit: sfjim123/Flickr Well, can you? Also: ew.......

Photo credit: WhatImSeeing Around 150 protesters were arrested during yesterday's anti-war protest -- "a lesson on how to do it right," raves C.W. Nevius! -- during a rally that was, for the most part, a peaceful affair. Although a few hooligans hurled glass Christmas ornaments loaded with paint at San Francisco police, which seems a bit unnecessary considering how tolerant the police force here acts compared to larger cities such as Los Angeles, people......

Delicious, effervescent cold remedy Airborne, it seems, exaggerated their sniffle-fighting prowess. Turns out they faked their clinical trials, and are now offering you, the customer, some cash back. According to a 2006 ABC report: Airborne said that a double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted with “care and professionalism” by a company specializing in clinical trial management, GNG Pharmaceutical Services. GNG is actually a two-man operation started up just to do the Airborne study. There was......

Yet another to skip the sauteing and hit the Salt House, CHOW's Joyce Slaton has word that an Anderson, South Carolina man died this week after he stabbed himself while cooking. According to Slaton: Michael Downing first burned himself on some noodles he was cutting up in a pan on the stove, and then accidentally stabbed himself in the chest with the knife when he jerked his hand away. Authorities say the steak knife......

The Girl Scouts were out in full force today hawking their partially hydrogenated oily sweetness. Little bitches in green were relentless around city sidewalks this afternoon, and for that we love them. Who knew it was cookie season? We didn't. And at the end of the day we ended up with four boxes of Samoas. Jealous? Also, Thin Mints: disgusting and gross, or just plain gross? Discuss.......

Oh my God, we're so there. If there was ever a reason to kick it over at the Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services, this would be it. Join us tomorrow in our quest for clinical obesity as we head over the the 27th Annual Black Cuisine Cooking Contest & Street Festival. We're not sure what to expect, exactly; the only noir-esque cuisine that comes to mind are peach cobbler, collard greens, and lots......

Sure, these places look like the types of fine dining establishments none of us could afford. Nevertheless we were delighted to read in this morning's New York Times ("Coast to Coast, Restaurants That Count") that San Francisco's Coi and Napa Valley's Ubuntu (a critically-acclaimed restaurant that also doubles as a yoga studio, oh my God) made Frank Bruni's top ten restaurants in the country. Yay us! Regarding Ubuntu, Bruni says: What kind of Kumbaya......

*MUSIC: You know that song at the end of Juno, "Anyone Else But You"? The one Ellen Page and Michael Cera sing to one another? And it's all cute and sad? Well,it was co-written and originally recorded by Kimya Dawson, former half of the Moldy Peaches, and she's over in the East Bay tonight at 924 Gilman. She performs along with Angelo Spencer at this all-ages show. (No booze allowed, by the way.) .......

Well, this is amusing and slightly erotic. And, yes, kids, it's almost over a year old, but for your entertainment, foodies of the Bay Area, check out the Sunday Drinker Wine Review. Joanne Weir should totally have this guy on her show. It would be a good balance. (We love Joanne Weir for reasons we can't really explain or understand.) Anyway, be sure to check out more wine reviews here. And if wine isn't......

Piff! Pow! Zwap! On Valentine's Day at precisely 6 p.m. at Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco will play host to its third annual public pillow fight. And they're looking for a few good men and women. The rules of the fight are as follows: 1) Tell everyone you know about Pillow Fight! 2) Tell EVERYONE YOU KNOW about Pillow Fight!!! 3) Nothing in your pillow but pillow. 4) Don’t hit anyone with out a......

We shamelessly stole today's photo of the day from SF Metblogs. It was reportedly taken at the Ferry Building's farmers market. And while we can imagine such a gruesome display occurring in more exotic parts of the city, we always thought this kind of scene was better hidden at downtown's farmers market. Tsk, tsk. Shameful. Credit: Richard Ault......

For what it's worth: "In celebration of National Pancake Day on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., IHOP, one of America's favorite restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner, will give away one free short stack of its signature buttermilk pancakes to all guests," according to iHOP. But where in heaven's name are we to find an iHOP in gastronomically governed San Francisco? Well, there are two iHOPs in SF: one......

Over on KQED's food blog, Stephanie Lucianovic writes about her spoiled fine-dining engagements due to San Francisco's crippling taxicab companies, which fail to pickup/deliver in a timely fashion. This tardiness, you see, can cancel a reservation. Also, according to her: For us, the worst cab offenders have been Luxor and Yellow Cab. They're both equally horrible, and by the time we finally weaned ourselves off of both companies, we had lost count how many......

Now that donuts have made a return to Bay Area coffee houses--minus its exhausting Homer Simpsonesque, white-trash irony--you can find the preferable pastries at places like Ritual Coffee Roasters (vegan! and actually good!), Seattle's Best at Border's Books & Music (double-glazed), and even Starbucks (plasticky). With the return of the donut comes the return of the brewed coffee. At least, according to today's New York Times, which profiles the Blue Bottle Cafe, scheduled to......

Shamelessly pilfered from Valleywag, we came across this footage, above, of Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin frying cell phones at Machine Project's Fry-b-que. It seems that she likes her technology deep fried with with bacon. And bubble gum tape? This does not look healthy.......

Michael Pollan: Come hear this foodie sensation talk about his latest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, in which he suggests that you should not "eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food." (Impossible. Also, yes, Michael Leaverton, we DO need to know the exercise logs of the fowl we plan on eating.) Catch him tonight in conversation with restaurant critic, Hayes Street Grill chef/co-owner, and local food celeb......

We already expounded the rustic virtues of Michael Chiarello's NapaStyle: a place that helps you get that Napa Valley look, feel, and taste. (Speaking of Chiarello, what happened to his show on KQED? Did he make the move over to the Food Network? While he's no Joanne Weir -- who is, really? -- we enjoyed watching him at times.) What's nice about the place is that it won't overwhelm you in the way that......

Since the advent of the digital camera, we haven't stepped foot inside a Costco. Now we have a reason to return. Today's Hot Stuff ("Catering by Costco") in the Merc rates the appetizers found in the frozen food section of everyone's favorite warehouse store. Some of their top picks are the Full Circle Torta Stella, Cuisine Adventures' spanakopita, Clear Springs' smoked rainbow trout (smoked trout is phenomenal, folks -- miles above smoked salmon), and......

Feel that? Why, those are your heart stings being tugged care of us and this cool little guy over here on the right. (Who like totally did not just make us completely tear up right now, so shut up!) Before we launch a few gift giveaways, why not take a moment to donate some money and/or effort to something worthy? Like giving people food, for example. No gift is too small and every bit......

Whether you call it soda, pop, or cola, you'll have to pay more to buy it if Gavin Newsom gets his way: Matier and Ross report that Mayor Newsom is thinking about taxing city vendors of sugary soft drinks to pay for his Shape Up SF kid fitness programs. The thinking's that the fructose corn syrup that gets added to your Coke [we grew up in the South, so we call 'em Cokes, though we've......

"Mean nut" restaurateur Luisa Hanson -- you know, the person more or less responsible for the Barleycorn closure -- had a swift bit of karma hurled at her head last week. It seems that her flagship, whimsically branded Luisa's, was forced to shut its door. Nothing too unusual. Yet. While initially chalked up to "planned renovations," Eater has the real, juicy, rat-infested scoop as it shutting its doors last Friday. it seems that Luisa's......