A Few New Links for you

Fast Food Nation: The Movie: After you stuff yourself with Thanksgiving turkey, you might go see Fast Food Nation, a movie adaptation of Eric Schlosser's wildly popular book. Sure, I know it's all artificial flavor, but reading that book just made me crave McDonald's french fries. Hmmmm. Beef flavory goodness. It's playing at the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema at the Fashion Mall.


Caution: Eye rolling ahead: A Fishers couple has sued Starbucks over burns their child received when a cup of too-hot hot chocolate spilled in the car. I have so many questions about this incident. Why, if the kid was young enough to be in a car seat, did the parents just pass the cup to her? It's like having a tiny person back there saying "can I have that half caf with low-fat whipped topping?" Sure, they were at a drive through, but why didn't the parent test how hot it was first? (Of course, they're supposed to serve kid drinks at a lower temperature, but it's still too hot for kids. Would you just get your Starbucks drink and pass it over to your kid?) And of course, why oh why are they suing now over something that happened two years ago -- in November of 2004? I'm sure the parents are sad about the scalding their child suffered, but did it ever occur to them that it might not be Starbucks' fault? Just sayin'.

New Link for You: If you haven't been reading Amateur Gourmet, then you've been missing a ton of fun. Not only was he a strong contender in the Battle Foie Gras with Meganut.com, deveining like a champ and creating a great tourchon (except for that red eye), he recently was the beneficiary of the White Truffle tasting menu at Alain Ducasse resulting in one of the funniest posts I've ever scene -- right down to the unfortunate truffle shuffle at the end.

The Robot Sommelier...or Something More Sinister? And in what was possibly the funniest thing I read all week, Meganut.com reports on a very new, very sophisticated Japanese robot -- the wine steward. The device is so technologically advanced, it can recognize wines, cheese, meats, and other hors' d'ourvres right down to the brand. This is all fine but when a reporter got his hand too close, it identfied it as proscuitto. (The headline "Robot Thinks Human Hand is Proscuitto" is possibly my favorite headline of the last month.) Hey, don't laugh, we may have just gotten a tiny glimpse of the future. Run for your lives!