Amuse Bouche

News from the world of food and wine that you might have missed this week.

• Why the French need to drink more wine.
• A list of America’s most expensive wines.
• Melissa Clark learns to appreciate the sounds of the kitchen.
• What does a mouthful of fresh, warm bull’s blood taste like? A good steak. A Vanity Fair discourse on everything beefy.
• Apparently, the service at MacDonald’s is not what it used to be. A pity.
• Grilled cheese with blue cheese, and radicchio? Sounds really good.
• Saveur taste tests the best canned coffees. At the top of the list is my favorite—Bustelo
• Hmmm. A Chinese Calzone?
• Hmmm X2.  How to deep fry Cicadas.
• Internal emails show that food safety officials were clueless about “pink slime”, the “mystery meat” apparently used in mass-produced hamburgers.
• No more Pork Butt. It is now to be called “Boston Roast”. The FDA gives permission to rename cuts of meat to make them sound more palatable.
• A poem about eating Fugu, the fish that kills.
• How to use the new superfood of the month—chia seeds.
• On the virtues of mortar and pestle.
• It’s about time. Black truffles now being cultivated in Canada. Will it bring down the price?
• The earliest cooking pots were used to cook fish soup.