Five on Food: Articles from the Wednesday Dining Pages

1) Mangosteens Arrive, But be Prepared to Pay.  New York Times.  First, Indian mangoes, now mangosteens. Willing to pay $45 a pound? You too can try this formerly forbidden fruit.  Read up on the southeast Asian treat that’s due to arrive at a Dean and Deluca near you. 

2) Whisked Away. Chicago Tribune.  While the article doesn’t tell us anything new– people take vacations in August–it does offer creative choices for food travel.  Vietnam for a week of cooking classes?  Five day boot camp at CIA?  A week long food tour in Tuscany?  Fun alternatives to 101 degree Washington in August.

3) Cheesemakers in Paradise. Boston Globe.  Summer camp for cheeseheads (or turophiles, as cookthink.com informs us) reveals more people are making– and eating–cheese:

 Per Capita US Cheese Consumption Nears 32 Pounds After Big 06 Jump,” trumpets the front page of the July 27 issue of the weekly Cheese Reporter. Consumer interest in artisan cheese is on the rise. And more people are making cheese. “Half of the [345] cheesemakers in my book didn’t exist in 2000,” says Jeffrey Roberts, author of “The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese.

4) New Wine Bars in Old Town Settings.  Los Angeles Times. Much like Black Market Bistro, landmark buildings become restaurants and winebars.  If you’re craving cheese from that last article, there’s also the piece on updating the grilled cheese.

5) When Packet Cooking Goes Over Big Time. Washington Post. David Hagedorn writes on foil-wrapped cooking, one of my favorite ways to cook in summer– with recipes.  (The Lee Bros. call them hobo packs, but that’s kind of a weird term, isn’t it?)