Artist Uli Westphal has created the Mutato Archive – “a collection of non-standard fruits, roots and vegetables, displaying a dazzling variety of forms, colours and textures, that only reveal themselves when lawfully enforced standards cease to exist. The complete absence of botanical anomalies in our supermarkets has caused us to regard the consistency of produce presented there as natural. Produce has become a highly designed, monotonous product. We have forgotten, and in many cases never experienced, the way fruits, roots, and vegetables can actually look (and taste). The Mutato-Project serves to document, preserve and promote these last remainders of agricultural diversity.”

Apparently the next stage in cookbooks is being design as a graphic novel.. I’d totally buy it!

We’ve all heard the furor over the new Starbucks Trenta cup.. we all know it’s larger than the average human stomach, now we discover you can fit an entire bottle of wine in it! Really, who needs that much coffee?

Valentines day is next week, if you don’t want to say it with bacon, then Austin Foodie Bits has kindly rounded up the details on interesting events. If you haven’t reserved a table yet you might want to soon.

Top Chef and Top Chef: Just Desserts are holding a casting call in Austin, March 2nd at Olivia.

The Splendiferous Array of Culinary Tools, a poster every kitchen needs… nuff said!

Finally, if you haven’t heard about HB1139 yet you can find out more here. We are asking that all Texans call and write their State Representatives and State Senators and ask them to support this bill — the organisers are even providing a letter template, the best way to conduct yourself on the call, along with how to find who your local legislators are. We humbly request the community of Texas food bloggers (and readers!) to stand up for your local home producers and spread the word as well. (yes, we are going to be mentioning this at all opportunities!)

A bunch of students came up with a cake decorator as their project for a Principles of Engineering class. It needs some fine tuning before the cakes can go on anything other than Cake Wrecks, but it’s a great idea and I’m in awe of their skills, I’m sure they’ll go far in their field.

The lunar, or Chinese New Year is fast approaching, some etiquette rules are explained here to help you along. Steamy Kitchen has a selection of recipes to help ring in the new year.

I love French toast, but to me it always says dessert rather than breakfast. Now baking them or even stuffing and making them savoury is being mentioned. Worth a try but I do like the classic.

The Department of Agriculture has created a new toy for us to play with! A “atlas” of the country that shows food environment factors—such as store/restaurant proximity, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and community characteristics—interact to influence food choices and diet quality. Interesting to see.

Apparently the latest trend is to grow salad for your pets! Now, I’m all for making dog biscuits, but buying/growing wheatgrass for a cat, that will more than likely barf it up with a hairball, seems excessive.

The Cooks Den has compiled a list of the 30 worst cooking shows, and the top 100. I do think the Great British Menu didn’t deserve to be on the worst list especially since the author seems to be sticking to the stereotype of English cooking, I doubt he’s tried any recently! I was entertained to see Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook on the top list, that was one of the early cooking shows I watched as a kid along with Ready, Steady, Cook. I think having The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the top list is wrong, have you even seen it, it tells you nothing! And really? Down Home With the Neelys in the top 100.. Maybe I shouldn’t be sending you guys that way, the author obviously has some strange ideas of good.. But some healthy debate is fun!

Finishing up for those in Austin, the Foodie Bits by Fete and Feast is up for this week.

On the subject of drink receptacles, these are glasses made from jello. They’re actually made from agar agar rather than gelatin so they’re vegan, it will also make them more resilient to heat than gelatin is. I’d be interested in seeing how they felt to hold.

Onto kitchen tools, a video on how to open pomegranates, something that’s not always easy.

And did you know the microplane (which I wouldn’t be without for zesting, I lust after their box grater) was never intended as a kitchen tool? It was designed to be used by woodworkers.

On the alcohol front Moonshine is making a comeback! Lets hope it doesn’t turn you blind now! Epicurious suggests some beer based cocktails.

Is your barista wearing a hat when they make your morning coffee? They’re getting in trouble in New York for not doing so, though there’s some arguments, cooks have to wear hats when handling food and drinks, but waiters and bar staff don’t. You would think baristas would come under the same heading as bar tenders.

For the local folks, Swappers have come to Austin. Their FB page gives all the details and Stetted gives a nice write up on their first event. Turn up with something you’ve made too much of (cookies, preserves, bread), socialise and then barter and swap away! I’m tempted to give them a try, it sounds fun!

It’s marginally out of season, but I just had to post this link. Let It Dough, entertaining and well designed.

I’m possibly reading this as slightly more tongue in cheek than it is intended. It’s a fair point, we all ought to be more aware of what we’re putting inside ourself (*dirty giggle*), though if you really need a flowchart to tell you that something is probably dog food I think you’re beyond help!

The newest wireless breakthrough may well help you out in the kitchen, with wirelessly heating a cup of soup! Yes, that’s right, just put the container down on the eCoupled counter top (dare I ask how much that would even be?), pull the tab and press low, medium or high! Apparently the counter can also be used to pull up the nutritional information of a box sat upon it.. though why you can’t just pick up the box and look at it is a little beyond me!

Baked By Melissa has a fun cupcake customiser. Now, I’m not going to go ordering 300 cupcakes (I’ll make them myself!) but it is fun to play around with the combinations and see what you can come up with.

I don’t eat foie gras, but not for ethical reasons, purely because cold liver squicks me out, I like my live warm and smothered with bacon and gravy and mushrooms! I found this article to be very well written and informative, balanced and well thought out. Of course, as with farming any animal, this doesn’t mean that >all< foie gras farms are ethical, but maybe it will show that they can be and perhaps help  us to regulate them fairly.

It seems to be the time of year where Christmas is looming and you still haven’t found that perfect present for the one you love. Well, if that person happens to like cooking and food then you’ve come to the right place. Today’s aim is to give suggestions for foodie presents.

Lets start with cookbooks. Lots of people have been writing lists of their favourite cookbooks of 2010.

Gluten Free Girl and the Chef were among them, with their list including Around My French Table, The Heart of the Artichoke, Pig and of course, their own cookbook that came out this year.
Slashfood broke their list down into sections cute books for anybody, for serious cooks and for cooking voyeurs and readers.
Epicurious’ list highlighted the best in several catagories such as desserts, European and historical.
Serious Eats concentrates on books that a home cook would love to use.

Don’t want to get a book? That’s fine, that’s been covered too!

Brown Eyed Baker starts us off with her 5 favourite gifts. The cupcake pedestals are insanely cute!
The Purple Foodie has mostly food themed gifts, the apron is entertaining and the charms are cute!
Yumsugar’s suggestions are more of a practical nature. I will say, if the recipient loves cooking nothing will beat the silpat liner they mention!
A Nutritionist Eats includes truffle salt, bacon and chocolate.. Really, how can you go wrong!
And our very own local Fete and Feast has gifts from local producers and stores and even some foodie themed adventures!

If none of these strike your fancy you could always made a gift. There’s a fair few suggestions here so I’ll just list them with no additional comments.

Cookies of course!
Gluten Free Cookies
Cookie mix in a jar
Hot Chocolate Mix
Cinnamon Honey Butter
Curried Lentil Soup (in a jar)
Almond Roca
Fudge
Coffee Liquer
Flavoured Salts
Maple Vanilla Granola (in a jar)
Quick Bread in a Bottle
Pancake Mix
And for your favourite furry friend – Dog Bones

I hope this helps inspire you this holiday season.

It’s almost 2 weeks after Halloween now, are you still munching on leftover sweets and candies? Here are some ideas for what to do with all that stash (tip one.. don’t buy so much next year *grins*). We sent all our leftovers to Michael’s day-job!

Are you as much of a chocoholic as I am? You better start saving your pennies, prices for chocolate could start going up.

There was an interesting article this week, on why the author doesn’t cook for her parents. Do you agree? Do you cook dishes you grew up with for your family?

Ever wondered how food influences your mood? Omega 3′s help depression and plenty of water can make you less irritable, but turkey doesn’t make you drowsy, and sugar doesn’t make children hyperactive.

Butchery and meat-cut charts of video game characters.. My favourite is Yoshi.

Because everyone needs to eat Buddha some time? Apparently someone thinks we do!

Neither of us have iPhones so I can’t comment on my favourite here, but Lifehacker has put together a list of the best cooking and recipe apps.

Now, of course, none of us want to be Violet Beauregarde, but researches are working on the technology that would allow flavour changing chewing gum… really, do they have nothing better to do with their time? *grins*

Dearly beloved, we are here to mourn the passing of well known icon Mr Potato Head… Would you prefer salad, hash or fries?

So, has anyone else noticed that male chefs get butch photos of them attacking steaks or looking impressive, while women are depicted… somewhat differently? Some interesting points are made in this article.

Bored of regular pesto? Here are some suggestions to make pesto exciting again.

It’s that time of year again, McD’s are running their Monopoly game again.. Ever stopped to consider the odds of winning your dream prize, or the ramifications of eating that amount of junk food? Someone sat and worked it all out for you.

In honour of Halloween, which Chef’s would be better as zombies?

Have a good Halloween folks, see you again in November!

It’s not a huge round up this week, just a little something to get me back in the groove.

Starting off with a nifty tool, an automatic cake decorator. It draws a spirograph style pattern across the top of the cake, and then garnishes it with sugar pearls.

See cabbages in a whole new light at the Galerie Paris-Beijing. Their new display is the Fantasies of Chinese Cabbage.

Jonathan Blaustein has an exhibit out, the Value Of A Dollar. The date on it says 2008, but it just now seems to be coming into the public eye. It provokes some thoughts.

The results of central Texan restaurant inspections are now available online. Put in the name and address and see how they scored!

I saw this cake doing the rounds this week and I had to share it, I wish I knew who made this masterpiece.

Spam spam spam spam spammity spaaaaaam! Why is this food still so popular? It can’t all my Monty Python’s fault!

Chiquita had a sticker competition. Some of the winners are pretty cool, can’t wait to see them out and about on the bananas.

An Australian advert is comparing giving children fast food to giving them heroin.. Shocking, but will it get the point across?

Autumn is here, and along with lots of apples that need using up, that also means Halloween is almost here. Monster cereals are back on the shelf, for a limited time.

Ever considered the 5 second rule.. ever stopped to think about it? Why do people think food is still good if it’s less than 5 seconds?

Oktober fest is here, Austin Chronicle lets you know what’s going on in the area. The end of October also sees Austin Beer Week, plenty of events and tastings going on there.

And to end the week, a couple of videos…

Death Buy Lemonade from Cartoon Brew TV on Vimeo.

As a follow up to last week, Haydel’s made their king cake and broke the record. Apparently it took 4000lbs of flour and over 300lbs of sprinkles! That’s a lot of sprinkles. It has yet to make it to the Guinness World Records site but I’m sure it’ll be there soon.

New Orleans had a week of record breaking, with Chef John Folse making the largest mac and cheese to raise funds for the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. The 2100lb dish served 6500 people and contained 288lbs of cheese.

The Great American Beer Festival was last weekend, Beer News gives us a list of all the winners. Local brewery St Arnold won a couple of awards, so congrats to them and all the other winners! I’m sure Michael would love to volunteer to be a judge next year!

It is Fantastic Fest here in Austin, a local film blog gives tips on how to drink like an Austinite.

Chow had a wonderful article this week on types of pasta and the sauces that go best with them. And no, ragu does not go with spaghetti, although I do commit that sin! Another good rule of thumb is to remember that dried pastas go well with oil based sauces, fresh with butter based sauces. I do love pasta.

I don’t get what this guy was trying to achieve, anyone care to enlighten me? But the idea of a pizza topped with mini pizzas does entertain me.

The LA Times had a nice article on gelato this week. I’m wanting to try the recipe for parmesan gelato, I just need to figure out what to serve it with.