Chopbiscuit daily links: Workin' the West Coast

Editors note: I'm currently out in San Francisco working my way north to Healdsburg, CA for another work offsite. As a pompous wine lover - I'm looking forward to gallivanting around town with some classy bubbly wrapped in a paper bag shouting - "The End is Near". 

I kid. Let's get to some linkage.


Eating and Drinking in Detroit

When I told friends about my pending trip to Detroit – to scout out bars and restaurants – some were quick to dish out unsolicited advice: Watch out for the gangs; steer clear of drug dealers. Really? Doesn’t every city have a restaurant scene now? I soon learned that Motor City stacks up quite well to other large metropolitan cities, with noteworthy New York-style pizza, crêpe cafés, barbecue joints, world-class tapas, you name it.I'm with you, the Big D has some great restaurants and food culture. Detroit Whaaat!

Subway introduces fortified bread

Subway is fortifying its bread with vitamin D and calcium as competition in the better-for-you quick-service market heats up. The nutrients are being added to all of the breads sold at the Milford, Conn.-based sandwich chain’s more than 24,000 U.S. locations, except for English muffins and flatbread.

Raspberry Cream pistachio crisp towers (Recipe)

Yes, this tastes as good as it looks.  Wafer thin pistachio cookie crisps (which you will have a difficult time not devouring on their own), layered with whipped cream, fresh raspberries, and chopped pistachios.  Seriously, it’s dishes like this that make me feel justified in being a complete pistachio addict.  They are truly the best nut, and it’s probably for the best that I have to shell them before eating, otherwise I would eat a bit more than I should for my own good.  Definitely give this dessert a try, because it’s unbelievably easy, delicious, and quite pretty looking.

A Real Picnic - spicy sweet potato salad (Recipe)

I made this recipe a while back as a contribution to One Green Planet, but it was too pretty not to share with you all. I wanted to make a colourful potato salad that seemed both classic and innovative. I used multi-coloured sweet potatoes from our local farmer’s market and added sweet corn, bell peppers, onions, jalapeno and cilantro. This pretty little dish has both a spicy bite from a touch of cayenne and a burst of freshness from its simple lime dressing. Summer picnic food at its best!

The Sustainable seafood myth

Stroll by any Whole Foods seafood counter and you will see color-coded fish: Green for fully sustainable, yellow for partially sustainable, and red for fish threatened by overfishing or grown on polluting fish farms. Buy a "green" fish and you eat guilt free, confident that you are doing your part to save the ocean and its inhabitants.

Put down your fork -- Whole Foods is not telling you the whole story. The dirty little secret of their seafood rating system is that it ignores the largest and most imminent threat to our oceans: greenhouse-gas emissions. Even if every human on the planet miraculously decided to buy only seafood stamped with the Whole Foods seal of "sustainablity," marine species will still be doomed.