The following is the first in an ongoing segment to introduce you to the very best of food news for a selected period of time.

I try my very best to stay on top of all new trends, products and concepts that develop in the food world and therefore am bombarded with 200+ emails a day. Most of these emails get piled into a ‘bursting at the seams’ folder appropriately titled Jumble of Stuff. The articles are of particular interest, but since I’m no Eater; I don’t tend to report on every single bit of food information that passes through me, nor do I want to. But, to mark the one year anniversary of this little blog that could, I thought it would be interesting to purge said folder and relay the most interesting pieces (well, the ones that I found most interesting anyways) to you. I mean, because I know you don’t already have enough to do in your day.

Top three functions of the list:

a) you want to know more useless shit in order to one-up anybody and everybody

b) your Facebook news feed has not refreshed in past 15 minutes

c) you want to look like this:

Here’s the list in no particular order:

• Strange Maps on Big Think: “Great Party Place, Wisconsin”, or: America’s Beer Belly - – - In this case, I’d rather be a RED. – - -
• A Doodle A Day #107 : Cole Escola’s Internet Weblog! – - – Bacon Stamp! Need I say more? Now, how can we make this scratch-n-sniff? We’d make millions Mr. Jeeves, millions I tell you! – - -
• The Food Section – Food News, Recipes, and More
• Craft Course : Eater National – - – You can never know too much about beer. – - -
• Amber’s Garden Mats - – - Yet another opportunity to start growing your own food. – - -
• Bloggers Go on Strict Diets and Blog About It : Stunts : Eater National - – - The only way to get people interested in food these days, even if only for a mere second. – - -
• Faces & Visions of the Food Movement: James Johnson-Piett on Civil Eats
• The Doughnut’s Comeback: Amid Recession, a Success Story – TIME – - – I see the doughnut trucks a-coming. – - -
• Field Report – Will Work for Food – NYTimes.com
• Five Guys eyes international expansion – Nation’s Restaurant News - – - Right, because we need more artery clogging *bleep bleeps* contaminating the world with their catastrophic ideas. – - -
• Tasting Table National – Deschutes Brewing Co. Hop in the Dark Cascadian Dark Ale
• Tasting Table National – Arrivals Terminal, A taste of America’s melting pot
• Butcher shop installs vending machine for service 24/7 – Springwise - – - I’m surprised this hasn’t been added to the Mondrian’s lobby vending machine. I like my Jamon Iberico with a side of furry handcuffs. – - -
• What Does Lady Gaga Wear To A Restaurant Opening? : Going Gaga : Eater NY – - – Lady Gaga’s PR squad sure is good at hitting all those demographics and niche markets. Food world, check. Inappropriate wearing of raw meat products, check. Restaurant openings, check. Eating food, check. – - -
• Montgomery County schools posting calorie counts in cafeterias on The Washington Post
• Your Meat Tooth . com
• Tasting Table: Pear of Aces, A Champagne-lover’s cider
• Tasting Table: Pep Rally, The purist hot sauce for devoted chileheads - – - Is this Texan approved? – - -
• Meat Is For Pussies : The Book : The Website - – - I should’ve placed this next to the Bacon Stamp just to piss people off. – - -
• Tasting Table: Smut Peddlers, The Mexican corn truffle is good medicine
• Tasting Table: Foreign Services, Travel plans for the culinary minded - – - Use the website to get ideas and then plan your own custom trip using your favorites, it’ll be a helluva lot cheaper. It’s just a thought. – - -
• Tasting Table: Buttered Up, Put this country spread on everything
• Food & Wine’s 40 Big Thinkers 40 & Under : Awards Season : Eater National
• ‘Hyperlocal’ the latest trend as restaurants grow their own – Food & Drink, Life & Style – The Independent
• Subway Sandwich Japan Says ‘Eat Fresher’ With Lettuce Grown In The Store
• I.H.T Special Report – Business of Food – Fish Farms, With a Side of Greens – NYTimes.com
• New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital Gives Residents Cooking Class to Train Them to Help Overweight Patients – WSJ.com
• Tasting Table: Fully Stacked, The shiniest trend in lunch wares
• Tasting Table: Books to take with you, this summer and beyond
• Tasting Table: Earthly Pleasures, Beer brewers take a lesson from wine and coffee
• Tasting Table: A Muse Bouche, Eat your way through the Louvre’s food masterpieces – - – This is FOOD ART! – - -
• Tasting Table: Staying Power, Bargain summer whites that stick around past Labor Day - – - Stash one or ten in the back of your fridge and pop one out for a taste of sunshine during the looong treacherous months when you’re snowed in and have 180 degrees of cabin fever. – - -
• Tasting Table: Tiny Bubbles, For a smaller carbon footprint, carbonate at home
• Tasting Table: Sack Race, Get a bag full of treats at your door each month - – - It’s like Halloween for adults, but for every single month of the year, not just October. Move over candy corn! – - -
• Tasting Table: Tough Love, A small-but-fierce group of winemakers embraces northern Italy
• Tasting Table: Growth Opportunity, Farm produce at any level - – - Because “Oh, I can’t grow food because I live in an apartment.” or “Oh, I don’t have any space.” are no longer excuses. – - -
• Tasting Table: Well Drinks, Responsible liquors from around the globe