Latest news with #Gastropod
Eater
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
What, Exactly, Is Bubble Gum Flavor?
For many of us, the flavor of bubble gum is the flavor of childhood. Of course, it's the taste of bubbles: attempted, successful, and snapped over noses. But it's also the flavor of jelly beans, ice cream, slushies, and also medicine (which some of us used to sneak out of the fridge even when we weren't sick). But while Skittles, Starburst, and Laffy Taffy all imitate the flavor of real fruits, there's no bubble gum berry growing in our gardens. So what is bubble gum flavor? In a recent listener-inspired episode of Gastropod, hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley set out to answer this question, along with some others submitted by their fans, including whether meal kits live up to their environmental claims and if all rooibos tea really comes from one mountain range in South Africa. Listen to the full episode for the answers to all of these fascinating questions — and read on for an edited excerpt from the episode in which Cynthia and Nicky chat with bubble gum scientist Gwendolyn Graff to get to the bottom of bubble gum's many mysteries. GASTROPOD LISTENER VALARIE: What the heck is bubble gum flavor? When did this become the flavor of bubble gum? Are there standard bubble gum flavors everywhere and are they the same? Has it always been like this? It's become a weird fixation. CYNTHIA GRABER: Let's start with the first question: What the heck is it? Why can I imagine what it tastes like when I bite down, but I can't exactly describe it? GWENDOLYN GRAFF: I would say that's because bubble gum is what we would call a fantasy flavor. You're not going to be able to pick a bubble gum off of a tree. It's definitely made up. NICOLA TWILLEY: This is Gwendolyn Graff, and she is a real-life bubble gum scientist who works in bubble gum R&D. Yes, kids, that is a job you can have when you grow up. GRABER: Fantasy flavor is also a real thing. For instance, you can't find blue raspberries in the world, but blue raspberry flavor is in Jolly Rancher candies, and popsicles… TWILLEY: But even though bubble gum is a fantasy flavor, it is based on real flavors. GRAFF: I would most likely describe it as orange plus cherry. If you got two Jelly Bellies and you put an orange and a cherry together, you would mix them together and you would say it's bubble gum flavor. GRABER: Mystery solved! It's like math: cherry plus orange plus a lot of sweetener equals — bubble gum! But, given it's a fantasy flavor, once upon a time it didn't exist. So who is the Einstein who came up with this new universal equation? TWILLEY: To answer that, we need to go back to the invention of bubble gum itself, which is a story we told in our chewing gum episode a couple of years ago. Bubble gum was invented in 1928 by a guy called Walter Deemer who, believe it or not, was an accountant. He worked at this chewing gum company, and coming up with a gum that was more elastic and less sticky, so you could blow a bubble — that was his side hustle. GRAFF: But actually the first time he made bubble gum, he actually made it a mint flavor. He put in some mint oils, because at the time that's what they did with gum. GRABER: It caught on, and blowing bubbles quickly became popular with kids, but the mint flavor wasn't a big hit. Gwendolyn told us nobody knows exactly when someone at the company mixed some fruit flavors together for their new bubble-y gum. GRAFF: I'm assuming just because it became associated with a kid's product, they started going towards the fruit flavors. Because when you look at gum as a whole, mints tend to be in the adult flavors and kid flavors tend to be in the fruits. You can see exceptions to those, but that's mostly how it goes. TWILLEY: However they landed on this sweet orange and cherry mix, it became the standard bubble gum flavor. GRABER: And, as time went on, people started using bubble gum flavoring for things that aren't bubble gum. TWILLEY: I literally saw bubble gum flavor soda on the shelf at a supermarket last week. And I did not feel even remotely tempted to try it. But I am clearly not the target market. GRAFF: I've seen lots of things. I mean, lots of candies and lollipops and stuff that's in the confectionary market. But even, I remember one year, I think 7-11 did a bubble gum flavored slushie. You get drinks, and obviously ice cream. TWILLEY: And, for grownups who still love kid flavors, you can get bubble gum energy drinks and bubble gum vodka. GRABER: I am also not the target audience for this, I think it sounds pretty gross. And another thing that at least our listener Valarie's son thinks is disgusting is bubble gum-flavored medicine. VALARIE: They will add it as a flavor to help it go down more easily. But it's terrible. It makes it even worse. And so now, anything bubble gum flavor is disgusting to him. He thinks I'm trying to drug him every time I give him a Jelly Belly that's bubble gum flavor. TWILLEY: Clearly a spoonful of bubble gum does not necessarily help the medicine go down. But Valarie wanted to know: Are all bubble gum flavors the same? GRABER: Gwendolyn told us even within the world of bubble gum flavor there are nuances — shades of pink, let's say. GRAFF: When I was a kid we had Bazooka. And that one has a slight little mint in it, like a slight little bit of wintergreen in it. So it can kind of vary. GRABER: But even if these flavors vary slightly from brand to brand, they're still recognizable as bubble gum, and they're still popular today. GRAFF: I'd say that if you're strictly talking about bubble gum, bubble gum is probably the biggest bubble gum flavor. TWILLEY: But not all gum that you can blow bubbles with is bubble gum flavor, if that makes sense. Bubble gum comes in plenty of other flavors. GRAFF: Usually the first fruit that's the most common is strawberry. And then it tends to kind of go back and forth between grape and watermelon as the second and third. GRABER: Gwendolyn told us that other countries have popular flavors that are a little unusual to us here in the US. GRAFF: I happen to be in the U.K. right now, and their really popular flavor is black currant. TWILLEY: It is indeed, we love black currant everything. Our purple Skittles and other sweets are all black currant flavored, not grape. But Gwendolyn thinks it tastes a little bit like dirty socks. GRAFF: And so it's funny, because as a developer in the States, you're like, ugh! I'm not really a fan of this flavor. But you just have to get acquainted with what it should taste like, and then make sure that you're replicating it. GRABER: We were wondering if Gwendolyn could replicate any flavor in bubble gum form, and Gwendolyn said actually, yeah. TWILLEY: Her own career is testament to that. She has come up with a lot of new bubble gum flavors in her time. GRAFF: If I had to give you a number, it would be in the hundreds. Definitely. GRABER: Some of those flavors were seasonal ones. GRAFF: We had summer frenzy flavors where we'd put new flavors out. We did like a new product every couple weeks because kids just like to try new things, new things, new things. TWILLEY: These were limited time specials like pink lemonade and 'triple play' tropical. So far, so relatively normal. But in the safety of the R&D lab, Gwendolyn and her colleagues got up to some real Willy Wonka stuff. GRAFF: I've tried lots of things. We've tried drink flavors, we've tried herb flavors, we've tried vegetable flavors, we've tried meat flavors, we've tried pizza flavors, we've tried cheese flavors. There were some funny ones, like — somebody was like, can we do a beef jerky? Oh my goodness. Do you know how weird a beef jerky gum is? You keep wanting to swallow it. It's so weird. It did taste like beef jerky, but it kind of just messed with your mind. And there are some flavors that have been pretty terrible: like mayonnaise flavor, liquid-filled mayonnaise flavor. GRABER: I'm going to stick with the classic, myself. Sign up for Eater's newsletter The freshest news from the food world every day Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Calgary Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Angus An's Fat Mao marks 10 years of Thai noodle success in Vancouver
Article content When Angus An first opened Fat Mao a decade ago, some people were skeptical. Article content 'It took us a couple of years to really get traction and build a regular clientele,' An said. 'At the time, people saw 'soup noodles' and thought, 'Oh, I can get a $6.99 won ton soup noodles in Chinatown. Why would I come here?' But we believed in the recipes, and we wanted to do something different. Now, with inflation, everything is over $20, and nobody can really say much.' Article content Article content In late 2006, he opened Gastropod in Kits. Following the 2008 economic downturn, he pivoted to Thai and reopened as Maenam. For Fat Mao, he wanted to go more street-level than Maenam, which last year earned a spot in the Michelin Guide's Vancouver edition. Article content Article content 'I was very motivated by the mom-and-pop stores in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand — you go to a hole-in-the-wall place and they have three noodle dishes on the menu. That's all they serve. As a business model, that made a lot of sense. You don't need to have a huge overhead. I've never been really fond of restaurants with huge menus. And then, we found a nice location in Chinatown.' Article content Article content Reaching the 10-year anniversary has been satisfying for An, founder and executive chef of Full House Hospitality. Along with Maenam and two Fat Mao noodle houses, the group's portfolio includes Longtail Kitchen in New West, Sen Pad Thai on Granville Island and Sainam in the West End. Article content Article content 'I actually eat at Fat Mao more than any of my other restaurants because there are things on the menu you could eat every day. And I often see other chef friends there for lunch before work, or they text me when they're there. That makes me really proud. And obviously, most restaurants don't make it past three to five years, and for a small concept like this to last for 10 years is, for me, is quite special.' Article content To celebrate the anniversary, Fat Mao has brought back a couple of fan favourites. The Tom Kha Coconut Mushroom Soup (creamy coconut soup with mushrooms, infused with galangal & lime leaf, aserved with glass vermicelli noodles) is available until Aug. 15 and the Southern Thai Beef Laksa (spicy southern-style laksa, beef shin, peanuts, dried shrimp, won ton egg noodles) from Aug. 16-31. Guests can add a Crispy Lager to any noodle bowl for $5.
USA Today
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day is Aug. 4. Here's some sweet deals.
National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day is back, meaning anyone with a sweet tooth is in luck as several brands are offering deals on Monday, Aug. 4. Chocolate chip cookies hold a special place in people's hearts and stomachs, as further proven by YouGov's most popular dish survey that ranked the often-gooey dessert as the most popular dish for the second quarter of 2025, beating out the likes of nachos, lasagna and more. With the invention of chocolate chip cookies dating back about a century, it is no wonder the dessert has its own day. Here is what to know about National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, including how it came about and a couple of deals that will help you satisfy your craving. What is the origin of chocolate chip cookies? Ruth Wakefield, a chef who ran the Toll House Inn with her husband in Whitman, Massachusetts, is credited with inventing chocolate chip cookies in 1937 when she cut a semi-sweet chocolate bar into bits and added them to her Butter Drop Do cookies. She published a recipe for the cookies in 1938, and Nestlé began promoting the recipe on its packaging and in the company's ads. While Wakefield is credited, there is evidence that chocolate chip cookies were around in the 1870s. In her 2017 book "BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts," author and pastry chef Stella Parks explains how she discovered chocolate chip cookies being advertised in supermarket ads in the early 1930s and recipes for "Chocolate Jumbles" cookies made with grated chocolate printed as far back as 1877. Still, Wakefield having "popularized and developed a recipe that is still in use 100 years later is incredibly impressive," Parks told the Gastropod podcast, which is hosted on the food news site Eater, in April 2022. Regardless of who created them, chocolate chip cookies are here to stay, and Aug. 4 will be your chance to snag one either for free or at a discount. Here are some National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day deals. Insomnia Cookies Insomnia Cookies will be offering a free Chocolate Chunk Cookie with any purchase from Aug. 1 to Aug. 4, according to a company Instagram post. Sweet Addison's Sweet Addison's is celebrating National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day this year by offering 15% off sitewide with code SWEET15 through the weekend. Tate's Bake Shop The Austin, Texas-based company is celebrating National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day by offering 30% off all chocolate chip products on with code COOKIES30 at checkout (no minimum order value). DoubleTree by Hilton: National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day freebie Anyone who stops by one of the 400 U.S. DoubleTree by Hilton hotels on Aug. 4 will be able to get a free "complimentary signature, warm chocolate chip cookie," or an allergy-friendly version. Cookies & Dreams Cookies & Dreams announced it will sell chocolate chip cookies for $2 in-store and online on Aug. 4, no codes or purchase minimums necessary, according to AARP. Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@
Eater
05-06-2025
- Health
- Eater
The Forgotten History (and Slippery Science) of Canola Oil
If you've been hearing that canola is a killer, you're not alone. It's one of the so-called 'hateful eight' seed oils: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says it's among the most deadly things you can eat, and Joe Rogan agrees. But is it true? In a recent episode of Eater podcast, Gastropod, co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley get to the bottom of the debate over the plant formerly (and still, in some places) known as rapeseed. Why does it have such an unfortunate name, and how did it transform into canola, at least in North America? Is it really engine oil? Does it actually contain a poisonous solvent? And why on earth are Brits buying up a fancy cold-pressed version by the gallon, as the new, home-grown olive oil? Are they roasting their potatoes with an inflammation- and disease-causing disaster? Listen to the episode for the forgotten history and slippery science of this much discussed, little understood oil. And read on for an edited excerpt from the episode, in which Carla Taylor, professor in food and human nutritional sciences at the University of Manitoba, Matti Marklund, nutrition scientist at Johns Hopkins University, and Darriush Mozaffarian, cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, share the most rigorous and up-to-date scientific consensus on canola oil and health — and the evidence behind it. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Fox News : Seed oils are one of the… most unhealthy ingredients that we have in foods. [...] They're very very cheap, but they — they are associated with all kinds of very very serious illnesses. Including body wide inflammation. Joe Rogan, The Joe Rogan Experience : Seed oils are some of the worst fucking things your body can consume. There's some sort of a correlation between seed oils and macular degeneration. Like, it causes inflammation, and inflammation is fucking terrible for you, no matter what. Nicola Twilley, Gastropod co-host: We, like many of you, have been hearing this anti-seed oil propaganda for a while now. Thanks to all the haters out there, a lot of people are now cutting out canola along with its fellow seed oils. So what's the truth? Cynthia Graber, Gastropod co-host: Inflammation is blamed for just about every health problem these days, but the science of it is definitely more nuanced. Inflammation can be bad, but also a little inflammation can sometimes help you heal. That's part of why this immune system response exists. Twilley: The problem with canola — again, according to the critics — is to do with the particular fatty acids it contains. Carla Taylor, University of Manitoba: Canola oil is known for its high monounsaturated fatty acid content. Graber: The term monounsaturated has to do with its structure. Monounsaturated fatty acids are the kinds of fatty acids you find a lot of in vegetable oils like olive oils. Our bodies can make monounsaturated fatty acids, but it's also important that we get them from food. Twilley: Saturated fatty acids are fats like in meat, cheese, coconut oil, and palm oil, and science has shown pretty clearly that these aren't as great in large amounts for most of us for our overall health. Canola oil has very little saturated fat. Graber: And then there's what's known as polyunsaturated fatty acids. These are the omega fats — omega-3 and omega-6 are the main ones. Twilley: Guess what, canola oil has those, too. Taylor: It also has a fairly good level of omega-3 as ALA, alpha linolenic acid. And the other polyunsaturated fatty acid there, besides the ALA, is primarily what we abbreviate as LA or linoleic acid, which is an omega-6 fatty acid. If we get those in our diet, then we can convert them to all these other fatty acids that we need in our body. Graber: Omega-3 and omega-6 are called essential fatty acids because our bodies need them, and we can't make them ourselves. We have to get them in food. Twilley: So: great! Canola has both of these essential polyunsaturated fatty acids. But then the argument goes, the linoleic acid, the LA — which is the omega-6 — in our bodies, that becomes something called arachidonic acid. Matti Marklund, Johns Hopkins University: Another omega-6 fatty acid. Which can be turned into pro-inflammatory metabolites. Graber: Matti Marklund and a team of researchers around the world tried to figure out whether eating linoleic acid was connected to arachidonic acid and to bad health outcomes. And, as we discussed in our recent episode about nutrition science, it's hard to get good information on what people eat, so they found a way to measure it that was much more scientific. Marklund: Instead of asking people what they are eating, can we take a blood sample and measure the fatty acid concentration in the blood? Twilley: Matti and his colleagues analyzed the data from more than 30 different studies involving more than 70,000 people from different countries. Some of them were short term studies, some ran for more than thirty years. Marklund: And during that follow up time, we are looking at how many people are developing cardiovascular disease. We also looked at cardiovascular mortality as an outcome. And what we found was that those with the highest levels of linoleic acid in their blood had the lowest risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Twilley: So that's good, right? Lower risk of cardiovascular disease sounds like a win to me. Graber: But what about this idea that linoleic acid or omega 6 turns into arachidonic acid and that's where the problem lies? Well, Matti told us that first of all arachidonic acid turns into different chemicals in the body, some cause inflammation and some actually are anti-inflammatory. But even more importantly, it seems as though, inside our bodies, linoleic acid doesn't turn into much arachidonic acid at all. Marklund: Studies using a stable isotope — so they can actually look at the specific molecules — they have found that there is very limited conversion of linoleic acid to arachidonic acid in the human body. Twilley: So that whole mechanism that's supposed to be behind the omega-6s in canola and other seed oils causing inflammation — it turns out that's not what's actually going on. In fact, Matti told us, the evidence suggests that linoleic acid — the supposedly bad stuff in canola oil — it not only doesn't increase inflammation, it also seems to have some real health benefits, and not just for lowering the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Marklund: We also found that linoleic acid was strongly associated with lower risk of type two diabetes. So linoleic acid, we know, can, can also improve glucose metabolism. And there are other data suggesting that linoleic acid reduces inflammation, it can also reduce blood pressure. Graber: But another thing that seed oil haters claim is that it's the ratio, that we have way too much omega-6 compared to omega-3 in our diets today, and that's what's making us sick. Matti checked for that, too. Marklund: Yeah, we did. So we did statistically adjust for omega-3 fatty acid levels, and we also did kind of stratified analysis where we look specifically in those with low omega-3 and those with high omega-3 acid levels. And we didn't see any difference in this association between linoleic acid and cardiovascular disease. So our study and other studies does not really suggest that the ratio itself should be changed by reducing omega-6 fatty acids. It's more, probably, that you should increase omega-3 fatty acids to improve the ratio. Twilley: In other words, cutting out seed oils is not going to help boost your omega-3 levels. For that, you have to eat more omega-3s. And, outside of oily fish, which are delicious but which most Americans consume very little of — and outside of tofu and chia seeds and flaxseed, which are also pretty underrepresented in the standard Western diet — canola is actually a bit of a omega-3 superstar. Taylor: It is at a level that is a little bit higher than soybean oil. Definitely much higher than the omega-3 found in something like corn oil or the traditional sunflower, safflower oils and so forth. And also compared to olive oil, canola oil has a much higher level of omega-3. Graber: Darriush Mozaffarian is director of the Tufts University Food is Medicine Institute and he's one of the co-authors of Matti's study. He says basically there's no reason to avoid canola or any other seed oil. Darriush Mozaffarian, Tufts University: This is, you know, one of the great Internet myths that's out there, that seed oils are harmful. Canola oil has been studied in well over a hundred randomized control trials and overwhelmingly been shown to improve every risk factor that has been looked at, and never been shown to be pro inflammatory, which is kind of the theory. We have all the science. Like, we don't need any more studies on canola oil. This is one of the most well established areas of science there is, is the health effects of plant oils. Twilley: So, long story short: RFK and Joe Rogan, and a whole bunch of other online influencer types are, to put it politely, completely and utterly incorrect on this issue, as well as many others. Graber: Now, just saying that a processed junk food like cookies or chips has canola oil won't give it magical health-promoting properties, of course. And we certainly can't say that there won't ever be research linking omega-6s to increased risk of any disease. Still, Matti and Darriush and Carla and everyone else who studies it say that canola and other seed oils are fine. The freshest news from the food world every day
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ouija boards, feathered dinosaurs and stuffed-crust pizza: the best podcasts to send you down a rabbit hole
The much-missed Reply All delved into internet culture with wit, smarts and a lightness of touch that has been sorely missed since its conclusion in 2022. Now, former host Alex Goldman is hoping to ape its success with Hyperfixed, a wholesome podcast about listeners' varied life dilemmas: from the origins of a mysterious badge to whether or not to have kids. Elsewhere, his erstwhile co-host PJ Vogt's series Search Engine considers questions you didn't know you needed the answer to, such as: 'Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?' Named after designer Bruce Mau's observation that 99% of all design goes unnoticed until it fails (itself adapted from a Buckminster Fuller quote), this longrunning podcast hosted by Roman Mars explores the hidden architecture and design that shapes our world. That means delving into the mechanics of everything from global supply chains and Soviet housing to canned laughter and Ouija boards. With 600 episodes and counting, you can expect deep dives on pretty much everything, however niche. A case in point: a recent instalment was dedicated to Spirit Halloween, the US costume shop that rakes in about $1bn each year despite only being open between August and November. Turn on, tune in, pig out: if you're interested in the science, history and stranger-than-fiction facts behind your favourite grub, then Gastropod may be the series for you. Since 2014, writers Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley have offered a window into topics as diverse as the history of cranberries (how did they end up on Thanksgiving and Christmas tables? And can they actually cure UTIs?); why our stomachs rumble; the origins of stuffed-crust pizza; and how lobsters – once seen as cheap slop – got a fancy makeover. What is eudemonology? Ambystomology? How about cabinology? If you have no idea, then fear not: some of these are not real words, but they do all refer to real things with which Alie Ward's guests are obsessed. This pod sees the science buff and actor quiz experts in their field, be it happiness (eudemonology) with Dr Laurie Santos of Yale; aquatic salamanders (ambystomology) with Harvard's Dr Jessica Whited; or, er, cabinology, which really is an episode all about log cabins, analysed by architect Dale Mulfinger. No list of unpredictable podcasts would be complete without Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 series. Offering comprehensive explainers on history, society, science, the arts and everything in between, In Our Time has been on air since 1998 and has more than 1,000 episodes in its heaving archive. There are so many, in fact, that the BBC has a quick start guide on its website, with crowdpleasing suggestions on Shakespeare's sonnets, Wuthering Heights and feathered dinosaurs. Really, though, the best strategy might be to embrace its unwieldiness by picking an episode at random.
