Newmark's Door

"The Mystery of Cheap Lobster"

My late mother and father loved to eat lobster. On the occasions when they would each order a 1.25 pound lobster they'd talk about how filling lobsters of that size were. On one special occasion--a wedding anniversary I think--they each had 1.5 pound lobsters which they said were unusually big (and unusually good).

So the other night my wife, younger daughter, and I were eating out and the restaurant's special of the evening--the waiter noted, "You'd probably want to share this"--was a three pound lobster.

Three pounds. And I thought: what the heck's changed since I was a kid?

Turns out, the food blog of The Atlantic has the answer.

Maybe good news for coffee drinkers

It might not have some of the bad health effects once thought.

Coffee drinkers, rejoice! The heavenly brew, once deemed harmful to health, is turning out to be, if not quite a health food, at least a low-risk drink, and in many ways a beneficial one. It could protect against diabetes, liver cancer, cirrhosis and Parkinson's disease.

What happened? Lots of new research, and the recognition that older, negative studies often failed to tease apart the effects of coffee and those of smoking because so many coffee drinkers were also smokers.

Banh mi is old and busted . . .

. . . and the new hotness is pork chop bo lo bao.

And here are "sandwiches with culture".

Five tens

"10 Movies That Can Teach You About Money".

"God Texts the Ten Commandments".

"Top Ten Movie Food Moments".

"Top 10 Failed McDonald’s Products".

"Dr. Beach's top 10 beaches in America 2009".

"The Biggest Food Product Duds of All Time"

I remember thinking the Orbitz soft drink was kind of creepy.

But I thought Doritos 3D were excellent.

"Better Than Southern Fried Chicken?"

From the streets of Bangkok, background and a recipe for "Sukhamvit Soi Five Fried Chicken".

Sounds good to me.

"The Diet That Shrinks Smarty Pants"

"Intellectuals and wonks have finally found their version of the Atkins: a diet complete with history, biology, psychology, and Harvard’s seal of approval."

The diet's from a book titled The Instinct Diet.

As it happens, I own the book.

It's an O.K. book, but like so many advice books--of any kind--it walks a thin line between useful advice and the comically obvious.

And sometimes, The Instinct Diet falls on the wrong side of the line. Herewith some of the nuggets of advice on offer:

"Beware of buffets."

"Make indulgences less indulgent."

"Be vigilant about controlling hunger."

"Eat craved foods wisely or not at all."

To be fair to the author, I've drawn these from the chapter summaries, and summaries usually invite oversimplification. And there are some interesting and helpful supporting details in the book.

A few pictures of an underseas restaurant

In the Maldives. It looks tiny, but it offers a view you can't get in too many other restaurants.

A recipe from the "Crepes of Wrath"

For Mongolian beef.

The former scientific consensus on diet reminds me of another "scientific consensus" . . .

. . . the one on global warming.

Here's an interesting interview with Tom Naughton, producer of "Fat Head'.