Balance of Food

Ranking food Super Bowl LVIII ads

Most of the "food" related items in Super Bowl ads are, well, technically edible (not to be confused with edibles — know your ideal dosage level).

The avocados from south of the U.S. border were definitely missing from Super Bowl LVIII. An avocado is definitely real food.

Kate McKinnon and her "Mayo Cat" were the 2024 version of Hellman's basic argument that leftovers need mayonnaise to bring everything together. Brie Larson and Jon Hamm pulled that off last year with the use of their names (brie and ham).

Pluto TV gets an honorable mention for showing actual potatoes in a Super Bowl ad. Closer to real food than actual food ads.

Lindt ran an ad for its milk chocolate balls. This is real food, even with a lot of sugar. I tend to buy chocolate based on how dark it is, specifically by cacao percentage. The red balls are an easy to process packaging concept, and can work for the love holiday on Wednesday (Valentine's Day).

Poppi soda had an unusual approach to a Super Bowl ad. Brand awareness is something that Poppi does not have. I don't even know if my local grocery store even carries Poppi. 

The soda has prebiotics, 5 grams of sugar that comes from agave inulin, and unfiltered apple cider vinegar. Consider that I looked up the company info based on a Super Bowl ad, which almost never happens.

The drawback is that I would try the soda but wouldn't buy a 6-pack until I tried the drink.

The Poppi ad was a contrast to Starry. We aren't fans of their lazy strategy to get you to switch from other lemon-lime sodas, and that Super Bowl ad didn't help.

There were plenty of celebrities hawking "food" such as Scarlett Johansson (M&Ms peanut butter), Aubrey Plaza (Mountain Dew Baja Blast), Ken Jeong (Popeye's wings), Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and Matt Damon (Dunkin' Donuts), Chris Pratt (Pringles), and Jenny Ortega (Dinamita).

The Dinamita ad was particularly clever with the women (Dina and Mita) going after the guy who got the last bag of chips. I got the whole Dunkings in the Dunkin' Donuts ad but don't know how that would translate in my next visit.

Nerds gummy clusters, Oreos Twist, Reese's caramel, and Drumstick also had Super Bowl ads.

We should also note the Uber Eats ad that removed any mention of the peanut butter and allergies. We suspect the company did that on purpose and then took that out to draw extra attention. That is slightly better than being ignorant of how poor that would look. Sadly, the company likely was clueless.

Ranking food Super Bowl LVII ads

Ranking food Super Bowl LVI ads

Ranking food and drink Super Bowl LV ads

Super Bowl ad analysis in recent years

2020   2019   2018   2017   2016   2015   2014   2013   2011

Hope you ate well or had enough flavor during Super Bowl LVIII.

video and photo credits: individual companies

How to make Canadian burgers

Burgers made in the United States are pretty simple: take ground meat, form into patties, season with salt and pepper. Then cook the burgers to your desired temperature.

Burgers made in Canada are not that simple: take ground meat, mix it with ingredients to make the meat juicier (allegedly), form into patties, and season with salt later.

The "Americans" reading this might be thinking, "that is for meatballs or meatloaf, not hamburgers." Canadians would disagree.

Mary Berg demonstrated this on Mary Makes It Easy on CTV Life Channel in Canada and Food Network in the United States in Season 2, Episode 24: Back to the BBQ.

Berg made a fancier version of a panade, using a nice sandwich bread (no crusts) and red wine. Traditionally, a panade is a simple mix of milk and bread. Again, this is ideal for meatloaf in the States and burgers in Canada.

Berg also incorporated chives and garlic along with the pepper with 600 grams (1.32 pounds) of meat. "The perfect thing to keep your burgers super juicy," said Berg.

She made brie and pancetta burgers topped with chunky grilled red onion. These are not typical burgers for Canadians: this was an upscale burger recipe.

Why do Berg and other Canadians add a panade to simple burger meat?

There are 5 traditional outcomes for a burger: rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well, and well-done. The law in Canada requires an outcome of 71°C (160°F), defined as well-done.

A burger cooked to 71°C (160°F) would taste rather dry and lifeless. The cow died the first time: Why are we killing it again?

Your humble narrator has had quite a few burgers in Canada. Does the panade magic make the burger juicy? Our well-researched opinion is no. We haven't tried red wine in a panade. A Canadian burger is edible with lots of toppings. You might as well be eating a turkey burger at that point. Turkey does need a higher temperature so they usually are dry.

Canadian beef taste test: well-done vs. medium-rare

Medium-rare elk burger can be found without traveling to Canada

Medium-rare burger a rare find in Canada, especially buffalo and elk

We love Canadians and Canada. We love medium-rare burgers more. Canadians can buy good quality meat and bring that home to cook the burgers to their desired temperature. We have noted that there are exceptions if a restaurant grinds its own meat.

I ran into a place in Windsor in 2022 that grinded its own meat yet wouldn't cook a burger medium-rare. The law allows for an exception but restaurants aren't required to follow that exception.

If I had money, time, etc., I would create a Green Book for tourists and Canadians to find places that will serve a medium-rare burger. A friend in Toronto helped me find a place in the Danforth neighbourhood that was honestly the best burger I have had in Canada.

(The Green Book comparison can be offensive [no offense is intended] and we are sorry for any hurt feelings. Places that serve a medium-rare burger almost need to be secret about that in Canada.)

When I was a child, the males in the household loved medium-rare for burgers. We joked that my mother's burgers could be left on the grill for a long time. She didn't disagree.

Maybe you enjoy a well-done burger, sincerely. The world is made up of different people. If you do enjoy a well-done burger, you might be better off with a turkey burger or even a vegan burger. If you insist on using a beautiful dead cow for your burger, consider a panade to give some flavor (or flavour in Canada). A meatloaf burger or meatball burger might appeal to that audience.

If you are averse to using red wine, which is perfectly fine, the recipe offers beef stock or milk as alternatives.

A Canadian burger could go well with poutine, a combo of French fries, squeaky white cheese curds, and brown gravy over the top of both.

BalanceofFood.com Canada food policy coverage

The premise behind the Canadian law and most practices in the United States is that the burger meat might come from more than a single cow. Steaks don't have this issue even in Canada since the steak comes from a single cow.

Burger meat from multiple cows: this sounds like a worse problem than temperature of a burger.

Trust your meat. Know your farmer. Cook it for yourself, especially in Canada. You have to work harder to get a burger cooked to your temperature. If you like a well-done burger, you can eat almost anywhere in both countries.

photo credit: CTV Life Channel/Food Network

Food shows downplay the wonderful impact garlic could have in a dish

We love garlic. We wish food TV shows loved garlic as much as we love garlic.

Yes, some people are afraid of garlic so food shows, even on PBS, have to assume everyone is scared of garlic. They aren't scared of onions. They chop onions in tiny pieces.

The spiel is essentially the same. Slice the garlic so the garlic won't be too strong.

They rarely point out that the smaller pieces you have of garlic, the more flavor you will get. Yet they never cut the garlic into smaller pieces.

That common denominator means garlic goes in, just not to do what garlic could to improve a recipe.

The garlic press can get garlic into tiny pieces without resorting to a knife. This can be good if your clove is small enough. Wrestling a larger clove into a garlic press is an activity that would never make it into a cooking show. Watching Mary Berg use a garlic press on Mary Makes It Easy proves she makes it easy by not getting all the garlic into her dish.

"[G]arlic that has been tragically smashed through one of those abominations, the garlic press, are all disgusting. Please treat your garlic with respect … don't put it through a press. I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic." — Anthony Bourdain.

Chopping garlic into small places gives you more of the garlic in a dish than a garlic press will provide.

Alton Brown has an excellent episode on garlic: Season 4, Episode 11 of Good Eats called In The Bulb of the Night (Garlic). Brown counsels an unseen Count Vlad of the virtues of using garlic in recipes.

Brown cooks up for Count Vlad the 40 Cloves and a Chicken dish and Vlad's Very Garlicky Greens.

Brown is one of the few who goes into the power of smaller pieces and celebrates the beauty of strong garlic into a dish, especially with a skeptical vampire in his midst.

He doesn't introduce one of his many scientific replicas to reinforce the magic of smaller pieces. Otherwise, the episode is a joy to those of us who love garlic more than most cooking shows.

The cautious count is definitely a metaphor for the other cooking shows that seem as afraid of garlic as Count Vlad is on the program.

There was a Match Game '75 episode that mentions garlic. Start at the 6:00 mark in the video for the question. There may be some questionable answers but this survived broadcast standards in 1975. Margaret, the contestant, gives garlic as her answer. She ends up winning by a soupçon of garlic, thanks to Patti Deutsch.

Back then, garlic had a bad reputation. We should know better now to get more people to appreciate what strong garlic can bring to a dish.

Garlic may be in season at your local farmers market. If you are going to experiment with garlic, buy local garlic.

Some of us with heartier palates want a strong blue cheese flavor in a dish, more umami such as fish sauce, and yes, a stronger garlic flavor. We love the cooking shows to be "now, with extra garlic."

photo credits: me; Food Network; Good Eats
video credit: Match Game Productions

The Bear mocks the basic sandwich establishment for another unneeded high-end restaurant

The Bear is about a high-end chef who comes back to his family Italian beef sandwich establishment after his brother's suicide. The premise is that after trying to make this seemingly fish out of water scenario work, they tear down the Italian beef sandwich establishment from within to make room for a high-end restaurant.

People figure your humble narrator is into the show because 1) the nuance of how restaurants work and 2) living in the city where the show takes place.

I struggled to get through Season 1. Pardon this pun but the show was a bear to watch. Too much fake drama no matter how "realistic" the show was about the restaurant world.

If you didn't care about the food and restaurant themes, you would complain about the terrible writing, vague attempts at character development, the soliloquies that are more hilarious than meaningful, the details the creators clearly get wrong, the way character relationships jump around with alleged off-screen resolution.

Let's get to the real hero and villain of the story. The villain is a place such as the Original Beef restaurant (Italian beef). The hero is a place such as The Bear, the new high-end restaurant.

In Season 1, Episode 7, Richie (old guard) and Sydney (new guard) have a discussion about those workers who won't have access with all the fancy changes. Richie is the old guard. Sydney is the new guard. 

Sydney said this is about the business model. As empathetic as the character is, she doesn't care about the current customers or the future customers. Sydney is also obsessed to have a Michelin star. There are plenty of wonderful restaurants without a Michelin star who do better by their customers but the star is the golden calf.

Watch that scene even if you don't watch anything else from the show. Not every restaurant needs to be the mighty high-end restaurant. Fewer people will be able to eat out other than going through a drive-thru and trying to eat a cheeseburger while stuck in traffic. The Bear isn't about them; it's the competition for the rich people who can afford to eat at The Bear.

Interestingly. Sydney is one of the few decently developed characters in the whole show.

In Season 2, they rehab the building to turn the old place into the new place. Realistically, they could take over one of the many closed high-end restaurants but that wouldn't make for TV "fun" by discovering the building has mold inside.

Usually, high-end places, especially in River North, the downtown neighborhood in Chicago where the show takes place, has valet parking. Not sure where the cars would go for the high-end place since the Italian beef establishment had benches for eating outdoors and is accessible by nearby buses.

Putting the new restaurant in the old building is a metaphor that is actually relevant. Since the place will have very limited seating, they will need to turnover pretty quickly where high-end people tend to enjoy relaxing at dinner.

High-end restaurants are about better ingredients, which is a good thing. Using local farmers and eating locally. No high-fructose corn syrup or GMOs (hopefully). The kind of food that all of us deserve, not just high-end earners.

They are also about trusting the chef, using very little of said ingredients for higher prices. The concept is if they charged $5 less per dish, the alleged value would diminish among those high-end earners. They may have to go home for dessert since they won't get enough to fill up at dinner but that is the sacrifice of high-end eating.

I've heard enough high-end restaurant owners talk about how accessible their places are. You don't have to wear a tie or a long dress to go but you still need money and lots of it. They aren't interested in you otherwise. As Sydney would say, that is the business model.

Bourdain Day 2023: Celebrating a loss with food

Carmy and Michael (the dead brother) were very different people. Michael belonged in the Italian beef world while Carmy should be in the high-end world. The Bear shuts down Michael and then his world since there is only room for one and that is the high-end choice.

Places such as Original Beef are often there for decades, establishing loyalty and giving back to the neighborhood. High-end restaurants are not about loyalty, unless it's one-sided (customer to restaurant). They usually only last a few years before the owners get bored or burned-out or aren't making tons and tons of money. They don't care about the neighborhood. The land stays dormant until something else eventually comes along to fill the space.

Your humble narrator appreciates high-end food when delivered honorably. More and more, you can do almost as well at home without the pretense, small portions, or the dramatically high costs. With the money you save, you can treat yourself to an Italian beef sandwich: get it dunked in the jus and order the giardiniera, even if all they have is spicy.

Both seasons of The Bear are available on FX on Hulu.

Editor's note: If you are looking for a film that delves into the insanity of high-end restaurants, our sibling blog, CanadianCrossing.com would recommend Nose to Tail. The drama is intense but unlike The Bear, the drama feels real.

photo credit: The Bear

Celebrating Full Frontal with Samantha Bee for fighting for a better food system

As an actual journalist, I bemoan what passes for food journalism. The best reporters on the food system in the United States have been comedians, such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and yes, Samantha Bee.

For 7 years, Samantha Bee took on topics real journalists were afraid to confront. Samantha Bee might have been afraid yet she did segments on important issues such as school lunch funding.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS ended its run over the terribly awful Warner Bros. Discovery merger with the new TBS management making several stupid mistakes, one of them cancelling the show. We had hope the show could find a new home but that seems highly unlikely.

Having a half hour a single day a week meant the show couldn't cover as much as The Daily Show did. Still, we would love to celebrate what we had.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee makes the case for universal free lunch

The stigma of lunch debt. The pandemic led to the USDA to waive price as an issue for the cost of school lunches. Those waivers pretty much expired about a year ago.

The economic numbers don't reflect the number of people unemployed or sharply underemployed, many of whom have children who go to school. Feeding lunch to children is crucial to their ability to learn, which benefits everyone in society.

Since the GOP controls the House, there will be zero legislation to improve the situation.

The food system is also about who is involved in your food

The impact on immigrants, no matter their status, makes a gigantic impact on the U.S. food system from farm workers to restaurant workers and even chef/owner immigrants. Samantha Bee is an immigrant from Canada (that counts) so Bee and Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef, talked about the impact of immigration on food.

"I think the food landscape in this country would be completely different without immigrant labor," said Lakshmi. "We all have a responsibility to reach down and pull up the people who really break their back for you day in and day out."

Bee spotlights Cristina Martinez, who runs a popular barbacoa restaurant. Martinez explained in Spanish that she came to the United States to escape her abusive now ex-husband.

The food insecurity coverage in most mainstream journalism during the pandemic was about the visual of long lines for food pantries. Once again, Samantha Bee points out the food insecurity before the pandemic and the loss of school lunches since children weren't going to school.

BalanceofFood.com school lunch coverage

BalanceofFood.com U.S. food policy coverage

BalanceofFood.com television coverage

The Daily Show is in transition after Trevor Noah left. The future of these late-night shows, once so crucial to supplementing journalism, is really up in the air.

What's Eating America devotes cable news time to important food issues

How Trevor Noah and The Daily Show poked fun at the food supply

The MSNBC series was brief and mostly got on the air thanks to the popularity of Andrew Zimmern. This is the exception in cable news, not the norm. While the Trevor Noah version wasn't as diligent about the food supply system, Roy Wood Jr. could have his own show on the topic.

In a TikTok world, the idea of 7-8 minutes for a segment devoted to a food policy concern with humor and significance finding a happy partnership feel wonderful but may be only a pipe dream.

The Food Network and Cooking Channel, both owned by Discovery, the group that took down Samantha Bee's program, would be the ideal place for a block of programming once a week on actual food policy issues. Over the air stations are required to run educational programming. We could check that box, though cable channels don't have that requirement.

photo and video credits: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee/TBS

Nutrisystem plays up saving money but cooking is less expensive

"It's cheaper than going out and getting my own food or meal planning."

This ad goes into saving money by not throwing away food or being cheaper than eating out. These ads never say the word "cooking" because they know their plans aren't as cheap as cooking.

"Getting my own food" usually refers to going to the grocery store. You could rummage through Dumpsters, trespass on farms to pick vegetables, or get food to bring back to your domicile. "Cheaper than … meal planning." Does meal planning cost anything?

The ad pushes the idea of saving money. Patrick is a financial advisor and he knows he is saving money, though part of why he is saving money is that he is compensated for the ad. Someone is literally throwing away food. Implication is that one would never throw off the Nutrisystem food.

"Less expensive than going out to eat." Yes. A false comparison. Yes.

Arguing that this program is easier, less stressful, and fewer temptations: all solid arguments. Cheaper? Not so much.

Any diet program that is more about producing food than diet techniques wants you to think their food is a bargain. This ad is more overt than most.

The Federal Trade Commission (do we even still have a FTC?) would get involved if there was an obvious deception. Hopefully. We are not saying there is anything technically untruthful in the ad, if Nutrisystem's lawyers are reading this story. The ad is generally deceptive in nature but American standards for advertising allow a lot.

There is nothing magical in any food from any diet company. The diet culture is almost 50 years old. People generally did pretty well with regular food.

You can reduce food costs despite inflation

Meal kits sound wonderful but they are not a casual relationship

Follow Me film is actually about addiction not weight loss

Resolve to post more pictures of home cooking in 2019

Cooking allows you to use vegetables in multiple dishes. Celery is a lot cheaper when some of it goes into a soup, sauce, a snack, and other dishes. You could make a stew or chili that will last several days. You could make a tomato sauce and use it for different dishes.

Buying spices in bulk gives you flavor over a lot of dishes. A single tub of full-fat Greek yogurt gives you versatility and keeps you full.

Weight control is a lifetime issue for a lot of people. Buying someone else's food might work for awhile. Unless you plan to buy that food for 30 years, you should learn cooking to be more flexible and learn more about food than getting a delivery of meals for the next 4 weeks (read the fine print).

video and photo credit: Nutrisystem

Ranking food Super Bowl LVII ads

Avocados from Mexico usually has one of the better Super Bowl ads. Nudity, or as much as American broadcast television will allow, and how avocadoes make everything better, were the themes of the Super Bowl LVII ad.

Anna Faris as Eve was pretty funny. Not much room for acting in Super Bowl ads.

Avocadoes are the only substantial food on Super Bowl ads. Most foods advertised on television aren't high in quality from a nutrition perspective. The ratio feels like 50 million: 1 with questionable food than real food.

Eric Zorn was a long-time Chicago Tribune columnist. We love avocadoes but is the original destination that important?

When your humble narrator goes to the farmers market, the original destination for fruit is crucial but vegetables, not so much.

Years ago, a local store carried garlic from China. Didn't buy that garlic.

I've bought local Haas avocadoes in farmers markets in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Sadly, I have not bought an avocado from Mexico in Mexico.

I'm willing to eat any avocado from California or Mexico as long as the avocado is good and not insanely expensive. My loyalty is to good avocadoes from this continent.

Also, to Zorn's point, the plural of avocado is avocadoes, not avocados.

Hellmann's was back with leftovers, attacking potential food waste with mayonnaise. Brie Larson (brie cheese) and Jon Hamm (ham) are in a refrigerator with a large Hellman's jar. The play is on their food names.

Hellman's, also know as Best Foods in the western U.S., has been good on the whole food waste issue, even to promote its product. The whole Brie-Hamm combo was fun in a sea of questionable Super Bowl ads.

Full disclosure: I did have a ham sandwich before the commercial aired. Used mustard but not mayonnaise.

Ranking food Super Bowl LVI ads

Ranking food and drink Super Bowl LV ads

Super Bowl ad analysis in recent years

2020   2019   2018   2017   2016   2015   2014   2013   2011

Hope you ate well during the celebrations last night.

video credit: individual companies
photo credit: Eric Zorn/Facebook

Saute mushrooms, part deux: Cooking them with water

Sauté mushrooms with water seemed to be a contradiction to what we've learned about the sauté. Mushrooms in a cold pan … with water!?

Earlier this year, we tried the Alton Brown method. Waiting 45 seconds before adding the mushrooms and water. Cooking 2-4 minutes and then adding the butter. We tried this twice because, well, I added the wrong amount of water the first time. Neither effort came close to what Brown wanted us to accomplish.

I had some faith in the concept but not the method. I sauté a lot of mushrooms and slowly gave up on the idea of involving water.

America's Test Kitchen on PBS also tried to convince me to use the method. They had an experiment on how much oil mushrooms had been absorbed: raw vs. cooked briefly in the microwave. The difference in oil was significant. Again, the method sounded great but the practice needed to be effective.

The America's Test Kitchen (ATK) recipe is a considerable side dish with red wine, chicken broth, and rosemary. I just wanted to sauté some mushrooms to put on spaghetti. Both the Brown method and the ATK approach involved at least a pound of mushrooms.

The ATK approach started with a cold pan with the mushrooms and water. The water was a ¼ cup instead of ⅓ cup for the Brown method. No 45-second wait.

ATK noted that you should wait until the liquid evaporates to then put in the oil. The Brown method didn't mention the liquid and suggests putting in the fat a lot sooner.

The mushrooms release their liquid so in using the ATK method, there is a lot more liquid. I used a timer to keep track of the progress. There isn't a precise amount of time — a few minutes definitely — waiting until the liquid disappears is the key.

Using less butter or oil or even bacon grease is an advantage to cooking with water. Less fat and more money. This is not a no-fat approach, just using the mushrooms natural makeup to use less fat.

Food TV teaches us to eat with our eyes. The philosophy results in an uglier presentation. If texture is an issue, this approach can be your new best friend. There are advantages to both paths in terms of taste: the water path means smaller pieces that feel more meaty.

Mushrooms and other vegetables can taste better with improved texture

On the surface, this anecdote means the Brown method was "wrong" and the ATK approach was "right." This is where there is art to the science of cooking. The paths are sufficiently similar. Both recipes are checked over and over before hitting the airwaves (cable?). Both are rooted in the science of mushrooms.

ATK offers more steps, which can help some cooks who follow along step by step. The Brown method has a precision with the 45 seconds missing from the ATK approach.

You may have tried both paths and found the Alton Brown method was dominant over the America's Test Kitchen approach. This is why trying more than one path can help you figure out a cooking task.

You might try one path for certain dishes and another path for other dishes. You might combine some of each method into one that suits your cooking.

The New York Times declared mushrooms to be the 2022 Ingredient of the Year. Experimenting with mushrooms is worthwhile.

Charcuterie board offers a small Thanksgiving feast without pressure or hard work

Add vegetables to processed lunch choices for flavor and nutrition

Resolve to post more pictures of home cooking in 2019

I've been enjoying Mary Berg's Mary Makes It Easy, which airs on the Food Network in the United States. As a nod to our sibling blog, CanadianCrossing.com, Berg is Canadian, which explains why she says Fahrenheit a lot and has an actual recipe for butter tarts.

I can't say I love all 4 recipes in any episode but there is almost some tidbit or a whole recipe in every episode where I find personal temptation.

There are so few cooking shows on commercial television so the ones that are good need to be noted.

I can deal with Berg's shortened language — parm for parmesan — and find it reasonably charming. You should know that Berg goes really fast in a recipe and makes great assumptions if you are not a seasoned cook. Her show sometimes feels like you are listening to a podcast at 1.3 speed because the show goes really fast.

The idea is to realize your own speed as a cook and approach inspiration accordingly. A Mary Berg idea might be your jam, as she would say, but you might need a ATK approach to figure how to work through a recipe. This is a part of the cooking process. The idea may be great, such as cooking mushrooms in water, but this only works when you find an approach or method that suits your cooking interests.

photos credit: me

How Trevor Noah and The Daily Show poked fun at the food supply

Trevor Noah and The Daily Show couldn't live up to the standard on criticism of the food industry set by Jon Stewart in that incarnation of the U.S. TV program. Still, the Trevor Noah era — which started in 2015 and ends tonight — did weigh in on food topics.

We thought an outside perspective on the U.S. approach to food would have been a natural fit for Noah's comedy. While Stewart weighed in from the desk, Noah let correspondent pieces speak for themselves.

Here are the stories we covered that The Daily Show covered in the Trevor Noah era.

Food banks now more important than ever in COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic

Daily Show looks into alternative meats

Will people come back for the Popeyes chicken sandwich?

Daily Show addresses increased junk food in school lunches

Meals on Wheels symbol of Trump attack on food supply

McDonald's Canada kale salad high in calories, but consumers have options to reduce calories

Roy Wood Jr., who is under consideration to be a host or a rotating host, had particular fun with the Meals on Wheels segment, the junk food in school lunches, alternative meats, and the obsession over the Popeyes chicken sandwich.

Appreciating Jon Stewart, The Daily Show on food and nutrition

BalanceofFood.com Daily Show coverage

Saying goodbye to the Colbert Report

The new host or hosts take over on January 17. Hoping the new regime takes a look at the ridiculous state of the U.S. food system.

The Daily Show runs Monday-Thursday at 11 pm Eastern on Comedy Central.

photo credit: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Enjoy foods where you travel but be careful what you bring back

I arrived back from Canada earlier this week. I did bring back some Canadian treats. Ketchup chips. Butter tarts. I brought in all of this food legally. I have missed Canadian treats.

In preparing for the trip, I was thinking back to the time of Canadian fat cakes. Well, not actual Canadian fat cakes because they aren't real. Smuggling them back into the United States would not have been a crime, even if they existed.

The Canadian fat cakes episode of iCarly is now 10 years old. Jennette McCurdy, who played Sam, the one obsessed with Canadian fat cakes, is now retired from acting.

That may be more about what we learned in her memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died.

McCurdy talked about weight issues she had due in part to the stress her mother put on her. Having to pretend to be obsessed about a fictional treat, even as lovely as one as Canadian fat cakes, had to be difficult. I don't know much about her acting ability, but Sam had me jonesing for Canadian fat cakes.

I loved how the writers noted the contrast that American fat cakes had "corn fat" while Canadian fat cakes had "cane fat." This was 10 years ago. There was a time where I would have brought over Canadian Twinkies, back when there was a difference. The Jos. Louis cakes, which are real, have the dreaded glucose-fructose aka high-fructose corn syrup.

Your humble narrator hasn't been able to "smuggle" food in from Canada in about 3 years. If I were driving, my trunk would overflow from all the Canadian food I would love to bring back to the United States. All of it legally.

The rules haven't changed. Live food, such as fruits, vegetables, and meat, are definitely not allowed. Foods that were never alive, such as ketchup chips, butter tarts, and the proverbial Canadian fat cakes, aren't a problem.

These rules also apply to entering other countries from the United States. Each country has their own rules for what you can bring into that country.

Australia has very strict rules on bringing anything into that country.  

iCarly hits Canada in search of Canadian Fat Cakes

Temptation of the Week: Canadian fat cakes

Celebrating the Michelle Obama legacy for food and nutrition

BalanceofFood.com Canada food policy coverage

When traveling, enjoy the food of where you are. Bring some home as a souvenir. Just remember to follow the rules of where you are going. 

photos credit: iCarly