February Not Dissed

In the article “Make My Days” (Dec. 28), we observed with deep regret that the month of February had apparently been snubbed by the creators of food holidays. It turns out that February is both Potato Lover’s Month and National Snack Food Month (no incongruity there), and Feb. 2, better known as Groundhog Day, is also California Kiwifruit Day.

DiSCUS Wants Its Due

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DiSCUS) is publicizing a study of coronary heart risk that appeared in the January issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The study reported that all beverage alcohol--not just grape wine--seemed to reduce risk among the study sample of middle-aged Japanese men.

This is interesting in itself but also because of the delicate suggestion of what Jeeves the butler would call a rift within the lute in the beverage biz. The wine industry has been publicizing the health benefits of wine at least partly to counter the neo-prohibitionist anti-alcohol campaign. Are the distillers afraid the wine industry just wants to save its own skin? (Winemakers tried that before the Prohibition of the 1920s, and it didn’t work then; prohibitionists didn’t recognize any distinctions among alcoholic beverages.)

Chocolate Surprise

Parisian chocolatier Jean Paul Hevin specializes in truffles with a mystery ingredient--or maybe it’s not such a mystery. It’s cheese, and not mild cheese, either, but the smelly kind: Camembert, Roquefort and goat (his recipe uses white as well as dark chocolate and occasional oddities such as Sichuan pepper). He claims that 60% of his customers like the cheese-chocolate truffles. Hey, elections have been won with a lot less.

Burger Conflict in Israel

In a breakaway move, McDonald’s hamburger outlets in Israel are abandoning the McD tradition of cooking on griddles. Omri Padan, managing director of McDonald’s Israel, said the change was made because kosher meat, which is salted to remove blood, tastes better when charcoal-grilled. But in a televised confrontation with Padan, Burger King Israel Chief Executive Kobi Hayoun charged that McDonald’s had simply recognized that customers preferred the taste of burgers a la Burger King.