Feedbag: Weird Food News & More

Last month's Weird Food News turns out to be the first in a series. Weekly, perhaps. Click, click, click. This morning's news:

• International turmoil takes its toll: Hardee's is under fire in Egypt, forced to close two dozen of its stores
• In China, McDonald's and KFC, the two biggest western chains, are facing competition from, gasp, local chain restaurants.
• And, with that, word that the parent company of Red Lobster and Olive Garden is looking at expansion possibilities in airports and college campuses.
• Can't make it to your Italian class? Try this pizza contest sponsored by Cavit wines. First prize is a trip to Italy.

Which brings us round again to the whole business of alcoholic beverages.

• First, a spicy tip for Superbowl Sunday: if you like bacon, why not a Bakon Vodka Mary? Not a bloody fan? Try the tagliatelle alla wodka at my friend Enza's Sicilian joint atop Queen Anne; the dish starts with pancetta, so the Bakon Vodka enhances the bacon flavor of the tomato sauce.


• As we suffer the hangover of a defeated ballot measure, I-1100, that would have taken Washington (state) out of the liquor business, it's kinda fun to watch what's happening around the country: Connecticut, for example, still doesn't allow any liquor sales on Sunday. No beer, wine or hard stuff. Amazingly, it's the lobby for liquor store owners that wants to keep it that way. In Noo Yawk, that hotbed of, well, hot beds, the new guv, Andrew Cuomo, won't touch the hot potato of allowing the sale of liquor in grocery stores. And across the river in Oregon, the spoilsports are saying that the cost of treating alcohol abuse is eight times the amount of money raised through the state's control of alcohol.

The mind reels. Fortunately, there's a fashion-cane at hand to steady my step.

Producers, marketers, countrymen: send me your ears. (Snails: 2600 Second Avenue #309, Seattle, WA 98121; electrons to inyourglass [at] gmail.com) All contributions accepted, though no guarantees of review or mention, let alone favorable. FTC take note: Feedbag receives, eats & drinks samples; reads books, watches plays & operas, takes trips.