Ideal Bite

Remember the article that circled a few months back uncovering the fact that 90% of U.S. bills posses trace amounts of cocaine? Here's round two on that topic, albeit less funny than all the cracks that were made then about Washington D.C. being the $ + cocaine epicenter. 

Studying the effect our land living has on watersheds, Washington State researchers have discovered that certain spices show up in concentrated forms in our water supply depending on the time of year. For example, thyme and sage traces are more significant around Thanksgiving, cinnamon reigns throughout the winter, waffle-cone and caramel-corn (yuck, really?) remnants have their shining moment around the 4th of July, and chocolate and vanilla rear their sweet heads each Read the full post... 

Sesame Street rings in it's 40th year this week, an anniversary that hasn't gone unnoticed by many a big kids who, like me, can still recite from memory songs from the Street: One two three four five, six seven eight nine ten, eleven twelve - with the pin ball...remember? Just me...okay. (Tell me why  we are not able to allocate memory space at will?)

To commemorate the occasion, Michelle Obama kicks it with Elmo and BIg Bird to talk growing your own veggies. HIghlight: Big Bird asking Mrs. Obama if she's a bird too, because she's so tall you see. Ouch, Big Bird, burn...



SF Editor Hanah...off to find a worthy outlet for this warm fuzzy feeling...

From SF Read the full post... 

Everyone's favorite polyamorous poster girl, Ginnifer Goodwin, made us fall even more in love with her last week when she showed up to The Environmental Media Associations Awards in a sustainable frock designed by local Academy of Art students. The dress, gorgeously tailored out of discarded hospital scrubs, was designed as part of the 1Oak (One of a Kind) collection, a line of sustainably-designed dresses created for an Academy of Art class project.

Big-ups Ginny (can we call you Ginny?). 

-City Editor Hanah...off to catch up on Big Love...
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Big-ish news in the blog world: no more pay for play on the low; if pimping out your editorial soul to advertisers is your thing, you're going to have to let folks know about it.

Last week, the FTC ruled that bloggers must disclose when they've been paid by advertisers to write about a product/person/event. Currently, bloggers can make anywhere from $50-$500 (depending on how many followers they have), from advertising companies like SocialSpark, who connect companies looking to go "word-of-mouth" (ahem...) to blogs. Almost makes you wanna buy a domain and get cracking, don't it? No.

Why care? The inherent assumption here: internet users are unsavvy, gullible sheep, and can't tell when something is cool because it Read the full post... 

Attention Bay Area Biters:

Today, Thursday, Oct. 1st, is the LUNAFEST short film festival, and again, we're giving away tickets to tonight's VIP reception and screening. The first 3 Biters who email us at contests@idealbite.com with LUNAFEST in the subject line'll score a pair of tickets ticket. See you tonight!

Oct. 1st, 6 pm VIP Reception/7:30 pm Screening
The Herbst Theatre - Read the full post... 

Attention Bay Area Biters: Thursday, Oct. 1st is the LUNAFEST short film festival, and we're giving away tickets to the VIP reception and screening. The first 6 Biters who email us with LUNAFEST in the subject line'll score a ticket. See you there!

Oct. 1st, 6 pm VIP Reception/7:30 pm Screening
The Herbst Theatre - Map It

-City Editor Read the full post... 

A new restaurant is opening up in the IB SF office 'hood on Monday, and due to its close proximity to our South Beach HQ alone, it's deserving of a mention. Welcome, Ironside, the new outfit from the folks that brought you (us...) wine to be imbibed whilst sitting in a U-shape at District.

Dear Ironside, 

We can't wait to add you to our exhausted (but once great) roster of rotating lunch haunts. Butler and the Chef, South Park Cafe, Mexico Au Park, Brickhouse - smell ya later.

Love, 
IB

Ironside set up shop in the Chronicle Books building, in s space formerly home to the Moore Shipbuilding Co. This new iteration is made of reclaimed materials: barn wood,

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Crossing a bridge to feed ones self is not something that SFers take too lightly - when we do it, infrequently at best, it is undoubtedly always for a worthy cause. Next week: a worthy cause.

Sausalito's Poggio Italian Restaurant is playing host to the 1st Annual Festa del Pesce from September 15-19. In addition to the resto's standard Italian fare (focused on locally and sustainably-grown, organic foods), Poggio will be serving up sustainably-sourced and locally-caught Pacific seafood dishes in crudo (raw) and cotto (cooked) antipasti form. And for cheap. Expect around a dozen dishes made with Monterey sardines, calamari, anchovies, mackerel, and swordfish, all for about $7-$9 a pop, Read the full post... 

Big news in the "eco-water bottle" industry this week: the devastating announcement from green bottle darling, SIGG,  that all of its aluminum bottles produced and distributed prior to August 2008 are lined with BPA-containing plastics. Ouch. 

Riding in like an opportunistic, stainless-steel-shrouded knight in shining armor, to perform a PR stunt that could potentially benefit you: Petaluma, CA-based, Mexico-made CamelBak. CamelBak is offering 500 of you the opportunity to get an insulated CamelBak Better Bottle Stainless Steel water bottle for free when you send in a pic of your naughty Bisphenol A bottle. 

For a list of the bad, qualifying bottles, Read the full post... 

If you're hungry, and live in the Bay Area, next week Menlo Park's Marche is serving up some unique fare for a great cause. Back in June, Marche Chef Guillaume Bienaimé joined the kindergarten class at nearby Encinal Elementary School in planting summer squash in the campus garden, with seeds from local farmer Fred Hempe of Baia Nicchia Farms. Now, you can reap the delicious rewards of the harvest.

From Tuesday, September 1st through Saturday, September 5th, Marche is offering an Encinal Fresh dinner special: a three-course prix-fixe menu for $44. Plus, 20% of the receipts from the menu  will be donated to Encinal Elementary School to fund programs like the garden. 

Guillaume plans to continue to work with Encinal Elementary students and their Green

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