Cruising through a major department store I was offered a rolled butter cookie. Not your ordinary rolled cookie in a cylinder tin, this was possibly one of the lightest, most flavorful cookies to have crossed my lips. Yoku Moku by Clyv are individually wrapped, all-natural butter cookies rolled into a “cigare” shape. In plain vanilla, chocolate or darjeeling/Earl Grey milk tea filled flavors, only a large tin will suffice as these addictive cookies will not likely be around long enough to offer to guests with a scoop of ice cream or a good cup of coffee. Sinful. www.yokumoku.com

Beans are a New Orleans staple - red beans, white beans and limas - all cooked slow and low, then served over rice. With all the focus on heirloom varieties, it was a thrill to stumble on the broad bean (pun intended) selection of California’s Rancho Gorda.
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Pirates are alive and well in New Orleans! A new company that blends New Orleans Rum, Louisiana Pecans and Louisiana cane sugar into a serious rum cake has just pulled into port (so to speak). Banana Republic Bakery “pirated” a secret recipe, and arrgh me maties, a two or four pound rum cake, “ju-ju balls” (cookie crumbs rumm and chocolate) to put wind into anyone’s sails! Better still, the pirates have a heart - they are serious promoters of saving the Louisiana coastline especially as it affects the parishes where most of the sugar cane is grown. www.piratesalley.biz or (504)715-1639

When my sister called me to rave over a garlic product she stumbled on at her local grocery, I thought okay, okay, it’s just garlic. So I went on a culinary quest for the product here in New Orleans and after having no luck, talked to the staff at our Whole Foods Market and got them to bring it in. When it arrived, I rushed to the store, then ran home to start cooking. Now I understand the raves for Garlic Gold, an organic garlic from Seven Oaks Ranch in Ojai, California.
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Freaked out by the reports of the tomato shortage rocking the U.S.? How about planning for your own garden next year? Let Copia help and have no more fears of that tomato-less sandwich.
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On a recent trip to The Village at Squaw Valley a group of food and travel writers were treated to a sushi surprise.
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Vending machines are visible all over Japan selling a wide range of items from the most popular bottled teas to batteries and slinky undies. Unlike what we tend to get in the US, these bottled teas are made from fresh tea leaves and largely offered unsweetended even from the unlikeliest of sources like Coca Cola and Pepsi. Now there is a company trying to change the US bottled tea market and the website is a tea enthusiasts dream.
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Ahhh, research, this job is so tough sometimes…or not. Here’s what I learned about babka.
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Oh yea baby, want some wicked popcorn? Check out www.wickedpopcorn.com. This small Tampa-based company rocks some killer popcorn in wicked flavors: peanut butter and jelly (grape or strawberry, your call), Kung Pow Chedder or Mr. Sour Cream and the Great White Chedder, to name a few. Best yet, , the company donates a portion of the proceeds to Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. A one-gallon box runs about $10.

Who’d have thunk that the simple burger, Wimpy’s favorite food would turn into the icon of icons. Well after having eaten burgers with short rib meat and foie gras, burgers of every conceivable meat, fish and fowl, I thought there could be nowhere else to go. Wrong.
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