Results tagged “wholefoods”

It's Time for Lunch...what's on our kids' plates? Tater tots, pudding cups and mystery meat often find a home on kids' cafeteria trays, but that doesn't have to be the case. This fall, the Child Nutrition act, which leaves schools only $1 to spend on each child’s meal after labor, equipment and overhead costs, is up for re-authorization by Congress. In order to promote awareness of the need to change food policy for school-age children, Slow Food L.A. and Whole Foods are behind 6 "Eat-in" events in Los Angeles community gardens this Labor Day.

When the new Whole Foods that opened in Venice, I figured it would be like the other Whole Foods. Cramped. Packed. Expensive. Sometimes worth going to but an endurance. This Whole Foods is different in that it is gigantic (see the photo below) and even has clothing. That is all fine and good, but you can buy food and clothes many places.

Bad news for residents of the Hollywood Entertainment Distirct. Whole Foods today told Racked LA that the storefront "planned for the southeast corner of Selma and Vine is on hold until the market takes a better turn." That location is near the mixed apartment complex and the currently under construction W Hotel.

An article in today's Telegraph.co.uk touts the recent adoption of Twitter by British-based Tesco's Fresh & Easy grocery stores. Although the article focuses on the rarity of a Brit business using what's more popular with American businesses, F&E's web-watchers Fresh & Easy Buzz point out that the Tweets are coming from California, not England:

Fresh & Easy's presence on Twitter.com isn't being maintained by a Tesco Fresh & Easy company employee based out of its Southern California headquarters or by a Tesco PLC employee in the UK. Rather, the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Twitter site is maintained on a regular basis by SallieB, who is a social marketing expert with Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's public relation's firm, ABCO International.

Though perhaps not gripping correspondence, Twitter does help to establish loyalty by giving customers an active way of communicating with the company's management. [...]

Continue reading "Does Your Favorite Grocery Store Use Twitter? Should They?"

Imagine heeding the call of a craving for some Annie's Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar Bunny crackers and opening the box to find $10,000 in cash instead. It happened to a Tustin family, who had bought the box of crackers at their local Whole Foods. Instead of being greedy, though, the Rogoff family brought the cash to the cops, who thought at first it could be part of a drug drop. According to abc7.com,

Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. The Lake Forest woman, whose identity was not released, had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the $10,000.

This year, with the official start of the holiday season tragically mired in a financial fiasco, the fires and soaring temperatures feeling more Summer than Fall, and Prop 8’s passage reminding us all we’ve still a long way to go, it’s enough to think drowning your sorrows in gravy and cheese balls is the answer to all of life’s problems. So, as tempting as it is to stress eat (think Jack Donaghy of "30 Rock") and entirely abandon 2008’s diet and exercise resolutions, a recent and highly publicized article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is reminding us yet again that it’s crucial to be smart about food choices. With the belly fat-wielding juggernaut of Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, and the Holiday Party on the horizon, we here at the ScientIST bring you a helping of science and common sense to successfully navigate the next few months. Your waistline can thank us later.

Yesterday Health Magazine (via iVillage/MSNBC) released their list of the nation's top ten healthiest grocery chains. The list was compiled based on the findings of six experts selected by the publication in comparing the top 35 grocery retailers, and revealed that your neighborhood big name big box can actually be good for you. Criteria for ranking included "the freshness of produce and taste of prepared foods to the healthiness of packaged goods and availability of supplemental nutritional information."

For awhile now, one lane of Selma Avenue near Hollywood Blvd. and Vine St. has been closed. Starting today, the whole block between Vine and Argyle has been shut down for a gas line relocation in preparation of Whole Foods, which is expected to open in early 2009. But for now, Selma Ave. (including sidewalks) will be closed for at least 60 days, but possibly longer. One block away at Selma and Morningside Court, Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles is planning to open a permanent extension of the Hollywood Farmers' Market to hold cooking classes while being a neighborhood "farm fresh" cafe with an emphasis on assistance and nutrition education to the low-income population.

Maynard Keenan, frontman for Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifier, loves the grape – especially the wine it produces. He’s taken his interest a step further by growing, harvesting and making his own wine. He's owner/part owner of a few vineyards in Arizona (Caduceus Cellars/Merkin Vineyards and Arizona Stronghold Vineyard), and this afternoon from 4:30-7:30 pm, he’ll be making an appearance at Whole Foods in Pasadena (465 S. Arroyo Pkway at Bellevue) to sign and showcase the latest releases. (There's another Whole Foods signing in Venice tomorrow afternoon.)

Venice it getting a Whole Foods tomorrow. It makes for one less reason to leave the gridlocked, non public transit friendly area. And if you add in a Trader Joes and a Target to neighborhood, Yo Venice's Keri "will never have to leave." The new store is located at 225 Lincoln Blvd. at Rose Ave.

Map of New Pizza & Italian Places in Sherman Oaks | View Larger Map

      

Oh, you've got to love rumors, especially those that both anger and please people, depending on who you're speaking with. This rumor comes via a report during the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council* meeting last Monday night. During a Land Use Committee report, someone asked what the status was on the old Ventura Club building at Colbath and Ventura (just East of Hazeltine). Originally it was slated as a Walgreens, but after that got scrapped, the building sat abandoned. But now there a lot of construction going on inside as well as substantial parking lot additions. One member said he heard it was supposed to be "that English grocery store chain." Right then, the room was abuzz with "Tesco" and "Fresh & Easy," and how the Van Nuys location is not working out. No one could confirm any of this and calls to corporate late yesterday afternoon were not immediately returned, but upon a site visit, whatever's being built at the location is looking to be rather large in size (photos below)

There is some kind of hellish cold going around that's sent people from all over running to their doctors for a z-pack (to the uninitiated out that that would be pack of Zithromax, the antibiotic du jour these days.) But what if you're trying to stick it out and fight it off with a wing, a prayer and some echinacea?

It's National Cold Cuts Day. That term has always brought to mind those not very fresh, tasteless sandwich fillers served at large functions that you eat because you don't want to eat only macaroni salad. With the beef recall, dashing to your local butcher for some cold cuts sounds less appetizing than ever. However, the term "cold cuts" can include cheese and that's where you can freely celebrate.

Trader Joes, based here in Southern California in Monrovia, made a big announcement today regarding imported food from China:

Garlic, frozen organic spinach and other "single ingredient" food items from mainland China will be phased out by April 1, although products that include ingredients from both China and other sources will remain.

Continue reading "Trader Joe's Says 'No' to Some Chinese Foods "

One of my few gripes with Los Angeles is that it's not a 24-hour town.

Welcome to a two-part review of the year’s best cookbooks. In part one, I’ll list five new books that inspired me in the kitchen in 2007…part 2 will include five rediscoveries that you might want to add to your shelf.

It's a family tradition: every year on New Year's Day, we toast slices of panettone and drink mimosas. The warm, buttery, alcohol-infused bread is the perfect compliment to a nice, dry champagne and nothing says ring in the new year like a little more liquor (provided you've survived the night before.)

New state-set limits on the bacteria found in raw milk products might impact the ability of suppliers to provide consumers with products next month. Officials emphasize that the ban would not ban raw milk and products derived from it, but that the new standards are "necessary for consumer safety," the Daily news reports. The article explains:

The new standard, part of AB 1735, takes effect in January, setting a limit of no more than 10 coliforms per milliliter.

Continue reading "Raw Milk Products Might Get Put Out to Pasture in California"

Photo by ellwoodite via LAist Featured Photos Flickr Pool

Taste-Buzz will fill you with ramen cravings in this post on Asa Ramen in Gardena. Rameniac (noodle porn!) is also on the scene. More and more, it seems like the real culinary finds in this region are in the cities surrounding central L.A. Is Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) a necessary evil for those seeking high-quality, low-impact organic food? Or is the company less interested in ethical consumption and more involved in "creating a retail...

Itching to get out to the latest restaurant or coolest foodie event this weekend? Here's a quick round-up of where to eat this weekend that will have you talking all week.

If you're anything like us and still incorporate large quantities of instant ramen noodles into your diet (is that shameful for a food writer to admit?), this morning's news might cause more than a little worry. We woke to our local news broadcasters discussing yet another American health worry: salt. Apparently Americans consume 50% too much salt in their diet, much of it locked up in processed and canned foods, and the FDA is...

This week five fresh&easy grocery stores er, "neighborhood markets," opened in metro Los Angeles. We visited the Glassell Park store located in a gutted Albertson's on Eagle Rock Blvd (map) for our first impression of UK-based Tesco's (the world's third-largest grocer) attempt to hook finicky West Coast consumers.

We've driven by the Whole-Foods-to-be site for months now. Waiting. Wishing. While we don't shop at Whole Foods all the time (we love you Whole Foods, but your prices on many common items are just short of outrageous) there are a few grocery items we're partial to that we just can't get anywhere else. When we run out of these particular food items, the trek to the really far-away Pasadena or Glendale Whole Foods...

Did you know you can still get tickets for Monday night's Rilo Kiley show at the Santa Monica Civic? Do you know why you can still get tickets for the show? Because it's in Santa Monica. And when the people of Santa Monica aren't trying to destroy old trees and houses, they're looking for things to do Other than see great rock shows. Let's think of things they do on the Westside other than...

It's hard to find a person out there who doesn't like cookies. And it's even harder to find someone who will turn down a free one. So what if I tell you that over the next few days at several Los Angeles-area Whole Foods Markets you can get yourself a free sample of an organic Crummy Brothers Chocolate Chip cookie? I think you just might say "Hell yes!" So what's the deal with Crummy...

They're old, they're gray, they steal carbon from the air, they block the sun, they buckle the sidewalks... and they're so ridiculously green it's almost like they're showing off. They are the 50+ ficus trees who have the nerve to stand in the way of progress near the 3rd Street Promenade. And they've got to go. In order to expand the popular shopping district (once known as the Santa Monica Mall), city officials have...

Top Chef hasn’t suffered from sophomore – okay, junior – slump at all. Bravo’s reality show is turning out to be one of the most consistently entertaining programs on television, thanks to one simple rule that’s all too often overlooked in the reality game: talented people make good television. Unfortunately, not everybody agrees: Regina Schrambling over at the LA Times recently decried the “tentacles” of advertising that have a firm grip on the show’s...