Slashfood

Beer isn't necessarily the first beverage that comes to mind when thinking of what to pair with cheese. Wine is the obvious choice. But at a beer and cheese workshop at the recent Salon de Fromage, we discovered the culinary (and economical) advantages of pairing cheese with beer. But we still had more questions, so we also consulted beer enthusiast Alex Brown, co-founder of the food blog Hot Knives and Jean Michel de Riveau, from the Brewers Association of France. Here's what we learned:

As the weather warms up, we can at last turn our heads to lighter-bodied reds. Pinot Noir is an excellent example.

The film Sideways (2004) made the red-wine grape more famous than it had ever been, catapulting it from obscurity into high demand. Suddenly wine drinkers were searching their local wine shops for bottles from California's Central Coast, eager to learn what thrilled Miles about Pinot Noir. Planted not just in California -- and in more regions than the Central Coast -- the grapes also do well in New York, Washington, Oregon, New Zealand, Italy and France. Considered a finicky grape to grow, winemakers consider Pinot Noir their pride and joy and spend a lot of time perfecting their craft as it relates to this particular grape.

After the jump, find some of our favorites, from Anderson Valley, California, to Orange, Australia. (Wondering why there aren't any Oregon Pinots on our list? Stay tuned for a post dedicated to Pinots from that state.)

Spring rains got you down? Need a little extra oomph in your coffee, but without all the frou-frou vanilla or hazelnut syrup? Maybe it's time for some dark-as-night, rich chicory coffee -- that should cut right through those low-hanging clouds.

Chicory, a member of the endive family (I know, right?), has long been used as an additive or even a substitute for coffee. When baked or cooked, the chicory's roots take on a dark-chocolaty bitterness not unlike darker-roasted coffee -- very handy during hard times like the Great Depression, when coffee was an out-of-reach luxury for many Americans. Although it isn't caffeinated, chicory's roots (and edible leaves) can be potent enough to snap unsuspecting taste buds to attention, and because the roasted root is more water soluble than ground coffee beans, the resulting brew tends to be quite a bit thicker than your average cup of joe.

How do you make chicory coffee? Read on after the jump to find out.

McDonald's officials in Shanghai attempted to reassure customers that their food is fine to eat after a Denver nutritionist published claims that it is packed with preservatives.

Joann Bruso, whose website is called BabyBites.com, left a Happy Meal (a product primarily eaten by children) out for one year...that's right a whole year. The horrifying results? She alleges that the food did not change at all.

"It sat on my shelf for a year as a silent witness to our fast-food industry. It never smelled bad. The food did not decompose," she wrote.

Researchers (and brothers) Brian and Craig Wansink have examined 52 of the most famous images of the Last Supper -- where Jesus and his disciples observed a Passover seder, the last before the Crucifixion -- and found a sizable increase in portions over the past millennium, from the year 1000 to ten years ago.

Brian Wansink told the LA Times, "I think people assume that increased serving sizes, or 'portion distortion,' is a recent phenomenon. But this research indicates that it's a general trend for at least the last millennium." Wansink, who authored Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, and who has conducted many portion-size studies as director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, brought his years of nutrition research to the study. Meanwhile, his brother Craig, a biblical scholar at Virginia Wesleyan College, brought the religious studies chops to their analysis of what they are calling "history's most famous dinner party."

We've missed Jamie Oliver, really we have. Back when he was younger and even more aggressively hip, he went by the moniker The Naked Chef -- a nudge-wink reference to the simple dishes on display, not the 20-something British-invastion rock-star-looking guy who made it -- and hosted the enjoyable BBC cooking show of the same name (rebroadcast for us Yanks on the Food Network).

In the decade since, however, he's settled down, gotten completely dressed, and refashioned himself as a crusading nutritionist/mentor to wayward youth all across the U.K., where they have a love/hate relationship with him, his teenage wardrobe and his accent. It was only a matter of time before he subjected all of us to the same -- and we subjected him to just as much love and hate.

You see, Jamie has realized that we don't eat so good, to sound like an ignorant American, and he's decided to give us "The biggest food revolution this country's ever seen!" Whether that's for good or bad is up to you, but we sure had squirm-inducing fun watching him try in his inaugural preview hour on ABC, in anticipation of a full, 2-hour premiere this Friday.

The nation's top chefs and restaurants nominated for the highly coveted James Beard Foundation food and restaurant prizes were announced Monday.

There were five nominees in for the top chef prize, ABC News reported. Nominated this year are: Tom Colicchio of Craft in New York City, Gary Danko of San Francisco's Restaurant Gary Danko, Suzanne Goin of Lucques in Los Angeles, Jose Andres of Minibar in Washington, D.C. and Charles Phan of The Slanted Door in San Francisco.

Nintendo is going to try to convince you to throw out your cookbooks. The game company just cooked up "America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking," which offers electronic step-by-step instructions for hundreds of recipes from the how-to TV show America's Test Kitchen.

Compatible with the Nintendo DS, DSi and just-released DSi XL, the software has cooks-in-training use its touch-screen technology to choose dishes to prepare, then divvies up tasks among family members or friends. Cartoon chefs talk you through each step of every recipe, and the program includes instructional videos on kitchen basics like chopping an onion and mincing garlic.