Flickr/elisasizzle

Nutella on toast

Maybe it's a good thing that New York City Mayor Bloomberg has targeted soda as a leading cause of the obesity epidemic, because he could have targeted something far, far more important: Nutella. Which is precisely what the government of France has done. In an effort to curb obesity, France is proposing a "fat tax," which would target not pâté or foie gras, but palm oil. Right. Because that's what's making everyone fat, apparently, not the many McDonald's restaurants in Paris or all that glorious cheese. (And yes, if you were wondering, French people get fat too, although calling out Gerard Depardieu seems really unfair.)

In what has become known as the Nutella Amendment, France's (Socialist, of course) government plans to quadruple taxes on products containing palm oil, a key ingredient in the hugely popular Italian hazelnut-chocolate spread. The argument is that palm oil consumption is fueling obesity, reports The Guardian. And no, this isn't making anybody happy, particularly French schoolchildren and the government of Malaysia, which produces palm oil.

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Flickr/elisasizzle

A dab of Nutella on mini toast

Nutella isn't a health food? But it's made with hazelnuts -- nuts are good for you. And chocolate -- doesn't chocolate contain healthy antioxidants?

Two class-action lawsuits against Ferrero, the maker of Nutella, say the company's claims in a recent TV commercial that Nutella spread on toast makes a healthy breakfast for children went a little too far, according to the New York Daily News. (One suit was for California, where the suit originated, and the other was for hazelnut-spread victims in the rest of the country.)

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LA Weekly Flickr pool/Cooking On The Weekends

Nutella brownies

This LA Weekly Flickr pool photo, taken by photographer Cooking On The Weekends, manages to combine most of the key elements of Valentine's Day into one shot -- and one recipe. You've got the hearts, the chocolate, the pretty colors. You even have Nutella, which is what some of us plan to eat for dinner in lieu of an actual date night out. (Okay, maybe after a trip to the Sichuan restaurant down the street. A different Sichuan restaurant, Tony! Thank you. We love you too.)

And a reminder that if you have any brilliant shots of food you've taken around town recently, you might consider uploading them on our Flickr pool. Never know where they might show up.

In addition to being the Super Bowl (Patriots vs. Giants, by the way), this Sunday, Feb. 5, is the sixth annual World Nutella Day. OK, this is one of those holidays (Arbor Day, National Cream Puff Day) that may seem arbitrary and slightly ridiculous at first, when in fact it is a serious vindication for some of us.

In 2007, two American expat writers living in Italy, Sara Rosso and Michelle Fabio, made it official, declaring their love for the chocolate-hazelnut spread and the day a holiday. What to eat in the kitchen during the halftime show, if Madonna at 53 is not really your thing. Or read maybe, as Rosso and Fabio also have a book, The Unofficial Guide to Nutella, (history! stories! recipes!) out on Kindle.

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LA Weekly Flickr pool/Cooking On The Weekends

Nutella truffles

If you're the sort of person who buys jars of Nutella in bulk, has a mental map of all the shops in L.A. where you can get the European-made stuff, and has toured this town more than once to find Nutella-related dishes on menus, then this lovely photo will make you as happy as it did us. The LA Weekly Flickr pool photo comes to you from photographer Cooking On The Weekends, a lovely shot of her Nutella truffles. Which recipe you can find on her blog. (Scharffen Berger, hazelnut praline, a whole jar of Nutella.) And, of course, if you have any brilliant shots of food you've taken around town recently, you might consider uploading them on our Flickr pool. Never know where they might show up.

jgarbee

Call It What You Will, We Call It Good

Fat Uncle Farms is one of those guilt-inducing farmers market stops by default, meaning that even something healthy like almonds feels like an indulgence when you are surrounded by piles of carrots. But you really do need a bag of rosemary-sea salt roasted almonds for your desk drawer, don't you? And of course, some honey-scented marzipan and freshly ground almond flour to bake a frangipane tart this weekend. Now you can add their chocolate almond butter -- yeah, essentially farmers market Nutella -- to your "essential" pantry list.

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No matter how addicted you are to Nutella, you probably haven't powered down an entire jar in one sitting, never mind in four minutes.

Former-anoxeric-turned-bodybuilder-turned-champion-competitive-eater Furious Pete shows how it's done and also -- what you might look like during the experience. Which might dial back your craving for Nutella a few clicks.

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Flickr/klavr

jar of Nutella

Time to get out your jar of Nutella and raise a spoonful. According to The Telegraph, Pietro Ferrero, the co-CEO of Ferrero group, the makers of Nutella, has died. The 47-year-old Ferrero died April 18th in South Africa, where he collapsed while cycling near Cape Town. He's survived by his wife, their three children and his brother Giovanni, who is joint-chief executive of the family-owned Ferrero group. The company was founded in 1942 by Ferrero's grandfather, also named Pietro Ferrero, in the town of Alba, in northern Italy. And no snide jokes about Nutella being bad for you, or the recently-documented toxicity of sugar either. A moment of silence and chocolate.

D. Gonzalez

"This is why they come." William Boyd, President of Epicure Imports said about the cheese cave

We know the feeling. Why didn't anyone tell me about this before? We actually have. But good news bears repeating: For a couple of days, every few months Epicure Imports, a wholesale importer of gourmet foods in North Hollywood, extends its doors and its wholesale prices to the public. And this Friday, April 15 from 1:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday April 16 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. are those two days until the next dates in June.

When we first heard of this sale and its warehouse setting, we imagined selling weighty cans of escargots and 10+ pound sacks of couscous. Which they do and are nice things to have, but are in quantities that are a bit excessive for the home cook. However, when we finally paid a visit, we were pleased to see their sale extended to items that come in individual consumer sizes like Maldon salts and Fallot mustard. They even pre-slice and price items like cheeses and Serrano hams in manageable sizes specifically for the sale.

We went to their first sale of the year this February with our camera to give a better sense and point out the type of items they may have available this week. Turn the page for a brief tour...

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If you've been thinking of joining San Diego mother Athena Hohenberg's lawsuit against the makers of Nutella, you might want to wait until Monday to call your lawyer. In a lovely example of irony, it turns out that tomorrow, February 5th, is the 5th annual World Nutella Day.

Okay, this is one of those holidays (Arbor Day, National Cream Puff Day) that may seem arbitrary and slightly ridiculous at first, when in fact it is a serious vindication for some of us. In 2007, two American ex-pat writers living in Italy, Sara Rosso and Michelle Fabio, made it official, declaring their love for the chocolate-hazelnut spread and declaring the day a holiday. If you have some spare time, creating a food holiday is probably a lot more fun than filing a lawsuit, but what do we know.

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