Food

Over the last several months, there’s been a movement to return to localism — ironically sparked by a global pandemic. As communities watch their neighbors and friends struggle financially, and as some get sick with the coronavirus, the reaction has been to turn to each other for support and nourishment, both literal and figurative.

A federal program called Pandemic EBT has been a lifeline for many low-income families recently. But unless Congress acts, it’ll expire at the end of the month.

Dine-in service is halted for now, and COVID-19 has spurred an unanticipated renaissance in home cooking. Pictures of bread flood our Instagram feeds, soup recipes are exchanged on Twitter, and yeast is nowhere to be found. It’s a stunning departure from our traditionally restaurant-happy culture.

Epi’s is a Basque restaurant in Meridian Idaho, just west of Boise. In mid-morning, things are still pretty quiet, but owner Eric McFarland and a few others are prepping food.

Three different restaurants in the Treasure Valley have been hit by hepatitis A this summer. The Central District Health Department has issued advisories for people who ate at these places on specific dates. But what is hepatitis A? And what can people do to protect themselves?

What if you could take a road trip and visit all your heroes, door-to-door? What if you could share a meal? And what if you could do it right in their own homes?  Our guest today embarked on just such a pilgrimage. 

Long-time Boiseans remember when downtown was a ghost town by 10 p.m. These days, BoDo after midnight is alive with food and revelry. We take a look at what's going on downtown after the witching hour.

Boise State University's Owen McDougal has been researching how acralymides develop in cooked foods. Acralymides can have carcinogenic effects on the human body and in California, a judge recently ruled coffee growers need to label the acralymide content of their beans. Idaho Matters will talk with McDougal about his work on acralymides and potatoes.

When it comes to cookbooks, most of them line up the familiar grouping of recipes – breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and maybe a cooking tip or two. But one new local cookbook looks less at straight-ahead recipes and more at practical cooking techniques.

If you have a tree overflowing with fruit or a garden that needs some culling, a new website in the Treasure Valley could help you out.

Like any adventure centering on fried food, this one starts at a posh restaurant in Boise where the head chef has twice been nominated for a James Beard Award, commonly referred to as the “Oscar of cooking.”

Tuesday, Idaho Governor Butch Otter vetoed a bill to repeal the six percent sales tax on groceries. Wednesday, two lawmakers said that veto was invalid and the repeal now becomes law.

GOP Representatives Ron Nate and Bryan Zollinger say Governor Butch Otter’s veto came too late to be valid.

The Treasure Valley Food Coalition this week is asking the question, “why should we save farmland in Idaho?” As growth and development spread across the Treasure Valley, the coalition is starting a conversation about preserving farmland in places like Canyon County.

Boise-based Albertsons filed this week to offer stock for public sale. Albertsons became one of the largest food retailers in the country early this year when it closed on its acquisition of Safeway. 

During a talk he gave in Oxford, England in 2013, environmentalist and writer Mark Lynas apologized to the very audience he used to demonize: companies and scientists that work with genetically modified foods.

"As an environmentalist and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a health and nutritious diet of their choosing," Lynas told the crowd, "I could not have chosen a more counterproductive path and I now regret it completely."