Batch of links

- What it’s like to be a professional chocolate taster. I’d love that job, but I think I’d run out of adjectives. I could always order some of that taster’s favorite chocolate, though…

- A first-hand account of someone trying the Whole30. I think it’s the kind of thing I’d be curious to try, provided I had all my household on board and ideally someone to meal prep for me… (More information about the Whole30 here and resources here, in case you’re not familiar with the concept.)

- A “smarter” way to slice an avocado. I guess If I’m not going to use all of it, I should give this a try, even though it feels really wrong!

- And an easy hack for getting longer strands of spaghetti squash.

- What size is a small onion? This is surprisingly useful, given the range of sizes available!

- Stores try junk-food-free, healthy checkout lanes. Yes, please!

- Someone donated a 46-year-old can of soup to a food bank. Good grief!

- There’s a vegan, allergen-free bakery in Norwalk, CT, called Izzi B’s. This makes me wish there were some kind of central database where you could look up such bakeries by zip code or see a map of the country, for those summer roadtrips (in our case).

- A study shows that vegetarian (not vegan) and “healthy” diets based on USDA guidelines could actually be worse for the environment than eating meat. More info here.

- Desperation pies are making a comeback, and I have to admit I’d love to taste that vinegar pie.

- Behind the scenes in restaurant kitchens. Also, top chefs recall dinner gone wrong.

- 10 food science lessons worth learning.

- Will increasing the oven temperature give muffins a more domed top? The verdict here.

- The difference between broccoli, broccolini, broccoli rabe and Chinese broccoli.

- An article about Trejo’s Tacos, because I just love picturing Danny Trejo making vegan tacos. (For more vegan restaurants in Los Angeles, see here.)

- Have you heard of vegan butcher shops? I saw this video about the Herbivorous Butcher in Minneapolis, and there’s also Gusta in Montreal.

- The truth about the food movement, which might actually be much smaller than we think.

- This woman gave birth in Japan and photographed hospital food for the duration of her stay. I have to say I ate pretty well at my hospital, but this is something else! (As always, the most depressing was reading the comments, about what people had during their own hospital stay.)