Food - Chart Porn

CityMaps is an interactive going out map service– something like a crowdsourced cross between google maps and yelp. Personally I found it to be a disturbing reminder of how surrounded we are by corporations and logos. For a fun game, see how many Starbucks logos you can fit in one screen – my record is eight, below. Currently available for NYC, San Francisco, and Austin.

(2) Comments

Why Does a Salad Cost More than a Big Mac?

In: Food Politics Source: NYT

11 Feb 2012

Originally from PCRM, but I link to the NYT commentary below. Farm subsidies are a joke. Actually, almost all subsidies are a joke, now that I think about it.

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Cocktails

In: Food

3 Feb 2012

Ok, enough politics and economics this week. It’s Friday, so here’s a more appropriate graphic: The definitive guide to mixed drinks:

(3) Comments

How Carbs Make You Fat

In: Food Science

31 Jan 2012

In my experience, this is very true – whenever I jump off the carb/insulin roller coaster I lose weight very quickly.

I have to say I love the image from the top of the article:

(5) Comments

Single Malt Flavor Map

In: Food

5 Jan 2012

I didn’t link this to the original over at Malts.com because they want you to enter some bullshit marketing form before you can enter the site – that, and they didn’t include my favorite Macallan’s 12 year on the map. The link below is to an explanatory blog post over at Strange Maps.

(3) Comments

Flavor Networks

In: Food Science

29 Dec 2011

Interesting work on flavors and food pairings over at Nature.com.

Each node denotes an ingredient, the node color indicates food category, and node size reflects the ingredient prevalence in recipes. Two ingredients are connected if they share a significant number of flavor compounds, link thickness representing the number of shared compounds between the two ingredients.

(via FlowingData)

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Candy Bars

In: Food

18 Oct 2011

A charting of the very many bars wherein chocolate intersects with delightful compatriots, such as gooey caramel, sprightly nougat, and cookie crunch.

I can’t find anything bad to say about this. Now excuse me as I have to run to the corner market for a minute.

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Girl Scout Cookies

In: Food

11 Sep 2011

What are the most popular varieties?

Besides making me hungry, this reminded me of this Dilbert classic:

(1) Comment

Dwindling Food Variety

In: Environment/weather Food Science

28 Jun 2011

a study conducted in 1983 by the Rural Advancement Foundation International … compared USDA listings of seed varieties sold by commercial U.S. seed houses in 1903 with those in the U.S. National Seed Storage Laboratory in 1983. The survey, which included 66 crops, found that about 93 percent of the varieties had gone extinct.

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Updated: Snake Oil Supplements

In: Food Science

21 May 2011

Information is Beautiful has updated their interactive visualization of the effectiveness of various health supplements, based on scientific research. You can also view the raw research data they dug up to draw your own conclusions.

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Conflict Deaths (1915-Present)

In: Food History Innovative Politics

21 May 2011

In a strange juxtaposition of imagery, this photo uses fake blood and kitchen containers to visualize 38 million deaths from various conflicts. Overall, I really like the concept, but from the way the objects are arranged and the angle of the photograph (with the blood taking up only the lower 20% of the photo), they visually seem small to me. Also, I don’t quite get the “World Cuisine” title, despite the food/cooking metaphor.

(4) Comments

They Draw and Cook

In: Food Innovative

9 May 2011

Recipes illustrated by artists. Some of them are just prettied up, but others are gorgeous diagrams. You can filter by meal type, ingredient, or illustration style.

(note: this website does not condone sugarless apple pie)