by George Embiricos

Physical and emotional discomfort. Hospitalization. Asphyxiation that can lead to death. No, we're not talking about the symptoms of some mysterious foodborne illness here, but rather the potential consequences of voluntarily eating some common, and often popular, foods. With these possible side effects widely...

We've asked Clean Plates founder Jared Koch to help sort out the different restaurant health certifications out there, and he's written back with six of the best that his email and restaurant guide uses.

At Clean Plates, the email newsletter and restaurant review guide whose mission is to...

We asked a medical professional, Dr. Jason Ough M.D., for the medicine kit essentials for traveling to more, um, turbulent parts of the world.

This is not going to be a list of street drugs. This is intended to be more of a rough guide for building your own travel...

When the Doughnut Plant, a New York City temple to fried dough opened in 1994, doubled its size this past spring, locals took notice of the crowds. The drawing power of the circle of life was never more obvious than in that crowded story.

Behold, the power of the doughnut....

The cult of extreme eating -- be it a dinner date with KFC's Double Down or following the path of Andrew Zimmern -- has become surprisingly mainstream. While most Americans are not snacking on fried Cambodian tarantulas, they are increasingly aware of such daredevil dining habits.

Related:

by Emily Saladino

The Rodney Dangerfield of spirits, rum, is rarely given its fair due. In the post-Hemingway world of serious drinkers, it's either maligned as super saccharine, or pigeonholed as a beachside one-trick-pony.

But a rum renaissance is upon us. An increasingly curious cocktail culture is embracing the diversity...

by Dan Dunn

While channel surfing the other night I came across a news report about alleged deleterious effects of alcohol consumption. It seems a recent article in Scientific American Mind suggests that hitting the sauce does not kill brain cells, but can damage them - particularly in...

by Emily Saladino

Never go to a museum hungry. The crowds, the lines, the weird buttons they make you clip onto your shirt will be all the more frustrating when you're in desperate need of a snack. It's hard to appreciate Cezanne's "use of light" when you can't stop thinking...

With boxed wines becoming more common on store shelves these days (and wine on tap at bars, even), clearly the notions of how our favorite beverages come packaged are changing. But while wine almost inevitably ends up in a glass before reaching your lips, how would you feel...

Just last week we posted a video detailing everything you need to know about the mysterious foodstuff known as the fertilized egg. In short, it's the middle ground between a chicken and an egg -- a delicacy in many parts of the world including China, Vietnam and the...

Comic-Con just wrapped up last weekend and, with The Avengers recently raking in over $600 million, it's pretty clear that we're in the middle of an enormous superhero renaissance. When I was a kid, I used to read She-Hulk comics. I know, I know, I would laugh at me, too....

There's a National Sausage Pizza Appreciation Day. There's also International Pickle Week. There's even World Vegan Day (for all the vegans who live outside the US). Who makes up this crap? Well, me for one. All due respect to the food historians who synced up the...

With all this talk of grilling outdoors, picnics in parks, road trips and other reasons for food to be served in less-than-sterile conditions, we'd be remiss not to at least briefly mention food poisoning. If you've ever had it, and you probably have once in your life,...

Sometimes, bar hopping means stumbling from dive to dive, getting sozzled on cheap shots with weak beer chasers. This was not one of those times: I was in Montreal recently with a few oenophilic friends for a wine bar crawl. The rather civilized evening took us to...

A lot of the cocktails you find in high-end bars today are based on the classics. But whether or not a single drink has been the most influential is almost impossible to say. There is a lot to consider when determining which drinks influenced the cocktail lists of...

Fire? Check. Knives? Check. Copious amounts of alcohol? Check. What could possibly go wrong when grilling outdoors, you ask. Well, now that you mention it -- a hell of a lot. "I once treated someone who stomped out a campfire in flip-flops and fried off the soles of his feet,"...

Thirty years ago, the concept of a craft-beer power ranking system was inconceivable. Back then, there were only a handful of breweries pumping out suds that deviated from the watery-lager norm.

Related: How To Drink Craft Beer Smarter »

Fast-forward to 2012, and there are more than 2,000...

It's around that time again, when we freshen up our Coffee Power Rankings. Like a jolt of mid-morning caffeination, we're shaking the old list up this month with a sprinkling of new players. In case you're wondering just what complex algorithm we use to gauge the hottest coffee folks, well,...

The time to break out your slightly rusty, charcoal-laced grill has come. And while Americans are busy firing up their swank, larger-than-life cookers and grilling up organic bison burgers and flame-kissed baby back ribs, other cultures heat up their own version of a barbecue.

Related: Where Food Goes...

Beer in the ballpark used to be even more boring than a scoreless pitchers' duel. The scant offerings included the usual suspects like Bud, Miller, Coors and their watery, innocuous kin. I'll grant that these beers have their place during hot, sweaty summer afternoons. However, they're...