Deep Dish Pizza And A Bacon Crisis: The Week's Top Food News

In the week following an ad-filled Super Bowl, there was lots more news to share. Coca-Cola announced a brand-new soda flavor, many fast food chains released heart-shaped menu items for Valentine's Day, and Americans were scolded by the pork industry for our collective failure to eat enough bacon. Read on for more of the top food news stories of the week.

Coca-Cola has announced that for the first time in over three years, it's adding a new flavor to its permanent lineup: Coca-Cola Spiced. This is a big bet by the big beverage brand, because companies as big as Coca-Cola don't just jump into the market with a new product headfirst—such things take years of research and development, plus limited-time releases, to ensure that in the long run, they'll sell. – Dennis Lee Read More

TikTok has a pretty persistent habit of taking well-established foods and thrusting them into the spotlight as if they're new trends. Take pork roll, for example, or shrubs, or even olive oil on ice cream. One dish that keeps getting sustained attention from TikTok users is a creation that combines two classic staples into one delicious meal: the chopped salad sandwich. Let's dive into its sudden resurgence in popularity. – Dennis Lee Read More

Flowers? Standard. Box of chocolates? Tasty, but boring. Sometimes it can be hard to express how you feel about someone. Thankfully, there are plenty of restaurant chains offering heart-shaped foods for Valentine's Day. – Angela L. Pagán Read More

The pork industry is a bit hog-tied right now. The Wall Street Journal reports that the industry might actually be too efficient for its own good, because it's pumping out more cuts of meat than people actually purchase or eat. As a result, pork producers are worried about the future. What happened to our once bacon-obsessed nation? – Dennis Lee Read More

Thinking about White Castle might only bring to mind those diminutive sliders, the steam-grilled ones I can crush a bunch of in one sitting. But White Castle sells some pretty unique items beyond its burgers, like cake on a stick and all-day breakfast. And it might surprise you to learn that White Castle sells one unique item for Lent that goes beyond the typical fried fish sandwiches and shrimp: fried clam strips, available on the menu now for a limited time. – Dennis Lee Read More

Social media encourages some pretty unusual behavior sometimes. Often, those behaviors involve chicken. And right now, an Instagram user with 391,000 followers is undertaking a particularly gnarly poultry experiment. The user, who simply goes by John, has been posting to an account called @rawchickenexperiment. Given that handle, I bet you can guess what he's tasked himself with. – Dennis Lee Read More

People are burning their cakes all over TikTok, and it's surprisingly pretty cool. This latest TikTok food trend sends a message within a message and has people's baked goods ablaze all over the internet, all thanks to the creativity of one Illinois baker. – Angela L. Pagán Read More

If there's anything people love arguing about online, it's pizza. Expect more barbs to fly on the internet any minute now, because Yelp has released its top 100 pizzerias in the U.S., as determined by Yelp Elites (the site's exclusive team of super-users). The very top pizza joint on the list features a style near and dear to Chicago's heart, but it's one that the rest of the country loves arguing over endlessly. Yup, it's deep dish. – Dennis Lee Read More

If you've ever thought that a viral recipe floating around TikTok looked good, but didn't feel like heading to the grocery store in order to make it yourself, we've got some news: Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC), the same company that owns the MrBeast Burger brand, has opened up a new ghost kitchen concept called Creators' Kitchen As Seen on TikTok (a name that just rolls right off the tongue). It sells a rotating set of dishes that have become TikTok famous, delivered to your door. – Dennis Lee Read More

If there's one thing America didn't expect while watching Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, it was seeing Ben Affleck burst through the doors of a recording studio alongside best bud Matt Damon and "Touchdown Tommy" Tom Brady as part of a Boston-proud boy band dubbed "The DunKings," auditioning for mortified wife Jennifer Lopez. – Andrea McHugh Read More

For nearly 18 months, the potential merger of Kroger and Albertsons, two supermarket giants, has faced backlash from many groups and scrutiny from the federal government, causing endless delays to the process. Both companies have done what they can to close the deal, and that involves easing any concerns shoppers have about the pending merger. Kroger is now appealing to the public in the most direct way yet: The grocery chain promises that upon completion of the merger, it will lower its prices. – Angela L. Pagán Read More

It's not easy to fail at something for ten straight years. Generally speaking, if you work on something that long you either actually figure out how to do it well, or you stop doing it, but that is not the case with me and bread. Baking homemade bread is one of the first projects that ever got me into cooking, yet while I've come to the point of making consistently great burgers, vegetarian meals, and even Thanksgiving dinners, satisfactory loaves of bread have been vanishingly few and so far between. It's just flour, water, yeast, and salt, so what the hell am I doing wrong? – Matt Spina Read More

Snoop Dogg has become quite the food mogul. The rap star has dipped his toes into the world of wine, coffee, THC-infused snacks, and more, plus he has released a cookbook and found countless other ways to put his mark on the food industry. However, not every venture has been a success, and one recent product has resulted in a lawsuit. – Angela L. Pagán Read More

Disney is always finding new ways to appeal to our palates. The International Festival of the Arts at EPCOT features booths with special food items scattered throughout the park. The annual Food & Wine Festival showcases cuisine from a broad array of countries. And currently, in honor of Black History Month, Disney is running Celebrate Soulfully at its parks in both Florida and California, an event that encompasses music, artwork, and, of course, lots of good food. – Lauren Harkawik Read More