A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

Science proves that fall is in fact the season of sex. [Via Business Insider]

Ralph Lauren’s first plus-sized model asks: What’s so great about being a size 0 anyway? [Via The Daily Beast]

Your hip new iPhone with iOS 6 is cool and all, but where the hell is the public transit option on the maps? [Via Ecorazzi]

Haiti makes a revolutionary move and bans plastic bags and foam containers, including manufacturing and marketing them. [Via The Miami Herald]

Can someone explain to us why Facebook won’t take down the “12 year old sluts meme” page? Really? [Via Buzzfeed]

If you have ever debated on keeping a food journal, here are 10 helpful tips to get you started. [Via Organic Authority]

All that nasty stuff they put in microwaveable popcorn can give you “popcorn lung”… as well as $7 million. [Via LearnVest]

“I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.” —Woody Allen. This and 40 other of the funniest things ever said about love, sex and relationships. [Via How About We]

Image: greencandy8888

The post Link Love: Fall is the Season of Sex, Apple Maps Doesn’t Have Public Transit Option and How to Keep a Food Journal appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

Artisanal. Curated. Tweeps. All words we love to hate. Thankfully, someone curated compiled a whole list of them. [Via The Atlantic]

Are travel guidebooks bending over backwards to excuse the world’s “thuggish regimes?” One writer poses that we should think about what is written within the pages of some of the most well respected travel literature. [Via Foreign Policy]

Why we need to start embracing germs. [Via Slate]

A Saudi Arabian female athlete is called a “prostitute” for competing at the Olympics. And she’s only 16. [Via The Frisky]

Equalizing the gender employment gap? As it turns out, women lost fewer jobs during the recession. Maybe times are changing. [Via Wall Street Journal]

Omelette in bed? This and more for the morning after, including a spoonful of peanut butter. [Via How About We]

The “Daddy State”: a place where male politicians dictate how women care for our infants and decide what birth control is most suitable for us. [Via Huffington Post]

There’s still time to catch up on your summer reading! If you’re interested in food, start with this list. [Via Grist]

Just how would Paul Ryan as Vice President affect women’s health? Here are five reasons the answer is not looking good. [Via Think Progress]

Put the essence of summer in a jar: make your own sun-dried tomatoes. [Via Big Girls Small Kitchen]

Image: jwyg

The post Link Love: Words We Love to Hate, Foods for the Morning After and Reasons to Embrace Germs appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

We might be able to grow tropical fruits in urban northern climates after all. And make it look good. Say hello to bananas in Paris. [Via GOOD]

You can accomplish a lot simply by being more optimistic. [Via Inc.]

Summer camp isn’t all kayaking and making lanyards. From culinary arts to military training, check out these interesting camps around the world. [Via TakePart]

Another reason to take time to unplug: exposure to dim light (i.e. your computer and television) at night may lead to depression. [Via CNN]

Ever thought about launching a food truck? First you will need a name. Don’t worry, there’s a generator for that. [Via McSweeney’s]

Americans wash their hair almost twice as much as Europeans in a week. How much is too much? [Via Organic Authority]

Choose your reading list carefully, because your bookshelf can say a lot to a potential partner. [Via How About We]

Image: twicepix

The post Link Love: Urban Bananas, Why You Should Be More Optimistic, and How Unplugging Can Save You From Depression appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now.

Healthy fats: you need them, so learn to love them. [Via Organic Authority]

Been sitting a lot lately? Turns out that’s not so good for your life expectancy. [Via Wall Street Journal]

Will someone just make us these Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Bites (gluten free and vegan of course) already? [Via Girlie Girl Army]

Friends with benefits? Not so much. [Via How About We]

Just what is it about reality television that makes us so obsessed? [Via Greatist]

A new project seeks to share the stories of women and abortions – who gets them and how are we influenced by their stories. [Via The Frisky]

Get to the heart of Mexican soul food with a food lover’s narrative on Mexico City. [Via Afar]

These beet sandwiches just might be the most adorable food ever.  [Via Small Kitchen College]

Image: …love Meagan

The post Link Love: Our Reality TV Obsession, Why Friends With Benefits Doesn’t Work, and How Sitting Too Much Will Decrease Your Life Expectancy appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now.

Save some money and make your lunch instead of going out. Here are 35 quick, easy and healthy ideas. [Via Greatist]

Oh you pesky summer mosquitoes, you don’t have anything on us and our seven natural repellents. [Via Organic Authority]

Why are other countries so much better at science? Here are some lessons from teachers whose countries excel at the subject. [Via Slate]

And the BP Gulf oil spill disaster continues. [Via TakePart]

Are we addicted to being busy? It looks like it.  [Via New York Times]

Sick of hearing the “why aren’t you two hitched yet?” Come back with one of these edgy responses. [Via How About We]

Image: James Jordan

The post Link Love: Quick Lunches, Natural Mosquito Repellent and Why We’re Addicted to Being Busy appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now.

Music and food: two of our absolutely favorite things. Here’s a list of 10 cities that are known for both. [Via Gourmet Live]

The sun’s out! You should probably be making an upcycled pallet planter about now. [Via Organic Authority]

If you’re in NYC, the Bicycle Film Festival starts today. [Via Bicycle Film Festival]

Doing good work from home means staying focused, and turning off email notifications happens to be one of them. [Via Unclutterer]

Your taste in music really does say something about you as a person. [How About We]

Getting trucks off the street, one pedal-assist cargo bike at a time. [Via Treehugger]

What would we do without the many benefits and versatility of coconut oil? [Via Stylelist]

Admit it, at one time, you wanted to look like Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, didn’t you? The best looks from Nora Ephron films. [Via Lucky Magazine]

Image: Bill Oriani

The post Link Love: 10 Cities Known for Music and Food and How to Stay Focused When Working at Home appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now.

Do you know what’s in your food? What’s really in your food? Some pesticides to start with. [Via TakePart]

It’s summer; if you don’t start bike commuting now, when will you? This guide will get you started. [Via Women’s Adventure]

Guess who is the latest purveyor of Hermès knockoffs? Hermès employees of course. [Via Refinery29]

Aggressive in ankle boots? As it turns out, your shoes really do say something about your personality. [Via How About We]

Being uncomfortable is what soul searching is all about. [Via Elevation Outdoors]

If that summer road trip has you craving a good microbrew, this map will point you in the right direction. [Via Pop Chart Lab]

Creativity killers are everywhere, can we add Facebook to the list? [Via Co.CREATE]

Image: Luca Violetto

The post Link Love: A Guide to Bike Commuting, Hermes Knockoffs and Creativity Killers appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnInternet dating for the food loving crowd.

It was the usual, Friday afternoon internet surf: half an hour spent scouring blogs, trying to track down some new recipes. As I scrolled down the Eater page a banner ad on the right side caught my attention – impressive, given my usual blindness to anything that looks like advertising – “Eater Dating.”

A site completely devoted to online dating for foodies?

Yes.

I cringe and marvel at the idea all at once. As it turns out, Eater Dating is the brainchild of bar and restaurant site Eater and the online dating site How About We. The difference from regular online matchmaking services? How About We is all based on suggesting an intriguing first date, which fits well if you’re trying to find someone that’s just as food obsessed as you are. Imagine the possibilities:

“How about we try the new food cart?”

“How about we drink bourbon out of mason jars?”

“How about we get wheatgrass smoothies and then hit up the tempeh reuben joint?”

“How about we buy some fennel and make our own sea salt shortbread?”

“How about we cure our own pork in our kitchen pantry and live happily ever after?”

I’ll stop there, since “Pick up Lines for Foodies” is a whole other column waiting to happen.

The crossover between food and love isn’t new. Jamie Oliver has his own dating site, in collaboration with Match.com. Even OkCupid has a foodie test, because god forbid you put “foodie” on your online profile and don’t actually fit the correct description. (The fact that you actually have never purchased artisan cheese at the market would be so disappointing to your future beau.)

A good friend of mine immediately insisted that I join Eater Dating, just so that I could report from the trenches; turn Foodie Underground into Foodie Love Underground. No, thank you. Online dating mixed with self-professed food snobs? That sounds almost worse than cupcakes.

Ultimately, food can be sexy, but dating the foodie crowd? You can only take so many discussions about the merits of sparkling water and urban wineries. As Felicity Cloake of The Guardian put it, “does a foodie really need another foodie to be happy?”

I am not so sure.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” If there are two of you with a love for food, there may not be so much room for the actual love part. And by that same token, if you’re in the business of dating, and you’re schmoozing foodies, you better know what you’re getting yourself into.

There is also the Swedish site Restdejting, which launched last year, that not only aims to find people true love, but ensure that food doesn’t go to waste. An initiative of farmers’ cooperative Lantmännen, it brings together eco-conscious singles who want to share their leftovers, or whatever ingredients they just can’t seem to put in their dish of the night. You enter what five ingredients you have laying around, and with the help of social media, hope some other food lover in the near vicinity is in the mood for the same thing.

Genius, considering the fact that anyone who has pickled herring, lingonberry jam, and an extra bundle of dill and hardtack on hand and ready to offer up is probably soulmate material. Scandinavian food is in, after all. Plus, if you’re breaking it down to simple ingredients, there’s not really any room for food pretentiousness; you just want to make sure that cute guy down the street doesn’t have to eat a fillet of wild-caught salmon alone.

The results speak for themselves:

“I never thought I would find love in the refrigerator. But there it was, hidden all the way in the back behind an egg carton…”

Maybe love is as easy as your favorite ingredient. If it doesn’t lead to love, at least you have delicious food to show for it.

After all, isn’t it better to eat good food alone than bad food together? That may depend on who you’re talking to, but much like Harriet Van Horne wrote in an issue of Vogue in 1956, “cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”

Which means no matter where your love life is at, the least you can do is commit to making excellent food.

Maybe then you can at least avoid internet.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Image: decafeined, Alexis Soon

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