Christmas wasn't great for a would-be French truffle thief, either. According to the Guardian, a French truffle farmer is accused of shooting and killing a trespasser on his farm. A father of two was armed with a knife for extracting the farmer's black truffles, which are in season right now and go for top prices at the holidays. Supporters have rallied around the farmer. "'Our truffle fields are like open-air safes [full of money] and when times are hard certain thieves help themselves,' Joel Barthélémy, deputy head of the Tricastin truffle growers' union, told La Provence newspaper. 'But I've told my fellow producers never to patrol their fields with a gun. The temptation is too high.'"
Taking a holiday vacation from the office? Grub Street ponders the origin of the term "power lunch", and whether it came from the New York Times or Esquire.
In this season of travel, the Atlantic gets a little miffed about airline food, and the flight attendant who told a writer, "We are told to call it chicken." The Tokyo-bound writer rants about the restrictions and nastiness of airline food.
