Savory Links: What We Read this Week

At the end of each week, we round up the stories from around the world wide web that most captured our attention and most thoroughly wet our whistles. Here are some of our favorite leftover bits from last week:

7-Eleven Mashed Potato Vending Machines – A 7-Eleven Slurpee machine that dispenses mashed potatoes and gravy? Sounds like as good a reason as any to move to Singapore. Dallas Business Journal

Tips for Becoming a Food Porn Star – A brief and useful tutorial for gaining entry to the major food photo sharing sites (with fame and fortune sure to follow!). Pro Food Blogger

Edible Obsessions: Grilled Soft Shell Lobster – With lobster prices where they are, it’s our duty to buy as many of the little buggers as we can. Here’s a great guide to cooking them on the grill. Edible Obsessions

History of a Food City, Simultaneous Evolution & A Sense of Place – An well-written oral history of Portland’s food scene in the 1980s that spanks our characterizations of Finnan Haddie and DiMillo’s. Epicuranoid

Menu › The Loft ‹ Portland’s Burger House – To do: Visit the new “Loft Burger House” on Forest Avenue in Portland, a new burger place that features 30 different hamburger combinations, including a version served on a glazed donut from Tony’s Donuts. The Loft

The Secret to Soft Flour Tortillas: Instant Mashed Potatoes | Serious Eats – The secret to homemade flour tortillas that stay soft and pliable the next day? Instant mashed potato flakes. Serious Eats

About the Author: Malcolm Bedell

My first memories of cooking start in Maine at six years old, when I wore a yellow rainslicker to avoid getting spattered by the bacon I was frying in a skillet. My interest in both Mexican cooking and recreating classic New England dishes from scratch developed while living in Mexico, on a steady diet of pork and habanero peppers. You can see more of my writing and photography online on Serious Eats, the Huffington Post, BlogHer, and Foodista, as well as in print for Downeast, Indulge, and Cigar Snob magazines.