The Takeout's Top Stories Of The Week: November 25, 2023

In which we report on new snacks, useful products, culinary celebrities, and of course, TikTok recipes. Here's what happened in the world of food this week.

There's a wide world of meat alternatives out there, but the latest wave of cruelty-free options aren't the plant-based pea proteins of Beyond and Impossible. Instead, more advancement is happening in the category of lab-grown meat, made with animal cells and formed into muscle tissues—the true stuff of science. While none of these "cell cultured" meat products are available for retail purchase yet, they've been approved to sell to the public in the United States, so we'll be seeing lab-grown meat on store shelves in the next few years. Read More

The first thing you need to know about Minion Land is that there are bananas everywhere.

Going in, I thought the Minions' obsession with bananas was going to translate into a lot of unpleasant eating experiences for me. Why? Because bananas are my least favorite food on the planet. But thankfully, while there are countless bananas available throughout the newest themed area of Universal Orlando Resort, most of them aren't edible. Some of them can even be shot out of a cannon, as in the Villain-Con: Minions Blast ride. Read More

Utter the words "Chili's" and/or "baby back ribs" and you'll probably find yourself reflexively singing the old commercial jingle out loud, like I'm doing right now. You know the earworm I'm talking about. (Barbecue sauuuce.) And you're about to be singing it again in late 2023, because Chili's has partnered up with R&B trio Boyz II Men to remake the jingle. Hearing the fresh take on the song has immediately transported me back to my junior high school dance days. In a good way. Read More

It's the season of giving gifts to everyone you know, and though it's not about the price or the size of the gift, there should always be a little thought behind a present. Food is always an appreciated gesture, but some things are simply overdone. There are only so many bottles of hot sauce one person can get through before they lose all sense of taste. Read More

From a distance, Omega Mart looks like any other grocery store: bright lights, piles of produce, row after row of canned goods, people milling in the aisles. But when you get closer, you'll quickly realize something isn't quite right. Everything looks almost normal, but just slightly off. It turns out those aren't cans of Campbell's Soup in front of you, they're Camel's Meal Substitute, in flavors like Homestyle Pigeon, Dream of Mushroom, Fashioned Beef, and Implied Chicken. Read More