Tweet Bites

I follow hundreds of food obsessives on Twitter, so you don't have to.

Pull up a chair and I'll dish out the week's edible highlights, oddities and amusements...

• "Best Restaurant in the World" Noma, in Copenhagen, is famous for its use of ingredients found in the wilds of Denmark. Chef Rene Redzepi shared this photo of their Master Forager, a job role that sounds at once incredibly ancient, and indicative of modern restaurant trends. Have we discovered how Santa Claus spends the warmer months? (Source: @ReneRedzepiNoma)
  

• Unlikely partnership alert: Famous adulterer and occasional footballer Ashley Cole and Beyonce's pauper husband Jay-Z are opening a sports bar and restaurant in London. It's a new branch of the '40/40' chain, a place where ballers 'n shot callers can hang out and dine on delicacies such as deep-fried Snickers. The do-gooding duo pledge to employ the long-unemployed and will donate money to local youth and sports charities. Ashley has pledged to sext the first 100 diners. (Source: @hotdinners)

• It was an exciting week for Master Chef alumni. Master Chef 2010 finalist Alex Rushmer let us in on the details of his soon-to-open restaurant in the Cambridge area. And Master Chef 2005 winner Thomasina Miers tweeted in  from maternity leave to let us know her TV new show 'Mexican Food Made Simple' was starting. On behalf of all American ex-pats, thank you for encouraging Mexican food in Britain! (Sources: @justcookit; @thomasinamiers)
  
• A Japanese restaurant is serving raw meat and raw chicken sushi. Half of its diners are women, known as 'carnivore girls'. They represent the young, independent modern day Japanese woman. They're a sharp contrast to the 'herbivore boys', who, aren't interested in sex and are blamed for the country's low birth rate. This is a news story desperate to tie dining and sociological trends together. I highly recommend watching the video. You gotta feel for the various random guys that CNN chose to film as examples of society-crushing herbivore boys...   (Source: @eatocracy)
  
• The Fat Duck restaurant says it receives a whopping 30,000 calls every day! The tasting menu here costs £160 (going up to £180 in September). Obviously the economic climate is really causing people to live frugally. Pass the snail porridge... (Source: @HardensBites)
  
• McDonalds is trialling an 'English Pub Burger' in some of its American branches. I don't know what's more hilarious: the Austin Powerseque language used in the ad copy — "This sandwich is smashing!... So tasty you'll be gobsmacked!"— which is handily translated at the bottom of the page; or the toppings for the 'English' burger, including  hickory-smoked bacon and American cheese. (Source: @youngandfoodish)