The Food Section: Shopping List

Skyr Scores

Skyr looks and tastes like yogurt, but it's actually a non-fat fresh cheese from Iceland. The ultra-thick consistency bears a particular resemblance to Total, the strained Greek yogurt. Each six ounce container packs a walloping 16 grams of protein. While plain Skyr was a bit pasty for my taste, I liked the vanilla version, which was lightly sweetened and studded with bits of real vanilla bean. $1.69 at my local Whole Foods.

The Spanish Spoon

Will Phaidon have as big a hit on its hands this year with 1080 Recipes as it did in 2005 with its English translation of The Silver Spoon, the so-called Italian The Joy of Cooking? First published more than 30 years ago by Simone and Ines Ortega, this enormous, best-selling collection of recipes (900 pages plus) is being billed as the "bible" of Spanish cuisine. I found copies of 1080 Recipes for sale at Anthropologie, but the book is also available for pre-order ($26.37) at amazon.com.

Crush Groove

Step on its foot pedal, and the Ecopod crushes plastic and aluminum containers and stores them in a plastic pod for curbside recycling. The unit also contains pods for newspapers, glass bottles, and plastic bags. $328 at Williams-Sonoma. [via shelterrific]

Frank Fashion

Japanese competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi will be defending his title at Nathan’s annual hot-dog eating contest on July 4th. Kobayashi fans can show their support with Kobayashi T-Shirts that retool Nathan's and Bob's Big Boy logos in favor of the frankfurter-eating champ. $22 at kfordiet.com. [via Japan Probe]

Quick Chill

Forget the ice bucket. Vacu Vin's Rapid Ice Cooler promises to chill a bottle of wine (or champagne or beer, for that matter) in just five minutes. When not in use, the space-saving ice jacket stores flat in your freezer. $10.99 at Klinq.com. [via not martha]

Can't Touch This

Simplehuman's Sensor Soap Pump brings a little public restroom sensibility into your kitchen -- but in a good way -- by dispensing dishwashing liquid soap touch-free to avoid cross-contamination. A sensor in the device automatically delivers a dose of soap as your filthy hands pass under it. Germaphobes, rejoice! $39.99 at simplehuman [via gizmodo]

Cold Comfort

As the mercury rises, we've recently been savoring Sharon's Sorbet passion fruit sorbet. It's tangy and amazingly creamy, despite the fact that it's made solely from passion fruit, sugar, water, and pectin. Find it at your local grocery or online for $4.99/pint from icecreamsource.com.

Sole of a Chef

Fashion victim (and chef) Mario Batali has partnered with Crocs to launch a new Bistro model featuring "a thicker metatarsal area to help protect the top of the foot, as well as a supportive arch and foot bed circulation nubs to ensure all-day comfort." They can be sterilized in clean water and bleach, or just toss them in the dishwasher like Mario does. The special edition clogs, due out in late Summer 2007, will retail for $39.99.

Nut Job

Made in Germany, the Nusskubus Nutcracker is comprised of two beechwood cubes with different sized hollows carved in the sides for cracking various nuts: "Simply place a nut in one of the hollows and slam the two cubes together." It's stylish, functional, and, slam, therapeutic. $35 at MoMA.

Cube Control

Kathleen Hills' bone china Sugar Lump dispenser keeps all your cubes in a row. Perfect for obsessive compulsives and tic tac toe aficionados. $34 at Greener Grass Design.