Entries associated with the tag "Foodie Fight":

A: South Carolina  

Not so hot on the heels of Foodie Fight comes Celebrity Chef: The Game, developed by a marketing manager downsized from Saveur. The rules are a bit more byzantine, involving the accumulation of "fans" and "successes" by answering questions in six categories (tools and techniques, pop culture, name that dish, etc) in the quest to be to achieve celebrity chef status. This requires the use of dice, pads, pens, game pieces, chits, and a sand timer (whose purpose isn't explained in the instructions). "TRUST US," urges the rule book. "Once you start playing you will get the hang of it."

The questions, on the other hand, are rather more elementary.

What gives red wine its color?

A. Oak barrel

B. Food coloring

C. Grape skins

A: That would be Dairy.

Last April at the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference I met a Des Moines food writer and consultant named Joyce Lock who mentioned she'd created a Trivial Pursuit-style game for food geeks to be published by Chronicle Books.

An advance of Lock's Foodie Fight arrived yesterday, just in time to happily distract four of us from a deadly boring meal at Il Fiasco (review pending). You're right. This is even nerdier restaurant behavior than taking digital pics of your pasta, but we didn't actually pull out the boards, game pieces, and dice. Once begun however, we couldn't stop quizzing each other from the question cards, which are divided into six categories: food people; world cuisines and food places; food on film and in print, movies, and art; party planning etiquette and wine pairing; food science; eating out; and cooking techniques. Good times.

The object is to answer three questions correctly in each category, thereby filling up an individual game card with tokens. There are more than 1,000 questions with a healthy range of difficulty, likely to challenge the expert without without destroying the confidence of the dilletante. The game's release date is set for August 30.

Lock probably won't appreciate spoilers but here's a couple, sans answers. Feel free to answer, but I won't tell you if you're right.

Which oil has a higher smoke point--peanut or corn? 

What was the secret ingredient in the food wafer "soylent" consumed in the 1973 film Soylent Green?

How much water does an oyster's gill filter in an hour--10 to 12 pints, 10 to 12 quarts, or 10 to 12 gallons?