• A Borough Park gas station is offering hearty kosher fare: bagels and lox, shakshuka, and homemade gefilte fish. [NYP]
• Packaged-food companies are increasingly touting their value. [NYT]
• Congress may offer tax credits to companies who offer wellness programs, including programs on healthy diets. [NYT]
• Casual-dining stocks are on the rise, but experts caution that they could fall just as fast. [NYP]
• The Madison Square Garden McDonald’s requires I.D. when using any bill larger than $20. [Consumerist]
• Though the regular news stories about food-borne illness may seem to indicate that our food is becoming less safe, it’s not actually clear that’s the case. [NYT]
• With a new line of soups and chefwear to come, Sarabeth’s is continuing its expansion. [Crain’s]
• Absinthe may be glamorously louche in theory, but in practice, it’s quite bitter. [WSJ]
• El Pollo Loco is running ads challenging rival chicken chain KFC to a taste test. [WSJ]
• Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, and Outback Steakhouse were high on Google Trends yesterday, likely because of Mother’s Day. [Gawker]
• McDonald’s sales rose 6.9 percent in April. [NYP]
• Edible Queens magazine will launch soon. [Words to Eat By]
• Despite lowered sales this year, Queens’s Tom Cat Bakery, which provides bread to many restaurants, is planning a 50 percent expansion. [Crain’s]
• Sarah Palin was supposed to visit Soho to promote Alaskan salmon on Friday, but a flood in her home state interfered. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
• Meat star Pat LaFrieda’s forthcoming New Jersey plant will have twice the grinders and mixers of the old one. [Feedbag]
• Manhattan-to-Brooklyn restaurant expansions (like the forthcoming Clinton Hill outpost of Kuma Inn) seem to have a higher success rate than the reverse (like Lunetta’s failed Manhattan transfer). [Zagat Buzz]
