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Where Not to Sit at Teatro Zinzanni; Michelle Obama Takes on ‘Food Deserts’

• SFoodie attends a performance/dinner at Teatro Zinzanni and advises, “inner ring and premium seating ranges from $142 to $195 … It’s important to know that while the inner ring may provide better seating, it’s where the audience participants are pulled from. Just saying.” [SFoodie]

• Step inside the home of Chez Panisse concierge (and OpenRestaurant founder) Sam White and girlfriend Jessica Niello. [Chron]

• Francis Lam reviews (and swoons over) Grant Achatz’s latest incarnation of Next, which is Thai, in case you hadn’t heard. [Gilt Taste]

• It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Utah has really, uh, quirky liquor laws, despite having relaxed regulations somewhat in 2009. [NYT]

• MObama is tackling “food deserts” head on, getting huge retailers like Wal-Mart and SuperValu to expand offerings of healthy food or open new stores in impoverished areas. [Your Life/USAT]

Some judges in Switzerland had a cocktail tasting, in court, to determine whether a company’s canned alcoholic beverages could be taxed as “alcopops,” which is what they call sweetened alcoholic beverages over there. [AP]

• Since we should all be eating insects for ecological reasons, how do they taste? Well, “a bit nutty,” according to Daniella Martin of the blog Girl Meets Bug. [HuffPo]

• Researchers at Tufts University discovered that restaurants frequently underreport calorie counts by around 100 calories a dish. That’s an extra pat of butter added by the chef last-minute. [NYDN]

• John Mosca, founder of the cult-favorite New Orleans restaurant Mosca’s, has passed away at 86 due to prostate cancer. [NYT]

• A group of Hindu diners who were served meat-filled samosas at an Edison, New Jersey, restaurant after requesting a vegetarian meal are suing for the cost of a “purifying” trip to India. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]

Where Not to Sit at Teatro Zinzanni; Michelle Obama Takes on ‘Food