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The most-est of 2013's food scene

The best, the worst — and more — of what we put in our mouths
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As we stroll, meander, or sprint toward the final days of 2013 — you choose your pace over the holiday season — it's always entertaining and, everyone hopes, not too embarrassing to reflect on the past year, whether it's news recaps, worst dressed, or whatever the topic. So here, with a nod to Pique's annual Best of Whistler, is a roundup of some of the best, the worst and just plain most-est tidbits ingested over the past year.

Thank you, Foodbeast, for the year's craziest bite

While Araxi and Purebread are sharing the Whistler honours for Best Dessert this year, you may never again think of anything other than a plain old apple for dessert after you check out the latest method — nay, philosophy — for eating them. It turns everything you ever thought about eating apples on end — literally. The concept originated with Elie Ayrouth at Foodbeast TV, whose YouTube video shows him eating an apple — an entire apple — with a wink and a nod. But he's serious. Called How to Eat an Apple Like a Boss, it's garnered close to two million hits. James Hamblin, writing for The Atlantic, spread the word further with his passionate essay, "Apple Cores Are a Myth." In it he argues the merits of eating an apple and not leaving a core, including billions of dollars in annual savings. While we all nibble to the centre a little differently, he applies Elie's figure of 30 per cent for the mass of the usually wasted core. It works out to about $13 billion in savings each year in the States or, extrapolating, about $1.3 billion annually in Canada. BTW, if you're up for the experiment, spit out the seeds like you would watermelon seeds. A few won't kill you or even make you sick, but apple seeds do contain tiny amounts of a chemical that can release hydrogen cyanide. Ergo avoiding them, and not allowing your dog to eat your apple cores. But wait, now there won't be any more cores. Oh, oh — is all that barking a dog rally on the corner...?

Thank you, local brewers, for a best-est beer trend

Keeping with the tutti-frutti theme and beyond, if you're not really a hophead, like me, and feel you're usually wandering in the beer wilderness while your pals fill their boots, or at least their glasses, please join me in toasting the new fruit-and-more beer Howe Sound Brewing and Whistler Brewing Company came up with this year. Starting with lighter, fruitier styles this summer, Howe Sound came up with products like 4 Way Fruit Ale, made with passion fruit and more, and You're My Blue Boy, a blueberry wheat ale. Over at Whistler Brewing, summery offerings included Pineapple Express Wheat Ale and Paradise Valley Grapefruit Ale. Both breweries have since moved along to holiday styles, to wit, Howe Sound's licorice stout with star anise and black molasses and Whistler Brewing's chestnut ale. Yum, roast a few for me.

Trans fat ban brings out the best, and the baddest

The U.S. ban on trans fats announced in November has to be the best bit of food news in 2013 — at least for Americans. Trans fat, which is seldom found in nature, is manufactured by processing fat with hydrogen to create a product that's cheap for manufacturers to use, one that gives processed foods a longer shelf life, better mouth feel and, some say, enhanced flavour. In short, it's all about profits and selling. But trans fats are so bad for us. They're clearly linked to coronary artery disease — in fact, they're the clearest dietary link to that disease. As bad or worse, they're also implicated in other serious health issues, including Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, liver function disorders and major depressive disease. Trans fat was described by the head of the Canadian Trans Fat Task Force, which was struck by Health Canada to look into regulating it, as "a toxin that's unsafe in any amount." So we can cheer on the Food and Drug Administration doing the right thing to protect the health of U.S. citizens. But that only points up the ugly flip side here in Canada: Not only have trans fats not been banned, our federal government has not even regulated these dangerous fats. Instead, industry is left to "voluntary" restrictions. This won't change until we citizens push for it.

If life gives you lemons, freeze them

For this year's food wrap, I give the last word to my mom. She'd really like that. (Just kidding, mom!) But, seriously, over the years my mom has given me some of the best cooking tips, the best recipes, the best cleaning advice (without using chemicals), and more, all of which have made home life more pleasant, easier and healthier — quite a feat given I'm the most reluctantly domesticated woman on the planet. But I think this year she gave me one of the best cooking tips ever. In spring, when my husband and I were visiting the old homestead, mom was preparing fresh asparagus when out of the freezer she whipped a whole lemon. Frozen. Zip, she grabbed a grater and before you could say "lemonade" she'd grated a pile of fresh lemon zest that she sprinkled over the steamed asparagus just before serving. Wow! What an easy-peasy seasoning — fragrant, delicious, and way more lemony than anything drizzled on, melted butter or no. We all exclaimed how good it was. Mom explained, just wash your lemons, dry them, pop them in the freezer, grate the zest as you like, then back in the freezer they go. Fresh lemon zest is great in muffins, on salads, in your cocktails or tea — the sky's the limit. Plus you'll have no shrivelled or mouldy half-used lemons knocking around the fruit drawer. Best: the rind is 10,000 times easier to grate when it's frozen. When you need fresh lemon juice, just cut a chunk off the frozen lemon and nuke it on low in the microwave for a bit. You'll have much more juice than you would otherwise as the freezing and thawing breaks the cell structure down. Now you know what to do with those big bags of wonderful organic lemons sold every fall for a song. Thanks, mom!

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning journalist who wishes you Happy Holidays!