All About Starbucks' New Holiday Drink; Michelin Heads to Singapore

Move over, peppermint mocha: Starbucks is dropping another seasonal beverage today. The chain just couldn't resist putting a holiday spin on the Australian-born espresso drink known as the flat white; the result is the Holiday Spice Flat White, made with Christmas Blend espresso and steeped with a "holiday mulling spice blend" that includes ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and tangerine. Sounds awfully festive, despite the fact that it's served in a plain red cup.

Image credit: Starbucks

The latest nation to catch the discerning eye of Michelin — producer of both tires and controversial restaurant guidebooks — is Singapore. The first Michelin Singapore guide is slated to be published in the second half of 2016, making it the only Southeast Asian country to have a Michelin guide. While Michelin has a presence in 25 countries, the only Asian guidebooks it currently publishes are Hong Kong, Japan, and Macau.

Image credit: Scott Winstrow/Getty Images for Michelin

The nutrition facts label on your favorite bag of potato chips could soon look quite different. Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced new legislation that would create standardized, front-of-package labeling for all food products. The proposed new labels would denote items that are high in saturated fat, added sugar, and sodium; they would also have to disclose the percentage of whole grains a food actually contains, and the new regulations would force the FDA to define murky terms like "all-natural."

Image credit: Alan Bailey/Shutterstock

Chef Heston Blumenthal's acclaimed UK restaurant, The Fat Duck, recently got a menu update (and a new kitchen) following a nine-month hiatus. Elizabeth Auerbach aka @ElizabethOnFood paid the Bray, England establishment a visit, and scored it an impressive 99 out of 100. The whimsy-filled meal included housemade mini-boxes of cereal, "a conch shell carrying a tiny iPod playing sounds of the sea," a Waldorf salad lollipop, and a baby powder-inspired dessert served on "a magical floating pillow." Such an experience doesn't come cheap: The restaurant now runs on a ticketing system, and the tasting menu got a slight price hike to £255 (nearly $390).

Image credit: Wikimedia

Chain restaurants in New York City will now be required to warn diners about dishes with high levels of sodium. The new rule, which goes into effect Tuesday, will require any menu item containing more than a day's worth of sodium — 2,300 mg — to be denoted with a salt shaker icon. Health advocates are happy with the new development, but the salt industry is less so; it will remain to be seen if this is more successful than the city's failed large soda ban, which attempted to outlaw sugary drinks over 16 ounces.

Image credit: Leonid Mamchenkov/Flickr