• Mayor Michael Bloomberg channeled Elvis when describing what he would eat if he had one last breakfast: “Wonder Bread toasted, with Skippy Super Chunky melted on it, slices of overripe banana, and fresh, crisp bacon.” [NYP]

• With calorie counts now on display, it’s frighteningly clear how Americans consume too many calories. Ever heard of the 2,330-calorie Jack Daniel’s Sampler appetizer at T.G.I. Friday’s? [WSJ]
Related: The Shocking Secrets of Chain-Restaurant Calorie Counts

• Maybe if Americans weren’t eating such large portions, the rest of the world wouldn’t have to starve. [Reuters]

• The Red Hook vendors have returned! Prices are “ever-so-slightly higher” and only six out of ten stands are open, owing to pending DOH approval, but they’re back. [Eater]

• Apparently in Brooklyn it’s acceptable to rent out restaurants for nude dinner parties. [NYP]

• Club-related crime, general debauchery, and puking all appear to be on the rise in the still-not-dead club scene in Chelsea. [NYP]

• With the neighboring Chase bank soon to be out of the picture, Bar Boulud can expand its bar space and add another kitchen. [NYP]

• If you’ve got the money and the willpower, turning a ten-pound pork belly into bacon at home is a cinch. [Salon]
Related: Bacon: No Need to Overanalyze

• Despite what the packaging says, a British court ruled that Pringles are not technically potato crisps because they are made from dough, not potato slices. [WSJ]

• With the salmonella-tomatoes fiasco not yet a memory, supermarkets around the country are pulling half a million pounds of beef from their shelves due to potential E. coli contamination that has already caused 40 illnesses. [NYT]

• Sure, these are more casual times, with no real dress code for restaurants anymore, but the handful of remaining restaurants with an actual code should be respected by their patrons. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]

• Lunchtime diners in Times Square haven’t changed their eating habits based on the calorie figures now posted on menus. [Slate]

• Andrew Carmellini, late of A Voce, is in Las Vegas this week shopping around for a new job. [Insatiable Critic]

• If you’ve got any beef against the upscale restaurant planned for the north end of Union Square, there’s a protest taking place tomorrow, at 5 p.m., where you can properly express your discontentment. [Fork in the Road/VV]

• The Treats Truck fleet is doubling in size, from one to two, and the new, smaller addition will feature exclusive cookie specials. [Feed/TONY]

• It would take a miracle for Chumley’s to reopen this month as originally planned. [Lost City]

• Health Department inspectors have started handing out citations to chain restaurants that have yet to post their calorie info on menus, but fines won’t be issued until July. [NYP]

• Lee Schrager has inked a deal to release a cookbook in 2011 to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. [NYP]

• A Wall Street analyst who covers fast food is researching his sector by eating at “quick service” restaurants daily. [NYP]

• The McCain recipes weren’t just taken from the Food Network Website, but also from a cookbook one New York Times writer wrote. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]

• Jean-Georges Vongerichten is considering opening a restaurant in Vancouver, just a month after Daniel Boulud signed a deal there, too. [Vancouver Sun]

• The very study that was used by the Health Department to crusade for mandatory calorie posting in food chains may now be used by defense lawyers to undermine the law’s future. [NYS]

• Some Lower East Siders are not stoked about Bruce Willis opening the Bowery Wine Company, so they’re going to buy a pig, name it Bruce, and then eat it. [NYP]

• Wine bars are everywhere, and, thankfully, they’re a lot less stuffy than they used to be. [NYT]

• A judge is barring the Health Department from enforcing the law requiring chain restaurants to display calorie info on menus, until April 14, by which time he’ll have decided what to about the New York State Restaurant Association’s lawsuit against the city. [NYP]

• A list of schools that received shipments of the recently recalled beef has been released by the Department of Agriculture, but there’s still no list of retailers. [NYT]

• Top Cheffer Dale Talde explains why he needs to have some attitude in the kitchen: “I’m Asian, not the tallest dude in the world and I look like I’m 12.” [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]

A federal investigation is under way in New York’s kitchens to measure the hazards cooks face when handling an ingredient in artificial butter that is known to cause tissue damage. [Seattle Post Intelligencer]

Frank Bruni thinks Thomas Keller should just stick to what he knows and avoid this casual-dining nonsense he puts on at Ad Hoc. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]

Sexy British TV chef Nigella Lawson has reportedly put on some weight, with one catty source saying, “The result is a butt like a Budweiser horse.” [NYP]

Brooklyn Restaurant Association president Joe Chirico, indicted last week along with the Gambino clan, allegedly lived a secret life in which he served as an extortionist for the mob. [NYP]
Related: New York Restaurant Association Big Netted in Gambino Roundup

Foodies all over the country are willing to drop serious money to sit at chefs’ tables, but is it worth the hefty price tag at a place like Café Gray? [WSJ]

If insects aren’t dirty or disease-ridden and they are packed with protein, then why aren’t we eating them? [NYT]
Related: What’s It Take to Get a Decent Grasshopper Around Here?

The New York State Restaurant Association filed another suit in federal district court yesterday to prevent a law requiring some restaurants to post calorie information on menus and signs from being enacted. [Grub Street]

Was the Times guilty of scaremongering with its slew of mercury-in-tuna stories? [Slate]

With the recent spate of wine bar openings, it’s worth considering what really constitutes a wine bar. A good wine list is a good start! [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]

The Board of Health decided yesterday in a unanimous vote to make all chain restaurants with fifteen or more outlets – approximately 10 percent of the city’s restaurants – post calorie info on their menus starting March 31. RIP, 1,230-calorie triple Whopper with cheese. [CNN]

Laboratory tests run on sushi samples from twenty Manhattan stores and restaurants revealed shockingly high levels of mercury in bluefin tuna, so high that the FDA could technically take the fish off the market. And if you’ve got to have your tuna sushi, you’d best head to Fairway and avoid Blue Ribbon Sushi at all costs. [NYT]

Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl is “obsessed with” Momofuku Ssäm Bar, “like everyone else in New York,” according to her. [TONY]

New York’s cheesiest singles go to Whole Foods on the Bowery to pick up cage-free eggs — and each other. [NYS]

Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant-rescue record takes another blow: Dillons is on the brink, and now the British restaurant “helped” by the truculent chef is going into liquidation. [Evening Telegraph]

Next season’s Top Chef will take place in Chicago. [Chicago Tribune]