Meal

Imagine you could pay whatever you wanted for your lunch. Regardless of the menu price, you could give the cashier whatever cash you had in your wallet. It could be $10, $5, $1 or even nothing. That's the idea behind the pay-what-you-want Panera cafes in St. Louis. The brand launched the concept three years ago with five cafes and has expanded the system to all Panera locations in St. Louis, the Associated Press reported . At all 48 cafes, customers can name their price for one menu item: the turkey chili in a bread bowl.

Youths at some Los Angeles County probation camps say that they are not getting enough to eat and are served unhealthy food, including a Sunday stew made of leftovers that sometimes contains "slippery and shiny" meat and "pink and undercooked" chicken, according to recent report. The document is a result of a visit earlier this month by two citizens serving on the commission that advises the Probation Department about operations at the Challenger camps near Lancaster. "There was universal agreement by all who were queried on the site visit that the food was terrible," the report said.

People travel to the Mojave expecting arid crags, tortured landscapes and vast expanses. But water? Not so much. On a recent winter trip to the Mojave, I stumbled on a new desert lure: bubbling springs, creeks and even a river, the Amargosa. My husband, Barry, and I followed a watery trail through the hamlets of Shoshone and Tecopa Hot Springs, in the seam of desert between Death Valley National Park and the Nevada border. The bed Don't expect turn-down service. First up was the Shoshone Inn, a cinder-block motel on California Highway 127 in Shoshone ([760]

SACRAMENTO - California lawmakers accepted a trip to Brazil, fine cigars and crystal ducks, among many other gifts from corporations, trade groups and other special interests last year. Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles) received $17,800 in gifts - among the highest in total value, according to records released Saturday. They included $5,830 in travel expenses for an education trip to South Korea paid for by the Korean American Economic Development Corp. Pérez also received concert and sports tickets, nine gifts of cigars, and a $100 crystal duck from the California Retailers Assn.

At least eight California school districts have misappropriated millions of dollars in funding intended to pay for meals for low-income students - the biggest culprit being the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to a state Senate watchdog group. The California Department of Education has ordered districts to repay more than $170 million in misused funds to their student meal programs, the California Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes said in a report issued Wednesday.

Jose Landaverde was inspired to cook by memories of making pupusas with his late father, who was killed in El Salvador. Jorge Perez's interest in food was cultivated by his grandfather, a caterer who introduced him to exotic spices on a trip to Thailand. And Lucile Flores was practically raised in kitchens, especially at the Jack in the Box restaurant where both of her parents work. Drawn to food by powerful family ties, the Los Angeles Unified student chefs took their culinary interest a grand step further Thursday as they vied to win the local round of a national high school healthful cooking competition.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts rolled out a discount this month that features prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus at restaurants including J&G Steakhouse at the W Washington, D.C. , and Kelvin at the W San Diego. The deal is good for three-course meals at 75 restaurants around the country for members of the hotel group's loyalty program, which is free to join. The deal: Show a Starwood Preferred Guest card (or proof of membership on a smartphone) and have lunch for $20.13 and dinner for $30.13 at selected restaurants.

Fatty corn dogs and sugary coffee cake may become extinct in thousands of school cafeterias nationwide under a landmark new alliance among Los Angeles Unified and five other major urban school districts to leverage their vast purchasing power for healthier fare and lower prices. School districts in L.A., New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami and Orlando, Fla., plan to announce Thursday efforts to use their collective clout - 2.5 million daily meals served and $530 million annually spent - to make wholesome food a national standard.

After a successful pilot program, McDonald's has pledged to distribute 15 million books in England over the next two years. In its Happy Meals. Instead of toys. As a book blog, of course, we're all for this kind of thing. Give books away! Equate them with toys! Maybe even convince kids that books are toys! But will the kids buy it? Their parents might. The Guardian reports , "Alistair Macrow, McDonald's vice president, said that feedback about its book giveaway pilot had been 'overwhelmingly positive,' and that 9 out of 10 parents wanted to see more book promotions from the fast-food chain.

A grill man turned chief executive at McDonald's, Fred L. Turner oversaw an aggressive expansion of the company beginning in the 1970s that turned it into a corporate giant. When he began reshaping the restaurants in 1968, he left a visible legacy by removing the signature golden arches from the building's architecture and placing them on signs out front. What McDonald's founder Ray Kroc called Turner's gift for "planning and vision" is reflected in a restaurant menu that includes the Quarter-Pounder, which he co-developed with a California franchise owner in 1971.