Meat

Saucing is a science at Silver Lake's new Gobi Mongolian BBQ House. Modeled after a restaurant that co-owner Mike Buch went to as a child in Hollywood, Gobi has taken the low-rent, MSG-addled Americanized Mongolian barbecue concept and given it a sunny, Facebook-generation makeover. A big part of that is a selection of 11 house-made sauces, including several that certainly weren't found in your parents' friendly neighborhood Mongolian BBQ hut, including lemon-mint, Asian pesto and smoked oyster.

A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday ordered the head of the company responsible for the largest beef recall in U.S. history to appear before Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight unanimously voted to subpoena Steven Mendell, chief executive of Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. The subpoena orders him to testify at a hearing next Wednesday titled, "Regulatory Failure: Must America live with unsafe Food?" Mendell, who is co-owner of the plant that triggered the recall, was invited to testify before the committee at a hearing last week but did not show up.

A federal judge in Brooklyn has rejected a Liberian woman's religious reasons for smuggling meat from an endangered monkey into the country. U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie ruled Wednesday that Mamie Manneh's faith didn't preclude her from applying for permits to import exotic food. Manneh was charged with smuggling the meat three years ago after customs agents seized a shipment of primate parts at Kennedy Airport. Manneh's lawyers argued that some Liberian Christians eat monkey meat for spiritual reasons.

Eating red meat increases the chances of dying prematurely, according to a large federal study offering powerful new evidence that a diet that regularly includes steaks, burgers and pork chops is hazardous to your health. The study of more than 500,000 middle-age and elderly Americans found that those who consumed the equivalent of about a small hamburger every day were more than 30% more likely to die during the 10 years they were followed, mostly from heart disease and cancer.

Susan Hartley knows exactly where the now-shuttered Hallmark meat plant is: The high-walled compound sits just six blocks from her office. But until 143 million pounds of beef from the company were recalled this week, the Chino Valley Unified School District food director had no idea some of the beef served in her cafeterias came from the old dairy cows slaughtered just around the corner.

America's chief diplomat found herself vouching for the purity of U.S. cattle Saturday, wading into a bitter trade dispute that for South Koreans has eclipsed the long-running drama over North Korea's nuclear activity and threatened the government of President Lee Myung-bak. Just one day after the communist North demolished the most visible symbol of its nuclear programs, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced a barrage of questions about the safety of American steaks, chops and burgers.

The news for red meat seems to be getting worse and worse. In December, a survey of more than 494,000 people by the National Institutes of Health found that men who ate more than 5 ounces of red meat each day and women who ate more than 3 ounces had a 51% greater risk of esophageal cancer, 61% of liver cancer and 24% of colorectal cancer than those who ate less than an ounce of red meat daily.

The U.S. government on Thursday proposed allowing imports of Canadian cattle and meat products from animals born on or after March 1, 1999, increasing shipments that are currently blocked out of concern for mad cow disease. "We previously recognized Canada's comprehensive set of safeguards, and we have now completed a risk assessment confirming that additional animals and products can be safely traded," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said.

A federal appeals court says slaughtering horses for meat is illegal in Texas, where the animals symbolize the Old West and where two of the nation's three processing plants are located. The decision, issued Friday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, overturns a lower court's ruling last year on a 1949 Texas law that banned horse slaughter for the purpose of selling the meat for food.

Carolina Culinary Food is recalling packages of Oscar Mayer ready-to-eat chicken breast strips with rib meat because they may be contaminated, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said. Officials said Georgia Department of Agriculture food scientists found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample. That type of contamination can cause listeriosis, which is potentially fatal.