• In L.A. restaurants and cooking classes, a passion for preparing entire pigs and their parts is increasingly popular. [L.A. Times]
• Starbucks is at the center of a debate over whether gun owners should be able to carry unconcealed weapons in public. [WSJ]
• Frederick Scott Sayler, the former STK Foods’ owner at the center of a tomato industry scandal, has been denied bail. [L.A. Times]
• Arizona’s Sprouts Farmer’s Market chain is expanding to Southern California, with a Culver City location set to take over a defunct Circuit City. [Daily Dish/L.A.T.]
‣ Slow-smoking ribs on a stove top has become easier. [L.A. Times]
• Dr. Jeffrey Pilcher of the University of Minnesota is compiling a book about the history and importance of the taco. [L.A. Taco]
• The FDA issued warnings to sixteen food and beverage companies, asking them to make sure their labels don’t make false claims. [WSJ]
• Toronto’s Sky Blue Sandwich Company named all of its sandwiches after Wilco songs. [Pitchfork]
• Downtown Vancouver restaurants saw sales rise between 100 and 300 percent during the Olympics. [NRN]
• Vegetarian restaurants are on the rise in meat-obsessed Buenos Aires. [NYT]