By U.S. law, a hot dog can contain up to 3.5 percent non-meat ingredients, usually milk or a soy product. Most popular brands use cellulose casings, which are removed before the product is packaged. Some use natural casings, which stay on the hot dog and provide that delightful “snap” when you bite into the hot dog. In 2012, Americans spent $1.7 billion on hot dogs in supermarkets. But whether they come from a street peddler or at a ballgame, Americans have had a longstanding devotion to their hot dogs.

I don’t know what I’d expected – all roads and recommendations had led us to Chez Gladines, a Basque-style restaurant in the 13^th arrondissement of Paris. We’d gotten there early and still had to wait an hour outside for a table. After days of sightseeing fueled by crepe stands and baguette sandwiches on the go, a sit-down meal out of the tourist’s path was a welcome change. I carried a post-it note in my wallet, written on it the most important French phrase I hadn’t thought to learn before we came here: Je suis végétarienne. Que conseillez-vous?

Meyer is a daunting figure in the restaurant industry. After all, despite some setbacks and two-star reviews, his restaurants are some of the most coveted in New York City, and the world. This documentary follows the progress of opening Tabla (now closed after 13 years) and Eleven Madison Park, recently placed number 5 on the list of best restaurants in the world. Watching the construction, delays and issues of these two major players in the New York dining scene is thrilling to serious food industry folks. 

Beckmen Vineyards is one among some 100 American winemakers who have become certified as biodynamic grape growers, and healthy soils are at the heart of the method. This accomplishment is not for the inexperienced: to achieve the soil revitalization and elimination of outside inputs that biodynamics demands, vineyard managers have to work harder, smarter and at greater time and expense to produce the crops they need for wine. 

“Whiskey” is used for whiskeys made in Ireland and North America.  “Whisky” is used for those made in Canada, Japan, Scotland, and Wales. Your best bet is to go by what’s on the label of the bottle. (For example, Maker’s Mark is labeled as bourbon “whisky,” even though it’s made in Kentucky.) Though “scotch” has become ubiquitous, it is simply known as “whisky” in Scotland.

McDonald’s might have taken off in France years ago, but it was the introduction of something even more casual that has the trendiest of Parisians talking today. Within the past year, something very American has been stirring on the streets of Paris. In a land that very recently was at the forefront of declaring that American food was nothing more than grease and a lack of imagination, suddenly, there is no greater praise for food amongst the young Parisians than “très Brooklyn,” a term that has come to symbolize something particularly cool and of high quality, not in spite of but because of its informality and creativity.

Comparing the inventories of grocery stores in the two countries suggests that there is a fundamental difference in what is considered to be food. American manufacturers appear to enjoy one-upping each other by coming out with lower calorie, zero fat versions of their products, to the point where the ingredients lists read more like chemistry experiments than anything that might actually be edible. Go to France, and everything you see on the shelves is real. Better yet, head to your neighborhood’s open-air market and buy everything directly from the farmers, butchers, bakers and cheese-makers. 

It seems that America is going through another tea craze, in part due to availability, accessibility and health benefits. Iced tea makes up 85 percent of the tea Americans consume, and can be found in supermarkets, delis, and restaurants. Specialty tea stores and tea lounges are cropping up in cosmopolitan cities. And every year there’s at least one article published about the benefits of drinking green or black tea with a well-balanced diet. You can also find beauty products made with green tea, such as face washes to promote clean and young skin. 

Mexico carefully guards the name and legacy of its national spirit. Any liquor bearing the label “tequila” must be produced in Mexico, from blue agave (Agave tequilana azul) of the Weber Blue variety grown in Jalisco, or tequila of specially designated regions of Nayarit, Guanajuato, Michoacán and Tamaulipas. Distilleries are also carefully regulated, and assigned a NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) number. Much of the mass-produced tequila found in American liquor stores comes from fairly young agave plants, harvested when the sap is tart and acidic. 

Not much has changed since then as far as being wasteful goes. In fact, it’s gotten worse. Sure Americans recycle. We talk green and want to save the polar bears. But Americans still remain as wasteful as ever. A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council released this week found that Americans “waste 10 times as much food as someone in Southeast Asia, up 50 percent from Americans in the 1970s.”