Weekly Media Mix: France's 'Cola Tax'; Panda Express Dry Cleaners; And Drunk Shopping

The Daily Byte's Weekly Media Mix rounds up the week's big food stories.

Industry
• Panda Express owners want to become the McDonald's of dry cleaners — they plan to open 200 Tide Dry Cleaners in the next five years. [LA Times]

Shame of the Week
• Here's that annual list of America's drunkest cities. Boston comes in at number one. [The Daily Beast]

Celebrities
• Rachael Ray chats with the A.V. Club about Bourdain, her new show with Guy Fieri, and music. [A.V. Club]

• Speaking of Anthony Bourdain, here he is, griping about how the Travel Channel hid his weird, creepy, awesome holiday special. [Big Gay Ice Cream]

Booze
• Just in time for New Year's celebrations: A new study suggests beer and martinis may help you live longer. (Don't go overboard, though). [OC Weekly]

• Drunk shopping is apparently a thing now, with more and more customers buying too much online after dinner, and some spending up to $8,000 by midnight. [The Week]

Politics
• Is France also implementing a fat tax? The French "Cola Tax" charges an extra euro cent per soda container starting Jan. 1. [AFP]

Health
• Scary stats from Mark Bittman: When consuming supermarket pre-ground meat, there's a "25 percent chance you'll consume a potentially fatal bacteria that doesn't respond to commonly prescribed drugs." [NYT]

• Jamie Oliver's cookbook makes an "Unhealthiest Cookbooks" list, with a meatball sandwich recipe that has twice the calories of a Big Mac. [Baltimore Sun]

Locavore
• Meet a woman who traps her dinner in her front yard: "risotto di rodentia — Eastern gray squirrel braised in Lopez Island white wine with mushrooms and Italian-style rice." [Seattle Times]

 The Daily Byte is a regular column dedicated to covering interesting food news and trends across the country. Click here for previous columns.