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With costumes, as with menus,it pays to choose wisely

​A Halloween costume can often be an extension of your personality. And for people who love to eat well, dressing up in some food-related outfit is a natural choice. But picking the right costume is fraught with peril. If you're clever and creative enough you could be the hit of the party, but make the wrong choice and you'll be broadcasting to the world that you're an idiot.

Yesterday we told you about some of our favorite Halloween costumes for food lovers. Here are five ridiculous costumes that are scary for all the wrong reasons.

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Halloween costumes good enough to eat

​Halloween may have candy and pumpkins, but it isn't known as a food holiday the way Thanksgiving, say, or even Valentine's Day are. But food lovers who generally have one thing on their mind every other day of the year don't make an exception for October 31. While others may go as zombies or vampires or Rick Perry, foodies will predictably be dressing up as comestibles.

We wanted to see what other food-obsessed people are going as this year. Here are some of the funniest, wackiest, and most original costumes we found.

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He'd want us to remember him this way...

Last week, the nation was stunned to hear of the untimely demise of the widely reviled beloved mascot, The King.  His Shiny Plastic Highness was finally retired by Burger King ... but not before His Creepiness had a chance to taint every television viewer's image of BK.  Since his introduction, the King had united the nation in one giant 'WTF!?'  But he's not the first less-than-ideal mascot to be foisted on the public (and he probably won't be the last).  The Hot Dish has put together this list of the 10 worst "characters" used to hock munchies. From blatant racism to pedophilia to genetic mutations, these mascots make the King look like a genius idea.More >>

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"You're the one who said to order the scampi!"

Yesterday, we shared our list of the 10 dishes to avoid ordering on your Valentine's dates,   from stinky garlic to messy barbecue, ugly oysters to wings that zing--too much and in the wrong places. But some restaurants should just be avoided altogether, no matter what's on the menu. Let us share our list of the five local dining spots that we feel can only lead to heartbreak--or even worse, heartburn.  

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Valentine's Day is a perfect excuse for journalists and bloggers to inundate the masses with lists and recommendations of romantic restaurants.  Thousands of words are expended every year recapping which eateries boast the best wines or have the most intimate dining accommodations.  But here's a list that might be just as useful: 10 dishes to avoid when seated across from that special someone.

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Pepsi

Learn the secret recipe of Snoop's Eight-Layer-Dip

​The Super Bowl is fast approaching. It is the day of the most traditional American sporting event that allows an entire population of environmentally aware, health-conscious, wannabe-locavore Americans to forgo their sensibility and enjoy a year's worth of glutton in dips, wings, and pizzas.

Although foodie sites like epicurious.com and foodnetwork.com make it look like you have to actually cook your own food for the Super Bowl party, these celebrity recipe videos are sure to get you in the mood for the big day without all the hassle.

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ABC

Jamie Oliver encourages kids to be friends with vegetables

​If one of your New Year's resolutions is to eat more vegetables, congratulations on making such an important decision. Your committment can improve your health and help you lose weight.

Still, changing eating habits can be difficult, especially when the temperature keeps dropping. While it's all too easy to turn to comfort foods, adding more chopped onions in your meatloaf to increase your vegetable intake doesn't quite cut it.

To get to you over the hump, here are some TV moments guaranteed to get you motivated.

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WWPC?: What Would Prince Cook?

City Pages' sister publication, The Village Voice, recently reported on a NYC eatery's new dessert, the Volcano Flambé, designed by performance artist Marina Abramović.  This meringue-covered combination of chocolate ice cream, almond sponge cake, and banana mousse is intended to be eaten while listening to an MP3 player playing a recording of the artist as she "guide[s the guest] through the experience of the dish."

This got the Hot Dish to try to imagine what some of our local artists and celebrities might create, if offered a similar opportunity.

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You know you live in Minnesota if you eat...

​Minnesota has its state bird (common loon) and state flower (pink and white lady slipper). But our state food? Now that's worth a debate.

The folks at My Food Looks Funny have started the dialogue by assigning 50 foods to the 50 states.

What did they pick for Minnesota?

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​Seems even five hundred actual dollars wouldn't be enough to woo back the Kentucky thieves who made off with a bronze bust of Colonel Sanders this week, let alone the $500-worth of free chicken the restaurant is offering in hopes of recouping the statue. The whole thing is pretty much straight out of The Onion.

"It's like, this big, his whole head. It's really detailed, all the features and everything," the manager of the victimized KFC said following the theft. "Some employees were in the dining room when four young guys came in... When she came back to the dining area, it was gone."

It's doubtful the thieves -- more likely just pranksters -- anticipate doing anything more than adding the bust to their trophy collection of Martian balls and yard gnomes. What kind of resale value does a Col. Sanders bust fetch anyway? Who would dare go into a pawn shop with the thing?

"It is not yet known whether the $500 reward extends to both original recipe and extra crispy, or whether or not they will charge extra for all white meat," reports the Consumerist. Straight out of The Onion ...