Strange Sauce: The week in national food news

We hope you've already eaten lunch, because you won't be hungry after this: Seems that California's Olivera Egg Farm is facing six violations for permit violations stemming from local complaints about their reported daily pumping of chicken excrement into a 16.5 acre pond near the facility. The waste of more than 700,000 chickens has created health problems for residents living near the farm, who have complained that "the stench and eye-burning fumes give them headaches and nausea." Eew.

As baffling as this may seem, Burger King continues to make headlines. The price of their double cheese burger will increase in April to a $1.19. which is nothing compared to the two Burger King employees in Jacksonville, Florida that got canned after slipping hydrocodone pills into a fish sandwich, thus quadrupling it's value. Burger King also announced that they will start selling Starbucks coffee in various locations starting this summer. Aside from a merge between Halliburton and Monsanto, we can't think of a scarier combination.

In other random tidbits, Phoenix's Pizzaria Blanco put New York pizzarias to shame by being declared the best pizza in the country by Rachael Ray. Meanwhile, the Hershey Company will release three new candies modeled after Reese's Pieces. America's sweetheart Lindsey Vonn revealed that she taped topfen, an Austrian cheese, to herself to ease a muscle bruise. Finally, the New York-based drug store chain Duane Reade is now offering sushi.

Now go put a pot of chili on the stove and enjoy this weather.