Food News Roundup: Veganism Is All Fun And Games Until You're Arrested

Rule-breaking can be fun for all ages (see stinky-cheese ice cream) or it could lead to a hefty fine (see Alaskan liars). New rules are proposed in Italy and New York.

For a piping hot plate of lies, head over to the Pump House in Fairbanks, Alaska. The restaurant was fined $50,000 for peddling New Zealand elk meat as reindeer tenderloin that was "raised in Western Alaska where they are harvested by the Native people," the Associated Press reports. The restaurant has had reindeer on the menu since 2013, but employees have told the AP that it was never served. The Pump House's parent company has paid the fee, donated more than $10,000 to three nonprofit groups and issued a public apology.

One Italian politician is trying to make feeding a child a vegan diet punishable by up to six years of prison time, according to the Guardian. Elvira Savino has drafted a law that makes it illegal for parents and guardians to feed children 16 years old and younger vegan diets on the grounds that she considers it an "inadequate" source of vitamins essential to children's development. The basic offense would be a prison sentence of one year, longer if the child is under three years old. Two to four years could be served by those whose children are malnourished and ill as a result of the diet, and a four- to six-year sentence will be issued if the diet resulted in death.

Nearly everything can be done on the internet. Some things can only be done on the internet. Getting a reservation at some of New York's hottest restaurants is one of them. New York Post restaurant critic Steve Cuozzo reports that some New York restaurants are calling it quits on phones and moving all reservation services to the digital realm. He then claims that this is a "lawsuit-proof" way of discriminating against older, less tech-savvy customers.

The Czech Republic is screaming for this stinky-cheese ice cream. A café in Lostice is churning the sweet treat with a traditionally stenchy Czech fromage, Tvaruzky, and completely sold out over a weekend, Reuters reports. The pungent cheese is often served with bread and onions and is sometimes brewed into Czech beer.

And now for your weekly dose of Pokémon news. Pop-culture site the Mary Sue surfaced a video that made us realize just how much Pikachu, the yellow rat-like electrical Pokémon, loves ketchup. In an end credit sequence of the anime version of Pokémon, a herd of Pikachus sing and dance around bottles of the lovely, tangy tomato sauce. There's even an ode to Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro in which the Pikachus encourage a ketchup tree to grow.

ピカチュウのうた想像以上に可愛すぎて悶える pic.twitter.com/rVcXgikaN5

— まるるん (@Maru_run33) August 4, 2016