November 04, 2011
Dippin' Dots files for bankruptcy - If you ever invent the "(insert food item) of the future", better make sure your damn patents are in order son. That's a hefty LN2 bill they run over there.
July 07, 2010
My friend's
burger place was rated as "Best Burger in Chicago" and now the AV Club is doing a write up on it.
I had a few of their burgers last month and they were awesome! and waist expanding....
August 11, 2009
While I ate my Trader Joe's frozen burrito for lunch, I read a great NY Times Magazine article by Michael Pollan, "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch". Pollan discusses the decline of cooking in the American household and how cooking shows are somewhat at fault. Prime time cooking shows are all about cooking as a spectator sport, and not about turning off the tv and getting into the kitchen. He also discusses a link between obesity rates and the time spent cooking. If the only way to get a cookie is to bake it yourself, you are less likely to eat it. So the food industry is also to blame for making all yummy, bad for you food so cheap and easily available.
In theory I am not in the norm since all the food network shows I've watched have inspired me to cook more and quite a few of our favorite recipes came from Emeril Lagasse, Guy Fieri, and Rachel Ray. There's something gratifying about accomplishing at least one major feat in the day. But now that we've added a baby into the mix, we have a lot less time and we are tending to have fewer steps in our cooking. We would love to eat healthier and even make our baby's food. But we are just so pressed for time nowadays.
Anyway, it's a good read. Enjoy.
August 10, 2009
Thanks to Top Chef, I know all about this apparent movement in food culture called "molecular gastronomy" which mostly entails using a little science about how food processes work to create unexpected tastes and textures that really hadn't been explored before. Or, to most people, it probably just means "foam" because that is mostly how it was used.
Anyway, I came across the very stimulating blog Cooking Issues run by some chefs at the French Culinary Institute in NYC. Their interests range far and wide but the topics never fail to be interesting. They answer questions like "What is the best apple to use for cider?" by going to a university/government orchard and trying 200 varieties. They answer questions like "Why do the parts of the cocktail shaker stick together?" by (gasp!) doing math...and then an experiment to see how close the math was. They ask "What can you do with a centrifuge (and which one should I buy?)" and then do a bunch of stuff with a centrifuge. Oh yeah, also foam.
May 26, 2009
Mmmmm... Purple Drank! [more inside]
March 20, 2009
Sushi Etiquette - How to Eat Sushi. You're telling me you add wasabi to your soy sauce and dip your nigiri rice side down? What kind of a heathen are you?!?!?!?
January 07, 2009
Hey, eat like snake.
October 06, 2008
Sweetened vs. Unsweetened Tea as a dividing line between Northern and Southern US - It's like the coke/pop/soda word wars in a sense. I can't tell: is VT in the Tea North or the Tea South?
PS: Regardless of cultural implications, I'm sad to report to those of you drinking your tea without sugar that you are in fact merely drinking some gross water with dirt and leaves in it. It's a fact.
September 24, 2008
PETA urges Ben and Jerry's to switch to human milk - I think that an excellent way to gauge how fringe your group's ideas are is to take a poll and see how many people think your press releases are Onion articles. As an aside, I know where they can get a recipe to start with.
July 18, 2008
Today is International Brewers Day. Celebrate by going out, drinking some beer, and toasting your favorite brewer (or brewery). [more inside]
June 02, 2008
The dominant exported banana variety (the Cavendish) is in serious danger. Most of the Asian crops are already on their way to complete collapse and experts say it's only a matter of time before Panama disease Race 4 arrives in Latin America. Maybe you should throw some in the freezer so you can show your kids what it tasted like.
[more inside]
May 13, 2008
Fraser Lewry is Eating the Alphabet. Ran across this while looking for monkey brains recipes (really): Guardian food critic Fraser Lewry is going through the alphabet eating a dish featuring an exotic animal with that letter, from Actual Ants in Quicksand to Frog, Flounder & Fontina Fishcake to (most recently) Octopus and Ostrich Surf 'n' Turf (with some pickled testes along the way).
May 12, 2008
The New York Times Food/Dining section decided to do a special section reviewing chain restaurants. It doesn't go as bad as you'd think! In an NPR story, one of the contributors talks with the host about how the idea was presented and what they intended by doing the story. Are they elitist snobs looking to poke fun or elitist snobs just trying to see how "normal folk" live? Or, I guess, some other option but really how could that be true.
Who knew that the green fluff I've been bringing to potlucks and parties was named Watergate Salad? What can I say? I enjoy it.
April 29, 2008
Would you eat something that was still squirming? I like to consider myself an omnivore of the non-hypocritical variety -- that is, I fully acknowledge that when I eat flesh, it's exactly that. I can look at an animal and simultaneously think "aw, cute" and "yummy." [more inside]
April 09, 2008
Requiem for a deli - let me wax nostalgic for a place the rest of you may not know about: the famous Rascal House Deli in Miami Beach just closed. This was a Jewish Deli from the old old school (the one they tore down to build the old school). I remember there used to be lines around the block to get in -- different queues for 2, 3, 4, 5+ in your party. When you sat down they laid out rolls and a bucket of pickled stuff (such a nosh!) while you waited for your reuben or lox platter to come out. Azoy gait es.
March 04, 2008
Food Fight is a bizarre little video illustrating military conflicts since WW2 with combating food items.
January 16, 2008
Evil Grimace - the 4-armed shake thief they don't want to admit existed.
January 08, 2008
It seems somehow incongruent for me to post this, but: "What is the largest number of different animal species who have been harmed or exploited for a single meal that you've eaten? I think I'm at 5."
Weaksauce! I retired before age 20 and I'm sure I've topped that.
So: describe a menu exploiting as many different species as possible. Eggs, Milk and Honey count[*]; white cane sugar does not. Desirable dishes for under say $100 total, that might conceivably be served at a restaurant or fine dinner -- no ortolan-infused california highway of the sea from a gonzo combination of Grandpa Freeman's scrapple house and Marlon Brando's Komodo Dojo. Winner gets a video on battery cages and puppy mills from Pablo! The bidding shall start at ten.
I'm gonna go have a cucumber sandwich with bean sprouts.
December 03, 2007
Have you ever gone on a trip and wanted to sample the local beer? Maybe you like beer and want to do a beer roadtrip. Maybe you're making a documentary and need some driving directions. Either way, The Beer Mapping Project has got you covered. [more inside]
November 22, 2007
November 07, 2007
October 08, 2007
What is Tex-Mex? From its origins as a derogatory descriptor (as in "not REAL Mexican") to its current status as dominant food phenomenon, a six-part series from the Houston Press traces its history. It all started with street vendors selling pralines and tamales. Mexican restaurants of yesteryear proclaimed their authenticity but knew they needed to cater to Anglo palates. 1973 was a banner year that saw Webster's include "Tex-Mex" and the invention of the fajita (or was it?). Even modern "authentic" establishments are often Tex-Mex joints too ashamed to admit it. Chuy's was the first restaurant to be empowered by the Tex-Mex label but a French restaurant was the first to self-identify as Tex-Mex thanks to a popular film about a loner who eats chile con carne and drinks tequila. Finally, what the future holds for Tex-Mex.
[more inside]