April 30, 2009
Posted by Caroline Russock, April 29, 2009 at 7:00 PM
This week we are starting a new interactive cooking project called Weekend Cook and Tell. Each Wednesday we'll scour the various food sections of national newspapers to find an article or recipe to inspire a weekend cooking project. We want all of you serious eaters to take this idea and run with it, use your culinary creativity to come up with variations on the weekly theme. We will be cooking along, too.
This week we found a great piece in the New York Times about cooking with "off cuts," inexpensive, lesser known cuts of meat. Let's go out and buy an unfamiliar cut and make something delicious with it. Over the weekend we'll all discuss our recipes and experiences in Talk and all share our pictures on Photograzing. If you'd like to blog along from home, leave a link to your Cook and Tell blog post in the comments. We'll round up all your photos and ideas and share our own in a post early next week. Let's get cookin'!
- Garden to Gullet: First produce from White House garden hits the table. [WaPo]
- NSFFork? A profile of "Aaron," the "erotic baker to the stars." [Decider NYC]
- Ixnay on the Lunch Tray: College cafeterias doing away with trays to save money, shrink student waistlines. [NYT]
- Cough Up the Dough: Why restaurants should charge for bread baskets. [NYT]
- Nutrition Blogs: Paper suggests six for your reading pleasure. [Chicago Tribune]
- Finale and Footlongs: Fans of Chuck try to send message to NBC by buying Subway sandwiches. [Crain's]
- Coffee Continuum: Coffee consumption holds steady but shifts to home. Specialty purveyors rush in to market. [Chicago Tribune]
- Video: Top Chef's Stephanie Izard makes pizza [Slice]
From Photograzing
Our favorite photos from Photograzing, our photo sharing site. Add yours today!
From Serious Eats: New York
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, April 29, 2009 at 6:25 PM
From left: Bacon-wrapped hot dog with egg and cheese from Crif Dogs, Ed chomping down, and the Bulgogi dog from New York Hotdog & Coffee.
All right, all you hot dog-loving serious eaters, listen up. The Hot Dog Hootenanny is coming up this Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Astor Center. It's $25 for plenty of hot dogs, beer, and Prosecco. It's a great deal, but we are also giving away a couple of tickets right here.
Just listen to this array of hot dogs you'll be able to sample:
- Classic Chicago-style dogs, actually shipped in from Chicago by the good folks at Vienna Beef, garnished with sport peppers, celery salt, day-glo green relish, pickles, and tomatoes, on a poppy seed hot dog bun, of course.
- The Bulgogi Dog from the good folks at New York Hotdog & Coffee.
- One of Crif Dogs' finest.
- And, of course, New York's all-beef natural casing dogs, accompanied by mustard, relish, and onions.
And noted hot dog author and frankfurter-ologist Bruce Kraig will guide us through a tasting of even more hot dogs:
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 29, 2009 at 5:45 PM
Photograph from blinkenpilzen on Flickr
While browsing through the Serious Eats Flickr pool, this photo of a bitten chocolate-covered popsicle against a bright blue sky caught my eye as a sign of relief from the sweaty summer days to come. But upon closer look...wait, that's not chocolate-flavored—it's salmiakki-flavored, or salty licorice! And it has a licorice core! Oh sweet Jesus, that poor vanilla ice cream.
Of course, if I loved licorice (and I wish I possessed such power; it makes me a bit sad to dislike a whole category of sweets) I would be singing a different tune. Alas, my taste buds have not developed a licorice-loving part yet. I'll give it a try if I'm ever in Finland.
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 29, 2009 at 5:15 PM
Photograph from TheJosephBoys on Flickr
Barbecue has inspired all sorts of mania, but has it gone too far when a modern dance company bases a piece on the iconic American food?
In mid May, dance students at the Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company in Kansas City will be performing the Gates B-B-Que Suite, inspired by Gates Bar-B-Q and Kansas City jazz:
The piece is described as a "loving and playful look" at the tradition of Kansas City barbeque. Set in a barbeque restaurant, the choreography is intended to capture the "microcosm of society" in dance as people socialize and eat this favorite Kansas City cuisine.
Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on May 14 and at 8 p.m. on May 15 and 16, at White Hall, 4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City MO 64110 (map), located in the Performing Arts Center on the UMKC campus. Tickets, available at 816-235-6222, range from $15 (seniors) to $24 (adult). [via Fat City]
From Recipes
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, April 29, 2009 at 4:30 PM
I was a doubter all the way. I had picked this recipe for chicken, potato, and chipotle salad because I just happened to have all the ingredients ready to go. But things kept bugging me and I worried that the salad would just taste like bland poached chicken heaped on a messy salad. Of course, I should have just shut up and gone with the flow. It was a recipe by Rick Bayless, my favorite cookbook author, for goodness sake. I should know that I can trust him.
And when everything was combined and plated, I realized I had absolutely no reason to worry. Each ingredient is treated with utmost respect. The chicken is gently poached so it comes out tender and juicy, and since the dressing gets time to marry with the most of the ingredients, each bite is flavorful, smoky, and just slightly spicy.
Surprisingly, even with all the flavor of the chilies, my favorite part of the salad was the potatoes. Although they are simply boiled, the carrots they are boiled with lend their sweetness. Each bite is a revelation. I'll never doubt Bayless again.
Continue reading »
Posted by Paul Clarke, April 29, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Photograph from Invisible Hour on Flickr
Thank god for Prohibition.
Before the Big Thirst got underway in 1920, the barroom was for the most part a masculine place. Women were banned from many drinking establishments—either by law, by house rules or by social standards—and it wasn't until the 1920s, when the owners of then-illegal watering holes were less picky about who they let through the door, that a female presence started to become a somewhat regular occurrence in bars across the country.
As Eric Felten noted in "Women Behind Bars" in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal, it took another couple of decades before women moved to the other side of the bar in any kinds of numbers. Felten writes that in 1895, the Labor Department calculated there were 55,660 men working as bartenders in the U.S., compared to only 147 women. While bartenders such as Ada Coleman mixed drinks at London’s Savoy Hotel in the early 20th century, it wasn't until the Second World War that American bars started using more female bartenders. Even then, laws and labor rules were designed to limit women’s presence behind the bar, and Felten writes that as recently as 1971 California had a law prohibiting women from "pouring whisky."
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 29, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Photograph by Austin Bush
Inspired by the awesomeness of the South Korean street food French fry-coated hot dog on a stick and subsequent recipe, Bangkok-based photographer Austin Bush and Hock of food blog Stomach On Legs created a "modern" version: sous-vide potato confit with panko crust and hot dog foam. The ingredients weren't fancy (hot dogs sourced from 7-11, potatoes confited in Crisco), but the preparation was. They used the liquid from the sous-vided hot dogs to make hot dog-flavored foam which, with a dab of ketchup, accompanied the deep fried panko-crusted potato log.
Related: The Craziest Food Ever: Deep-Fried, French-Fry-Coated Bacon on a Stick
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 29, 2009 at 2:45 PM
This illustration by Natalie Dee is an accurate representation of how I feel when faced with a confusingly elaborate place setting. I can already sense the mocking from my dining partners for my unfamiliarity with bread screws.
Related
It's All Made of Foam
'Sitting in This Bottle Since 2003'
From A Hamburger Today
Posted by Damon Gambuto, April 29, 2009 at 2:15 PM
"Considering how overwrought this restaurant’s design is, perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised that its burger is a highly constructed affair."
Baby Blues BBQ
7953 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90046 (map); 818-284-4215; babyblueswh.com
Cooking Method: Grilled
Short Order: This robust barbecue joint simulation misses the mark with its overwrought burger
Want Fries with That? No, thanks. Skinny cut, mixed with sweet potato, and bathed in seasoning, they aren't worth the toll. An easy pass
Prices: The Lasker Burger, $11.50
Notes: A super friendly atmosphere certainly argues for the trip
Here in Los Angeles, we’ve some of the finest examples of just about every cuisine imaginable with some unimaginable exceptions. First, and most tragically, we lack a robust (or even defensible) pizza culture. I’ve lived here for over a decade and just mentioning it makes me sad, so let’s move on. The gastronomic gap that is germane to today’s (burger) discussion is serious barbecue. While there are many contenders, I’ve yet to find that one that brings me back for the brisket. That said, a number of them do a serviceable job with their cue, and—as one might predict—serve a pretty good burger.
It seems fair to expect a tasty burger from a serious barbecue restaurant. The obsessive and meticulous preparation, the felicitous hewing to tradition, and, of course, the love and respect paid to the meat should mean a good burger is a good bet. I understand that, for the dedicated BBQ-ers, hamburgers shouldn’t share the same sentence as, say, brisket, let alone the same menu, so perhaps I should amend my original statement: If a serious barbecue spot throws a burger on their menu, it’s fair for me to throw some expectations back at it.
Baby Blues BBQ recently opened a third location in West Hollywood and its reputation and my expectation led me there for lunch. The budding restaurant chain itself is little more than a toddler, and with this most recent outpost of Baby Blues being basically a newborn at five weeks, it’s fair to expect a few wobbles. That said, when you put a legendary picture of the legendary Johnny Cash on your wall and serve a burger with its own name, you better be ready to grow up fast.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 29, 2009 at 2:00 PM
If you're not sure if that old pizza is safe to eat or want to know how long those cold cuts will stay fresh in your fridge, visit StillTasty, the "Ultimate Shelf Life Guide." Browse ten categories of food products to find their lifespans, or check out their Q & A for answers to more specific questions. [via Tasting Table]
The Washington Post's Food section launched a new blog today called All We Can Eat. Looks like a fun outlet for the editors and writers to stay in touch, beyond every Wednesday's print section.
From Recipes
Posted by Caroline Russock, April 29, 2009 at 1:15 PM
This recipe for potatoes with chile rajas and scrambled eggs from Mark Miller's Tacos is my idea of the perfect breakfast. In fact, I make a variation of potato and egg tacos at least once a week for a quick meal. It's a great "clean out the fridge dish"—if you have any leftover rice, beans, meats or vegetable you can throw them into a tortilla along with the potatoes, eggs and chiles. Miller like to serve these tacos for breakfast or brunch, along with some spicy Bloody Marys garnished with a pickled jalapeno for an extra kick.
Win Tacos
Happy Cinco de Mayo! As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have a few copies of Tacos to give away-five this week. Enter to win here »
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, April 29, 2009 at 12:30 PM
A couple weeks ago, we alerted you about Paula Deen's deep-fried mac and cheese bacon bites. How could you one-up that big chunk of crispy awesomeness? Brad and Lily have figured it out. But since they were created through an insta-movie program, the conversation is all in robotic computer voice. Lily's "YES YES YES," in reaction to the buffalo sauce and Ranch suggestion, sounds more like a math teacher lecturing on cosine. She even throws her hands in the air like only a computerized, unfeeling woman can. Watch the video, after the jump.
Continue reading »
