June 17, 2004
Food news and links
Peruvian Authors Launch Alpaca Cookbook "Cooking with alpaca is a challenge, he added. Because of the meat's strong flavor, it's best cooked with spices and herbs, and sauces that use wine or pisco, a Peruvian grape brandy."
First, Do No Farm A review of Richard Manning's Against the Grain " Manning argues that the cultivation and commodification of these humble carbs has caused ecological destruction, social inequality, starvation and -- in the era of McDonald's -- obesity. And that's just the beginning. Over the past 10,000 years, he writes, humanity has struck a 'bitter bargain," giving up "a large measure of our sensual lives for the bit of security that comes with agriculture.' "
Wired's article on Alton Brown is online - The Thermochemical Joy of Cooking "Brown's hyperrational approach defies conventional wisdom about food preparation. Cooks typically regard their culinary traditions as gospel, whether they learned them at the Sorbonne or from their great aunt Sibby. Tampering with recipes only leads to trouble. Never mind that a few carefully conducted experiments can expose many common practices as myths. " Auftn pointed this out a week ago, but I forgot to mention it.
June 11, 2004
Food news and links
CicadAle "a 10-gallon batch of beer that includes smoked cicadas as an ingredient " "The base beer is a barley wine and targeted it to 21 Plato (thus the final beer will be about 10.3% alcohol by volume) because the cicada Brood X will emerge again in 2021."
While on a recent road trip in Northwestern Illinois I passed a sign on a bar in Byron that announced it was the official home of the Turkey Testicle Festival. It sounds better than the bug beer doesn't it?
Also on the road trip I noticed that Burger King is selling an Angus Steak Burger I haven't tried it (but I haven't tried any fast food for awhile) but it's probably just a marketing term since there's nothing special about an Angus breed unless it's Certified Angus Beef (CAB).
FatMan Seoul Korean food blog in English, found on dpac's Xanga Site, another local foodie.
June 04, 2004
Food news and links
Phood Blog about "Snack food, fast food, pizza, beer, and other delicacies."
LTH forum Chicago-Based Culinary Conversations. An excellent way to keep up on all the local food news. For instance it just informed me that Achatz is leaving Trio to open his own place by the end of the summer. Here's Grant talking about it on eGullet.
Meaty role, veggie actor "One of the stars of the upcoming New Line Cinema comedy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" is a committed vegetarian." His brother works for PETA, yet they're still going to let him into the White Castle Hall of Fame, where he intends to urge the inclusion of veggie burgers onto the menu. "They can't say that no animals were harmed to make this movie," said PETA President Ingrid Newkirk.
Vodka: America's Spirit Of Choice An article on super premium vodkas that mentions Wyborowa Single Estate, which comes in a bottle designed by Frank Gehry and Magadanskaya Vodka, which Josef Stalin toasted Harry Truman and Winston Churchill with at the Potsdam Conference. "Vodka accounts for more than 26% of all distilled spirits sold in the U.S., eclipsed only by the combined sales figure for all whiskies -- Scotch, Irish, Bourbon and Canadian."
Designdetector has a short excerpt from Not on the Label, another expose on the food industry. " 'But free-range and organic birds...' I started to ask without wanting to know the answer. '...nearly all come through the same plants, yes. There's no difference except that in plants which process organic birds you can tell the organic ones. They are used to being allowed to run about a bit and so they try to escape when they are shackled.' "
Basil Julep
1 cup of unpacked fresh basil leaves (5-6 big ones)
2 cups of ice
2 teaspoons of sugar (or honey)
Blend it all up and drink while it's still frappey. It sounds like it might taste like one of those grass shakes, but it's really tasty. Unlike a mint julep which is better muddled (basically beaten with a stick like a mortar and pestle), the basil is best blended. I used your basic basil, but this might be interesting with cinnamon or lemon basil, which I've seen at farmer's markets. I probably wouldn't recommend thai basil for this. As for adding alcohol to this, it's much better leaving it virgin, since the sweet herby flavors are fairly subtle. I tried it with some good bourbon, and it ruined both tastes.
June 01, 2004
Food News
Alton's got a new ride, and went on a diet, sort of.
Soy sauce recipe risks being erased "Tsang Heh Kwan, 74, makes real soy sauce, the dark, viscous kind the great Chinese chefs used thousands of years ago, known as "black gold" when Dutch merchants brought it to the kitchens of Sun King Louis XIV in late 17th century Versailles. "
The Carbohydrate Manifesto
I have some restaurant reviews I need to post. Here's some food porn as a tease - Seared Foie Gras with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce, at Fuse.