Kekkimari Damacy
Kekkimari Damacy
Originally uploaded by The Singing Leaf.
If you're a fan of the video game Katamari Damacy, you'll certainly appreciate the thought behind this cake.
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September 30, 2005
Take it slow this weekend
NYC Enjoy a slow Sunday at Slow Food USA's Urban Harvest & New Amsterdam Market this Sunday, Octoober 2nd. New Amsterdam Market will be held from 10:00am to 2:00pm at the New York City Municipal Building (1 Centre Street in Lower Manhattan); and The Spirits of the Region, a three hour unlimited tasting of the region’s best handcrafted wines, beers, and ciders at the Institute for Culinary Education, (50 West 23d Street.) from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Both venues will showcase artisanal and sustainable products from New York City and its hinterlands, including New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. This vast region corresponds closely to the lands that were once claimed by the Dutch as the New Netherlands, with New Amsterdam as its capital.
Spicy Tees to bring relief
FoodGoods, a company that creates t-shirts for foodies, will donate all proceeds from the sale of its “MAY THE SPICE BE WITH YOU” shirt to the Share our Strength Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. Designed specially by FoodGoods and New Orleans chef Susan Spicer of Bayona Restaurant, the tee celebrates Chef Spicer’s eclectic global cuisine to bring hunger relief to those are in need after Hurricane Katrina. Link: Share our Strength's Hurricane Relief and Recovery Fund.
September 20, 2005
Pizza Fork
I didn't realize I needed a pizza fork. Described as a "time saver." Wow.
Beef sommeliers
This seems a bit silly: "...The U.S. beef sommelier graduates, with training from the U.S. Meat Export Federation, will be goodwill ambassadors for U.S. beef and recognized experts, who can reassure consumers that there is no safer beef than U.S. beef and accurately inform them about the attributes of individual U.S. beef cuts and dishes."
Almond Drops
Almond Drops
Originally uploaded by phil_g.
Mom's Recipes: scanned and shared on Flickr. An excellent idea.
September 18, 2005
cupcake art cars
I'm a big fan of airconditioning, indoor plumbing and not seeing hippies & geeks naked, so yeah, I don't get excited over Burning Man at all, but how cute are these cupcake art cars from this year's sojourn into the desert?
September 16, 2005
One chef's tryout at Google
SF One chef's tryout at Google: "I was shown to the kitchen to begin my food preparation for the following day's preliminary battle. It's a large, well-equipped kitchen with dozens of cooks. The food prepared here is a benefit for Google employees, whose average age is 25. Unlike a traditional restaurant where stringent food and labor costs dictate the menu, this is a chef's Disneyland where food is born of inspiration and pure love of cooking..." [thanks, Kathryn!]
NYC Queens Restaurant Week
NYC The Second Annual Queens Restaurant Week is September 19th to 23rd, 2005. Participating restaurants will offer 3-course dinners for $19.64 (in celebration of the 1964 World's Fair). [via bexn]
pizza farm
Illinois pizza farm draws tourists. "R" Pizza Farm is "a half-acre circular plot divided up like the slices of a huge pizza. Each of the eight wedges represents something used on a pizza - from tomatoes to peppers to herbs including rosemary and sage. Three goats represent milk and Cleo the cow is symbolic of beef. Seven penned-in pigs illustrate pork." They do tours from April through October, teaching people about farming and organic growing, and wrap by serving pizza made mostly with ingredients from the farm.
world's coolest frozen pop contest
The 10 Winners of Nestle Ice Cream's World's Coolest Frozen Pop Contest. I want to taste the PB&J Pop: "The
sweet, gooey, kid-friendly flavor of a PB&J sandwich moves from the
lunchbox to the frozen pop. The tart flavor of raspberry jam sandwiched
between two layers of smooth, creamy peanut butter definitely makes
this snack a chilly classic."
churrascaria
Best. Description. Of. A. Churrascaria. Ever. I had a dream once about a hot guy taking me to a churrascaria on a dinner date. Can you say knockout combination? I'm totally cute and still single, people, so if you know an attractive carnivore, we could make this happen.
mcdonald's diet works!
Merab Morgan ate at McDonald's for 90 days and lost 37 pounds. She saw Morgan Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me, but responded to it differently than most people: “Its not like the devil makes you do it,” the Henderson, N.C. woman said in response to those who blame fast food chains for their health problems. “I’ve been overweight for years, and I knew what I was doing was wrong whenever I ate the wrong thing or too much.” She lost weight by watching her calories and eating in moderation; she says she was able to order most of her favorite items except fries. Good job!
gas prices affect pizza
Is pizza going to cost more as gas prices climb? "Domino’s has already helped its drivers, who provide their own cars and gas, offset the impact of rising pump prices by increasing the amount it pays them per delivery," but they might have to raise their prices if gas stays this expensive in the long term. And did you know that Domino's drivers cover 9 million miles in a week just in the US? That's a lot of driving in the suburbs!
September 15, 2005
burger joint vs shake shack
After reading this New Yorker piece on the Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridian, our friends over at Eater maintain that the result of a Shake Shack/Burger Joint cage match would be "too close to call." I love both places very much (see: my Shake Shack review from just after they opened) but felt that wasn't true and decided to rank them on certain things; here are the results:
Location, Location, Location
Everyone hates Midtown, even (especially?) the people that live and work there, although Burger Joint is one of the few reasons to ever visit voluntarily. The Shake Shack is in the Flatiron District, and easily reachable by subway.
Advantage: Shake Shack
Seating & Ambience
The Shake Shack has more seats and is in a pretty enough park, but the Burger Joint booths are cozily dingy, and I appreciate how weird it is to have such a place right off the extremely austere Parker Meridien lobby. I'd bring a date or tourists to Burger Joint; I'd bring a group of friends to Shake Shack.
Advantage: Tie
Capriciousness of Weather
There are days in the spring and the fall when it's too cold or too wet to go to Shake Shack, and many days in the summer when all you want to do in the extreme heat or humidity is eat in a really cold room. And then, you know, there's that whole thing of the Shake Shack not being around at all in the winter.
Advantage: Burger Joint
Alcohol
You can drink beer indoors at Burger Joint or outdoors at Shake Shack, depends on what sort of environment you prefer. It's easier to BYOB at Shake Shack or to stagger to a neighborhood bar for harder liquor when you're done eating.
Advantage: Shake Shack
Quality of Desserts
The Burger Joint's milkshakes are tasty enough but their brownies are nasty, whereas the Shake Shack has more than a dozen delicious custards and concretes so you can polish your meal off properly.
Advantage: Shake Shack
Quality of Fries
Shake Shack's fries are good (especially with cheese! but that's true of most everything), Burger Joint's are okay but clearly an afterthought.
Advantage: Shake Shack
Quality of Service
Burger Joint lines are much shorter, but Shake Shack service far more pleasant.
Advantage: Shake Shack
Quality of Burger
I like the Shake Shack burger a lot and I appreciate the customizability very much, but for my money, the Burger Joint burger is far juicier.
Advantage: Burger Joint
Conclusion
The Shake Shack has clearly got a lot going for it, I tend to eat there thrice as often, and is clearly the better restaurant overall, but when asked where the best burger in Manhattan* is, my reply will always be: Burger Joint. It's not a close call at all.
Agree? Disagree? As always, drop me an email or let me know in the comments!
Burger Joint
Le Parker Meridien
118 W. 57th St.
(212) 708-7414
Subway: F to 57th St.
Shake Shack
Madison Square Park
Madison Ave & 23rd Street
(212) 889-6600
Subway: N, R, W, 6, F & V to 23rd St
*Want the best burger in all of New York City? Well, you'll have to go to Peter Luger in Brooklyn for that. Well worth the trip!
September 14, 2005
kosher pushcart
NYC The Pushcart That God Blessed. Brauch Yehuda Ganz's kosher pushcart on Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights might well be the only kosher pushcart in the entire borough. "He opened the business, Kwik Kosher, nine weeks ago, after learning
that several kosher restaurants in the neighborhood had recently closed
because they could no longer afford to pay their rising rents, leaving
local Hasidim with few places to eat. "If they forget to bring lunch,"
Mr. Ganz said of his fellow Hasidim, "they have to go the whole day
without food."
handle your habaneros
How to safely make hot pepper oil with habaneros. Teresa Nielsen Hayden is such a rock star to me. (What's a habanero, you ask? Wikipedia to the rescue!)
liquid nitrogen ice cream
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream. "If you are anything like me, then you love ice cream. There is nothing like making your own, but the problem is, it just takes too long to freeze and some things just don't like to freeze. A while ago Scientific American [April, 1994 pgs. 66-71] had an article call Cooking with Chemistry or something along those lines. One of the recipes was one for using Liquid Nitrogen to make Ice Cream. Great!" This site is circa 1996 but still going strong. Make sure to watch the video!
September 12, 2005
chocolate breakfast
Tecumseh, Michigan's own Chocolate Vault has "all kinds of chocolate molded food related gifts and favors for the chocolate lover!". Chocolate molded cell phones and cameras are pretty neat, I must admit, but it surely comes as no surprise to you readers that my heart belongs to their chocolate breakfast items. I mean, sunnyside-up egg and strips of bacon? Come on:
tiny donuts
how to make: tiny donuts. I stumbled onto this page yesterday afternoon and couldn't get it out of my head until I ended up buying two donuts after dinner to have for lunch later today. Damn donuts! Why must you always ensorcel me so?
deepfriedmarsbars
If you're interested in video games at all then you know about the controversial Hot Coffee mod for last year's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but did you know that 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City had a food-related cheat code too? Entering DEEPFRIEDMARSBARS in the PC version of the game makes your character fatter. [thanks dirtynerdluv]
If you don't have GTA: VC or a PC to run it on but live in New York, you can get fatter on deep-fried Mars Bars, Twix, Twinkies or Hostess Cherry Pies at Park Slope's own Chip Shop, just take the F to 4th Ave/9th St. Mmmm, deep-fried candy.
September 09, 2005
Foodieview is a recipe search engine
Foodieview is awfully close to the ultimate recipe search engine. It crawls big recipe sites like Epicurious, Food Network, Recipezaar, AllRecipes, plus "some notable food bloggers." I'd like to see more food bloggers in the results (I didn't run across any a couple of quick searches I did), but overall it seems like a great beginning.
Crouching tiger, hidden donkey
A restaurant in northeastern China that advertised illegal tiger meat dishes was found instead to be selling donkey flesh — marinated in tiger urine. The restaurant was fined even though donkey meat is widely consumed and not illegal in this region of China. The nearby tiger reserve has sold dead tigers and been involved in similar controversies in the past, which makes you wonder if the donkey flesh was in fact tiger. Also, exactly how does one obtain tiger urine?
katrina relief events
These are but two well-organized nation-wide food-related events to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, if you know of any more please feel free to leave a comment or drop us an email!
Save New Orleans Cocktail Hour!
Monday, September 12
5:00 - 7:00 pm
"Bar and restaurant owners shake up New Orleans' classic cocktails to directly benefit New Orleans food and beverage industry workers who are out of work and sorely in need of funds for rebuilding their lives. During this special event New Orleans classics will be offered at participating bars for $10 per drink. Receipts from the Save New Orleans Cocktail Hour will be donated to a special tax-deductible relief fund established by the Museum of the American Cocktail."
There are a fair number of New York establishments participating, like Upper West Side stalwart Jacques-Imo's, which is throwing its own fundraiser on September 14. Good food, open bar, live entertainment and an auction, 100% of proceeds go towards hurricane relief. Advance tickets are $30 or $40 at the door.
(San Francisco's only got one place participating? What's up with that?)
Restaurants for Relief
Tuesday, September 27
OpenTable.com is organizing restaurants to donate a portion of their dinner sales from the night to Share our Strength's Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. List of participating restaurants will be up on September 12. Work at or own a restaurant that might like to join, please sign up!
September 08, 2005
Job Bank for restaurant workers displaced by Katrina
More good things from SFA: They've partnered with CIRA (the Council of Independent Restaurants) and the James Beard Foundation to build a job bank for displaced restaurant workers.
Camp Bacon
Speaking of bacon, the Southern Foodways Alliance first day camp is Camp Bacon, September 16th in Louisville, Kentucky. The menu (pdf) will make your mouth water. Proceeds from the event benefit the SFA Oral History Initiative. [via GC]
The Bacon Show
All bacon, all the time: The Bacon Show is a weblog all about bacon. "One bacon recipe per day, every day, forever." [via KIPlog]
domino's steak pizza
Domino's added steak pizza to their menus on Tuesday. "The new Steak Fanatic Pizza combines Angus steak, roasted onions and mushrooms with a special sauce and a mix of American and provolone cheeses. A medium Fanatic pizza costs $9.99 with the option of an extra $2-portion of steak." Living in NYC, with a pizza place three blocks away—at most—at all times, I make fun of people who order from Domino's, but clearly I will have to be a hypocrite and try this. And you better believe I'm getting that extra $2-portion!
burrito soulmate
Find your Burrito Soulmate. Good Mexican (not to mention Tex-Mex) food in New York is nigh impossible to find* so many of us happily make do at Chipotle, and that was before we knew Chipotle might bring us love: "There are 40,960 ways to get your meal at Chipotle. The person who gets the exact same meal as you is your Burrito Soulmate." [via monoki.com]
* Recommendations not only welcome, but highly encouraged and appreciated. Please email to getinmybelly (at) cheesedip.com.
chowhound guide to sf, put to the test
SF Dr. Strangebook, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Chowhound's Guide. SF Weekly's Meredith Brody takes a Chowhound's Guide to the SF Bay Area-inspired crawl around her city and is pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoys the food she discovers.
As she said, "If you love to eat (or, as the site is headed, For Those Who Live to Eat!), and reside in one of the geographic areas covered by chowhound.com's message boards, you'd be a fool not to check in to learn about what's going on in your local world of eating." Now that you know: don't be a fool!
September 07, 2005
soup lines, coming soon
NYC Soup Man Al Yegeneh (a.k.a. Seinfeld's Soup Nazi) is opening a store—but on 42nd and Madison instead of his old location on West 55th, which according to his site he's looking to lease out until 2019. Also: he's changed store names on us, from Soup Kitchen International to Soup Man, to capitalize on his fame and tie in with his upcoming heat-n-serve soup line, which should be in groceries this month. Anyone seen or tried the soups? Let us know!
fired over pizza
Jim Garrison of Colorado was fired for eating two pepperoni slices left over from a meeting. His co-workers had planned on taking the six slices left over home, which he didn't know; when they found out he'd eaten a third of their booty, they reported him to management and he was fired over it a month later. Who'd want to work at an office with such losers anyway? (Also: anyone know if there's pizza actually worth getting fired over in Colorado?)
halloween candy suggestions
Ask MeFi: Most awesomest Halloween candy?
It's only September so I kind of feel like this dude is overthinking the whole thing, but if I was filthy rich I would give out Kinder Eggs or Ritter Sport. Since I don't, if I do give out candy this year, I'll just go to a Japanese supermarket and buy lots and lots of Super Lemon.
What Halloween candy do you like to give out? What Halloween candy do you like to receive? Comments open for this post.
food critic
From The Onion: Food Critic Tears Radish Canapés With Salmon Mousse A New Asshole. I wish they'd give Bernard Haberle a column, it would be spectacular reading week after week. I'm tired of reading restaurant reviews so glossy that I can't trust them, so snarky reviews —even of places that don't exist—would be fantastic.
September 06, 2005
September 03, 2005
pizza vending machines
Wonder Pizza vending machines. "The innovative machine holds, cooks and serves 9” whole pizza pies in just 2 minutes. There are 3 different pizzas available in each machine at one time. Delicious Connie’s Pizza of Chicago is featured in all WonderPizza Kiosks." Imported from Italy, I wonder if they'll be successful in the US? I want to say they won't appear in New York given the pizza joints on every other corner, but then again against all logic Domino's seems to be doing well here, so. [via Linklog]
September 02, 2005
death by caffeine
Death by Caffeine. "How much of your favorite caffeinated drink would it take to kill you?" 270.99 cans of Coca-Cola Classic in my case which is far less cans than I drink in a year—and I drink much less now than I did as a kid, when I would guzzle two liters a day no problem! A little terrifying, no?
how do you make popcorn?
AskMefi: How do you make popcorn? "Specifically old fashioned, non microwave stove top popcorn. I really want great salty buttered popcorn that doesn't come from a bag." Lots of great recipes and tips here, really impressive, but I must confess that there is a very special place in my heart for Orville Redenbacher's Ultimate Butter Microwave Popcorn. (And yes, the last time I had a physical, I had low cholesterol.)
are you a supertaster?
Are You A Supertaster? "Highly sensitive tasters tend to have more food dislikes and perceive bitter tastes in many different foods; they are more likely to ask for sauce and dressings on the side, according to research done by Virginia Utermohlen, MD, of Cornell University. Moderately sensitive tasters tend to think about food in the most positive way of all three groups; chefs are most likely to fall into this category. Nontasters (who can't detect PROP but can detect other tastes) are the most likely of all three groups to prefer food that is intensely sweet." According to the article, one-third of Americans are supertasters!
From the Supertasters entry on Wikipedia: "Although not directly harmful, being a supertaster is not without some risk. A tendency to dislike certain generally beneficial foods such as green vegetables and grapefruit can make supertasters face additional risk for the conditions these foods prevent. On the positive side, however, supertasters generally do not enjoy alcohol or coffee, and thus are at considerably less risk of conditions like alcoholism and caffeine addiction." Hmm, I don't like vegetables, most alcohol and coffee. I wonder if I'm one?
September 01, 2005
Extra-virgin olive oil as anti-inflammatory
Extra-virgin olive oil "acts like a painkiller." Researchers have found that 50g of extra-virgin olive oil is equivalent to about a tenth of a dose of ibuprofen.
