To Your Health: 100-Year-Old Schlitz Ad
This Week in Bacon
A Burger King customer recently ordered extra bacon–none of it from a sheep–on their Whopper with Cheese Value Meal.
Sixty slices of it.
And then a Bacon Double Melt Value Meal for, I guess, dessert.
Yikes.
Via AboutColonBlank.
Highway Wrecks Spill Spoilt Dog Food, Gatorade (With Bonus Gatorade Coverage!)
In possibly the most noteworthy highway food spillage since a trucker lost his load of spoiled dog food on Route 222 in Maxatawny, Pa. last month, a trucker this morning wrecked and spilled a shipment of Gatorade all over U.S. 27 outside Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Today’s wreck is, in turn, likely the most resoundingly negative Gatorade spillage since the Gatorade shower that may have led to the death of then-Long Beach State football coach George Allen in 1990.
(Photo via Gatorade-book author Darren Rovell’s “unauthorized” Gatorade blog.)
Crispy Podcast Episode 4
In the fourth episode of our weekly podcast, we discuss the news about food shortages, Burger King’s ill-fated Foie Gras Burger, PETA’s synthetic meat initiative, miracle fruit, Duckathlon IV, the alleged dangers of competitive eating, and this week in bacon - LA bans bacon dogs.
BTW, that’s me with the meat is murder t-shirt recording the podcast. If you ever want to watch and listen to us live as we record the show, just follow me on Twitter (@jerrybrito) and I will tweet when we’re ‘on the air’ and provide a URL. We have a chat room going while we record and we take listener questions and comments. Pretty nerdy, but pretty fun. Live versions of past shows are here.
We hope you enjoy this episode and that you’ll tell us what you think. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show for free. You can grab the RSS feed or click here to subscribe in iTunes. That way you’ll get it every week.
Sooo SoCal: The Pomme Bébé Organic Baby Food Bar
Should any baby food be permitted more than one accented letter in a word? Most people’s knee-jerk reaction to Pomme Bébé is probably something like giggle snort snark egad.
But I’ve got nothing against an organic baby food bar–even one called a “bébé-bar™” that boasts a French-trained chef who churns out gold-standard strained veggies. Here’s chef Laurent Brazier, in today’s OC Register, talking about cooking for the small and toothless:
“I liked the idea of making really good, 100 percent organic food for babies,” says Brazier, whose experience ranges from working in 2- and 3-star Michelin restaurants in France, to being chef-owner of a Zagat-rated restaurant in Laguna Beach.
Sure it’s totally silly and indulgent, but then most of what I like to eat is, too. You too, right?
Check out Pomme Bébé online, or stroll on down to their Newport Beach, Ca. baby bar.
Readers, What Should $50 Get Me at Dean & DeLuca?
My parents got me a $50 Dean & DeLuca gift card for, um, Christmas. I know, I know. I still have money on similar Christmas cards from Borders and LL Bean, too. Seems they’re all burning the slowest of holes in my pocket.
My question is, dear reader, what the hell should I buy with my D&D card? Do you have a favorite food item there? Something you’ve always meant to try but never have?
Should I get a Wagyu burger, dabble instead in some exotic spice, or pick up a conversation piece like coffee oil? Go the decadent route? Or just hit their cafe? I’m at a loss.
Leave your suggestion about which edible that costs around $50 (give or take) I should pick up either in comments or by shooting me an email. I’ll buy the best suggestion, and let you know how it worked out.
Dangers of Competitive Eating in Scientists’ Heads, Not Eaters’ Stomachs
“Doctors worry that extreme eaters may be endangering their health,” warns the LA Times subhead. And then this:
The sport’s rising status has some doctors shaking their heads: Such behavior could potentially cause medical problems, they say, such as an esophageal tear or flaccid stomachs. No such mishaps have yet been reported.
Sport or not, I say carry on.
Papa John’s Cavalier Attitude to Cost Pizza Giant Tons of Dough
Papa John’s, the giant national pizza chain, celebrated Cinco de Mayo by allowing customers to “[s]pell out Mexico with your choice of Papa John’s superior-quality toppings: Mushrooms, EXtra cheese, spicy Italian sausage, grilled Chicken and Onion.” I wonder how that went.
Unfortunately for them, Papa John’s also celebrated the day with a mea culpa in which company will virtually give away pizzas to an entire city.
Papa John’s Pizza issued an apology to Cleveland and the Cavaliers for making T-shirts with LeBron James’ number and the word “crybaby” under it.
To apologize, Papa John’s will sell Cleveland residents a large, one-topping pizza for 23 cents on Thursday. The 23 is an homage to James’ jersey number. The company also will donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.
The pizza chain’s T-shirts were featured during the Cavs’ games against the Wizards on Friday in Washington. Wizards fans taunted the Cavs, who won the playoff series that night in Game 6.
The shirts started after James complained about hard fouls, and Wizards center Brendan Haywood called him a crybaby.
More on the story from Jon Eick (of the great food-humor blog So Good), who broke it, here. Cleveland’s anger prior to the free-pizza deal here.
Update: In case you want to see what a 2-hour wait outside a Papa John’s looks like.
P.B.R.I.P.
D’Artagnan’s Duckathlon IV: Best. Invite. Ever.
I had the otherworldly good fortune to attend yesterday’s uber-competitive, uber-fun, invite-only Duckathlon, sponsored (as always) by the great folks at D’Artagnan. The event took place this year at and around the gorgeous Chelsea Market in New York City’s Meatpacking District. From the press invite:
D’Artagnan’s Duckathlon is a gastronomic obstacle course in which teams from top restaurants in the New York area are sent on an action-packed tour of the Meatpacking District’s hottest haunts - 20 stops in total. At each stop they earn points conquering feats such as: the blind wine and ham tasting, guessing the weight of a baby lamb, Chuck-a-Duck (don’t worry—they’re rubber!), mystery organ meat identifying, and, of course, racing with flippers! Returning from last year’s event will be the bodacious bra hunt at Hogs and Heifers.
Congrats to Le Cercle Rouge, which took home first prize, and to the talented kids from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Mgmt. (pictured), who rocked the best-dressed contest.
Some of my personal highlights:
One thing I didn’t really do, surprisingly, was eat. But I made up for that in good wine and beer.
I have a piece on the event that will be out soon. I’ll also have a duckload of photos up soon. In the meantime, check out this slideshow straight from the duck’s mouth.
Winehouse Fried
Amy Winehouse might not be ready to cut a record, but she’s always ready to chow.
Crispy sharing too much about Ms. Winehouse’s eating habits here.
Snap via The Superficial.
This Week in Bacon
You’ve got your beef stock, your chicken stock, your veggie stock, and your veal stock. Anyone with a bit of skill can make those. Then there’s your demi-glace. Anyone with a couple of days can make that.
But what about bacon stock or base?
Thankfully, the folks at Minor’s–who can turn anything into a base–have you covered with Minor’s Bacon Base.
Minor’s Bacon Base is a savory bacon paste made with USDA inspected bacon and ham. Southern-style seasoning at your fingertips! Add to black-eyed peas, beans, rice, casseroles, quiche, salad dressings, potato salad, fettuccini carbonara, scramble eggs and so much more.
Buy here.
Gardening at Fight
War? Food shortages? Turning regular Joes into farmers?
If it sounds like an odd mix of yesterday and today, that’s because it is. I came across several WWII-era U.S. government propaganda posters about conserving resources–including cooking grease, to be used for bombmaking–after toiling away (actually, just walking into, really) my own victory garden in DC earlier today. More rah-rah images here.
I’ll have some photos of my victory garden up once things I intend to grow have replaced all that deeply rooted stuff that grows on its own.
Why I Love Globalization, Reason #477
I can sit in front of my computer in Washington, DC and read this in the Taipei Times:
“I want to give customers in Taiwan the real taste, the taste [of the Mexican food] I grew up with,” says the Canadian-born [restaurateur Eddy] Gonzalez, whose parents are Mexican immigrants.
The review also includes mention of 7-Eleven and Starbucks.
Thomas Keller on Charlie Rose
NYT Makes All Your Sandwishes Come True
Where to find the best sandwich in NYC? The NYT has you covered like… like… like bread around PB&J.
The ground rules: A sandwich had to be composed as such; mere food on bread did not count. (This left out, for example, pan de lomo saltado, a popular Peruvian stir-fry of beef, onions and peppers laced with soy sauce, typically served with French fries, but piled onto a crusty roll for sandwich purposes.)
Burgers and wraps were out of the running, as was the universe of empanadas, samosas, patties and arepas; the same went for any sandwich that had to be eaten inside a restaurant or was otherwise unavailable for travel to a picnic, a ballgame or a playground.
The winners? Find out for yourself, but be warned that a great New York sandwich need not be from New York (city or state).
A Johnny Depp Tip Buys a Lot of Cheddar
In addition to his acting chops–having starred in the food-named cult hit What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and the food-themed demi-chick-flick Chocolat–and swashbuckling good looks, Johnny Depp knows how to dine out. While on location in Wisconsin, Depp dropped a few grand on dinner in the city of Appleton, Wis.
Downtown Appleton’s economy got an economic boost from the presence of the movie’s big star.
Johnny Depp stayed at the Copperleaf Hotel for four nights, ate at Flanagan’s Wine Review and Black & Tan, and had a drink at the DejaVu Martini Lounge.
The night at Flanagan’s, on April 16, started at 9 p.m. Depp and nine others had dinner ($300), wines from the reserve list at $300 to $500 per bottle ($2,350) and left a generous tip ($1,500).
[…]
Depp, by the way, ordered the flat iron steak, medium well.
That’s the right choice for steak, no doubt, but such a tender cut should never be cooked above medium, in my opinion.
More here. If Depp isn’t a Crispy reader yet, he’s just a smart guy generally for avoiding the taco pizza at Butch’s in Appleton.
[Via TMZ.com]
Miracle Fruit Turns Sour Sweet, Blogger into Star
Friend and DC food & drink guru Jacob Grier has become something of a go-to guy when the press needs its fix of miracle fruit, a mysterious berry with the power to turn diners’ palates upside down. Jacob attended a miracle fruit party about a year ago, where he investigated the rumor the
…unusual fruit possesses an amazing property. Eating one temporarily alters one’s sense of taste, making sour, bitter foods taste sweet and delicious. People in West Africa, native home to miracle fruit, have reportedely used it for centuries to make their diets more palatable.
It’s also a literally forbidden fruit. Attempts to market it and its active protein miraculin to diabetics were mysteriously thwarted by the FDA in the 1970s, relegating miracle fruit to underground cult status.
[…]
The fruit itself is mostly tasteless, though slightly sweet. The pit is surrounded by a weird, slick layer of pulp. It’s not bad to eat, but one would get bored with it pretty quickly. The true test came next, as we again sampled the lime. The result? Utter astonishment. The very same lime we’d tried moments before suddenly tasted like it had been dipped in sugar. All the stinging acidity was gone, leaving only the pleasing citrus and an amazing sensation of sweetness that left us craving more.
Indeed, it’s true. I’ve eaten miracle fruit with Jacob, followed by foods I know to be sour tasting richly sweet.
Well, Jacob’s love of the fruit led him to blog about it a ton, which led to a bunch of blog coverage, which in turn led to a front-page article on another of his tasting parties in the Wall Street Journal. Just yesterday, a recent tasting party Jacob put together appeared on BBC Radio, alongside this excellent story on the fruit’s positively wacky effect and history. Check out Jacob’s wrap-up of yesterday’s coverage here.
UK BK Flirts with £85 Foie Burger
Best done in the voice of that movie voiceover guy…
In a land ruled by a queen… an upstart king tries to lure customers with a golden goose… against the wishes of a ninny prince… and PETA… and some other, lesser-known group of anti-humans…
This summer, it’s Burger King: Home of the Foie-pper Gras-pper .
Coming soon to a theater theatre near you.
Bad Meatloaf, Good Meatloaf
If there’s anything more certain to give me a quick bout of indigestion while having my Morning Joe than the AT&T commercial featuring d-bag fake rocker Meatloaf, I don’t know what it is. (Unless, of course, it’s Joe Scarborough’s fellow travelers Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist.)
Unprecedented overanalysis and misplaced acclaim for the Meatloaf ad here. Recent Gourmet mag meatloaf recipe–featuring bacon as both a filler and a garnish–here.
