Archives for 2008
The Enchanted Tiki Boom
The weekend Journal has a great article by cocktail connoiseur Eric Felten on the revival of tiki bars:
With the much-repeated words “worst financial crisis since the Great Depression” marking the moment, it seems appropriate to visit that peculiarly American escape — the tiki bar — itself born in the depths of the Depression.
Market meltdowns and bailout ballyhoo aside, the timing of the article couldn’t be better after a summer of exploring regional tiki bars with my research assistants — not an easy feat in New England once you move beyond Boston. And pegged as it is to a San Francisco tiki crawl happening this weekend, space and structure prevent the story from detailing the cross-country thriving of tiki, from Brooklyn to Chicago to Los Angeles. But it does entertain the question of why:
The tiki-craze may have reached its zenith in the late ’50s and early ’60s, but there’s a new allure to the escape it promises. What are we escaping now? The financial woes may be the best excuse of the moment, but tiki provides an escape somewhat more fundamental, a vacation from the everyday, even if today’s bears little resemblance to the everyday of the ’50s.
Felten suggests that in wired America, tiki is a vacation from technology, a TARDIS to a Stone Age of topless hula girls and mysterious mixology. But I think he betrays his point and arrives at a closer truth when he writes:
There’s good tiki and bad tiki. Anything sleek and postmodern — say, a steel-and-glass totem — is bad tiki. Anything you can find in the luau section of your local party store — think cheap plastic leis and cardboard cutout hula girls — is bad tiki. I’m also of the opinion that “camp” makes for bad tiki. Ours is an irony-soaked culture, and camp is just a gaudy variety of the old, knowing wink-and-a-nod. Campy tiki provides no escape at all.
Tiki, like belief in the Great Pumpkin, must above all be done sincerely. It is “a vacation from the everyday,” and in a world of slack, that means a refuge from cynicism and poseurs and T-shirts with slogans on them. I’ve been to more chic New York bars and restaurants than I can remember and I always think to myself, God — would it kill these people to drop the act and have fun?
Genuine tiki and its aficionados love it not because of its kitsch or even the great drinks but because they — the bartenders, restaurant owners, totem carvers, mug makers and collectors — feel something we’re not supposed to feel amongst the snark and snideness: emotion. It’s the passion that’s retro. Or as tiki blogger Humuhumu puts it another way:
The author, Eric Felten, even mentions something I’ve long held to be true — that while yesterday’s PolyPop escapism was about eschewing formality, today’s escapism is more about eschewing informality.
Mahalo.
This Week in Bacon
Is it bacon, or is it art? Yes.
The Paolo Maria Deanesi Gallery in Rovereto, Italy is featuring a new exhibition by the hyper-realist artist Simone Racheli.
He’s created several artifacts, like the chair at right, made to look as if they were wrapped in bacon.
More on Racheli’s latest here. The original Bacon artist here.
[Via Inventorspot.]
For a Limited Time Only: Colicchio Back in the Kitchen
Tom Colicchio announced yesterday morning his plans to open a new restaurant, Tom: Tuesday Dinner (although he is open to suggestions on the name):
The restaurant will probably serve about 80 diners a month, which is almost certain to make this one of the toughest tickets in town. Reservations will be taken by telephone six weeks in advance, and the price of the meal ($150 to $250 depending on the menu) will have to be prepaid with a credit card. Menus will only be announced about a week before each meal; they will be posted on a website, tomtuesdaydinner.com.
[...]
He said that he had “no plan” to keep the restaurant going for more than a year, but hinted that he was taking a wait-and-see attitude.
So, not only do I have to plan my dinner six weeks in advance (which, let’s be serious, will probably end up being more because it’s Tom Colicchio), I have to pay for it in advance and I won’t have any idea what I paid for until a week before I eat it (at which point I can’t change my mind, because, well, I already paid for it). And why is he only going to be open for a year? This isn’t a concert tour – it’s a restaurant . . .
I have a suggestion for a name . . . how about Tom: Get Off Your High Horse and Open a Real Restaurant That Serves People Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday too. I’ll give him the weekend off. He’s busy.
Will I still try to get a reservation at his place? Heck yea . . . his food is delicious. But, I still think that this idea is a little ridiculous.
Mack of All Trades
With Baylen about to be pinched for running strange meats across state lines, the WSJ suggests he may want to keester a fish before heading to federal prison:
When Larry Levine helped prepare divorce papers for a client a few years ago, he got paid in mackerel. Once the case ended, he says, “I had a stack of macks.”
Mr. Levine and his client were prisoners in California’s Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex. Like other federal inmates around the country, they found a can of mackerel — the “mack” in prison lingo — was the standard currency.
“It’s the coin of the realm,” says Mark Bailey, who paid Mr. Levine in fish.
And just like certain assets topping our government’s Xmas wish list, mackerel is valuable precisely because of its undesirability:
Unlike those more expensive delicacies, former prisoners say, the mack is a good stand-in for the greenback because each can (or pouch) costs about $1 and few — other than weight-lifters craving protein — want to eat it.
But piscine procurement in the penitentiary is not as easy as throwing an M-80 into a school of jumping baitfish. It seems the free market is discouraged on the inside almost as much as it is out here:
The Bureau of Prisons views any bartering among prisoners as fishy. “We are aware that inmates attempt to trade amongst themselves items that are purchased from the commissary,” says bureau spokeswoman Felicia Ponce in an email. She says guards respond by limiting the amount of goods prisoners can stockpile. Those who are caught bartering can end up in the “Special Housing Unit” — an isolation area also known as the “hole” — and could lose credit they get for good behavior.
Makes sense. The dampening of a trade economy never leads to privation and violence, right?
The Journal has the full story here.
I Made Mooseburgers, Sarah Palin!
I have an article up today at Culture 11, which has been called “a more right-oriented version of Slate,” on the quest to get to know the real Sarah Palin by seeking out, making, and eating mooseburgers.
My quest was fruitless for a time, and eventually successful thanks to the wonder that is Craigslist, and the kindness of strangers. A snippet:
In desperation, I placed an ad on Craigslist in Vermont under the “barter” section. I figured if moose meat isn’t legal to sell, maybe I could instead legally barter for it instead. My pitch:
Need Moose Meat ASAP (Washington, DC)
I am a DC writer and will trade you fame (I’ll mention you in my article) in exchange for enough edible moose meat to make me some burgers. I need it ASAP. Moose meat is illegal to sell, so I cannot offer you any money.
In less than 24 hours, I received a response from hunter extraordinaire Phyllis Campbell, who asked for my address so she could FedEx me some moose meat.
[...]
Campbell described the seven-hour ordeal of hauling the behemoth to her truck in a detailed letter she sent me along with the meat. She paints a scene filled with brawny imagery — power winches, a marine battery, chains, a 16-foot trailer, and a Ford F150.
But she also told me that “part of the joy of hunting is sharing what I get.”
And now Campbell’s hard work and joy were in my grateful hands, ready to meet the fire.
I discuss the recipe I developed in the piece, and hashed it out below.
So what did I learn about Palin? Read the article and find out.
Mooseburger Recipe
Mooseburger Recipe
(Makes 3-4 mooseburger patties.)
Preheat broiler.
1 lb. moose meat (sirloin)
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tbsp. fresh ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup chopped fresh green onion
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp. honey
½ tsp. maple syrup
Hamburger buns, toasted
Ketchup to taste
Chips (Store-brand Cheetos)
Beer (Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale does the trick)
1. Combine garlic, onion, and parsley in medium bowl
2. Cube meat, and place in food processor. Add salt, pepper, honey,
and maple syrup.
3. Blitz for 30-45 seconds.
4. Add moose to mixture in bowl; mix well.
5. Place on broiling tray and cook to desired doneness.
6. Remove from oven. Let rest 4-5 minutes.
7. Serve.
Great balls of fryer
Hi everybody, I’m Jacob Grier. Let’s talk about balls!
Oh dear, I’m sorry. I always do this. This is why I don’t get invited to parties. Let’s start over, ok?
I’m Jacob and I’m one of the new contributors here at Crispy on the Outside. Like Baylen, I’m a longtime barista, a food and drink lover, and a constant critic of nanny state measures that prevent us from eating, imbibing, and smoking the things we enjoy. I also have an odd fascination with Rocky Mountain oysters. The foodies among you probably know that “oyster” is a euphemism here — we’re really talking about deep fried bull testicles.
My curiosity about this Colorado delicacy was piqued by an article about Neuticles, the prosthetic testes developed for neutered dogs to keep them from feeling emasculated at the dog park. Buoyed by success with canines, inventor Gregg A. Miller later ventured into cats, horses, bulls, and even humans. It’s the bull ones that surprised me with their massive length of 5.75 inches (just $649 if you want a pair). Though I grew up in Texas and could smell the pasture from my high school tennis court, I didn’t have much familiarity with the back end of a bull. And at the risk of sounding immodest, I didn’t expect to be so outclassed.
Once, Nightmares of Foie Gras Danced in My Head
Foie gras is yummy. It is not, though, modern. Nor is it consumed en masse. Nor does it make me want to dance. Yet…
Adam Linder has been awarded the Place prize for dance 2008, it was announced last night. The Australian-born choreographer’s duet Foie Gras, which he performed with Lorena Randi, saw off competition from four other finalists to win the £25,000 prize.
[...]
Linder’s winning work, Foie Gras, offers a critique of modern behaviours of mass consumption. “The piece deals with a climate of mass material and entertainment consumption - and how it exacerbates our perception of ourselves within society,” explained Linder. “I was looking at the behavioural and psychological repercussions of mass stimulus - the repercussions in interpersonal relationships.”
Also known as, I was throwing some crap against the wall and hoping it would stick. That’s not what foie gras is about either.
The Guardian’s got you covered on the prize and resulting controversy over the Place prize going to this (as opposed to other) dance dreck.
Help us choose our wedding menu
My fiancé Kathleen and I are getting married in May and we’re now at the part of the wedding planning where we’re choosing the menu. The cake was an easy choice, if difficult to nail down. As it turned out, our wedding date was determined in large part by Charm City Cake’s availability. We have a “design appointment” with them in December, and I’ll be sure to blog how that process goes.
Now we’re looking at the dinner menu and we think we’re going with Main Event Caterers since they’re one of the few who don’t just give you the usual rubber chicken and instead customize a menu to your tastes. You can even give them your own recipes and they’ll make the dish for a 100. We’ve largely picked out most of the options, but I wanted to tap into the crowdsourcing power of the Crispy audience for some advice.
In the appetizer department, should we go with A) Two-Bite Black Angus Burgers with truffled caramelized maui onions; B) Crispy Man-n-Cheese Orbs with tomato jam; or C) Cubanitos: slow roasted pork and cured ham, melted swiss cheese, slather of mustard and dill pickles on grilled crusty Cuban bread?
And when it comes to a pork main course option, should we go with oven roasted pork tenderloin stuffed with madeira macerated fruits and served with a cherry port reduction, or pan seared pork tenderloin scallops served with a malta and soy reduction? Oh, and my dear vegetarian friends (if there are any who read this blog), would you rather eat some sort of pasta or grilled eggplant with roasted vegetables, shiitake mushrooms, tomato lavender sauce, and kamut-pine nut salad?
Post a comment and let me know what you think!
Man Marries Woman of Dreams, Eats Cheeseburger of Dreams in Same Day
Who needs a wedding cake at their wedding when they can have a GIANT cheeseburger? No one really eats the cake at weddings anyways right?
Well, Tom and Kerry Watts decided to forgo the traditional cake and opt for a 42-lb cheeseburger instead:
Mr. Watts says, “Not only did I get to marry the woman of my dreams but I also got to have the burger of my dreams in the same day.”
Sigh . . . isn’t love beautiful? Easy on the romance there, tiger. Good thing Tom and Kerry decided to love each other in sickness and in health, because, looking at McDonald’s nutrition facts – 100 quarter pounders with cheese would equal about 51,000 calories, my friends (of course, if the burger to meat to cheese ratio is the same).
If cheeseburger was for dessert, I wonder what they served for dinner . . . chicken nuggets and fries perhaps?
