Archives for April 2008
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.
Crispy Podcast Episode 3
In this special edition of the podcast, we talk with Capt. Kevin Adams, an Army JAG officer stationed in Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, about what soldiers in the Army eat. This is a fascinating episode that you don’t want to miss. He tell us about the base’s dining facilities that offer less-than-comforting comfort foods, MREs, and the many fast food options available. Notable among these is a the trailer inside of which is a detailed replica of a real Starbucks. Kevin goes in to detail about the foods the Army provides for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and also the rules of eating and staying in shape.
If you have questions or comments for Kevin, post them in the comments section of this post and I will forward them to him (he can’t regularly access the site) and I’ll post his responses as well.
Once again, pardon our audio. We’ve got everything set up perfectly now, but Kevin’s roommate was watching TV and you can hear it a little bit in the background (we weren’t about to tell a guy in war zone that he couldn’t watch his favorites shows because we were recording a podcast). 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.
The Woman Who Gives Appleton Estate Rum Its Good Taste
If you had to guess whom was the artist behind the Appleton rum blend, you might not guess a fiftysomething woman, right? I wouldn’t. But we’d both be wrong.
Meet Joy Spence, Master Blender and former high school chemistry teacher, who’s currently on tour where the water drains a different way. She’s breaking barriers with every tasty sip, as she describes in a New Zealand Herald interview published today.
How did you become a master rum blender?
I joined the company as a chemist, and had to work very closely with the master blender - who looks at the sensory side of blending - and I had to look at the chemical process. I became very fascinated with the whole idea so I went into training for 17 years, then took over the role of master blender when he retired.
So you don’t just chuck some Bacardi in with the Captain Morgan and see what comes out?
Ah, no.
[…]
Is the position of master blender an unusual one for a woman?
Very strange. It’s a male-dominated profession. I’m the first female in this industry to be a master blender. I am proud. And I didn’t have much difficulty being accepted because they knew me as a chemist and I was being tutored by the master blender. I thought I would be in a lab with beakers and test-tubes, not doing this.
More here. Read Mrs. Spence’s bio at Appleton Estate. Also worthwhile is this previous brief interview.
This Week in Bacon
I was happy to see the maple bacon lolly get some play in The Onion this week, but the real bacon news comes courtesy of everyone’s favorite libertarian game show host, Drew Carey, at Reason.
Watch as Drew travels through L.A., where he uncovers the truth behind the illicit trade in… bacon hot dogs.
Crispy first brought you the plight of L.A.’s bacon dog vendors a couple of months back.
Venezuelan Food Policy is to Whine About Shortages it Creates
It’s difficult being a food blogger these days without becoming a food crisis blogger, frankly. I’m doing my best to avoid that. Still, the burgeoning food problems here and abroad are worth pointing out from time to time. And I think this comparative note illustrates how free societies handle rising food prices compared with how the same problems have such greater impact less free and unfree societies:
“This food crisis is the biggest demonstration of the historic failure of the capitalist model,” Chavez told Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage during a summit in Caracas.
[…]
Venezuela has struggled with sporadic shortages that often make it difficult to find staples such as milk, sugar and beef. Chavez has blamed local businesses, saying they hoard products. But critics blame government-imposed price controls, which they say make it difficult for some businesses to turn a profit.
Venezuela continues to import most of the food it consumes despite a nationwide agrarian reform initiative launched by Chavez more than six years ago.
Communist Cuba also imports most of its food — much of it coming from the United States.
So much for the “historic failure of the capitalist model,” eh?
And so while I can mock a place like California–which claims to be the Land of Wine and Food at precisely the time when various levels of government in the state seem to be doing their best to outlaw both food and alcohol–I’m also damn happy I live in a country that generally recognizes my right to grow, buy, and sell all sorts of good food. Not that things here don’t need fixing.
Bananas, Breakfast, and Baby Boys
What food an expectant mother eats–and when she eats it–may play a role in what gender her kids are, a new report claims.
Having a hearty appetite, eating potassium-rich foods including bananas, and not skipping breakfast all seemed to raise the odds of having a boy.
The British research is billed as the first in humans to show a link between a woman’s diet and whether she has a boy or girl.
It is not proof, but it fits with evidence from test tube fertilization that male embryos thrive best with longer exposure to nutrient-rich lab cultures, said Dr. Tarun Jain. He is a fertility specialist at University of Illinois at Chicago who wasn’t involved in the study.
It just might be that it takes more nutrients to build boys than girls, he said.
More here. Potassium and breakfast, eh? In related news, China’s boy-loving government ordered all pregnant women to eat at least a dozen bananas for breakfast every morning.
Also, if you want a boy, you might want to stay away from too too much radiation.
Small-Time Big Eating
There’s nothing sexier than a guy gorging himself on six pounds of custard.
It’s Saturday afternoon at BR Frozen Custard & Sweets, a small store tucked behind a Woodbridge strip mall. Ian “The Invader” Hickman takes swigs of Powerade, preparing to down as many pounds of frozen vanilla custard as he can in six minutes (”In these contests you sweat, you put your body though a lot of stress,” Hickman said. “It’s like running a marathon, but different.”)
Hickman, 25, of Herndon, is one of four professional eaters about to compete for a grand prize of $250. He’s not worried about his competition, nor is he jittery about the build up during the kids and amateur competitions before the main event.
He’s worried about farting. With so much dairy, a custard-eating contest could quickly turn into that classic scene from “Blazing Saddles.” You know the one—all those cowboys sitting around the campfire, eating beans and, well, you get the idea.
He’s had gastrointestinal problems before, eating rice curry in Japan on Nippon Television last December.
OK, so there are lots of things sexier than this guy. Or any guy. Farting. While gorging on custard. But it’s still pretty cool. Contest results at the BR Frozen Custard & Sweets site here.
Obama’s Half-Eaten Waffle Briefly Auctioned on eBay
Whereas John Kerry might be famous as a flip flopper, Barack Obama is making a name for himself as a bit of a waffler. A portion of waffle Obama failed to finish during a recent diner stop in Pennsylvania was briefly opened up for bidding on eBay. And it seems the waffle has a bit of a backstory.
The waffle itself has taken on importance among the news media because Obama cited it as a reason for not responding to questions about former President Jimmy Carter’s trip to the middle east.
“Senator, did you hear about Jimmy Carter’s trip. He said he could get Hamas to negotiate?” a reporter asked Obama Monday as he ate his waffle, sausage and orange juice with Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who ordered pancakes.
Obama responded: “Why is it that like I can’t just eat my waffle?”
“I’m just asking..” the reporter said.
“I’m just gonna eat my waffle right now,” Obama said.
The waffle, for its part, apparently did not hire an agent during its fourteen-minute flirtation with fame.
The Sydney Morning Herald adds to the story with this:
eBay Australia spokesman Daniel Feiler said perishable food items were only allowed to be sold if they were preserved or vacuum sealed.
He said Britney Spears’ half-eaten sandwiches and chewing gum had been sold on the site previously, as had various food items that had been inadvertently moulded into bizarre or recognisable shapes.
“The famous Virgin Mary cheese sandwich was actually a preserved sandwich; they vacuum packed it,” Feiler said.
“There was a Nutri-Grain that sold in Australia a few years ago that looked like ET - and I think it sold for $3000.”
Alas, the Obama waffle is no longer for sale on eBay, reports Seattle P-I blogger Monica Guzman.
PETA Acts Not Dumb
Yesterday PETA launched a $1 million contest to convince some mad scientist to come up with a way to create meat in a lab setting that “would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten”–what it’s calling “in vitro meat.” PETA claims the contest is a way to advance its so-called anti-cruelty agenda, stop harming the environment, etc.
I think it’s really just an admission by the group of what carnivores and omnivores have always known: meat tastes good. So good that it seems the overwhelming majority of manufactured vegetarian food–plant life that didn’t grow from the ground (or ocean)–serves little more than to provide calories that mimic the taste of meat.
Alas, I could go on about how awful PETA really is, but I must instead respond to a vegan friend, who wrote me this morning, regarding the PETA contest, with this challenge:
I dare you to put up a positive blog post one of these days about vegetarians or vegans and something they do or eat.
So here goes: this contest is a great idea. Bravo to PETA. This is exactly the sort of thing groups like PETA should have been doing all along. Not terrorizing or suing or intimidating what should be free choices made by peace-loving meat eaters. But putting their money where their breasts mouths are in order to effect voluntary consumer change. All while helping vegetarians eat better tasting food.
One final note… I wonder if the chicken breast cutlet photo PETA used to announce the contest comes from chickens killed specifically for its campaign, or whether they nabbed the photo from a provider like Corbis. Just wondering.
04/20/09
So it didn’t occur to me how great it would be if I were to write a completely serious piece on pairing food with 4/20 until yesterday–a day late. That’s when I read this in the Chicago Tribune:
One 39-year-old Chicago professional, who didn’t want his named used for obvious reasons, said he’s all set to host his fourth annual 420 party.
“We serve pizza rolls, Lit’l Smokies, all kinds of candy bars—the munchies-food I guess you’d expect,” he said.
So I’m totally on the ball for next year. Reminder to self.
Read my 2004 interview with then-High Times editor (formerly one of People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people) John Buffalo Mailer here.
Food Rationing Hits U.S.!
That’s the alarmist message in today’s normally austere, conservative New York Sun. What’s the deal?
Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.
At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.
“Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”
The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.
Well, that’s a chuckle. It’s hardly rationing just because you can’t buy a 20-lb. bag of food. It’s not like you can’t go into any grocer in America and buy a smaller bag of Uncle Ben’s. It’s just that bulk, discount food is probably going to be harder to find for the time being.
As for the hoarding stories, let me add my own anecdotal evidence. About three years ago, I bought one of those 20-lb. bags of Royal basmati rice (pictured) at Costco. I never got around to opening it, and I still have it. Thus, I’m apparently a hoarder! Except that I could still buy it right now at Costco for next to nothing, which makes my rice–like the Sun piece–a little silly, and a little stale.
Thanks to Jessica for the tip.
Update: Sam’s Club is now limiting customer purchases to four 20-lb. bags of rice. “On average,” the company notes in a press release explaining the move, “a typical Sam’s Club Business Member does not buy more than 80 pounds of rice in one visit.”
World’s 50 Best Restaurants Announced Today
Today’s the day when the list (well, one of them) of the top 100 restaurants in the world is halved to fifty, with a winner chosen from that group. San Pellegrino will, for the seventh year in a row, dish out its World’s 50 Best Restaurants award at a London ceremony later today.
Vying once again for the top spot will be Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli, in Roses on the Costa Brava in Spain - last year’s winner - and Heston Blumenthal’s the Fat Duck, in Bray, Berkshire, the runner-up for the past two years and winner of the award for Best Restaurant in 2005.
The U.S. contenders are Alinea, Charlie Trotter’s, Chez Panisse, Daniel, Jean Georges, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon (NYC and Las Vegas), Le Bernardin, Masa, Nobu, Per Se, and The French Laundry.
The selection criteria are Euro-slanted, with North America having only one judge, Beard foundation award winner Steve Dolinsky (whose name the folks at Pellegrino mis-spell) and Europe having eleven, but the criteria seem designed to reduce that bias at least a bit.
I’ll report back on the winners later tonight or tomorrow.
Update: It’s El Bulli. Again. The French Laundry won highest-rated U.S. restaurant, coming in fifth. Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous outlet came in at #13. Fergus Henderson won highest climber as his St. John climbed eighteen spots to #16. Only four of the restaurants in the top 50 hail from countries that are not the U.S. or located in Europe–Australia (2), Brazil, South Africa. None are from Asia.
Can a Bacon Mag Be Far Off?
Booze mags abound. Imbibe. Modern Drunkard. Stuff about wine. Food mags are dime a dozen, too. But never has there been a magazine solely devoted to meat. Until now, reports the Washington Post.
…Meatpaper is not the kind of practical magazine that’s likely to publish a story called “10 Hot New BBQ Tips for Sizzlin’ Summer Cookouts!!” It’s the kind of arty, cheeky, ironic magazine that just published a story called “Sweat Sock: The Other White Meat.”
Meatpaper isn’t really about meat, it’s about “the idea of meat,” the editors explained in the first issue last fall. “Half the people who pick up Meatpaper assume it’s some kind of vegan hate letter addressed to their salami sandwich. The other half wonder if we’re subsidized by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. That’s how we know we’re on to something.”
I would follow up that quote by noting that they are on to something, but I shouldn’t, unless I put it in quotes, since that’s what the Post wrote. More here. Meatpaper online (meatweb?) here.
Urbanite Baltimore calls the most recent issue of Meatpaper “a smorgasbord of carnivorous delights” here.
Chicago Baseball Stadiums Move Beyond ‘Puny’ Footlong
As we already knew, and as Wednesday’s Top Chef served once more to remind us, Chicago sports fans can eat. As if the Fridge asked for manna, and heaven rained it down, both of the area’s Major League Baseball teams are now serving two-foot-long sandwiches:
At Wrigley Field, a two-foot-long Italian beef feeds two to four people and costs $18. Fans can find it at the Italian Hot Spot concession stand in the left field concourse.
Not to be outdone, U.S. Cellular Field is touting its $14 Doubleheader Dog, a 24-inch hot dog, as the first of its kind in the major leagues. It’s sold in the club level Southside Grill.
[…]
Also new at Wrigley this season:
• Tallgrass Beef hamburgers. The beef, named for Chicago broadcaster and rancher Bill Kurtis’ company, is from grass-fed cattle and all the rage among eco-conscious restaurants. The burgers are part of the Chef’s Harvest Table buffet in the Stadium Club.
• “Throwback” menu. Available in the suites, the menu offers comfort foods such as meatloaf with mashed potatoes, fried chicken and watermelon slices.
Get the lowdown on pretty much every ballpark in America, foodwise and otherwise, here.
More from Crispy on baseball food here.
Boston Bans Big Booze Bottles
Boston is trying to become what South Carolina was until recently–home of small bottles of booze. Boston’s not looking to shrink things down to mini-bottle size, but the city’s licensing board chair is on the hunt against full bottles of booze and, it seems, booze in general.
“This is totally prohibited and it won’t be tolerated,” [Boston Licensing Board Chairman Daniel F.] Pokaski said. “It’s not going to happen in Boston. It’s just wrong. It forces alcohol consumption.”
[…]
Pokaski said [selling alcohol in large bottles] violates so-called “happy hour” laws that ban serving more than two drinks at a time to a patron.
[…]
“We’re not New York and we’re not South Beach,” he said. “The city of Boston has a lot more to offer than just getting people inebriated. If all they can offer their clientele is just swilling down alcohol, then perhaps they shouldn’t be in the business.”
Hear that New York and Miami? Boston isn’t like you: towns full of low-class, drunkards. No, Boston is civilized, classy, and intellectual, and… hey, wait just a minute!
I’m not sure what bizarro Boston Chairman Pokanski lives in. The Boston I grew up just outside is hardly bereft of places that offer their clientele little more than the opportunity to drink alcohol. Bars, Daniel. They’re called bars. And Bostonians like them as much as the next person–maybe more.
More here. Bostonians, New Yorkers, and South Beachians, let Pokanski know what you think of him and his neo-Prohibitionist, d-bag ways here.
