Archives for the 'Pop Culture' Category
In Movies: The Day California Wine Grew Up
The Judgment of Paris is coming to film this summer. No, it’s got nothing to do with the heiress or with the city’s notoriously unfriendly residents. It’s all about the wine.
The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 or the “Judgment of Paris” was a wine competition organized in Paris in 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, in which French judges did blind tasting of top-quality chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon wines from France and from California. California wines rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world’s best wines. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win.
The movie, which comes out in the U.S. this August, is titled Bottle Shock. Though Variety digs it, the movie features a mostly underwhelming ensemble cast–which worked for Sideways, that other wine movie, but not for many other films. I’m guessing it won’t work for audiences, especially as there also lurks a competing movie about the same events (and packed with more star power), titled Judgment of Paris. Journalists hate when that happens.
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.)
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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
Chewing the Fat on Lard’s Resurgence
A week or so ago fellow Crispirator Jerry Brito was lamenting how hard it was to track down a good handful of lard. I recall him saying he went to some extremes (only slightly short of doing the killing and rendering himself) to track down a portion for cooking. I’m sure we’ll hit on that in the podcast later tonight.
Anyways, on Monday night, I had a pretty lengthy discussion about lard with a classmate while chomping on very good pizza (paid for by my ping-pong shark of a food & drug professor, who since he reads this blog–and brought up that he used to eat that little piece of lard in canned beans–gets another thanks here) at Comet. Our conversation took place in the context of a class outing to discuss In Defense of Food, in which Michael Pollan mentions the joy of lard (at least as compared to his aversion to trans fats) more than a handful of times.
Well, today I came across a great piece on the (seemingly Midwestern) revival of–guess what?–artisan lard!
In Kansas City, Kan., Bichelmeyer Meats… renders lard once a week, generally on a Wednesday or Thursday, according to Jim Bichelmeyer, who owns the business with his brother, Joe, and nephew Matt.
It’s a relatively simple process: The back fat and any other trimmings from freshly slaughtered hogs are coarsely ground and put into a small, steam-jacketed kettle, which works like a stove-top double-boiler. The key is to keep the fat off any heat source. The process is called wet rendering.
It cooks in the kettle four to five hours, stirred every 15 to 20 minutes, until the solids melt into a liquid and the cracklings - the bits of skin and meat - rise to the top.
The cracklings are skimmed off and sold; the lard, once it has cooled enough to handle, is strained and poured into 5-, 10- and 26-pound containers. It is pure lard. Unlike lard found on supermarket shelves, the Bichelmeyer’s product contains no preservatives or additives.
[…]
He sells 300 to 400 pounds of lard a week, and there’s a waiting list for the cracklings.
More here. Pick up your lard from any of the sellers mentioned in the piece or here. Another good recent piece by the lard article author, KC Star food writer Lauren Chapin, here.
In case you’re wondering, I haven’t cooked with lard since seventh-grade home ec class. I plan to rectify that pronto.
Would-Be Prezzes and Supporters: Eaters All
Today’s NYT has a four-piece feature on how potential-voter dining habits correlate to support for a certain presidential candidate. Slate has kindly boiled down those four pieces into a paragraph:
[T]he NYT points out that each side is carefully analyzing how their potential supporters eat in order to target them as specifically as possible. The paper’s dining section compiled an interesting list of the overarching themes that can help identify supporters. For example, Clinton’s like fruit-filled cookies, while Obama’s, strangely enough, “intensely dislike vanilla wafers.” McCain voters are partial to Hardee’s, while Clinton’s like Church’s Fried Chicken, and Obama’s skewed toward Panera Bread. How about snacks? Clinton’s supporters prefer Newman’s Own Pretzels, McCain’s like Sun Chips, and Obama’s are partial toward Kettle Chips. Of course, exceptions are plentiful but these comparisons are more than a little addictive.
In other food news from the presidential trail, Cindy McCain is a recipe thief, Hillary drinks Canadian whisky, and Barack Obama’s mom was a one-time food stamp recipient.
All this political food talk reminds me that a friend (not Monica Lewinsky) once suggested a certain bodily fluid of Bill Clinton’s probably “tastes like BBQ sauce.”
Any Excuse to Mention ‘Tapeheads’ is a Good One
Roscoe’s, the famed LA-area fried chicken and waffles chain, and Rosscoe’s, a new standalone fried chicken and waffles outlet in Chicago, reached a settlement today that will force the latter to change its name. More on that here.
This calls for multimedia! Sadly, the great Nike commercial featuring George Gervin and Chris Webber–comparing hoops to chicken and waffles–isn’t online. Fortunately, though, the great fake Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles ad from the cult film Tapeheads is:
Note the 18 second mark, where the ad’s star flashes the Crispy logo.
Rock Stars Cooking in a Restaurant? How is This Not a Television Show?
Former Hard Rock Hotel restaurant exec Lou Carrier is opening 220-seat steakhouse Bokx 109 in Newton, a wealthy Boston suburb, in early summer. (Like all restaurants, its opening was delayed.) It’ll feature loud rock music** and cooking appearances by celebrity rock chefs. The Boston Herald reports:
“We’re doing a very hip, high-end, sophisticated, modern American steakhouse,” Carrier said.
“We’re trying to add an element of energy and flare that might not be present in the market right now,” he said. “It’s going to be a music-centric environment, and there’s going to be a good sense of attitude.”
Interactive dining is key to his plans. A six-seat chef’s table with an eight-burner cook-top and ovens will be front and center in the dining room. In addition to demonstrations, the likes of Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, KC from KC and the Sunshine Band, Sammy Hagar, Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Joan Jett will cook alongside Percoco, formerly executive chef at the Loews Hotel in Vegas.
“You’ll never know when you’re walking in who might be here,” Carrier said.
A Cape native, Carrier formed personal bonds with many celebrities while working as executive VP of the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas, developing Hard Rock’s San Diego hotel and opening its Orlando property as general manager.
It was at the Orlando Hard Rock Hotel that he created The Kitchen, from which he’s drawing some inspiration for Bokx. Guest rockers would visit The Kitchen, don chef coats with their names (which later would be framed and hung on a wall in the restaurant) and start cooking with Percoco. The sessions were often recorded for record label promos, the artists’ management companies, hotel guests’ viewing or visiting TV shows.
Visiting TV shows? That’s nice and all, but what’s going to make this place memorable–prior to its inevitable and fabulous and litigious flameout, of course–is rock stars. Cooking. Burning themselves. Burning food. Dealing with re-fires. And angry customers.
I bet Joan Jett is the only one of those listed above with the cojones to hang in the kitchen. She ain’t taking shit. But Dee Snyder? His makeup will streak with tears. Mark McGrath is already widely reviled as the world’s biggest wuss. He’ll make that culinary wonder duo Dweezil & Lisa look like those angry thrash-metal snacks in Aqua Teen Hunger for Colon Movie Film for Theaters. And Sammy Hagar? Have you been to Cabo Wabo? (Sadly, I have.)
C’mon, MTV! Christ! Here’s your chance to hop on the food TV bandwagon, for chrissakes, and give us some memorable programming for the first time in years. Please. I’m begging.
**The music will be played over Klipsch speakers. I note that because I’ve got a set, and they’ve been the nicest thing I’ve owned for nearly two decades. Klipsch rocks.
Glorious Foodie News as DC Baseball Goes BYOF
With baseball season set to kick off in the coming days, there’s no time like the present for teams to debut great new foods.
My adopted hometown Washington Nationals — I’ve adopted the town, not the team, which is moving into a new (taxpayer financed = boo!) stadium — aren’t just upping their food quality.
They’re also shockingly inviting ballpark diners to go the byof route.
There’s a big change awaiting baseball fans at the Washington Nationals new ballpark after years at RFK Stadium. The new Nationals Park is going to allow fans to bring their own food.
So if you don’t feel like paying $6.50 for a chili dog or $5 for fries, you won’t have to sneak in your own snack.
[…]
Fans will also be allowed to bring in water bottles that are less than a liter in size.
Holy crap! This is a baseball & food-lover’s dream! This might be the greatest sports food news… ever. Seriously. I could bring a backpack filled with hot dogs and a water bottle filled with white wine or beer. This is so great it makes the world’s greatest burger seem pedestrian.
Amy Winehouse Dines While Looking Like Hell, Again
You probably know by now never to look at Amy Winehouse while you’re eating. But by all means possible make sure not to look her when she’s eating.
More on this modern-day Medusa here and here. Crispy previously on the dining Ms. Winehouse here.
Easters Peeps Show
Thanks to Bill for the snap. WaPo Peeps contest here. All things Peeps here. Official Peeps site here.
Restaurant Alleged to Have Taped Tom Brady, Other Celebs
Phillippe, an Upper East Side Chinese restaurant in NYC, apparently has been secretly videotaping diners in a purportedly private dining room, reports the NY Post.
[E]mployees at the Chinese eatery have screened the videos after the stars leave, says an insider. “They’ve watched tape of Diddy and Sienna Miller hanging out and Tom Brady and Gisele [Bundchen] hooking up. They get a kick out of it, they laugh and comment on people,” said our source….”
Ouch. More here. While a spokesman says the taping takes place for security reasons — got to keep the wines in the back room safe! — denies the tapes are even kept on site, and says no staff has access to them, it should go without saying that allegations like these won’t fill up tables.
Phillippe has a video segment at its website that allows you to meet the owners in the same wine room — and watch a few non-celeb diners eat.
Any NFL fan knows this is not Tom Brady’s first appearance in a videotape scandal, what with the New England Patriots taping brouhaha last year, which The Onion brilliantly parodied with the photo above.
This Week in Bacon
I have always secretly believed that all good things come from the mind of a Des Moines insurance salesman. Via Coldmud and the Des Moines Register, I learn that Brooks Reynolds, an insurance salesman from Des Moines, has proven me correct.
[W]hen Brooks Reynolds was asked the question Des Moines always asks itself - “What does Des Moines need?” - this is what he said:
“A festival for bacon.”
Thus, the High Life Lounge will hold its first Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival March 1, National Pig Day, attracting bacon lovers from California and Arizona along with a Pittsburgh bacon blogger.
To Reynolds, it was no throwaway line. For years, he has gathered his buddies for a summer weekend pilgrimage to a Spirit Lake cabin for “all things bacon,” toting along 15 pounds.
When they returned, their wives and girlfriends complained their very skin smelled like bacon grease.
“Why not bring it to the masses?” asked Reynolds, 32, a Des Moines insurance salesman.
You’ve still got a couple of weeks to figure out how to get yourself to Iowa to take part in the March 1 National Bacon Day festivities at the highly rated High Life Lounge. $30 gets you a bunch of bacon-themed goodies, cheap beer, and a “bacon lecture”. There’s even a bacon-eating contest.
Barring a trip to Iowa — as winter, distance, and Iowa’s very Iowa-ness do for me — you can find more locally bacon-friendly things to engage in at Serious Eats, which had a fantastic rundown of all the things to eat and places to eat them at for last year’s National Bacon Day.
National Chip Week Launches
Though the Belgians and Dutch do a better job with chips (aka French fries) — we like them crispy, you know — the Brits love their chips.
This week is National Chip Week in England. To celebrate, the British Potato Council’s Love Chips website has gobs of fun facts, games, and a bit of history. The site also features a series of classic films re-created by the spuds themselves. As the Sun reports (because reporting on short films starring French fries is, you know, part of being a crack journalist):
Chip-lovers can watch Jack and Rose sail the ‘Titanchip’, Goose and Maverick’s dogfight in ‘Top Chip’, James Bond face the ketchup laser in ‘Chipfinger’ and Sally get naughty in ‘When Sally Got Saucy’.
Though that all sounds a bit too reminiscent of Be Kind Rewind (which I haven’t seen because I’m sure it sucks), Titanchip (I never saw the original, either, because I’m sure it also sucks) is quite gripping. Especially with some malt vinegar.
Tomorrow is Super Duper Fat Pancake Mardi Day
Sure, tomorrow is Super Tuesday. (Or Super Duper Tuesday, even.)
But before it ever was that, it was Fat Tuesday, also known in mainly British circles as Pancake Tuesday. The Times of London has a few celeb chef pancake recipes, most of which would surely form a lead weight in your stomach as you draw a bead on the primaries’ exit polls. I’ll probably stick with the simplest beer-pancakes recipe ever.
Frothy former Sen. Rick Santorum suggests Super Duper Pancake Tuesday as he endorses Mitt Romney at the Pancake Pantry in Tenn. here.
Whales: Big, Cute, Lovable, Edible
If you listen to pint-sized actre-vist Hayden Panettiere**, whaling is all about cruelty, mercury, and Osama bin Laden. But if you choose to shape your views with the input of people who are not 18 years old, and who are not best known for wearing a form-fitting cheerleader’s outfit, you might learn that people eat whales because whale taste falls somewhere between excellent and passable.
You might also be interested to learn that sixty-five years ago, Time reported whale steaks (which were being reintroduced into the U.S., presumably to broaden the American diet during wartime) were set to sell at about 35¢ a pound in the U.S.
Norwegian recipe for whale steaks with herbs here. In lieu of buying illegal whale meat online, check out Carvel’s Fudgie the Whale MySpace page here. Amazon’s Japanese shop sells no whale meat, but does sell a Happy Whale mobile. Celebrate the late Swedish pop group Whale here.
**Panettiere’s opposition to whaling at least seems more rational and genuine than that of this Aussie columnist, who would “eat the sucker” abroad but doesn’t want it sold at home under some convoluted theory of cultural imperialism. His basic argument is that it’s wrong to impose his moral views about food on the world when he’s abroad — which is probably right — but he’s fine with telling his countrymen that they can’t eat what he’s just eaten abroad.
Thank Heavens This Show Didn’t ‘Stay’
Today is the four-year-and-fifteen-day anniversary of the debut of the worst food TV show of all time. Let’s all celebrate Dweezil & Lisa — or at least relish in the fact that it’s no longer airing. Here’s a sample episode highlight:
Lisa and Dweezil visit with maestro guitar maker Bob Taylor who also can create his famous shovel burgers.
No kidding? Bob knows how to make his own famous burger recipe? Who knew? (Well, besides Bob).
The Food Network seems to have rightly purged all links to the show from its website, but a Google site search does the trick. The Today Show let Dwee-sa near a hot stove here.
