Photograph from orionoir on Flickr Julian Dibbel opines on how blogs relate to the fantastical Wunderkammer, a metaphor that can also be applied to food blogs (and busy kitchen cupboards): The genealogy of Web logs points not to the world of letters but to the early history of museums—to the “cabinet of wonders,” or Wunderkammer, that marked the scientific landscape of Renaissance modernity: a random collection of strange, compelling objects, typically compiled and owned by a learned, well-off gentleman. A set of ostrich feathers, a few rare shells, a South Pacific coral carving, a mummified mermaid—the Wunderkammer mingled fact and legend promiscuously... [via The Last Appetite]... More

Only a (withering) review on Taquitos.net convinces me that this wasn't some Twilight Zone snack encounter. Has anyone else tried, or liked, these? More

Photograph by Su-Lin on Flickr London-based food blogger and Serious Eats community member Su-Lin shares her experience at last weekend's L'Aterlier de Chefs' macaron class on her blog, Tamarind and Thyme. Considering how prefect the macarons came out, it seems like a good class. She includes some macaron-making tips, such as banging the trays with the piped-out batter to get rid of the air bubbles and letting the batter dry out before putting the trays into the oven. I did neither of these things when I made my first batch of slightly malformed macarons, which explains a lot. Learn how to make your own macarons with our macaron recipe. And if you don't know what this "macaron" thing is,... More

The term, that is, not the actual establishments. From Nicholas Lander of the Financial Times: Over the past few weeks, as I have watched the most recent openings, read the latest press releases and talked to restaurateurs, I have been increasingly aware that 2008 may see the end of nothing other than the restaurant. By this, I hasten to add, I mean not the restaurant as an institution, but the name. Restaurateurs appear to be doing everything to avoid calling their new openings restaurants. [...]Various reasons explain this. One is that the word "restaurant" is associated with expense. Another is the inexorable march towards the “café society” we all seem so comfortable in, where our working lives dictate that... More

Photograph from Beer and Rap on Flickr SergDun of Grocery Eats completely goes off on the new Popeyes chicken biscuit sandwich. Warning: He curses up a storm in this post, so it's NSFW (if you have prying eyes reading your screen) and not suitable for delicate sensibilities. I know I'm not much better because I f****** paid them to do it but still this is a waste. Yeah it's good but they are charging you a service that could be completed with a plastic knife. I think it actually looks pretty good. Popeyes has great fried chicken and great biscuits. What's not to love? (Unless, of course, there's a mark-up for the assembly.) Related When on the Jersey Turnpike,... More

Theo, a self-proclaimed five-and-a-half-year-old (at the prime age when half ages matter), has trouble pronouncing "agar" and needs a step stool to see over the counter, but he can cook from the Alinea cookbook (previously reviewed on Serious Eats). His brother James (nine-years-old) isn't professionally trained either, but doesn't fret over a recipe with pheasant, gray shallots, and burning oak leaves. While some home cooks have expressed frustration with the unapproachable quality of the Alinea cookbook ("it took seven hours and produced eight bites of food") these two munchkins have proved them wrong. It doesn't hurt that their father is Nick Kokonas, the business partner of Grant Achatz, Alinea's head chef. Both videos on both sides of the argument,... More

Grand Junction Free Press Straight from Colorado comes a cookie with a bang. The Grand Junction Free Press was first to hip us onto these 9-mm-shaped sugar cookie made by Mary Lincoln, owner of the Slice O' Life Bakery in Palisade. Though Lincoln informed me I was behind the times and she was doing turkey-shaped cookies when I called her earlier this week, she promised that next week the guns would be loaded with butter and sugar and ready to go for $2 a pop. Signs in Lincoln's store read, "No background checks" and “No waiting period." While Lincoln shaped a piece of cardboard to make her cookie cutter, we found an actual cookie cutter for sale ($12.95, from... More

What's Up With Eggo? "Eggos are one of those things, like blue raspberry flavored stuff, that taste like their color: They taste 'yellow.'" —redzerostar Salt Explained "Oh thank god for this thread. I have 8 different kinds of salts and my best friend thinks that I have lost my mind however is see I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!" —GretchinF Gourmet White Castle Hamburger Stuffing Is Just a Bad Idea "If you added a pound of butter to this mess it could have come from Paula Deen." —RichardCrystal Mystery Meat Regularly Turning Up in Park; No One Knows Why "Wasting meat is a crime. Arrest them." —JerzeeTomato Take Thanksgiving to the Next Level with a Modular Pecan Pie-Cosahedron "Now... More

Either legend or fact has it that the first written record of s'mores dates back to 1927. But chances are, they did it the old-fashioned way back in the Roaring Twenties—with a twig and a roaring fire. Thank goodness for modern technology. This handy little gadget microwaves two perfect s'mores in 30 seconds. A water tank heats them through evenly (no more gushy marshmallow and cold, hard chocolate), and the arms hold the top graham cracker in place so there's no slip and slide. And it's dishwasher safe; although, chances are, you'll still get pretty messy.... More

Photographs from Paris-Beijing Gallery Beijing-based artist Ju Duoqi uses vegetables to recreate famous pieces of art. Guardian.co.uk has a video showing the artist in action. View more of her artwork at Paris-Beijing Photo Gallery. Related Carl Warner's Worlds of Food Art Sausage Art in Russia Have a Set of Carving Knives? Time to Play with Your Food!... More

"There are things that, right now, we can't afford; there are other things that we can't afford to lose." Photograph from Marcelo Alves on Flickr It seems to me that France is devolving into America. I say devolving because, over the last however many centuries, the French have silently declared themselves the possessors of a superior culture, and we Americans have unreluctantly concurred. But now it seems that French culture is trotting doggedly on the heels of America. First Coca-Cola, then the smoking ban, and now the recession. The New York Times quotes café owner Bernard Picolet as claiming, "The way of life has changed. The French are no longer eating and drinking like the French. They are eating and... More

Yo. Don't mess with me and my rolling pin shirt. As if you haven't done enough rolling this weekend. But it might make a good holiday gift. It's $14.95 from buyolympia.com. [via The Kitchn]... More

As we dig deeper and entrench ourselves in the recession, sales of such "basic" foodstuffs as Campbell's soup, Spam, and Kraft mac and cheese have seen an upswing. But for some, even those can be a luxury. But ad agencies Leo Burnett/Chicago and Starcom remind Chicago shoppers that "Food shouldn't be a luxury." To drive donations to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, news ads picture such pantry staples as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, soup, and broccoli posing for beauty shots with coiffed and coutured models.... More

A Touch of French: Cold winter nights are often spent craving the perfect soup, and Blake Royer's French onion soup with star anise certainly is a candidate. Year of the Chicken: Ok, there is no chicken in the Chinese Zodiac, but with this Chinese five-spice lacquered chicken maybe there should be. The Other Green Dish: Tis the season for Brussels sprouts, a vegetable that haunts many a child's nightmares. Kristen Swensson's golden-crusted Brussels sprouts just might be the ticket to change their minds. Pumpkin Pie No More: Nicole of Pinch My Salt blog tried something new with her squash—she made grilled pumpkin in sweet and sour sauce. Quick Cornbread: Sick of dinner rolls? Nick Kindelsperger shares his easy recipe... More

Words by Ed Levine | Looking for a good post-Turkey Day laugh? Want to impress your wine geek friends at the same time? Well, do we have a book giveaway for you this holiday weekend. David Kamp (The United States of Arugula) and David Lynch (the sommelier, wine writer, and co-author of Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy) have joined forces to write The Wine Snob's Dictionary. The blurb on the cover tells all: "A nicely structured, lightly acidic (guide) to the baffling world of winespeak, from A to Z." We're giving away five (5) copies of this extremely amusing book. You won't want to be without it this holiday season. To win, tell us your favorite ridiculous winespeak... More

Paul Simon enumerates 50 ways to leave a lover, but CakeSpy offers 50 ways to kill a Twinkie. While you could just eat them, you could also wait for a Teddy Graham infestation, well-stocked bookshelf for smashing, hungry snake, or noose. Got any others? Related 100-Calorie Pack Twinkies Gold Twinkies How to Make a Twinkie Tunnel Bundt Cake... More

maille.com It was with great sadness that I read the Guardian’s announcement that Unilever, which assumed control of the two mustard brands Maille and Amora in 2000, will close its historic factory in Dijon, France. The facility has been producing Maille, the iconic French 18th century mustard, since 1911. But in a country where authentic culinary origin is next to godliness, this Dijon mustard will no longer be made in Dijon. In my home, populated by Frenchmen, we have no less than four flavors of Maille mustard on hand at any given time, and, in the fridge, at least two open jars of the 11-spice French mustard-based condiment Savora (produced by Amora). Apparently, the price of mustard grains has... More

Photograph from speechlessson on Flickr Recently at Bumpkin, I cringed to hear an American tourist ask the waiter for an iced tea. They may do tea well in England, but they sure don’t do it iced. But I found an even better replacement. London's extravagant and wonderful Italian corner Locanda Locatelli does Earl Grey sorbet. I would have taken a picture as proof, only they don't allow cameras in the restaurant. The bitter bergamot of the tea was pierced with a sweetness requisite to all sorbets, and the cold assuaged my American cravings for tea leaves brewed on ice. It was delicate, unexpected, tricultural, and a bit downright impertinent. For me, it was love at first bite. From a... More

On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. I've got so much tryptophan in my blood stream and chaos in my house that all I can manage this week is to scrape myself off the couch long enough to tell you where you can go to do some Friday-morning wine quarterbacking. If the site traffic here on Serious Eats and on my own blog was any indication, Americans were seriously concerned about what wine to serve with Thanksgiving. Despite my own best efforts to keep it low-key and relaxed, people worried. You all did great--at least that's what the data on CellarTracker!, my preferred online cellar management program, tells me.... More

These leftovers come together as a light, flavorful, seasonal, and elegant brunch for all your relatives the day after Thanksgiving. The point with leftovers is: the less it looks like last night's dinner, the more you'll want to eat it. The first recipe uses leftover turkey, but has nothing to do with the traditional white bread, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and turkey sandwich. My Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwich piles very thinly-sliced turkey breast with crispy bacon leftover from breakfast, a fresh lemon mayonnaise made with juice and zest, frisee lettuce, and Munster cheese, all sandwiched in a thin baguette or ficelle. It can be served cold or pressed like a panini. The result is hearty, but light from the lemon... More

From sandwiches to spring rolls to burritos and muffins—how to make sense of leftovers. More

"Butter, cream, sugar, pie, stuffing, gravy, biscuits. These are the tools of the Thanksgiving eater's trade." I was all set to write a short post telling you of my decision to avoid the scale the day after Thanksgiving, that I was going to delay getting on the scale until Monday. Surely serious eaters would understand, was my instant rationalization. My daily interim weigh-ins leading up to Thanksgiving were not cause for alarm. As of Thursday morning I was even (236) for the week. I knew you all would understand if I took a pass today. Then I decided that it's easy to rationalize too many decisions to go off the dieting reservation, as it were. In fact, I remember all... More

©iStockPhoto.com/Kombinerki OK. So for many serious eaters out there, it's over. The bird has been carved, served, and eaten. You've gone back for seconds (and maybe thirds). You've had your desserts, had a nap. And you're obviously back online. We hope you came through it all OK. But we're curious—what was on your Thanksgiving menu? Why don't you share it with us here in the comments?... More

Photograph from Ama in Ohio on Flickr Cupcake Takes the Cake rounds up awesome Thanksgiving cupcakes and cakes, most of which resemble turkeys. I like the one above in particular for combining many cupcakes into one giant cake, besides that, it's adorable. Related Baskin-Robbins Turkey Cake Thanksgiving on a Cupcake... More

©iStockPhoto.com/JerryPDX While the Serious Eats crew has been tirelessly toiling to bring you all the seriously delicious, entertaining, and newsworthy Thanksgiving morsels (it's actually been way more fun than toil) we could come up with, we wanted to take this opportunity to take a minute to wish each and every serious eater a happy Thanksgiving. May your Turkey Day be filled with lots of seriously delicious food, good wine, and the sounds of friends and family enjoying each others' company. Here at Serious Eats HQ we have lots to give thanks for: a fantastic, supportive community of serious eaters; the opportunity to share our discoveries with all of you; and the chance to eavesdrop and participate in the most... More

If you're of the pshaw-scoff-too-good-for-this mindset, then Endless Simmer suggests a special Thanksgiving menu: a cheese course, capon (rooster that's bred to be tastier than turkey), ethical foie gras, and sweet potato soufflé.... More

Save room on your Thanksgiving table for a paper turkey, because no matter how your real turkey turns out, it'll be more moist and delicious than its paper understudy. Tip: This would be a great activity to give the kids to keep them out of your way while you're in the kitchen. Print out one for each of your lil' pilgrims. It's tedious enough to keep them occupied for a while.... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Time to put all that preparation to work. After you've had your morning cup and are awake, get that turkey going! Then move on to cook all the things first that keep longer—like stuffing, vegetables, and appetizers. And just remember to relax and enjoy all the work you have put into this day.... More

It's Thanksgiving eve and while most of you are probably prepping for tomorrow's big meal, we're watching Top Chef so you don't have to. Questions on my mind going into tonight's episode: Will Stefan and Fabio continue to dominate? Will Ariane squeak it out for another week? I have to confess I'm beginning to develop a bit of a crush on Fabio, especially after last week's elimination challenge. But onto the show! Contestants are back at the apartment hanging out. We can tell they are getting to know each other because Richard has given them all nicknames. Jeff "Don Johnson" Fabio "Cute Italian" Leah "the flirt." But this is a competition! No time for fun. Cut back to the kitchen... More

Oh, two of my interests combined—word nerdery and the food world. Amuse-Biatch catches spelling errors on Top Chef. Couli instead of coulis and Jean-George Vongerichten instead of Jean-Georges. Yes, word nerds really do get excited about very minor things. See if you can spot any typos as you watch tonight. [via Eater]... More

The real deal turducken (meat involved). Photograph from Phil Romans on Flickr The name might inspire an "oh, my!" face, but tofucken is actually just turducken made with tofu. Adapted from a recipe by Chef Paul Prudhomme (the bearded, hat-wearing dude from Louisiana with a line of cajun seasonings), Stefany Anne Golberg of Table Matters turns the "infamous carnival of carnage that involves three unfortunate birds" into an infamous carnage of soy beans and wheat gluten. If you could combine multiple meats (real or fake) for a turducken-esque mishmash, what would they be? And what potentially inappropriate-sounding name would you give it? Related Qua-duc-ant (Quail, Duck, Pheasant) Fake Turk'y Taste Test... More

Today we're excited to announce some improvements to our community member profile pages. Profiles now have tabs—there's a tab dedicated to comments and another dedicated to posts, which includes Talk topics and published Photograzing submissions. The new tabs allow us to display even more of your comments and posts. For example, here's mine. While you're checking out your new profile, don't forget to update it!... More

From brining the turkey to checking for doneness, the San Francisco Chronicle has all the fundamental details.... More

If you're anything like Nicole of Pinch My Salt, you may have bought a pumpkin this week with the intention of turning it into pie. But there you are now, standing in front of your open fridge, staring wide-eyed at the turkey, the yams, the potatoes, the corn, the green beans, the apples, the bread. What made you think you could make a pumpkin pie from scratch as well? Um, no. If you're overwhelmed or just want to try something a bit out of the norm this Thanksgiving, Nicole provides an innovative, facile, and Sicilian take on pumpkin for tomorrow: Zucca Gialla in Agrodolce, or Grilled Pumpkin in Sweet and Sour Sauce. The pumpkin is simply halved, peeled, grilled,... More

Cook's Illustrated's Foolproof Pie Dough recipe never fails us, but if you still need some extra confidence as you head into prime pie-baking season, Kim O'Donnel of the Washington Post makes it all a little less intimidating with her step-by-step pie dough tutorial—don't skip the photos!... More

nulime.com "If you aren't using your convection feature, you are missing out of a great technological advance in cooking," says Rick Rogers of Epicurious's Thanksgiving Countdown. He explains that using a convection oven speeds up cooking times and improves browning. Some of his tips: Along with improved browning, I find that the pan juices reduce more quickly than conventional roasting from the blowing hot air, so check the pan occasionally and add more stock or water to moisten the juices. This isn't a big deal; every forty-five minutes or so to check is enough attention.There are two general rules when converting a regular recipe to convection: Reduce the oven temperature by 25F, and reduce the cooking time by about one... More

"I am fake." —anonymous stuffed turkey. Photograph from JP Puerta on Flickr When uncles and grandmothers interrogate you tomorrow for being vegetarian, just savor your meatless drumstick and know that 7.3 million people in the U.S. join you. Juliet Lapidos of Slate tried four brands of faux bird and rated them according to appearance, meatiness, and taste. The winner? Not Tofurkey. Found in the hot foods section of Whole Foods, the Gardein Stuffed Veggie Turkey Roast won for its twinkie-shaped deliciousness (made of soy, wheat, peas, beets, and carrots). "After my first bite, I felt a little anxious—I wondered briefly whether I'd mistakenly bought real turkey and glanced at my taste partner to see whether she, too, had a... More

Photograph courtesy of Fromages.com Last year around this time, we offered our suggestion for the perfect Thanksgiving Day cheese plate, one that featured five delicious American originals that ran the gamuts of taste and texture. This year, given the economic environment, we decided to simplify down to a single, powerfully flavorful cheese. With all that other food on the table you definitely don't need an entire cheese plate; just serve a square of Maroilles along with your dessert course to top off the meal in the right way. It's the perfect fall cheese, with its red-orange rind the color of fallen leaves and an earthy, rich taste reminiscent of mushrooms and roasted vegetables.... More

Last weekend, a couple in Platteville, Colorado, opened up their farm to anyone who wanted free vegetable remnants from the harvest. 40,000 people showed up.... More

Times are tough and turkeys are expensive. Don't be shocked if your host serves you a stewed shoe tomorrow. But let's hope that host is a reincarnated Charlie Chaplin. (And that your vision turns entirely black-and-white.) Savor those shoelaces (the best part) and beware of evil shoe bones. This scene comes from Gold Rush, a mostly-silent film about the Little Tramp's adventure to an Alaskan gold rush town. The video, after the jump.... More

When the UK division was warned that global sales would be down this year, they decided to go exclusively fair trade, in hopes of boosting revenue.... More

Community-driven tutorial website Instructables is holding a Take Thanksgiving to the Next Level contest featuring some interesting and unconventional Thanksgiving-themed foods. My favorite is the Modular Pecan Pie-Cosahedron made of 20 equilateral triangle-shaped pecan pies whose pans are held together by Amazing Magnets. The pie's creator turkey tek seems to have a penchant for giant pecan pies seeing as they're also behind this Giant Fractal Pecan Pie. [via Metafilter]... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Do as much precooking as possible. Bake bread, defrost pie dough and make pies, put together salad (but don't dress it yet), cut vegetables, and set table.... More

With the holiday season upon us we thought it would be righteous to have Alton weighing in on one of our all time Serious Eats favorite subjects, pie. Needless to say, he shares our reverence for a great piece of pie and the piemakers that make them. More

It's early as I write this. Strike one. My mind is fried from all the turkey coverage of the last two weeks. Strike two. But when I look at this "breakfast of champions" created by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake, I experience a moment of clarity. A singularity of purpose. And that purpose is to procure the ingredients for this cheese-grits chile relleno dish and knock one out of the park. I mean, look at that thing. Based on a recipe by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, it's all roasted poblano peppers (yum) filled with cheese grits (also yum), topped with roasted tomato gravy (oh, yeah). Plus, don't you love it when a food also serves as a serving... More

To Jack Donaghy's declaration that New York is "off cupcakes and onto donuts", I say: holiday ceasefire! Lay down your weapons and coo over Wild Cakes' Lilliputian turkey dinner, crafted entirely from fondant. Yes, potatoes are perhaps over-represented (mashed and boiled?) on this Thanksgiving table, but who's counting? Not I. [via Yes But No But Yes]... More

Before you make that bread, read some of these tips. Baking expert Dan Lepard of The Guardian contacted great bakers around the world to compile this list of 30 baking tips. The list includes contributions from some of our favorite bakers, such as Dorie Greenspan, Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery, David Lebovitz, Fanny Zanotti, Peter Reinhart, and Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito of Baked. Tips deal with breads, desserts, money-savers, and holiday gift ideas. Related Cook the Book: 'Baked, New Frontiers in Baking' First Taste: A Pizza Preview of Jim Lahey's Upcoming Pizzeria, Co. Fanny on How To Get an Internship at a Pâtisserie in France Interview With Macaron Specialist Dorie Greenspan... More

At the Alinea Thanksgiving, there are two magic words: "plastic" and "bag." Earlier today, we showed you turkey, the Grant Achatz way. (aka, throw it into a plastic bag). Not much changes in the stuffing department. Achatz calls it his bag o' stuffing, in lieu of the more traditional cavity o' stuffing. Since he's such a pro, Achatz doesn't need tongs when placing bags into bubbling-hot water baths. He scoffs at tongs. He uses his bare hands. For the pumpkin pie, Achatz gives the baggies a break to whip out the blowtorch. "This doesn't look like pumpkin pie. This looks like Alinea. With funny gels and stuff," noted Nick Kokonas, an Alinea business partner. Those gelatinous pumpkin-bourbon cubes get... More

A, in M. F. K. Fisher's case, is not for apple—it's for dining alone. The full text of her 1949 series An Alphabet for Gourmets is now available online, appropriately enough, on Gourmet.com. W is for wanton.... More

If the sight of piles of packaged birds leaves a taste in your mouth as tart as raw cranberries, consider sponsoring a turkey this year. Adoption is very hot right now—it was only a matter of time before it began applying to other species. For $25, your turkey gets to live at a shelter for farm animals and have his own Thanksgiving feast (of squash). Turkeys have been giving us wings and legs and breasts for centuries. This year, I'm giving them a little bit of heart. They are an American bird, after all, and deserve something to be thankful for like everyone else! Adopt a turkey this year at Farm Sanctuary. I just did. He's the hot gobbler... More

The hoards of people stocking up for the Thanksgiving holiday on Sunday made the Hollywood Farmers' Market (map) feel like Lollapalooza with vegetables, which means the upcoming Santa Monica market on Wednesday may end up looking like Burning Man at the beach. The best way to battle the crowds this time of year is to hit the market with a plan and a heavy helping of patience. With that in mind, the Southern California farmers' markets have almost everything you need to have a delicious Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to thank your farmers! Turkeys Dozens of people lined up early this morning to pick up their organic, pastured turkeys from the folks at Healthy Family Farms, who also had an on-farm... More

Photographs from Phil Dokas and _nickd on Flickr "During almost 60 years of American distribution, we found only 1 out of 49 men will drink Jeppson’s Malört.... It is not possible to forget our two-fisted liquor ... the first shot is hard to swallow!" This is how Jeppson’s own marketing team describes its product. A growing Flickr photo pool documents people's facial expressions on first trying a sip of the Chicago-made wormwood brew. John Hodgman, however, doesn't seem to have too much of a problem guzzling the stuff (after the jump). [via Coudal Partners]... More

The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. Photograph from tisay on Flickr Chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and grilled. Photograph from doubtless on Flickr Before I knew vanilla, I knew pandan. Mind-boggling, I realize, but I was well into my teenage years before I set eyes (and greedy hands) on a plump vanilla bean, whereas my family had a pandan plant growing right at our doorstep. In fact, the corridor we shared with our neighbors was lined with pots of it—Southeast Asian cooks use pandan leaves to scent their dishes so frequently that it would be unthinkable to not have any on... More

This video? It doesn't work, according to How Stuff Works.... More

Clockwise from top left: Beef, citrus, abalone, and strawberries. While catching up on friends' blogs, I ran across a beautiful food-related stamp from Mexico on Robyn Lee's Tumblr account.* A little digging, and I had this bit of info from Wikipedia: From 1975 to 1993, Mexico issued a series of definitive regular and airmail stamps in a uniform style depicting a great variety of products Mexico exports, such as beef, bicycles, tomatoes, and chemicals, each stamp bearing the Exporta logo. The series was added to over the years, and there are a great number of variants of papers, sizes, colors, watermarks, and plate flaws. A number of the stamps had burelage printed on their surface. Specialists have also identified... More

It's no surprise that the American patron saint of molecular gastronomy wouldn't be satisfied with a humdrum oven-roasted turkey. Alinea's Grant Achatz walks us through a sous vide Thanksgiving (this is just part one; another is on the way). When his business partner Nick Kokonas first suggested the oven, Achatz responded with a stunned "No!" Psh, are you kidding him? It wouldn't be the holidays without a vacuum sealer and immersion circulator! Actually, Achatz says Ziploc baggies will work just fine. He even assures NFL lovers that sous-viding will not inhibit football-watching. Video, after the jump.... More

Photo by kevindooley on Flickr Portfolio magazine's brief primer on salt breaks down some of its different characteristics like color and shape and how they affect flavor. Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York presents a tray of 10 different salts to diners, while the restaurant Cyrus in Healdsburg, California, has both Maldon sea salt and pink Hawaiian salt on its tables for diners to experiment with. Salt-centric boutique the Meadow in Portland, Oregon, has 85 to 90 different salts at any given time, according to co-owner and self-described “selmelier” Mark Bitterman. “We’ve doubled in size every year since we started in 2003, but I think we’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg,” says Naomi Novotny, vice president of... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Clean the rest of the house. Buy any last-minute things you might need, such as salad greens and bread (if you're not making your own).... More

Wallace and Gromit, our favorite clay-modeled inventor and his beagle, take a break from cheese enthusiasm to become baking entrepreneurs. The thirty-minute short film A Matter of Loaf and Death will debut on BBC ONE in December, and be released on DVD next year. Business is booming at their "Top Bun" bakery—where facilities include robotic kneading arms—until a cereal killer gets loose. Gromit is nervous (but can only make petrified facial expressions since he lacks an actual mouth for talking) while the endearingly absent-minded Wallace is in la-la land, pining for Piella Bakewell, a former Bake-O-Lite bread commercial star. This is the duo's first showing since the Oscar-winning film The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit in 2005. [via Kottke]... More

I blog by day and wait tables by night. I'm excited to bring you Served, dispatches from the front of the house. Enjoy! When I bring the dude at Bar-10 a menu and a wine list, he is talking intently on his cell. When I come back to pour him a glass of spicy Portuguese red, he is again parleying tense, intense conversation loudly into his phone. So I go talk to someone else, then return to B-10. The man dramatically snaps his phone shut. "Whew, sorry. That was my ex-wife." I splash some wine into a glass for him to taste. "She still loves me." Uh oh. A bit too much information from a perfect stranger. "Do you like... More

Smart Money did a side-by-side cost comparison of a Thanksgiving meal for eight using all organic ingredients and a feast using conventionally sourced stuff. The verdict: The all-organic meal cost $295.36, almost $170 more than the regular meal ($126.75). What drove the cost of the organic meal through the roof? Not surprisingly, it was the $99.80 20-pound organic turkey, which cost a whopping $76 more. Serious eaters: How organic are you going this Thanksgiving? Put another way, is your Turkey Day going to be more Alice Waters or Sandra Lee? [via New York Times] Related: The Cost of a 10-Person Thanksgiving Is $44.61... More

Mark Bittman, aka "The Minimalist," has just come out with a revised and expanded edition of his now classic cookbook, How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition). We asked Mark for a minimalist Thanksgiving menu, and here it is. I love the idea of a turkey that only takes 45 minutes to cook. More

Through highly accurate and scientific means, The Onion has come up with the Top Thanksgiving Turkey Substitutes. Related: Ten Turkey Tips You'll Be Thankful For... More

"I wanna nog your egg." If you watched Stephen Colbert's A Colbert Christmas last night, I'm sorry. That was an hour you'll never get back. Only marginally funny, the show's best bit was perhaps the John Legend performance. The R&B star played a visiting forest ranger singing a song about nutmeg. Legend: "I'll sprinkle your Christmas cream with my spice supreme Colbert: "What about all-spice?" "You know it leaves me cold as ice" "Cinnamon?" "Don't even think of putting that in" "Cardamom?" "It won't let me drop my love bomb" The video, after the jump.... More

“Now I can reflect back and I got a win over Mike Holmgren. That’s something. That’s not just split pea soup.” —Jim Zorn, Washington Redskins head coach [via Extreme Mortman]... More

With all the channels on broadcast TV and cable—and the inevitable episode repeats—it's hard to sort out what's new or worthwhile. Let us sort it out for you so you don't miss anything worth watching. Times may vary with region; check your local listings for exact hour and channels. Recommended Show: Take a break from cooking and hours of eating by watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on Thursday night. 8 p.m. ET, ABC Monday (November 24) Modern Marvels: "The Turkey." The turkey is the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinners and one of the dumbest birds in the animal kingdom, but it has managed to survive since the dinosaurs; Butterball factory; turkey hunting; dining on turkey testicles and eggs. 8 p.m. ET,... More

MSNBC talking head Keith Olbermann was on The Martha Stewart Show today, and the two got around to talking about Sarah Palin's turkey pardon/slaughter. (Leave it to Olbermann to bring up Palin.) Jezebel's got video of the exchange (Martha: "We know they get slaughtered for Thanksgiving, but that was an especially gruesome scene back there"). We've already talked about the Palin turkey video. No, what we're interested in today is Olbermann's WKRP in Cincinnati reference. If you remember the show, you may remember the episode Olbermann refers to, in which the hapless fictional station does a live turkey giveaway for an on-air Thanksgiving promo. They decide to drop the live birds from a plane for lucky listeners to capture.... More

If you read about Swallow Magazine on Daily Candy earlier but were disappointed that the actual Swallow website had no pictures to peruse, check out Eat Me Daily. They've got a set of photos showing various spreads from the first issue of this new biannual food mag.... More

Every Thanksgiving we check in with food magazine editors around the country to see how they have gone about putting together their Thanksgiving issues. Food and Wine's editor in chief, Dana Cowin, gave us some insight into how the magazine does Thanksgiving. How do the ideas get developed? We think first how we can help people make Thanksgiving dinner. We try solve their problems. That's how we come up with our chart to help people cook Thanksgiving, no matter what kind of meal they want to serve. A lot of people cook a lot of dishes and they need help with timing and cooking space, so we show people how to use a grill as an extra oven and how... More

Photograph from the Life magazine photo archives on Google In this photo, a woman is modeling her turkey feather wedding dress. No, seriously. The caption reads, "Turkey feather wedding bride Barbara O. Ehrhart, posing with prize turkey carcass." It was taken in 1947, in Turlock, California, by Charles E. Steinheimer. I don't know anyone, fashionista or not, who would wear turkey feathers for her wedding. Based on other photos in this series, it appears Ms. Ehrhart used turkey feathers in all her bridal party's dresses. But the real question here is did they cook the turkey she is posing with for their wedding feast?... More

Words by Michele Humes | My last apartment was right down the road from Baked, so I've had many an indulgent breakfast at the bakery by the sea. As the proprietors themselves admit, many of their breakfast items blur the line between breakfast and dessert—but they're treats well worth indulging in. Now that I'm no longer a short walk away from their many-flavored biscuits and mile-high cakes, I'll be relying on this week's Cook the Book pick instead. In Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, co-owners Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito share recipes for such firm customer favorites as cherry-studded Black Forest Cookies and Chipotle Cheddar Biscuits. Each day this week, we'll be posting one of the team's signature retro-chic recipes.... More

How did the Phillies become world champs this year? Maybe because their fans stay well-nourished with projectile hot dogs. Hatfield Meats and our favorite chubby green furball mascot, Phillie Phanatic engineered a hot dog launcher and documented (mockumented?) the planning phases, which were sometimes tense given the Phanatic's temper. Like all good ideas, it started with a dream: "I liked to shoot things as a kid," says co-creator Eric Haman. As far as flying objects go, these look tastier than a home run or foul ball. The video, after the jump.... More

"Myth: The pilgrims wore large hats with buckles on them. The truth: None of the participants were dressed anything like the way they’ve been portrayed in art. The Pilgrims didn’t dress in black, didn’t wear buckles on their hats or shoes, and didn’t wear tall hats. The 19th-century artists who painted them that way did so because they associated black clothing and buckles with being old-fashioned." [Neatorama]... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Shop for the rest of your perishable ingredients.... More

Photograph from on Laughing Squid on Flickr If Santa's belly could transform into coke bottles, this might be the portly result. Not sure if the marketing team also wanted the shape (originally designed as a Christmas ornament) to be associated with "bombs," but they do have that explosive device look. [via Laughing Squid] Related Coke Zero Zero 7, New James Bond Packaging Coca-Cola Light Bottles Designed by Roberto Cavalli Coca-Cola Vending Machine Robot in Japan... More

Remember these guys? Of course you do. There may well be a box stuffed in the back of your freezer—even if it’s been there since 1994. Back in my freezer-breakfast days, Eggo made one thing: waffles. And they looked just like this. (Except for the Guitar Hero ad.) But these days, the supermarket Eggo section is stocked with unfamiliar specimens. Eggo Toaster Cinnamon Rolls? French Toaster Sticks? Bake Shop Swirlz? Mini Muffin Tops? The waffles are just one box among many. As much as Eggo evolves, though, some things never change: Everything is compact and toaster-ready, and everything comes in a cheery yellow box. So how do these newfangled Eggos stack up? Cinnamon Roll Minis Four to a waffle-sized... More

Is your Thanksgiving menu low on hardcore, gut-busting, gluttonous dishes? Let Paula Deen be your guide! While searching the recipes on her website, we came across some eye-opening gems. You know, dishes that are probably delicious but we're hesitant to make because they might immediately block major arteries upon contact with our lips. Here are some of our favorites that reinforce our love for Paula: Deep-Fried Stuffing on a Stick: Because everything is better deep-fried on a stick. Deep-Fried Cranberry Sauce Fritters: You know, this sounds like it could be good. Semi-molten cranberry sauce in a crispy crust, anyone? Mrs. Hoggle’s Stuffed Cranberry Sauce: Mayonnaise, cranberry sauce, cream cheese, and pecans. Beware. Roasted Turkey with Fried Pecan-Bourbon Glaze: This is... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

Celebrate Thanksgiving with some of our favorite cranberry recipes. More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: If you bought a frozen turkey, start defrosting now.... More

Photograph from MetroWest Daily News An unidentified meat lover in Framingham, Massachusetts, has been regularly leaving butcher-quality cuts of raw meat under a tree in the Town Centre Common since October. While dogs may be excited, people are just confused. After testing the meat, police and town officials have yet to determine its origins, but concluded that the meat doesn't seem to be tainted.... More

Deep fried turkeys may be delicious, but making them can result in serious burns if you don't follow safety precautions. To avoid having to call 911 because your house is burning down, get this Oilless Turkey Fryer for $199. The fryer uses infrared cooking technology, which "penetrates meat evenly and seals in juices, resulting in a moist inside and crispy outside without the hassle or fat of cooking with oil." Just add your own propane tank and you're ready to go! [via Uncrate]... More

World Leaders Eating While Rome (And Everywhere Else) Burns? "Make them all eat instant ramen until they stop fighting and figure out how to fix some stuff." —madball911 Dispatch from the UK: Turkish Delight "I had never heard of it until a box showed up at work last year. I love the rose candies. If I close my eyes I feel like I'm inside a rose. Another guy at work said it tasted like a grandmother. Guess its not for everyone." —christopher In Videos: Snoop Dogg on 'Martha,' Making Cognac Mashed Potatoes "This was pretty much the best video I've seen... EVER! If only to see Ms. Stewart say Crackalackin." —bobfole Blood For Breakfast? Fear Not! "I'd try it,... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

Clockwise from top left: President Dwight D. Eisenhower carves a turkey, children in the U.K. eating Thanksgiving dinner, Thanksgiving at Byrd Station, foreign students experience the holiday. More holiday images from the Life Photo Archive on Google. From military children celebrating Thanksgiving in the United Kingdom to Thanksgiving dinner in Antarctica at Byrd Station in 1964, it doesn't appear this holiday's feast has changed. While the clothing is different and most of the photos are in black and white, the people and the food are the same. Families are still apt to welcome friends and foreigners to their tables, all the while sticking to the basic turkey and various accompanying side dishes. The image of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Thanksgiving... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Prepare cranberry sauce and then refrigerate.... More

To make preparing and eating turkey easier for serious eaters, we've compiled everything you need to know about the bird, from what kind to buy to what to do with the leftovers—all in one handy guide. More

Yes We Can Eat Obama's Favorite Pizza: Our Chicago eater Daniel Zemans checks out Italian Fiesta Pizzeria and finds out just what our President-elect raved about. Poetry In a Scottish Burger: Despite the traditional costumes in this California restaurant, Tam O'Shanter Inn is nowhere near Disneyland, though the house burger left Damon Gambuto with a smile on his face. A Biscuit By Any Other Name: At Pine State Biscuit in Oregon, Allison Hemler digs into more then their delectable signature dish. Txik...What?: Even though you might have a hard time saying Txikito, this Basque restaurant in Chelsea got an A- for food and atmosphere. British Pizza: Bloomberg Television searches for the best pizza in London, the verdict: Franco Manca.... More

With all the channels on broadcast TV and cable—and the inevitable episode repeats—it's hard to sort out what's new or worthwhile. Let us sort it out for you so you don't miss anything worth watching. Times may vary with region; check your local listings for exact hour and channels. Recommended Show: Tyler Florence is providing a compilation of Food Network's favorite Thanksgiving recipes with "All Star Thanksgiving Recipes" this Saturday night. I'm pretty much just interested in the turkey sweet potato shepherd's pie and pumpkin banana mousse tart. Saturday, 8 p.m. ET Saturday (November 22) Secrets of a Restaurant Chef (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "The Secret to Risotto." Mushroom risotto; frisee salad; warm bacon vinaigrette. 10:30 a.m.... More

International Sandwich: Joshua Bousel takes the basic grilled cheese to new heights by creating a Middle Eastern grilled cheese on pita with dried mint. Dairy-Free Pie: Who says you must have milk and butter to bake? Vegan cookbook author Dreena Burton shares her recipe for chocolate pumpkin pie—a dessert so good, no one will know it's vegan. Eat Your Greens: And enjoy them too with a Martha Stewart recipe for Sicilian-style sauteed greens, a dish that can be made with kale, broccoli or spinach. Beer for Breakfast: Well, maybe not a cold one, but Amanda Clarke suggests adding a brewski to your Belgian waffles to enhance the flavor. Edible Bowl: When you stuff a bell pepper or tomato, you... More

Every Thanksgiving we check in with food magazine editors around the country to see how they have gone about putting together their Thanksgiving issues. Everyday Food's editor, Deb Puchalla, gave us some insight into how that Martha Stewart–owned mag does Thanksgiving. How did you approach Thanksgiving at Everyday Food this year? We're five-years-old and we've done tactics and strategies, so this year we wanted to do something with feeling. We looked at different regions of the country for inspiration. So we have warm and fuzzy Southern Thanksgiving that's rich and a little heavy, we thought we would give it some energy. More people are guests than cooks at a Thanksgiving meal, so we wanted to have portable dishes. Myself, I'm... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

While you'll never catch me scooping cranberry sauce from a can, or dipping my drumstick into bottled gravy, I will confess to baking last-minute cornbread from a box. Incredibly cheap, impossibly easy, and ready in minutes, cornbread mixes are a decent option when you're short on time yet still want to serve fresh-from-the-oven bread with your holiday meal. More

While watching TV last night, I caught the news snippet of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin pardoning a turkey and then talking to reporters about something afterward. I have no idea what she was talking about, though, because I was too busy gawking at the turkey slaughter going on behind her. The video, after the jump. Don't worry, MSNBC, where the clip originated, has blurred any gory details.... More

A year and a half ago, Mike Sula of the Chicago Reader embarked on a project. The Whole Hog Project would follow three mulefoot pigs (Edna, Erma, and Endive) from birth (on a Wisconsin farm) to death (at a slaughterhouse) to an afterlife (at Chicago's Blackbird restaurant). The hairy oinkers, known for having uncloven hooves like mules, would be spotlighted in a fancy six-course dinner. "I've never seen my food walking around before," his friend and and videographer throughout the project, Mike Gebert of Sky Full of Bacon, admitted. Why were they putting themselves through this? Mulefoot pigs are an endangered American breed that, two years ago, only had 200 to their name. While eating an endangered animal seems... More

Here's a handy primer on how to serve wine, including how to chill wine quickly, proper serving temperatures for a range of popular wines, and whether or not you should let red wine breathe. You can use this advice all year around—but it's especially nice during the holidays to cross one worry off your list. More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Purchase ingredients for cranberry sauce and any other things you want to prepare this weekend.... More

Photograph courtesy of Robb Walsh Need another easy, filling and delicious finger food for your football parties? Robb Walsh of the Houston Press featured atomic deer turds as a treat for the Texas tailgaters. Ground venison sausage, jalapenos, and cheese wrapped into a neat little ball? How could you go wrong? Walsh also lists variations on the dish by using different meats, cheeses, and animals to name the turds after. I for one love jalapeno poppers so this dish is right up my ally. What's your favorite gaming finger food?... More

I had lots of lunches and dinners out this week, so my resolve was being tested on a twice-daily basis most of the week. I was with a chef friend/fellow dieter this week at my favorite ramen place Ippudo. He summed up our situation quite well: "Hey, we're fat guys who don't want to be fat any more. So we just have to eat half of what we're served." And that's just what we did. There we were, slurping and spooning down bowls of delicious noodles, incredibly flavorful broth, and wonderful, just fatty enough slices of Berkshire pork, having a high old time, enjoying ourselves immensely, when we did the heretofore unthinkable. Fifteen minutes into our bowls of stupendous soup... More

For the times you want quick, easy scrambled eggs, minus the eggs: here's a recipe for tofu "scram." Chris Brunn of Gapers Block combines tahini, sesame seeds, soy sauce, lemon, and ripped-up pieces of tofu. He recommends tofu with a firm, solid texture.... More

My father, a bonafide anglophile, warned me: "When you move to England, watch how they eat!" "What do you mean, dad?" I laughed at him. "Don't they eat like everyone else?" "No—you'll see. They pile everything up on their fork as if they were stacking up a Leaning Tower of Peas at the end of their tines." Sure enough, as is usual, my father was completely right. There's a lot of chat about which way of eating is correct: the European method, where the fork remains in the left hand, and the knife in the right, or the American method, where the fork rests in the left hand while the food is being cut, and then moved to the... More

Photograph from spiffae on Flickr I've found myself in this same position many times while trying to figure out what to eat in the food court at Japanese shopping center Mitsuwa in New Jersey. It's hard to choose from so many enticing bowls of meticulously arranged plastic food—plastic food that looks surprisingly close to the real thing. This display doesn't actually glow green in real life, but I like the eerie feeling it gives the photograph taken by Ben Duchac. Related Jersey 'Food Court' Dispatch: Mitsuwa Marketplace I Bought the Entire Spinal Column of a 700-Pound Tuna (Oh, Yes I Did) Battle of the Fake Food Chefs... More

Photograph from jetalone on Flickr Every year on the third Thursday in November, corks pop at midnight in celebration of the arrival of the year's Beaujolais Nouveau, a light, fruity red wine from the Beaujolais region in France. While the wine's debut is a celebration for its home country, in the United States this wine symbolizes Thanksgiving. It's also cheap, easy to find, and very drinkable. Gary Vaynerchuk, author of 101 Great Wines, described the wine as having, "Aromas of fresh rhubarb pie and little hints of black pepper." The flavor, he wrote, is, "Full of beautiful, complex fruit, with a slight soapy quality. It's like Mr. Bubbles meets Smucker's jam." Even with that slightly off putting description, Vaynerchuk actually... More

Photograph by Alicia Mazzara of DCist What's better than pumpkin pie? Deep fried pumpkin pie! Alicia Mazzara of DCist shows you how to make deep fried pumpkin pies with her recipe and photo gallery. "These delicate, flaky hand pies are like biting into a cinnamon sugar doughnut with a pumpkin center," she says. How could anyone resist? How? Related Baking With Dorie: Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie Dreena's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Spiced Pumpkin Pudding Pie... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, the Kitchn confronts the annual late-November question: white vs. dark meat. The taste difference lies in the bird's muscle tissues. Dark meat is gamier because of the chemicals, proteins, and fats in the wing and thigh muscles. Also on the Kitchn, California cuisine, making instant oatmeal sans Mr. Quaker, ripening green tomatoes, and cranberry sauce not-from-a-can.... More

Photograph from LIFE Magazine Google archives Earlier this week Google made the web a cooler place by adding historic photos from Life magazine to its image archive. We took a look around to check out how Thankgivings past looked. Today, here's a photo of different types of fruit relish from 1959. LIFE featured these dishes as a substitute for cranberries, which were banned at the time because of contamination. The berries had been dusted with a weed-killer called aminotriazole, which caused cancer in rats. This scare came two weeks before the holiday, causing desperate housewives (the 1950s kind) to seek other options. Lucky for the cranberry lovers out there, in 2008 our ruby-red side dish is safe to eat.... More

Sometimes when you get pretty much everything you want, the few things you can’t get take on a much bigger sense of importance than they deserve. This has generally been true regarding beer in Chicago. Home to great local breweries like Two Brothers, Goose Island, Three Floyd’s—and not to mention mega-stores like Sam’s and Binny’s replete with aisles and aisles filled with more craft brewed beers than there are stuffed animals at an FAO Schwarz—you’d think we’d be sated. But, no, we're not. For years, we longed for that Texas export Shiner Bock or the sweet lager of Brooklyn Brewery, and more recently the brews of Bell’s from Kalamazoo, Michigan, when they lost their distributorship. In these parts, securing a... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

If you're looking to get a new food-related videogame, decide what's worth playing by checking out these trailers for the recently released Cooking Mama: World Kitchen, and the upcoming What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver and Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine. Watch the videos after the jump.... More

Last year, in our Store-Bought Stuffing Mix Showdown, all the boxed stuffing contestants were priced between $2.49 and $4.99. This year, we decided to defy the recession and test-run Williams-Sonoma's La Brea boxed stuffings, priced at the comparatively astronomical $10 to $12 per box. I tested the two flavors on offer this year: Harvest Blend, with pecans and cranberries, and Classic, with Herbes de Provence and chestnuts. While the Harvest Blend is the pricier of the two at $12, the pecans and cranberries are included in the box, while the recommended roasted chestnuts for the Classic are sold separately at a whopping $16.50 a jar. So how did they fare among our eager Serious Eaters?... More

Fill the cylinder of the Turkey Cannon with your favorite cooking liquid, stick a turkey on it, and let it roast to perfection. Like in a beer can chicken, the liquid helps cook and flavor the bird from the inside, resulting in a faster cooking time and more flavor. [via CNET]... More

When humans leave the room, and the turkey decorations are left alone in the kitchen, they can't help themselves. They must attack the pumpkin pie. While squawking with joy, their little paper bodies try to digest. Holiday centerpieces seem so harmless and inanimate, but key word: seem. The poor cat—the more likely pie attacker—will probably get all the blame. The video, after the jump.... More

If I could choose to live anywhere in Portland, it would be right near Pine State Biscuits. A staff of friendly twenty-somethings run the kitchen stations, cranking out orders of their famous biscuits slathered in sausage or mushroom gravy, with fried chicken, eggs cooked to order, and various seasonal sides—including hash browns, grits, and braised greens. You can expect to wait on a weekend morning—ours, including the line and food preparation, was about a half hour. This is not a brunch spot to linger at, so tables turn over frequently.... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Start cleaning your house.... More

Dreena Burton, blogger and author of Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, Vive le Vegan! and The Everyday Vegan, shares what she will be serving during her meatless holiday. More

On this week's Chewing the Fat, Alton Brown talks about what he discovered about the whole notion of hospitality when he hit the road in Feasting on Asphalt. More

What possessed me to volunteer for Top Chef blogging duty? By 11 p.m. I am usually asleep in my comfy chair strategically located in front of the TV. Don't worry, serious eaters. I will persevere. I am your loyal and humble Serious Eats Top Chef correspondent, at least for the time being. And, by the way, I'm totally hooked. I have a Top Chef jones. In fact, I found myself really looking forward to tonight's episode, especially when I found out the first challenge involved hot dogs. I got to trot out the "dog eat dog" play on words. What else could a food writer want? Go, Eugene, Mr. Hawaiian, who started as a dishwasher, go. As for you, Stefan,... More

Thanksgiving is a fascinating holiday. We run around combining canned things with boxed things with jarred things. While the meal is arguably the tastiest of the year, some familiar ingredients are strange. A good strange. A strange we love to hate. More

Photograph by David Hagerman of Eating Asia If you find yourself in Jakarta, this looks like the man you'd want to buy your satay (or "sate" in Indonesian) from. Between his happy face and confident stance holding that wad of stick meat, I would trust anything he cooks. Robyn Eckhardt of Eating Asia was lucky enough to try his food after waiting in a long line. (Smiling Satay Man seems to have a following.)... More

"The service and food are terrible but I love it anyway." [via Coldmud]... More

Photograph courtesy of Cheeses of France Yes I am, according to a Chow video called "How to Serve and Cut Cheese" with Laura Werlin, noted cheese expert and author of many books including The New American Cheese. There aren't any hard and fast rules when serving cheese—or any other food, really. You're only doing it wrong if you don't like the end result. Serving cheese should be easy, not fussy; it should be fun, not stressful. That said, some of the guidelines in the video can help direct you towards a positive cheese-serving experience. Serving tips, after the jump.... More

According to the Boston Globe, recent brain scans and genetic testing suggest that some people overeat because they don't get as much pleasure out of food (which is linked to the hormone ghrelin) so they keep eating in an attempt to feel satisfied.... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

Every Thanksgiving we check in with food magazine editors around the country to see how they have gone about putting together their Thanksgiving issues. The reductive and obsessive Chris Kimball, founding editor and publisher of Cook's Illustrated and host of America's Test Kitchen, is always refreshingly honest and forthcoming. "I am not in favor of green vegetables. I'm a white, tan, and orange food guy." Your subhead on the pumpkin pie piece in the magazine is fighting words in some quarters: "The best thing about pumpkin pie is that you only have to eat it once a year." Once in awhile we do back and do something again if we learn something about it in the interim. I made our... More

I thought this edamame popping keychain was cute, but it's got nothing on Mameshiba, a Japanese character of a bean that looks like a dog; "mame" means bean and "shiba" is a dog breed. The first time I watched this compilation of Mameshiba animations I flipped out, hardly able to contain the cuteness that is a fat, little green bean dog head popping out of an edamame pod. Even natto—fermented soybeans—look cute. Your reaction might be different, especially if you can understand what the bean dogs are saying. Commenters at Cute Overload point out that each bean spurts out a random fact, or "mame-chishiki" (trivia, or bean knowledge), right before its supposed to be eaten. This video in particular... More

Photograph from greenwenvy08 on Flickr According to Jennifer 8. Lee of the New York Times, Costco—which has a well-deserved reputation as a progressive, worker-friendly company—doesn't take food stamps. This makes no sense. Lee reports that Costco offered three reasons for this: 1. They did not think they would qualify based on the federal government requirements.2. It was too expensive to adapt their equipment to accept food stamps.3. With their annual fee/bulk-purchase model, people on food stamps probably could not shop there anyway. Lee's story painstakingly refutes each of these rationales. The fact that this policy continues in the midst of our economic meltdown seems particularly cruel and nonsensical. And given Costco's progressive reputation, it's ironic that the Times is... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Clean out refrigerator, no holds barred.... More

When I was a little girl, the Turkish Delight existed only as a fictional confection in the winter wonderland of Narnia's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I asked every adult I knew if they could tell me what Turkish Delight was, that sugary sensation that led Edmund to betray his family and country in order to live with the murderous White Witch. But no one knew—so I conceded that it was a delicious figment of C. S. Lewis's imagination. I waited until I was twenty-four years old to taste Edmund's Adam's apple. And then I found it, behind the glass of a British sweets shop, plump and dusted in a White Witch's snow shower of sugar. For... More

"Turkey Day is my Olympics!" —Serious Eats community member JerzeeTomato, in a comment from last year that we just rediscovered today. Trotting it out again this year because, really, it's timeless.... More

There are several schools of thought when it comes to breakfast pastries. There are the French loyalists, who rely on a time-honored repertoire of croissants, brioche, and pain au chocolat. Then there’s the anything-goes sweet tooth contingent—lovers of sticky buns and coffee cake, donuts and muffins, not bound by patisserie tradition but looking for a breakfast that’s gooey and satisfying. Can these two camps ever reach across the aisle? Yes, they can—in the morning bun. In my mind, the morning bun is the perfect synthesis of the classic croissant and the irresistible sticky bun. Call it a croissant in cinnamon roll clothing. It’s made of a buttery croissant dough, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar (and often walnuts or pecans), then... More

After working in Britain, Poles are returning home with tastes for shortbread, speciality teas, and honey-infused bitter. Insert Polish joke here. (And I can say that, 'cause I'm Polish.)... More

The striking images above are by Corey Arnold, whose website bio reads as such: Corey Arnold is a photographer and Alaskan crab fisherman. During October, January and February he can (or cannot) be found aboard the F/V Rollo in the Bering Sea. The rest of the year is packed with travel, gallery exhibitions, magazine and ad photography assignments with a bit of backyard gardening, cat maintenance, and skateboarding in Portland, Oregon. Arnold's photos from his Fish-Work series go on view tomorrow at Charles A. Hartman Fine Art in Portland, Oregon (134 NW 8th Avenue, Portland OR 97209; map; 503-287-3886), and will be up through December 20. [via Sullivan]... More

Sushi Time is a new iPhone app meant to demystify potentially scary sushi terms. For example, you enter “fugu," swipe the screen, and there's a photo of what resembles yellow-tail, but wait. It's potentially toxic, says the magic phone. Phew, good thing you didn't order that craziness. [via Jamie Forrest] Related How to Use Urbanspoon Feature on iPhones Chocolate-Covered iPhone Singing Human Sushi on Japanese Kid's TV Show... More

Snoop Dogg was on Martha today, making cognac mashed potatoes. I prefer butter. Lots and lots of butter. And here's how Martha prefers them. Video, after the jump. [via Kathryn Yu]... More

From the Telegraph: For Feast, a forthcoming series due on Channel 4 early next year, Heston [Blumenthal] interprets historical banquets and cooks an entire pig in a sous-vide."We couldn’t find a water bath big enough so we went to a hot-tub warehouse," he says. "We took the limiters off so it went up to 62C and we cooked it at this temperature for a day and a half. Then we spit-roasted it, cranking the heat up so it got the browning. It was the best pig that I ever tasted." The rest of the profile is worth reading, too. And there are recipes for cooking with sherry. Related In Videos: Heston Blumenthal's Bacon and Egg Ice Cream Heston Blumenthal's... More

Images from Guy Fieri's T.G.I. Friday's commercial. A recent conversation between T.G.I. Friday's spokesman Guy Fieri and a TMZ cameraman: TMZ: “I thought you only eat at Friday’s.” Fieri: “No, I’m a Food Network chef, man, so I just do commercials for Friday’s. You know how it is.” TMZ: “You like Friday’s?” Fieri: “It’s a good gig.” TMZ: “Good there?” Fieri: “They back up one of my shows, called Ultimate Recipe Showdown.” [via Food Network Addict]... More

My family regards Thanksgiving as an excuse to feast, and with certain condescension to American tradition, we do feast quite Frenchly indeed. We start with the turkey, rubbed in herbes de Provence, and serve it with pomegranate-seared wild mushrooms, haricots verts amandine, potatoes au gratin, and granita made from Norman apple cider. More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

Turduckens and churkeys were so five minutes ago. A quaducant—following the Russian matryoshka nesting doll model of meat—would be quail's breast meat stuffed in duck's breast meat stuffed in a deboned pheasant. Buy a six-pounder on Cajun Grocer for $59.95. Meat multi-tasking like you've never seen it before. Related Are Turduckens Really Good Eating? [Talk] The Best Online Purveyors of Turduckens [Talk] Photo of the Day: Turducken—for Cats!... More

In this week's New Yorker food issue, the cartoon caption contest involves a man holding a big turkey under his arm. Got a good caption idea? According to a Slate piece earlier this year, you want to get inside the man's head and make sense of his bird-holding beliefs and intentions. Finalists for this week's cartoon will appear online Monday, December 1 and in the December 8 print issue.... More

Nationalism can be expressed in anthems, sports teams, and now, dinner plates. Eat that corned beef on an Ireland-shaped dish and your kraut on the "Czech combo" (a dish combining the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary). Each is white, ceramic, and $17.99. [via Neatorama]... More

Photograph from cobalt123 on Flickr "The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 23rd annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $44.61, a $2.35 price increase from last year’s average of $42.26." How much are you spending on dinner this year? Cutting back? [Voice of Agriculture, via Epi-Log]... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Stock up on liquor and wine.... More

What's Bobby Flay, famed restaurateur, Food Network personality, and cookbook author, doing for the holidays? Find out! More

This may look like death by chocolate, but terminal baker Amanda of Slow Like Honey made it as an attempt to live for herself after burning out baking for other people. This dessert, a brownielike chocolate cake peppered with chunks of toffee, was, in her words, entirely selfish. "It encompasses all the things I need in a dessert. Sweet and salty. Moist yet firm. Highly addicting, seriously. If you are looking for something to eat straight out of the pan, then you’ve found it." Hey, Amanda, we know you were doing this dessert for yourself, but how about making us one?... More

I blog by day and wait tables by night. I'm excited to bring you Served, dispatches from the front of the house. Enjoy! I remember winding down one of the first nights of service at my restaurant. We counted the money. To our happy surprise, it was a record-breaking night. We were all going home with plenty of cash. We had opened just a few weeks ago, and we were still un-kinking the numerous kinks in our operation. My boss got to talking about how he hoped (and knew) his restaurant beat the many restaurants where he had worked as a waiter as a place to work. It beat them pretty hard. “This is the best waiter job,” was the... More

It's good to know a po'boy preservation society exists. These dedicated folks organized the second annual Po'Boy Preservation Festival, happening this Sunday on five blocks of Oak Street in New Orleans. We were at last year's inaugural fest, and this year the same po'boy fanaticism is expected—panelists on the sandwich's history, a taste-test from local vendors, and even some love for the po'boy's Italian cousin, the muffuletta. Many theories exist as far as the naming genesis goes: a derivation of the French "pour boire" (literally means "to drink," but colloquially, a "peace offering.") Or they were the free sandwiches given to strikers (the poor boys) in a 1929 strike against a New Orleans streetcar company. Or just a Franglais... More

With all the channels on broadcast TV and cable—and the inevitable episode repeats—it's hard to sort out what's new or worthwhile. Let us sort it out for you so you don't miss anything worth watching. Times may vary with region; check your local listings for exact hour and channels. Recommended Shows: Food Network features a mini-series of Thanksgiving-themed shows to inspire and assist home cooks during the holiday season. Dear Food Network will feature answers from all the network's chefs including personal favorites Alton Brown, Ina Garten, and Michael Symon. One episode to record is Thursday night—it's all about Thanksgiving leftovers. Monday through Thursday, 9 p.m. ET Monday (November 17) Good Eats (warning, a video plays automatically on site: "American... More

We've listed a few of our favorite New York City Thanksgiving restaurant menus, but if you want a broader selection, or live anywhere else, try OpenTable's Thanksgiving reservation selection. You pick your city, then neighborhood, and up pops a list of restaurants offering Thanksgiving reservations, along with a short menu description, price, and service hours. Then you just click to make your reservation online. Much easier than brining a turkey. Directions: Visit OpenTable.com, select your region, then scroll down for the Thanksgiving 2008 link. You can then tweak your neighborhood, cuisine, and price. Happy Thanksgiving! Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles/Orange County, Miami/Southeast Florida, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San... More

The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. I believe the simplest dishes are also the easiest to mess up. Take the plain omelet, for instance, or just steamed rice—both are so clean of flavor, so unadulterated, that there's nothing for you to hide your mistakes behind. No cloak of smoky spices, no razzle-dazzle of MSG—just the purest expressions of egg and grain. And so it is the case with kaya—a rich, fragrant custard that South-East Asians like to slather, along with a generous dollop of salted butter, on their morning toast. Made with eggs, coconut milk, and sugar, there are many, many... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

Baskin-Robbins has a turkey cake which, fortunately, is supposed to taste like cake, not turkey. Instead of stuffing, there's ice cream inside (your choice of flavor) and those aren't turkey legs, they're sugar cones. Does this make anyone else really happy? Serves 12 to 16 mouths, and available at select locations for $37.58. Related Hey! Lego My Turkey Talk: Ice Cream Cake Photo of the Day: Custom Cake From Wal-Mart... More

Words by Michele Humes | Martha Stewart doesn't do things in half measures. Whether it's cookies or canapés, Stewart aims to be comprehensive and definitive. (She succeeds—I consider her Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook to be the font of all finger-food knowledge.) Her latest enterprise, Martha Stewart's Cooking School, is downright encyclopedic. Only Martha could pull off a textbook that looks like a glossy magazine and reads like a conversation. And what a conversation. In this book, you'll learn how to sharpen a knife, make fresh pasta, identify cuts of meat, and master the soufflé. The book stays current by supplementing the traditional French curriculum with American and international flavors: There are detailed guides to Indian and Southeast Asian spices, dashi gets... More

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishes (MAFF) put together a little Sims-like video to highlight the state of the country's food supply. Japan imports 60 percent of its food, and the ministry points out that has led to the fattening of the Japanese people and presents a security issue as the global population grows. It's fun to watch the little isometric illustrations do their thing, but it brings up an important issue that all nations should be considering. The vid, after the jump.... More

Each week, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, some welcome advice, whether you're hosting or attending a holiday dinner. More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Confirm guest list and make name cards.... More

Even if you don't like percentages and figures, the financial crisis has caused everyone to be a little more aware of numbers. Lucky for us, the idea of number-crunching can be converted to chocolate-munching. Tina Roth Eisenberg of the blog Swiss Miss, clued us in to Mary & Matt's chocolate pie chart. At five and a half ounces, the chocolate breakdown works to, 70 percent milk, 20 percent dark, and 10 percent white. How do you like those numbers? I just wish there were something like this when I was studying the math section for the GREs, I am sure my score would have been higher.... More

I think Olga of Sassy Radish is a genius. Why? Because she pinpointed the problem with Magnolia's red velvet cupcakes: the vanilla icing. With her Red Velvet Cupcakes, Olga opted for the Magnolia cake recipe but created a traditional crown of cream cheese to establish red velvets as the king of all cupcakes. She used an entire bottle of red food coloring—how's that for royal blood? Olga is adamant that homemade cake is as easy as purchased mixes. In her words, "The whole thing was a cinch—and a delicious cinch at that."... More

The English breakfast is a massive undertaking. While its exact composition varies across the British Isles, ordering a full fry-up will get usually you bacon, eggs, sausages, potatoes, baked beans, mushrooms, tomato, and toast, at a minimum. And on this piled-high plate sits the brekker’s most notorious member—thick slices of black pudding. Translation? Blood sausage. Good morning, indeed. I’d lived in London for several months before I first tasted black pudding. The idea of blood sausage had never appealed to me, and since I cooked for myself in my little flat kitchen, I hadn’t yet confronted the full-on breakfast. Until I visited an Irish friend, that is. He opened his refrigerator one morning to find it nearly empty. “All... More

If you come across a riled-up couple of animal crackers, hold onto them. They went for $7.25 on eBay. As a kid, and now, I'd probably just eat the humping cookies, unaware of the jackpot involved. [via Geekologie] Related Barack Obama's Partially Eaten Breakfast for Sale on eBay In Videos: Cheesus: Jesus in Cheetos Form Mother's Cookies Goes Bankrupt... More

This past week the Boston Globe ran the obligatory "when times get tough, the tougher, cheaper cuts of meat become more popular" story. In fact, I prefer cheaper, slightly tougher cuts even when times are not tough. Which would you rather chow down on—skirt steak or filet mignon? No contest, right?... More

Feel the soothing sensation of edamame beans popping out of their pods, over and over and over again, with this Japanese Mugen Puni Puni Edamame Beans Popping Key Chain from Bandai. These aren't your normal edamame beans; there are 12 different faces, ranging from "Old Man" to Panda." Unfortunately, it's currently sold out, but when Strapya World gets its next shipment, I'm going to buy five of them for hours of non-stop entertainment. Watch the edamame beans in action, after the jump.... More

washingtoncitypaper.com Ben Franklin once wrote his daughter to share his love for a certain feathered bird: For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly...For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America. As Tim Carman of the Washington City Paper notes, Franklin was also concerned with tenderizing this wattle-bearing poultry. His favorite method? Electrocution. “Birds killed in this manner eat uncommonly tender,” he wrote. Maybe not the first thing you pictured in Thanksgiving cooking techniques.... More

Photograph of Yushin from eerkmans on Flickr Yushin, the restaurant owned by the organizations behind Japan's whaling program and whaling fleets, is planning to close. A whaling industry spokesman says the closing is due to high operation costs and the fulfillment of promoting whale meat consumption; environmentalists attribute it to a weakening whaling industry. [via Coldmud] Related: Thar It Blows—Japanese Whaleburgers... More

Photograph by Robyn Lee Men's Fitness picked five American bars for the beer geek. In Washington D.C., they send you to Brickskeller, famous for having a binder with 1,000 different bottles divided by region. What they fail to mention: most often Brickskeller is out of at least half. Another option, at least if you like Belgian brews, is Brasserie Beck, which also has tasty beer-friendly foods (pork, cabbage confit, mussles). In Brooklyn, they recommend Spuyten Duyvil. Under the same ownership, Spuyten Duyvil Grocery is a tiny shop crammed with imported beers that come with tales of the beer's origins, compliments of the shopkeepers. The piece also lists favorite microbreweries, including Allagash in Maine, Firestone Walker in California, and Rogue... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

Urlesque shares these pictures of the cooking instructions at Japanese chain restaurant Kuro-Hitsuji, which specializes in Mongolian barbecue—or as the restaurant says, "Ghengis Khan cuisine." The instructions features illustrations accompanied by "ghetto-fabulous" English translations for no apparent reason. Next time I get Mongolian barbecue, I'll be sure to cook my meal using the "fizzle to the sizzle" method.... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Prepare foods that can be frozen, like pie dough and meat stock.... More

As Pinkberry, Red Mango and a thousand imitators battle it out for yogurt supremacy, the Vietnamese have been quietly making their own addictively sharp (but non-frozen) yogurt snack, da ua, or sua chua, for decades. Diane from White on Rice Couple shows us how it's done. The secret ingredient? Sweetened condensed milk. The star player in dulce de leche mellows the tang and gives the yogurt a silky, gently set consistency. Sprinkled with in-season pomegranate seeds, as Diane serves hers, it makes an unusual alternative to the pomegranate yogurts now making the soft-serve rounds.... More

Photograph from carlwarner.com Carl Warner's food photography has been circulating on the web for the past year, but we've never blogged about it on Serious Eats. If you haven't seen them before, his over-the-top food landscapes are amazing; by utilizing broccoli as trees, heads of garlic as huts, Brussels sprout leaves as waves, and loaves of bread as hills, Warner manages to create these foodscapes that at first glance look like foliage and land, not fruits and vegetables. Pieces such as Garlicshire and Broccoli Forest seem to combine classic food still lifes by Paul Cezanne with computer-generated images from Lord of the Rings. Related: Photo of the Day: Meatscapes... More

Gobble Gobble: It's that time again and this week we shared Lidia Bastianich's Roast Turkey recipe to help you make your bird cooking decisions. The Best of Both Worlds: Pepperoni Ramen Pizza just might be the best invention ever and helped Karol Lu win the Second Annual Ramen-off at Brooklyn Kitchen. Breakfast Anytime: Blake Royer has no qualms with making paprika-spiked home fries with poached eggs for every meal of the day. The Good Kind of Flaky: Turning out basic biscuits isn't always easy, but Amanda Clark shares her simple way of baking them. Bugs Bunny Would Be Proud: Soup season is upon us and Nick Kindelsperger is stirring up a steaming bowl of carrot and ginger soup. Squish... More

Uh, best idea ever? Photograph from That's What You Think Winnie of That's What You Think discovers the deliciousness of grilled doughnuts when she picks up a jelly doughnut and an eclair from Peter Pan Bakery in Brooklyn on the way to a backyard barbecue. How did they turn out? The exterior becomes a crispy hot shell that gives way to juicy, molten insides and takes on the slightest hint of smoke and maybe just the faintest little happy leavings of whatever sausages (from the Polish butchers up the street) and steaks (from the Greenmarket) had just vacated the grill real estate. Mm, meat-tinged doughnuts. I'm there. Related A Guide to the Best Doughnuts in New York Cooking with... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Make any decorations you may want to put up, like leaf arrangements or a cornucopia.... More

Photograph by Robyn Lee As Americans cut costs, they're starting to put more Spam back on the table. But these days, consumers are rediscovering relatively cheap foods, Spam among them. A 12-ounce can of Spam, marketed as “Crazy Tasty,” costs about $2.40. “People are realizing it’s not that bad a product,” said Dan Johnson, 55, who operates a 70-foot-high Spam oven. I love the mental image of a 70-foot-high Spam oven. Related: How to Make Spam Musubi... More

According to our handy site-metering utility, the top 10 most delicious items on Serious Eats this week were ... 1. Does Your Grocery Store Have You Crying Tears of Joy? Do you have a local grocery store that you've sworn undying loyalty to? 2. In Defense of Breakfast: A Morning Manifesto "Artists might say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that, for a food writer, breakfast just might be the same. So what's your stance on breakfast? Can't stomach it, or can't live without it?" 3. Dinner Tonight: Scalloped Potatoes "Though I'm not a scalloped potatoes veteran, I have nothing bad to say about these. Too often... More

With all the channels on broadcast TV and cable—and the inevitable episode repeats—it's hard to sort out what's new or worthwhile. Let us sort it out for you so you don't miss anything worth watching. Times may vary with region; check your local listings for exact hour and channels. Recommended Shows: Plenty of Thanksgiving-themed shows preview this weekend on the Food Network; tune in to watch The Cooking Loft and Secrets of a Restaurant Chef to see new takes on traditional dishes–and you know you can't go wrong with Giada or Ina's holiday suggestions. Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday (November 15) Tyler's Ultimate (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Ultimate Turkey Dinner." Oven-roasted turkey breast with... More

Photograph from Elijah on Flickr "The Delicious Parts of a Whale Explained" may not be the real name of this diagram from Japan, but I like it. Methinks the whale looks a little too happy considering the context though. Related The Anatomy of a Swine: Good, Good, and Real Good Behold the Bacon Pig Photo of the Day: Pig Tattoo... More

"The UN has no more food to distribute in the Gaza Strip," reports the BBC. Israel has been denying the transfer of all goods into Gaza for about a week.... More

Do you know where you're getting your turkey this year? Not yet? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 23.* D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But what we're especially interested in right now is their turkey. D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, added poultry or fish byproducts, pesticides, or herbicides. Additionally no antibiotics, no growth hormones. The result is a poultry with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower... More

Every Thanksgiving we check in with food magazine editors around the country to see how they have gone about putting together their Thanksgiving issues. Today we talk to Gourmet editor in chief Ruth Reichl. More

We're bananas for what goes on in Talk. There's so much useful, funny, and interesting stuff going on that we almost can't keep up. Here's some of the discussion that's piqued our interest this week. Chewing the Fat: Alton Brown on Fried Chicken "Colonel Sanders pole dancing!!! That is why I *heart* Alton. I'd like to see HIM pole dancing....er....wait, maybe not."—juliebugsmama Popcorn Eating Technique from an Asian Mom "I think Bruce Lee Roy from The Last Dragon patented this technique =P"—johnnytakes5 'Top Chef' Season 5, Episode 1 "I knew Patrick was a goner as soon as he walked into the grocery store and said (paraphrasing): 'We have a whole course about Asian cooking at my school.'"—sarag22 Who Should Be... More

Switzerland has been keeping a little secret from us: they grow spaghetti. On trees. During the spring of 1957, the crop was especially fertile. The pasta strands hung there like any apple or pear would, and farmers reaped the noodly harvest. Now, if only they could get their act together on a meatball bush. We linked to this back in April of 2007, but the BBC investigative report on spaghetti farming was a little difficult to navigate. Here it is, easy peasy, after the jump.... More

Gordon Ramsay's plan for world domination is making progress. His fourth branch of Maze (with outlets already in London, New York, and Prague) is slated to open in Melbourne in February 2010. [via Coldmud]... More

Back to the 1950s: In Eagle Rock, California, Damon Gambuto stumbled on The Oinkster, a retro fitted slow, fast food joint with hearty burgers and peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. Detroit Soda Sighting in Chicago: Michael Nagrant relives his Motor City childhood at Steve's Deli in Chicago, where they carry the trademark Detroit soda, Vernor's Ginger Ale. A Slice to Bring Home to Mama: New Yorkers know pizza and the line around Sal's Pizzeria is a good sign you won't be disappointed. Tried and True: Like Hollywood, Cassell's is a classic, and Nick Solares immortalizes their burgers—especially the buns. Inaugurate This Pizza: When the Obamas move permanently to Washington D.C., they will surely miss the Hyde Park haunt Italian... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Shop for any groceries you need for your weekend of precooking.... More

©iStockphoto.com/ktphotog The U.S. isn't letting anything in from China that contains milk, due to concerns of melamine contamination. So far, the industrial chemical has left tens of thousands of Chinese infants sick, and at least four dead, reports the Wall Street Journal. The ban will include such products as infant's milk, regular milk, chocolate, cheese, ice cream, and pet food. According to the FDA, shady stuff was happening. Some Chinese producers were watering down milk to make it go farther while adding melamine to increase the nitrogen and protein content to disguise the tampering.... More

I admit it. My life is not exactly made to order for conventional dieting programs. In any given week I end up going to a couple potential diet-busting events that could make my Friday morning Serious Eats weigh-in problematic. So I've adopted some strategies and tactics that may sound nutty but have been surprisingly effective. For example, I weigh myself every day, which Weight Watchers frowns on as regular practice. I know my weight can fluctuate two and even three pounds depending on how much water I am retaining, even without going to one of these food events. But by getting on the scale every day, I get some sense of how I have fared each day and can adjust... More

Photograph from geekgirlunveiled on Flickr One summer I worked in the tea industry, and remember learning that oolong was held in high esteem. When referencing the semi-oxidized tea (somewhere between green and black), people usually looked at me funny. "Oo-who?" Jane Black at the Washington Post investigates the stigma against oolong. Part of oolong's lack of wide acceptance can be traced to a fear factor. Unlike green and black teas, which require one steeping, oolongs benefit from multiple infusions. That is because the leaves are picked when they are bigger and thicker, and multiple rounds of hot water help the flavors blossom and intensify. As a result, the Chinese and the Taiwanese like to drink oolongs gong-fu style. The... More

Photograph from Travis Hornung on Flickr Our Snapshots from Asia correspondent Wan Yan Ling has already done a great job hipping us to odd produce, like red-fleshed dragon fruit, dried dragon eyes, pulasans, and rambutans. The Web Ecoist reminds us that some things look more science fiction than edible. For example, the Kiwano melon has monstrous green goo in its center, Romanescu broccoli looks like it hosts a tiny civilization on its bright green peaks, and the dragon fruit appears to have just come out of a video game. (In case you don't know how to eat these foods, check out Weird Food.) So what's the most exotic fruit or veggie you've eaten?... More

Photograph from passiveaggressivenotes on Flickr I'm surprised my turtle hasn't left me a note like this yet. My roommate Jessica is by far the better parent of Cecil, our red-eared slider turtle (named after the old man-voiced turtle in Looney Toons). This is a non-passive-aggressive thank you to Jessica for making sure Cecil is not dead. Jessica and Tiffany should be friends.... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, The Kitchn shares entries from their Best Pie Bakeoff, including this "Pie of the Vine" made of grapes, which is vying for most "original." Also on the Kitchn, how to make bubble and squeak, nutritional yeast explained, tips on saving failed buttercream frosting, and crystallized ginger.... More

Vernor’s Ginger Ale, the green labeled brew which once had a crazy bearded Viking gnome as its mascot, is pure elixir of liquid nostalgia. While I grew up in Detroit, it was the ubiquitous beverage that filled the basement fridge at my Polish grandparent’s house. I still remember peering over a glass of the stuff for the first time and getting knocked over by stinging carbonated ginger droplets that shot up my nose. This still applies. Try huffing a freshly poured glass of it today and it’ll kill your nostril hairs like Chinese mustard. In addition to drinking Vernor's Ginger Ale all the time, every late November we’d head out to the annual Detroit Thanksgiving Day parade and eke out... More

Spice cookies are about as diverse as they come: There are gingersnaps, gingerbread men, hermits, and Lebkuchen, to name just a few. Personally, my favorites have always been the kind that are big, soft, and sprinkled with sugar. And while simple molasses-laced cookies are not difficult to make from scratch, I couldn't resist the potential for instant—and delicious—gratification when I spotted the packages of Betty Crocker Limited Edition Gingerbread Cookie Mix ($2.79) at my local supermarket. Sweet, spicy cinnamon flavor in only 20 minutes? Could it be true?... More

Stabuckoholics can now buy a Gold Card for $25. They advertise a bunch of vague perks ("exclusive offers and discounts"), but as Cruftbox points out, the main one is 10% off most purchases. That means if you spend $250 a year on Starbucks, you'll break even. Let's consider the two types of Stabuckoholics. Those who buy the prole drip coffee, and those who fork over for fancy stuff with whipped cream. Mathematically, if you factor in the card's two free drink opportunities (upon purchase and your birthday), here's how the two types will break even: Drip Coffee Types: 136 small cups of drip coffee (just under three a week or 11 cups a month) Fancy Folks: 42 four-dollar drinks... More

What is the first thing you do when you get off the plane at Heathrow? If you are anything like me and usually opt for the red-eye, chances are you go straight to your hotel. If you are lucky enough to call that hotel Claridge's, leave your bags at the door, and stop in for a Rich Organic Dark Chocolate before dragging yourself to your room. Claridge's serves, hands down, the most delicious, and most lovely, hot chocolate that I've ever experienced. And I say experienced because that is what it is, an experience—particularly English in its refinement, and particularly European in its quality. It arrives in Wonderland tea party-style, with whimsical mint-striped cups and pitchers, one filled with... More

In addition to buttery croissants, macarons, and duck confit, France now brings us some bad-ass can throwing skills. Can you recycle your soda and juice containers with such panache and accuracy? Watch the video after the jump.... More

As Ed pointed out in his report on Top Chef's premiere last night, a bond formed among three gay cheftestants: Patrick, Jaime, and Richard. "Team Rainbow" was born over a glass of wine and testaments to being "sooooo gay." Jaime was in the second she said, "I have a T-shirt that has a rainbow on it. I'll totally wear it." To celebrate, the Bravo network made its own "Team Rainbow" T-shirt for all viewers supporting the multicolored pride. Watch a clip of the bond forming after the jump.... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Make a plan for how you will execute the meal. Decide what can you make before Thanksgiving, like cranberry sauce or boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes, and figure out how long it will take to cook things on the holiday.... More

This time of year, it seems the leaves are falling into my path at every corner. There is one leaf, however, that—as I wade through puddles of red and crispy orange—I have yet to encounter. Brenda Pederson of Culinary Fool blogs that elusive fall leaf, Maple Cream Cookies. A Canadian delicacy, the leaf-shaped cookies are filled with maple cream, made from 100% pure maple syrup. This cookie is a definite Canadian seasonal supermarket must. Has anyone tried them or found them in the States?... More

Learn about the origins of your favorite ring of boiled and baked wheat in this short history of the bagel by Joan Nathan of Slate. For a longer history of the bagel, check out Maria Balinska's recently published book, The Bagel: A Cultural History.... More

On this week's Chewing the Fat webisode, our man Alton Brown goes deep into the world of fried chicken. Southern fried chicken to be exact. More

Blueberry French Toast from Shopsin's. Photograph from roboppy on Flickr. As your new Serious Eats breakfast correspondent, ready to take you on a journey of the pre-noon delicious, I feel the need to first defend my favorite meal of the day. As meals go, breakfast is a polarizing one. In this country, at least, no one denies the need for lunch or dinner. But for many otherwise serious eaters, breakfast is overlooked or under-enjoyed—a granola bar gobbled in the pantry, a drive-through cup of coffee, or nothing at all. There’s a litany of typical breakfast excuses: "I’m not hungry in the morning." “I don’t have time for a full meal." "My stomach complains if I eat before noon." Some... More

All right, Top Chef junkies. Listen up. Your jonesin' days are over for the time being. Tom, Padma, Gail, and the rest of the resident and guest experts have been joined by 17 aspiring top toques in New York City. Based on tonight's first episode, it's going to be a doozy of a season. My favorite introductory quote came from Daniel, a twenty-something chef from Babylon, New York: "I was so unnoticed for the longest time." You're 25, dude, how long could you have gone unnoticed? What's interesting to me is how quickly casual viewers like me immediately find people to root for in the very first show. Jaime the tattooed lesbian chef from where else—San Francisco—I'm with you.... More

Clockwise from top left: Jerome "Chef" McElroy from South Park, Mrs. Lovett the baker from Sweeney Todd, Ned the pie-maker from Pushing Daisies, TV chef Jackie Chan from Mr. Nice Guy. Unlike the pies of Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) in Sweeney Todd—made of priests, poets, and other victims of the upstairs barber shop—those of Ned (Lee Pace), the pie maker on Pushing Daisies, are not alive. (You know, berries and butter and stuff.) Either way, pie has a special significance in television and cinema, as does food in general. Zap2it put together this slideshow of 43 fictional characters who spend their time in the kitchen. Who are your favorites?... More

This photo caught my eye while I was paging through my Flickr contacts. It's a wall mural comprising cuts of meat at the restaurant Fette Sau in Brooklyn. Taken by Mintyfresh of the knitting blog Pepperknit.... More

Red Mango, the frozen yogurt chain that's not Pinkberry, just launched a pomegranate yogurt this week, adding a third flavor to the menu's "original" and "green tea." Oddly enough, Pinkberry is also introducing a pomegranate flavor next week, except it doesn't advertise the POM Wonderful juice as an ingredient, as with Red Mango's version. For me, the appeal of pomegranate is in the seeds. The crunch, the tang, the way they mysteriously dissolve in your mouth. But pomegranate-flavored yogurt? Does pomegranate even have a defined flavor? (Other than generic reddish, tartish fruit?) It's not Red Mango's fault that the yogurt isn't overwhelmingly pomegranate; I'm not sure pomegranate even knows what it should taste like. Extracting the "essence" of the... More

Want a way to serve pie to your cat without getting a stomach ache? Etsy seller CatzillaCrafts offers an organic catnip pumpkin pie toy for $6.99 a slice, guaranteed to keep the kitty away from the kitchen when you're baking for the holidays. The hand-sewn pie features a realistic "flaky pie crust" and a "dollop of whipped cream." CatzkillaCrafts also offers carrot cake, cherry pie, doughnuts, eclairs, banana pancakes, and red velvet cake toys. Though I don't think your cat will really care what shape the catnip comes in, at least you can convince yourself he or she is as food-obsessed as you are.... More

"The Naked Chef" has a new video game called What’s Cooking? and it offers something Cooking Mama lacks—100 real recipes. Each one is by Oliver, and comes with an image of the completed dish, an ingredient list, step-by-step instructions, and Oliver's additional comments. Related: 'Cooking Mama: World Kitchen' Preview... More

Singer/songwriter Cathy Wiegand, also known as Keyboard Kathy, likes sashimi so much that she wrote this song dedicated to the "sushi without the rice." I'm not sure whether her sashimi passion is endearing or discomforting—maybe somewhere in between. Close your eyes and you might think you're listening to a musical about sashimi and Chinese food. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Photograph from mollycakes on Flickr Ever struggle with a recipe? We all have. Pastry chef Shuna Fish Lydon puts things in perspective with 11 1/2 rules on recipes: Rule #1: Recipes are guides.Rule #2: A recipe is not out to get you.Rule #11: A recipe in one state, in one city, on one continent, at one specific altitude, does not, I repeat: does not necessarily work on another that is totally different.Rule #11 1/2: Recipes change based on many a variable: class, climate, tradition, religion, animal husbandry practices, air quality, altitude, financial choices, wars, famines, economic downturns, thriftiness, shelf-life... A good reminder next time you're wrestling with a dough that won't rise or cookies that disappoint.... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Start compiling a list of all the perishable ingredients you will need, save for the meat, which you should have all ready ordered.... More

What's the point of a recipe postcard? No, these are not from a kitchen accessories shop selling "Kiss the Cook" aprons and oinking pig fridge magnets, but from a regular English stationery store, next to the usual "Greetings from England" postcards with laughing Oxford gargoyles and Union Jack underpants. The question is, who should receive these? They say a way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and since the heart of my man lives across the pond, maybe I should woo him with recipes for food I would be making him. Or maybe, next time I am invited to a dinner party, and the hostess's food leaves much to be desired, my thank you note can be... More

Here's a possible popcorn eating technique—good for those times when your popcorn is extra buttery—from My Mom Is a Fob (FAQ in case that title makes no sense to you). Definitely more refined than my technique, which is to shovel bulging handfuls of popcorn into my mouth. Related: Blogwatch: Herbed Popcorn Cook the Book: Spicy Buttered Popcorn Red Carpet-Worthy Popcorn... More

May the dark parts of the toast be with you. Available at Star Wars Shop for $54.99. [via Wired] Related Online Toaster Museum Scan Toaster 'Prints' onto Bread Photo of the Day: Death Star Melon... More

Not the Wegmans in question, but probably just as awesome nonetheless. In some ways, I can totally relate to this woman. Because, even though I've only been exposed to Wegmans a couple dozen times—and all very briefly—I love the place. One of my sons said, “Mom, are you really crying about this?” My daughter buried her head. I knew that (1) I was a complete loser, (2) I will forever love everything that reminds me of my hometown, and (3) I will always have a thing for Wegmans. My fellow flat-A-accented upstate friends understood: Something we all grew up with had moved in next door and now was everyone’s. Wegmans is a chain of grocery stores that started in... More

Why braising will keep your bird its' juiciest. More

I attended two farmers' markets last week, and may go to another today. It probably had something to do with the elections. With the exception of writing about the importance of eating locally and supporting small farmers, I don't tend to use my online writing to talk politics. There are many cogent opinions about politics around the Internet, and I don't like to bore you all. But I will say this: Many of us Californians were put through the ringer last week. It was an extremely bittersweet week as we watched the results of the presidential election at the same time as our anti-gay marriage amendment and a proposition to give more freedom to our chickens, pigs and cows... More

Candy Blog takes issue with the Belgian part of Trader Joe's new Belgian 100-calorie chocolate bars (0.63 ounce per bar): "Just because the country has a great history and a good reputation for producing good chocolate doesn’t mean that just because it’s Belgian that it’s better, or even good."... More

Just when you thought no gecko could be any cuter than the Geico gecko, along comes this Hawaiian hottie. According to National Geographic, who voted it one of the best photos of 2008, the lithe lizard shimmied down the restaurant wall, stole a lick of a vacationer’s dessert, and ran off. He may not have good table manners, or be able to speak or save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance, but he has a very refined palate. How can you be mad at something so cute for running out on the check?... More

When you're in a bind, the Swiss Army knife usually does just the trick. Nail file, screwdriver, and all-around snipper of things—what a little superhero. But what about when your tummy grumbles? Also an emergency, except the knife can't really help. Introducing the Swiss Chocolate Knife. A one-time use, but what a good time it would be. [via Gizmodo]... More

Every Tuesday, Jamie Forrest drops by with Serious Cheese. Photograph courtesy of Hidden Springs Creamery Yesterday's Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article about folks who have given up the corporate life for a life on the farm making cheese. It profiles Wisconsinite Brenda Jensen, whose Hidden Springs Creamery burst on the scene last year with a first place finish in the fresh sheep's milk cheese category at the American Cheese Society annual competition. Crafting small batches of hand-made sheep's milk cheeses, Jensen is beating a new path in a state with an entrenched dairy industry that is decidedly non-artisanal and heavily cow-focused. I (and probably most cheese lovers) have at least fantasized about leaving their urban existence behind to... More

In the past, it has been Regis Philbin and various little kids. Related: Alton Brown chews the fat with Serious Eats [Yahoo Finance]... More

Photograph from lauromaia on Flickr The “Mother Road”—or what’s left of it—turns 82 today. Which reminds me, serious eater robincat asked in Talk about serious eating options along the historic highway. There are only a handful of replies so far. Come on, people! There's gotta be more great food along this route. Get your kicks on in Talk.... More

What's Lidia Bastianich, famed restaurateur, public television personality, and cookbook author, doing for the holidays? Find out! More

To make 49 pounds of honey: "The yield filled many, many jars—half-pints, full-pints, and twelve-ounce.... The honey is a delicious and flavorful mix from flowers and fruit and vegetable blossoms from my garden. Come and have a look at this lovely, golden treasure."... More

Despite the rough year, Starbucks still brought in $10.4 billion.... More

The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. The Russian housemate adores mulled cider. This wouldn’t be a problem except, come fall, my usually easy-going housemate morphs into a mulled cider dictator and gets monopolistic about fridge space – insisting that there is no room for any other kind of beverage. No oj, no soy milk, no nothing save for yet another jug of mulled cider. And while I used to love the stuff, palate fatigue is real… and I have no use for it on my cereal. Hence, this year, us housemates are plotting an intervention: employing the logic of gradually weaning... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Assemble your tablecloths and napkins—purchase them, if necessary—and make sure they're cleaned and pressed.... More

I’ve met a lot of awesome tourists. There are some “types” of people who I have come to expect. I’m not eager to typecast, but it’s amazing how people so often behave, at least during our brief interactions, in some very predictable ways. Here's an incomplete cast of characters. More

From the Presurfer comes 50 Strange Buildings of the World. There are three food-themed buildings in the mix. Above, from left, the Kettle House in Texas; the Longaberger Basket home office in Newark, Ohio; the Pickle Barrel House in Grand Marais, Michigan. But my favorite food-themed building by far is The Donut Hole in La Puente, California: Photograph from GarySe7en on Flickr... More

Amazon.com The New York Times recently devoted the Books section to children's books, with one piece focusing on those that discuss childhood obesity. In Bebe Moore Campbell's I Get So Hungry, the protagonist Nicky gets teased at school. "Nicky Thicky." Her mom says she comes from a lineage of big-boned women. Her curious relationship with food climaxes when her teacher, Mrs. Patterson, must be hospitalized for her obesity. The moral is that kids are influenced by eating patterns, especially emotional eating, and need guidance from adults as to what's "healthy." About a third of kids in the country are overweight, and according to the article, about half of New York City's public elementary school kids are overweight. Though children... More

If you're familiar M.I.A.'s work and stylings, it's a very unexpected list, to be sure. Still not as good as the Foo Fighters' rider (bacon as "God's currency").... More

This one's making the rounds on Digg today: An evolution of Pabst advertising. From the days when dubious claims of healthfulness were used, through unfortunate racial stereotyping, through some surprisingly diverse ads, and finally—though not a true advertisement—the beer's infamous appearance in David Lynch's Blue Velvet.... More

My, how far we have come in pirate cake pan innovation. That of yesterday, and pictured above, those of today. This new-age one is available from JCPenney for $31.99. [Hat tip to Jaden at Steamy Kitchen] Related Geek Cakes Massive Birthday Burger Cake How to Make a Pizza-Themed Cake... More

"BioBeer, as it's called, has three genes spliced into special brewer's yeast that produce resveratrol, the chemical in red wine that is thought to protect against diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's and other age-related conditions." [Discovery News, via Boing Boing]... More

Emo Cows listen to Dashboard Confessional and wear tight pants, because they know you will eat them. They are so sad, they must sport the side-swept bangs. Such furry cattle with such raw emotions. [via Super Punch]... More

With all the channels on broadcast TV and cable—and the inevitable episode repeats—it's hard to sort out what's new or worthwhile. Let us sort it out for you so you don't miss anything worth watching. Times may vary with region; check your local listings for exact hour and channels. Recommended Show: The fith season of Top Chef premieres Wednesday night! Check out our preview of the first episode Top Chef New York. 10 p.m. ET, Bravo Monday (November 10) Good Eats (warning, a video plays automatically on site: "Flat is Beautiful: Going Crackers." Homemade crackers. 8 p.m. ET, Food Network Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Doin' Their Own Thing." Guy discovers restaurants with unique... More

A veggie burger may not pass for a meat-based burger, but that doesn't mean it tastes bad. Monica Eng of the Chicago Tribune shares her picks for best veggie burgers around the city, in creative categories such as "Tastiest Pick for Mushroom Haters," "Best Sweet Potato Veggie Burger," and "Tastes Most Like a Chicago Hot Dog."... More

Top Chef is back this Wednesday on Bravo at 10/9 central time with 17 new cheftestants in New York. "Bright knives, Big city" is their little mantra. The first quickfire will weed out the worst apple peeler. Each person has 15 apples to peel—but no peelers allowed, just knives. Tom Colicchio isn't messing around either. Too much apple flesh cut, and you're cut. Yes, somebody will leave the Big Apple for an apple. Watch clips from the first episode after the jump.... More

Words by Ed Levine | Just in time for the holidays and this week's Cook the Book giveaway comes Ina Garten's new book, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics. I love Garten's books and recipes for three simple and satisfying reasons: 1. Her recipes always work 2. They're eminently doable 3. Boy, does the woman know delicious I also feel that Garten manages to empower home cooks in a thoroughly appealing and noncondescending fashion. Whenever I make one of her recipes, I'm supremely confident it's going to turn out well. For this week's recipes we chose dishes that are perfect for any kind of a holiday get-together, from a Thanksgiving feast to a casual cocktail party or potluck dinner with friends... More

There are lots of things you can do with a microwave, other than the social norm (warm up leftovers). You can throw in a jar of Fluff or a plastic doll's head, and wait to see if it blows up. Or, throw in a pile of marshmallows with Christmas lights on top, then see if that blows up. A few guys put on lab coats and channeled their inner mad scientists. It's a six minute video, but if you like blowing stuff up vicariously, watch after the jump.... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Start grocery shopping for basic, nonperishable foodstuffs, like pickles, olives, nuts, wine, etc.... More

"Gastón Acurio has restaurants in nine countries, a culinary school, and a hit television show. So how come you’ve never heard of him?" [Portfolio]... More

Must Wash Hands, a photo blog documenting "employees must" signs in restaurant loos. I heard once that the proper amount of hand-washing time was however long it took you to sing "Happy Birthday." Let's all not sing that aloud in the can, though. [via Eat Me Daily]... More

From left: Art Smith, Rick Bayless, Daniel Young The New York Daily News reported on Sunday that three chefs are supposedly under consideration for the Obamas' White House chef. They are former Oprah chef Art Smith, authentic Mexican chef and food oracle Rick Bayless, and NBA star Carmelo Anthony's personal chef, Daniel Young. I don't know if any of the three are seriously in contention for the job (the reporting was not exactly definitive), but if they are, I think Art Smith would be the odds-on favorite. In any case, the story got me thinking about who could or should get the job. Serious Eaters, this is your chance to put forward your suggestions for filling the Obamas' White... More

Photograph from Jamoker on Flickr "Democracy is even tastier when served with waffle fries." —anonymous... More

For dexterous hands, illustrator Jason Shogreen takes the Bloods gang sign one step further with this "blood sausage" gang sign. [via Eat Me Daily]... More

Speaking of hunting, have you always wanted your thermos to look like ammo? This shotgun canister will earn you major points with outdoorsy hunter types. $24.77, from greatbigstuff.com [via Boing Boing Gadgets]... More

Photograph from mandj98 on Flickr A study that examined the lead levels of more than 700 residents in North Dakota revealed the hazards of eating wild game shot with lead bullets. People who ate wild game killed with lead bullets had higher levels of lead than those who didn't. Although not dangerous for most people, North Dakota health officials recommend that pregnant women and children under six years old avoid eating venison killed with lead bullets.... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Preorder your meats to guarantee the best cuts and birds. You should average about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of meat per person.... More

Photograph from Carol Mitchell on Flickr "The sky is falling!" That's what Chicken Little said and then panicked after an acorn dropped on his head. Even though he comes from a fable, it appears chickens might be terrified of things in the sky. In London, the Telegraph reported claims from a farmer that the presence of hot air balloons were causing her chickens to go into hysteria. But, in their attempt to hide, the birds bump into enough other frightened poultry, or walls, causing their unlaid eggs to explode inside their bodies, killing them. This bit of news is surprising and sad. But fortunately, the ballooning company has agreed to steer clear of the hen's fields now.... More

In this video from Philly.com, Stewart admits she's never had a cheesesteak. Sure she's had a cheesesteak, just not in Philly. Come on, Martha! Philadelphia is, like, 90 minutes away (on a good traffic day)! Given a Pat's and a Geno's cheesesteak to try, she calls Pat's bland and says Geno's is better, though she doesn't seem that enthused about cheesesteaks in general. Related: Pat's vs. Geno's on Colbert Report... More

Lazarus Wine is made by people who are blind and uses the Braille alphabet. Madrid-based agency Baud designed the beautiful, innovative label, which comes in black or bright yellow. [via Swissmiss] Related: Braille on Beer Cans in Japan... More

It's from Philanthropy Roundtable, so it understandably has a heavy philanthropic focus. Still, there's some biographical background that may be of interest to Chick-fil-A fans.... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Plan your menu, and work out how much food per person you will need. Bookmark it: Butterball's Calculators and Conversions tools.... More

According to our handy site-metering utility, the top 10 most delicious items on Serious Eats this week were ... 1. Election Night Party Food You all must have been busy cooking up poll-watching grub Tuesday night. See also: Election Night Party, from SE Talk. 2. Grilling: North Carolina Vinegar Barbecue Sauce Heated discussion on the authenticity of our grilling contributor Joshua Bousel's North Carolina barbecue sauce recipe. It's gettin' hot in here. [from Recipes] 3. Why Don't Professional Chefs Use a Garlic Press? "I have a garlic press that I love. I use it daily, whenever I need to add garlic to any of my recipes. It is quick and simple and easy to clean. I have noticed on Food... More

Photograph from Dan4th on Flickr My dad, since day one, decided he hated mayo. Anytime we're at a restaurant, it's the same drill: him asking if mayo is on stuff, him specifying no mayo, and him basically scaring the server so bad, they wouldn't think to put mayo anywhere near him. Secretly, I always want to whisper to the waiter: "He's not really allergic to mayo." Because it's all a lie. He won't break into hives or anaphylactic shock. Yesterday's Washington City Paper broached the same topic: is it wrong to dislike a food, but at restaurants, call it an allergy? Most servers and chefs know your games. They know certain ingredients (like chicken or pepper) aren't likely allergens,... More

Desert Nostalgia: Our Chicago man Michael Nagrant was zapped to his past with D'Amato's tiramisu. Burger Train: At Carney's in Southern California there is a severe lack of circus folk, but an abundance of box cars serving up tasty beef patties. Fashionable Hot Dogs: Ed travels great lengths (half a block from Serious Eats HQ) for Charlie's Fashion Hot Dogs, where he dares Charlie to make a knish dog (a hot dog inside a big pillowy knish). Italy, Studying Abroad in Chicago: Slice into the pizza-making skills of three Italian chefs (from Florence, Rome, and Sardinia) at I Monelli Trattoria Pizzeria in Chicago's Lincoln Square area. If the Packers Love It: Mark Murphy, owner of the Green Bay Packers,... More

I had to do a double-take when I saw this photo of a steamed mini crab dumpling in Renée Suen's Flickr. I've seen some creatively shaped dim sum in my life, but never a pink dumpling in the shape of a crab, complete with pincers, a speckled "shell," and black sesame seed eyes. Renée says that the dumpling was filled with fresh crab meat, shrimp mousse, and vegetable sprouts. To get your own pink baby crab dumpling go to Lai Wah Heen in Toronto. Related Photo of the Day: Little Dumpling Photo of the Day: Giant Soup Dumpling... More

Dim sum in these parts has basically jumped the shark. While we’re no Vancouver or San Francisco, we have a couple of really solid options, Phoenix and Shui Wah. Problem is like every brunch spot in the city, they’re so popular, you usually spend more time getting jostled by other fanny pack clad patrons waiting for a seat in the lobby than you do eating. As a result, my dim sum consumption is pretty much in line with my green leafy vegetable consumption, which is to say, pretty much zero. Last Sunday, though, I pulled myself out of bed, won the culinary lotto, and found myself with only a five-minute wait at Shui Wah. Shui Wah is home to... More

We're bananas for what goes on in Talk. There's so much useful, funny, and interesting stuff going on that we almost can't keep up. Here's some of the discussion that's piqued our interest this week. How not to say, "I love you": "I used to write little 'I love you' messages on the outside of their snack baggies, until my son brought his lunchbag home with the baggies empty and the messages unceremoniously scribbled out. When I questioned him about it, he got really embarrassed, and felt bad that he might have "hurt my feelings" but said, 'Mummy, I love you too, but when you write messages like that to me in my lunch the other boys tease me!'—juliebugsmama What... More

Photograph from Spencer E Holtaway on Flickr Gangsters did it during prohibition and now, even though liquor is legal, you can too. Gourmet's Ian Knauer shares his quick and easy recipe using juniper berries and spices. If you just want to spruce up a bottle of cheap gin, add sloe berries, a relative of the plum. This makes a ruby red, sweeter drink. The base for making gin is vodka, so if you are like me and your stomach turns with each sip of the juniper berry-infused beverage, there are other things you can do to flavor it. Sauver featured a recipe for pineapple-infused vodka where you take sugar, vodka, and a whole pineapple. You let it sit in... More

Seasonal Marshmallows: Amanda Clarke develops a recipe for pumpkin-spice marshmallows, good for adding a kick to yams or sprucing up a cup of hot cocoa. Decadence Has a New Name: And that name is glazed doughnut bacon egg cheeseburger. It has to be the most elaborate combination of fast food ingredients ever. November 4th Cake: St. Louis food writer Ann Lemons Pollack explains the history of Election Cake, a patriotic dessert since Jefferson days. Bacon Makes Everything Better: It's hard to find fault with the orecchietta with cauliflower and bacon dish, then again, it's hard to find fault with bacon. Cactus, Not Caucus: When was the last time you cooked with a cactus? Never? Well, here is your chance... More

On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, she stands up for cheapo wines. Photograph from filtran on Flickr In today's Wall Street Journal Tastings column, two of the country's most distinguished and level-headed wine journalists (Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher) announced their annual wine gift pick for the holidays. Usually, this wine is expensive, hard to find, or both. This year, it's a case of Gamay from the Beaujolais—one of the world's best wine bargains. Gaiter and Brecher explain why they made this unorthodox choice: "a single, very expensive bottle of wine seems as dated as bloated executive bonuses." Is America ready to put aside its love affair with $100-plus... More

Did your parents love you as much as the dad behind Lunch Bag Art, a blog that shows the cute lunch bags he draws each day for his kids? Mine may have been, but couldn't show it because they weren't as artistically inclined. I hope Dylan and Dana keep the bags even after they finish their lunches. Related 'Moldy' Bag Deters Lunch Thieves The Most Disgusting School Lunches Cute Cuddle-Worthy Bento Boxes... More

Today's Thanksgiving Planning Tip: Plan how many people you will serve and make a guest list.... More

I was hoping that two barriers would be broken though this week--the more important one of course was Barack Obama becoming the first African-American president we've ever had. Watching the election returns with friends Tuesday night, I have to admit I had tears streaming down my face at 11 p.m. Eastern time when CNN and others announced Obama had the requisite 270 electoral votes necessary to become our next president. My son, Will, called from college right then, and though he is just about as cool a customer as president-elect Obama, I thought I even heard a quiver in his voice. The second barrier I hoped to break this week was seemingly much more mundane: my own personal 240... More

Photograph from Kevin Lawver on Flickr Most Californians probably aren't awake yet, but when they rise, I hope something like this is waiting for them. Breakfast burritos are as West Coast as the vineyards and wheat grass. Growing up there, I had no clue that in other states, people didn't eat a massive hunk of food the size of Hulk's arm before noon. It just seemed so normal.... More

Cupcake blog Cupcake Takes the Cake interviewed Zilly Rosen, the baker and artist behind the 1,240 cupcake mosaic of Barack Obama's portrait, about how she made the mosaic along with other cupcake-related questions.... More

"I’m black, you see, and I haven’t gained a pound since college. I skip breakfast most days, have maybe half a sandwich for lunch, and sometimes I forget to eat dinner. Just slips my mind. Yesterday morning, I woke up to a new world. America had elected a Skinny Black Guy president." —Colson Whitehead, Skinny Black Guy... More

Photograph by Michele Humes If your first reaction to this photo isn't, "BUUUNNNNIIIIIESS!!! AHHHH!!! EEEEHEEHEE! BUNNIIIESS!!!" then something's wrong with you. Because that was my reaction, and God knows I'm the definition of normalcy. These rabbits, Brodsky and Peanut, belong to Michele Humes of the food blog Fine Furious Life. In an entry about innate likes and dislikes with food, she explains that while Brodsky loves carrots, Peanut won't touch them. Michele's dislikes include floral note, tarragon, and fennel. I would try to think of my own, but I'm too distracted by the adorably fluffy bunnies.... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, The Kitchn is celebrating high-pie season with a Pie Bakeoff. Enter the "classic" or "creative" category before next Monday for a chance to win lots of sweet pie-related stuff. Since the Kitchn is in total pie mode, we made this a pie-themed roundup. Learn à la mode strategies, three approaches to the crust, how to make mini mince pies, and why one baker harbors anti-pie sentiments (gasp!).... More

Earlier today, I mentioned Bob Bacon trouncing Matt Fries in Colorado's District 14 State Senate election on Tuesday. In the comments there, Serious eater amanda0730 reminded us all of the "Would you rather give up bacon or french fries?" thread from July 29, 2008, in Talk. With 56 serious eaters reporting, I'm ready to call that "election." Bacon wins by a landslide, giving this porky product a clear mandate to dominate our plates and palates for years to come. The eaters have spoken. The breakdown: The issue: Would you rather give up bacon or fries? Give up bacon: 15 (26.7%) Give up fries: 28 (50%) Undecided*: 13 (23.2 %) Total serious eaters reporting: 56 Like some ballot initiatives, this... More

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With all the intense preparation needed for Thanksgiving dinners, a baking mix or sauce mix here and there isn't going to make or break the authenticity of your meal. The key is to use mixes that actually make life easier, rather than ones that complicate your free time. While I may not be preparing a whole meal for the holidays, the least I can do is bring a side dish, or perhaps, a bag of fresh buttermilk biscuits. So when Ed Levine handed me a pack of Organic Southern Buttermilk Biscuit Mix ($10.50 at Williams-Sonoma, at stores only) to try at home, I happily obliged and got to work. The tools necessary: the mix, a stick of unsalted butter,... More

Alissa Ruxin, an American with a masters in public health, was looking for a job in Africa--because Africa has overwhelming public health needs, she thought--but she found a kitchen opportunity instead. With no background in the hospitality industry, she and her husband Josh started Heaven Bar and Restaurant near the commercial center of Kigali, Rwanda, in the Kiyovu neighborhood. Here, food is just one of many priorities. Also on the list: boost the economy, support tourism, and create jobs with livable wages and healthcare for orphans and other vulnerable youth. Not only does the concept and setting sound beautiful--a large terrace overlooking hilly Kigali decorated with hand-made furniture from Rwandan artisans--but the menu looks tasty too. Pumpkin squash soup,... More

"Rule #3: Man, completely unaided, chooses a 'published' recipe from any source, or Internet. Getting the recipe from 'her' cookbooks is allowed, but man gets bonus points if the recipe isn't already somewhere in the house." May we suggest the Serious Eats Recipes archive? [menmakedinnerday.com]... More

I never thought of applying the word "peeling" to a watermelon, but this Japanese chef shows that with a good chef's knife and steady hands, you can peel an appropriately-sized watermelon...in 30 seconds. You know, for all those times you need watermelon flesh ASAP. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Halloween is over, but we still feel a bit devilish. So when blogger Brilynn of Jumbo Empanadas asks, "What's your favourite hors d'oeuvres or appetizer," we responded by Blogwatching her picturesque Shrimp-Topped Deviled Eggs. Retro-chic at its best and most delicious. Besides deviled eggs, any other appetizers worth selling your soul for?... More

John Scalzi You might even say it's a landslide. That's Bob Bacon (D) vs. Matt Fries (R) running for Colorado's State Senate District 14. See the final tally here. I hope Bacon can reach across the aisle to Fries. I think their common ground is anywhere you can find a good burger. [via John Scalzi]... More

Photograph from georgetowncupcake.com After eight weeks, a team of four brave Washington Post souls completed a little thing called Cupcake Wars, where week-by-week they sampled any cupcake they could get their paws on inside the Beltway. The winner: the chocolate ganache cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake, a spot that's only nine months old but already sells cupcakes to cultish proportions (4,000 on Saturdays). Editor Joe Yonan—who I saw recently and miraculously looked exactly the same size—came up with a Ten Commandments of Cupcakes. Notable laws include: 1. Learn to walk before you run. Perfect the classic vanilla and chocolate cakes with complementary frostings before you step up to other simple combinations, and long before you try something like Summer Peach Meringue... More

This week, Serious Eats chews the fat with Alton Brown again. We move from last week's donut topic to a chat about race, class, and food. More

Photograph from Augapfel on Flickr Another amazing moment in garbled translation: Elaborate Bacon. Even better is the tagline: "Piece in heart! Fragrance in Mouth." Yes, after savoring the fragrance of the elaborate bacon in my mouth, that piece is going directly to my heart. Related Do Not Want: Crap Meat from L.A.'s Golden Dragon Palace 'Translate server error' Restaurant in China Engrish Burger: 'Fresh & Meat'... More

Photograph by Me So Hungry At Serious Eats, we have a little repository of links we call "The Link Garden." During the course of the day, when someone, anyone, on the SE staff sees something good to blog about but doesn't have time to do it, they "seed" the Link Garden with it. This musing on sweet potato fries by Houston food writer Robb Walsh was one of the seeds planted yesterday, and I volunteered enthusiastically to "water" it. You see, I hate sweet-potato fries. "What? You hate sweet potatoes?" Erin asked in follow-up when my comment appeared in the Link Garden. "No, I like sweet potatoes—and will likely be eating them on the 27th. I hate sweet-potato fries."... More

Photograph from shastio on Flickr There are a lot of Barack Obama–themed baked goods out there, but a picture of Obama made from 1,240 cupcakes is a whole other level of Obama food art. Zilly Rosen of Zillycakes in Buffalo, New York, made this cupcake mosaic yesterday to show her support; I hope that it was eaten today in honor of our next president. [via Cupcake Takes the Cake]... More

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As a part of our Celebrity Chefs Holiday series, some of America's best-known chefs and food television personalities share their favorite holiday dishes, provide recipes for them, and even tell us who will be at their holiday tables. Today we talk to Mario Batali. What's your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal and why? I love the stuffing and the gravy, they represent the most personal components of the meal. I don't think I'm alone in this regard. Doesn't everyone love stuffing and gravy? What are you doing for Thanksgiving this year? Who's going to be there? What is the menu going to be? We're going to my sister-in-law's house with my wife Susi's family. I do not know the... More

Clockwise from top left: Mario Batali, Thomas Keller, Cat Cora, and Lidia Bastianich. As part of our commitment to provide serious eaters with the most informative and entertaining holiday food content, we will bring you unprecedented glimpses into the holiday lives of some of America's best-known chefs and food television personalities. People like Mario Batali and Thomas Keller will talk about their favorite holiday dishes, provide recipes for them, and even tell us who will be at their holiday tables. First up is serious eater Batali, currently starring in PBS's Spain... On the Road Again with Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Bittman.. He'll be followed by, among other folks, Lidia Bastianich and Cat Cora. We'll let the rest of the... More

The Ethicurean, a blog devoted to the organic and sustainable eating ethos, is predisposed to love a film like Food Fight (not to be confused with Foodfight!), where the premise rests on the same mantra. But get ready for a plot twist—they didn't love it. Here’s where I bite the nice hands who fed me the DVD review copy. We three found ourselves squirming restlessly in our pews. Too many putative saints were being paraded past us on litters of glistening lettuces, and the familiar hymns sounded off key in their new arrangements. Ethicurean founder Bonnie Powell watched a preview copy (screenings are just in Los Angeles currently) and while she found it beautiful visually, said it could have... More

“You are the Taishou! Taishou! The owner who won't refuse any press interviews. The cat who makes ramen noodles,” as the theme song goes. Based on a Japanese comic book that later turned into an anime series, Neko Rahmen Taishō is an upcoming film about an angry-looking kitty named Taishou who becomes a ramen master. He uses his skills to create an array of weird dishes: canned cat food (adored by a food critic in one episode); dessert ramen with soy sauce, strawberries, and milk; and ramen composed of partially rotten ingredients. On a more appetizing note, his miso ramen, the favorite of his main customer, appeared a bit safer. The movie, directed by Minoru Kawasaki and released in Japan... More

Egg-laying hens and veal-bound calves everywhere rejoice! With California's Proposition 2 passing yesterday, the farm animals will get ample wiggle room in those cages by 2015.... More

You may still be on a Halloween sugar high, but there's one more sweet you've got to eat. Nicole of Pinch My Salt tosses her sweet potato slivers with garlic, salt, and fresh rosemary then roasts them before serving the "fries" with a buttermilk blue cheese dipping sauce. She touts her little sweets as a savory alternative for "those of us who aren’t a huge fan of sweet potato dishes that are overly sweet"—a viable option for Thanksgiving.... More

In anticipation of next week's return to Top Chef, Bravo launched a restaurant finder where alum and new contestants give their thumbs-up on 250 restaurants in the U.S., as well as a few sprinkled in France, Spain, and Italy.... More

Longtime fisherman Randy Hartnell; photo from Vital Choice My Alaskan friend recently shipped me ten pounds of fresh salmon he caught in the Kenai River. Not a bad cardboard box to find waiting on your doorstep. My first batch—cooked with lemon, sea salt, and pepper— was so tasty, I wanted to jump up and down and invent a happy dance called "The Salmon." Unlike the light pink, over-boiled salmon at Ikea (sorry Ikea)—and most salmon of my childhood (sorry Mom)—this one was a deeper, almost-red shade. Why is Alaskan salmon so much better? To understand, I went to Randy Hartnell, a longtime Alaskan fisherman and founder of a wild fish and berries company called Vital Choice. After over twenty... More

Photograph from Rick on Flickr Answering an emergency call Monday night, Swiss police trekked out to a rural road where motorists reported "a long trail of blood." They followed the mysterious red strip for 12 miles before realizing it was cargo from a butcher's supply van. The barrel of pork blood had spilled accidentally en route to a sausage factory.... More

I like this idea—popping popcorn with herbs in the pot. I'm about to settle in for a long night of election results. What better than a nice big bowl of popcorn with an added twist? Passion for Eating, where the photo above comes from, has the instructions.... More

First it's pig parts, then it's sisig! Photographs from Burnt Lumpia. How could you not want to read a blog post titled "Five Point Pork Exploding Heart Technique"? In this latest post from Marvin of Southern California-based food blog Burnt Lumpia, he unboxes a special package he received last week: a cooler filled with heritage breed Ossabaw pig parts, specifically belly, jowls, and ears. To celebrate the joyous bounty of pork, he will turn the parts into five delicious, pork-centric Filipino dishes to be enjoyed by his wife and him as the rest of us on the Internet simple stare and drool. The first dish he makes is the porkalicious spicy sizzling sisig: Sisig is a spicy and sourish... More

When faced with cute Japanese candy, my brain tends to switch to "automatic Japanese candy response mode" by taking whatever candy is in front of me and placing it into my shopping basket. I have no choice but to buy what goes into my basket. No choice. Even if it's something as ridiculous as Takoyaki-ya San, a gummy candy meant to resemble octopus-filled dough balls. I saw it while shopping at Mitsuwa in Edgewater, New Jersey, where I only had to look at the package for two seconds before deciding, "This probably isn't worth my money, but I'm going to buy it anyway." I wasn't enticed by the takoyaki resemblance though—the best part was that you had to make... More

Photograph from whirledkid on Flickr Twenty-five California schools will participate in a federal program called the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, the goal of which is to get kids to try spinach, cabbage, and other scary good-for-you stuff from the ground. For a school to be eligible, at least half the students must qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, according to the Los Angeles Times. The program first launched in 2002 with 25 schools in Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, as well as a Zuni reservation in New Mexico. Said one 10-year old from a participating Santa Monica school: "Not to brag or anything, but I've always been pretty good about my fruits." Alice Waters's vision for the... More

Photograph from WordRidden on Flickr As we close in on the last few months of a year many of us would soon rather forget, it seems somehow fitting to delve a little deeper into a class of cheeses whose pungent spice can soothe the aching heart: the blues. Like winter, blue cheeses are loathed just as much as they are loved. But love them or hate them, blues are some of the most important cheeses in the world, and some of the most interesting.... More

I love the idea of this blog—comparing a popular foodstuff to a similar but (sometimes) lesser-loved version. With voting for the superior snack. On that note, when am I getting my Hostess Pie?... More

Apparently so: "Flavour in ice cream is only released when the fat content–which carries the flavour–is warmed in the mouth to at least body temperature. During licking, the tongue is coated with a thin layer of ice-cream which is more quickly warmed and the flavour is detected by the large surface area of the taste buds present on the tongue." [via The Food Section]... More

When an election lasts this long, people start doing all kinds of crazy stuff. For one man, that meant rendering the faces of both presidential candidates on slices of American cheese. Artist Esteban Pulido used liquid photo emulsion for his art piece, which will be on display in Normon, Oklahoma, at Forward Foods through the rest of the day. CNN even sent a crew out there to document the decomposition, which is nasty and, according to Pulido, metaphorical. Short video, after the jump.... More

Sometimes actions, and food, speak louder than words. It may have been a queen who declared, "Let them eat cake!" but Bakerella insists that democracy can be just as sweet. These stunning and patriotic little cake pops are Bakerella's "sweet reminder" to take your bite out of the American pie today: VOTE!... More

Both the front and back of the house can be frustrating, demanding, rewarding, infuriating, and amazing places to work. In my humble experience, here's why. More

Before the maple syrup sogs up pancakes, it's just clear sap sitting in sap sacks. Jack Schmidling documents the process, which started last winter (sap flow needs freezing temperatures) and has now entered the boiling and jarring phases. He heats the sap until it reaches half the concentration of syrup, then cools and reduces the liquid to reach actual syrup consistency. This year, Schmidling tapped sap from 23 silver maple trees. [via Neatorama]... More

Photographs from Huffington Post Staring at the screen tomorrow night, watching as states light up red and blue, will require energy. Depending on the winner, it may also require comfort food. Here's some ideas for your election night party menu: Savory "Right Wings" (recipe) Pork Barrel Tenderloin (recipe) Baked ACORN Squash (recipe) War "Hero" Sandwiches (recipes) Obama's Favorite Chili (recipe) Elitist Foods Involving Arugula (recipes) McCain Frozen Foods (more info) Sloppy Plumber Joes (recipe)... More

Last night, Julie Powell watched a "rough" cut of Julie and Julia, the movie (where Ed makes a tiny cameo!) inspired by Powell's 365-day and 524-recipe blog project. "I see my name in magazines in very close proximity to names like 'Meryl' and 'Nora' and take it in stride. But somehow seeing yourself—or a Rom-Com-ed, slimmed-down, considerably less foul-mouthed version of yourself—on a movie screen is a whole different thing."... More

We know you've been waiting for this, so we won't keep you in suspense any longer, bwahahahahahah. The winners of the inaugural Serious Eats Pumpkin-Carving Contest are: 1. Grand Prize OMNOMNOMNOMNOM, by sunkid Prize: Viking Professional Chef's Cutlery Starter Set (includes: 5-inch flexible boning knife, 8-inch chef's knife, 4-inch paring knife). 2. First Runner Up Castle of the Wicked Witch, by stike Prize: 8-inch Viking Professional Chef's Knife 3. Second Runner Up No Country for Old Men-o'-Lantern, by gavinworth Prize: 4-inch Viking Professional Paring Knife 4. Third Runner Up Joker-o-Lantern, by jenhappy Prize: Williams-Sonoma Pumpkin-Carving Kit Note from the Serious Eats Team: Hope your thumb is healing nicely! Thanks to everyone who entered. This was a really tough decision, with... More

Photograph from roboppy on Flickr Caged chickens are right up there with gay marriage and Barack Obama on California's ballot this year. If passed tomorrow, the hot button Proposition 2, or the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, will prohibit the "cruel confinement" of California's pigs, cows, and chickens. Farmers would have until January 1, 2015, to increase space within crates and cages or go entirely cage-free. While many farmers and vets are behind the happy vision of animals being able to stretch their legs, the opposition argues that it could put local egg farmers out of business. If cage real estate gets too expensive, eggs will have to be imported from Mexico (where cage roominess standards don't exist).... More

... Twinkies now sold in 100-calorie snack-pack size. Related: The 100 Calorie Solution—The Answer to Our Prayers?... More

The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. Many people love autumn—the gorgeous fall colors, plentiful apples, hot mulled cider, zany-shaped squash, leftover Halloween candy, etc. I'm no fall grinch, but I completely overdosed on apples as a poor grad student (seriously, I'm talking ten apples a day instead of real food), and am now wary of them. I'm sure my love affair with apples will revive one day, but meanwhile, I'm staying away from them until there's absolutely nothing left to eat in the fruit department. But in fall, what else besides apples can I add to my breakfast muesli—that would not... More

The blog Eat Me Daily did some nice number play with Thomas Keller's new book, Under Pressure: Number of photographs of Thomas Keller that appear in Under Pressure, his new cookbook dedicated to the art of sous vide: 10 Number in which he is frowning: 7 Number in which he is smiling: 2 Number in which he is neither frowning nor smiling, but appears to be dancing the macarena: 1 (page 98) Year in which Keller says he began vacuum-packing food: 1986 Under Pressure is Keller's tome that delves into the world of sous vide cookery. And now, to spread the pain, I've got something after the jump for you.... More

This past weekend, Saturday Night Live was all about the John McCain appearance (and had very few food references), but we forgot to tell you about the weekend before, with Mad Men actor Jon Hamm promoting an innovative product. Jon Hamm's name conveniently lends itself to some toilet humor wordplay: Ham that belongs in a bathroom stall? Near the sink, you'll find a nice garnish for the perforated squares of pink meat: mustard soap (which contains no real soap). Watch the video after the jump. And does your name also carry homonyms for a weird food product?... More

Vanessa of What Geeks Eat warms the cool fall air in Wisconsin with one of the hardiest breakfast foods out there, biscuits and gravy. This savory dish always reminds me of long road trips and an early morning breakfast at a random truck stop off the highway. It also reminds me of home, and eating at the Denver Diner. Oh, how I crave the succulent buttermilk biscuits and spicy sausage gravy. Vanessa posted her recipe, but for the vegetarians out there, you can easily substitute a pack of ground veggie sausage and add a dash of cooking oil to make it richer.... More

With budgets tightening across all economic strata in this country, many families are selectively bypassing organics to save money, according to the New York Times' Andrew Martin. The question that I find even more pressing is whether people are going to stop shopping at farmers' markets across the country, which are generally more expensive than both conventional and organic supermarkets. What are serious eaters everywhere doing to save money? Are organically and/or locally grown produce still important to you? As Martin put it, are consumers going to decide they can no longer afford to let their conscience dictate their shopping list? I for one will not stop supporting my local farmers. I have always felt that local and sustainable... More

Savvy Housekeeping If you're in the habit of incorporating cottage cheese into your breakfast, you might want to know how to make it. It's pretty darn easy and makes good use of any milk you might have that's about to go bad. It takes only some vinegar, a thermometer, and cheesecloth—along with a colander and a pot. Savvy Housekeeping has the details.... More

Holiday Dessert from Bon Appétit: In all it's ginger crusted glory, spruce up your Thanksgiving table with a lavish pumpkin cheesecake. Stir Fry This: The cool thing about stir fry is that you can substitute almost anything for the basic ingredients as long as you keep the core herbs and protein, like the lemony chickpeas in this recipe. It's Not a Red Twinkie: Tapping into childhood memories of spongy red cake, Amanda Clarke successfully tests out her version of cranberry zingers, only no plastic wrapping. Orange and Black All Over: Just when you thought this spooky squash couldn't get any more exciting, along comes pumpkin gelato in a dark chocolate cup with a dash of mint. Delicious Crumby Veggies:... More

Well, you can't have your cigarette and smoke it too, but now you have the option to drink it. The Dutch company that created Liquid Smoking decided to give it a fruit flavor instead of cigarette flavor. The herbal drink is meant to help smokers in nonsmoking situations, like at the doctor's office or on an airplane. According to the Daily Mail, the drink "promises an instant high followed by a "euphoric calming feeling."... More

Sweet potatoes are the common red-brownish skinned root vegetables with sweet orange flesh and semi-smooth skin; there is also a variety with yellow flesh, with a taste resembling a mix of potato and apple. More

I don't know about you, but I'm not afraid to admit that I am befuddled by menus at certain Asian restaurants. To the rescue comes EGullet co-founder Steven A. Shaw's new book, Asian Dining Rules. I really like this book, as you can easily tell from my blurb (hey, it's my blurb, so it's not plagiarism to reprint it in its entirety): Whether you're a General Tso's chicken freak who has a hard time using chopsticks or an ultra-refined sushi aficionado looking for your next fugu fix, you're sure to find something informative, entertaining, and/or diverting in Shaw's book. Asian Dining Rules is refreshingly and suprisingly unsnobby, and a discerning must-read for any serious Asian food eater. Notice how I... More