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This Week's Tasty 10

Posted by Adam Kuban, April 4, 2009 at 9:00 AM

According to our handy site-metering utility, the top 10 most delicious items across the Serious Eats family of sites this week were ...

1. Is Artisanal, Handmade Food Always Better?
"Just because a conscientious, responsible pig farmer decides to make bacon, or just because a talented chef with good intentions decides he's going to make his own salumi, doesn't mean the bacon or salumi is going to be good."

2. The Best Cookbook for Beginners?
"I have 27-year-old niece who is getting married in June and I want to get her a really good cookbook. She has been practicing with recipes that friends and family have given her, but I wanted to gift her a book that would be user-friendly and last a long time. My first cookbook was the old stand-by Betty Crocker. Do you have any suggestions?" [from Talk]

3. The Sandwich on '30 Rock' Sandwich Day Episode Revealed: Fiore's in Hoboken, NJ
"Last May, there was a special "Sandwich Day" episode on 30 Rock. In a climactic scene, Liz Lemon, Tina Fey's character, rushes to the airport to catch her then-crush Floyd, but gets stalled at the security gate—her sandwich's dipping sauce exceeded the three ounce limit. "I can have it all," she says, choking it down before racing after Floyd. Almost a year later, and Caroline of Devil and Egg still wants to know the juicy sandwich's origins." [from Serious Eats New York]

4. Peeps Lip Balm, Reviewed
"Peeps flavored lip balms do in fact exist. They come in four different marshmallow cream flavors: grape, strawberry, vanilla, and cotton candy. The best part? None of these are even real Peeps flavors. We ordered one of the intriguing sticks."

5. Serious Cocktails: A Lousy Tipper Walks Into a Bar ...
"If the bartender is simply opening a beer or pouring a glass of Scotch, $1 per drink may still make sense; but what about those bars where ordering a drink is more along the lines of ordering an entrée in a restaurant—drinks that require a bartender to not merely crack a bottle but engage in a lengthy preparation process with sometimes spectacular results?"

6. Dinner Tonight: West Indian Rice and Beans
"I quite excited to stumble on this new-to-me variation of the pair, hailing from Caribbean/West Indian cuisine. Rather than cooked separately, as I usually go about it, the rice and beans simmer together along with coconut milk and spices. The creaminess of the coconut milk gives the dish a thick, risotto-like consistency, and it's also a big help if you're starting from canned beans, since it makes up for the lack of bean cooking liquor to keep everything saucy." [from Recipes]

7. Grilling: Ember-Roasted Onion and Garlic Dip with Crispy Pita
"I'm a sucker for grilled onions—I love the mix of sweet, caramelized outsides, with a bit of crunch still left in the middle. This recipe called for an onion grilling method that was new to me: wrapping onion halves and garlic into foil, then nestling them directly in the coals. After 30 minutes I removed the packet, and awaiting me when I opened it were beautifully browned onions that had my mouth watering already." [from Recipes]

8. At What Point Does a Recipe Become Your Own?
"What do you guys think? At what point does it go from being the book's recipe, to your own original recipe? Does it ever?" [from Talk]

9. Grocery Ninja: Tsokolate—Smokey, Nutty, Pinoy Hot Chocolate
"Tsokolate is a world removed from the instant sachets of Nesquik I tend to reach for. Before you can make tsokolate, you have to prepare tableas from scratch. These are fist-sized balls or tablets of cocoa nibs that have been ground together with sugar and roasted peanuts. You bring a cup of water to a boil, plop in a tablea, then briskly rub a batidor (a wooden whisk of sorts) between your palms to dissolve the tablea, churn up froth, and thicken the tsokolate to a lush creaminess."

10. McDonald's Big Mac, The AHT Review
"The Big Mac reflects the hopes and aspirations of America, and to the world it is an attainable and recognizable symbol of the American dream." [from A Hamburger Today]

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