Grilled Cheese Gone Wild: Michael Nagrant takes a bite out of Cafecito, a pan-latino café in Chicago’s West Loop which serves up some fantastic grilled sandwiches and more. The Whole Damn Pig: Daniel Zemans gets up close and personal at Cochon 555 in Chicago, a series of traveling food events featuring prestigious local chefs cooking with heritage pigs. Shipwrecked in Malibu: Looking for a perfect oceanfront burger, Damon Gambuto finds his hopes and taste buds sinking fast at Bob Morris' Paradise Beach Cove Cafe in Malibu. Fried Things on Sticks: Robyn Lee diligently reports on the plentiful availability and variety of street food, particularly fried foods on sticks, in Seoul, South Korea. New York Style in Chicago: Sometimes you... More

The popular street food hotteok (hoddeok, hodduk, or if I were to say it out loud, ho-duck) is a brown sugar, cinnamon, and nut-filled pancake-like dessert found on the streets of South Korea. The first time I came across it with Dan Gray, I didn't know what I was looking at. Me: [while passing a truck with a big sign in Korean] "Do I wanna eat whatever's in that truck?" Dan: "Yeah, it's hotteok!" Me: "OH GOD, YES." (This is how I speak in real life. I try to tone it down in my writing.) This truck in I-don't-know-where Seoul made the healthier baked version of hotteok, as opposed to the deep fried version I would come across the... More

Photograph from Gaetan Lee on Flickr Although pineapple is available year-round, that sweet and tangy ripe pineapple that we all love is at its prime from March to July. This fruit, native to the southern part of Brazil and Paraguay, made its way to the United States by way of Christopher Columbus, who found it on the island of Guadaloupe in 1493 and carried it back to Spain. The Spanish became quick fans and brought pineapple to the Philippines. Eventually, this herbacious perennial traveled all the way to Hawaii and Guam early in the sixteenth century. The pineapple reached England in 1660 and began to be grown in greenhouses for its fruit around 1720. Today, pineapples are second only... More

It's childish, but I don't like to think of the meat I eat as once belonging to an animal. If I did, I wouldn't be able to enjoy bacon or burgers. I guess not everyone feels that way, because ceramic heads of chickens, designed to be stuck atop beer can chicken, are being sold on Amazon.com. There are three different characters: the Malibu, the Bug-Eyed Chicken, and the Southwestern Chicken. Each costs $14.95. [via J-Walk Blog]... More

According to our handy site-metering utility, the top 10 most delicious items across the Serious Eats family of sites this week were ... 1. Grilling: Barbecue Chicken "I don't know how many burnt pieces of chicken need to be eaten until we realize that barbecue sauce is not a marinade. Cooking barbecue chicken properly is pretty simple, and produces heavenly results." [from Recipes] 2. DIY Espresso "If you're absolutely, 100 percent serious about making your own espresso, you'll want to go beyond merely grinding boutique beans in the morning." 3. Serious Heat: Create Your Own Spice Blends "With so many spices at your disposal, why not use these to create your own spice blends?" [from Recipes] 4. In Season: Strawberries... More

©iStockphoto.com/cmisje According to the New York Times, the organic milk business has gone bad in a hurry. Are you drinking less organic milk these days, serious eaters? Before we get to the reasons why these farmers are struggling, at least according to Times contributor Katie Zezima, I feel compelled to say that it's this kind of story that demonstrates why we need newspapers to endure. Because without quality institutions like the Times, with its wealth of reporters, editors, and stringers, stories like this might go unreported. Or, at the very least, they wouldn't be made available to the general public. Has anyone read about the plight of these farmers in any other consumer publication, online or in print? Now... 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. Saturday (May 30) Secrets of a Restaurant Chef (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Pork Tenderloin." Anne adds some Asian inspired flavor to pork tenderloin, snap peas, and clams. 10:30 a.m. ET, Food Network Sarah's House: "Kitchen and Dining." A drab kitchen and dining room are renovated. 11:30 a.m. ET, Fine Living Network Giada at Home (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Last Minute Menu." Giada makes some simple... More

We have an incredible array of sweets from around the country for the Great American Food & Music Fest. More

Nick Kindelsperger of The Paupered Chef (and Serious Eats Dinner Tonight contributor) left Chicago last weekend to spend forty hours in Memphis. He stopped at four of the city's most vaunted barbecue haunts: Cozy Corner, Rendezvous, Interstate Barbecue, and Corky's.... More

There's so much going on in Talk week to week that we almost can't keep up. If you're in the same boat, here's a small selection of topics and responses that have piqued our interest this week. What should I do with all these tomatoes? "I'm with @huney — that's exactly what I did with about 30 lbs of tomatoes last summer, roasted them, made a huge batch of soup and froze it. You can make it more concentrated and use it as a base for sauces, too." —brooke29 Are you a liar about your cooking/baking mistakes? "Blame everything on the children: 'She opened the oven!' 'He stuck his dinosaur into it!' 'There was a stray snotbomb so it had... More

Two Paulas in one video? Yes, I too am mildly frightened. Comedic actress Melanie Hutsell recently guest starred on Paula Deen's Paula's Best Dishes while putting on her best Paula Deen impersonation...and cooking alongside Paula. In a similar outfit. If I just listen to the audio and don't watch the video, I don't know who I'm hearing. Not until I get to the recipe for a chocolate-covered stick of butter, at least—even that's a little too far for the real Paula. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Good deal. Only a few threads went unanswered this week. But these three Talk threads still have zero or only a few replies as of today. Anyone have anything to add to the conversation? Growing artichokes in Arizona "I have a plant in the front yard doing great. Do I let the first bud grow to a flower and wait till next season for more?" Best recipe for Vietnamese Shaking Beef? "Anyone know a great recipe for Vietnamese shaking beef that's fairly easy to do yet tastes authentic?" Whoopie pie of the '60s and '70s "There was a chocolate whoopie pie of the late '60s early '70s that gave magic tricks on the cardboard and it showed a boy with... More

Congrats to Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas (my hometown, yay!) on her victory in the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee yesterday. Eat Me Daily has a list of food words from the spelling bee, including geusioleptic, blancmange, Neufchâtel, trattoria, sommelier, tagliatelle, fedelini, and perciatelli.... More

Cochon 555 is a traveling series of food events featuring a competition of acclaimed local chefs cooking with heritage pigs. On Sunday night, the eighth in the 11-city tour was held in Chicago (the New York event was reviewed here on Serious Eats). Put on by Taste Network, an Atlanta-based company that does marketing and promotion for the artisan wine and cheese industries, the events serve three purposes. First, they increase awareness of heritage pigs and the food politics that go along with them. Second, they raise the profile of Taste Network. And third, the events serve as a fundraiser for charities related to the concept of eating locally produced, artisan-crafted foods. The Chicago event benefited Farms for City... More

"I think I'm going to get myself a locket with a photo of Julia Child." Two nights ago, the Serious Eats crew met up for beer and burgers at a tugboat that's been converted to a bar on the Hudson River. As I am the Serious Eats overlord (at least that's what Mr. Kuban has named me) I thought it was only right to buy the beer and food. As is my wont, I ordered what I thought was the right amount of food for ten people: eight burgers, four hot dogs, and four orders of fries, in addition to the beer. The burgers were big and not particularly juicy, the kosher hot dogs were grilled and split, and the... More

Photograph from CakeSpy In perhaps the ultimate example of gilding the lily, Cakespy.com has posted a recipe for a Cookie Cake Pie. This concoction is exactly what it sounds like, a pie with a layer of cake and one of cookie dough. It's like a Turducken, but with lots of sugar. I am seriously counting down the seconds till I can make this. What's your favorite dessert mash-up? Related Baking is Cool Again An "All in One" Thanksgiving Cake Meat Cake... More

Photograph from A Cheese a Day It's amazing how much goes into the making of the most basic elements of our food culture. We consider ham and cheese sandwiches, or PBJs, to be simple foods, but we don't often make our own cheese, bread, or peanut butter. Maybe that's what makes Jeremy's project at A Cheese a Day even more admirable. Not only has he set out to make a cheese a day, he also decided to make a Reuben sandwich entirely from scratch. He baked the rye bread, pressed the Swiss cheese, cured the pastrami, and mixed the Russian dressing. And made it seem possible for the rest of us to follow in his footsteps.... More

Earlier this month I visited Seoul, South Korea, for the first time. Here's a look at something I ate from my one-week trip. Myeongdong Gyoja is the only sit-down restaurant I've every been to that requires payment right after you order at your table and provides you with gum—Lotte xylitol gum to be exact—before any food appears. Paying up-front wasn't that strange, but what was the gum for? I'd find out very soon. Myeongdong Gyoja is famous for their kalguksu, knife-cut noodle soup. My fooding partner Dan Gray of Seoul Eats told me that lines frequently form out the door for this 40-year-old restaurant, which he described as making "the Model T of kalguksu." (We happened to arrive at a... More

Earlier today I asked for strawberry breakfast ideas, but checking in on Market Scene contributor Leah Greenstein's site for the day, I think I've found a great strawberry dessert idea: Strawberry Rhubarb Clafoutis.... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, the Kitchn confesses its love for beer floats, particularly those made with Hoppin' Frog's B.O.R.I.S. (which stands for "Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout"). Also on the Kitchn, speed-chilling wine with salt, salads that are filling enough for dinner, goat cheese and chive gnocchi with asparagus, and how to craft a watermelon sling.... More

Photograph from Michigan Beer Buzz Weburbanist rounds up photos of beer cans since the 1930s and shares the history behind beer can design. Although I'm a fan of this uber-generic design, there's an interesting reason behind the need to jazz up the cans: After methods of packaging beer into durable cans were developed, the real treat for consumers and collectors were the colorful designs on the cans. Beer would still not taste great coming from a can for several decades. Manufacturers began releasing special edition and novelty cans with lively images and color schemes to attract consumers and compensate for the canned beer taste. Some of these early cans, if still in good condition, are now worth thousands of... More

Today's video of the day is Au Revoir Simone's charming video for "Sad Song," from the album The Bird Of Music. You'll be humming this song and craving freshly baked cookies the rest of the day. You're welcome! Watch the video after the jump. [via Fork in the Road]... More

Grilled cheese, American style. It’s always a fun trick to throw a hunk of halloumi on a fiery grill. Inevitably people who’ve never heard of the stuff start to freak out, wondering why you’re about to ruin a ball of perfectly good cheese by melting it into the hot coals below. Hell, I’ve had people actually pull a chunk off the grill with their bare hands with the same effort they’d reserve for rescuing a drowning person. The cool thing about halloumi is it softens and the milk fats caramelize resulting in some awesome smoky sweet curd. The density and construction of the cheese is such that it never actually turns in to a bubbly disintegrating mass. There are... More

Seattleites can tune in to KUOW 94.9FM this morning at 10 a.m. PT to listen to Cocktail Chronicles publisher (and Serious Eats' contributing boozehound) Paul Clarke talk about hooch.... More

"So just like it was for our ancient relatives, the main trick to cooking outdoors is learning how to build and maintain a fire." This week's grilling tips come from John Stage, the mastermind and co-owner of the highly successful restaurants, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. In 1983, John and his buddy, Mike, sawed a 55-gallon drum in half for barbecuing and began offering a simple three sandwich menu to the hungry crowds at biker gigs across the country. During his time on the road, John tasted the world-class barbecue in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, picking the bones of barbecue greats. Getting bits and pieces of crucial information on successful grilling and barbecuing, John had developed a passion and love for... More

Now that blueberries and strawberries are in season or coming into season across the U.S., photos like this one (from the Serious Eats Flickr Photo Pool) nudge me into incorporating them into my breakfast. I've been doing the Fage thing—the kind with the little side "handle" filled with preserves, but nothing beats fresh fruit. I think it's time to switch to oatmeal spiked with fresh berries, but I could certainly use other tips. What strawberry/blueberry/berry breakfasts have you been doing lately? Related In Season: Strawberries... More

By many definitions, a house doesn't have quite the cozy appeal as a home. House sweet house just doesn't have the same ring to it. But more menus are advertising "housemade" this or that, instead of the generic homemade. As Newsweek points out, the artisanal adjective has yet to appear in Merriam-Webster (so technically, it should be house-made until baptized a real word), but homemade will no longer suffice. "The word has lost its meaning," said Brian Bistrong of Braeburn in Manhattan, who argues that it sounds either amateurish (Aunt Edna's homemade pie) or hokey (Chevy's homemade ranch dressing). "Housemade has more cachet," he says. When you read "housemade" does it fill you with rustic backyard porch warmth and... More

Six for $20.03 from amazon.com Welcome to the Weekend Cook and Tell Round Up. This week we asked all of you to cook something up with sriracha. As it turns out, sriracha is pretty popular, and we've gotten some great responses. Here are some of our spiciest favorites: ChefDJen made an aioli with sriracha for steamed artichokes. Cassaendra made two sriracha-spiked marinades for chuck roast. She also made a dipping sauce for cauliflower with sriracha and Japanese mayo. Drmoze shared a recipe for some intensely delicious Sriracha Birdie Burgers. Burgers, eggs, cheese, toast, and sriracha? I'm sold! Mediocrepop took the Mexican-meets-Asian route and married chicken, guacamole, and sriracha for these awesome tacos. Inothernews made spicy fish nuggets with tilapia, sriracha,... More

Photograph from ginnerobot on Flickr A recent article in The Telegraph claims that cake baking is cool again, likening it to rock 'n roll. I didn't know it ever wasn't. I suppose this is saying that passions for baking and cakes are no longer restricted to fuddy-duddy spinsters, but now are cool for the masses. Hopefully this means more cake for me. Related Rachael Ray-themed Cake Historic Cake Tteok Cake... More

The Obama Menu: Dining with Barack Obama: New book features food that Obama might have eaten. With numerous Alice Waters appearances throughout. [amazon.com, via EMD] California Blueberries: A list of farmers' markets and U-pick farms where you can find them. [LAT] Restaurants Cutting Lunch Prices: "There is no reason why anyone should spend more than $10 for lunch," says FoSE Zach Brooks. [Seattle Times] Weed Feed: Dandelion greens, purslane, stinging nettles showing up in supermarkets. [WSJ] Top Chef Masters: An interview with judge Jay Rayner. [The-Feedbag] Northern Thai Cuisine: The region's history and geography have played large role in its cooking style, with its heavy use of herbs and flowers and influences from bordering countries. [Reuters] Forged in Fire:... More

Photograph from cheese-rolling.co.uk I'm not the most outdoorsy person, but this is a competition I can get behind. Every year on Cooper's Hill in Gloucester, England, a cheese-rolling race is held. No, it isn't a race between different rounds of cheese—it is something much better: One round of cheese is rolled down the hill and participants chase after it. Last year our cheese correspondent Jamie Forest wrote about 2008's winner and the cheese used in the race. You can see photos from this year's race, which took place on May 25, in today's post at The Big Picture from The Boston Globe. The tradition has been going for for at least 200 years and is always growing in popularity.... More

The Consumerist today has posted a funny guide to recognizing and exploiting religious-icon-shaped foods. Picking through a bag of Cheetos, Chris Walters estimates there may be as many as four Jesus- or Mary-shaped chips per purchase. It's partly a matter of luck, but it also takes a good eye for spotting the random edible miracle. You should also remember that context is everything: You might find a Shiva or an Apollo, but they're not going to be that newsworthy in the U.S., so stick with tried-and-true icons like Jesus or the Virgin Mary. A Cthulhu-shaped snack might net you some cult fame but probably not a lot of money. Related In Videos: And Finally Tonight, Jesus in a Bucket of... More

"The first thing to know about space food, it is the ambiance, it is the environment, it is not the food. These candies [peanut M&Ms] come in a piece of plastic, we cut them open, and suddenly everyone starts behaving like fish in a fish tank. That is fun food." —John Grusfeld, astronaut... More

Take advantage of strawberry season by stocking up on homemade strawberry jam! Marge Braker of food preservation education program Preserved teaches you how to make small batch strawberry jam in this video (with accompanying recipe) from Cooking Up a Story. She demonstrates the process from dumping the strawberries into a pan to sterilizing the jars in boiling water. Watch the video after the jump.... More

If your dinner party seems to lack a nefarious villain, like Snidely Whiplash, perhaps these napkin rings are for you. Just make sure that there are no railroad tracks nearby. $24 for a set of four at moderndose.com [via yumsugar]... More

Earlier this month I visited Seoul, South Korea, for the first time. Here's a look at something I ate from my one-week trip. One of my favorite foods in the world are Asian dumplings in all shapes and forms. After hearing my plea to eat mandu, Korean dumplings, my friend Rob brought me and a friend to Koong in Insadong. That the front window looked onto a dumpling-making station seemed like a good sign. Another potentially good sign was the prominent photograph of a old woman and her granddaughter outside of the restaurant, if I am to equate "grandmother" with "tasty home-style cuisine." The story behind the restaurant is that this woman fled from North Korea to South Korea during... More

When people ask you, "Why do you have a fried egg on your wall?" just press the yolk while saying, "Because it does this!" and wow them with your glowing plastic representation of a breakfast food. $9.90, from gadget4all.com [via Unique Daily] Related: Fried Egg T-Shirt Fried Egg Furniture Uses for Fried Eggs [SE Talk, 4/8/09]... More

Photograph from erinlanigan on Flickr Cafeteria lunches are almost universally horrible. In elementary school, I went home sick a few times after "Breakfast for Lunch" day. In high school, the only non-fried options were wilted salads and half-baked cookies. I am certainly not alone in having traumatic school cafeteria memories. The blog School Lunch Talk has been investigating how other countries feed their children. In French schools, lunchtime is a time to teach students healthful eating habits. A recent lunch consisted of Basque chicken thigh with herbs, red and green bell peppers and olive oil, organic yogurt and an apple. Most interestingly, the meals only cost 6.17 euro per student, but the families pay for, at most, about half... More

SE contributor Matthew Amster-Burton has a new book out called Hungry Monkey about eating grown-up foods with his five-year-old daughter, Iris. From the book's introduction: Hungry Monkey is the book I wish someone had handed me before Iris was born so I would have known that breastfeeding is challenging (even for dads), that there are two simple rules to take a lot of the stress out of feeding kids, and that it's OK to feed a baby sushi and spicy enchiladas. Most important, I would have been reassured that having kids doesn't require dumbing down your menu: If you love to eat, a new baby presents an opportunity to have more fun with food than ever before in your life.... More

Inspired and Wired: The daily intake of renown S.F. chef Chris Cosentino (above, right). Fourteen double espressos? Geesh! [Gourmet] $1 Meals? Linda Watson's recipes on cookforgood.com cost just over a dollar per person. [ABC2] Jon & Kate Plus Cake: The reality TV couple bake with Duff Goldman for an upcoming show. Can you say "Divorce Cake"? [Baltimore Sun] Cookouts: Getting the most out of grilled chicken. [Seattle Times] Survey Says: Food allergies may be linked to childhood obesity. [NYT] Experiment: Going vegan for a month. [Chronicle] In Season: How to select, use, and store Northern California cherries. [Chronicle] Paula Deen Furniture: A look at the celeb chef's Universal Furniture collection, which includes a sideboard, cupboard, and kitchen tables. [about.com]... More

From sheldoncomics.com Dave Kellett has drawn up a graph to illustrate which types of restaurants have the tastiest deserts. My vote is on the Mom-and-Pop place too. [via Pcrackenhead]... More

Most awesome salad name of 2009? Chlorophyll and Awesomeness Salad.... More

A late Stuart dessert table. Photograph from historicfood.com Normally, if someone were to say that they've cooked for Marie Antoinette and Jane Austen, you would think they were crazy. But Ivan Day can make that claim and simply be describing his normal activities. By using authentic equipment and historic recipes, he examines history through what people ate. According to an interview with Day in The Age, history is the next big thing in food. Director Martin Scorsese recently phoned Day out of the blue, asking him to cook an authentic period banquet for a film Scorsese is producing about the young Queen Victoria. Related 'The Birth of the Croissant & the Bagel' Comic The History of the PBJ Sandwich... More

My skål shot finally went up on the French Culinary Institute's blog Cooking Issues. It's part of Dave Arnold and Nils Norén's Skoal/Skål Project. I'm in good company. Cheers!... More

"Though heavy-handed in places, Food, Inc. is both a chilling expose and a practical manifesto." "You can change the world with every bite," ends the film Food, Inc., in theaters on June 12. Directed by noted documentarian Robert Kenner, with Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser on the production team, Food, Inc. takes a sharply critical look at Big Agra--the corporations that manage an enormous percentage of America's food supply by controlling the nation's beef, poultry, corn, and soy industries. Pointing fingers squarely at corporations driven by profit motive rather than product quality or consumer health, along with the government agencies that allow them to do so, Food, Inc. finds plenty of villains to tackle, blaming them for obesity, illness... More

Cook the Book: Well-Preserved: Geekbearinggifts, wmoss, syannelevovna, kuromu, hdasio1234. Winners were notified by email and appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to all who entered!... More

Photograph courtesy of Beehive Dairy Most people, when they hear the words coffee and cheese in the same sentence, wince at the thought of two such vastly different foods coming in such close contact. But Utah's Beehive Dairy is boldly cutting straight through that taboo with their coffee-covered Barely Buzzed, a blue ribbon winner in the 2008 American Cheese Society Awards. The first time I'd tasted it was back in March at Beecher's Cheese in Seattle. As I bit down through the cheese, the bitter nuttiness of the espresso and the caramel sweetness of the cheddar-style cheese made me realize this is a match made in some really quirky and hip corner of heaven.... More

There are movers and shakers in the food world that don't always get proper praise. The person carving baby carrots from the giant orange hunks that grow in the ground. The fro-yo nozzle engineer. And the great mind behind the giant taco salad, perhaps the only "salad" that may set you back 12,000 calories. I didn't realize this was a Bud Light commercial until the very end—it made me want a pound of guacamole, beans, and shredded cheese (and a few lettuce slivers, sure) more than a beer. The video, after the jump.... More

From May 8 to May 12 I visited Seoul for the first time, mostly to eat as much food as I could and learn about a cuisine I knew little about. A food stand in Myeongdong, Seoul. Judging from the popularity of street food (and restaurants in general) in Seoul, I'm under the impression that Seoulites are hungry all the time, or they really like eating. Which means, aside from not knowing how to speak Korean, I fit right in. The variety of food was overwhelming, making it impossible to tackle in its entirety. If you want grilled meats, sweet potato french fries, dried fish, rice cakes, taco-like concoctions, boiled silkworm pupae*, waffles, or cream puffs while roaming around the... More

I blog by day and wait tables in a New York City restaurant by night. I'm excited to bring you Served, dispatches from the front of the house. Enjoy! Last year, we barely paused to commemorate our restaurant’s one year anniversary. We were collectively too exhausted to celebrate. It was like we just pulled an epic string of all-nighters. The test was over, our cramming had paid off, but we were more inclined to fall into bed than paint the town. Our relief overshadowed our pride. In the early days, I had arrived a few times at work to find we were without a cook for the night. “Call anyone you know,” T., the fromager would plead. I'd look through... More

Everyone has "the best" approach to poaching an egg, just like every region has the best barbecue sauce and every Jewish mother has the best matzoh ball soup recipe. There's a lot of conflicting information out there. Is a splash of vinegar necessary? Should you crack the eggs in a separate cup first? The Kitchn seems to have found the truth to perfectly runny yolks and firm whites. The method comes from Delia Smith's Complete How to Cook. The UK food personality recommends pouring hot water from a kettle into a large, shallow pan and heating it until little bubbles start to form. Then break the eggs one by one into the water and let them barely simmer for... More

There are some foods that I have only to think about and a myriad of childhood memories come flooding back to me. Snapper soup is one example; those words instantly take me back to a seafood restaurant in northeast Philadelphia. I couldn't be more than six or seven years old, and I'm sitting with my grandparents in a wood-paneled room; there are decorative oyster plates on the wall alongside Victorian valentines. My grandfather is drinking a Harvey Wallbanger and orders snapper soup to start. He offers me a taste, and it's delicious. "What's in it?" "Turtle, sherry, and cream." "Ohh..." I'm pretty sure that Lari Robling, a fellow native Philadelphian, has had a few similar experiences. Endangered Recipes is an... More

Rose Water Recipes Melon and Mozzarella Salad with Rose Water Vinaigrette and Crisp ProsciuttoBerries with Rose SabayonRosey Rosé Imagine that you are asleep, and you are dreaming. And in this dream, you are a bee. You are cruising on autopilot through an English garden. This really is the stuff of dreams—being so surrounded by food, that you don’t know where to begin. You buzz from one rose to another, and then you find one: big and fuchsia and reeking to high heaven of perfuming rose. You shuffle your little body, antennae first, down into the center of the rose, and crash down into the bottom. As you toss yourself around in pollen, the great petals harbor you in, and... More

Free PDFs are available from Make Magazine that guide you through making your own coffee roaster, hydraulic coffee tamper, and more. If you're absolutely, 100 percent serious about making your own espresso, you'll want to go beyond merely grinding boutique beans in the morning. You'll want to roast the beans, tamp the grounds with perfect pressure, and then make sure your espresso machine's at exactly the right temperature. Fortunately, Make Magazine has free PDFs for doing it yourself: DIY Coffee Roaster, DIY Espresso Tamper, DIY PID Temperature Control. [via Gimme Coffee]... More

mattbites.com Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites visited Argentina recently. While there he came across salsa golf, a mixture of ketchup and mayo that he found everywhere. Intrigued by this condiment, he set up a blind taste test of different brands of salsa Ggolf. He tested Hellman's, Danica's, and Fanacoa's versions, as well as the house blend from Home Hotel, where he was staying. After a thorough tasting, he and his companions determined Home Hotel's version to be the best.... More

The McDonald's of Seoul: Robyn Lee continues to share her edible adventures from South Korea—this time she gives us the details on South Korean fast food joint Lotteria. Extraordinarily Good Tacos: Revealing his top two picks for Chicago's taco scene, Michael Nagrant gives the fish taco at Goose Island and the steak taco at Theory his stamp of approval. Small But Mighty: Although Mike and Patty's in Boston seats only a handful, it's churning out some incredible breakfast and sandwiches in its tiny kitchen. A Piece of Pie: Daniel Zemans reports on the pizza at Marcellos (Father and Sons), a longstanding Chicago pizza place that dishes out fantastic classic Chicago thin-crust, deep dish, and pan pizzas. Small Plates, Small... More

Photograph from Baking Bites There's cake made with carrot and cake made with zucchini, so why not lettuce? Nicole Weston of Baking Bites shares a recipe for spiced lettuce cake bars, specifically made with iceberg lettuce, and spiced with cardamom and ginger. Don't worry; your cakes won't taste like plant: The cake bars are pretty good, and you wouldn’t know that they have lettuce in them unless someone directly told you or you didn’t get a great "shred" and a few big pieces slipped into the batter. They’re moist and soft, with a good balance of chewiness and tenderness. Make them and see if anyone can tell what your special ingredient is. Related: Photo of the Day: Salad Dressing Cake... More

Photograph from Lollyknit on Flickr While plenty of us would love to be outdoor gardens in our hypothetical sprawling backyards, the reality is that many of us lack the space to do so. Especially in urban areas, many apartment-dwellers don't have a square inch of soil to call their own. But container-potted plants can flourish in all kinds of unlikely spaces. (And not just that geranium on your windowsill.) Here are a few tips for planning your own container garden: Think Beyond the Herb Garden While you'll never get a cornfield or an apple tree on your fire escape, some surprisingly sizeable vegetables do just fine: cauliflower, beans, carrots, eggplants, potatoes, and greens from kale to romaine lettuce. This... More

Photograph from BigBerto on Flickr With strawberries now in season, there is no excuse not to use them as often as possible. Slice them up into cereal, put them on top of a waffle, or just eat them out of hand. But don't feel constrained by the traditional breakfast uses of these lovely berries. We've put together some recipes that use strawberries not only for breakfast and dessert but in more savory contexts. Recipes, tips, and ideas--after the jump.... More

According to our handy site-metering utility, the top 10 most delicious items across the Serious Eats family of sites this week were ... 1. A List of Street Vendors Using Twitter "...For your convenience, we've compiled a nationwide list of street vendors on Twitter, divided by region." 2. Grilling: Basic Barbecue Sauce "...This basic sauce base takes about 15 minutes to make from start to finish and consists of ingredients that are almost always on hand in my kitchen. Knowing the ease of making homemade and the quality of the end product, I cannot comprehend why bottled sauces are so popular, especially since this standard base is merely a launching point for infinite varieties...." 3. Alan Richman Names Top 25... More

The Great American Food & Music Fest is coming June 13 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. Save $5 by using the promo code ""foodfest." More

Leah Greenstein of SpicySaltySweet (and Serious Eats Market Scene contributor) recommends some refreshing whites and rosés to drink during the sticky-hot summer season.... More

Photograph from Library of Congress/Flickr A soda jerk working in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1939. The term soda jerk came from the motion of the arm while adding soda water to an ice cream soda. Soda fountains were once ubiquitous at drug stores. [via Howard]... More

For all those times you want to bring a little piece of vegetation and scenery around, designer Paige Russel at Design*Sponge has the thing for you: The Green Space Travel Case, made of an old briefcase fitted with turf, a wildlife scene, an ice pack, and your lunch.... More

There's so much going on in Talk week to week that we almost can't keep up. If you're in the same boat, here's a small selection of topics and responses that have piqued our interest this week. Favorite Grilling Recipes? "All great ideas above, especially the beer can chicken, which is a staple at our house. To add: Fish tacos; ribs; tandoori marinated shrimp/chicken; stuffed tomatoes; jalapeños stuffed with cheddar cheese, cream cheese, garlic; artichokes, pineapple, portobello mushrooms, or any mushroom for that matter; zucchini, green beans, broccoli, corn, etc.... My opinion—if you can eat it, you can grill it!" —GrimChef Is Pizza Really Bad for You? "No, pizza is not bad for you." —Kerosena [I agree, FWIW! —AK] Favorite... More

If factory-farmed chickens could talk, what would they say? "I feel all bloaty," might just be one of many complaints. Foster Farms says no to plumping in their commercial depicting concerned Foster Farms chickens being overplumped with salt water by a shady plastic surgeon. The Washington Post's blog All We Can Eat has more information about this campaign. Watch the video after the jump.... More

All you need to know when you're looking for cookout wines is this: ZEST. It stands for Zinfandel, Easy on the Oak, South America, and Tempranillo. More

Aww. These Talk threads have few or zero replies as of today. Anyone have anything to say? Help: Great eats near Pismo Beach, California? "My parents are coming to pick me up after my graduation from college in June (finnaalllyyy woo hoo!). We are staying a night in Pismo Beach, California, on our way back home. Anyone have any suggestions on where to eat around the Pismo/Arroyo Grande area?" Hey Ed, how was Pizza Suprema? We're guessing that thomassweet spied Ed while he was at lunch here. Come on, Ed. Answer the man! —AK Frank Bruni: Soon a Critic No More "In February, there was a passionate post here criticizing the critic (I chimed right in). Your wishes have been... More

With street vendors using Twitter on the brain, my friend who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, sent over this photo of a local reindeer hot dog van. The guy parks on West 4th Avenue and F Street (map), serving up reindeer dogs from the blue Volkswagen van. He hasn't picked up the tweeting yet (though @reindeervan seems to be available).... More

Though I've been stuck at 219 pounds for the last month (damn these cursed weight-loss plateaus), it's occurred to me that if I continue to lose weight, I will shortly pass the 50-pound weight-loss threshold. I guess this really is a serious diet I've been on. When I decided to do something about my weight a little more than a year and a half ago, I weighed in at an all-time high of 265 pounds. Small for an NFL offensive lineman, but way, way too much for me, a pretty good, fast-on-my-feet-considering-I-weighed- 250-pounds, scrambling flag football quarterback in college (my teams did win the intramural flag-football championship at Grinnell four years in a row). So being stuck on 219 means... More

If you're new to steak, beef up (pun intended) your meat knowledge with this overview of nine affordable cuts of beef from food writer Tony Rosenfeld at The Washington Post. Rosenfeld also shares steak grilling tips plus photos. Related Robert St. John's Grilling Tips Chris Lilly's Grilling Tips The Lobels' Grilling Tips... More

Editor's Note: We have another awesome intern in our midst—please welcome Lizy Yagoda to the Serious Eats team! She first appeared on our site in January with her Prague burger review on AHT, at the same time revealing her love for burgers. During her month at SE HQ she'll help us blog up a storm and hopefully eat burgers. Say hello to Lizy! Name: Lizy Yagoda Location: New York/Philadelphia Occupation: Student Favorite comfort food? Fried over-easy eggs, bacon, potatoes, and white toast. Guilty pleasures? Chocolate pudding with peanut butter mixed in. Sometimes I add crushed Oreos, but only if I'm feeling wild. I also indulge in peanut butter and fluff sandwiches with juice boxes. Describe your perfect meal. A burger... More

Have you ever wanted some chocolate, but not wanted to deal with that whole chewing thing? Thankfully, someone designed a product for you. Called Le Whif, it is a miniature inhaler that sprays calorie-free chocolate into your mouth. Developed by David Edwards of Harvard, it supposedly fits into the progression of how we eat: Over the centuries we've been eating smaller and smaller quantities at shorter and shorter intervals. It seemed to us that eating was tending toward breathing, so, with a mix of culinary art and aerosol science, we've helped move eating habits to their logical conclusion. We call it whiffing. Le Whif is available in four flavors: mint chocolate, raspberry chocolate, mango chocolate, and plain chocolate. What... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, the Kitchn obsesses over cannelés, the custardy French cakes, no taller than about two inches. Also on the Kitchn, frittata squares, cute measuring cups at Anthropologie, brownie pops, and ten ways to use canned tuna.... More

Critic Turned Cook follows former Seattle Post-Intelligencer food critic Leslie Kelly on her journey away from the keyboard and into the kitchen as she trains at various Tom Douglas restaurants. Take it away, Leslie! Martha Francis has been making pasta for Tom Douglas restaurants for 13 years. Being in the kitchen is like doing live theater every night. That’s what a veteran cook said to me recently and it makes perfect sense. There’s a script (the menu), but always some room for improv. The chef is the star, though the unheralded cast of characters do much of the heavy lifting. While working at Tom Douglas restaurants in Seattle, the biggest revelation for this former restaurant critic was discovering the rich... More

In these tough economic times we can find comfort in recalling the hardships of previous generations. During the First and Second World Wars, everything was rationed and all food mattered. I found a collection of propaganda posters, from firstworldwar.com and at the Northwestern University Library detailing what normal citizens could do to help the war effort. It seems that the messages found in these posters are still relevant today. Practical Propaganda... More

Andrew Purvis of Guardian's Word of Mouth tries "the world's best coffee," the Esmeralda Special from Panama, which sold for $117.50 a pound in an online auction this past Tuesday. "It was sweet, fruity and floral, more like jasmine tea," Purvis said. But for something that cost 100 times more than Fairtrade coffee, was it that much better?... More

This video has been making the rounds on YouTube and looks like something from the early 1990s, at the latest. But no, the Donut Man is currently traveling the country (including upcoming shows in Philadelphia), teaching children that without Jesus, they are like a doughnut. I would think that being a doughnut would be a good thing, as one would always have a snack ready, but the Donut Man contends that by accepting Jesus, a doughnut hole gets placed the the empty space. What if you were jelly-filled to begin with? So many questions. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Friendly's will be handing out free ice cream on June 6. Between noon and 5 p.m. at participating locations, customers can get a one-scoop cone or dish of any of Friendly's 26 flavors. Find a Friendly's here. [via NRN]... More

Chicago has an authentic taqueria on almost every corner, and at least half of those are authentically bad. But, with so many good options left over, the last thing you’d ever do is go snooping around sport bars and brewpubs for a good taco. And, I guess it’s true, I wasn’t looking for good tacos in those places, but in the course of my regular eating, err research, I’ve come across two extraordinarily good tacos. The first is the fish taco at Goose Island Clybourn, the flagship restaurant of Chicago’s local super-brewery. As of last year, the state of the fish taco in Chicago was so miserable, that Tribune scribe, and its current Cheeseburger Bureau Chief, Kevin Pang, launched a... More

"The key to entertaining is finding a few easy, popular, and accessible recipes in your repertoire, and use them often." This week's grilling tips come from restaurateur, chef, writer, and world-class eater, Robert St. John. A true Southern cuisine and grilling aficionado, he's a Mississippi culinary hero. He was voted the state's top chef in 2006 and 2007 and one of his restaurants, The Purple Parrot Cafe was named the best Mississippi restaurant in 2007. He also serves on the National Chef’s Council of the Chefs for Humanity organization and the board of directors of the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Museum of Art. We asked Robert St. John to share some of his grilling tips from his new... More

There are neighborhood cafés, and then there are neighborhood classics. The kind of local favorites where the staff gets to know your name, and you theirs. Where even though lines snake out the door, every regular considers the place his own unique find. And where the food is both honest and memorable, worth going back to—and not just because it’s around the corner. These institutions often take years to evolve. But Mike and Patty’s, opened eight months ago on a quiet corner in Boston’s Bay Village neighborhood, seems pretty close already. Its storefront may be tiny—an open kitchen behind the counter, one high table for a friendly six, and hardly enough room to turn around. What Mike and Patty’s... More

Photographs by Mark Menjivar Until recently, I was sharing a kitchen with three other girls in a far away city. Despite any stereotype to the contrary, our kitchen—and especially our fridge—was a mess. Bags of fresh grapes were placed on the top shelf and plates of unfinished food were shoved in uncovered. It got to the point were I wouldn't even be able to hold the door open long enough to get out some juice, much less take a picture of the contents. But photographer Mark Menjivar was able to do just that in kitchens across the country. In a series called "You Are What You Eat," viewable at GOOD and markmenjivar.com, he photographed the contents of refrigerators, from... More

Photograph from mag3737 on Flickr This collection of neon "Open" signs on Flickr is pretty impressive. There's definitely a theme: usually red, capitalized, and linked with Asian food, coffee, or the Subway sandwich chain. Related Awesome Vintage Restaurant Signage Photo of the Day: 1957 Neon Dunkin' Donuts Sign Being Dismantled Must Wash Hands, Restaurant Bathroom Signage Blog... More

A great comic about childhood obsessions with junk food, from "A Naughty Little Girl" by artist Lucy Knisley. Related A Comic About Eating at Alinea Phoood: The Junk-Food Blog In Videos: Mackenzie Phillips Sings 'Junk Food Junkie' on 'The Jacksons'... More

Deb Harkness suggests some food and wallet-friendly Spanish wines to go along with whatever you're grilling this weekend.... More

Alan Richman, "GQ" magazine food writer. Visiting Sweden? Hope to impress a Swede? Just want to appear worldly and stylish? The French Culinary Institute's Cooking Issues blog has been posting an ongoing series of photos it calls the Skål!/Skoal! Project that can school you in one small social custom. The series includes such food-world luminaries as Jeffrey Steingarten, Harold McGee, Wylie Dufresne, and Alan Richman (above), who has perhaps the most extreme skål to date. More pix after the jump.... More

P.F. Chang's offers everyone in the U.S. a coupon for a free order of signature lettuce wraps. Get yours here. The catch? The lettuce wrap appetizer is free with entrée purchase. Coupon expires June 14.... More

It's like that scene from American Beauty featuring a rose petal-covered Mena Suvari, but with Doritos instead of rose petals, and an overweight Mexican dude instead of Mena Suvari. And...wait, whose dream is this? It's yours! But only if you eat Mexicana Doritos, according to this commercial from Australia. I'm not sure that's an appealing prospect. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Fish market at Kolaportið in Reyjavik. In the latest episode of The Food Programme from BBC Radio, Richard Johnson investigates the impact of the global economic crisis on food in Iceland. There's more interest in eating local food and growing food locally in order to save money on importing from other countries and increase self-sufficiency. In an interview with Johnson, a fisherman says, "We are eating more traditional foods like meat pudding, sheep heads...now people are all of a sudden making haggis again. This was almost forgotten about. This is cheap, good, and nutritious food." Other topics include the fishing industry, whaling, and greenhouses powered by natural heat. Related Snapshots from Iceland: Grilled Whale from Saegreifinn Snapshots from Iceland:... More

From May 8 to May 12 I visited Seoul for the first time, mostly to eat as much food as I could and learn about a cuisine I knew little about. When Dan of food blog Seoul Eats told me he was going to take me to a restaurant that specialized in dumpling soup, I envisioned mandu. But this dish featured the dough-only sort of dumplings, like dumpling skins without the filling, which turned out to be even better than my initial idea. For my introduction to sujebi, a noodle soup dish where the noodles are chunks of roughly torn dough, Dan brought me to Samcheong-dong Sujebi, a popular old-school sujebi joint sporting a light teal color scheme that, I... More

Jennifer Maiser writes about locally and sustainably grown food. The Cooking with a Friend series chronicles her cooking and menu planning adventures with her neighbor, J. Eight weeks into this project, menu planning is becoming a well-oiled machine. Normally, we chat about the menu via email late in the week and then parcel out the shopping list. To tell you the truth, I can't remember when we planned our menu this week. I have a feeling that it was sometime between trying out guest bartender Eben Freeman's amazing drinks at The Alembic and a late Saturday dinner at Nopalito. All I know is that I came home with a menu plan scribbled on a piece of paper and that the... More

Photograph from Joy the Baker In her recipe for oatmeal cookie pancakes, Joy of Joy the Baker combines two of my favorite things that I've never before eaten in the same bite: oatmeal cookies and pancakes. (And for some people, perhaps three things: oatmeal, cookies, and pancakes.) She dedicates her recipe to her future husband and children. Alas, I cannot fit into either of those roles, but I wouldn't be surprised if Joy received a few marriage proposals fueled by pancake love. Related Baking With Dorie: Pumpkin-Pie Pancakes Sunday Brunch: The Best Silver Dollar Pancakes Ever Dinner Tonight: Ricotta Pancakes with Lemon Curd Pancakes Mountain T-Shirt, Plus Other Pancake Outerwear... More

From May 8 to May 12 I visited Seoul for the first time, mostly to eat as much food as I could and learn about a cuisine I knew little about. I've never been a doughnut lover, which seems odd considering that I have a penchant for fried things, sweet things, and doughy things. Why does the combination of the three fail to fill me with explosive joy? Did I have a traumatic doughnut experience as a child? (Actually, I sort of did; my early doughnut memories involve unappealingly dense, dry cake doughnuts from a local gourmet food shop.) Or maybe it's because I live in New York City, which to me isn't a particularly good doughnut town. But when... More

"Friends" by Ginou Choueiri Lebanese artist Ginou Choueiri likes drawing portraits on potatoes. "Not only is their skin porous like ours, but their skin texture and color is very similar, and like us, they come in different sizes, shapes and forms." [via Unique Daily]... More

Reading Marvin's post on Burnt Lumpia about different types of Filipino vinegars (or "suka") makes me wish I knew more about Filipino cuisine and ate it more often. Marvin may not be able to feed me through the Internet, but at least he can teach me more about Filipino food: The prevalent use of Suka (sooh-kah) is due in large part to the extended shelf life bestowed upon goodies cooked in vinegar—a necessary culinary 'voodoo' needed for tropical climes during the days of pre-refrigeration. But aside from its preservative powers, we Filipinos also just happen to like the elevated flavor punch that vinegar provides—that certain Asim (sourness) that we love oh so much in our food. He describes palm vinegar,... More

“Food bloggers are clannish, slightly evil people sometimes." —Julie Powell [via Eater]... More

Photograph from wili_hybrid on Flickr There was an article in last weekend's New York Times that I found utterly fascinating. In a memoir-style piece, author Jennifer Mascia described the epiphany she experienced when realizing that goat cheese had made it to her East Harlem supermarket. To her, this signaled that gentrification was truly taking hold. When I read the story, I wondered why goat cheese—a very basic, rustic food—has become so symbolic of "gourmet" food in America, specifically the gastronomic revolution that has taken place in the last 30 years. One could even argue that goat cheese is more indicative of gentrification than even the supremely-yuppified arugula.... More

"The bread is basically just a barrier between your hands and the massive pile of meat you’re devouring." The "Beef on Weck" at All-Star Sandwich Bar When top-notch chefs take on low-brow projects, the results can be hit or miss. Anyone respected for his work in the kitchen should be able to work magic with simpler culinary forms. But too often, those accustomed to higher-end fare might have a hard time learning the language of the pizza, say, or the hot dog, or the burger—turning out over-thought, overpriced dishes that lose the spirit of the original. What's important is the match between creator and concept. And in that respect, the All-Star Sandwich Bar, on Inman Square in Cambridge, succeeds wildly.... More

Next time you eat an apple, think about the worms who lived inside them and fell in love after watching this adorable animated short by French animation studio, Futurikon. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Last week we told you about Millennium restaurant in San Francisco charging customers $1 for filtered water (with no free tap water option). After reading reactions from San Francisco Chronicle readers, they've rethought the approach. "It's clear from your recent blog and the responses to it that it makes sense to offer our guests a choice if they want just good old Hetch Hetchy tap water for no cost," said general manager Erica Culp.... More

One of the more interesting and useful trends sparked by Twitter is the way street-food vendors have flocked to it. What better way for a roving kitchen to relay info to customers? We've compiled a list of street vendors on Twitter, divided by region. More

I blog by day and wait tables in a New York City restaurant by night. I'm excited to bring you Served, dispatches from the front of the house. Enjoy! Shaky Start I picked up a shift for a coworker yesterday, and was running early to work. Or so I thought. My phone beeped on my way out of the subway. I had a text and a voicemail from my boss: where are you? Oops. I had thought I was working at five. On most days, three servers with staggered shifts start working at four, five, and six. The first sets up the dining room for service, cuts bread, and lights candles. The last one closes up at the wee hours... More

In the last 12 days, we've had Star Trek and Doctor Who food-related items materialize on Serious Eats. Might as well go for a nerd trifecta and get Star Wars in the mix. Good morning, and may the force be with you—from your friends at Serious Eats, the nerdiest food blog in the universe. [via Unique Daily]... More

If you think of rice cakes as only being round or block-shaped, you're...right about most of them. But at the 7th International Tteok Fair in Seoul, South Korea, there were more! So many more! For the rice cake competition, contestants made elaborate dishes that, unfortunately, only the judges could eat, but they provided plenty of eye-candy for the rest of us. Since there were too many for me to include in my overview of the fair, I separated my favorites into this gallery. Many of the tteok dishes were make to look like other things. This South Korean flag, for one.... 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. Monday (May 18) Weaponizers: "Carbecue." A meat truck and an ice cream van are turned into remote-controlled vehicles with machine guns and pit against each other. 8 p.m. ET, Discovery Channel Good Eats (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "American Classics: Spaghetti With Meat Sauce." Alton takes a look at the origins of spaghetti with meat sauce. 8 p.m. ET, Food Network Will Work For Food (warning, a video plays... More

Cook the Book: Bottega Favorita: They are page48, piccola, rbear, Tara716, and evilchels. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to everyone who entered!... More

Note: On Mondays, one of our various Market Scene correspondents checks in with what's fresh at farmstands, what's coming up, and what you better get while the gettin's good. Today, Leah Greenstein (SpicySaltySweet) drops by from Los Angeles. Take us to market, Leah! Brooks cherries from Ken's Produce. When I was a kid, I was allergic to everything red (or at least that's what my mother told me, my fiancé thinks she made it up). Tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, and Kool-Aid fruit punch were all off limits. Fortunately, after years of miserable pizza parties and strawberry shortcake headaches, I grew out my food allergies. And what I found on the other side of antihistamines were tangy-sweet, ruby-colored cherries that made... More

Canning and preserving usually fall into the "shoulda, coulda, woulda" category of home cooking. There are many reasons that people are apprehensive when it comes to preserving: It's too labor-intensive, too time-consuming, and requires all of that special equipment. Why bother doing it yourself when your supermarket is brimming with cans and jars? Eugenia Bone is on a mission to change your mind with her new book, Well-Preserved. A passion for preserving was instilled in Bone at an early age. She was fortunate to grow up with home-cured olives and prosciutto, canned tomatoes and canned tuna, all lovingly put up by her father. Although she thoroughly enjoyed her father's preserves, it was not until Bone was eight months pregnant with... More

On Saturday SE cocktails contributor Paul Clarke finished his ambitious booze-blogging project "30/30" (30 cocktails in 30 days) on the Cocktail Chronicles. No. 30: the Prescription Julep. Hope that hangover's not too bad.... More

This cute commercial out of Brazil for Do Bem boxed fruit drinks imagines a sampler made from various breakfast items assembled on a cafeteria tray. Video, after the jump.... More

Opening a restaurant’s second location is like making a movie sequel. It should capture the feel, the look, and the ambience of the original—faithfully recreating everything that made it a hit in the first place. But it should also bring something else to the table. Move the story along. The Friendly Toast, just opened on Sunday (May 17) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, does so admirably. It’s hard to replicate the success of a local institution. Up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the original Friendly Toast has earned lines out the door since 1994 for its mammoth pancakes, crazy egg dishes, and over-the-top kitschy décor. But from an airy space in Kendall Square, the owners have crafted a second Crayola-hued temple of... More

On May 8 and 9, the Institute of Traditional Korean Food converted the massive aT Center in Seoul into Rice Cake Central for the 7th International Tteok (Rice Cake) Fair. While a sea of chefs competed to make the best tteok dish, hoards of kids made sweet red bean-filled tteok and watched rice pounding demonstrations. Down one side of the hall, companies for tteok manufacturing equipment put their gleaming wares on display; on the other side, vendors gave out fresh samples of tteok and sold their products. Hands-on activities included learning how to make tteok and tasting different rice wines. For the non-interactive part, there were displays featuring tteok-related relics, examples of rice cakes from around the world, and... More

The Ultimate Combo Pizza: Chicago's West Town harbors Paula and Monica's pizza featuring "Italian beef, garlic, giardinara, and Italian sausage on a thin almost-foldy New York–style–aspiring crust" pie (above). Seriously Seoul: World traveler, Robyn Lee investigates the traditional Korean street food rice snack, tteokbokki, at Hyoja-dong Old Fashioned Tteokbokki. Burger Obsession: Damon Gambuto delivers the delicious run-down of 25 Degrees, a burger and wine establishment on Hollywood Boulevard. Mountain Style Pizza: Beau Jo's pizza in Denver, Colorado has invented a style all their own: mountain style pizza- boasting extra-thick and chewy honey crust and an overall unique experience for Daniel Zemans. A Delicious Deal: Ed Levine reviews the new location of popular authentic Greek restaurant, Kefi and is very... More

Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times braved a pasta tutorial with Gordon Ramsay. "Would he try to psych me out, the way he does contestants on the show? Would he tell me I'm worthless and have no self-respect?" Collins was admittedly a little nervous beforehand. And just as he expected, making tortellini with the Hell's Kitchen host—the show's fifth season wrapped up on Thursday—was an expletive-filled culinary experience. The video, after the jump.... More

I finally got myself out to Star Trek yesterday afternoon. There were a few very brief food references in it, particularly a sandwich reference from Scotty/Simon Pegg. It's hidden after the jump—spoilers, you know?... More

Photograph from Darwin Bell on Flickr Now that spring has fully sprung, it's time to say goodbye to the rock-hard green avocados holding place for the dark and fully ripened gems we're now seeing in markets everywhere. Avocados are chock full of valuable nutrients, containing high amounts of vitamin K, potassium, and vitamin C, to name a few. Avocados are the fruit (yes, fruit) from the Persea americana, a tall evergreen tree that can grow up to 65 feet high. Native to Central and South America, avocados have been cultivated and eaten in these regions since 8,000 B.C. In the middle of the 17th century, they were introduced to Jamaica and spread throughout the Asian tropical regions by the... More

"I left my jelly babies in the TARDIS.... They're a delicacy I discovered on Earth." Yesterday, we briefly mentioned how the Beatles did not like having candy jelly babies thrown at them while on stage. While poking around YouTube looking at jelly baby experiment videos, I found an awesome compilation of every jelly baby scene in Doctor Who. Along with his out-of-control curly hair and extraloooong scarf, one of the signature quirks of the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) was his love for jelly babies. He offered them to everyone and anyone, including his archenemy and Dalek-creator, Davros. And there's a memorable bit at 4:16 in which the Doctor tries a bluff, telling some primitive-looking warriors, "Now drop your weapons, or... More

According to our handy site-metering utility, the top 10 most delicious items across the Serious Eats family of sites this week were ... 1. The English Muffin Experiment: Homemade vs. Store-Bought This dispatch comes to us from serious eater Melinda McCamant, who lives in Portland, Oregon. She pointed out to us that English muffins are neither English nor muffins and then goes on to see which is better, purchased or homemade muffins. 2. Healthy & Delicious: Lemon Basil Pasta Salad "Lovely on its own or as a base for more elaborate pasta dishes, it’s a light, inexpensive alternative to your standard starch-based picnic sides." 3. Eaters and Eating Disorders "I used to think maybe an 'ignorance is bliss' attitude would... More

©iStockphoto.com/thebroker A large "buttered" popcorn at the typical movie theater contains about 1,220 calories, San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer reminds us, quoting a decade-old survey: "You would have to swim 162 minutes to burn off that popcorn—longer than your average motion picture." Not exactly what I want to read before a weekend in which I plan on finally seeing Star Trek (the IMAX version was sold out last week). That reminds me, though, that it's cheaper and healthier to just sneak in a snack of my own. What snack(s) do you sneak in to the movies—and how?... More

In anticipation of Where the Wild Things Are, the Spike Jonze-directed film adapting Maurice Sendak's children's book that will be released in theaters this October, this cake honors Moishe, the yellow-eyed monster from the story. Coco Cake Boutique in Vancouver baked the chocolate base and topped it with peppermint buttercream and fondant. Otherwise, it's just another cute cake with a face on it. [via We Love You So] Related Ace of Cakes' 'Lost' Cake Photo of the Day: Panda Head Cake [SENY] In Videos: Trailer for 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'... 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. Saturday (May 16) 5 Ingredient Fix (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Cozy Sunday Supper." Roast beef and gravy with sides of Yorkshire pudding with thyme and baby carrots with sweet ginger butter; and millionaire's shortbread. (repeat) 9:30 a.m. ET, Food Network Secrets of a Restaurant Chef (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Secret to Tapas." Anne shares recipes for her favorite tapas. (repeat) 10:30 a.m. ET, Food Network... More

Two white-haired men with spectacles. One concerned with chicken, the other with communism. You have to love a world where totallylookslike.com exists. [via @jamieforrest] Related Separated at Birth: Tony Bourdain and Tiny Tim Col. Sanders vs. Gen. MacArthur KFC's Latest Marketing Move: Fixing Potholes... More

Photograph from erin m on Flickr A little over two years ago, Eastern Market, the oldest continually operating market in Washington, D.C., burned down. The community quickly came together, fundraising and putting up a temporary home for vendors across the street. But the historic brick building is finally ready to reopen on Friday, June 26, as mayor Adrian Fenty announced this week. Vendors will start moving back in June 14, and the kick-off will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 26, followed by a neighborhood celebration on Saturday, June 27. After the $22 million renovation project, the space has spiffed up a bit to include modern heating and air conditioning, UV light-protective windows, new skylights and restrooms. It... More

There's so much going on in Talk week to week that we almost can't keep up. If you're in the same boat, here's a small selection of topics and responses that have piqued our interest this week. Eaters and eating disorders "Eating always seemed like a hassle to me. I always seemed to have better things to do. But as I matured and to be honest back when the food network was interesting 10 years ago, I realized how important food was. I still have food issues but I am able to go out and eat with friends without heading to the bathroom to lose my lunch as they say. Thanks for your story. Excellent thread." —chardonnay Do you sift... More

Introducing butter water, with 90 percent more butter than regular water. Finally, something to wash down all those butter stick snacks with. The video, after the jump.... More

Wikimedia Commons A bit of candy-related trivia for you: In a recently unearthed letter to a fan, late Beatle George Harrison discusses how the band disliked it when the crowd threw jelly babies at them while on stage. Apparently, Harrison had mentioned in an interview that he like the candy. But in a letter to Lynn Smith, 15 at the time, he says: We don't like Jelly Babies, or Fruit Gums for that matter, so think how we feel standing on stage trying to dodge the stuff, before you throw some more at us.Couldn't you eat them yourself, besides it is dangerous. I was hit in the eye once with a boiled sweet, and it's not funny! Not familiar... More

Aww. These Talk threads have few or zero replies as of today. Anyone have anything to say? McClure's Spicy Pickles: anyone know what type of pepper? "McClure's Spicy Garlic Pickles have just arrived in Williams-Sonoma stores. Brought some home today, thinking "I LOVE pickles!" Spicy is an understatement. Granted I am not a spicy food person, but my face is melting off. They have amazing flavor, and good crunch, but the heat really sticks around. My question: anyone know what kind of peppers are in there?..." Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris: any recommendations? "I'm thinking of having lunch at a 2 - 3 star restaurant as many offer a significantly cheaper set-price lunch menu. I'm tossing up between Taillevent (old-school French,... More

This exchange between Mr. Kuban (serving as acting food photographer) and me graphically illustrates how far this serious eater has come in 67 weeks. We were sitting at the bar at Kefi eating our final meal before I had to write the review. Our server brought over a beautiful bubbling casserole dish filled with tangy, creamy, wonderful macaroni and cheese (above). I ate a couple of forkfuls. Damn, it was good. I turned to Señor Kuban and said without a touch of irony or self-awareness, "How could anyone eat all that?" Kuban smiled that devilish half-grin of his and replied, "That's not what the old Ed Levine would have said. The old Ed Levine would have finished that sucker... More

Easter is not long behind us, and I only have one comment on the matter: there is a reason why dying and dyeing sound exactly the same. All I ever get for my troubles are stained fingers and cracked shells. If the Easter Bunny is so magical, why can’t he just make a line of pastel-perfect eggs appear in the supermarket? As it turns out, in the UK, he does. Or rather, Clarence Court delivers a happy rainbow of colorful eggs to the Sainsbury’s down the road. Not only did Britain get Cadbury Creme Eggs first, but now British blue eggs. We are used to hens laying eggs in just two colors: white, and brown. Chic, perhaps, but also... More

"Seely’s naked contempt for Jager-bombs and the people who drink them is as refreshing as a frosty schooner of Vitamin R." Dive into the Sloop and you might catch a glimpse of a crew member from "Deadliest Catch." Photograph by Cary Melton Mike Seely, managing editor of the Seattle Weekly, writes like Ernest Hemingway in his new book, Seattle’s Best Dive Bars. He’s Papa for the PBR crowd, exploring the gritty, working class watering holes that are the antithesis of the geeky chic image the city has embraced. He doesn’t candy coat his close-to-the-ground reports on these off-the-radar spots. For instance, he says The Waterwheel Lounge looks like the kind of place “where you might get your head bludgeoned on... More

By using the spreadsheet-like grill grid Gridus from Art. Lebedev Studio, grillers who once said, "I'll take the one on the left," can now say, "I'll take the one in B7 to C22, but if you could cut off that burnt part from C7 to C9, that'd be great." [via swissmiss]... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, the Kitchn shows off a gallery of vintage cake carriers. Also on the Kitchn, unleashing the chalkboard inside every fridge, cooking by sound, a nifty can strainer, and a recipe for blackberry elderflower spritzer with mint.... More

From May 8 to May 12 I visited Seoul for the first time, mostly to eat as much food as I could and learn about a cuisine I knew little about. On my first night in an attempt to battle jetlag and give me my first gutbusting taste of food on South Korean soil, Dan of food blog Seoul Eats and his friends, including fellow food bloggers Joe McPherson of ZenKimchi and the walking Korean food encyclopedia that is Fat Man Seoul, took me out on a three-eatery night. You know you're with the right crowd when you eat at three places in a row. Dan's friend Rob recommended the following eatery to us, and we're all better for it.... More

©iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino The Great American Food & Music Fest When: Saturday, June 13; doors open at noon Where: Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View CA What: A celebration of great American food, chefs, musicians, and winemakers, hosted Bobby Flay and featuring some of the best regional food purveyors in one place Cost: Prices vary, $35 to $526. Use promo code "foodfest" to save $5 if you purchase tickets before 5/26/09. Bite Spotlights: Pink's Hot Dogs (LA), Tony Luke's Sandwiches (PHL) Tickets available here » I know commissioner Kuban has tried to put a lid on bacon posts on Serious Eats, but I know he'll make an exception for this bacon spotlight. Serious eaters attending the Great American Food & Music Fest in... More

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, was on The Colbert Report last night. Colbert welcomed him with Sierra Mist soda, which definitely doesn't make Pollan's five-ingredients-or-less rule for virtuous foods. But Pollan politely took a sip and argued that he can still be American while avoiding American cheese (and other synthetic foods). For example, he encourages all parents to go the breast milk route, except we learn, thanks to a Mrs. Pollan in the audience, that he was not breast fed himself! Scandal. The interview, after the jump.... More

"Twist a chicken leg with your fingers. If it doesn't budge, it isn't done. If it spins like a roulette wheel in Las Vegas, it has cooked too long." This week's grilling tips come from Chris Lilly: vice president, executive chef, and partner of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama. Big Bob Gibson is a legendary name in the world of Bar-B-Q and the cooking team holds ten World BBQ Championships, six world titles at "Memphis in May," as well as the American Royal International Cook-Off and BBQ Sauce Competition. Fifteen years ago, Chris Lilly was hired by Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q to learn the art of barbecue from Bob Gibson himself. His meat mentor simply told him to... More

Couch potatoes, take note: Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food) is tonight's guest on The Colbert Report, 11:30 p.m. ET, Comedy Central. That is all. Carry on.... More

As I mentioned before, I took a trip to Seoul last week to attend the 7th Annual Tteok Fair, a two-day event dedicated to the beloved Korean rice cake. Although I plan on writing more complete posts about the fair, I didn't want these nubbly penguin tteok from the rice cake making competition to get lost in the shuffle. Out of the hundreds of tteok creations I saw fashioned into flowers, tiered cakes, and other non-traditional shapes, I'm pretty sure these was the only ones shaped like penguins. They may not be elegant creations, but as a lover of all things that make me go, "Awww," these hold a special place in my heart.... More

Photograph from It'sGreg on Flickr If you want to hunt for wild mushrooms but don't know where to start, the Wall Street Journal shares some advice on how to hunt for morels. Garrett Todd, a mushroom forager in Michigan, says to take your time by using your fovea, the tiny part of the eye responsible for sharp central vision. "An expert rule of thumb for morel hunting is for every one minute you walk, you should stand and look for the mushroom for six,” says Todd. Other tips include what flowers to look for as indications of morel season, and what trees they tend to grow near. Related Morels - where did I go wrong? [SE Talk, 3/18/09] Photo... More

What happens when a hibachi trick goes a little bit too far? Carl Huber shows you in his webcomic, The Warehouse. Related: Amazingly, This Is the Same Way I Summon Soft Serve... More

Food Safety Music is the creation of Dr. Carl Winter of the University of California at Davis. By listening to Winter's songs and watching his music videos, you can learn about bacterial contamination, irradiation, pesticides, and more! His parodies may be silly, but they're more fun than taking a typical food safety class (I should know; I've taken a few of those classes). Watch his video for Stomachache Tonight about the dangers of undercooked chicken, after the jump.... More

Not the winning baguette, but an example of a tasty one. In a baguette tasting at Washington City Paper, the home-baked baguette by journalist Samuel Fromartz of Chewise took the highest score—66.5 of 80 points, compared to baguettes from other bakeries and stores in the Washington, D.C., area. Check out Fromartz's recipe if you want to try it at home. [via rebeccablood.net] Related Good Baguette Recipes [SE Talk, 3/27/09] Baguette Keyboard Wrist Cushion Baguettes Are Us: What's Your Favorite... More

Photograph from Carol Mitchell on Flickr I grew up in Kansas City, a city that some folks here in my current place of residence view as hicksville. (It's not.) So I love what Fat City blogger Owen Morris has to say about an Overland Park, Kansas, man whose neighbors are giving him (chicken)s**t about his chicken coop: "This means Kansas City is on the cutting edge, not stuck in the rural past."... More

Wow. Japanese curry is, like, my third favorite food. And ice cream is right up there as one of my favorite desserts. So what about curry carrot ice cream? Blogger Cathy Erway adapted it from a recipe in Asian Ice Cream for You and Your Kids and served it at the most recent Hapa Kitchen Supper Club to rave reviews: One diner wrote in a thank-you note that she she felt “a little violated by the juxtaposition” (I’m assuming that pertains to curry in ice cream), but that it was “super delicious” and “badass” with a double underline. An unusual compliment for an unusual ice cream flavor, I suppose. Want the recipe? This way lies ice cream violation. [via... More

From the Serious Eats inbox, a moving story of one man's longing for banh mi fulfilled. Not the banh mi in question, but no less tasty, we're sure. Photograph by Robyn Lee Dear Serious Eats,Everyone in Serious Eats land has mentioned or had a banh mi at some point or another, but I’ve never been able to chime in because I have had no such luck. With folks in New York and California having an abundance of restaurants to choose from to find these tasty treats, it makes us folks down in Texas a bit jealous, until now. [Jealous? What about your awesome barbecue? —Ed.]Believe it or not there is a rather large Vietnamese population here in the Richardson and... More

Jennifer Maiser writes about locally and sustainably grown food. The Cooking with a Friend series chronicles her cooking and menu planning adventures with her neighbor, J. "Please don't tell anyone," I begged J. While she promised not to tell my deep dark secret, I'm telling you now: a lot of my food from last week went to waste. Once I realized that I was eating strangely, I froze what I could of my dishes, but I still sadly ended up tossing some of our spectacular food from last week. I really despise wasting food, but didn't have much appetite last week, and when I did I ate strange things instead of full meals. When I did want something nutritious, it... More

©iStockPhoto.com/Floortje The Los Angeles Times Food section held a blind tasting of 14 birds, ranging from the standard supermarket kind to the organic, free-range, natural, heritage, air-chilled and kosher—they even tried two from a live poultry store. No clear winners, but they picked a few winners for different reasons. They liked the organic, free-range chicken from Healthy Family Farms in Fillmore "for its flavorful meat and overall appearance," as well as Mary’s chickens from Pitman Farms near Fresno (available at Whole Foods), "for its texture, flavor and crisp skin." Most of the favorites were organic or fed special diets, and almost all were free-range. Another factor was the air-chilled processing method, versus water-chilled. Both of the air-chilled chickens they... More

Are English muffins worth baking from scratch? The homemade ones go up to bat against four store-bought brands: the generic ones at Fred Meyer (a subsidiary of The Kroger Co.), the more gourmet Wolferman's available by mail order, Trader Joe's, and the classic Thomas' (they put nooks and crannies on the map). More

"It's not surprising that we're witnessing a cheesemaking resurgence of sorts in that part of the world." Photograph from dearanxiety on Flickr Last week, there was an interesting story from the McClatchy newspapers about a group of Italian agronomists helping some Palestinian farmers set up an Italian sheep cheese operation in the West Bank. The dairy goes by the name of Golden Sheep, and produces a small variety of Italian cheeses like pecorino (a generic term for an aged sheep cheese), smoked ricotta, and scamorza (a close relative of mozzarella). The economy in the West Bank is, for obvious reasons, relatively stagnant, and the agronomists at Italy's Ucodep have launched this development project to help get some money flowing. The... More

When NPR senior producer Elizabeth Blair interviewed Cookie Monster last year, she asked the blue furball some pretty tough questions. What's you're favorite word? Coooo-kieeees. What's your least favorite word? Out of cooooo-kieees. Favorite sound? Om nom nom nomm. If you were reincarnated as some other plant or animal, what would it be? Snuffleupagus...and have a big snuffle thing. (Nice one, Cookie.) The riveting interview, after the jump.... More

Almost a year ago, we told you about Millennium in San Francisco charging a buck per glass of water that's passed through a Natura filtration system. Well, they're still doing it, and as San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer points out on his blog Between Meals, there's something psychologically disturbing about knowing that buck went to self-righteous water. Plus, there are plenty of other restaurants that seem to be pouring it for free. What's next, a rental fee for straws? It'd be nice if free tap was an option in addition to the filtered stuff. Or even if that dollar was stretched out across the bill so you didn't fixate on the "water" surcharge. But at the same time,... More

Mel of Bouchon for Two, like many of us, is a sucker for things with short seasonal shelf lives. Right now, she's after fiddleheads, or the unfurled fronds of young ferns that are harvested for food consumption. They look like snail's shells or some pasta marketed at picky kids. Mel says they're "delicate, earthy" and make a nice salad with minced garlic, Dijon mustard, Parmesan, walnuts, and lemon. But you might want to blanch them first—they contain mild toxins that dissipate after being fully cooked. Related: Fiddleheads [Talk]... More

I blog by day and wait tables in a New York City restaurant by night. I'm excited to bring you Served, dispatches from the front of the house. Enjoy! On Friday, I got up early, sat in front of my computer, and banged out the conclusion to my last college paper ever. I handed it in with a big smile on my face. Feeling triumphant, I took a shower and went to work. “Are you going out to celebrate tonight?’ a customer asked when I shared the news: I was officially finished with college. “Maybe,” I said, stifling a yawn. After my shift, I hailed a cab, dragged myself up four flights of stairs to my place, and crawled right... More

Pictures from NeighborhoodFruit.com If "organic" was the conscientious eater's buzzword five years ago, "local" is the buzzword of today. From an environmental standpoint, the logic is simple: The farther a head of broccoli travels from the farm to your steamer, the more energy is consumed in the process. In the meantime, the food around us often goes to waste. Think of how many trees in parks and backyards go unpicked--their fruit enjoyed by no one but the birds--while we pay dollars per pound for apples flown in from all corners of the globe. One new website, sensing this inefficiency, aims to connect people with locally available food. Neighborhood Fruit will serve as a forum for members to register their own... More

Cook the Book: Serious Barbecue: ilovebabynoah707, colengal, rmc1ra, meredycat, and jennywren. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to everyone who entered!... 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. This Week's Recommended Shows: It's the season finale of Hell's Kitchen! The winner will receive the head chef position at the Borgota Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Thursday, 9 p.m. ET, FOX Monday (May 11) Good Eats (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Frozen Cache." Alton shows how the freezer can be used for proper food preservation. (repeat) 8 p.m. ET, Food Network Will Work For... More

Italians and Southerners have one important thing in common, a love and respect for food. Both cultures share the belief that nothing can compare with the food that comes from your land or out of your kitchen. Think about it: Georgia peaches, San Marzano tomatoes? Frank Stitt has taken this reverence for the best ingredients and opened three definitive restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama. According to the late, great R. W. Apple, Stitt has turned Birmingham, Alabama, into a "sophisticated, easygoing showplace of enticing, Southern-accented cooking." In 1982, after studying philosophy at Berkeley and cooking all over San Francisco, and in France in Burgundy and Provence, Stitt returned to his hometown and opened the French-accented Highlands Bar and Grill. Cooking with... More

Hunter, Angler Gardener, Cook Hank Shaw of the always informative (and Beard Award–nominated) blog Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook shows us how to make homemade paprika. It's not the kind of thing you do over a weekend, though: Turns out making paprika is easy, but it takes a while; it’s like that famous recipe for Stewed Elephant that starts with “cut elephant into bite-sized pieces.” You basically need to start paprika a year before you want the powder. That's because he made it from chiles he grew last year and hung up to dry. As it turns out, you need just the right kind of pepper and need to dry them in a shady, arid spot. After that, it's a... More

A man in India eats rocks and bricks. Yeah, not so food-related, but pretty impressive—if it's real. (I have my doubts.)... More

Crispy Critters preps its whole hog entry at last year's Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. The Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest enjoys the saucy subtitle, "Superbowl of Swine." Like the football game that sorta shares that handle, it can be almost impossible for spectators to get up close to the sizzling hot action at Memphis in May, which starts Thursday and wraps up Saturday. It’s like going to a party and being told to stay away from the buffet. After watching the mouthwatering competition on the Food Network, hundreds of ‘cue fans make the pilgrimage to the annual event only to be bummed when they learn it’s not cool to walk up to... More

Photograph from jasonlam on Flickr It's good to know where your food comes from. This banana sponge cake clarifies the "banana" part. Jason Lam of Me So Hungry scored one at this office along with some other interesting Japanese snacks. Related The Best Japanese Chocolate and Cracker Snack Shaped Like a Mushroom Pumpkin-Flavored Pocky Snacks Crunchiest Drinking Snack Ever: Kanikko, Tiny Japanese Crabs... More

independent.co.uk How does a die-hard cyclist find his dream meal? Bike around a few continents looking for it. Tom Kevill Davies, the self-titled Hungry Cyclist, quit his job in London to spend more than two years cycling across North and South America, in search of the best eats the hemisphere had to offer. Some of his best bites? Menudo in Mexico, globo biscuits on Rio's Ipanema Beach, fried pig’s fat in Colombia, and—eek—fried piranhas in Manaus, Brazil. More on these dishes, and many others, in his book, The Hungry Cyclist, out this week.... More

Salami for the Soul: Michael Nagrant experiences salami nirvana at the Romanian Kosher Sausage Company in Chicago. Coal on Fire: "Not only has the rapidly increasing number of new coal-oven pizzerias surprised us but where they're located has been interesting as well," Adam Kuban reports. Blast of the Past: Beeps Fast Food in Van Nuys, California, lives up to its nostalgic expectations for Damon Gambuto but falls short in the taste department. "Not Bad, But Not Very Good": Daniel Zemans investigates the Neapolitan- and Chicago-style pies at Monticchio, a north side Chicago pizzeria. A Whale of a Tale: Continuing to deliver delicious details from her Icelandic expedition, this week Robyn Lee reports on the whale skewers at Saegreifinn.... More

Photograph from Litlnemo on Flickr Butter is one of those things, like yogurt or peanut butter, that most of us would never think of making at home—until you try it and see how mindblowingly easy it is. As a kid, I was fascinated the first time I saw cream transformed into butter. And from that moment on, whenever we had a spare bit of whipping cream, I’d pop it into a Tupperware and shake it until butter grains formed on the lid. Over at Cooking Up A Story, Heather Jones takes a slightly more methodical approach to making her own butter: beating cream in her Cuisinart, carefully rinsing the solids, and churning the clean butter with a potato masher. The... More

Dinner Tonight: Blake Royer lightens up classically cream-heavy salmon and pea tagliatelle and swears he "didn't miss the cream at all." What's in a Name: Debunking the real meaning and use of French toast, Kerry Saretsky creates an asparagus parmesan pain perdu with homemade tomato jam- a savory rendition of this traditional French nursery dessert. Mom's the Word: Carey Jones brings you many recipe ideas that will help you create a very memorable Mother's Day brunch. Crazy for Kimchi: Some things are better bought than made, but Andrea Lynn shows no fear in creating seriously spicy masterpieces such as this recipe for homemade kimchi. Reuniting with Reuben: After a substantial separation, Nick Kindelsperger creates an outstanding reuben sandwhich from scratch... More

Photograph by La Tartine Gourmand Around this time of year you can start to find fantastic rhubarb stalks in your local markets (its season is from April to September). This perennial vegetable related to buckwheat was first used for medicinal purposes in China as early as 2,700 B.C. Today, rhubarb is affectionately known as "the world's favorite pie plant," although it can be used in countless other recipes. The leaves of rhubarb can be toxic, but they are normally removed and cleaned before they are sold. Look for long, firm, and fleshy stalks for optimal taste and freshness. WIth a pucker that rivals that of the lemon and bountiful harvests arriving in markets near you, we have compiled some... More

According to our handy site-metering utility, the top 10 most delicious items across the Serious Eats family of sites this week were ... 1. A Primer to 'Star Trek' Food and Drink Romulans are crazy drunks with a penchant for tart candy. 2. Healthy & Delicious: Avocado Chicken Salad "That’s why, when I find a recipe like Mrs. Micah’s Avocado Chicken Salad, I’m quick to jump on it, lest the computer gods steal it away like so many accidentally unsaved grad school papers." 3. Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 65: 'Call Me Papacito' "Papacito, you don't need relaxed-fit jeans. Have you lost weight or something?" 4. Why the Hate For Alice Waters? The food world may have no more polarizing... More

There's so much to keep up with in Talk that we almost can't keep up. If you're in the same boat, here's a small selection of topics and responses that have piqued our interest this week. What to charge for catering? "when i was doing catering i usually used this formula: 1/4 food, 1/4 labor, 1/4 overhead, 1/4profit. "but take into consideration, you can't charge 4x what a steak costs and if you only charge 4x what couscous costs you'll be missing the boat.... so you must take that into consideration. on high items like steak, fish, i think i used to only double it because these items are also less labor intensive. "also the number of guests really bumps... More

Regarding Dijongate, I was in the Alpha Quadrant all day yesterday and haven't really looked at a lot of the material out there on the issue, so I'm sure someone has already beaten me to the punch on this observation. But can I just point out that Dijon mustard is not elitist? Grey Poupon is made by Kraft Foods (the same people who make Oreos, Cheez Whiz, Kool-Aid, and Corn Nuts) and comes in a 10-ounce plastic squeeze bottle. Can a product that makes a fart sound really be all that uppity? Related: What Do You Think of Dijon on Burgers? [AHT]... More

Over the last year or so, Al Jazeera English has produced a really interesting series on food from around the world. In previous broadcasts, they have visited Jerusalem and New York City, and here, they're in Montreal, where the cuisine ranges from gussied-up oysters and tarts to the arguably less refined poutine (cheese curds and gravy over fries). Some purists think the fat explosion that is poutine represents a scandal. "It's not really cooking! An aberration!" A little miffed by these naysayers, chef Martin Picard of the well-respected Au Pied de Cochon, put poutine on his menu as a symbol of his support. Except to make it jibe with the rest of his restaurant, he throws on a dollop... More

Picture from Instructables When I was bored with a bag of gummy bears—the kind of scenario that tended to occur a lot more often when I was seven years old—I used to bite them in half and graft one color head onto another color body. (Or if I was feeling especially subversive, two heads or two bodies together.) Pretty sloppy surgery. But the blog Instructables has a much more precise and, dare I say, medically sound approach to Gummi Bear Surgery—with a full pictorial step-by-step guide. With a sterile scalpel (okay, X-Acto knife) and a steady hand, he takes on amputations, brain transplants, and the creation of a three-headed bear. Pictures not for the (gelatin-based) faint of heart.... More

I would have bet any and all comers that pigs would start flying before anyone called me out in the blogosphere for being too thin. But that's just what happened this week. Let me set the scene for you, my merry band of serious eaters. I was at our Hot Dog Hootenanny last Sunday, enjoying the festivities enormously, desperately trying not to eat a whole Chicago hot dog or an entire Papaya King frank or all six inches of a mighty delicious Bulgogi dog, or the full length of a Crif Chihuahua dog with bacon, avocado, and jalapeños. I think I succeeded, but as there is no such thing as a hot-doggometer that reliably measures such things, I had to... More

To Seek Out Strange New Worlds ... and Eat Their Foods Spaceballs ... oh, wait. That was another movie. The J. J. Abrams–helmed Star Trek movie opens tomorrow. As I was reading up on the new installment, I came across this line in the Wikipedia entry: "Another reference to Abrams' previous works is Slusho, which Uhura orders at the bar she meets Kirk at." That reminded me that food and drink is depicted routinely in the Star Trek franchise—across ten movies and six TV shows. There's no doubt—or at least, I hope—that there will be food references in the 11th movie, which will feature Romulans, Vulcans, Orions. As a refresher, I thought I'd take a look at what passes for... More

The food world may have no more polarizing figure than Alice Waters. On the one hand, her acclaimed restaurant Chez Panisse hasn’t fallen out of favor for nearly four decades, her Edible Schoolyard has taught decades of schoolchildren the importance of fresh foods, and her work for the Slow Foods Movement has been impassioned and tireless. Yet, as Laura Shapiro points out in this month’s Gourmet, Waters has become a figure of endless censure, attracting criticism like a magnet does iron shavings. And in recent months, these digs have morphed into outright insults. She’s often called arrogant, self-righteous, and out of touch… or, perhaps even more damning, downright irrelevant. Here at Serious Eats, we’ve seen our own share of Alice-bashing.... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, the Kitchn pleases us with a good trompe l'oeil. That's not a juicy peach, but a crumbly sandwich cookie very popular in Eastern Europe. They're known as breskvicein, the word for peaches in most Slavic languages. Also on the Kitchn, sweet potato coins, chocolate tea (should it really exist?), snapping asparagus ends, and easy refrigerator pickling.... More

Critic Turned Cook follows former Seattle Post-Intelligencer food critic Leslie Kelly on her journey away from the keyboard and into the kitchen as she trains at various Tom Douglas restaurants. Take it away, Leslie! The signature Sea Bar sampler includes a rotating selection, including kimchi-topped Dungeness crab. Photograph courtesy of Tom Douglas restaurants "Don't break it," one of the cooks at Dahlia Lounge warned as she handed me a pitcher of oil to pour into the Robot Coupe, after she asked me to finish a batch of Russian dressing. I started to sweat, struggling to keep the stream steady so the yolks wouldn't separate from the oil. "You should be able to hear when it's done," she said. There are... More

Photo from Invisible Hour on FlickrYes, it's National Roasted Leg of Lamb Day—which sounds less weird when you list it alongside National Bicarbonate Of Soda Day (December 30), National Pickled Peppers Month (October), and National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day (start counting down to November 12). All officially recognized American holidays. Obviously, there’s only proper dinner on May 7. Simon Hopkinson’s Roast Leg of Lamb with Anchovy, Garlic, and Rosemary is a good bet. For a lighter (and slightly deviant meal) try Blake Royer’s Seared Lamb Salad. And if you’re still mourning the late, great Bea Arthur, there’s no better time to roast a commemorative leg.... More

I used to think Seasonal Affective Disorder was something psychologists made up so that crazy people felt better about themselves. But, it was a hard won winter in Chicago, and the blankets of snow and the razor chafe of Lake Michigan squalls took their toll on me. But, just as I was to fall upon an icicle dagger, my good friend, Aamir, the hard drinking non-pork eating Muslim that he is, saved me with beef salami. He’d been telling me about Romanian Kosher for years. In fact we endured an hour of bumper to bumper traffic on surface streets on a Saturday drive to visit the place a few years ago, only to find it closed (Being the silly goy... More

If you’re cooking for Mom at home this year, here are a few ideas to get you started. More

©iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino In a quick explainer on the difference between pancetta and bacon (bacon is smoked), Lynne Rossetto Kaspar gives this quick tip: "If your recipe is one of those pure-as-the-driven-snow Italian creations, and if pancetta is out of the question because of price or availability, there is a way to use bacon. Merely boil it for 2 to 3 minutes to get rid of much of the smoky taste."... More

Last week, Dan Barber (Blue Hill) won this year's Outstanding Chef Beard Award. This video of him at the Taste3 conference in Napa Valley last year focuses on the politics of foie gras. More

Poor KFC. It seemed like such a good idea. New product; launch it with a giveaway. And then another, with a big-name celeb like Oprah to announce the coupons. KFC gets foot traffic; the people of America get free chicken. (And Oprah gets a few million more hits on her website.) So simple, right? Not quite. First, the website couldn’t handle the sudden online crush of chicken-seekers, making downloading the coupon impossible. Then, a KFC near New York’s Grand Central Station refused to honor customer coupons—despite, some report, clearly visible chicken waiting behind the counter—sparking a pretty intense outcry. (But not a "riot," KFC insists.) And to add insult to injury, California-based chain El Pollo Loco started a giveaway... More

"I used to be one of those macho guys that cranked the grill up to bejesus." Photographs by Maro Hagopian This week’s grilling tips come from celebrity chef icon, Emeril Lagasse. His empire has expanded to include restaurants, radio shows, best-selling books, and several product lines. Most recently Emeril has been "going green" with his television series, Emeril Green where he inspires viewers to cook in an eco-friendly way and buy organic and local produce. Last week, Emeril hosted a live show at Sirius XM Martha Stewart Radio celebrating his newest cookbook, Emeril At The Grill. At the event, Emeril prepared several of the recipes from his cookbook and really "kicked it up a notch" with a live demonstration of... More

"The term 'new potato' has become ubiquitous and is overused, but a true new potato is a treat, and is fairly rare to find." This moment, right now, is one of my favorite times in Northern California farmers' markets. I wish I had an unlimited budget to buy enough berries and asparagus to fill my Zipcar, and unlimited time to shell peas and fava beans so that I could have them in plentiful supply all year. It's a bright, colorful time to walk through the market. Flowers are in abundance, spring fruit is returning, and the fragrance of strawberries wafts through the stalls. One of my absolute favorite things is making its debut right now: new potatoes. Many people don't... More

While the worst of this month’s swine flu hysteria seems to have passed, authorities in some areas are still exercising extreme caution. After a visitor to the Wanchai Metropark hotel in Hong Kong tested positive for the virus, the Hong Kong health department—still reeling from the SARS epidemic six years ago—decided to hold the hotel’s three hundred other guests for a seven-day quarantine. Finding the hotel food options growing stale, guests have started exploring their delivery food alternatives. And while some are relying on Pizza Hut, the Wall Street Journal reports, “French guests have taken it up a notch: Their consulate has arranged for French dishes like poulet à la moutarde to be brought in.” Oh, the French—always providing for... More

Photograph from ChefDJen on PhotograzingWelcome to the Weekend Cook and Tell Round Up. Last week we asked you to cook up some lesser known cuts of meat and share your experiences and photos. We got some pretty tasty looking responses. Paula Maack chose deckle, a fatty and wonderful that she has dubbed "the pork belly of beef." She braised in wine and stock and served it with some fantastic sounding buttermilk Cheddar horseradish mashed potatoes with Swiss chard. The results look delicious—check them out on Paula's blog. Palmsey chose the marinated roast eye of round. Sliced thin for sandwiches and served with some apple horseradish spread and Swiss, it was a hit. Football foodie grilled up some lamb shoulder blade... More

Internal organs never ranked particularly high on my “cute” list, but these little guys are hard to resist. I Heart Guts has a whole line of cuddly plush body parts—like the adorable tummy ($18) at right. Odds are, Serious Eaters don’t need a reminder to love their stomachs, but this makes it even easier. (Even if there's something existentially weird about snuggling with organs.) And there are T-shirts ($24), too!... More

Coffee that's too pretty to drink—not sure where I stand on this debate. This entrancing video of a barista making animal shapes with steamed milk and a stick-like tool, however, makes a good case for caffeinated piggy art. The video, after the jump.... More

The much-maligned microwave--conjuring up images of scary invisible waves and mysterious molecular science--isn't what most of us think of as environmentally friendly. (After all, how could "nuking" something be good for the planet?) But though it sounds counterintuitive, the microwave is one of the most energy-efficient options for cooking our food. Think of the microwave as a high-pressure shower, and the oven as an overflowing bathtub. The shower delivers only the blast of water to clean you off, whereas taking a bath requires you to fill a whole sloshy tub of water, just so you can soak inside. In the same way, heating up a whole oven for the sake of a little potato uses a lot more energy than... More

Photograph from mypressi.comGood espresso is indispensable, but at-home options are few—classic Moka Pots that don’t get a decent crema, or modern machines that are clunky and pricey. And now there’s a third option: the Mypressi Twist ($129), available for pre-order now. This hand-held wand runs on tiny gas cartridges, requiring no other power. Fill the machine with ground espresso (or an espresso pod) in one chamber, and hot water in the other. Pull the trigger, and the gas pressure forces water through the coffee, pouring a strong extracted shot. Of course, the Mypressi begs a few questions—how many gas canisters does this thing go through? (And how suspicious will I look buying that many?) If it’s dependent on hot water,... More

Editor's note: Jennifer Maiser writes about locally and sustainably grown food. The Cooking with a Friend series chronicles her cooking and menu planning adventures with her neighbor, J. J. and I are definitely developing a rhythm to this project. Like clockwork, we now discuss the week's menu via email on Fridays, and then I compose the shopping list and we divvy up responsibilities. She's still learning my food quirks that revolve around my desire to buy from local farmers. This week, I didn't go to a farmers' market so she and I shopped together at Rainbow Grocery, a local co-op that sells locally-grown produce, and then supplemented a couple of items from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. While I pay... More

Photograph from hoodscope.wordpress.com New Yorkers may snag streetside crème brûlée from the Dessert Truck, but lucky San Francisco has a vendor dedicated solely to that sugar-crusted treat. For the last month or so, the Creme Brulee Cart has set up shop in the Mission, usually at Dolores Park, torching each $3 dessert to order. The blogger behind Hoodscope gave it a try: Once you let him know what flavor you want, he tops it with a layer of sugar, busts out the blowtorch, and torches until it achieves the perfect crispy sugary top. Underneath that layer you can find a number of different flavors that are offered on a rotating basis. Flavors range from classic vanilla bean to Bailey’s... More

Photograph courtesy of Cheeses of France Spring is naturally the season of new beginnings, and during these warm days rife with optimism, I like to think about all the wonderful things this season kicks off. Spring harvest, baseball, the first days of the rest of a college graduate's life, and of course the effective start of cheese season. In this third installment of Cheese 101 (we've already covered blues and Alpines), we take a detailed look at some of the best cheeses for spring—the aged goat cheeses—largely inspired by the "chèvres" of France's Loire Valley.... More

This year I watched the entire James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony from the ridiculously crowded and cramped press room, located in the bowels of Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in Manhattan. We all watched the video monitors as the awards unfolded, and when our personal favorites won, started yelling at the screen, the way longtime offtrack betting habitues yell when a race is on. More

Remember Vince? After his ShamWow! fame, he pitched the Slap Chop, a life-changing thingamabob that chops, minces, and dices in seconds. Now his infomercial has been tricked out, and would make great background noise for a spin or aerobics class. The video after the jump.... More

As a big someecards.com fan, I was excited to finally find a food-related one to share. Go back to the bacon-wrapped pork chops diet, people. Related: Swine Flu: Can You Still Eat Pork? All Signs Point to Yes... More

Just Another Basket on the Donut Wall Dunkin' Donuts Cinnamon Twists, advertised and actual. When building out their menus, fast-food chains are better off sticking to what they know. Domino’s Pizza doing pasta? A little scary. McDonald’s making pizza? Kind of a joke. But when Dunkin’ Donuts starts promoting a new breakfast pastry, it’s probably a safer bet. For a limited time, many DDs are offering icing-topped Cinnamon Twists ($1.39), which can be served toasted. It's slightly funny timing with spring heating up (and iced coffee weather creeping in) but cinnamon never really goes out of season. About six inches long, the Cinnamon Twist looks like four little cinnamon rolls melded together, sparingly drizzled with sweet icing. If you like... More

I blog by day and wait tables in a New York City restaurant by night. I'm excited to bring you Served, dispatches from the front of the house. Enjoy! I read poetry last Thursday night at Columbia to celebrate the release of a publication that included a few of my poems. It was fun to listen to people read stories, poems, and nonfiction. So much of the work was so good. After, we went out for drinks and snacks at a restaurant nearby. “I loved your piece,” I said to a very tall guy who had read a nonfiction piece that included “high-carb grammatical carnage.” “I loved yours,” he told me. Over beers and calamari, we got to talking. Turns... 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. Monday (May 4) Good Eats (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Tamale Never Dies." Alton goes explores the history and taste of tamales. 8 p.m. ET, Food Network Will Work For Food (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "BBQ Pitmaster & Competitive Eating." Adam works as a pitmaster at Louie Mueller's Barbecue in Texas and is trained to be a competitive eater in New York City. (repeat) 8:30 p.m.... More

Photograph from longhorndave on Flickr Bill Waters, a Tulsa man tooling around in a Texas Panhandle antiques store, discovered a very interesting Dr Pepper artifact in a ledger book he found and bought there: The recipe written in cursive in the ledger book is hard to make out, but ingredients seem to include mandrake root, sweet flag root, and syrup.It isn't a recipe for a soft drink, says Greg Artkop, a spokesman for the Plano-based Dr Pepper Snapple Group. He said it's likely instead a recipe for a bitter digestive that bears the Dr Pepper name.He said the recipe certainly bears no resemblance to any Dr Pepper recipes the company knows of. The drink's 23-flavor blend is a closely... More

Cook the Book: Tacos: moo1018, swatanabe, slcrose, pickledseeds, and Lvpierson. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our page. Thanks to everyone who entered!... More

To freeze, or not to freeze? Use an airtight container, or leave in the roaster’s bag? When it comes to storing coffee, there’s all sort of conflicting advice out there. But this article from The Atlantic's food channel is a great resource. Jerry Baldwin, former owner of Peet’s Coffee and co-founder of Starbucks (some twenty years ago), weighs in on the best way to store your beans at home. The takeaway points: bring espresso to room temperature before brewing; refrigerate beans that you’ll grind within a few weeks; freeze beans that you won’t drink for longer; and don’t bother with airtight containers. For the rest of Baldwin’s advice—and the coffee-geek explanation behind each tip—read the full article here.... More

Adam Perry Lang is a French-trained chef with years of experience at illustrious restaurants such as Daniel, Le Cirque, and Guy Savoy. With a resume like that you might assume that Lang would be more comfortable with squeeze bottles and a sous vide machine than tongs and a grill. In fact, Lang has retired his proverbial toque and become a bona fide barbecue expert. In 2003 he opened Daisy May's BBQ and entered the professional barbecue circuit. Lang's pork shoulder won first place at the World Series of Barbecue and was named Grand Champion at the World Pork Expo. With victories like these under his belt, it's obvious that Lang knows his barbecue. His next project is taking him across... More

Seems like indie rockers and hipsters are popping up in all sorts of cooking shows lately. New Yorker pop music critic Sasha Frere-Jones unearths a video of Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) making sweet potato rounds for the site Oh Audrey. Amazingly, Marshall does not spend half the video with her back to the camera or freak out and bail.* [Video, after the jump.]... 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. Editor's note: Ling will be taking a brief hiatus from Serious Eats for the next couple of months, but she assures us she'll be back in June. Kim on peg. You are looking at a sheet of Korean seaweed, held up by a mini binder clip, and pegged to an iPod cable. There is a very good reason why the seaweed is being "hung out to dry," but it has nothing to do with the recent drizzly weather. I wanted to show you guys how much flimsier and more translucent it is (compared to the... More

Where does a private chef go to bring home Boston’s best? I tagged along to find out. More

It has a bit of an angelic glow, eh? Photograph from jasonlam on Flickr Jason Lam of Me So Hungry makes a Egg McMuffin-esque breakfast sandwich out of a plump Chinese steamed bun, slice of ham, melted cheese, and a fried egg. Note to self: I need to make more sandwiches out of bao.... More

I visited Iceland from April 18 to 24. Although this sparsely populated country may not be known for its cuisine, there was plenty of interesting food to report on. This will be my final shapshot; the rest are here. Saegreifinn, or Sea Baron, is known for their lobster stew, but this fish shack also offers a wide variety of grilled seafood-on-sticks. With the help of four friends, I got to try seven different skewers, our most unique choice being the minke whale. Considering its appearance and flavor, I'd call it the Beef of the Sea. The flavor is similar to steak with a slightly funky fish flavor, while the texture is softer than beef and has finer muscle fibers. If... More

Kids are not being tapped enough for their greeting card-making powers. Amy Karol, a mother of three who blogs at Angry Chicken, started jotting down her daughters' babbles and printing them onto blank cards. Now Sadie's stance on a chicken finger-based diet can be memorialized. [via The Kitchn] Related Cooking with Kids: Funny Fortunes Snack to the Future: The Col-Pop, an All-in-One Chicken Nugget and Soda Cup Meat Cards: Business Cards Made of Beef Jerky... More

Photograph from itsjustanalias on Flickr Asparagus is the vegetable that most signals the arrival of Spring to me—its arrival means other green goodies are not far behind! A member of the lily family, asparagus is nutrient-dense—high in folic acid and a good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin. Look for firm, fresh, spears with closed, compact tips and uniform diameter, so that all spears will cook in the same amount of time. I like to "hammer" my spears following Gina DePalma's instructions—so simple and delicious. Asparagus Recipes Asparagus with Gruyère and Smoked Ham Lazy Asparagus Omelet Asparagus and Mushroom Tart Pasta with Asparagus and No-Cook Goat Cheese Sauce Browse all asparagus recipes » or... More

Mighty 'Migas: This traditional Spanish dish, brought to you by Blake Royer, gets a mouthwatering makeover with mushrooms, butter, and parsley resulting in must-try mushroom 'migas. Haute Ham and Cheese: Lunch meat and Wonder Bread be-gone! Kerry Saretsky shares this exquisite sandwich recipe made on Parmesan and Gruyère Gougères, spread with chive Dijon butter, then layered with French prosciutto and baby arugula. Lamb Falafel: Meat Lite's Tara Mataraza Desmond whips up this natural marriage of falafel mixed with lamb all tucked inside a crispy pita that will definitely "rival a hoagie" any day of the week. Baja Taco's: Fish tacos are becoming increasingly popular, however, they are not always as tasty as they should be. This recipe for Baja-style... More

I visited Iceland from April 18 to 24. Although this sparsely populated country may not be known for its cuisine, there was plenty of interesting food to report on. This week I'll share some food-related bits with you. The lamb boat (970 ISK) sub-style sandwich from Hlölla Bátar* in Ingólfstorg square, was my favorite sandwich from my trip to Iceland, besides being one of the tastiest subs I've ever eaten anywhere. The slightly chewy and soft, but substantial bun was filled with thin slices of crispy fried lamb accompanied by crunchy fried onions, pickles, lettuce, red cabbage, and plenty of special mayonnaise-based "Hlölli" sauce. After my hot dog-eating experience, it was more evidence that fried onion bits are a magical... More

Pretty Near Perfect: Tony Luke's roast pork sandwich is a favorite among serious eaters, and thankfully for all of us, they will be available at the Great American Food & Music Fest this June. A Second Chance: After a mediocre first review, Michael Nagrant gives Veerasway, a Chicago upscale Indian restaurant, another try and finds the whole experience much improved. Mexican Pizza: Continuing on his exploration of nontraditional pizza, Daniel Zemans investigates Pizza by Alex, a Mexican-influenced pizza joint in Chicago. Boston's Best: The Boston Globe accomplishes the daunting task of evaluating the top burgers in Beantown and rates Flat Patty's number one. Icelandic Dogs: Robyn Lee goes the distance (literally) in bringing you the full report on the... More

Hospital Food is a blog of photos of food from hospitals around the world. Some look unpromising while others might actually taste good. [via BuzzFeed]... More

According to our handy site-metering utility, the top 10 most delicious items across the Serious Eats family of sites this week were ... 1. Five Star Meals in Just Four Cans "After reading Yotam Ottolenghi's Three Course Dinner in Just Four Tins, which consisted of canned corn, smoked oysters, stewed tomatoes, and pineapple, I couldn't help but try to finagle my own three-course creation using four canned foods and basic pantry items." 2. Whole Chicken in a Can Taste Test "Ever see a can give birth to a chicken before?" 3. Swine Flu: Can You Still Eat Pork? All Signs Point to Yes "If reports about swine flu and goverments banning pork imports are making you think twice about eating... 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. Saturday (May 2) 5 Ingredient Fix (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Impress the In-Laws." Claire makes rosemary pork tenderloin, cheesy penne, nutty greens with bacon and blue cheese, and simple pineapple sherbet for her in-laws. 9:30 a.m. ET, Food Network Secrets of a Restaurant Chef (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "The Secret to Grilled Salmon." Anne makes grilled salmon with lemon butter with lentils and salad for... More

There's so much to keep up with in Talk that we almost can't keep up. If you're in the same boat, here's a small selection of topics and responses that have piqued our interest this week. HELP! BF Is Extremely Picky "Dump him and date me; 22yr old Male Accounting and Intl Business degrees from Villanova 5'9" and very athletic Dark hair and dark eyes Employed as a Corporate Account Rep for a Wine and Liquor Distribution Company I enjoy cooking, working out, the beach, snowboarding, traveling, and spending time with my family I am a hopeless romantic and more importantly I enjoy all foods and will eat anything you were to serve me!" —twoojoe I Still Remember My First... More

Kaitlin Bell of Hungry Magazine profiles Bill Owades, the kosher buyer for Fairway Market since 1998: "'I'm friggin' good at what I do,' Owades said, without embarrassment."... More

If you think making croissants is a pain in the ass, you don't know the half of it. Note: You HAVE to watch this with the sound on. So crank it up (or put on headphones if you're at the office). [Video appears after the jump.]... More

Every now and then it is worth putting yourself—and your taste buds—in the hands of professionals to take your knowledge to the next level. Whether you head to a wine store to taste a flight of new wines, go to a restaurant and let a knowledgeable sommelier pick the wines, or attend a cooking and wine class, there are plenty of opportunities for the curious oenophile. More

From left: Chipotle's original logo, its pepper logo, and the redesign of the pepper logo. I think I had the same reaction as Brand New blogger Armin Vit to the redesign of the circular Chipotle chile pepper logo: I didn't even know the burrito chain had moved away from its original retro-shape-sign logo. The new signage and branding has begun rolling out across the chain's 800-some U.S. locations. [via Gordon Eats]... More

Mmm, pretty rice cakes. Photograph from the Institute of Traditional Korean Food. When I was little, the term rice cake meant fat, round, mostly flavorless disks of puffed rice that I thought people only ate if they were on a diet. At some point this image left my mental food dictionary, and now rice cakes can only mean the soft, squidgy Asian variety made of pounded glutinous rice transformed into sweet and savory dishes. Growing up in a Chinese family with an affinity for Japanese cuisine, I've tried a variety of Chinese and Japanese rice cakes, but Korean rice cakes—in particular the sweet varieties—have been off my radar until now. In Korea, different kinds of rice cakes, or tteok... More

"Papacito, you don't need relaxed-fit jeans. Have you lost weight or something?" For me, someone who has wrestled with a weight problem my entire life, clothes-shopping has always been an exercise in desperation and denial. Even as a preteen I was always trying to convince my mother and the salesperson at our local clothier, Meyer's, that I didn't need to limit my choices to the clothes in the "Husky" section of the store. For the last 20 years I've hated the fact that the only clothing store I could find a wide (pun intended) selection of pants in my size, 46x30, was Rochester Big & Tall. I used to console myself by telling my wife that at Rochester Big &... More

yesbutnobutyes.com I don't think the interweb at large is ever going to get tired of looking back at breakfast cereals of the past. Once you've seen a gallery or two of vintage cereal boxes, you've pretty much seen them all. We're certainly guilty of such retrogazing, and Yes But No But Yes is just the latest blog to pour a big bowl of nostalgia. But what I'm doing so awkwardly here at this hazy early morning hour is using their post as a jumping off point to ask dbcurrie a question that's been bugging me—and probably a few serious eaters as well: Did you ever figure out what the heck cereal it was that you asked about here?... More