[Photo: Robyn Lee] Who knew that the humble pancake would make this week's Weekend Cook and Tell one of the most popular topics yet? No matter whether you call them—hot cakes, flapjacks, or griddlecakes—this pan-fried treat was the inspiration for some pretty great responses this week. Let's hope that our love for pancakes turns out better than this line that BKNYDan quotes from iconic comedian Mitch Hedberg: "As a comedian, it's important to both start and finish the show strong. I can't be like pancakes: all exciting at first, but by the end you're f___ing sick of them!" betteirene has an all-purpose batter that is used for everything, from aebleskivers, strawberry shortcake pancakes, waffles, and bacon-cheddar waffles. A cast... More

We are preparing for our next taste test installment: store-bought mustards. Do you have a favorite brand? Style? We're not ruling any out—bring on the bright yellow, brown, whole-grain, Dijon-style, or whatever else you fancy.... More

[Flickr: lunchbreath] Girlfriends, this is what your boyfriends eat when you're not around. The Girlfriend-On-Vacation Food Pyramid illustrated by Lunchbreath gives us a peek into the nutritionally decrepit wasteland of boyfriends (or "lonely people who don't know how to turn on a stove") left on their own. I do approve of the impulse pancakes though. Related Spatula Taxonomy Nutritional Wants and Needs Fail to Overlap Cooking With Kids: Food Pyramid for Preschoolers... More

[Photograph: Colette] Christian Louboutin is partnering with Piper Heidsieck in releasing a Louboutin-branded Champagne. To celebrate the launch the French shoemaker designed a glass stiletto (with signature red sole), which comes in a limited-edition gift box along with a bottle of the bubbly. Available from Colette on October 26. [via The Dieline]... More

Does good-quality, cheapish olive oil exist? We tried nine grocery store-bought olive oils—nothing over $20 per liter, with most bottles hugging the $10 price point. They ranged from buttery and mellow to peppery and cough-inspiring. Check out the results. More

Note: Penny Cherubino of BostonZest usually covers Boston-area farmers and farmers' markets for us, but she couldn't help but report on these noteworthy hot dogs. Take it away, Penny! [Photographs: Penny Cherubino] Every tourist town needs a place where you can count on simple, fresh, well-prepared food, and for Provincetown, it's Blue Light. The comfort food haven specializes in hamburgers, sandwiches, quesadillas, soups, wraps, and hot dogs, which go beyond meat tubes in a bun. Send a friend there and you might get the following e-mail response: "The Pig was a life-changing experience!" The Pig is a grilled, jumbo, all-beef hot dog topped with chili, bacon and cheddar—add sour cream and it's a Pig Daddy. Or try the Alpine, a... More

We'll say this about Jeremiah at Vanishing New York: he has a knack for flipping over what you might think great news. Reporting that a Sullivan Street Bakery will move next door to Jim Lahey's Chelsea pizza place Co., he pens an elegy to the pastry shop that sits there now. Called Les Desirs Patisserie, it's a hangout for many elderly residents of the Penn South housing complex: I visited Les Desirs and found only one seat available in a packed shop, bustling with talk—and song. A table of women, most in their 80s, were singing "It Had to Be You" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." I sat down with Jeannie and Phil, Hell's Kitchen and... More

[Flickr: Shay Aaron] Perhaps we've covered the tiny, inedible food jewelry trend enough, but these creations by Shay Aaron need to be added to the list. Check out the rest of Aaron's handiwork, including a vegetable soup ring, Corn Flakes necklace, and falafel pendant, on his Etsy page. [via @verysmallanna]... More

What do people do while waiting for an incredibly long pancake to form? Keep reminding each other "this is so cool" followed by, "this is stupid guys, this is just stupid." Make noises. Search for more plates. Crack that's-what-she-said jokes. Wish for three arms. Keep looking for plates. And when the pancake is done forming? Roll the snake of a thing up and take a jaw-stretching bite (probably worth three pancakes alone). The folks behind the Gizmodo Gallery, an interactive wonderland of spiffy contraptions in New York City recently, decided hey, let's make a stupidly long pancake. The video, after the jump.... More

Night muffins. Why wait until morning? [Photograph: Robyn Lee] Oh, how well I can relate to this passage from the Washington Post: It is well past 9 p.m. I am dreaming about dough and batter, yet I am not asleep. The night is still young for obsessed bakers like me who enjoy the tranquilizing act of stirring a brownie batter, kneading a batch of yeast dough or tossing together a quick bread before bedtime. Like Lisa Yockelson, the author of this piece, I too am a night baker. Between work and busy weekends, the only time I find to whip up a batch of cookies is late in the evening. I may be a bit more prone to burning... More

Associated Press This is amazing. Archaeologists digging on Rome's Palatine Hill have unearthed what they believe to be Nero's revolving banquet hall, which has been referenced in ancient biographies of the Roman emperor. The room was likely built "to entertain government officials and VIPs": The purported main dining room, with a diameter of over 50 feet (16 meters), rested upon a 13-foot (4-meter) wide pillar and four spherical mechanisms that, likely powered by a constant flow of water, rotated the structure. The hall, situated as it was, would have had one of the best views of Rome even without the rotating razzamatazz. Nero ruled from 37 to 68 A.D.—about 1,900 years before the first modern-day revolving restaurant would be... More

[Photograph: Archie McPhee] Oh, boy. Get ready for Thanksgiving. Here's an inflatable turkey. I'd love to fill a flock of these with helium and see if they'd fly. $11.95, from Archie McPhee [via Swiss Miss]... More

The prize, awarded by the University of San Francisco, recognizes the work Waters has done "raising consciousness about how the food we choose affects our health and our planet." There will be an award dinner on November 5; tix here.... More

[Image: G.O.D.] Mooncakes are the traditional pastries given out during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Chinese holiday that this year lands on October 3, aka the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. Red Cook has a roundup of non-traditional mooncakes made for this popular holiday, such as coffee-flavored mooncakes from Starbucks, ice cream mooncakes from Häagen-Dazs, and...butt-shaped mooncakes? Hong Kong-based lifestyle goods store G.O.D. (stands for "Goods Of Desire") is behind this series of eight butt-shaped mooncakes for a different take on the word "moon." Related Grocery Ninja: Mooncakes and the Mid-Autumn Festival Weekend Excursion: Eat A Mooncake for Mid-Autumn Festival... More

What do you do with tomatoes that are a tad past their BLT or caprese salad prime? Ketchupify them. Nick Kindelsperger of The Paupered Chef, and our regular Dinner Tonight contributor, followed a recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. "It's almost good enough to eat with a spoon."... More

I just caught up with my Office-watching after a long weekend in Dallas. If you haven't seen last Thursday's episode, here's a clip to whet your appetite (and it won't really give that much away). In it, Michael tries to eavesdrop on a meeting between Jim and Dunder-Mifflin CFO David Wallace by having Andy sneak him into the conference room in a tablecloth-bedecked cart bearing a cheese platter. The real gold is in listening to Andy try to wax elegant about the processed cheesefood on offer (American cheese singles, Parmesan shakey cheese, and blue cheese dressing). Catch the vid after the jump.... More

If you see canned pumpkin in your grocery store, stock up now ahead of Thanksgiving. Cold days and too much rain the last few growing seasons have led to a shortage of the Turkey Day pie ingredient. Says one grocer, "We order so much during the thanksgiving season that we can't get rid of it after the thanksgiving season. This is very rare, something I've never seen before."... More

[Photograph: Rose Petals Cakery] If the movie adaptation of the classic children's book didn't quite do it for you, then maybe these cupcakes will. They were made by Rose Petals Cakery of Naperville, Illinois, for a client who wanted treats for a group of kids to eat after seeing the flick. The spaghetti is buttercream, the meatball is Ferrero Rocher candy, the sauce is raspberry jam mixed with buttercream and the parmesan is grated white chocolate. It's almost hard to wrap your brain around the fact that they are sweet not savory. Sort of reminds me of meatloaf cake. [via Cupcakes Take the Cake]... More

[Image: Natalie Boog] To promote the Sydney International Food Festival, advertising agency WHYBIN/TWYA made a series of flags depicted by the foods of each country. You can get a closer look at the flags at telegraph.co.uk. Related Where the Wild Fruits Are The 'United Plates': Food-Themed Prints of All 50 States Photo of the Day: Eatphabet... More

I don't know about this: "Gordon Ramsay, at Your Service is described as a half-hour laffer that will take 'the essence of who he is and have a bit of fun with it,' according to Adam Shaheen, prexy of [Toronto animation studio] Cuppa Coffee." [Variety]... More

Photograph: The Argus I love this story from last week in The Argus, which mentions a British artist finding a slice of bacon left as a bookmark in a returned library book. I've used all manner of items as impromptu bookmarks over the years (yarn, movie tickets, bus passes, a dollar bill), but I don't think I've ever used a food item. And the disappointing thing is that, if this is the actual book-and-bacon combo, it's not even in a cookbook. (Then again, the way some of my most-used cookbooks look, I may have well used a slice of bacon to mark a favorite recipe.) The funny thing is that people do seem to use food as bookmarks. The... More

[Photograph: Carey Jones] The Boston Globe has a short piece about restaurants that have banned laptop computers—or even banned books. "Sometimes people think I'm really arrogant, and I'm not,'' said Michael Sobelman, owner of Michael's Deli, where a no-reading rule is enforced. "I'm doing it for the customers and my business.'' More common are restaurants or cafés that ban laptops, in an attempt to turn over more tables and keep traffic flowing. Some customers, however, don't take to rules and restrictions very kindly. What do you think? Should restaurants be allowed to ban laptops? Or should customers be left to do what they like?... More

[Photograph: Nick Kindelsperger] The club sandwich is a tall wonder containing turkey (sometimes chicken), lettuce, tomato, bacon, and no less than three slices of bread, all cut into quarters and secured with frilly toothpicks. I was so ready to have a gleeful romp with the American classic that I even bought the special toothpicks and a bag of chips to dump in the middle. You can't imagine my high spirit as I sat down to this light dinner. Nowadays the sandwich is bastardized because it is usually made as a three-decker, which is not authentic (whoever started that horror should be forced to eat three-deckers three times a day the rest of his life)... — James Beard on the... More

[Flickr: MulderMedia] The What the Fluff Festival, a celebration of Marshmallow Fluff in its birthplace of Somerville, Massachusetts, brings new meaning to WTF. On Saturday, Fluff enthusiasts piled into the town's Union Square to listen to Fluff-themed poetry slams, sample Fluff-bearing foods, and play games like "Fluff, Knife, Bread" (a modified version of Rock, Paper, Scissors). This year, you could even follow the festival on Twitter (@FluffFestival). The tradition all started four years ago when the gooey white stuff was receiving some negative press. A bill was proposed to limit the number of times a week school cafeterias could serve the "unhealthy" Fluffernutters, a regional sandwich favorite combining the joys of Fluff with peanut butter. In response, Mimi Graney... More

Cook the Book: Gourmet Today: Louisa, Jilly, leighana, Michael Z, and gramvo. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to all who entered.... More

Note: It's time for another edition of Street Food Profiles. This week we scoot to the West Coast. [Photographs: Green Truck] Name: Green Truck Vendor: Bobby Allen Location and hours? Multiple locations around Los Angeles, typically from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Follow @Green_truck on Twitter for updates. The "Mother Trucker" burger: a homemade vegan patty with heirloom tomatoes, sprouts, and mixed greens, topped with "Trucker sauce." What do you sell? Organic, vegan-friendly food, including burgers, chicken burritos, Niman beef hot dogs, line-caught albacore tuna sandwiches, falafel wraps with tzatziki, fries, and fresh melon frescas. How long have you been street fooding? The company formed in 2006 and we've been rolling around Los Angeles since early 2007.... More

Telepathe is a Brooklyn-based electronic band of two girls who released an album earlier this year called Dance Mother. Along with the expected mod bangs, flannel shirts, and dancing in dark alleyways, this music video for their song "So Fine" involves bowls of tangerines, marshmallows roasting in candles, and the spice aisle at the grocery store. The video, after the jump.... More

One Hungry Chef's DIY BLT flowchart. Earlier this summer, food writer Michael Ruhlman challenged his readers to make BLTs from scratch and to go as "from scratch" as possible. This morning, Ruhlman announced the winners on his site. Among various categories--Best BLT Photo, Best BLT Interpretation, Most Inspirational BLT--was the Best Over All BLT, made by Jared Dunnohew of One Hungry Chef. As his cool flow chart shows, Dunnohew did almost everything short of raising the pig and growing the wheat. He foraged in parks for herbs for the bread, the homemade mustard, and the pork cure. He harvested his own sea salt (25 liters of ocean water yields 1 kilogram of salt, he reports). He grew his own... More

[Photograph: craftster.org] The only thing better than a toddler toddling around is one wearing a wig and spectacles, masquerading as Colonel Sanders. A woman on the craft forum Craftster shared this photo of her daughter from Halloween last year in a thread about wig-making. Somehow a kid posed as a geriatric chicken icon is really adorable and not creepy at all in this scenario. [via Neatorama] Related Best Food-Inspired Halloween Costumes Foodie related halloween costumes ideas anyone? [Talk] Colonel Sanders and Leon Trotsky Look Alike... More

"Farming takes time to do well. Only a weed grows overnight. Everything else takes a lot of time and nurture." [Photograph: Penny Cherubino] Name: David Gilson Farm: Herb Lyceum at Gilson's in Groton, Massachusetts. How many acres? Four acres, but that includes fifteen greenhouses, a restaurant in a refurbished carriage house, and probably about an acre of European- Tuscan or Provencal gardens where people wander about before entering our farm restaurant. [Photograph: Doug Macomber] Your crew: Our seasonal crew includes a wonderful combination of local working moms and Cambodian and Jamaican workers. This diverse group brings extensive farm experience, as well as unique humor and perspective. We also have a long-standing tradition to include high schoolers, who provide energy and... More

[Pistachio gelato: Bobby Flay's undoing. Photograph: Robyn Lee] Slashfood asks a few chefs about their guilty pleasures, and while some take the highbrow way out--Wagyu beef, Colicchio? Really?--Bobby Flay chows down on pistachio gelato, while Mario Batali can't get enough Doritos. "It has to be Doritos, though. I especially like the lime-flavored ones with chili."... More

The Great New York Fried Chicken Roundup: The Serious Eats Team did the difficult job of tasting countless fried birds from many different "Fancy-Pants" restaurants to give you the low-down on where to get your best fried chicken. Searching for Soul: Daniel Zeemans is continuously searching for pizza that has soul, and Zeeks Pizza in Seattle inspires but falls short where it counts the most--the crust. A Contemporary Tradition: Damon Gambuto bites into one of the burgers at L.A eatery Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica, where traditional dishes are given a contemporary spin that spawned what Damon finds to be a really amazing burger. A Complex Empanada: Michael Nagrant has a scandalous tale that sparked his love of empanadas,... More

Kogi and Border Grill taco trucks. [Photographs: Foodwoolf] Trendiness has long gotten in the way of Los Angeles's food scene, with shtick taking center stage while the actual food played only a walk-on role. (Think Tiki lounges, or diners where all the servers would sing and dance on the bar, and three-story submarines.) But all that's changed over the past decade or so, led by a handful of restaurants who managed to rise above the act and deliver on one thing first and foremost: food. Now, Los Angeles is home to things like food trucks serving 4-star meals right on the streets. Chefs and farmers are finding new followers on Twitter as they tweet about the restaurant business. Savvy... More

Thanks to all our dust making earlier today, all the community features have been turned back on, plus we're pleased to announce a new feature: comment notification! Now, every time you leave a comment on a blog post, talk topic, or Photograzing submission, you'll receive an email notifying you of any new comments on that thread. You'll also be notified of any comments on Talk topics you create or published Photograzing submissions. Handy! Comment notification is a profile level feature, and by default you'll begin receiving comment notification emails immediately. If you regularly comment on high comment count threads like our weekly Cook the Book giveaways, you may want to disable this feature or create a new email filter in... More

There are more to figs than the Newton cookies. One of the most luscious fruits, fresh figs can be thrown onto sandwiches, used in pork dishes, made into preserves, and more. 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. Cake Wrecks, The Book: An Interview with Creator Jen Yates » So, Jen, Is there one theme that's continually wrecked? Babies? I'm seeing a lot of freaky babies. "Baby showers continue to be the Wrecks-theme champion. I don't think there's any other category of cake that is so consistently Wrecky, which must be why I love them so much." 2. Jazzing Up White Rice » "Often I'll wonder what else I can do to rice-as-a-side-dish to elevate it a bit. I've tried using chicken broth instead of water, adding in sauteed onions, celery, peppers and toasted... 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 (September 26) Secrets of a Restaurant Chef (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "The Secret to Chicken Pot Pie." Chicken pot pie; butter lettuce salad with crispy prosciutto, oyster mushroom chips, and pears. 10:30 a.m. ET, Food Network 5 Ingredient Fix: "For the Girls." Claire plans an elegant meal on a budget for a night with her girlfriends. She makes Blackberry Kir Royale, French onion tart, Greens with fresh... More

"No matter if you wait in line at Ben's or just grab a half-smoke from a street cart, it would be a shame to visit D.C. without tasting one." [Art and photographs: Hawk Krall] The half-smoke is Washington D.C.'s signature street food, but nearly impossible to find outside of the D.C. area. By some definitions, it's not technically a hot dog. Otherwise, it has all the traits of a historically significant, regional variation of tubular meat on a bun. It involves a mildly smoked, natural casing beef and pork sausage. The meat is coarsely ground and spicier than a standard frankfurter. At Ben's Chili Bowl, a D.C. landmark and the most well-known place for a half-smoke, they are grilled on... More

[Flickr: Extreme Craft] Because we really don't have enough diorama coverage on Serious Eats, check out this mermaid spud (mer-spud?) in a box from the annual Decorated Potato Contest at the Humboldt County Fair in California. Garth Johnson of the blog Extreme Craft shares photos of the starchy entries on his Flickr page. Since 1896, the whole county has come together with toothpicks and glue—and as crafting technology has advanced in recent years, googly eyes—for the event. The categories are divided by age of the potato dioramist and number of potatoes used. [via Craftzine] Related Alaska State Fair Cabbage Tops Guinness World Record Video: Minnesota State Fair's Food on a Stick Are Potato Peels Really Good for You?... 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. Raising Your Own Chickens: Pros & Cons [Photograph: leoncillo sabino on Flickr] "I've been raising chickens off and on for past 30 years, and all the comments that I've read so far are good. Pavlov and Pooch know what they are talking about. Don't get caught up in the "romance" of raising your own chickens. They do have to be taken care of daily. Eggs have to be found if your chickens are free range, and having a daily egg hunt can get... More

When a goat tries to eat your food, you should probably just let him have it. Especially if the goat is twice as large as you. This hungry dog finds out the hard way. Watch the video after the jump.... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] I'm going to 'fess up here. I don't fast the way you're supposed to on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of repentance that begins on Sunday night. Not that I don't have plenty to repent for—it's just that I've decided to repent while eating. But even though I don't fast I still look forward to a traditional (or even untraditional) Break Fast meal. On Monday night we were invited to break the fast with some good friends of ours who live in our apartment building. They'll have a fantastic platter of smoked fish, bagels, and cream cheese, which is the traditional break fast meal in my experience. But to kick it up a notch, Jewish-style, we're... More

Aww. These Talk threads have few or zero replies as of today. Anyone have anything to say? Chinese Tea Candy "When I was in Elementary School (a looooong time ago), one of my teachers handed out tea candy for the Chinese New Year. It tasted like a cup of strong, well-sweetened black tea, the kind they serve at Chinese restaurants. Since then, I have been searching for something similar. The search hasn't been constant, obviously, but every now and then I get such a craving for it! Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Do any of you know where I could find it, either online, or in NYC's Chinatown?" Japanese Croquettes (Koroke) "Which restaurants serve them, and which ones... More

"The thing is, I'm not really fat any more." A couple of months ago I remember posting about my readjusted weight goals. Feeling confident and almost giddy with delight from all the success I've had in the last year and a half, I proclaimed that I was headed for 200 pounds or less. I still hope to be, but I see that the road to 200 pounds is filled with potholes, which in my case is a combination of pot roast and doughnut holes. Though there may have been one fluky week when I dipped below 210, my weight has been fluctuating between 211 and 216 for the last four months. It's been kind of discouraging because now I don't... More

[Photograph: The Los Angeles Times] The Los Angeles Times has a great profile on Internet sensation Ree Drummond. You may know her as The Pioneer Woman, whose group of sites—including The Pioneer Woman Cooks—feature witty writing and stunning photography. PWC, for instance, is full of recipes that you can almost follow by peeping the pix alone. While we at SE once drooled at the photos on her cooking site, we're now agog at the kitchen she shoots them in. Look at that thing!... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] It's good to hear that the Massachusetts legislature has its priorities straight. The Fluffernutter sandwich (marshmallow Fluff plus peanut butter) may become the state's official sandwich. According to the Boston Globe, it's one of three foods, along with Necco Wafers and the Charleston Chew candy bar, that will be considered for official state status by a legislative committee tomorrow. As a Californian, this got me thinking—what would our state sandwich be? Avocado with sprouts on seven-grain bread? And what sandwich would best represent your state? Related Marshmallow Fluff Help [Talk] PBJ Debate: Jelly-Side Up or Down? The Sandwich on '30 Rock' Sandwich Day Episode Revealed... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, the Kitchn recreates the beloved Starbucks pumpkin spice latte at home. It's not everyday your coffee calls for two tablespoons of canned pumpkin. Also on the Kitchn, making use of cheese rinds, ten food-related podcasts, fig appreciation, and a New Orleans-style vegan "muffuletta."... More

Serious Eats contributor Leah Greenstein shares a recipe for raspberry sorbet using invert sugar on her blog, Spicy, Salty, Sweet. About invert sugar, she says, "It’s made by taking traditional sugar and using an acid—lemon juice, cream of tartar, citric acid—and heat to break the sucrose into equal parts fructose and glucose dissolved in water. The resulting syrup crystallizes more slowly than regular sugar, giving the product it is added to a softer, creamier texture."... More

[Photo: Passive Aggressive Notes] Passive Aggressive Notes documents multiple instances of stolen bacon. My favorite is the one above; a lot of people must've been opening those boxes. Why? I just don't know. Related Photo of the Day: Roommate's Revenge Photo of the Day: We Waited... More

[Image: Bridget Sawicki] When I first started down this crazy path, radically turning the tables from being a restaurant critic to trying to cook, I took a vow: If this thing was going to work, it had to be fun. If I made money, well…that was just gravy. But half a year into this adventure, I’m having a financial freak out. Maybe it has something to do with the six-month anniversary of the newspaper I wrote for folding, which led to a dramatic decline in my bank account. My once-healthy nest egg now looks like something you'd find perched on top of a piece of sushi. My mortgage is underwater and I'm bailing as fast as I can. Oh, yeah,... More

Two 17-year-old girls were stopped at a Tesco in Exeter, England, after squeezing muffin tops (searching for the squishiest?) and apparently contaminating the poofs. According to the Mirror, they were hauled to the supermarket's basement to be questioned. Tesco decided not to press charges. [via Fork in the Road]... More

Alton Brown, in his typical MacGyver-of-the-food-world ways, hatches this idea for emergency oatmeal. All you need: a coffee pot, two pouches of instant oatmeal, a mini honey and jam packet, an herbal tea bag, a wee bit of salt, and water (how much depends on your gloopy consistency preference). The man becomes a savior to oatmeal eaters in motels everywhere. The video, after the jump.... More

[Photo: amazon.com] Even though it's not the most commonly used gadget, I've always thought that there was a fairly essential place for a mandoline in every kitchen. The question is, when you're shopping for a gadget that you're not going to use often, how worthwhile is it to invest in a quality product versus a budget buy? There seemed to be one particularly obvious way to find out, so I followed my intuition and brought home a gently priced, user-friendly version of the ever-dangerous tool: the Progressive International Folding Mandoline Slicer. One of the reasons that this particular mandoline comes in at such a reasonable cost (under $20 at amazon.com) is that its body is made of plastic rather... More

[Photograph: Punxatawneyphil on Flickr] The New York Times has a quick piece on Berlin's grillwalkers, who sell sausages from portable grills that they wear—gas on the back; hot, hot bratfest on the front. The innovative apparatus sprang up in 1997, when inventor Bertram Rohloff devised it as a way of skirting city street-vendor permits in the city. Without permits, "neither the grill nor the sausages could touch the ground." As he worked on the invention, Mr. Rohloff considered everything from burning charcoal to hooking the grill up to a car battery — which he rejected because it would run down in just 10 minutes — before settling on propane. He designed it with an automatic cut-off mechanism for the... More

Ricotta salata is riding a wave of new popularity. I like to think of it as a punctuation mark for both the eye and the palate. Position it strategically to call attention to the juicy sweetness of peas, shallots, watermelon and tomato, or the syrupy, honey-like quality of raisins, roasted butternut squash and parsnips. More

[Photo: Carey Jones] Pull a pint and raise your glass: Guinness turns 250 years old today, marking a quarter-millennium (!) since Arthur Guinness took over a brewery at St. James's Gate, in Dublin... on a 9,000 year lease. (Here's hoping that gives us 8,750 more years of the black stuff.) Honoring the occasion? Join drinkers across the world in a toast today at 17:59, Dublin time. (That's a minute to one in the afternoon on the East Coast. But nothing wrong with that—Guinness is good for you.)... More

[bravotv.com] Tonight at 10 p.m. ET, come join us as we watch the sixth episode of Top Chef Las Vegas. The magic-debunking duo Penn & Teller will swing by for the Quickfire, and for the Elimination Challenge, cheftestants will have to channel their inner Jacques Derrida and deconstruct a dish. Jump in the comment thread as the episode unfolds.... More

[Flickr: Mazarine] For last week's Weekend Cook and Tell, we wanted to take a peek inside your lunch box. Here are some of our favorite responses: Overcome with the spirit of generosity and an insatiable craving for Greek food, LanaRae made spanakopita turkey meatballs and homemade gyros to share with her friends and coworkers. kirbie had originally planned to make adorable heart-and-star-shaped eggs for her lunch bento but the egg sculpting didn't work out as planned. She ended with some home-cooked leftovers courtesy of her mom. As a proud new bento box owner, lemonfair went the Japanese route by making a rice Totoro served with teriyaki sauced vegetables, corn, melon, kiwi, and grapes. Lorenzo transformed steak tartare leftovers into... More

[Photograph: A.V. Club] Peanut butter goes with a lot of things (no offense, jelly) and the company P.B. Loco has capitalized on such pairings as curry, cookie dough, and bananas. The Onion's A.V. Club decided to taste-test these suspect flavors. It's hard to screw up peanut butter, but it's definitely possible. Armed with graham crackers and celery sticks, the tasters assessed six of the P.B. Loco flavors with the following results: Asian Curry Spice ("essentially ready-made Thai peanut sauce"), Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough (raw Toll House mixed with peanut butter), Dark Chocolate Duo (biggest disappointment), Cocoa Banana (at first chemicaly-tasting, then miraculous), Sumatra Cinnamon Raisin ("ants on a log in jar form"), and Caramel Apple (somewhere between apple juice and... More

[Photographs: Flip Flop Flyin'] Craig Robinson of Flip Flop Flyin collects many things that you do not, such as stuck Tic Tacs. Revel in their sad existence of confinement that no amount of hard shaking can free them from. [via presurfer] Related: Weird Food-Related Collections... More

[Photograph: And Then I Do The Dishes] At Serious Eats, we're of the opinion that it's always a good time for oatmeal. (Chalk it up to a disproportionate number of obsessives in the office.) But we're now moving into oatmeal season proper, and these oatmeal buttermilk muffins, from And Then I Do The Dishes, look like a perfect fall breakfast. "They were so tender and comforting that now," the author writes, "I buy buttermilk just to make these muffins."... More

[Flickr: maggiephotos] Maggie of Pithy and Cleaver shares her staple end-of-summer recipe for Southwestern Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette made of corn, black beans, tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumber, onion, and Mexican cheese. More main course creative salads can be found in Main-Course Salads by Ray Overton. Related Eat for Eight Bucks: Best-Ever Salad for Leftover Meats Meat Lite: Buttermilk Bacon Corn Salad Tomatoes Dinner Tonight: Peach Caprese Salad... More

[Photograph: theogeo on Flickr] Things are about to get competitive in the kitchen and it's not a Top Chef Quickfire challenge. It's time to start hypercooking. Hypercooking is defined by The Food Section as "an environmentally conscious way of cooking that seeks to maximize the impact of the energy used during the cooking process." Hypercooking is the kitchen version of hypermiling, in which drivers change they way they drive and use specific techniques to go as far as possible on a gallon of gas. In the Big Green Cookbook Jackie Newgent offers hypercooking tips and recipes, such as one for cookies that finish baking in the residual heat of the oven. Try these tips, after the jump, to save... More

[Map: Weather Sealed] In an attempt to find the most remote piece of wilderness in the lower 48 states, Stephen Von Worley of the blog Weather Sealed created this visualization that represents distances to the nearest McDonald's. Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald's, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car! [via Chris H.]... More

"I hated Juno and love soup, too. Can't wait to try this out! Autumn is meant to be slurped through." —gastronomeg... More

We are big fans of Michael Gebert's Sky Full of Bacon video podcast series, even when they don't involve bacon. In this one, he investigates whitefish—what's usually deep-fried for fish and chips or smoked for deli bagel sandwiches. Gebert chats with 92-year-old Robert Schuffler of Robert's Fish Market in Chicago, a man who's digested his fair share of whitefish (even for breakfast) and is still going strong. Gebert then adventures out to the Lake Michigan waters with a family behind a fifth-generation Wisconsin fishery. When it's fresh, whitefish should smell like cucumber. The video, after the jump.... More

Over the weekend our Seriously Meatless blogger Michael Natkin toured the Pike Place Market in Seattle with food photographer extraordinaire Lou Manna. Check out what Natkin learned about photographing nectarines over on his blog Herbivoracious.... More

"The classic Wrecks are those that are misspelled, misunderstood, or trying way too hard to be creative." Since May of 2008, Jen Yates has been documenting moldy feet, pregnant bellies, and misplaced apostrophes spotted on cakes on her wildly popular blog Cake Wrecks. Very quickly, Jen has made a career out of ridiculous cakes. Her new blook (blog-turned-book?) Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong comes out on October 1, and features a bunch of brand-new content. Yes, that means more creepy baby cakes! We chatted with Jen about the Cake Wrecks concept, what holidays are most wreckable, and more. So, let's start at the beginning. The Cake Wrecks creation story. It quite literally began with "The Cake That... More

This made it to the front page of Yahoo on Sunday, so it's probably made the rounds—apologies if you've seen it. I guess I've been living under a rock because I hadn't yet. Anyway, it's obvious the groom had breakfast on his mind rather than his wedding. If it's early where you live, careful with the volume. The bride gets shrieky. Video, after the jump.... More

"The first rule of Vendor Fight Club is you don't talk about Vendor Fight Club." Freddy the "King of Falafel" in Queens. [Photograph: Erin Zimmer] What's it like becoming a street vendor? "You get fat and develop arthritis," said Freddy Zeidaies, aka "the King of Falafel," who's built a little kingdom of street meat-loving fans in Queens for almost a decade. Last night, he sat in the audience as a panel of five people (who care and know a lot about street food) debated the future of sidewalk cuisine at the Astor Center in Manhattan. Does it have to be from a cart or truck? Any old contraption? Is the recent boom a direct outcome of a nosediving economy?... More

[Image: Kevin Cyr] You may not think twice about the potential beauty of a derelict truck, but Brooklyn-based artist Kevin Cyr does. Check out his paintings of portraits of urban vehicles, many of them food-related. [via Doobybrain] Related Meat Paintings Peter Anton's Giant Food Sculptures Photo of the Day: Melting Ice Cream Truck... 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 (September 21) Good Eats (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Flap Jack Do It Again." Alton makes homemade instant pancakes, shops for measuring cups, and checks out some maple trees. (repeat) 8 p.m. ET, Food Network Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: "Real Deal Italian." Guy checks out classic Italian eateries in Baltimore, San Diego and Pittsburgh. (repeat) 10 p.m. ET, Food Network... 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. This week, we hear from Boston correspondent Penny Cherubino of BostonZest. Take us to the market, Penny! [Photographs: Penny and Ed Cherubino] Provincetown Farmers' Market Ryder Street parking lot, Provincetown MA 02657 (next to town hall; map) Hours: Open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through December 5. In 2007, Andy Pollock from Silverbrook Farm organized a farmers' market in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Over the years, this town at lands end, on the tip of Cape Cod, has served as a haven for fishermen, artists, writers, and the gay community. Today... More

Cook the Book: Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon: jolene278, AddiE, jennts, cobaltab, and llama. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to all who entered.... More

Note: It's time for another edition of Street Food Profiles. This week we scoot to Burlington, Vermont, where one woman has been selling dumplings for ten years. [Photographs: Hong's Chinese Dumplings] Name: Hong's Chinese Dumplings Vendor: Hong Yu Location and hours? Church Street in front of the Borders bookstore in Burlington, Vermont. Hours depend on the sunshine. What do you sell? Chicken and pork dumplings, veggie dumplings in pot sticker style, crab ragoons, shrimp egg rolls, veggie egg rolls, chicken cheese egg rolls, sesame cold noodles, and veggie fried rice along with homemade ginger garlic soy sauce, hot chili oil, and sweet cranberry sauce. How long have you been street-fooding? 10 years.... More

When I first moved out on my own, my mother thoughtfully gifted me with a paperback copy of Fanny Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. As a novice cook it was my go-to for pretty much everything, from simple tasks like mashing potatoes to more complicated pies and pastries. I think my copy lasted about a year before the spine split and the pages became too grease-stained and sticky. I then graduated to a secondhand copy of Irma Rombauer's indispensable Joy of Cooking. Both of these books have lived with me in kitchens all over the country and seen me through hundreds, if not thousands, of meals over the years. While Fanny Farmer and Joy of Cooking are great for basics... More

I'll admit that my initial reason for watching this video was because it features a wacky-looking dude with a massive fake mustache, but it has the additional plus of being educational—if you're interested in learning how to make your own soda, at least. Combine yeast, water, sugar, and flavoring for your homebrewed soda. Watch the video after the jump.... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] The storied birthplace of the Caesar salad, the Caesar Restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, tossed its last bowl of romaine last week. Legend has it that the concoction was invented in the 1920s by accident, inspired by leftover lettuce, garlic, anchovies, olive oil, wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, egg yolks, croutons and parmesan. And the man behind the magic wasn't Julius Caesar—it was an Italian immigrant in Mexico named Caesar Cardini. According to the Associated Press, the restaurant wasn't able to pay rent anymore with the local tourism-dependent economy so devastated by swine flu, crime, and drug violence. Related Dinner Tonight: Grilled Caesar Salad The Perfect Bite of Caesar Salad with Grilled Ribeye What is the... More

Note: Meet Your Farmers is a weekly series where we profile the farmers that mean so much to serious eaters everywhere. This week we catch up with Nancy Prebilich, a California farmer who's also earned her MFA in International Theater and Performance Studies. [Photographs: Gleason Ranch] Name: Nancy Prebilich Farm: Gleason Ranch in Sonoma County, California. How many acres? 98 acres Your crew: Mother, father, sister, eleven year-old nephews, and five year-old niece. Hours: 24/7. I wish this was an overstatement, but it truly isn't. Every day we live and breath the ranch. We sleep in the barns at night if a sow is having trouble birthing, we leave a holiday dinner early to make sure everyone is watered and... More

A spurtle. [Photograph: etsy.com] Of all the thingamajigs floating around in drawers, the spurtle might be the coolest. The wooden stick is something of a magic wand for porridge—it's engineered to prevent the lumping and congealing of mushy hot cereals. On October 11, expert porridge makers from far and wide will compete for the coveted golden spurtle trophy at the sixteenth annual Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship in Carrbridge, a village in the Scottish Highlands. This year, Matt Cox of Bob’s Red Mill—the first and only U.S. participant—will compete with his oatmeal brûlée topped with pears, cherries, hazelnuts and distilled spirits, stirred with a custom-made Myrtle spurtle (naturally). Part of me still wants a spurtle to be an... More

[Fruit just past perky? Cook into jam. Photograph: Robyn Lee] On the Times's Diner's Journal blog, Julia Moskin notes the ways that Portland grocers managed to turn past-peak produce into edible eats. "When the local concord grapes on the shelf are past their prime, they go into the commissary kitchen and come out as Zippy Grape Jam. Bananas turning brown? They are peeled, dipped in chocolate, and sold frozen—and local kids eat them up." We've all heard of brown bananas getting worked into banana bread, but we can get a lot more creative. My roommate uses chopped day-old French fries as an omelet addition—hey, they're just potatoes, right?—and I've made some pretty decent soup out of less-than-crisp spinach. What... More

[Photograph: Tia Kim] Not Your Typical Pub Grub: One on One in NYC's East Village is the perfect place to satiate cravings for cold beer and Irish-style pub food in one whack. A Happy Birthday Burger: Damon Gambuto celebrates his birthday with a delicious Niman Ranch beef burger at Tavern in Brentwood, Los Angeles. When Squirrels Fly: Daniel Zemans chows down on the delicious pies thrown by former Starbucks sound engineer, Bill Coury, at Flying Squirrel Pizza Company in Seattle, Washington. Loco for Locanda Verde: Fried chicken is all the rage, so Ed Levine valiantly digs into New York hotspot Locanda Verde's Monday night fried chicken dinner. Although the chicken and sides were simple and good, Ed was made... More

[Image: butter-beer.com] Ever wondered what butterbeer and pumpkin juice would taste like? Well, next spring you can find out at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park slated to open at the Universal Orlando resort. According to Nation's Restaurant News, the Harry Potter wonderland will have two pubs, the Hog’s Head and Three Broomsticks, which will feature a menu of "traditional British fare and drinks." If you don't spend all your money on the gift shop's robes and Quidditch gear, you can also look forward to Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans at Honeydukes, the park's sweets shop. Any other Harry Potterian cuisine they should include? Related Harry Potter and the Legend of the ICE Cooking ClassHarry... More

[Photograph: Life's Ambrosia] School cafeteria fare is right up there in the inedible Pantheon with hospital food and airline meals. But there's a great Chowhound thread where people are chiming in with their fond memories of cafeteria food. It's not all bad. While I endured my share of rubbery hot dogs and greyish, sugary "ribs" in grammar school, my California high school cafeteria had a few hits on its menu—like the red-sauced enchiladas that disappeared, inevitably, fifteen minutes after the lunch bell. I witnessed all-girl stampedes over these enchiladas. Stampedes that resulted in disciplinary assemblies. The grilled cheese was great, too (I once witnessed the head cook pouring an entire ladle of butter over three or four sandwiches on... More

[Photograph: Rodney Chow ] Noodles are a beautiful thing—watching them being made, even more so. This photo from Rodzillaaaaa on Flickr captures the art of whipping hand-pull noodles in mid-flight.... More

[Photograph: Rupert Blanchard] London-based designer and builder Rupert Blanchard made these nifty kitchen cabinet doors by veneering them with vintage tea packing chests from the 1930s to 1960s. The kitchen belongs to Time Based Arts, a post-production studio based out of an old Victorian townhouse attached to Shoreditch Town Hall. [via Re-Nest]... More

Photograph: sling on Flickr As summer comes to a close and we kiss the warm, carefree days of summer goodbye, we can console ourselves with a whole new crop of early fall vegetables perfectly ripe and in season. One of those fall treasures is the bell pepper, which hit their peak during the months of August and September. Originating in South America in 5000 B.C., universally popular bell peppers are a member of the nightshade family, which also include potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants. The color bell pepper you choose will bring a unique taste to the table: the green and purple bell peppers have a somewhat bitter flavor, while the red, orange, and yellows are sweeter and almost fruity.... 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 AHT Guide to Hamburger and Cheeseburger Styles "We toss around references to different burger styles on this site all the time, but it occurred to me that we've never really set them out all in one place for easy reference. I'm doing that now. Here's a list of all the burger styles we could think of. If there's something here we're missing, chime in with a comment. Here goes, in no particular order our guide to hamburger and cheeseburger styles..." 2. Seriously Asian: Stir-Frying Vegetables "Relying on the stir-fry method is mostly a matter of... More

"I put the bottle of Belvedere—oh alright, it was Smirnoff—back in the liquor cabinet." [Photographs: Lucy Baker] I made vodka sauce once for a date. No, it wasn't Rachael Ray's "You Won't Be Single For Long Vodka Cream Sauce." I'm not that sappy. It was Sara Perry's recipe for linguine with bacon and vodka sauce from her book Everything Tastes Better with Bacon. It was a memorable night and while the gentleman and I have long since parted ways, from time to time I think fondly of the irresistible contrast of smoky bacon and fragrant basil, the kick of red pepper flakes, and the hint of spice that was so hard to name (dried fennel seeds). Gutsy and flavorful as... More

One Georgia man is not allowed to step foot into a Cracker Barrel ever again. The company banned him after he was accused of beating a mother at one of the restaurant-store's locations.... 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. 'To Sirloin with Love': Stellar 'King of the Hill' Series Finale "Oh, and 'You had me at fruit pie.' Long live Bobby Hill!" —AuntJone Jewish New Year Foods "The lungs and heart can be fried with plenty of garlic and onion, then put through a meat grinder and used as a filling for knishes or for kreplach. "But not by me. "L'shana tovah!" —cybercita Realistic B&B Breakfasts "I spoke to someone once about running a b&b and they disabused me of romantic notions quite... More

[Photograph: Blake Royer] Pull out the lederhosen and kazoos for Oktoberfest, the beer-and-wurst-honoring German celebration that starts tomorrow and runs until October 4. Here are some menu-planning ideas, most of which involve some combination of: sausage, kraut, and beer. Baked Apples With Barley-Sausage Pilaf Potato Salad with Vinaigrette Beer Bread Turnip and Potato Gratin Honey-Glazed Turnips Wedges Red Cabbage With Apples and Honey Sausage Stuffed Peppers Mustard-Baked Chicken with a Pretzel Crust Pork Chops with Braised Fennel and Caramelized Onions Pork Chops with Mustard and Sour Cream Sauce Kielbasa with Pierogi and Sauerkraut Sauerkraut and Sausage Paprikash Apple Cobbler with Cheddar Biscuits Black Forest Chocolate Cookies... More

"By not having a Charlie's hot dog, it's like skipping a chapter in this book called life." [Art and photographs: Hawk Krall] Past Weeks' Dogs Beer Marinated Chili DogDepression Dog24-Hour DogThe Philly ComboTijuana Dog Over Labor Day weekend I had the opportunity to visit what might be one of the country's most unique hot dog joints. Hidden on backroads in western New Jersey near the Pennsylvania border--closer to the mountains than the ocean--lies Charlie's Pool Room. Located on a residential street, it's easy to miss. In fact, finding this place was like an episode of Lost. The street names didn't match up to my road atlas or Google maps, and the GPS went haywire and told us we were still... More

Aww. These Talk threads have few or zero replies as of today. Anyone have anything to say? Trying My Own CheeseBread Sticks "I have my own sourdough starter that I've been nurturing and I want to make cheese bread sticks. Any ideas for a good recipe?" What to eat in Redmond, Oregon? Monaco and Area "Any great spots in or around Monaco, particularly markets, boulangerie or charcuterie options?" Inexpensive Eats in Newport, Rhode Island? "I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for an inexpensive lunch place in Newport, Rhode Island. I'm looking for something where you can order at a counter and sit down, without waiters or waitresses. Thank you for your suggestions." What Herb Combo to Use in... More

"Michelle Obama started her speech by saying she had never seen so many people excited about fruits and vegetables." [Photographs: Tressa Eaton] White House Farmers’ Market 810 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington DC 20005 (b/n H and I Streets; map) Hours: Open Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m. through Oct. 29. The brand new White House Farmers' Market (run by local market organization FreshFarm Markets) opened for the first time yesterday on Vermont Avenue between H and I streets, just outside the White House grounds. After waiting in a huge line, shoppers passed through metal detectors, got patted down by secret service, and had their reusable market bags inspected. Waiting on the other side of the metal detectors were fruit and... More

What happens when you put munchkins in a room with two hidden cameras and a marshmallow? They have a really tough time not eating the squishy white poof, even if they know they'll be rewarded with more if they resist. We saw this video making the rounds recently but thought it was too good not to share this morning. For more psychoanalysis on delayed gratification as expressed through air-puffed gelatin, read this piece by Jonah Lehrer in the New Yorker. The video, after the jump.... More

"I intentionally scheduled my dentist visit for a Thursday afternoon so I could reap the benefits of not eating much for dinner." [iStockphoto: tolgakolcak] Yesterday I went to the dentist to have two crowns put on, one on an upper tooth and one on a lower tooth. I have an aversion to going to the dentist. I guess I associate the dentist's chair with pain, discomfort, and the whirring sound made by what I regard as an instrument of torture, the dentist's drill. And I feel this way even though I go to a first-rate dentist who is reasonably sensitive to my feelings of dentist dread. I was in that chair and shot up with a sufficient amount of novocain... More

Pink box from Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, Oregon. [Flickr: mulmatsherm] There are many cultural differences between the West and East coasts but it takes a true doughnut eater to notice the one involving different-colored bakery boxes. When Jessie Oleson of Cakespy (and our own baking blogger) moved out west, she spotted the Pepto Bismol-colored boxes after being so used to white ones. It turns out the difference has something to do with Cambodia (yes, we're all over the map here). According to an "Ask Chris" column in Los Angeles Magazine: Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s arrived in large numbers in Southern California, where they were recruited by Winchell’s. At the time the coated, greaseproof boxes... More

[Photograph: Arthur Schwartz] I don't know how, why, or when Jews started making brisket for holiday meals, but it's one ritualized aspect of the Jewish culinary tradition I wholeheartedly embrace. My friend Arthur Schwartz has written many, many wonderful cookbooks, including Jewish Home Cooking. Arthur set out in a wonderfully obsessive way to come up with the definitive, most seriously delicious potted brisket recipe. He experimented with cooking first cut and whole briskets, using liquid and not using liquid, and here's what he eventually came up with. Over on his website Food Maven, he shares all of the great and gory brisket experiment details. And what better way to top off a belly full of beef than with two... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, the Kitchn zaps potato coins in the microwave to make crispy, easy potato chips. Also on the Kitchn, mini peanut butter Rice Krispie treats, Iron Chef-themed dinner parties, cakes for autumn birthdays, and scallops with tomatillo guacamole and corn salsa.... More

Hellooo, hall of prosciutto. [Photograph: Sara Rosso] Sara Rosso of Ms. Adventures in Italy recently toured a prosciuttificio (prosciutto-making establishment) during the Festival del Prosciutto di Parma currently taking place in and around Parma, Italy. She's writing a serious of posts (accompanied by beautiful photos) in her blog to give readers a glimpse into the prosciutto-making process, the first one being about the preliminary salting process. Related Photo of the Day: Army of Orecchiette Photo of the Day: Italian Gelato in a Brioche Coffee Crack, an Espresso Drink in Italy... More

[Photograph: the burch jerks] The Burch Jerks shares a simply tutorial on how to make an apron out of a towel, specifically with Ikea's 49-cent Tekla towels, just the right size for a kid-sized apron. [via The Kitchn] Related Make Custom Table Placemats with Inkjet Transfers How to Make Nesting Doll Salt Shakers How to Make an NES Lunchbox... More

Apples and honey for a sweet new year. [Flickr: ForestForTrees] When we wanted to find some seriously delicious recipes for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, I immediately reached out to Joan Nathan, the queen (not named Esther) of Jewish cooking in this country. My wife and I have repeatedly cooked for both of our families from three of Joan's cookbooks: Jewish Cooking in America, Jewish Holiday Cookbook, and The New American Cooking. The finished dishes never fail to elicit oohs and ahhs, even from my brothers, who are certainly among the world's toughest lay food critics. Pay particular attention to Jim Cohen's Sephardic Brisket It will convince you that dried apricots and prunes are perfect complements to beef... More

Don't let that banana peel go to waste! From Re-Nest comes 7 Ways to Reuse a Banana Peel.... More

[Photograph: Rachel Strawn] Frank Bruni and I have at least two things in common: We’ve both hung up our professional feedbags and we’re both over the moon about the lardo lollipops at Salumi in Seattle. I got to meet the author of Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater when he was in the city on a West Coast leg of his book tour. We had lunch at the renowned salumeria started by Armandino Batali and now run by his daughter, Gina Batali, and her husband, Brian D’Amato. But before he sat down at the head of the table for 10, my friend and former Seattle Post-Intelligencer colleague Rebekah Denn and I double-teamed the former New York... More

Woods is a Brooklyn-based band with this catchy song called "To Clean" from their latest record, Songs of Shame. In addition to the nifty stop-motion effects and guitar strumming, they hang out in the kitchen shoving corn, bananas, and cake into their mouths. Before you know it, raw meat is dangling from a string. It's a fun video, especially the sunglasses cake face part at the very end. Watch it, after the jump.... More

[Image: Good.is] Good magazine's latest Transparency features this infographic illustrating the meat consumption of the highest and lowest meat-consuming countries in the world. Denmark is number one with 321.7 pounds per capita per year, and Bhutan is the lowest at 6.6 pounds. Related Caffeine and Calories Chart Behold the Bacon Pig... More

[Flickr: Jeff Kubina] If you’re in a hurry, be careful when asking Bill Dugan, aka Chicago’s Fish Guy, owner of The Fish Guy Market and Superior Ocean Produce restaurant wholesale here in Chicago, a question. The veteran seafood forager has so many tales that he can talk both your ears off. In the last 20 years or so, he exploded the market for diver scallops and peekytoe crab with Charlie Trotter here in Chicago. Prior to that he got his start airlifting tuna from the East Coast and driving it up down the coast of California in a beat-up van for chefs to sample. His big break came when Rene Verdon, the Kennedy’s former White House chef, placed a... More

The Williams Sonoma Apple Peeler/Corer ($28) can perform three functions at once--peeling, coring, and slicing. Not many apple-centric tools can say that. But is it really worth spending the money when a handheld peeler and knife work just fine? More

[Photograph: Sharenator.org] Mario’s Cafe Bar in Westhoughton, UK, serves the biggest full English breakfast in the world, according to Guinness World Records. The Ultimate Breakfast costs £10.95 ($18.05) and consists of 10 eggs, 10 sausages, 10 rashers of bacon, 10 slices of toast, five black pudding slices, tomatoes, mushrooms, and baked beans for a total of about 5,000 calories. If you eat it in 20 minutes, you can get it for free. Thankfully, no one has yet to finish it—methinks the aftermath would not be worth the £10.95 you save. [via Metafilter] Related Full English Breakfast English Breakfast in Maidenhead, England Photo of the Day: Just A Humongous Bucket Of Eggs And Meat... More

[bravotv.com] Tonight at 10 p.m. ET, come join us as we watch the fifth episode of Top Chef Las Vegas. Cheftestants will toy with cactus cuisine during the Quickfire, then head out to the scorching desert to cook over an open campfire flame. Jump in with comments as the episode unfolds.... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] For last week's Weekend Cook and Tell challenge we asked you to go temporarily vegetarian by making a satisfying meatless main. This challenge proved to be a popular one, here are some of our favorite herbivorous responses: Cantaloupe Alone is no vegetarian but this Fall Flavored Red Lentil Soup with Eggplant was a hit. ElizabethS and friends made a spread of vegetarian Spanish-inspired tapas. Check out the pictures over at The Manhattan (food) Project. The ambitious morgancain made not one but three vegetarian dishes, a mushroom rice casserole, a quinoa lentil curry, and a grilled corn and black bean salad. NotAmerican and family are mostly vegetarian so it's no surprise they have great ideas for veggie... More

[Photographs: myjones.com] Total nerd alert. Jones Soda has teamed up with the fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons to create a limited edition line of "Spellcasting Soda." Choose from flavors like: Potion of Healing, Dwarven Draught, Bigby's Crushing Thirst Destroyer, Illithid Brain Juice, and Eldritch Blast. A six-pack is $10.99. Wargame juice, alright, yeah! Perfect for those dehydrated moments after too much teleporting and spellcasting. Related A Primer to Star Trek Food and Drink Geek Cakes Slideshow of Food in Video Games... More

[Photograph: Goodies First] Krista Garcia of Goodies First used the T-Mobile Studio to create a custom skin for her new MyTouch 3G smartphone. It's the banh mi illustration from the New York Times' story on those delicious Vietnamese sandwiches.... More

If it can be shoved on a stick, the Minnesota State Fair probably has it. In this video from Wallet Pop, Jason Cochran tries to find as many foods-on-sticks as possible, from the basic corn dog to Swedish meatballs to Scotch eggs. Methinks I need to plan to go to next year's fair. Watch the video after the jump.... More

According to the New York Times, we just might avert a trade war with China because of the Chinese people's love of one particular poultry part. The headline says it all: Chewy Chicken Feet May Quash a Trade War. I'm thinking this must be the Chinese trade mantra: "Millions for Defense, But There's Plenty Left Over for Chicken Parts."... More

[Flickr: ulteriorepicure] The concept of a steamy bowl of soup for breakfast is common in many cultures, specifically in Hong Kong where it involves the combination of soft elbow noodles with salty ham strips in a light broth. As Ulterior Epicure points out after enjoying some recently, it's a good example of Hong Kong food since it adapts Western foods (macaroni and ham) to fit Chinese cuisine (a hot broth soup in the morning). Some even suggest throwing frozen green peas into the mix. Are you a fan of breakfast soups?... More

[Part of the menu at Mario Batali's Babbo. Photograph: Robyn Lee] Yesterday Ed asked "Are you a menu whisperer?" Like a couple of you, I thought the topic was headed somewhere else—namely some folks' seemingly magic ability to order just the right thing wherever they go. I'll admit right off: I am not a menu whisperer. But my girlfriend is. Her meal inevitably ends up being more delicious than whatever I order. I don't know if this is a case of grass-is-always-greener syndrome or an innate gift that she has. (She says her mom has noticed the same thing whenever they eat together.) I have some workarounds that sometimes steer me in the right direction, and I hesitate to... More

[Flickr: yusheng] Shaved ice + red beans + sweetened condensed milk + flan = hong dou bing, or red bean shaved ice, a typical Taiwanese dessert. Oh, glistening suspension of red beans in thick condensed milk topped with wobbly pudding mass—how I love you. For those who live in Taipei, Yusheng says he got this shaved ice at Gāoxióng Pópóbīng. Related How to Make Patbingsu (Korean Shaved Ice) Sugar Rush: Mango Special Shaved Ice at the Flushing Mall Snapshots from Asia: Will the Real Shaved Ice Please Stand Up? Top Ten Taiwanese Snacks... More

Duck parts. [Photograph: Chichi Wang] According to chef and food activist Dan Barber, we don't know a lot of things. We don't know where our meat comes from, we don't know what the animal we're eating ate, and we sure don't know how to get behind the stove and take control of what we put in our mouths. In this article in The Nation, Barber writes about the "protein paradox," or the huge waste of edible animal parts such as liver, kidney, and tripe. Barber really wants us to like, or learn to like, organ meat—the bits and bobs typically saved for hot dogs, sausage links, and yes, dog food. He hopes that people will eat meat modestly, and... More

"A CSK doesn't just deliver local, sustainable product, it provides you with a ready-to-eat meal." [Flickr: Neighborhood Notes] You try your best to be green, buying local when you can, recycling, conserving water, the list goes on. But when it comes to participating in a Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA) share, you stop short. Unknown quantities of a random assortment of vegetables piling up on you week after week? Eeek. If this sounds like you, or maybe you don't like too cook or find it too time-consuming or too isolating, Community Supported Kitchens to the rescue! A Community Supported Kitchen (CSK) is a new idea to connect farmers and eaters, especially those eaters who wand to eat locally, but currently... More

[Hot Doug's Chicago dog. Photographs: Robyn Lee] [UPDATE: The Hot Doug's event is sold out. Sorry!] Listen up, serious eaters! For one night only, Doug "Hot Doug" Sohn is taking his show on the road and bringing it to Astor Center in New York City. To score some of Chicago's finest hot dogs, you would usually have to hop a plane to O'Hare, drive out to Avondale, and wait in a two-hour line at the legendary Hot Doug's (that's what Robyn and I did a couple of weeks ago, but man was it worth it). But for one evanescent eve, you can book a table for two right here in Manhattan with Doug himself. The chef, owner, and resident... More

Nightline will talk to chef Jacques Pepin about his career—the decades of running restaurants, writing books, and hosting TV shows with Julia Child. The elevation of chefs to rock stars has worked out pretty nicely for Pepin. 11:35 p.m. ET, ABC... More

"For the life of me I cannot remember / What made me think that Easy Mac was a healthy midnight snack." This lamentation over typical college junk food and more in The Freshman 15, College Humor's spoof of the Verve Pipe's The Freshmen. If you gained the Freshman 15, relive the magic with this music video. If you're just starting college, beware. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Dinner Tonight contributor Blake Royer shares his first Korean barbecue experience over on The Paupered Chef. "For days afterwards, I could taste the spicy, sweet, marinated short ribs between my teeth." He was inspired to go home and make pajeon, a simple egg-and-flour pancake.... More

Wherever we go, my wife first orders her usual modest repast, then I follow with a slightly more substantial, but still reasonable list of dishes. Then, as I'm handing the menu back to the server and my wife is sitting back, settling into her chair thinking we are done ordering, I say to the server in my very best stage whisper: "We'll also have x and y and z, for the table." Are you a menu whisperer too? More

If you love trivia games and don't mind being sucked into a vortex of time waste-age, visit Sporcle, a website with over 1,900 games that test your knowledge of various topics in time limits of ten minutes or less (and you don't even have to waste time pressing "enter/return"). Here are some food related games. [via Metafilter] Highest selling quick serve restaurant chains Foods in French Foods in Spanish Musical bands or singers that include a food in their name Name the candy from its slogan American breakfast cereals available since the 1960s Cereal mascots Largest pizza chains in the U.S. Jelly Belly flavors Types of pasta Top cocoa bean producing countries... 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 (September 14) Martha Stewart Show (warning, a video plays automatically on site): It's the season premiere. Chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park restaurant is on to share recipes for roast chicken with brioche stuffing and mixed beet salad. 11 a.m. ET, Food Network Good Eats (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "American Pickle." Alton shows how to make your own pickles. (repeat) 8 p.m. ET, Food Network Anthony... More

Cook the Book: Dishing Up Vermont: missalrac, CheeseRks, granita, Codaru, and aliadam. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to all 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. This week, we hear from Chicago correspondent Nick Kindelsperger. Take us to the market, Nick! [Photographs: Nick Kindelsperger] Oh man, is summer really over? That's the first thing I thought when I stumbled into the Logan Square Farmers' Market this weekend. The sun was beaming and it felt warmer than it had the previous two weeks. But there was a sinister vegetable about, one that immediately clued me into the idea that the end of summer was nigh. Big orange pumpkins. Does anything else say fall so clearly? I spotted these... More

The Fojol Bros. scoot around the D.C. streets selling "Merlindian" food, a made-up cuisine that crosses whimsy with traditional Indian food. The masala, curries, and palak paneer are all served in biodegradable clamshells with compost-friendly sporks. More

Hey, do you like bacon? You do, huh? But do you love bacon? Do you consider yourself a bacon aficionado? If so, this week's Cook the Book is up your alley: Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon. If you aren't familiar with the all-encompassing gourmet food empire that is Zingerman's allow me to sum it up for you briefly. All the way back in 1982, Paul Saginaw, Michael Monahan, and Ari Weinzweig opened a Jewish-style deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since then they've expanded to include a restaurant, catering company, coffee roaster, creamery, bakery, and a booming mail-order business. All of the facets of Zingerman's have a single goal: to bring together the best food products from around the world. Weinzweig... More

The theme of stop motion animated recipes continues with this video by Keith Heyward for how to make olive bread, first place winner in Howcast's How-To Video Challenge and probably one of the few tutorials out there narrated by a loaf of bread. Watch the video after the jump.... More

[Image: orzrecipeproject.tumblr.com] Michael Hearst of the band One Ring Zero has already demonstrated his skills for mixing food and music in his Songs for Ice Cream Trucks album. Now he's jamming about chefs' favorite recipes. If you're into the edgier rock stuff, go with Chris Cosentino's Brain and Eggs and for more Bohemian polka-esque sounds, try Mario Batali's Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes. The lyrics are not trying to rhyme or be too soulful—it's just the recipe verbatim, which is pretty awesome. Not enough lyrics involve "use small, firm organic pumpkins or winter squashes." [via Michele] Related Padma Lakshmi: Now a Music Video Star Video: Weird Al Yankovic's 'Eat It' Video: The Fast Food Song... More

Note: Meet Your Farmers is a weekly series where we profile the farmers that mean so much to serious eaters everywhere. This week we catch up with Joe Nicholson of Red Jacket Orchards, one of our favorite juice suppliers. [Photographs: Red Jacket Orchards] Previously Lisa and Ali Moussalli of Frog Bottom Farm, Virginia » Ron Binaghi of Stokes Farm, New Jersey » John Lee of Allandale Farm, Massachusetts » Name: Joe Nicholson Jr. Farm: Red Jacket Orchards How many acres? 600 acres Your crew: A seasonal crew of up to 75 people. That number is obviously highest during the harvest, starting in June. They are great people, hard-working, and really a community within the community of Geneva. There are a... More

[Photographs: pauladeen.com] Though her methods usually involve deep-fried butter balls, this time Paula Deen is trying to kill us via cast iron cookware. As Diner's Journal points out, Deen started selling cast iron products through QVC in March, but buyers were recently alerted of a recall on three of the items, which can reportedly "crack or shatter during heating." Related Paula Deen is Trying to Kill Us, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... More

Whole Foods shopping bag carrying the usual fennel, radishes, and gun. Wait what? [wsj.com] The Wall Street Journal is a little skeptical of reusable shopping bags. Just about every chain store seems to have their own custom-made tote, but which is the most functional? Stylish? And made of something you can't pronounce? The piece compares five of the biggest contenders: Whole Foods (features a tree design by Sheryl Crow), Ralphs (made of polypropylene), Target (too Target red-colored), 7-Eleven ("as chic as a Big Gulp"), Trader Joe's (if you're into acid-hued prints), and Dean & Deluca ("all style, no substance"). Related 75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn't Serious Green: Plastic-Less Ways to Transport Your Lunch Does Your... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Hoosier Mama? "You need to go to the country, or at the very least a city in the South, to find excellent pie," opines Ed Levine—until he discovers the raspberry, apple, and banana cream pies at Chicago's Hoosier Mama Pie Shop. London Calling: The irrepressibly trans-Atlantic Kerry Saretsky stops by Rules, London's oldest restaurant. Prime Time: Ed applauds New York's breakfast revival, raving about the French Toast, trout, and unusual egg dishes at Prime Meats. What a Jerk: Our Chinatown expert Gordon Mark gives us this comprehensive guide to beef, pork, and chicken jerky in the Manhattan neighborhood. Viva La Pizza: First-class pizza in Boston is hard to come by, but Gran Gusto in Cambridge fires... More

[Beet and goat cheese "salad." Photograph: Jaws Wired Shut] Remember that Raisin Bran Crunch commercial, where that guy blends up a bowl of milk and cereal for his roommate to drink through a straw? If you cringed at that, then steer clear of Jaws Wired Shut, a blog that chronicles broken jaw survivor Emily Kornblut's eating adventures, over an entire summer's liquid diet. Sure, there's yogurt and rice pudding, but Emily gets a lot more daring, with blended empanadas (yikes), blended chicken salad (more yikes), and a beet and goat cheese salad-turned-smoothie (gorgeous!). And there's a great starter's manual, with recipes and tips, for anyone suddenly caught without the ability to chew. The scariest moment? When a whole Sicilian... More

[Photograph: Weelicious] If your kids don't like peas, maybe it's just because they haven't had them in frozen popsicle form. Weelicious shares a recipe for Peas In a Pop, a popsicle made of frozen peas and water. Apparently kids go crazy for them. Curious to see what other pea-centric popsicle recipes exist, I came across Minty Pea Pops (also made of cream cheese, chocolate chips, and sugar) from The Toddler Cafe by Jennifer Carden. The recipe says that they taste like like mint chocolate chip ice cream. Related Ice Cream on a Stick: Homemade Fudgsicles How to Make Homemade Bomb Pops... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Mole Madness: Andrea Lynn brings us a silky, spicy Black Mexican Chocolate Sauce, while Seriously Meatless correspondent Michael Natkin recommends his simple Mole Aproximado for vegetarian enchiladas. Teff It Up: You may know the Ethiopian grain teff as the base of injera bread, but "Gluten-Free Girl" Shauna Ahern transforms it into a sweet, spicy porridge. Crumb: We all need a perfect crumb cake recipe, and Robin Bellinger's buttery, cinnamon-topped version is just that. Flower Power: Lavender works its way into Piemontese cuisine, as Gina DePalma shows us with her Lavender Honey Spice Cake. Fuzzy Wuzzy: How to use up the fuzzy squash in your fridge? The Crisper Whisperer's Hairy Gourd Bread. Chocolate Orange: Unless you've killed... 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. Serious Green: Freeze It Now, Eat It Later » 2. Gluten-Free Tuesday: Teff » 3. Cakespy: Chocolate Cakes Grilled in Orange Shells » 4. Video: Japan's Rabbit Cafe » 5. Sunday Brunch: Crumb Cake » 6. Grilling: Green Chile Cheeseburger » 7. Serious Heat: Silky, Spicy Mole Sauce » 8. Chicago's Honey 1 BBQ » 9. Seriously Asian: The Function of Cornstarch » 10. Gadgets: Pure Komachi 2 Knives »... 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 (September 12) 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 5 Ingredient Fix: "No Grill BBQ." Claire shares recipes for barbecue in the kitchen. She makes beer shrimp boil, traditional dry-rubbed BBQ chicken, and smoky roasted peaches. 12:30 a.m. ET, Food Network Giada at Home (warning, a video plays automatically... More

Silicon Alley Insider points us to the redesigned logo for iVillage, the interactive women's website. Hmm, why does it make us suddenly crave chicken sandwiches and waffle fries from a mall food court? All they forgot was the feather crest and beak. Related Chick-fil-A [Talk] Chick-fil-A's Chick-n-Minis Chick-fil-A vs. McDonald's Southern Style Chicken... More

"It was more sparkly than Badoit, less sparkly than the green Perrier in a can." [Photographs: Kerry Saretsky] I was baking like a clam in the Luxembourg gardens one boiling hot day recently. It was time for a can of Perrier. Yes, a can. I love how its looks like soda. An older American ex-pat with a round belly looked up at me and scolded, “The French never drink Perrier.” “Well, my parents are French and they drink Perrier!” They buy cases of it at Costco every two weeks. “The bubbles are too big.” He closed his eyes and sunk back into the heat. Hmph. I marched off to the little pagoda and demanded my cold can of Perrier. And... More

Cooking Mama, everyone's favorite spatula-wielding virtual lady, is back with more. Cooking Mama 3 Shop & Chop for Nintendo DS is scheduled to hit stores in November. It will feature a new grocery shopping element since, you know, it was a little odd before how pixelated ramen would just appear in the kitchen. Now you can buy the ingredients first! Ah, much more rational. The new edition will feature 80 "fresh" recipes including Korean barbecue, mochi with edamame paste, and lemon pie. The trailer, after the jump.... More

As part of the fifth Typophile Film Festival, crafty BYU design students created this video about the five senses. Around 1:20 they get to arguably the best one: taste. Letters sizzle in oil, others are formed from a fruit punch-resembling liquid, and probably the coolest of all are the bouncy, jiggly ones spelling T-A-S-T-E. The short video, after the jump.... More

"Those who are calling this movie a stunt are missing the point." Colin Beavan with his daughter Isabella. [Photographs: noimpactman.typepad.com] Nearly two years ago, I logged into my website Eat Local Challenge to find a large spike in hits. An article had been published in the New York Times about Colin Beavan, aka "No Impact Man," and his New York-dwelling family. Beavan had embarked on a year-long journey to make no net impact on the earth. The family didn't use electricity, bought nothing new, and famously stopped using toilet paper. So why the spike on Eat Local Challenge? Beavan's blog had linked to mine in reference to his family's no-impact efforts to eat food from within 250 miles of Manhattan.... More

"Many thanks, serious eaters, for all the shout-outs of support and encouragement." I scared myself into not eating last week, and not just because of what I ate on the road in Chicago. Erin pointed out that my real downfall was the double meal I ate last Tuesday night. It started with oxtail, shepherd's pie, jerk chicken, leg of lamb, and goat at The Islands with Erin and Carey. Then it was (and this was the killer) two pork roasts and two fried chicken recipes from Donald Link's and David Chang's books that Cook the Book's Caroline Russock made at her house for a cookbook competition we are participating in. So when you think about it, my two-pound weight gain... More

[Image: lucylou.livejournal.com] Why are pickle recipe comics so great? Because they tell you to "stabbity-stab" cucumbers and warn you of "specs-fogging steam" when boiling a big pot of pickling spices. Lucy Knisley drew this after whipping up her own batch of full-sour pickles for the first time. The recipe requires pickles to lounge in their pickly juices for 24 to 36 hours, during which you are encouraged to talk to them ("C'mon! Be pickles!") according to step seven. [via notmartha.org] Related Are Pickles a Burger Condiment? Where To Find Fried Pickles on the East Coast Pickle Juice [Talk] The Year of the Pickle, and Other Jewish Food Astrology... More

[Photograph: Central European News] I'd feel funny chomping into the head of one of these Buddha-shaped pears, but they're popular in their home city of Hexia, China. Farmer Gao Xianzhang spent six years perfecting his Buddha pear-making craft, resulting in this season's crop of 10,000 pears, each one grown in its own mold. The price of one of these cute pears? About $8. Related Finally! A Heart-Shaped Watermelon Spherical Is Out: Human-Shaped is In... More

Serious Eats contributor Michael Natkin shares a recipe for Latin-American French lentil salad at his blog, Herbivoracious. He mixes French lentils with with tiny roasted potatoes, cucumber, red onion, avocado, radish, lime juice, and ranchero cheese.... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Most deep-fried fish sandwiches from chain restaurants--including Denny's, Long John Silver's, and most certainly McDonald's--use hoki, a pretty ugly, bug-eyed fish found deep in the waters around New Zealand. But that may change, according to this New York Times piece. Drops in hoki spawn and damaged ecosystems have inspired the World Wildlife Fund to fight for reduced hoki fishing. In response, the New Zealand ministry has cut the allowable commercial catch quota from roughly 275,000 tons to 100,000 tons, which means McDonald's had to shrink its usual consumption of about 15 million pounds of hoki to 11 million pounds per year. "It could go up if the quota goes up," said McDonald's senior director of global... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. [Photograph: Robyn Lee] This week, the Kitchn gets down with quinoa, an edible seed that's high in protein and prepared just like rice. Also on the Kitchn, questionably safe Mexican vanilla, Ramadan foods, a brief primer on cow's milk, and a farewell summer poem.... More

[Flickr: pouryourheartintoit] This might sound corny, but as a food critic I always appreciated when a restaurant was a labor of love. As much as I admired the panache and precision of many a white linen tablecloth venue, there was something especially charming about a Mom-and-Pop place trying so hard to please. That's how I would describe the newest hot spot in Seattle, Delancey, a pizza place run by a young couple who’ve put a lot of heart and soul into doing things just right. And I’m not just saying that because I’m trying to butter up the boss and get my foot in the door either. When I wrote a few weeks ago about my frustrating efforts to... More

This is a cooking show I would watch: recipes demonstrated in one and a half minutes through a combination of stop motion animation and sped up video. Here's a simple apple pie recipe from Animi, after the jump.... More

Club Med's Food Blogger Camp is a week-long trip taking place from January 9-16, 2010, in Ixtapa, Mexico, featuring seminars held by food bloggers and writers from around the world and plenty of food-related extracurricular activities. Participants include Diane Cu and Todd Porter, David Lebovitz, Jaden Hair, Matt Armendariz, Elise Bauer, Michael Ruhlman, and Dianne Jacob. You can win a spot at Food Blogger Camp by entering Club Med's Giveaway Contest from now until September 13. Visit clubmed.us for information on how to book your trip with a special discount.... More

Test your knowledge of cheese and/or fonts (typefaces if we want to get technical) and learn a few new cheese names in the process by playing Cheese or Font? Minutes of fun await you! [via Metafilter] Related Juustoleipä, an Excuse to Dip Cheese in Coffee Serious Cheese: Von Trapp Farmstead's Oma Serious Cheese: Grilled Cheese, Georgian Style... More

[Image: weloveyouso.com] In anticipation of the new Spike Jonze adaptation of the kids' lit classic Where the Wild Things Are, 29-year-old Brazilian artist Vanessa Dualib recreated the book's cover with kiwi, mango, anise, and, yes, that would be mozzarella for Max's wolf suit. Dualib is a very accomplished player-with-food. You can check out her other artwork, including an eggplant orca whale and prosciutto teepees, in her Flickr album ρLªYinG ωiTh mŸ fOoD. Related In Videos: Trailer for 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' Serious Eats Gift Guide: Books For Young Foodies Meatastic Children's Book Illustration... More

[Photographs: Amazon.com (chef's knife, bread knife)] Remember how I'd mentioned that my roommate's nice Wusthof knives weren't sticking around forever? Well the day finally came when they made their sad exit from my life. Clearly, this was a bit of a debacle. Being on a budget doesn't particularly allow for the kind of splurge that would be required to replace Wusthofs, but after being privy to wonderful knives, how could I ever revert to my old stock? Thankfully, Pure Komachi 2, a subsidiary of Shun, makes an impressive line of knives at knockout prices. With not a single knife topping $25, I was skeptical as to the quality of these blades, but the aficionados behind the store counter couldn't... More

Cereal dust tastes horrible and there's no way to get rid of it. Until now! The Cereal Sifter is a quality cereal dust-remover, not to mention a possible tool to pan for gold. More

[bravotv.com] Tonight at 10 p.m. ET, come join us as we watch the fourth episode of Top Chef Las Vegas. Daniel Boulud judges the first challenge, where the Quickfire loser will, for the first time, get booted off; Joel Robuchon joins the judges' panel for the Elimination Challenge. Jump in the comment thread as the episode unfolds.... More

"It's a place where you feel like you should sit up straight but you're too weighed down by the meal to actually do so." Scilly Isles Lobster served cold with asparagus. [Photographs: Kerry Saretsky] After living in England for a year, I can attest that the country is as steeped in history as its tea is steeped in water. It’s also a place where, admittedly, I had a hard time eating happily. I love stews, fish, cheese, peas, and anything fried, so I couldn’t understand why the food and I never got along. But I was always on a quest for really excellent old English food and at Rules, the oldest restaurant in London, I finally found it. Smoked Highland... More

Behold, the freakiest video of juicing carrots you will ever see. If you never thought carrot juice looked like blood before, that'll change after watching this short film by Paul Whittington of Orange Core Films. Watch the video after the jump.... More

Searching for the Missing Links... [Photographs: Leslie Kelly] There were men wearing lederhosen while om-pah-pah music floated through the air and tourists sipped on stout steins of beer. This must be Germany, right? No, it’s the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth in Washington, a favorite destination for Seattlites looking to get out of town and up in the mountains or float down the pristine Wenatchee River. Me? I came looking for links. Seemed fitting since my summer has been a regular sausage-o-rama. First, I worked as a brat jockey at Shultzy’s near the University of Washington. Then, there was the great hunt for the best boudin in Cajun Country. So, when I traveled to a family reunion in Leavenworth, I carved... More

[iStockphoto: thebroker] In Serious Green, we recently told you about some food and environmental films that go beyond the popular Food Inc. Thanks to everyone for chiming in with even more suggestions. Here are a few more good ones: Food Fight (not to be confused with this Food Fight) is a look at the development of American agriculture and policy in the 20th century and the birth of the counter-revolution of the local and organic foods movement. Food Stamped follows a nutrition educator and her husband as they do their best to eat healthy food on a weekly $50 food stamp budget. What's On Your Plate? is a documentary that follows two 11-year-old New Yorkers, Sadie and Safiyah, as... More

The Best in the West: Nugget Rib Cook-off in Sparks, Nevada, spans over six days, but I only had one. So I came up with a strategy: seek out the best ribs of the 24 pitmasters based on the pros' recommendations, and eat no more than two from each team. Lots of saucy, fall-off-the-bone tastiness ensued. More

[Flickr: LuLu Witch] Biscuit cookies may look all harmless and delicious, except they are lethal. According to a report in the Telegraph, almost one-third of interviewed UK adults have been splashed or scalded by hot drinks while dunking or fishing for remnants of a collapsed digestive. Even worse, 28 percent said they have choked on crumbs, ten percent have broken a tooth or filling, and three percent have poked themselves in the eye with a biscuit. Of the fifteen popular biscuit types tested, Custard Creams were reported the riskiest, with wafers and the Bourbon sandwich cookies not too far behind. Jaffa Cakes tested the safest. Related A Soggy-Resistant Biscuit May Change Dunking Technology The UK's Favorite Dunking Biscuits, Plus... More

Mike James combined his passion for wine and video games by starting 8-Bit Vitners, a winery based in Walla Walla, Washington. This summer the winery released its first vintage, a red blend, called Player 1, which you can buy online for $18 per bottle. In an interview at SuppleWine.com James mentions his picks for best videogames to go with Player 1: Mega Man 2 on the NES or, for a more current came, Shadow of the Colossus for PS2. He also says he hopes to release a white wine, appropriately called Player 2, next spring. [via Unique Daily] Related Creative Wine Labels Why Serious Eaters Should Be Serious Wine Tasters Serious Grape: Winter Red Wine Blends... More

"Freezing is easier than traditional canning, but don't just start chucking plums into the freezer with reckless abandon." [Photograph: Cornell University Library] Summer is on its way out the door and it's taking delicious fruits and vegetables with it. Now's the time to preserve the bounty from your garden or local farmers' market, to keep you eating local during the tomato-less and berry-less days ahead. Over the past couple of years, I've fallen head-over-heels in love with canning. I've canned blackberry-ginger jam and sweet pickles, spicy tomato sauce and sour cherry preserves. I've got a shelf full of canning books, both new and old. I've taught others to can, and I even wrote a 50-page senior essay on the history... More

Cook the Book: Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book: tucsonlady, DeaconVolker, bigfatmouth, baker212, and AimDee. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to all who entered.... More

Note: Since this street food trend is blowing up, we're going to spend every week spotlighting a different vendor. This week in Street Food Profiles, we scoot to the West Coast. [Photographs: Let's Be Frank] Name: Let's Be Frank hot dog cart Vendor: Larry Bain Location and hours? San Francisco: Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays at the Crissy Field Warming Hut (near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Los Angeles: Wednesdays through Sundays at Helms in Culver City. What do you sell? Frank Dog, Brat Dog, Bird Dog, "Hot" Dog, and "Not" Dog, along with beverages and chips For how many years? Four years in San Francisco and two years in Los Angeles.... More

I'm not sure most people can recall the state bird of Georgia but if you ask them what fruit is commonly associated with the state, "peach" should come out pretty fast. All states have strong ties with specific foods. Maine has lobsters, Idaho claims spuds, Wisconsin is known for cheese. Some states are more blessed than others when it comes to sheer depth of local bounty. Vermont is one of those lucky states. Wonderful maple syrup is just a tiny fraction of what Vermont has to offer. Vermont has been a pioneer in the local eating movement, especially with the formation of the Vermont Fresh Network back in the early 1990s. The goal of VFN was to bring farmers and... More

The 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman follows the rote daily routine of single mother Jeanne Dielman over three days, with a focus on housework. Naturally, that includes a significant amount of food preparation. Not having seen the movie, I'm taking the New York Times movie critic Vincent Canby's word for it: It's also not a movie to see on an empty stomach. At various points in the film the camera watches Jeanne as she cooks. Without cutting away or using any other ellipses, the movie attends to Jeanne's cooking as if it were a documentary, showing us how she prepares, among other things, what seems to be a succulent... More

Note: Meet Your Farmers is a weekly series where we profile the farmers that mean so much to serious eaters everywhere. This week we introduce you to a young couple in Virginia (with a little farmer of their own on the way) who met through farming and are now making a living out of it. [Photographs: Lisa Moussalli] Name: Lisa and Ali Moussalli Farm: Frog Bottom Farm in Pamplin, Virginia How many acres? 25 acres with eight to ten under cultivation Your crew: Every year we hire a small crew of seasonal workers to join us planting vegetables, harvesting them, sharing them with customers through the CSA program and farmers' markets, and tending to our farm animals. Most of them... More

"Pitmasters here represent the entire nation." [Photographs: Joshua Bousel] I had the most perfect Labor Day planned, a lazy afternoon next to the smoker filled with pork, some beers, and close friends. That was until I received an invitation to visit the The Best in the West: Nugget Rib Cook-off in Nevada. After a second pause contemplating whether I wanted to alter my ideal holiday, I thought better of my reservations, and before I knew it, I was on a plane headed for a weekend of pure barbecue bliss. If you're an East Coaster like myself, the Nugget Rib Cook-off may not sound familiar, but for the pitmasters and attendees alike, it's the biggest event of the year. The six-day... More

At Blue Bottle in San Francisco, this dish is called Popeyes. [Photograph: Alaina Browne] Guy Kibbee, an actor and egg dish namesake. An egg fried in the center of a holed-out slice of bread goes by many names. One of them, Guy Kibbee eggs, originated because an actor named Guy Kibbee made them in the 1935 film Mary Jane's Pa. Peter Cherches of the blog Word of Mouth investigated the origins, curious where his mom got the nickname. Cherches is a fan of the fancypants version at Brix, a French bistro in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where it's served on a thick piece of challah with asparagus, parmigiano, and truffle oil. Related Egg in Toast: What Do You Call It? What... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Sure, it's sad to pack up the grill tongs and charcoal but it's pretty exciting to know that fat pumpkins are just around the corner. Autumn is a season of hearty stews, butternut squash, cider jugs, roasted meats, apple pie, and pumpkin everything. What foods are you most excited for? Here's a smattering to get you started. Perfectly Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette Arugula, Pear and Goat Cheese Salad Chestnut, Pumpkin, and Farro Soup Habanero Turkey Chili Butternut Squash Soup with Sweet Italian Sausage Curried Squash and Apple Soup Pumpkin Orzo with Sage Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta, Sage, and Pine Nuts Acorn Squash with Asiago and Sage Honey-Glazed Turnips Wedges... 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 (September 7) Good Eats (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "Milk Made." Alton examines milk. (repeat) 8 p.m. ET, Food Network Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations: "NYC: Outer Boroughs." Tony gets help from locals in exploring the outer boroughs of NYC. He goes to Queens with chefs Chris Cheung and David Chang; Staten Island with David Johansen, lead singer of the New York Dolls; and Brooklyn and the Bronx with... 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. This week, we hear from West Coast correspondent Leah Greenstein of Spicy Salty Sweet. Take us to the market, Leah! [Photographs: Leah Greenstein] Labor Day can mark the end of summer or the unofficial start of fall, depending on how you look at it. This time last year autumn's apples, pears, and pomegranates had already begun to arrive but this weekend at the Santa Monica Pico Farmers' Market on Cloverfield and Pico (map) summer seemed to be holding as tight as a kid to their last day's of freedom before school... More

[Photograph: Weird Asia News] If the square watermelon concept still kind of blows your mind, this will straight explode it. A Japanese farmer and his wife have cultivated a heart-shaped watermelon. "It was an act of love for the couple where they wanted the fruit of their labor to symbolize their feelings for each other," according to Weird Asia News. Each fruit, which took three years to perfect, is going for 15,750 yen ($160). Related Photo of the Day: Cute Teeth Eating Watermelon Pickled watermelon [Talk] Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Real Smoke, No Joke: Some chew in their delicious 'cue makes Honey1 BBQ in Chicago a big winner with their aquarium smoker. Sicilian Slice Extravaganza: Carey Jones beasted all the Sicilians she could find in Boston on her epic Sicilian Slice Crawl. Lobster & Goose Fat Fries. 'Nuff Said.: Don't pass up a chance to try lobster sandwiches in Paris at Spring on Saturdays. On this hallowed day, the only menu items are the aforementioned sandwiches, goose fat fries, and champagne. This can only be a recipe for extreme fun. The Deal at Schoop's: Besides stealing the name I was going to call my restaurant, Schoop's in Chicago has a burger that'll fulfill your craving for... More

Martha's Vineyard is an island full of mediocre hot dogs. You can get a hot dog just about anywhere you turn either on the island, or on your way there; in the ferry terminal in Wood's Hole, on the ferry itself, in convenience stores, even in clam shacks. But until Dinghy Dogs opened in Oak Bluffs Harbor there was not a hot dog worth the calories and salt. It's a tiny place—just a stand, actually—but they do hot dogs right. They start with a a grilled all-beef kosher style hot dog made by Pearl Meat Packing Company in Boston. Ask for your Martin's Potato Hot Dog Roll toasted, some good deli mustard, some chopped onions, and sauerkraut if it... More

I have discovered the perfect “something new” to grill this Labor Day. Last weekend I was at a wedding in Potosi, Missouri. The groom’s family raises shrimp in Nicaragua, and Maggie is the descendant of Midwestern cattle ranchers, who grew up on a farm full of buffalo. The groom’s father raised a glass at the rehearsal dinner to the well-matched pair, dubbing them “Surf and Turf.” And that’s exactly what we ate. Nicaraguan shrimp, and Maggie’s Missouri buffalo.... More

Don't be afraid of beets. They have a deliciously natural sweetness, and their vibrant colors render the flesh almost jewel-like. It's a crime not to take advantage while they're fresh--especially with colors that go way beyond standard purple. 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. Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby Renamed 'Hubby Hubby' in Support of Gay Marriage The folks at Vermont-based ice cream–maker Ben & Jerry's have renamed their signature Chubby Hubby flavor "Hubby Hubby" to mark today's enactment of the state's new law that allows same-sex marriage. 2. What's the New Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust Pan Pizza Like? We Try It "Honestly, if you've had a Pizza Hut Pan Pizza—even if it was when you were in 4th grade—you get the gist of this pizza. And let's be frank in regards to the newest addition to the Hut's classic:... More

With all the channels on broadcast TV and cable—and the inevitable episode repeats—it's hard to sort out what's new or worthwhile. Let us sort it out for you so you don't miss anything worth watching. Times may vary with region; check your local listings for exact hour and channels. Recommended Show This Sunday is the premiere of Eric Ripert's show, Avec Eric, on WNET, a PBS station. He shares, from his travels around the world, his culinary inspirations and the recipes they inspire. Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET, WNET Saturday (September 5) Secrets of a Restaurant Chef (warning, a video plays automatically on site): "The Secret to Chicken Cacciatore." Chicken Cacciatore, raw asparagus salad, and chocolate mousse. (repeat) 10:30 a.m. ET,... More

This week's hot dog is more of a technique than a regional style. That's because finding a really good hot dog in the Philadelphia area is almost impossible. Legend has it that some manufacturers even make a special extra-bland wiener for the region. To jack up the flavor, I marinate my Pennsylvania hot dogs in beer, garlic, onions, herbs and aromatics not unlike what you would use to make a classic choucroute. Then I throw the dogs in a small pot of chili on the grill, toss the dog into a bun, cover it with chili and heaping piles of shredded cheese, diced onions, and maybe some scallions if I'm feeling fancy. Mustard is optional though I prefer yellow,... 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. Foods From Your Childhood You Don't Miss? [Photograph: Tick Tock Toys] "Hungry Man Salisbury steak in the old tin foil like TV dinner tray. Not the salisbury steak itself, who doesn't like 15,000,000 mg. of sodium in a mystery meat patty?! But rather, the little chocolate "hockey puck" cake that came with the meal... BLECH!" —Pavlov Befriending Chefs/Restaurant Staff [aka 'I Can See Into Alinea's Kitchen from My New Home'] "HAHA! Can't believe the response! I move in September 30th and will be... More

My days of dreaming about a place where I can eat bunny-shaped foods and then cuddle with a bunch of bunnies are over. This place exists! ...In Japan! At this rabbit cafe, customers can eat plates of curry topped with bunny-shaped rice blocks and then go to a separate room of frolicking fluffy bunnies that you can pet and cuddle until your heart implodes with cuteness. You can also BYOB (Bring Your Own Bunny) so that your bunny can socialize with other bunnies. Food + cute cuddly animals = happiness. Watch the video after the jump.... More

"Gewürztraminer is grown in Germany and Alsace, two regions known for fine sausages, so it's no surprise the grape goes well with hot dogs." [Photograph: Robyn Lee] Many hot dogs will be slapped into buns this weekend in honor of Labor Day. Some will anoint them with mustard, others will go for "Chicago style," loading everything but the kitchen sink on top. Even without toppings, hot dogs are tricky because they combine sweet and salty flavors. So what's a wine drinker to do? Of course, you can do what you like--there are no absolute rules when it comes to wine and food pairing. But if hot dogs have stumped you in the past, I've got recommendations for sparkling, Gewürztraminer, rosé,... More

"There was more delicious Chicago food to be had, and I had it." Pizza from Great Lake. Read all about my visit here » I thought I had licked my road food problem--the one that gives me license to eat insane amounts of food when traveling. I convince myself I may never pass through that town again. Then I went to Chicago and the Windy City got the best of me. The first day, Robyn and I had barbecue at Honey1 BBQ, hot dogs and duck fat fries at Hot Doug's, frozen custard and Boston Shakes at Scooter's, pizza at Great Lake, and an espresso malt nightcap at Bobtail, a well-regarded Chicago ice cream shop. I tried to eat everything... More

[Flickr: The Treacys] Over on The Atlantic Food Channel, food policy writer Marion Nestle discusses the dangers of charred toast. Canada recently added acrylamide, the carcinogen that forms on burnt toast, to its list of toxic substances and the European Union is calling it a hazardous chemical "of high concern." But then you have Dutch reports saying there are no real links between acrylamide and cancer. So maybe burnt toast isn't as bad as swallowing a cigarette but just to be safe, you should probably aim for golden to golden-brown on the toast color spectrum. Related Egg in Toast: What Do You Call It? What bread makes the best toast? [Talk] Serious Eats Gift Guide: Toast-Related Accessories... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] An interesting piece in Time this week sheds light on how our eating habits change depending on the dining mate. Apparently we eat more with friends than with strangers. But even more fascinating, a study showed that college females eat about 100 fewer calories when a guy is around. When it comes to holding back, there's nothing like the opposite sex to curb our appetites, at least when we're single. In a study to be published in the October issue of Appetite, researchers at Montreal's McGill University secretly observed 460 college students eating in the campus cafeterias. They found that when a woman was with a man, she ate about 100 calories less than when she... More

[Photograph: d-VISION] These frame plates from Israeli industrial design program d-VISION "function as a canvas for food as a work of art." Pretty food will look prettier, and ugly food will look...abstract. Perhaps not the most practical eating vessel, but it's a cute idea. [via NOTCOT.org] Related Map Plates Adam Roberts's Quirky, Idiosyncratic Plates Paper Plates You Can Display On Your Wall Cutest Plates Ever... More

"You know... we do read these sorts of comments. Look for the chefs to be waving to you tonight." —Alinea partner Nick Kokonas, responding to serious eater Laurs87, who can see into the restaurant's kitchen from her apartment... More

Critic Turned Cook follows former Seattle Post-Intelligencer food critic Leslie Kelly on her journey away from the keyboard and into the kitchen. Take it away, Leslie! Kari Brunson...in a pot! [Photograph: Mike Urban / Seattle Post-Intelligencer] In my journey from former restaurant critic to cook, I’ve met a stockpot full of career changers—people who were drawn by the magical pull of the professional kitchen. I’ve met former teachers, women who had previously worked in the film business, and corporate types who traded their dress pumps for kitchen clogs. I've even chewed the fat with a few former writer types now cooking. But former ballerina Kari Brunson’s tale takes the cake. It’s often said that working in a busy kitchen is... More

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn. This week, the Kitchn bakes Katherine Hepburn's fudgalicious brownies. "It's been reprinted in many places, and it's just as classic as Katharine Hepburn herself." Also on the Kitchn, homebrewing for the first time, microwavable lime cheesecake, pickling watermelon rinds, and sweet tea.... More

[Photograph: Dean Phipps] There are cabbages and then there are 125.9-pound CABBAGES. Every year the Alaska State Fair holds a giant cabbage weigh-off where people battle for vegetable-growing prowess. This year, reports the Anchorage Daily News, Wasilla resident Steve Hubacek won for his green monster (the leaves span five feet!) beating the previous cabbage world record set in the UK in 1989 for 124 pounds. Related Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off at Alaska State Fair, 2008 Duchess Camilla Gets a Big Cabbage for Her Birthday Copious Cabbage [Talk]... More

Why eat a hot dog when you can transform it into a wind instrument? All you need is a freezer and a drill. Simply pop the wiener into the freezer and "once it is rock hard" (the video's words, not mine) slip a paper pattern on top with the strategically drawn holes and drill through them. The video reassures any anti-food wasters that excess wiener dregs, a natural byproduct after drilling, can be saved for future uses. The meatflute tutorial, after the jump.... More

[Photographs: Nikki Goldstein] I always think that grilling is a great group activity. That is, until twenty hungry stomachs show up and you realize that the grill can only hold six burgers and a few hot dogs. It may not be the end-all solution to the problem, but Fire Wire makes flexible skewers that are fantastic space-savers in this kind of situation. They're made from stainless steel cable–style wire, which means they're sturdy enough to be used and reused but bendy enough to be wrapped around whatever configuration of meatiness is already cooking away. I had my first encounter with Fire Wire skewers several weeks ago when I saw them at a local kitchen goods store. I looked at... More

This is what you do if you find a frighteningly big egg laid by one of your hens: film yourself cracking it open and upload your video to YouTube, thus freaking out the rest of the Internet. (Don't worry; it's nothing gross, just unexpected.) Watch the video after the jump.... More

[bravotv.com] Tonight at 10 p.m. EST come join us as we watch the third episode of Top Chef Las Vegas. Expect Allison and Preeti to butt heads in the quickfire challenge, and see how Jenn's team takes to her taking charge in the elimination challenge. Jump in the comment thread as the episode unfolds.... More

"Cranky from hunger." —Washington Post food editor Joe Yonan... More

Not sure what to make this weekend? We've got your back. From bacon salads to short ribs to shortcakes, it's time to salute summer foods before the butternut squash rolls in. More

Padma Lakshmi is now a music video star. Here, after the jump, her turn in Eels' "The Look You Give That Guy" has her on a dinner date with the band's Mark Oliver Everett. Be sure to watch to the end. There's a twist.... More

Here's a cute stop-motion animation of chocolate confections being born and then frolicking among chunks of peanut brittle and sprinkles until reaching their final resting place: a gift box. So you can eat them! Watch the video after the jump.... More

[Photograph: Robyn Lee] John Houder of The Gainesville Sun recently predicted up-and-coming hipster fads, and cold cuts made the list. Apparently the counterculture has come full circle and wheat gluten is too mainstream but mechanically sliced meats are back! The classic “weird” meats like liverwurst and head cheese still fall under the umbrella of “establishment food," so hipsters will have to improvise with creations like zebra hoagies or capybara wraps. Combining animals will provide for even more individuality and, as is the case with ham radios and mopeds, will require searching for specialized and customizable gear that can be used to impress others. Hipsters will spend their time discussing the relative merits of different cuts of puma while grinding... More

Note: On Wednesdays, Andrea Lynn, senior editor of Chile Pepper magazine, drops by with Serious Heat, with additional writing by Lillian Cho. [Photograph: Bill Milne] Think a lone jar of Dijon or squeeze-bottle of yellow in your fridge covers all your mustard needs for the Labor Day grilling holiday? Well, we were under that assumption too until we went on a quest to find the best spicy mustards around. From orange to white, smooth to chunky, mild to weepingly hot, each mustard we sampled was so original that by the time we had reached the end of the taste-test, we were mustard maniacs. These are our top favorites. But we're still open to opinion. What are your favorite mustards that... More

They are somewhere between half-poached and half-fried eggs. Start by frying an egg on the griddle, drop a couple ice cubes around it, and place a cover on top. The result is a flat egg that still tastes poached. More

Save the Words is a website looking out for the underdog words—the less-loved ones that could be dropped from the English language just like that. If you'd like future generations to be able to casually drop mowburnt (adjective; crops spoiled by becoming overheated) or riviation (noun; fishing), then click around on this nifty site and be a word savior. My favorite is ficulnean (adjective: worthless information regarding fig-tree wood). The digital adoption paperwork doesn't look too tough but it's unclear what special powers you're granted once you successfully adopt, say, ficulnean. Related Some New Food Words for Merriam-Webster's Dictionary Quote of the Day: Donut vs. Doughnut Spelling New Food Words in 2009 AP Stylebook... More

Alimentum, the food literary journal, began accepting poetry submissions today. First prize is $500 and the publication of your poem. $15 entry fee. Details on alimentumjournal.com.... More

[Photographs: Food Network Humor] We've done our fair share of food tattoo posts on Serious Eats, so you know we're not ink-haters. But after a while, there are only so many blog posts you can look at where someone's all like, "Look! A food-themed tat!" Snooooooz. So when our hot dog man, Hawk Krall, emailed this link to me, I was like, Seriously? Another one? Until I clicked through. Food Network Humor does it again, with a brilliant round-up of the 25 most gawdawful fugly food tats out there. The three above are just some of the "What were they thinking?" moments on display. Perhaps the best (worst?) is the sad, lonely portrait of Colonel Sanders on some dude's... More

[Photograph ©iStockphoto.com/apomares] School lunch in the district where I attended K-12 was, frankly, disgusting. I was lucky enough to come from a home where there was enough money and time for me to have a home-packed lunch every day. There were plenty of kids who loved the square sausage pizza and hermetically sealed PBJs, but I'm sure there were also plenty who would have gladly eaten something else had they not been on the free-lunch program. Now, it's pretty clear that no matter if my classmates liked it or not, they shouldn't have been eating the food the school was dishing up. Schools send a message to children with the foods that are served. The additives, preservatives, and sugar... More

[Credit: The Rivera PR Blog] PR blogger Jared Rivera unearths a restaurant in San Francisco that's essentially bribing customers with a 20 percent discount to write reviews of it on Yelp. Sure, it doesn't say a positive review, but as Gawker points out: ...But if you didn't enjoy your meal, a 20 percent discount on the next one isn't going to motivate you to do anything, including writing a Yelp review. Those who do write up a review will be inclined to add extra star-age, since they'll be presenting the review directly to restaurant staff. It all adds to an easy way for the restaurant—in this case, Mel's, an unremarkable 1950s style diner — to juice their online ratings.... More

CIting popular demand and renewed interest in all things Julia, Gastronomica is reissuing its summer 2005 Julia Child tribute issue: This special issue of Gastronomica is many things. It is a glimpse into Julia's world—her childhood, her college years, her romance with her husband, Paul—for those who don't know as much about her as they might like. For those who respected her both as chef and colleague, it is a tribute. And it is a farewell and final bon appétit for those who knew her best. $13, from gastronomica.org/julia [via Marisa McClellan]... More

First Lady Michelle Obama and White House chef Sam Kass give us a tour of the first White House garden since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during World War II (which technically was only the size of a bed, and didn't qualify as a feeding-lots-of-people garden like this one). Planted in March with the help of Bancroft Elementary School students, the White House vegetable garden has already yielded hundreds of pounds of food. Fun fact: the seeds came from Monticello's head gardener, originally passed down from Thomas Jefferson himself. Watch the video after the jump.... More

You can win one of seven "cuisinternships" in Oregon—winemaker, fisher, chocolatier, cheesemaker, distiller, rancher, brewmaster, or chef—by visiting bounty.traveloregon.com and submitting an application video and 140-character statement. [via The Cocktail Chronicles]... More

Hooray for foods on sticks! [Photographs: Lori Writer at Heavy Table] If you need direction on what to each for breakfast at the Minnesota State Fair, running from now until September 7, Heavy Table has you covered with their guide to the fair's breakfast choices. Whether you want something on a stick (chocolate-dipped waffles and bacon slabs, anyone?) or would rather eat sitting down (french toast, scrambled eggs, etc.), they give over 15 recommendations on where to get your morning sweets and savories. I'm glad that cream puffs count as breakfast. (You can also search for specific food items at the Fairborne's Fabulous Fair Food Finder.) Related In Videos: Foods on a Stick at the Minnesota State Fair What's... More