September 5, 2008
Posted by Joy Manning, September 4, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Editor's note: Our first Serious Eats City Guide brought you New York through the eyes (and stomach) of our own Ed Levine. For our second installation, we head down the Eastern Seaboard to Philadelphia with resident eater Joy Manning, the restaurant critic at Philadelphia Magazine. If her picks aren't enough, you can check out the magazine's Best of Philly food winners from 2004 to 2008 online. As always, chime in with agreement, or feel free to alert us to any Philly eats we've overlooked.
Best Pizza
A lot of visitors, especially New Yorkers, complain about pizza in Philly. But we do have a few terrific spots that bake world class pies. My two favorites both have super thin, super crispy crusts, but they are served up in settings that couldn’t be more different. Osteria, an upscale restaurant co-owned by Marc Vetri, does a full menu of rustic Italian fare but the pizzas—cooked to perfection in an 800-degree wood fired oven imported from Italy—steal the show. Try the Lombarda, which is topped with house-made sausage and a runny baked egg. Tacconelli’s, on the other hand, is a no frills neighborhood pizzeria with one big caveat. You have to call ahead and reserve the dough for the number of pies you want. A hassle? Definitely. But these perfectly charred pies are worth the effort.
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From Photograzing
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Posted by Robyn Lee, September 4, 2008 at 6:45 PM
This week The Kitchn tells you why you shouldn't store tomatoes in the refrigerator. Leaving them on the counter at room temperature will lead to the best flavor development.
Also on The Kitchn, tips for making roast chicken, choosing a pickling vinegar, a recipe for quinoa salad, and how to get rid of fruit flies.
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Michelle Obama will appear on Paula Deen's Paula's Party show on the Food Network on September 20 at 7 p.m. ET. The episode will be called "Grease Is the Word," and Ms. Deen will teach Ms. Obama how to fry, fry, fry. [via The Village Voice]
From Recipes
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, September 4, 2008 at 5:45 PM
I found this corn soup buried in an eGullet forum about what to do about the abundance of summer corn. Unlike many of the other suggestions, this one is all about the corn. There's no stock or potatoes to bulk things out. Which means it's not the most substantial meal of the season. But it is cold, light, and oddly thirst quenching. I drank my helping from a paper cup.
In fact, it's so light I kind of wondered what happened to 5 ears of corn I wasted on the soup. It barely made enough to feed the two of us, and we were very hungry afterwards. So it fits the description very well. If you need a recipe to get rid of a lot of corn, then this might be the one for you. Just think of it as an appetizer.
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Emeril Lagasse has just snagged a 10-book deal with HarperCollins on its new imprint, HarperStudio. His first book of the deal, to come out next spring, will focus on indoor and outdoor grilling and will be his first in four years.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, September 4, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Earlier this year, Starbucks pitched a new game plan: Focus more on coffee, less on noncoffee things. Get back in touch with their roots. But the breakfast sandwiches are still available (now in less-fragrant form), bottled juices still get stocked in the fridge, and yesterday, a "healthier" breakfast line-up with fewer calories and more protein settled in behind the glass counter. Here's our take on the new noncoffee products.
Power Protein Plate, $4.95
330 calories with peanut butter, 260 without (about one-third of your daily protein intake)
The plastic tray includes a hard-boiled egg, some apple slices, a tiny sprig of grapes, two squares of white cheddar, a mini wheat bagel, and a squeezable ketchuplike packet of peanut butter. If you fetish over mini things that get stuffed into a hot-dog-size home, this is all you. While the hard-boiled egg was bland—and served cold, instead of the warm, like Mama fed you—it's not green! So that's always good.
Starbucks Perfect Oatmeal, $2.45
140 calories for just oatmeal; 100 calories for nut medley; 100 calories for dried fruit; 50 calories for brown sugar
"Perfect" is a strong word. As a religious oatmeal eater, I rarely come across an imperfect bowl, but for perfect, the Quaker man himself would have to serve it to me. The small cup comes with two options of 100-calorie packets: mixed nuts (almonds, walnuts, and pecans) or dried fruit, and a 50-calorie pack of brown sugar. I appreciate the purist approach to oatmeal and hands-on toppings. (No weird caramel syrups or Dinosaur eggs inside.) But north of $2 seems like too much.
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Posted by Clay Gordon, September 4, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Photo composite by Clay Gordon
Every year for the past seven years I have joined hundreds of other pastry professionals in an annual pilgrimage to two of pastry's meccas: The World Pastry Forum and the National and World Pastry Team Championship. I have just returned from my 2008 journey, which took me to Nashville, Tennessee, and the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.
The World Pastry Forum is actually an educational event. More than a dozen world-class pastry chefs present a program of hands-on and demonstration classes in all aspects of pastry, baking, and confectionery. Highlights this year included the hands-on Chocolate class taught by Stephane Glacier MOF and Stephan Iten, the hands-on Wedding Cake class taught by Colette Peters and Nicholas Lodge, and classes by Anil Rohira and Ewald Notter (chocolate), Ciril Hitz (breakfast pastries), En Ming Hsu (sugar confections), John Kraus (frozen desserts), Derek Poirier (plated desserts) and more.
Students in the demo classes attend ten half-day sessions where students in the hands-on classes spend two-and-a-half days with each chef instructor. Before, between, and after classes provides opportunities for networking and brushing up on the latest tools, techniques, and industry gossip. Evenings also provide an opportunity to take classes and this year's roster featured a demonstration of a pretty amazing device called the PacoJet by chef Kriss Harvey as well as a chocolate tasting class presented by yours truly.
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From Slice
Posted by Daniel Zemans, September 4, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza with his friends on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Bacino's has been selling stuffed pizzas since 1978, making it one of the oldest purveyors of the Chicago delicacy. The founder, Dan Bacin, had a background in business, not cooking. No marketing dummy, Bacin used a variation of an old Chicago political trick in naming his restaurant. There is no truth to the rumor that Barack Obama's last name used to be Bama before he ran for office in Chicago, but many political candidates have changed their names to appeal to the significantly Irish electorate. While it would make no sense to name a pizzeria O'Bacin's, adding an o to the end of his name gave Bacin's pizzeria some faux Italian authenticity.
I don't know the full story behind the founding of Bacino's, but it involves Giordano's (reviewed for Slice here), Chicago's most popular stuffed pizza chain. Not long after Giordano's was formed in the mid '70s, the company was looking to grow. Dan Bacin got involved with them but ended up going out on his own and starting Bacino's. I'm unclear as to the time frame and whether Bacin ever actually opened a Giordano's, but a search of the relevant page on the State of Illinois website shows that on September 11, 1980, The Bacin Group was registered as Giordano's of Lincoln Park, Inc.
For this review, I went to the Bacino's location in the heart of Lincoln Park. There are three other locations, two downtown and one in the suburb of LaGrange. The building itself, both on the outside and the inside, is pretty nondescript. There is a bar on a different side of the restaurant that has a little more to look at. There is also a downstairs dining area that I've never seen used.
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From A Hamburger Today
Posted by Robyn Lee, September 4, 2008 at 2:00 PM
David Lebovitz may have been let down by the burger at Hippopotamus, but he should be able to fulfill his craving after looking through his readers' burger recommendations in Paris. With 19 restaurants to choose from, there may be some hope for homesick Americans and burger-loving Parisians.
Related
When In Paris, Do Not Get a Burger at Hippopotamus
'New York Times' on the Latest Culinary Fad in Paris: Burgers
Posted by Robyn Lee, September 4, 2008 at 1:30 PM
When Raphael discovered that I had never eaten a Hostess Fruit Pie, one of the foods listed on the Omnivore's 100, he responded with stunned disbelief. When some of our other Serious Eats coworkers revealed that they too lived lives devoid of Hostess Fruit Pies, our collective anti-pie stance nearly pushed him to the edge of having a heart attack. He immediately ran to the nearest grocery store in order to end our Hostess Fruit Pie deprivation.
And then we unleashed the partially hydrogenated horror within the paper wrapper.
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From Recipes
Posted by Lucy Baker, September 4, 2008 at 1:15 PM
True Italian tuna conserva is a far cry from Chicken of the Sea. Fresh fish is poached in a bath of water or olive oil, and seasoned with a variety of aromatics such as fennel, garlic, lemon, and crushed black peppercorns. Once prepared, it is stored in tightly packed jars of olive oil.
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from A16 Food + Wine, is for Tuna Conserva with Potatoes, Radicchio, Green Olives, and Almonds. If you are so inclined, you can make your own tuna conserva (authors Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren provide a recipe at the beginning of the antipasti chapter) but high-quality olive oil packed tuna will work, too.
This hearty dish combines the tuna with crisp, bitter radicchio (just now coming into season); briny green olives; and creamy potatoes. It would make a perfectly delectable lunch. Let loose a little and have a glass of Fiano di Avellino, a full-bodied white wine from Campania with notes of honey, pears, and orange blossoms.
Win 'A16 Food + Wine'
In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week we're giving away five (5) copies of A16 Food + Wine. Enter to win here.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, September 4, 2008 at 12:15 PM
To witness one of the most awkward celebrity-endorsed food product commercials ever, check out this commercial from Ortega featuring Olympic gymnasts Shawn Johnson, Paul Hamm, and Morgan Hamm. Get past the low production value and the most unconvincing praise ever given to the Ortega-branded foods, and you will be rewarded with Shawn Johnson declaring, "It makes my taco pop." Interpret that as you wish—if you need any help you can ask the Internet.
I really wanted this commercial to be fake, but after seeing this promo I'm horrified to think that this commercial was actually approved. Watch the video after the jump.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, September 4, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Many people know they don't want high-fructose corn syrup (or HFCS) even if they don't know why. The fuzzy grey area—like how HFCS affects your body, what it's made from, and how it differs from cane-based sugar—is exactly what the Corn Refiners Association is tapping into when promoting the ingredient in new commercials and print ads, now visible nationally and on the site SweetSurprise.com.
The ads ask what's so wrong with a little HFCS? The complexities are hardly known or explained—people just know to avoid it. In one commercial, a girl picnics with her boy and offers him a popsicle. He declines. It's not you, it's the high fructose corn syrup, babe. Instead of taking offense, she merrily explains that HFCS is made of corn, has the same calories as sugar and honey, and is totally fine in moderation.
But what does "moderation" mean? SweetSurprise.com never elaborates on dosage on the site's "High Fructose Corn Syrup Quick Facts" page. While consumers have a vague idea of "moderation" (not too much), HFCS creeps into salad dressings, juices, ketchup, breads, and even "whole-grain" breads, which can complicate attempts to be moderate.
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