After two days of nonstop eating, drinking, and food-schmoozing in Aspen, Colorado, I have to say that the 25th annual Food & Wine Classic (it's been around as long as my wife and I have been married) is the ultimate serious eater's hang. My wife said it best: "The Food & Wine classic is the Sundance of food."
According to Ellen Sweets of the Denver Post, Colorado's lamb is a culinary star—the best lamb you can find anywhere. Pat Donahue of Memphis's Rendezvous, which serves barbecued lamb ribs, agrees; he says, "the flavor and texture are so much better than anything else we could find. No matter how you cook a piece of meat, the quality of the meat itself is where you start. We had to take lamb ribs off the menu for a while because we couldn't get Colorado lamb, but our customers had a fit, so we found someone who could deliver them and (the ribs) are back." But why is it so good?
"From a culinary standpoint, local lamb is important because we provide a better quality product based on genetics," says Kline, executive director of the Colorado Lamb Council. "We breed for meat production; the Australians and New Zealanders breed for wool. Meat quality is secondary.
"So what we get from imports is basically meat based on wool genetics and a smaller product. It costs less, but it's smaller and not as flavorful. We're breeding for higher quality meat."
Someone's going to be making lamb chops this weekend, and that someone is me!
Denver area pizza lovers have a 'hole' lot [Groan —Ed.] to be excited about as Einstein Bros. Bagels cooks up new pizza bagels for its hometown customers.... Einstein Bros. is now offering five Pizza Bagel flavors in 28 Front Range restaurants.
When I was a kid, my sister (who was around 7 at the time) came up with this idea—using Lender's frozen bagels, some Chef Boyardee pizza sauce, and whatever mozzarella we had on hand. She submitted the idea to a local TV station's "create an afterschool snack" contest.
And never heard from the station.
Hey, I thought it was a great idea at the time. These days, you couldn't get me near a hybrid pizza bagel. It just takes the best of two respected traditions and ruins them.
To this I say, Oy vey AND mamma mia! [via "Eater" Ben]
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