Chicken fights usually involve a swimming pool, two teams, sitting on shoulders and slipping. Pretty harmless. But what happens when an actual chicken gets hold of a razor-sharp knife and wants to start something? All those times we stuffed him (and his kind), basted them, sizzled them, drowned them in herbal marinades. Nightmarish poultry revenge! [Via SwissMiss]
Chef Gordon Ramsay is pushing for a law that would require restaurants to serve only in-season fruits and veggies, or be subject to fines. In an interview broadcast with BBC's Radio 5 Live today, he said he wants chefs to use home-grown produce only, not Kenyan strawberries in March for example. While demanding better ingredients may be a positive concept, how could you police this? What about products that just aren't available naturally in the UK, like chocolate or pistachios?
On the Guardian's food blog "Word of Mouth" readers fired back, "what a chump," and pointed out that Ramsay's restaurants don't even serve local, seasonal food all the time. As if landing in Heathrow wasn't already expensive, Ramsay wants to fine you for eating a tomato in January. Shoot, is it really a crime to eat spaghetti outside of August?
We'll see if Gordon can get the other Gordon to make sense of his rant.
A recent study at McGill University in Montreal, Canada proved that ghrelin, a hunger-inducing hormone in our gut, enhances the image of junk food's yumminess. The stimulant is naturally activated when hungry, causing quarter pounders and greasy pizza to look overwhelmingly tasty and unavoidable, as if we're junkies looking at crack.
Coverage of this study at science fiction blog io9 was assigned the following headline: Fast Food Joints Add Hormone to Food That Makes You Want to Eat More. Despite this insinuation of food tampering, the McGill study never said that. Or aimed to prove that.
Ringlets, satin dresses, that guy in the white tux: your average prom fashion. But what about a dress crafted from 101 candy wrappers? Yeah, Jessica McClintock doesn't sell that. Craftster member Theperilouspopsicle skipped the average poofy or sequinsy dress to instead spend 15 hours on this adorable halter number with Skittle wrapper fringe and matching shoes. We can only hope the deejay played The Strangeloves' hit "I Want Candy." [via CandyAddict]
Is your office building made of a steel pot? Apartment tower, actually a cheese grater? Beijing-based sculptor Zhan Wang engineered this San Francisco cityscape out of kitchenware tools you're used to finding at William Sonoma. Stainless steel pots, pans, silverware, plates, graters. San Francisco's Asian Art Museum will run the exhibit until May 25. [via BoingBoing]
In a Q and A with New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, Jean-Georges pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini admits that he has a "hard time with male animal reproductive organs." That is, a hard time eating them. Some of us won't eat licorice or mayo, others male reproductive organs. He probably wouldn't appreciate this place.
In October of 2006, the District reversed a moratorium on sidewalk vendors in an attempt to diversify the downtown culinary landscape. Under this new legislation, half-smoke carts can share the roads with trucks vending chicken and waffles, tacos, falafel or anything the heart desires. Sadly, just a few new entrepreneurial minds have stepped forward, and the most consistent (in terms of showing up and actual flavor) is a Korean cart known as L Street Vending on the southeast corner of 14th and L Street.
A tub of homemade kimchi welcomes you with big silver tongs hanging out, ready to scoop. The big, leafy cabbage hunks aren't spicy, as in they'll activate the tear ducts spicy, but it should get your attention. Behind the counter, the son and mom chef-cum-cashiers are Korean and make it fresh at home.
If you see pale blue ribbons around today, they could be honoring INDD or International No Diet Day, celebrated every May 6. Recovering anorexic Mary Evans Young founded the holiday in 1992 as a response to a thin-obsessed, thigh-hating culture. About $40 billion is spent each year on weight loss tactics, but today we are supposed to love our bodies, no matter what size or shape.
No need to lift a finger for the spoon drawer anymore when Cool Whip cravings hit. Kraft will soon package the puffy white garnish in an aerosol can, much like other air-infused whipped cream cousins. Just squeeze and shoot. This is part of Kraft's new line of eighty re-packaged products, specifically catering to the most sloth-like of eaters. Yes, Uncrustables were just the beginning.
We recently told you about the Bagel-ful, which eliminates the hassle of cream cheese spreading, but there's more. Goldfish Mac N' Cheese crackers are shaped like macaroni noodles. Chew them up and it's as if you spent a few minutes boiling water and stirring in powdered cheese to make one of the already-easiest-to-make foods.
Pudding doesn't even need to congeal overnight anymore. Just add cold milk to Jell-O Singles packets and watch the powder thicken. There's no telling what chemicals are in there, but more importantly, do we deserve instant pudding gratification? Isn't waiting part of the joy? Granola in 100-calorie pack form is another reality, which speaks to a greater 100-cal-packification movement.
Will these goods require a separate aisle? Or maybe an entire grocery market, much like the reverse of Costco? [via AdAge]
Aha! It was Colonel Mustard with the revolver in the kitchen. We all saw it coming. Ketchup has long been the all-American condiment poster child, as the default french fries dipping sauce and popular accessory to breakfast eggs and hash browns. One night, enough was enough and mustard couldn't take it anymore.
The crime scene is the artistic brainchild of two bloggers, Skull-A-Day and Bent Objects. Relish was apparently too nervous to get involved.
Can I be your friend, Robyn?
Also, these remind me of McVite's chocolate-covered Digestive biscuits. Minus the vanilla cream part.
@hungrychristel: Here's a link to the thread on crafster.org with more photos of the dress!
Too bad it doesn't oink when the steam rises. Reminds me of those cow-resembling kettles that mooo when the water boils.
Equally skeptical on 100-cal pack granola. A few nuts and dried fruit flecks are at least 100 cals!
I like my 1,000-cal pack granola, thank you very much.
I thought the very same thing at first, but it's actually the coarse sugar you're supposed to sprinkle around the frosting periphery for the illusion of salted "rims."
This just in: Robert Pinksy, the incredibly accomplished poet, is judging the contest!
Perhaps there is a long-ago tribal community that added bacon to their chocolate in lieu of sugar.
I totally trust the guy in schlubby gear more than anyone to pick out the right salsa.
Good call, sscoffee. Got my Jose restaurants mixed up. It's been fixed!
I live in Carpinteria, CA, which is a couple hours' (w/no traffic) drive from most of these spots, however, anyone who has driven through remembers Santa Claus lane, with the giant Frosty and Santa sitting atop the buildings, and a shop specializing in date shakes. It was an institution for years, and the date shakes were amazing...alas, I moved back to the area a year and a half ago (after 11 years in NorCal) to find that date shakes, Santa and Frosty were all gone, to make room for yet another yuppie wine bar with tiny overpriced tapas and bad wine at "good wine" prices. Santa now hawks used cars in Oxnard and I have no idea where Frosty absconded to with the date shakes.......sorry for the downer, folks, but the date shakes thread got me all goopy and nostalgic. (And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...)
I'll have to double check the recipe and fix my typo this weekend. Sorry about that. For anyone who asked why they look slushy. This was one of my first Vegan cupcakes and I was using low-fat soy milk. This causes the cupcakes to come out gummy/sticky and not rise very much. I filled them the same amount that I usually do, they just didn't rise up much. I'd like to try this recipe again to make prettier margarita cupcakes.
@gringuitica and cmtigger: Thanks for the info! I don't know Spanish so I relied on my googling skills to tell me what it meant. Doh! "Little female black object" would be appropriate.
I remember learning in a Spanish for teachers class that negrita can also just mean a black haired girl or like the person above noted, little black feminine (as in the ending sound of the word) object.
In any case those look yummy!
Just a tiny thing, but negrita can refer to any "small," "female" thing. In this case, I believe that it's a small, black (chocolately) cookie, where cookie is la galleta (a "female" noun). On the other hand, plenty of things in Latin America are politically incorrect, so it's a possibility. Either way, it looks yummy!
these remind me of conguitos (chocolate covered peanut snack) when i was living in spain.. not the same, but the great "politically incorrect" name.. "conguitos" = little congo people?
and oh so delicious!
I might have ONE COOKIE LEFT! Come to NYC asap and it's yours!...
:D...
Oh man, I love digestives. Or anything by McVitie's!
OK, I just checked my pigs (they came in a two-pack: plate size and tiny bowl size) and there's a Marna stamp on them.
Here's a picture of them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/myszka/2472991296/
They're cute but too shallow to use in the microwave for most of my purposes.
Oh, and to Curlz...
You lift the thing by the ears...the thumb on one ear and the index finger on the other ear.
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Location: Washington, DC
About: The District's "Bureau Chief" for Serious Eats
Favorite foods: Oatmeal, Figs, Pickles, Smoked Cheeses, Animal Crackers, Country Fair Pies, Avocados.
Last bite on earth: Wahoos Fish Tacos in my home sweet hometown