Slashfood

Well, America -- the truth came out in Chicago. Judging from the appliances on display at the International Home and Housewares show running in the Windy City earlier this week, what people really want is what they've been clamoring for since the 1950s -- convenience. No matter how we profess our love for chefs, watch culinary how-to shows, or snap up lushly illustrated cookbooks, apparently most of us still aren't so wild about cooking itself.

In fact, it seems as though grocers and appliance makers have teamed up to create a futuristic "cooking" future where no one really has to think at all. Remember when it seemed crazy that microwaves had a button for popcorn? Well, now they come outfitted with one-touch options for pizzas and omelets.

If you're looking for something fresh and exciting the next time you stop by a Starbucks or roll through a drive-through, fast-food restaurants are offering a handful of new menu items to help draw in new customers and give old customers a taste of something different.

McDonald's is test-marketing a new "customized" chicken sandwich with a French twist. The McBistro Chicken Sandwich can be either grilled or fried, comes on a whole-grain "bakery style" roll, and then you choose whether you'd like to top it with bacon, white cheddar cheese, tomato and a sauce (chipotle barbecue, honey mustard, buttermilk ranch), the Baltimore Sun reported. Customers pay less for if they forgo the bacon or cheese.

The customized sandwiches are being tried out in Omaha, Albuquerque, and the greater Baltimore area.

What food do you eat that would give you a bad rep if other chefs knew about it?
SM: Once in a blue moon I'll have a Lunchable, if I find it.

Which celebrity would you love to cook for and why?
Angelina Jolie's son Pax, who is from Vietnam. I lived there and learned the cuisine firsthand. I'd like to cook for the whole family....what a dinner it would be.

What chef would you like to see naked?
Chef Marcela Valladolid.

Seasonal Spanish Food
By José Pizarro
Photographs by Emma Lee
Ten Speed Press 2010
Buy it on Amazon

What makes a standout cookbook, at least for me, is cracking it open and being so tempted by everything that you don't know what to make first. The book never makes it to the coffee table because you can't get it out of the kitchen. In record time, it's spattered and dog-eared. Seasonal Spanish Food is just that kind of book.

But it's more than just recipes. I found myself standing in the kitchen, mid stir, reading Pizarro's recipe stories. It's the whole package, the real deal. There's charm and enticement throughout.

See what we tested and whether it's worth buying after the jump.

When I was applying for my first waitress job, my total lack of experience qualified me to work at two types of places: Coney Islands, the Greek diner/chili parlor mash-ups that are ubiquitous in southeast Michigan, and family dining chains clustered around highway exits. I opted for the former, mostly so I wouldn't have to sing.

I haven't visited a Lone Star Steakhouse since the mid-1990s, but the restaurant's original shtick included a server-led birthday boot scoot that involved way more coordination and tune-carrying than I could possibly muster. Even if I'd been blessed with Ethel Merman's pipes, I'm not sure I'd have been any more gung-ho about breaking out in birthday song: The whole routine seemed designed to shame the staff and mortify the celebrant.

• Salsa is Mexico's "most misunderstood culinary export." It's time for a reintroduction.
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• Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio is back in the kitchen at his newest restaurant, Colicchio & Sons. And the food? "Terrifically good."
• The Times wine panel tasted 20 bottles of Loire wines. It's a tough job, but someone had to do it.
• In Brooklyn, barbecue meets Southeast Asia at the Fatty 'Cue.
• Where are all the cupcakes? It's actually a controversial question.

Forget the green beer -- everybody knows that Irish coffee is a much better way to wash down the St. Pat's soda bread and corned beef, right?

At least, as the legend goes, some weary American travelers thought so in 1952, when a bartender in the Shannon Airport whipped up the concoction to warm them after a hard day of difficult wintertime flight. The drink allegedly made its way back stateside through San Francisco's Buena Vista Cafe, which still touts it as a specialty of the house.

For starters, the coffee's got to be good. Don't bother ordering one at your run-of-the-mill faux-Irish corner pub -- stick to eateries and bars that you know pride themselves on good coffee. Second, if you're going green for the holiday, you may as well specifically ask for an Irish whiskey -- I go for Powers, but Bushmills also fits the bill. (Of course, what happens outside of St. Patrick's Day stays outside of St. Patrick's Day...)

But what makes the perfect Irish coffee? Read on after the jump to find out.

Tropical flavors play a big part in pastry chef Tiffany Macisaac's repertoire (she's a native of Hawaii), and she shared her recipe for this coconut curry sorbet with blogger UlteriorPicture back when she was cooking at Manhattan restaurant Cru. The refreshing coconut-milk and cardamom-inflected sorbet would be as at home in the southern India state of Kerala as it is at Washington, D.C., restaurant Birch & Barley, which Macisaac now owns with her husband, executive chef Kyle Bailey. When she's not whipping up wild sorbets, we hear Macisaac also makes a killer Meyer lemon meringue pie.

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