Slashfood http://www.slashfood.com Slashfood http://www.slashfood.com/media/feed_logo.gif Slashfood http://www.slashfood.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Messin' with the bull, gettin' the hornshttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/10/18/messin-with-the-bull-gettin-the-horns/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/10/18/messin-with-the-bull-gettin-the-horns/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/10/18/messin-with-the-bull-gettin-the-horns/#commentsFiled under: ,

Man, I can't believe I let a whole decade of ambivalence separate me from what is now proving to be both my savior and my downfall, the nitrous fuel for the racecar that is myself... red bull. They're small, they're expensive, but if I drink more than two of them in the same afternoon, I'll be up for the next 24 hours.

A careful examination of the labels will show you that Red Bull and most of its contemporaries, such as Monster and Rock Star, operate on the same ingredients: Taurine, b complex vitamins, caffeine. But unlike, say, Rock Star, Red Bull packs a little miracle worker called Glucuronolactone, this is the stuff that should be in the tap water instead of flouride, if ya ask me. It's supposed to give you a feeling of well-being. Brother, you had me at hello.

Continue reading Messin' with the bull, gettin' the horns

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>addictionb vitaminsBVitaminsenergy drinksEnergyDrinksfadsred bullRedBulltaurineErich KuerstenWed, 18 Oct 2006 17:33:00 ESTNot Eating Out in NYC: A blogger's talehttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/09/28/not-eating-out-in-nyc-a-bloggers-tale/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/09/28/not-eating-out-in-nyc-a-bloggers-tale/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/09/28/not-eating-out-in-nyc-a-bloggers-tale/#commentsFiled under: ,

Whether of not you live in New York City you will find much to learn, share and enjoy from a recently begun food blog called Not Eating Out in New York , by local writer Catharine Erway. In addition to writing on film and other topics, Erway has been spending her time since graduating Emerson college a few years ago working in various administrative jobs and, mainly, cooking. "The blog idea came to me when eating in some restaurant one day and realizing, you have no control over what they're putting in your food," she told me recently in Union Square Park . "They may say the food is organic, but you have no guarantee unless you follow the cook around the kitchen."


Continue reading Not Eating Out in NYC: A blogger's tale

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>cookingfood blogsfood writerFoodBlogsFoodWriternew york cityNewYorkCityprivate recipePrivateRecipeshopping tipsShoppingTipsErich KuerstenThu, 28 Sep 2006 16:31:00 ESTIncreasing your sense of taste through darknesshttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/09/22/increasing-your-sense-of-taste-through-darkness/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/09/22/increasing-your-sense-of-taste-through-darkness/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/09/22/increasing-your-sense-of-taste-through-darkness/#commentsFiled under: , ,

dinner by cnadlelightIn the US, part of our collective weight problem may be that we are on the consumerist treadmill and can't slow down. If something's really good we make an "mmmmm" sound and then we chow down and drift off to thinking about what we will do later. We watch too much TV, talk on the cell phone incessantly as we rush from place to place, so we forget how to lose ourselves in the sensation of eating, from the first bite through to the last, each lifting of the fork part of the poetry, even the dab of a napkin becomes transcendental if done with one's full attention.

Maybe I'm just speaking for myself here. Lately I've taken a vow of no TV and no electric lights in my apartment after work, and it's amazing how much sharper my senses are, eating by candlelight without all the distractions.

Of course the trend of completely dark restaurants is not exactly new, but it seems to me it's still yet to catch on in the US the way it has in Germany, Canada and London. But I say it's time we here in the US began to slow ourselves down a little bit, stop to smell the roses, taste the wine, unplug the TV, and relax... we may not need dark restaurants if we can darken our own living rooms.

Continue reading Increasing your sense of taste through darkness

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>black outblackenedBlackOutblindsensory deprivationsensory enhancementSensoryDeprivationSensoryEnhancementErich KuerstenFri, 22 Sep 2006 18:04:00 ESTThe Uncooling of Iced Coffeehttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/24/the-uncooling-of-iced-coffee/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/24/the-uncooling-of-iced-coffee/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/24/the-uncooling-of-iced-coffee/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Now that McDonald's is displaying proud banners throughout NYC that they have "iced coffee!" you can be sure that the once unusual and eccentric beverage is a trend that's exceeded its critical mass. Isn't Mickey D's the barometer of when trends reach the point where they become totally and forever uncool? In the last few years-in New York City at least-iced coffee was the domain of Starbucks and the assorted bagel shops, bakeries and internet/bookstore boutiques. The perfect blend of thirst quench and caffeine jolt, the iced coffee gives you a lift, then makes your tongue shrink up from dehydration as it pulls all the available moisture out of your body to assist in its chemical conversions within your body, but it does NOT make you all gaseous like soda pop might, so you can walk down the street, jaw set in grim determination, and suck that thing down and never make one illusion-of-togetherness shattering "noise."

Continue reading The Uncooling of Iced Coffee

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>coffeecoffee warsCoffeeWarsDT/UTDunkin DonutsDunkinDonutsFree TradeFreeTradeice coffeeIceCoffeeiced coffeeIcedCoffeemcdonald'sNewman's OwnNewman'sOwnOrganicStarbucksTCBYErich KuerstenThu, 24 Aug 2006 10:06:00 ESTA little salt for desserthttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/21/a-little-salt-for-dessert/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/21/a-little-salt-for-dessert/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/21/a-little-salt-for-dessert/#commentsFiled under: ,

bowl of saltNo matter who you are, where you're from, or what your taste, a salt shaker lives on your table, your stovetop, or your counter. Perhaps all three. Salt is cheap and readily available. Hardly an item exists in your pantry that doesn't list it as an ingredient.

It's chemical name is "sodium chloride." Common table salt is produced by flooding salt deposits with water. The brine which results is then evaporated and the crystals are refined. Kosher salt is made similarly, though the brine is raked continually during evaporation. Sea salt is (obviously) evaporated from sea water. Certain varieties contain chemical additives that prevent clumping, allowing for free flow from shaker to your steak; iodine may also be added to prevent hypothyroidism in consumers. All salts are nutritionally equivalent, regardless of what type you decide to use.

Continue reading A little salt for dessert

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>dessertiodineseasoningErich KuerstenMon, 21 Aug 2006 17:32:00 ESTThe Ice Cream Insiderhttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/08/the-ice-cream-insider/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/08/the-ice-cream-insider/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/08/08/the-ice-cream-insider/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

It's 98 degrees in Brooklyn. The Weather Channel website says it "feels like" 107, but I say it "feels like" hell. If I could, I'd curl around the base of the toilet with my panting dog. But I can't, so I find more conventional, homo sapiens ways to cool off: straddling fans, sticking ice cubes in the waistband of my underwear, and visiting ice cream parlors.

I love ice cream any day of the year, but this August, the creamy delight cools like central air. Never mind that my midsection has noticeably thickened since Sunday; we're having a heat wave, and I don't care if I'm too fat to can-can. I watch the kind scoopers stack sugar cones with tears in my eyes. Even my lactose intolerance can't stop me.

What is it about ice cream anyway? It's cited as a comfort food, right up there with mashed potatoes. Ice cream socials please kids and their parents equally, and a cute date will split a cone with you from the truck outside the restaurant while you ponder how to invite them over. Wherever there is ice cream, life seems happy and positive.

Continue reading The Ice Cream Insider

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>coldheatice creamIceCreamsummerErich KuerstenTue, 08 Aug 2006 14:02:00 ESTChowder Warshttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/24/chowder-wars/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/24/chowder-wars/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/24/chowder-wars/#commentsFiled under:

Up and coming chef Ben Sargent had just been given his very own half hour Food Network TV show--all about him and chowder, his specialty. With the sun barely up one morning in May, cameras followed him around the Fulton Fish Market. He stocked up on monkfish, live eels, and giant clams that looked like tubular aliens. The work was scrutinizing, but the last day on camera promised to be easy: a Brooklyn waterfront party where he cooked and his friends gnoshed. Like the cameras weren't even there.

The day arrived. Sargent happily and somewhat drunkenly prepared his chowder. He looked up, and Bobby Flay stood in the audience--the fiery haired Iron Chef, no less. Suddenly, Flay was on him, shaking his hand and challenging him to a chowder cook-off, right then and there.

This wasn't Sargent's show at all. This was Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay and he'd just been had.

Continue reading Chowder Wars

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>bobby flayBobbyFlaychowdercook offCookOffeelsmonkfishthrowdownErich KuerstenMon, 24 Jul 2006 19:06:00 ESTThe Sins of Red Velvet Cakehttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/17/the-sins-of-red-velvet-cake/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/17/the-sins-of-red-velvet-cake/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/17/the-sins-of-red-velvet-cake/#commentsFiled under: , ,

When my dear friend Yukari brought my red velvet cake the other afternoon, I thought I must have died and gone to some sort of sugar-baked heaven. I asked her where she discovered this bizarre, deep red, Satanic looking concoction. Apparently it's all over Brooklyn, and she'd found out about it while working in the Buttacup Lounge.

For the unfamiliar, red velvet cake is party punch red and coated in thick white frosting. It's an equally decadent relative of chocolate cake. My own limited run-ins with it haven't yielded particularly chocolatey tasting encounters, but its richness and snowy cream cheese dressing could satisfy any chocolate lover's deepest desire.

A sort of red-velvet-legend attributes this cake to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. A guest ordered a slice and liked it so much that she asked for the recipe. The hotel gave it up and billed her $100. Furious, she spread the recipe around in chain letters.

Continue reading The Sins of Red Velvet Cake

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>Brooklyncakecherriesredred velvetRedVelvetSoul FoodSoulFoodSweetsErich KuerstenMon, 17 Jul 2006 15:12:00 ESTSpruce My Grits Uphttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/12/spruce-my-grits-up/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/12/spruce-my-grits-up/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/12/spruce-my-grits-up/#commentsFiled under:

Recently, I was struck with a rare craving for a bowl of grits, boiled on the stove the way they do in diners below the Mason-Dixon line, with some butter and salt and pepper. Bargain-savvy as I am, I decided to buy the economy-sized tub of Quaker quick grits, rather than the smaller, less cost-effective box. Proud of myself for figuring out such a great deal, I trotted home with grits in tow and cooked myself a bowl.

I had eaten a bowl of grits for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast again when I realized that I was stuck with the rest of this huge tub, and that there was no way I could stomach any more of the mushy grains. I forgot, I hate grits!

I'm the type of guy who can't throw stuff away so I needed a way to spruce these grits. And who better to consult than my raised-in-the-South assistant, Emily. 

 "Emily... fix my grits?" I pleaded.

Continue reading Spruce My Grits Up

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>breakfastcomfort foodComfortFooddown homeDownHomegritsokrashrimpsouthernstarchstove topStoveTopErich KuerstenWed, 12 Jul 2006 16:04:00 ESTHot Dog: Symbol of Patriotismhttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/06/hot-dog-symbol-of-patriotism/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/06/hot-dog-symbol-of-patriotism/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/07/06/hot-dog-symbol-of-patriotism/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

July 4th.  Surf and Stillwell Avenues.  The crowd, thousands strong,
bristles in the scorching heat, and the announcer hams it up.

"This, the hot dog, the symbol of patriotism!" he bellows; the crowd cheers.

It's the 91st annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, and I stand in
the throngs to bear witness.  American Joey Chestnut keeps a one-to-two-dog
lead over five-time champion Takeru Kobayashi.  The mood tenses, tight
as a sausage skin.  The minutes tick by.  Kobayashi evens the score.
Then he steps ahead.  The clock winds to zero, and Kobayashi wins by a
dog and three quarters at 53.75.

The 12 minutes of the contest leave me breathless, and I marvel
at the notion of food as a patriotic symbol.  Is a hot dog patriotic? 
Do other foods share the honor?

Continue reading Hot Dog: Symbol of Patriotism

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>burgerscorncorn on the cobCornOnTheCobFouth of JulyFouthOfJulyhot dogsHotDogsJuly 4July4maizeNathan'sErich KuerstenThu, 06 Jul 2006 18:43:00 ESTShucked Lovehttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/28/shucked-love/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/28/shucked-love/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/28/shucked-love/#commentsFiled under: ,

Summer heat (sans air conditioning) provides a great excuse to lie around the apartment and ponder. Yukari Rymar  feels the sweat bead on her forehead and thinks deep thoughts: "cold showers are great,"  "why hate on freon?" and "I wish it was winter," she murmers  The mercury rises, and deeper she slips, deeper into delirium....

 

 

"Winter in Tokyo , December '91.  I sit under the kotatsu in the living room.  Mama fixes a snack in the kitchen.  I watch the cartoon Chibi Maruko-chan.  A commercial for Cup Ramen starring Arnold Schwarzenneger--seriously--comes on the screen, and I turn my attention away in time to see Mama put a dish down on the table.

 


"The plate steams.  It's piled high with deep fried oyster croquettes.  Or as the Japanese call it--kaki fry."

 

 

Continue reading Shucked Love

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>half-shellmollusksoystersrawraw barRawBarseafoodErich KuerstenWed, 28 Jun 2006 19:47:00 ESTArepa!http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/22/arepa/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/22/arepa/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/22/arepa/#commentsFiled under:

When the sun gets hot in NYC, I board the F train headed south.  the ride is arduous and time-consuming, passing through all the Brooklyn avenues of the alphabet.  I exit the final Stillwell Avenue station, and I smell it immediately.  Sandy bottoms. Salt water.  Freak shows.

A day at Coney Island.

Sure, Coney Island isn't a world class waterfront. Not anymore.  There's broken glass in the sand.  I never see any
surfers on the waves, and the housing projects immediately off the beach are some of the poorest in Brooklyn.  But the city's first luxury hotel opened here in 1879.  In 1884, the world's first roller coaster debuted.  Its famous son, the Cyclone (b. 1927) still stands.  And in 1923, Coney Island built its most legendary feature: the boardwalk. World class or not, this stretch of planked wood is so well known they wrote a song about it. And they have arepas. Arepas!

Continue reading Arepa!

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>arepacheesefriedvenezuelanErich KuerstenThu, 22 Jun 2006 20:01:00 ESTChicken Fried Chicken?http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/15/chicken-fried-chicken/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/15/chicken-fried-chicken/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/15/chicken-fried-chicken/#commentsFiled under:

What Fried How?

"I could really go for some chicken fried chicken right now."

"Huh?"

"You know!  Chicken fried chicken."

I recently had this exchange exact with Hannah Pandolph, a Texan friend of mine.  You can guess who said the incredulous "huh?"  Even us Yankees love and indulge in fried chicken, but chicken fried chicken?  How is a chicken fried any way other than in the manner of a chicken?

"There's also chicken friend steak," Hannah piped.

Continue reading Chicken Fried Chicken?

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>fried chickenFriedChickensouthsouthern cookingsouthern fried chickenSouthernCookingSouthernFriedChickenErich KuerstenThu, 15 Jun 2006 18:01:00 ESTJapanese for "As You Like It, Fried"http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/07/japanese-for-as-you-like-it-fried/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/07/japanese-for-as-you-like-it-fried/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/07/japanese-for-as-you-like-it-fried/#commentsEveryone likes sushi.  Non-foodies of all races happily dig into spicy tuna, cooked eel cutlets on rice, and ubiquitous American variations like the California roll.  Quick lunch during work?  Pop over to a nearby deli and get a mini-bento box of salmon maki for $6.95.  Got a date?  Coyly feed your lover sea scallops over a large lacquered bowl of chirashi zushi.  By and large, sushi is now an American tradition-as imports go, it's topped their cars.

But what do our cohorts across the Pacific pond think of this?  According to my dear half-Japanese friend Yukari Rymar, it's terrific; she even likes the new sushi we've created here, said California roll implied.  However, all this joy does come with a dark side: Yukari bemoans American ignorance of what she calls "real, down home Japanese cooking."

  "If you ask any American if they like Japanese food, they'll say they love sushi," says Yukari.  "Which is great.  I like sushi too.  But sushi isn't what Japanese people are making everyday at home."

 

Continue reading Japanese for "As You Like It, Fried"

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>bulldog sauceBulldogSaucecabbagefriedJapanesemayonaiseokonomiyakiPancakesushiErich KuerstenWed, 07 Jun 2006 19:29:00 ESTSecret of the South: Sweet Teahttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/31/secret-of-the-south-sweet-tea/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/31/secret-of-the-south-sweet-tea/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/31/secret-of-the-south-sweet-tea/#commentsFiled under:

I was talking to tea-dom's own Emily Thomas about how I loved the weird iced tea she'd made, and to explain the difference between it and mere Snapple. Emily did her impression of Dolly Parton as Truvy Jones in Steel Magnolias exclaiming, "Sweet tea! It's the house wine of the South!"  I shrank back in horror, but then realizing her Dolly impression was over, made a gesture for her to please continue.

"When, I look back on any given memory of my childhood in Florence, South Carolina ," she began, "my mother always seems to appear out of nowhere to refill all of our glasses with sweet iced tea. We drank it more than we drank water.

"This did not seem strange to me until I moved to New York. I ordered sweet tea in a restaurant and the waitress gave me a funny look and said, 'We don't have sweet tea. We have tea and we have sugar.'

Continue reading Secret of the South: Sweet Tea

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>ArizonaFamilySouthSugarSweet TeaSweetTeaTeaErich KuerstenWed, 31 May 2006 19:16:00 ESTThe eyes of anchovieshttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/23/the-eyes-of-anchovies/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/23/the-eyes-of-anchovies/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/23/the-eyes-of-anchovies/#commentsFiled under: , ,

My friend the lovely Yukari Rymar took me shopping at the Japanese supermaker last week, and in addition to the okonomayaki which you'll learn all about in my next post, I bravely picked up an assortment of "dried fish snacks" on her assurance they were perfectly safe and that there was no "thing" one was supposed to remove before eating, such as the eye or "inner vein," an anxiety which had prevented me from buying them before.

In case you aren't fortunate enough to have a Japanese grocery near you, these things range from little dried shrimp, replete with their shells and eyestalks, to shredded Squid jerky; also tiny little crabs, where the claws tend to fall apart as you eat them, and... these little tiny anchovies, silver with their big sad, puppy dog eyes staring forlornly out at you through the transparent, attractive packaging.

I brought this last bag into my office and just now my impoverished, half-starved assistant Emily sampled them, the salted dried anchovies, their eyes staring vacantly into the future. She took a tiny bite and wrinkled her dainty little nose in horror. Passing the remnants of the broken creature back to me she declared I had betrayed her trust. I quickly thrust some of my home-made dried cranberry and almond trail mix at her to calm her down, and took a bite of one of these things myself.

 

It was.... Strange.

Continue reading The eyes of anchovies

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>anchoviesdried fishdried seafoodDriedFishDriedSeafoodJapanJapanese seafoodJapanese snacksJapaneseSeafoodJapaneseSnacksseafood snacksSeafoodSnacksErich KuerstenTue, 23 May 2006 18:09:00 ESTA diatribe on soy chicken pattieshttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/09/a-diatribe-on-soy-chicken-patties/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/09/a-diatribe-on-soy-chicken-patties/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/09/a-diatribe-on-soy-chicken-patties/#commentsIt seems like there's finally an end to the dreariness for us introverted extremists who keep frozen veggie chix patties in our freezers all the live long day. This is good because those things were like forgotten glue you didn't fry them up in a frying pan with olive oil or something, and if I had a pan and olive oil, why would I make a chick patty?

I'll be honest, I'm such a crazy dude these days I can't even get it together to get a plate and a pan and the oil in one room on the same day. I'm busy. I'm a city-livn' son of a gun.  I just put the veggie burger on a plate and microwave it (uncovered) for 90 seconds, then put some mustard on it and eat it like a pie, or a small thin round meatloaf. In other words, I don't pick it up at all. I use the fork to cut it and then left it to my mouth, tenderly, I don't even get hummus anymore, because it goes bad all the time before I can finish it.

All the other bloggers on this site praise the lastest breakthrough in food porn technology and I'm all for that, but for me food isn't porn, it's a drug, it's a consciousness raising tool. It helps ease the panic attacks and keeps the world in focus. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy instead of disoriented and hostile. I like it in small doses, in bar sizes, in easy to prepare portions. I'd be right at home in a future like the one portrayed in Soylent Green, or with K-rations like Saving Private Ryan. The spreads in films like Babette's Feast cause me anxiety, as if I'm going to end up being the one who does all the dishes, or worse-- made to feel guilty the whole ride home by my mom, "That nice French lady made that huge feast and killed a sea turtle and evrything and you couldn't even volunteer to do the dishes." Such guilt! Who needs it?

Continue reading A diatribe on soy chicken patties

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>chicken pattiesChickenPattieschildhoodsoy burgersSoyBurgersErich KuerstenTue, 09 May 2006 17:05:00 ESTDon't laugh at Lunchableshttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/04/25/dont-laugh-at-lunchables/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/04/25/dont-laugh-at-lunchables/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/04/25/dont-laugh-at-lunchables/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Last week I went to a reading by author Rick Moody (The Ice Storm, etc.) at Pratt Institute, where this esteemed and controversial author read a food shopping blog wherein he sung the praises of Kraft Food's amazing lunchables in the sort of satirical way that hipsters of his generation praise Showgirls and Niel Diamond. As a food blogger I wasn't smiling, no sir.  

 

 Lunchables are an easy target to go after; a miracle of modern packaging and convenience wherein a whole smorgasbord of luncheon goodness is combined in a handy, stay-fresh plastic see-thru carton, each ingredient separated for maximum freshness and so the flavors do not mix. There's an array of flavors and styles out there now, all aimed squarely at kid's lunchboxes.

Curiously, the ads on the Kraft website boast that lunchables allow your kids to "Make fun of lunch!" Is Kraft really so determined to create a generation of Rick Moodys?

 

Continue reading Don't laugh at Lunchables

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>bagged lunchfeaturelunchlunchablesmomretroschoolsnackErich KuerstenTue, 25 Apr 2006 18:03:00 ESTThe meal-less lifehttp://www.slashfood.com/2006/04/07/the-meal-less-life/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/04/07/the-meal-less-life/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/04/07/the-meal-less-life/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , ,

zone barLet's face it, all you food-loving, regular meal-eating types reading this site, you are the lucky ones. Most of you are blessed with a stove, maybe some ingredients in your cabinet, a bottle of wine half drunk atop your fridge. But if you're a city guy like me, always on the hustle for a dollar, always one dime short of a cup of coffee, always standing out in the rain in front of a hot food story, watching through rainy windows, then it's all about how to stay full and focused on the street, to not pass out while racing from one job interview to another, how to keep your nutrition at a full gallop while never actually sitting down. 

So God created the food bar! 

I'm sure to the average foodie these things are pox, a blight on nutrition and the gourmand's worst nightmare, but to us who dreamt as children of a future where we could eat candy bars for dinner, the nutrients in chocolate-flavored soy logs, are our life's blood; they keep our blood full of something other than caffeine and nicotine and urban despair. Trapped like jungle rats in a maze of dead-eyed salesman and bloodthirsty wall-streeters on their way to steakhouses and unemployment lines, we duck into the 42nd street bodega and grab our fix to go.

Here are some of the personal favorites:

Continue reading The meal-less life

Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>Athleticbalance barBalanceBarfood barFoodBarhealth foodHealthFoodmary janeMaryJanenutrition barNutritionBarpower barPowerBarzone barZoneBarErich KuerstenFri, 07 Apr 2006 16:50:00 ESTThe Water of Life (whiskeybae)http://www.slashfood.com/2006/03/14/water-life-whiskeybae/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/03/14/water-life-whiskeybae/http://www.slashfood.com/2006/03/14/water-life-whiskeybae/#commentsWith St. Patrick's Day looming up ahead of us it's time to think - not about corned beef and cabbage and beer, which combined has always struck me as a gastric disaster waiting to happen - but rather about the real Irish diet, which is, of course, whiskey and a dash of water.

Everywhere I go I encounter confusion amongst the good and drunk people of this country as to what is the difference between Irish whiskey and "regular" whiskey. They also don't seem to know that bourbon is a whiskey, and yet whiskey is not always bourbon. And, here's an interesting one, Jack Daniels is NOT bourbon, because it's made in Tennessee. So I thought before you go embarrassing yourself in front of all those fireman and police at the bar this Friday, I'd share my encyclopedic knowledge of the subject.

Let's start with Scotch, just to get it out of the way. Coming as it does from Scotland, it's distilled from "malt" (sprouted barley, dried in a drum) and flavored with burnt peat moss as part of its distilling process, which since that moss is not to be found elsewhere makes Scotch its distinctive smoky self. 

 

Continue reading The Water of Life (whiskeybae)

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

]]>alcoholbarblended whiskeyBlendedWhiskeybourbondistillerydrunklibationpeat mossPeatMossryescotchsingle maltSingleMaltwhiskeyErich KuerstenTue, 14 Mar 2006 17:56:00 EST