Politicians are used to getting grilled, but when Bobby Flay dropped by the White House for a private lesson, the tables were turned. The chef schooled President Obama on his corn technique and the importance of not flipping positions on meaty matters.

[via: Politico]

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

Over the last few years, Korean barbecue has gained fresh relevance in the United States. Whether served on hot dog buns in Manhattan, tortillas in Los Angeles or rice in Korean restaurants around the country, the sweet, oniony flavors of bulgoki, japchae and galbi are incredibly delicious and increasingly popular.

When I was a kid, bulgoki (also spelled bulgogi, pulgoki, pulgogi and any number of other ways) was a staple in my house. My parents, who lived in Korea before I was born, loved the stuff and would cook it on an electric griddle at our dinner table. As my sisters and I got older, we got involved in the fun; some of my first cooking experiences involved flipping bulgoki with a pair of bamboo tongs.

I've played with amounts and ingredients, but my mother's basic bulgoki recipe is fantastic. In fact, my only major change is in the dipping sauce: while my parents used light soy sauce with a sprinkle of pepper, I prefer a more traditional garlic/vinegar sauce, which I've included below.

Get the recipe for bulgoki after the jump.

Chantelle Pabros, a sommelier at Chicago's L20, is widely considered a rising star of the wine universe. Entrenched among oenophiles since leaving high school, at a mere 26 she has worked alongside world-renowned talent including chef Laurent Gras at his seafood-centric eatery. Though Chantelle has few hard and fast rules about pairing wine with food, she offered a couple tips as we head into prime grilling season. We caught up with her this afternoon to talk burgers and vino.

Do you think burgers and wine go together?
Yes, absolutely. Though we don't have burgers [at L20], I like pairing wine with them. There is this place here called Kuma's Corner. We normally drink beer there, but I am thinking about the possibilities of wines with their burgers.

How does one go about pairing the two?
With pairing, things that you think would go well don't always go. It's trial and error. I start by thinking about the classic burger, cooked medium rare with really fresh lettuce, tomato, onion and a really intense mustard.

Chantelle's five under-$25 burger-friendly wines after the jump.

MEAT CARDS: BUSINESS CARDS MADE FROM MEAT AND LASERS.

We love a direct marketing approach. "Meat Cards" -- pure beef jerky etched with your information using lasers (sorry, "a 150 WATT CO2 LASER") -- take off where the bacon explosion, flaming bacon lance of death and meat art stop.

Why should you care? Because they'll "retain value after the econopocalypse," of course: "Hoard and barter your calorie-rich, life-sustaining cards." Bust these suckers out at the next Bar Association meeting or snack on them when stuck on the subway.

Follow the meatheads' Twitter to find out when to avail yourself of these treasures.

[Via Boing Boing]

It's not quite summer yet, but my stomach didn't get the memo and I'm craving flame-cooked red meat. So until it's warm enough to cook outdoors, I'll open the windows and use my grill pan indoors instead. Grilling is not only a healthy way to cook because it call for minimal oil -- it also adds a smoky, rich note to your food. Make it even more flavorful when you add a simple marinade created from things already in your cabinets.

Flank steak is one of my favorite meats to grill and especially when it's been soaking in an orange chipotle marinade. If you're not a fan of spicy foods, there are plenty of other ways to flavor your steak. Mustard makes a great start and you can mix in soy sauce, honey, steak sauce or lemon.

Read on for the Orange Chipotle Marinade recipe.

This photo makes us want to skip on down to Johnny Rocket's, pop the Shirelles on the stereo and sip milkshakes two-straws-to-a-glass -- all before 10am.

But of course what looks to be a simple burger and mac combo platter with a sweet side of Moxie is actually a duck-pork patty slathered with seven-pickle relish accompanied by a gorgonzola and cheddar mac 'n cheese. We're pretty sure that's not what the Fonz was noshing on back in the day. Gotta love that fresh strawberry shake served up in a laboratory glass, too. Click over to the snapshot to learn what those lunchboxes have printed on 'em, part of the cutesy theme at Seattle's Lunchbox Laboratory.

If you're not in our Flickr pool yet it's time to jump in, start tagging photos "slashfood" and show off your skills already. And tell us if this pic makes you get a burger for lunch.

Zesty, spicy and sweet in equal parts, Thai beef salad may be the ideal dish for spring. Though it might simply look like beef plunked on top of greens, its almost-invisible ingredients -- lime juice, minced red chiles and fish sauce -- lend it a flavor profile we crave again and again. Packed with protein, it also features enough veggies that one can walk away feeling a bit lighter on her feet than after, say, downing a porterhouse.

We were reminded how much we love this salad when we came upon La Fille de La Ville's photo. Why La Fille de la Ville? It's pretty literal, we discovered when we emailed her: "I'm just a girl of the town!" she exclaimed. Sounds like a typical New Orleans resident smitten with her city. She's a newbie there but sounds pretty darn enthused about NOLA's "epicurean delights." Find her recipe -- and breathless gastronomical reports -- on her site.

"We've had our fair share of flames and failures" ruminate the couple behind culinary blog Love and Olive Oil: "Like any good relationship, cooking has its ups and downs."

Tell us about it! We've mangled many a simple recipe over the course of the years. But so long as our end results look as tempting as this duo's ginger-and-brown-sugar-spiked Mongolian Beef, which was inspired by a P.F. Chang's dish, we'll keep hanging out in the kitchen.

Hamburger is one of those amazing foods that can taste great in all its forms -- not just molded into burgers, meatballs, and more, but also in both cheap and pricey incarnations, each offering its own set of benefits. But as much as I adore my cheap neighborhood burger or a big patty thrown on the barbecue, nothing comes close to the wonder of a simple wagyu burger.

While a nice steak might break the bank, wagyu isn't all that bad for a special dinner here or there. For example, you can get 12 8 oz. burgers for $85 through Allen Brothers. Yes, it's pricey for a burger, but it's no different than splurging on a nice cut of meat, or heck, having a mediocre dinner out. It's more worth it to make a wagyu burger and some sides than pay the same amount of money for regular ol' chain restaurant fare. It offers not only stellar flavor and texture, but also the comfort of beloved mainstay meals.

Wagyu is so intensely marbled with fat that it becomes a wonderfully tender and juicy burger that's much better in simplicity than fanciness. The key is to pick a few ingredients that won't overpower the meat, rather than the usual tomato, lettuce, onion, pickle, etc. For me, that perfect concoction is a little soy sauce in the pan while the burger cooks, some caramelized onions beefed up with a little soy as well, some fresh mozzarella cheese, and just a little mayo and mustard. The result has wonderful flavor and moistness, all pointing to the meat rather than being a distraction.

If you've been swayed by the wonders of wagyu, how do you serve yours?

Behold, baseball fans, the burger designed to save you money at the ballpark.

The West Michigan Whitecaps, a minor league ball club, announced a grand slam/whopper-like addition to its 2009 food lineup this month and it's a heavy hitter.

We've seen giant foods before. But this burger, named for its ballpark, boasts "five thirds of a pound" of beef, nacho cheese, chili, salsa, tortilla chips, lettuce, tomato and refried beans on an 8-inch sesame seed bun.

"The Fifth Third burger is not for the casual eater," says Matt Timon, the director of food and beverage for the club. You don't say?

At nearly 5,000 calories and costing $20, this burger is billed as a meal fit for four.

Would you eat it?

[Via Ben's Biz Blog]

Reading a post at The Kitchn about trying a new cut of beef got me thinking:

How many people loyally follow a certain cut of beef?

I follow it, to an extent, when I'm eating out. When I was young, I was obsessed with large, juicy pieces of prime rib. These days, especially when I hit Ruth's Chris, I grab the rib eye. But that's a combination of flavor and meat greed. I make it out for a good steak so rarely that when I do, I want something big. The fact that it's also delicious makes the large and juicy rib eye down-right perfect. But outside of beef gluttony at a steak house, I've never favored a particular cut of meat.

If I see a meat counter, my eyes glaze over in love and I just find the best and tastiest-looking cut I can afford, unless I'm hunting for a particular cut to make a particular dish. It never occurred to me that people would be loyal to just one small piece of a rather delectable beast.

Are you? Do you always grab the same cut? And if you do, why?

WC Fields once said "I love children ... if they're cooked properly." As a dedicated meat eater, I tend to have similar feelings about vegans.

While some of my best friends deny themselves the joy of animal products, I simply can't imagine completely divorcing myself from cheese, honey, milk and all the wonderful foods that come from animals. On some level, the idea of approaching life from a tofu haze seems almost suicidally self-abnegating.

In fact, while I have occasionally practiced vegetarianism, I am, at heart, a true carnivore. For health reasons, I try to limit my consumption, but I believe, both philosophically and sensually, that meat is an important part of my diet, if not everyone else's.

But which meat is the best? For health reasons, I'd probably go with chicken or turkey, but if it came to richness, my answer might be duck or veal. In terms of flavor, the answer could be lamb or beef, but for extravagance, it's hard to top a nice big buffalo filet mignon. Then again, in the summer, nothing beats a good grilled swordfish steak ... except for maybe a piece of lightly seared tuna.

Vote for your favorite meat after the jump.

Out of all the fast food restaurants, Carl's Jr. probably changes -- or at least augments -- its menu the most often. There's always some newish, vaguely titillating, really-bad-for-you item advertised with a giant banner outside.

On this go round through the drive-in, the wind-fluttered photos were pushing the Mint Oreo Shake, Farmer John's Jumbo Chili Dog, Carl's Catch Fish Sandwich, Crisp Burritos and the Kentucky Bourbon Burger.

While we could have made this a multipart series entitled "Lissa Becomes Quite Hefty Indeed," I decided to restrict myself to the latter two choices, the burritos and the bourbon burger.

On Tuesday, Burger King opened its first "Whopper Bar" at Universal CityWalk, an entertainment complex in Orlando, Florida. A stand-alone mini-restaurant, it is the first in what the company's president hopes will ultimately be 300-500 burger stands.

Russ Klein, Burger King's president for global marketing, strategy and innovation, refers to the concept as "Pimp my burger." As with the popular television show Pimp My Ride, Whopper Bars will enable customers to personalize a mass-produced product. Although the outlets will offer a "Bar Favorites" menu, with items like the Bourbon Whopper and Pepper Bacon Steakhouse XT, the highlight of the concept lies in its interactive nature. As in a Subway restaurant, customers will be able to watch their sandwiches being prepared and direct employees on which of the 22 topping choices to place on their burgers.

The small size of the bars, combined with their sleek red, black, and gray color scheme, is designed to make them attractive for sophisticated, upscale places, where space is at a premium. Future stands will be situated in cruise ships, stadiums, casinos, and similar places.

While I'm trying to avoid fast food these days, I may have to make an exception when the Whopper bar comes to town...there's something about that bourbon Whopper that seems to demand my attention!

I love a good steak, and have had more than my share, but there's a point at which a finely-grilled, perfectly-seasoned slab of beef crosses the line separating cuisine and mortal combat. Such is the case with the increasingly popular trend toward steak challenges. Basically, it works like this: if a customer can eat the required amount of meat -- generally between 48 and 72 ounces -- in a pre-ordained period of time, he or she will get some sort of reward. Sometimes, this is merely bragging rights; more often, it involves prizes like a t-shirt or a free meal.

Consuming over three pounds of beef and sides in an hour or less takes a special kind of person. While I have to admire the determination, I'm not sure that I'm up for joining the club. While I think about my clear lack of manly meat-eating skills, however, I will reassure myself by Digital City's gallery of America's biggest steak challenges. One featured restaurant, Tampa's Frontier Steakhouse Cattle Company challenges its customers to consume a full six pounds of beef, a potato, and a salad in under 75 minutes. Needless to say, I'm not worthy!