Features

Easter Egg Celebrities

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 22nd 2011 @ 5:00PM

The Egg Man art sculpture of Prince William and Kate Middleton Wedding Photo: John Lamouranne, The Egg Man

He is the Egg Man -- New Orleans artist John Lamouranne has been making egg sculptures for more than 30 years. (And yes, he made one of the Beatles.) Starting with hollowed goose eggs and adding bits of modeling glue and other crafty materials, Lamouranne creates little people (mostly little famous people) that range from Kate Middleton and Prince William (above) to a bobble-head Elvis, a grinning Ellen DeGeneres, and a whole cast of Alice in Wonderland characters. And you thought dipping a hard-boiled egg in food coloring was hard.

See a slideshow of Lamouranne's eggs at The Telegraph.

Filed under: Features, Online

The Candy Store, San Francisco — Ask a Shopkeeper

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by Chris Dudley, Posted Dec 15th 2010 @ 2:00PM

Photo: The Candy Store

Diane Campbell wore many hats before donning the metaphorical purple stovepipe to become the Willy Wonka of San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood: She was a cook, a fundraiser, and a marketer for a dot-com, among other things. Her passion, however, has always been candy. As a little girl growing up on Long Island, she used to buy big sacks of the sweet stuff from the supermarket, carry her haul home on her bike, and repackage the candy into goodie bags for her family and friends. She turned this lifelong love of candy into a career five years ago when she and her husband opened what has since become the city's premier sweet shop, known simply as The Candy Store.

Read more about Diane and The Candy Store after the jump...

Filed under: Trends, Interviews, Features

Boston -- X Marks the Spot

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by Mark Ellwood, Posted Sep 24th 2010 @ 1:00PM

Boston clam chowder Photo: Jack Amick, Flickr

Few cities can claim foodie credentials of Boston's caliber – after all, its go-to nickname is a nod to one of its staple foodstuffs: Beantown. And those no-nonsense baked beans are a tip off to the matter-of-fact approach to menus that most locals take. "It comes from the whole Yankee Puritan side, taking pleasure in making do, not wasting, using up – it has permeated a lot of our food traditions here," explains Georgia Orcutt, who works for Oldways a Boston-based organization that promotes traditional, non-processed food. She cites scrod as a key example: on fish menus, it will be listed alongside salmon or cod. But scrod is simply "whatever fish anyone can get their hands on as catch of the day" – no Bostonian fisherman would waste any fish once caught. "It's a combination of needing to be frugal for survival, for the Pilgrims, and that Puritan work ethic," agrees food writer Susan Nye, "That thriftiness has existed in Boston for centuries – my dad has a funny story about how his friends would come back from Christmas to university with bags filled with their grandmothers' leftovers." That Yankee frugality continues to ricochet round the restaurants here – and it's never been more timely, as Orcutt notes. "The Boston way of cooking – how can you use up something rather than waste it? It's coming back big time in this economy."

Filed under: Features

The Avenue Pub, New Orleans - What's On Tap?

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by Mike Pomranz, Posted Sep 2nd 2010 @ 4:00PM

Bar area of The Avenue Pub Photo: The Avenue Pub

A weekly look at the draft selections in beer-friendly bars across the country.

New Orleans is a city that is known for its parties and its drinking. But for a place that loves alcoholic beverages, craft beer has been conspicuously underrepresented in their landscape of libations.

Polly Watts, owner of New Orleans' The Avenue Pub, pointed to people's preference for other drinks. "Louisiana is a big liquor consumer," she explains. "Lots of vodka and rum." It makes sense: Bourbon Street is more than just a catchy name. And The Big Easy's penchant for fine dining plays a role as well. "We're a really big wine state too," she told us.

Not to say that beer didn't exist. It just wasn't always the drink of choice. And it was rarely ever craft. "For decades, the only beer you'd see was generic macrobrews," said Watts, before adding, "maybe an occasional Abita," referencing one of Louisiana's few well-known craft breweries.

Filed under: Drinks, Features

Revolution Pizza & Ale House, Charlotte - What's On Tap?

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by Mike Pomranz, Posted Aug 19th 2010 @ 3:00PM

Photo: Revolution Pizza & Ale House

A weekly look at the draft selections in beer-friendly bars across the country.

For almost two years now, Charlotte, N.C.'s Revolution Pizza & Ale House has had a mission: offer up the largest selection of North Carolina draft beer anywhere in the country.

For Revolution, that typically means dedicating around 15 of their 44 draft lines to beers from in-state, providing a one-stop shop for patrons to try local brewers that can be tough to hunt down elsewhere -- names like Catawba Valley, Duck-Rabbit, Foothills and Pisgah. Basically, breweries that sound like they are from North Carolina.

That's why, as bar manager Christine Ferguson points out, her bar is especially popular with out-of-towners: "A lot of people from out of state will come and say, 'What is your favorite North Carolina beer?'" Luckily, she has a system that makes answering that question especially easy: she stocks what she likes.

Read more about Revolution Pizza & Ale House and find the most recent draft list, after the jump...

Filed under: Drinks, Features

Clear River Pecan Company, Fredericksburg, TX - Ask a Shopkeeper

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by Chris Dudley, Posted Aug 18th 2010 @ 11:00AM

Clear River Pecan Company Store Photo: Stuck in Customs, Flickr

Don't be fooled by the name; there's more to Clear River Pecan Company than nuts. Sure, owner John Dubea started out selling the rich, buttery bounty of the Texas state tree, but that was twenty-one years ago. Today, his business is a multifaceted dessert emporium, offering ice cream, pastries, fudge and whatever else your sweet tooth aches for, all made fresh daily. But this evolution hasn't altered Clear River's decidedly small town feel. From its 50's soda shoppe decor to its Main Street address, John Dubea has created a delicious sliver of bygone Americana deep in the heart of Texas.

Read on about John Zubea and his time warp treats after the jump.

Filed under: Interviews, Features

Matsumoto Shave Ice, Oahu - Ask a Shopkeeper

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by Chris Dudley, Posted Aug 4th 2010 @ 2:00PM

Photo: Kanaka Menehune, Flickr

Japanesse expats Mamoru Matsumoto and his wife Helen dreamed of opening their own business in Hawaii. It was a long, hard journey -- he started out peddling goods on a bicycle while Helen labored as a seamstress -- but it eventually happened. They opened their own grocery, M. Matsumoto Store Inc., in the historic town of Haleiwa in 1951. Following the birth of their three children, the couple decided it was time to expand. They settled on shave ice, which they believed would appeal to the growing number of hotrodders, surfers and hippies invading the North Shore. Their "snow cones" cascading with homemade syrups were instant hits, and the couple become local celebrities. They were living the American dream.

Following Mamoru's death in 1994, his son Stanley and wife Noriko took the reigns. This new guard ditched the groceries for T-shirts and souvenirs (to cater to the growing number of tourists), but kept the shave ice. And business is better than ever. Just ask Roxanne Lloyd, a loyal employee trusted to run the store on a day-to-day basis. We recently caught up with her to talk about shave ice and its many tangents, including David Hasselhoff, sumo wrestlers and the problem with paradise.

Read all about island girl Roxanne Lloyd and her frozen life after the jump.

Filed under: Interviews, Features

My Local Pub - What's On Tap?

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by Mike Pomranz, Posted Jul 22nd 2010 @ 5:00PM

Photo: Washington Commons

A weekly look at the draft selections in beer-friendly bars across the country.

A good local pub is something special -- a place where you can hang out with friends and meet neighbors by socializing the old-fashioned way... in person. Blogs and social networks and webcams are great, but one of the most traditional ways people have connected isn't with a computer, it's with a pint.

My neighborhood has a number of spots I love, but when it comes to that classic pub setting -- with a fantastic beer selection to boot -- my favorite watering hole is Brooklyn's Washington Commons.

When people think friendly bar, the show Cheers often comes to mind: a place where "everyone knows your name." This point isn't lost on Kirk Struble, one of Washington Commons' owners. When asked what makes a bar a great local hangout, he immediately points to the staff.

Filed under: Drinks, Features

Watermelon Punch - LeNell It All

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by LeNell Smothers, Posted Jul 21st 2010 @ 5:00PM

Photo: Paul Watson, Flickr

My grandfather grew watermelons, and one of my fondest childhood memories involves chilling a melon in the brisk running water of a creek and later sharing it with friends and family with nothing but a fork and a salt shaker.

You won't find watermelon called for in many classic cocktail books. The watermelon martini grew in popularity at the turn of this century. I will never forget my first watermelon martini (made with equal parts citrus vodka and watermelon juice and a teaspoon of simple syrup) in a patio garden bar in Manhattan in 2000.

Watermelon is practically the essence of summer itself, so take a hot, hazy happy hour to the next level by serving a watermelon punch in a carved out watermelon.

Filed under: Drinks, Spirits, Features

Caviar & Bananas, Charleston - Ask a Shopkeeper

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by Chris Dudley, Posted Jul 21st 2010 @ 11:00AM

Photo: Caviar & Bananas

Kris Furniss can pinpoint the exact moment he metamorphosed from Morgan Stanley money man to aspiring food world impresario. It was the week of 9/11. The Long Island bred boy had always loved food -- he confesses to reading Gourmet when he should have had his nose in the Wall Street Journal -- and was already looking for a career change. Furniss had worked in the Towers, and when they fell, he acted. Three days after the attack, he enrolled in culinary school. Today, Furniss owns and operates one of the Low Country's premier food retail boutiques with his wife Margaret in her native Charleston.

Read more about Kris Furniss and his South Carolina culinary creation after the jump.

Filed under: Interviews, Features