Why aren't egg creams more popular? They're easy, they're cheap and they're one of the less hazardous methods of getting one's chocolate fix (low-carb fans take note). In New York City, they're practically an official beverage, with such august practitioners as Gem Spa on Second Avenue, Ray's on Avenue A and, of course, Junior's out in Brooklyn. You can even buy an egg cream kit!
This delightful beverage is hard to find beyond Gotham, however, and the few bottled varieties out there simply don't measure up. No, best to mix it up yourself: All you need is about one-half cup of milk, a few tablespoons of chocolate syrup (many swear by Fox's U-Bet, but Hershey's will do in a pinch) and about a cup of seltzer. There is some dispute as to whether to pour the syrup or the milk into your glass first, but mix them up with a long-handled spoon, then add the seltzer straight down the middle. Other flavors can be made by changing up the syrup, although again, the purists would squawk. Don't even go into the squabbles of who invented it or how -- the only thing egg cream fans can agree upon is that we'll have another.
When people think of chefs and restaurant food, the work "skinny" usually doesn't pop into their minds. While the food is often delicious and satisfying, it can be high in calories and fat.
I dine out each week, but I know there's a downside to indulging every day. When I worked in New York City restaurant kitchens, I learned something really valuable -- cooking techniques that I could apply to make healthier versions of those meals, so I could enjoy them more often. I also learned how to fit restaurant food into a balanced lifestyle.
My mission as the Skinny Chef is to recreate those flavors and experiences by making food that can be enjoyed guilt free, more often, at home. While I discovered great ways to maintaining a healthy weight, I chose the name Skinny Chef to remind us that food can be fun, flavorful, beautiful, satisfying and healthy at the same time.
Sharing my knowledge and love of food with others has completely changed my life and put me in touch with so many wonderful people I might have never had the chance to meet. I want to hear more about you and your food experiences, so that we can start together our journey to easy, fun ways to cook tasty nourishing meals.
Responses to questions from last post's comments are after the jump.
If the rumors we hear on BevReview are true, PepsiCo will be introducing what they're calling "Pepsi Throwback" and "Mountain Dew Throwback," both made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, this spring. While most physicians and scientists believe that high fructose corn syrup is no worse than sugar, health-wise (it's the fact that high fructose corn syrup is added willy-nilly to everything from bread to salad dressing that makes it problematic), many people say they like the taste of regular sugar in soda better. I've even heard of people driving across the border to Mexico to bring back cases of their favorite sugar Coke. I, however, have never noticed an appreciable difference, though admittedly I rarely drink any soda besides Diet Coke.
Can you tell the difference been soda with high fructose corn syrup and soda made with sugar? Which do you like better?
Death, like taxes, is inevitable, but it's always sad when you hear of the passing of an old friend. The food world has been dealt a handful of blows in recent weeks with the deaths of some folks who helped to make the nation a tastier place.
At AOL Food we wrote today of the death of Milton Parker, the owner of New York's landmark Carnegie Deli. He was not alone.
New Yorkers who make their way to the Union Square Greenmarket often saw Joe Ades peeling carrots on the northwest corner of the square with the $5 peeler he peddled for years. Ades died on Sunday at age 75. "He was very excited about carrots," a woman who works on the square told the New York Times.
In California, Ozzie Osborne was passionate about soda, shakes and sandwiches. The longtime soda jerk who ran Ozzie's Soda Fountain in Berkeley passed away on Jan. 29. "He loved to tease people in a way that made them feel good about themselves," a patron told the San Francisco Chronicle.
In Robert Kolb's case, it was the product that made you feel good. The last of four generations of a Bay City, Mich., brewing family died on Jan. 28. Though Kolb Bros. Brewing Co. closed in 1936, Kolb started a beer distributor company that was renowned for delivering Buckeye beer until Miller bought the brand in 1972, putting the Kolb company out of business.
"From then on," Kolb's son-in-law told the Bay City Times, "he was a Budweiser man."
Nearly 25 years after Coca-Cola added "Classic" to its original formula in order to differentiate it from the short-lived New Coke, the company has admitted defeat.
Company officials confirmed Friday that they're phasing out the Classic tag from American cans and bottles this year to streamline global branding, finally putting to rest the New Coke fiasco of the mid-'80s.
"It felt like the right time," Scott Williamson, a spokesman for Coke, told Slashfood on Monday.
Coke fans surely remember the spring of 1985, when the company shelved Dr. John S. Pemberton's original 1886 Coca-Cola recipe for a formula that performed better in taste tests and tasted, as I recall, a great deal like its chief competitor Pepsi, which naturally caused a furor among the soft drink's legion of fans.
"In the real world, they had a deep emotional attachment to the original, and they begged and pleaded to get it back," the company says on its Web site.
"Critics called it the biggest marketing blunder ever. But the Company listened, and [77 days later] the original formula was returned to the market as Coca-Cola classic®."
Williamson said that "classic" will remain in small print on the side of the bottles in the phrase "Coke Classic Original Formula."
"When people think Coke, they think Classic," Williamson said. "So more than two decades after we introduced that word, its reason for being as a descriptor has essentially disappeared."
About time they realized Classic has been the standard all along.
Thats right! As fellow blog The Consumerist states,"no, not that kind. Coca-Cola." Earlier this week, a local newspaper of Sweden reported that a woman (who wishes to remain anonymous) living in Malmö will be seeking inpatient treatment for her addiction to the Coca-Cola beverage. Her addiction has caused a variety of health problems, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
Momlogic, another blog, states that originally local health authorities recognized her health problem but did not think it was appropriate for her to receive inpatient treatment. Recently, the Administrative Court of Appeals ruled that the woman's addiction to the beverage should be treated at an inpatient facility.
I'm still wondering whether or not this is bogus. It seems to me that there could have been many other causes of this woman's poor health besides her Coca-Cola intake. For example, what else is she consuming and what is her medical history? Check out the poll below to let us know what you think.
Have you seen the label for Diet Coke Plus? Check that out to the right -- the soft drink claims that it's "Diet Coke with VITAMINS & MINERALS"! That means that Diet Coke is finally healthy, right? Not quite.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the FDA has sent Coca-Cola Co. a warning letter stating that the beverage doesn't contain enough vitamins and minerals to be considered "plus." That word is, apparently, reserved for the foods that have at least "10% more of the reference daily intake or daily reference value of a nutrient than a similar product." And they also note that it's not quite kosher to try and make a carbonated beverage fortified.
Coke has no plans to change their label, and the FDA is waiting for them to "take prompt action to correct these violations." So, it should be an exciting little war come the New Year.
Dinner was comprised of seven varieties of animal flesh, with appropriate garnish. The entertainment involved aging strippers singing karaoke. The libations complemented both. And then some. A delightful, if stomach-churning, evening. My rarefied hangover the next day required me to break new ground in seeking out a palliative. Luckily, while shopping for stocking stuffers at a local Italian market, I found what I plan to make my signature hangover treatment: Sanbittèr, a prettily bottled "apératif" soda produced by San Pellegrino.
The operative word is bitter, too bitter, maybe, for some people who lack Italian sensibilities. The taste was described by the market proprietor as Campari without the alcohol, and I'd say that is pretty accurate. Apparently it's a favorite of teetotaling Italianos for that reason. So, good for both varieties of "recovering alcoholic."
Bitters have long been recommended as a stomach soother. Sanbittèr, with its slight fizz and its ruby-redness, seems a bit more fun than regular bitters, though. It comes in tiny, sippable bottles that will later make lovely bud vases or creamers. Better yet, it's available for order online.
Coca-Cola will begin selling products made with Stevia, a zero-calorie sweetener derived from an herb that's gained a following in the heath food community despite not yet being approved by the FDA. Three flavors of Odwalla juice sweetened with a Stevia product called Rebiana are expected to hit the market this week.
Pepsi also has two Stevia-sweetened drinks ready for the market, but they say they won't start selling them until FDA gives Stevia the official OK. The FDA is expected to approve Stevia as "generally regarded as safe" any time now.
Coke hopes that Stevia, which is often described as "all natural" (whatever that means), will help reverse the decline in sales of soft drinks.
I've had Stevia sweetener before, and it didn't taste a whole lot different to me than other artificial sweeteners. But then, I'm a die-hard Diet Coke drinker, so I may not be the target audience.
When it comes to assembling the bar for your holiday party, there's a certain list of basics you must have on hand--vodka, gin, whiskey, cola, tonic, etc. Such a bar will certainly serve to make a decent drink and satisfy most customers, but won't add anything special to the festivities. The easiest--and cheapest--way to add a little magic is with unusual mixers. Here's five that will add a twist to your cocktail menu.
1. Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale It mixes equally well with bourbon, vodka and light rum and works nicely in a punch. The antioxidants listed on the bottle may come in handy when battling the holidays' excesses, but the large amount of sugar won't help with that Christmas waistline.
2. Sence Rose Petal Nectar If you wish to offer chick drinks that are more Deneuve/Dietrich than Carrie Bradshaw, rose petal nectar can come in handy. Try the elegant American Beauty--not the brandy version, but one made with vanilla vodka, lemon juice and rose petal nectar.
I'm often surprised to realize that many of the groceries I buy can be simply made at home. I tend to presume that cottage cheese just grows on supermarket shelves, for example, or that making vanilla requires complex machinery. So while it may be more convenient to throw these items into your cart than to cultivate them in your own kitchen, try making any of these eight treats at home the next time you're feeling bold.
A few months back, I read Lovemarks, a book about the future of corporate branding. Written by Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, the book explored the hard-core loyalty that some customers feel for certain brands. As a Crest kid, a Tom Petty fan and an intense devotee of Kosciusko mustard, I can absolutely attest to the power of brand devotion; on the other hand, as a former Ben and Jerry's booster, I also know just how easy it is for a brand to destroy that relationship.
Of course, the ultimate example of a disastrous rebranding is Coca-Cola's 1985 decision to change its formula. As customers rebelled, the company tried to explain that numerous blind taste tests had revealed that New Coke was a more popular flavor. The mob, of course, was unmoved and, within three months, Coke was back to its old blend.
It's worth noting that Coke's originial justification for changing recipes was its competition with Pepsi. Now, a little over twenty years later, Pepsi is investing in a little rebranding of its own, with a new logo and a new can design. Starting in November, the company will be unrolling a $1.2 billion worldwide campaign to launch its fresh look.
So. Diet Coke kills sperm on contact. We thought you should know.
We feel sort of shocked, and also sort of remarkably unshocked.
Scientist Deborah Anderson and her team have been awarded one of this year's Ig Nobel Awards from Improbable Research for their work on both Coca Cola Classic and Diet Coke's contraceptive qualities.
Will this knowledge ever come in handy? Well, with a desperate situation and a little yoga, anything is possible. Never say never, right? Okay, yeah, maybe this once.
Other things we bet kill sperm: Jagermeister, Ramen Noodle broth, Tang, and everything at Taco Bell.
Chris Cason is Tavalon's tea sommelier, and in this clip, he explains out to create simple syrup infused with tea, which can then be turned into a tea soda that sounds really quite tasty! I'm looking forward to trying this out on my own at some point. Have any of you created a unique beverage with tea?
My mother was a soda fanatic; apart from the occasional bottle of tonic water or bitter lemon (in the summer, G&Ts were the rule, not the exception), carbonated beverages weren't allowed in our house. This meant, of course, that they became the forbidden fruit, something that my sisters and I craved with a single-minded intensity that was somewhat frightening. As we got older, however, we outgrew carbonated beverages and, once I learned about high fructose corn syrup, most sodas were scrubbed from my list permanently.
Even so, I sometimes get the desire for a cool, refreshing carbonated beverage. While the emergence of organic sodas has been great, they don't have very wide distribution and I sometimes find myself gasping at the cost. After all, when I'm paying two bucks for a soda, it's officially moved from being a refreshment into being a delicacy. Luckily, my neighborhood, which is largely Hispanic, offers a wide selection of reasonably-priced Latin American sodas, many of which are surprisingly free of artificial ingredients. Of these, my favorite is the Jarritos line.
Jarritos is a Mexican soft drink company that was established in 1950. Its sodas come in a variety of fruit flavors, including tamarind, lime, pineapple, strawberry, watermelon, and mandarin. They are sweetened with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup, and often use natural flavorings. While I don't advocate drinking them every day, Jarritos come in handy when the soda bug overcomes my healthier tendencies, and their low price (under $0.75 for a 16-ounce bottle) makes me feel a little better about my weakness. Also, to be honest, they make the perfect counterpoint to a spicy taco or a bowl of salsa and chips!
We can change the way we make eggs -- scrambled, poached, fried -- but what about changing the eggs themselves? Mix up your scrambling routine with quail eggs.
Why aren't egg creams more popular? They're easy, they're cheap and they're one of the less hazardous methods of getting one's chocolate fix (low-carb fans take note). In New York City, they're practically an official beverage, with such august practitioners as Gem Spa on Second Avenue, Ray's on Avenue A and, of course, Junior's out in Brooklyn. You can even buy an egg cream kit! 
When people think of chefs and restaurant food, the work "skinny" usually doesn't pop into their minds. While the food is often delicious and satisfying, it can be high in calories and fat.
If the rumors we hear on BevReview are true, 
Death, like taxes, is inevitable, but it's always sad when you hear of the passing of an old friend. The food world has been dealt a handful of blows in recent weeks with the deaths of some folks who helped to make the nation a tastier place.
Coke Classic has left the building.
Have you seen the label for Diet Coke Plus? Check that out to the right -- the soft drink claims that it's "Diet Coke with VITAMINS & MINERALS"! That means that Diet Coke is finally healthy, right? Not quite.
My mother was a soda fanatic; apart from the occasional bottle of tonic water or bitter lemon (in the summer, G&Ts were the rule, not the exception), carbonated beverages weren't allowed in our house. This meant, of course, that they became the forbidden fruit, something that my sisters and I craved with a single-minded intensity that was somewhat frightening. As we got older, however, we outgrew carbonated beverages and, once I learned about high fructose corn syrup, most sodas were scrubbed from my list permanently.
Second Helping of Slashfood - June 19
Competitive-Eating Contest to Pit Humans Against Elephants
The Backyard Boom - The Hungry Bride
