"Cinematical" news and stories

When I was growing up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was one of my very favorite books. Set in the very fictional town of Chewandswallow, the residents don't have to shop at grocery stores the way the rest of us do. Instead, all their food was delivered by the weather. Morning would start with a drizzle of hot coffee, followed by eggs, toast and bacon. Life was good in Chewandswallow, until the weather becomes unpredictable and the food that comes from the elements becomes life-threatening. Eventually the townsfolk are forced to leave (on rafts made from giant peanut butter sandwiches) and restart their lives in a city where the only thing that falls from the sky is rain and snow.

First published in 1982, Cloudy has been beloved to generations of young readers and now, according to our sister site Cinematical, it's coming to the big screen. The animated film is going to be altered quite significantly from the original book, but hamburgers and donuts will still rain from the sky and the city will still be blanketed by a pea soup fog at times, so that's good enough for me. I really look forward to seeing it when it comes out in 2010.

Source

• Adam Leith Gollner and his fresh for good fruit.
• Toratatsu in Vancouver offers sweet tastes and great dining on foods like "unbelievably tender pieces of free-range chicken ... pickled in a citrus marinade, lightly dredged in cornstarch, flash fried, splashed with more marinade and served cold."
• Be still my taste buds: Recipe for Local White and Green Asparagus Tart with Maple-Cured Bacon, Morels, Ramps, and Fifth Town Goat's Cheese.
• It looks like dry rosés are the new wines of choice.
• Tequila -- it's so hot right now, and pricey.
• Recipes: Healthy Chicken Tenders, Fish Tacos, Buckwheat Banana Pancakes, and Daf's Homemade Granola.
• Fix your picky kid eater by teaching them to cook.

Last week, someone brought up the movie Babette's Feast in conversation. I was immediately swept back to the first time I saw it. I was 12 or 13 and it was a Saturday night. My mom had heard good things about it and so checked it out from the local library. We settled down on the couch in the family room to watch it and were completely swept away. I remember that at one point we paused VCR (ah, the good old days) in order to run to the kitchen and make tea. We weren't regular tea drinkers, its just that the film, with it's chilly, windswept settings and visuals of tea poured from pots, made us long to be holding steaming mugs of our own.

Thinking about that movie got me thinking about other food movies and as luck would have it, Cinematical just recently put together a list of seven movies that appeal to the foodie in all of us. Oddly, Babette's Feast (or Tampopo for that matter) isn't on the list, but I heartily approve of all the other offerings (although I recommend that you make sure you get Mostly Martha and steer clear of the American version, No Reservations). If you're looking for film that will inspire you and make you just a little bit hungry, this list is an excellent starting place.

Source