"Food Quest" news and stories

In our search for the perfect cheap coffee -- being devoted caffeine freaks, we also cover it here -- Slashfood decided to give Café Caribe a shot. Look at that muy tropical can; who wouldn't?

The brand indulges in similar identity politics to its competitor (and current frontrunner) Café Bustelo. The label is printed in both English and Spanish and proudly proclaims "Café Para El Gusto Latino: NUESTRO CAFE," or "Coffee for the Latin taste. OUR COFFEE." In the Bronx (the New York City borough this writer is proud to call home) Dominicans and Puerto Ricans take a lot of pride in their coffee, so we can see why Café Caribe is taking such a direct marketing approach.

Beyond that, Café Caribe is also among the cheapest coffees in the store. At $2.59, it's a dollar less than Bustelo and about one third of the price of Medaglia D'Oro.

The biggest draw, though, was the can. With bright colors, cartoonish writing and a cute little drawing of a hacienda amid palm trees, it is incredibly cheering. Over the last few weeks we've had a lot of gray days and the explosive yellow can has provided a lingering gleam of sunshine.

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.

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!

For all its vaunted culinary diversity, New York is actually surprisingly provincial. Sure, this is a place where someone can pay $1000 for a plate of paella or $175 for a burger, but many New Yorkers seem unwilling or unable to travel far from their comfort zone. When people think of NYC's culinary wonderland, they generally imagine Manhattan; more specifically, they imagine the island's southern end, where former ethnic enclaves like Little Italy give an Epcot-style glimpse at culinary diversity, and high-priced haute cuisine joints offer dishes like sauteed wallaby foreskins garnished with eel farts for only slightly more than the cost of a used Saab.

The 2008 Zagat guide lists over 1,500 restaurants in the borough of Manhattan. By comparison, the Bronx has a mere 26. Part of the reason for this lies in the simple fact that the Bronx can't financially support the kind of diverse restaurant scene that fills Manhattan. The other side, however, lies in basic chauvinism: most Manhattanites are either too frightened or too ignorant to venture past 125th Street. This was recently played out in New York Magazine's "Where to Eat 2009" issue. Although the author, Adam Platt, dedicated an entire section to "Big Fat Italian" restaurants, he focused entirely on upscale Manhattan eateries, completely ignoring the Bronx's impressive (and authentic) Arthur Avenue neighborhood. By comparison, this would be like writing an article on barbecue that ignores Memphis, but obsesses over the McRib.

A few days ago, I documented my first visit to a Pollo Vivero, or live-kill poultry place. Well, having now had the joy of dressing and eating a freshly-killed turkey, I can absolutely state the following points:

Cutting off Heads Isn't That Hard: I thought that removing the bird's feet and head would be really difficult, but it was actually easy. I used a sturdy, German-style chef's knife, located the respective joints, and sliced away. While the legs came off in one piece (each), I had to take the neck off in two pieces. I used a paring knife and reached inside the carcass to cut it closer to the torso.

Live Turkeys Don't Look Quite the Same: My turkey's torso was longer and slightly sleeker than the Butterballs that I was used to. That having been said, it was still quite meaty, and the actual process of cooking it was very much the same (minus the pop-up timer, of course).

Live Turkeys Are Yummy: The turkey tasted more or less the same as a grocery store turkey. It was slightly more succulent, but I also chalk that up to the fact that I brined it.

Live Turkeys Dry Out Easily: Unlike store-bought turkeys, which soak in a broth solution until you unwrap them, live turkeys need to be protected from drying out. I wrapped mine in moist paper towels before brining it.

Turkey Heads Are Fun: Being somewhat perverse, I held on to the turkey head and feet so I could show them to select people. Two of my sisters got in a little bit of a tiff over who got to keep them (I'm not the only weirdo in my family), until my youngest sister claimed the artist card, stating that she wanted to draw the various parts.

I have decided that I'm definitely going to go with live poultry for Christmas. Does anybody have a good recipe for pheasant?