"FoodPorn" news and stories

Nothing comes between Padma Lakshmi and her bacon.

The "Top Chef" host's commercial for the Western Bacon Thickburger at Carl's Jr. and Hardee's is something out of a bad soft-core food porn movie. The first part of the spot is innocent enough as Lakshmi -- identified as an "author/culinary expert" -- breezily drifts through a farmer's market carrying a plastic bag filled with veggies.

It's when she hits what looks like a New York City stoop, hikes up her skirt and pulls out her fast-food feed bag that things turn nasty (and so henceforth we'll call her Ms. Lakshmi).

In voice-over, Ms. Lakshmi describes her teen adventures sneaking out to scarf down a Western Bacon before dinner as we consumers of pop culture see spicy sauce dripping all over her hand and her leg. Fear not for her pumps! Ms. Lakshmi's just keeping the sauce there for later -- finger-lickin' later.

"It's a beautiful love song to food," Ms. Lakshmi says in a press release ... if your idea of a beautiful love song to food is Warrant's "Cherry Pie."

(The Slashfoodie in us couldn't get beyond the suspension of disbelief. If Ms. Lakshmi's supposed to be in New York, where DID she get that Western Bacon? The closest Hardee's is 60 miles away in Shirley, N.Y. That's what we'd call a winning Quickfire challenge.)

[Via Grub Street]

On June 13, Marisa posted here with the title "RIP Tastespotting." The reason TasteSpotting was gone was unclear, but she noted, "Regardless of the reason, it's a sad day for the online food community."

If that was a sad day, June 27 was a day to celebrate! TasteSpotting, the hugely popular food porn site, went live again last Friday. If you haven't checked it out yet, definitely do so. We can all breathe a sigh of relief that our old friend is back!

I interviewed Sarah J. Gim, the Slashfood blogger who runs TasteSpotting, on Food Interviews. Sarah says that we can expect some site improvements to come to TasteSpotting soon. What about some of the TasteSpotting-like sites that cropped up in its absence? Sarah says that the food blog world is big enough for everyone: "The more food porn the better!"

For more information on TasteSpotting, including how Sarah picks all those amazing photos, check out Sarah J. Gim's complete interview.

My kitchen has officially reported me for neglect. I've been too busy to cook much of anything lately, and dinner has consisted of whatever I could whip up in a few short minutes or (more likely) whatever I happened to pick up on the way home. My pots and pans are sulking in the corner, my wisks and spatulas are officially on strike. Even my two fridges, once filled to the brim with every conceivable form of produce, protein, and condiment are looking pretty stark these days. It is a sad state of culinary affairs in my house, let there be no doubt.

That said, I've been aching to make a return to the kitchen, so I was thrilled to see that Homesick Texan had written about her homemade Puffy Tacos, one of my favorite Tex-Mex meals. There is just enough work in making and rolling out the taco shells to satisfy my need to make something homemade, and the rest of the recipe is very simple to put together - perfect for those of us without a lot of time on our hands.

Since I prefer not to buy the pre-made taco shells from the grocery store (these taste so much better, really) I was wondering if you could make these ahead of time and freeze them before frying. Has anyone ever tried that before? If so, let us know how they worked out. I'd love to keep a batch of these ready to go in the freezer.

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Alright Slashfoodies, we have a challenge for you. As posted on our sister site The Cancer Blog, one of our favorite food bloggers, Béa at La Tartine Gourmande, the creator of many exquisite dishes we have featured here before, has prepared this perfectly-pink dish of Quinoa Beet Verrine (as shown above) to help raise awareness for Breast Cancer. We'd like to continue what she has started and see what our readers can come up with. There are no rules, other than it should be an original creation and contain the color pink. As I said before, it can be dinner or dessert, anything from pink cream cheese on a bagel to an entire fuchsia dinner is fine - use your imagination. Drink submissions are fine, too.

Please send us the link to your blog/website once you have posted the picture, and we will spotlight the entries in a future post. Is there a prize? Yes - knowing that you are helping to raise awareness for Breast Cancer, is that not enough? Tell you what, we will let you judge, and then we will do a spotlight/interview with the creator of our favorite submission.

(Thanks again, Béa!)

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When we talk about food porn, it is usually referring to completed dishes that look simply outstanding. Sometimes though, it is the fresh, natural food that really looks best. A reader sent in this link to his Flickr photo pool which contains some beautiful shots of fresh produce from his local Community Supported Agriculture in Oxford, CT. Whether you eat them raw or use them in recipes, the vegetables pictured here can inspire hundreds of meal ideas.

Have you seen any other shots of beautiful, fresh fruits and vegetables? Send them in to us.

(Thanks, Dan!)

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