Do you love craft beer? Are you going to be in Boston this weekend? If I were, I'd go to the American Craft Beer Festival.
It's taking place at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, and it's gonna be big. There'll be about 75 breweries represented, and they'll be offering up somewhere around 300 different brews. Plus there'll be plenty of guest speakers and events.
Everything is happening Friday June 20 and Saturday June 21. Tickets are $40. Friday's events start at 6pm and there are two sessions on Saturday at 1pm and 6pm. If you get to go, tell me all about it and how great it was.
You best believe I was watching the Super Bowl all afternoon (with a few flips back and forth from AnimalPlanet to catch the Puppy Bowl) and though I was supporting the Patriots here all week in our very own Slashfood Bowl, it's the New York Giants who won today!
And since the Giants have won Super Bowl XLII, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino lost his bet with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Mayor Menino will send a package of Boston foods to New York: New England Clam Chowder, Dunkin' Donuts coffee, Boston cream pies, chicken sausages and Brigham's ice cream. The food will be donated to local food charities in New York.
It's Super Bowl Dessert day here at Slashfood, which means for the Slashfood Bowl, we're talking about Boston Cream Pie for the New England Patriots.
Though it's called "pie," the Boston Cream Pie is actually a layer cake filled with pastry cream and covered with a chocolate ganache. Why it's called a pie, we can't be sure, but reliable sources (and by "reliable" I mean I googled it) say that it was likely because pie tins were more readily available than cake pans to bake the cake layers.
I've only tasted the cake twice, and both times, I wondered why I didn't eat this cake more often. I mean, come on. It has pastry cream in the middle and is topped with chocolate that drips down the sides. Alright, I'll be honest with you all. I basically love the cake for that pastry cream.
In our annual food showdown inspired by opposing team cities in the Super Bowl (now dubbed the Slashfood Bowl), Marisa has gone to pizza. I knew she would, and knew that I would have to come up with something. Now I know that arguing that there might be something better than New York-style pizza (which happens to be my favorite kind) is just asking for it, so since I have to rep-ra-zent for the New England Patriots, I am merely going to say that Boston-style pizza simply exists, because really, I can't say that it's better. I just can't.
Sometimes just the name of a recipe can make your ears (and taste buds) perk up a little bit. Earl Grey Brownies! Sounds like a nice twist to a classic recipe.
The Earl Grey flavor isn't in the actual brownies, it's in the ganache that is spread over the brownies (it includes two Earl Grey tea bags or 1 1/2 tablespoons of Earl Grey tea leaves). The recipe is from Blanche Ip, and with it she won the annual contest held at the Chocolate Bar at the Langham Hotel in Boston. Full recipe after the jump.
I watched The Phantom Gourmet on Boston's NECN station for years. It was hosted by Billy Costa, who is also a DJ on the long-running KISS-108 morning show with Matt Siegel. After the show ran for eight years, producer Dan Andelman and his family moved the show to WSBK 38, another Boston station. Costa stayed at NECN and launched a new show, TV Diner. The Phantom Gourmet is a mysterious person (they won't say whether the diner is male or female) who goes around in secret and reviews Boston and New England eating establishments. The show gives the restaurants a grade. The show also features other reviews and features as well.
TV Diner is a little different. They feature a lot of chefs and go behind the scenes of restaurants. The do reviews too, giving a "plate" grade, but it's not as much of a focus as it is on the other show.
To say things are tense between the two shows is an understatement. Besides the typical tension you would expect from two similar shows in the same TV market, Costa is a little ticked that The Phantom Gourmet asks their guests (chefs, foodies, customers, etc) not to appear on the other show for a few months.
Did you know that states have "official" foods. Yup, and Massachusetts is no exception. The foods include Boston Cream Pie, cranberries, baked beans, chocolate chip cookies, and corn muffins (corn muffins?).
Gridskipper takes that list of foods and tells us what restaurants in Boston serve the best ones. For example, though Boston Cream Pie was invented at the Omni Parker House Hotel (also home of the Parker House Rolls), you can get the best one at The Oak Room at the Copley Plaza Hotel. For beans, head on over to the Blue Ribbon BBQ. They're not traditional baked beans, but they're great (and I can vouch for this place - best BBQ I've ever had. If they were closer to my house I'd probably eat there twice a week).
Willy Volk at our sister site Gadling has some great ideas for what to do on Valentine's Day, especially if you are a chocolate lover. He has made a list of places that are featuring chocolate tours in various locations around the world, so if you happen to be anywhere near one of them, I highly recommend checking it out. One example:
London's Chocolate Ecstasy Tours offers 4-hour long tours (guided by a Chocolate Ecstasy Chocoholic Guide), through London's side streets and alleys. Participants sample chocolates, enjoy chocoholic chats, take a lavish hot chocolate break, enjoy special prices on the ultimate chocolate luxuries, and receive a goody bag!
If you don't find yourself in Boston, Australia, London, or any of the places he has named, phone around to your local Chocolatier and see if they are offering any special tours or events on Valentine's Day.
Have you ever had a food or drink item that hit the spot perfectly? Something that was the perfect thing at the perfect time? I had that yesterday.
For some reason I decided to take the train into Boston yesterday and walk around in 9 degree weather (and it was windy so the wind chill blah blah blah). It was, um, really cold, and by the end of the day my feet were killing me and my face, ears, and lungs had gotten a workout from the weather. And that's when I saw the Dunkin' Donuts at the train station when I arrived for my train. I thought to myself, "I gotta have a hot chocolate." I got a medium, and it was one of the best hot chocolates I've ever had. It was the true definition of "hitting the spot." It was quite an enjoyable train ride home.
The hot chocolate has an almost chocolate/vanilla taste. When you were a kid did you ever get a Hoodsie (that's chocolate and vanilla ice cream for you folks who haven't had one) and mix the two together so they were one and then eat it? That's what it tasted like, only hot. More chocolate for sure, but with a lighter flavor in the background And it's really creamy. I like it.
The newest issue of Cooking Light, which is their 20th anniversary issue, has the magazine's choices for the top 20 cities in the US, based on 15 criteria that they feel embody their "Eat Smart, Be Fit, and Live Well" philosophy. They looked at fitness, health and exercise data from the Centers for Disease Control, the number of parks and recreation areas (and how often they're used) from the Trust for Public Land, restaurant ratings from the Zagat Survey and James Beard Foundation, and the USDA's farmers markets listings. Everything was evened out on a per capita basis and the cities with the most of everything made the top cut.
One of the top ten cities will be featured each month in the magazine this year, so readers will have access to information about all the things that got the city their ranking.
1. Seattle, WA 2. Portland, Ore. 3. Washington, D.C. 4. Minneapolis, MN 5. San Francisco, CA 6. Boston, MA 7. Denver, CO 8. Milwaukee, WI 9. Philadelphia, PA 10. Tucson, AZ
It is extremely unlikely that you could out-eat world champion competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi, but what if you had three friends on your team? As it turns out, 4:1 are not good enough odds to take on the champ. In the World Lobster Roll Eating Challenge in Boston, a team of four young Massachusetts residents (about 19 years old or so) tried, collectively, to eat more than Kobayashi. Even with $10,000 prize money as an incentive, the four could only put away 25 rolls to Kobayashi's 41.Kobayashi, who has been called the Lance Armstrong of the competitive eating world, took home the prize money instead of the local team.
As with many things that Kobayashi eats, this number is the new world record for lobster-roll eating. He only tasted his first lobster roll the night before the competition and said that he thought he could beat his record in the future, now that he was more familiar with the food.
I don't know about you, but I certainly take my fair share from Epicurious, the uber-food website with a giant database of recipes and articles about food and dining, without ever paying a dime. Well, now, I guess it's time for a little payback. And what better payback than charitable payback!
Epicurious editor, Tanya Steel, has developed a fundraising program aimed at raising money for the millions of children who go hungry in the US. The program, called Wine. Dine. Donate., launched on the Epicurious site on August 1st, has three ways to participate.
Throw a dinner party - Each month, epicurious will suggest a dinner menu and offer tips and tricks for entertaining. You invite your guests, prepare, cook, and then at your dinner party, collect contributions from your guests. Afterwards, you can share your experience in the Epicurious forum. This month, the menu comes from chef Michael Mina of San Francisco.
Go to a dinner party - Epicurious has coordinated with America's top chefs and will throw a dinner party once a month at one of their restaurants. You can buy a ticket to the dinner, and the proceeds go toward the cause. On September 18, the dinner is at Michael Mina in San Francisco; October 3 at Via Matta in Boston; October 24 at Custom House in Chicago; and November 12 at Abacus in Dallas.
Do you love craft beer? Are you going to be in Boston this weekend? If I were, I'd go to the 
Open-face sandwiches
Sometimes just the name of a recipe can make your ears (and taste buds) perk up a little bit. Earl Grey Brownies! Sounds like a nice twist to a classic recipe.
I watched The Phantom Gourmet on Boston's NECN station for years. It was hosted by Billy Costa, who is also a DJ on the long-running KISS-108 morning show with Matt Siegel. After the show ran for eight years, producer Dan Andelman and his family moved the show to WSBK 38, another Boston station. Costa stayed at NECN and launched a new show, TV Diner. The Phantom Gourmet is a mysterious person (they won't say whether the diner is male or female) who goes around in secret and reviews Boston and New England eating establishments. The show gives the restaurants a grade. The show also features other reviews and features as well.
Did you know that states have "official" foods. Yup, and Massachusetts is no exception. The foods include Boston Cream Pie, cranberries, baked beans, chocolate chip cookies, and corn muffins (corn muffins?).
Willy Volk at our sister site 
Have you ever had a food or drink item that hit the spot perfectly? Something that was the perfect thing at the perfect time? I had that yesterday.
The newest issue of 
It is extremely unlikely that you could out-eat world champion competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi, but what if you had three friends on your team? As it turns out, 4:1 are not good enough odds to take on the champ. In the 
I don't know about you, but I certainly take my fair share from 
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
Morbid thoughts? Have a cookie
