A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.
No need for a double take. Yes, Deep Ellum is the name of a neighborhood in the Dallas area. And yes, this week's What's On Tap features a Boston bar. But don't worry, Deep Ellum co-owner Max Toste has an explanation: "My business partner, Aaron Sanders, was born and raised around the Dallas area, and Deep Ellum was always his favorite place to go."
Toste describes the Dallas neighborhood as an area teeming with tattoo parlors and rock joints -- the kind of place with "people who don't wear suits to work." "We always thought it would be a cool name for a bar," he recalls. Toste and Sanders found a similar feel in the Boston neighborhood of Allston, so about three years ago, when opening their own bar, the name was a perfect fit.
"I love beer," Toste states proudly. "I wanted to have a bar that was awesome."
What exactly is his idea of awesome? "Our plan was to be very artisanal. Everything we sell and promote is handmade stuff." And that ideology goes beyond just beer into the realm of their cocktail selection and food. Toste's explanation for such strong demands on what Deep Ellum serves is simple: "I don't do anything half-assed."
Read more about Deep Ellum and its complete tap list, as of this Tuesday, after the jump -- and for future draft lists, check out its Web site. Drafts update whenever they're changed.
There are loads of meat-this/meat-that festivals, but in honor of World Vegetarian Day, Slashfood would like to highlight international veggie gatherings.
Day Without Meat, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 3-4: To raise awareness for the benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet, the Brazilian Vegetarian Society in partnership with Greenpeace,Instituto Nina Rosa and others will provide information on vegetarianism, screen films, hold workshops and offer food and wine tastings.
Julia Child. Photo: John Dominis, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
Somewhere Julia's chuckling.
The Boston Globe reports Tuesday that the doyenne of French cuisine's Cambridge home is now occupied by a vegetarian animal-rights activist, who -- since the release of "Julie and Julia" -- has been besieged by tourists snapping photos of her home and leaving butter, yes butter, on the fence post.
"It's a bit ironic," Lisa Landsverk said of her place at Julia's kitchen.
A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars and eateries across the country.
With Mother's Day just around the bend we hunted far and wide for an establishment whose name pays lip service to mama, happily stumbling upon the tiny but tantalizing tap selection at Cambridge (Mass.)' Hungry Mother. Though she only boasts five suds, they're solid: "Craft and quality beers pair just as well with food as wine [does]," says owner John Kessen. "Although [our draft list] is small, it's a really interesting one and a good cross section of styles."
This Mother plays favorites with careful curation:
5. Stone Ruination IPA is one of the most intense and highly regarded imperial IPAs on the market.
4. Bear Republic's Hop Rod Rye is another nationally renowned India Pale Ale but, since it is brewed with 20 percent rye malt), it boasts a distinctly different flavor.
3. Fisherman's Brew, a local amber lager, donates part of their proceeds to out-of-work fisherman.
One of the great things about delicacies is that, while they may be rare, they are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them. For example, sturgeon eggs may be a taste treat, but if nobody is willing to fork over the a small fortune, then they are, essentially, just bait. Recently, this simple fact has become quite important as lobster, which was once priced well out of the range of the average person has started to come within reach. The freakish crustaceans are now going for about $2.50 per pound wholesale, down from a high of about $10 per pound in spring 2007. In terms of retail price, this translates into a drop of at least $4 per pound. In some Boston-area seafood markets, the price hovered in the $7 range earlier this year; depending upon one's location, it has subsequently dipped well below that.
There are two big reasons for the great lobster drop. One is the fact that many high-end consumers, the kinds of people who could afford to eat lobster regularly, were hit particularly hard by 2008's financial meltdown. The second reason lies in the collapse of Iceland's economy: seafood producers in Canada that used Icelandic banks have not been able to get the credit they need to buy large amounts of lobster.
Personally, I'm going to be taking advantage of this sudden piece of good news. While I'm not a big fan of shelled lobster - to be honest, the huge crustaceans remind me of aquatic cockroaches and the whole lobster dining experience is disturbingly like an alien autopsy - lobster tails and lobster bisque are among my favorites. What's more, with lobster going for a fraction of its former price, this might be the perfect time for a Monty Pythonrecipe that I've always wanted to try: Lobster Thermidor Aux Crevettes with Mornay Sauce, Truffle Pate, Brandy, Fried Egg and Spam. While I'm at it, I'm also keeping an eye on other delicacies; after all, who knows what will drop next?
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).
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?).
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