"chow" news and stories

Years ago, people would have laughed in your face if you told them you'd be buying water out of a plastic bottle. Now, the latest drink to turn the heads of the community: milk. That's right, the humble white liquid that has captured America's attention with it's milk-mustache advertising campaign (and by being a natural companion to cookies) is going high-end.

Lessley Anderson from Chow.com spotlights restaurants that have taken this everyday household food item to the next level, and speculates where it might go in the future.

Head over to Chow for more: Designer Milk: The New "It" Food

Absinthe drip and sugar cube. Photo: Alex Van Buren.

So we've been all about Bastille Day for the last 24 hours, from petanque to moules frites, brioche burger buns to a gorgeous vegetable tian and even a Francophile-friendly absinthe-spiked cocktail.

We're not the only ones itching to get out the door and toast our friends in the Old Country (or the wonderful eats and drinks they've sent our way). For those who will celebrating the occasion at home, Chow has recipes for three lovely terrines; Serious Eats discovers the tapenades of Provence; and one of Slashfood's own beer columnists breaks down Saison style beer at Gourmet while his colleague tackles eight great aperitifs, several of which are French.

Perhaps the triumph of the online articles, however, is France Magazine's enormous feature on aperitifs. From Lillet to Suze to Noilly Prat, it's all there, and we'll be printing it out and tucking it into our bag. (They've just unlocked the online files especially for Slashfood.) Happy celebrating!

Our wonderful (and similarly food-frenzied) friends at Chow asked a question today that may have some folks bristling: Is it ever OK to ogle a stranger's meal at a restaurant and ask what she's eating?

Etiquette writer Helena Echlin posits that "though it's OK to look, staring at people while they're eating makes them uncomfortable. If you need help identifying a dish, ask the server (avoid pointing if you can). Don't ask the person eating it." She notes an exception in the case of ridiculously close tables -- common in places like New York City and San Francisco -- in which case it would be absurdly formal to summon a waiter. Echlin interviews a restaurant expert who declares he "would never cross the imaginary wall" between tables.

In a crowded eatery with tiny two-tops, it's true that an "imaginary wall" can feel especially important. When a noisy couple are inches away, your demure chatter about the weather quickly turns into an extended dance remix with their loud argument about his mother-in-law.

[Via Chow]

Read more and take the poll after the jump.

Each Friday afternoon (or evening), I offer up eight tasty links that have captured my food curiosity. Here are the links for this week!

1. Forbes Traveler has put together a list of what they consider to be the 11 Classic American Dishes. Included on the list are the Philly cheesesteak, pasta primavera and the overstuffed burrito.
2. Have you ever been challenged by the task of pouring the perfect pint of beer? For their feature, You're Doing it Wrong, Chow has put together a video the details all the nuances of the perfect pour.
3. The Illinois Food Bank has laid down a challenge to the residents of their state: Can you eat on just $25 a week? Citizens took on the challenge and respond. Amy, of Cooking with Amy, recently did a similar challenge and blogged her experience.
4. Elise of Simply Recipes reminds her readers how satisfyingly simple it is to make your own vanilla extract.
5. Just in for our current economic crisis! Depression Cooking with Clara! [via Vegan Lunch Box]
6. The Old Foodie ruminates on the history of toast.
7. Dinner with Julie offers up a recipe for bean-fortified oatmeal cookies.
8. Bacon Today lists ten other bacon sites you should be reading.

The name of this recipe immediately brought to mind Chinese food, of course, and I've never thought of fried rice as a particularly breakfast-ish food. But if you think about it, a lot of fried rice has eggs and onion in it, so why not? And this one goes one step further and includes bacon.

The recipe is from Chow, but the picture is from flickr. It's a different recipe (ham instead of bacon and no soy sauce), but I couldn't find a pic of the Chow recipe, which is after the jump.