A Michael Jackson tribute in sushi. Photo: alainalele/flickr
Don't stop till you get enough!
It was only a matter of time, as our friends at Cake Wrecks pointed out, before the Michael Jackson cake tributes would start to roll in at neighborhood grocery stores. But it is the great state of Iowa that surprised us this week with the announcement that the State Fair would honor the King of Pop with a tribute in butter.
That's right, a Michael Jackson butter carving will sit in the 40-degree-F comfort of a cooler from Aug. 13-23, the Des Moines Register reports. Lori Chappell, the fair's marketing director, told the paper "we're just trying to pay tribute to his contribution to music and dance ... as opposed to giving any scrutiny of his life."
Thai and Caribbean Chicken Skewers. Photo: Kerry Reynolds
I'm sure several of you have been to at least one bridal shower in your lifetime, but I think I already need both hands to count all of the ones I've attended. Bridal showers usually include some sort of game, a specific time to open presents, an embarrassing hat made from bows and -- if you're lucky -- great food and (possibly) liquor!
While we all have outstanding memories of our own, I have to say the ladies who threw my shower this past month absolutely outdid themselves -- especially with the eats. OK, so there was a little pressure to provide good grub (I mean, I am a food writer), but what I didn't expect was a full-on display of one tantalizing bite after another.
A full menu and more tasty pictures after the jump.
I've written many a story about wine and food pairing for Wine Enthusiast magazine, and one of the people I turn to again and again for expert tips is Natalie MacLean, my favorite north-of-the-border wine writer. Natalie knows her stuff: She's a certified sommelier who runs an award-winning Web site and free newsletter, she's funny (she's the author of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass -- no wine snobbery in that title), and she's really polite (every time I interview her she sends a thank-you note!).
Now, Nat has a new food and wine pairing widget out that she's created from eight years of notes and pairings. You can pair by choosing a food or a wine first, which is nice (I've noticed that wine-centric people choose the wine first, and then the food, and food-centric people do the opposite).
Death, like taxes, is inevitable, but it's always sad when you hear of the passing of an old friend. The food world has been dealt a handful of blows in recent weeks with the deaths of some folks who helped to make the nation a tastier place.
At AOL Food we wrote today of the death of Milton Parker, the owner of New York's landmark Carnegie Deli. He was not alone.
New Yorkers who make their way to the Union Square Greenmarket often saw Joe Ades peeling carrots on the northwest corner of the square with the $5 peeler he peddled for years. Ades died on Sunday at age 75. "He was very excited about carrots," a woman who works on the square told the New York Times.
In California, Ozzie Osborne was passionate about soda, shakes and sandwiches. The longtime soda jerk who ran Ozzie's Soda Fountain in Berkeley passed away on Jan. 29. "He loved to tease people in a way that made them feel good about themselves," a patron told the San Francisco Chronicle.
In Robert Kolb's case, it was the product that made you feel good. The last of four generations of a Bay City, Mich., brewing family died on Jan. 28. Though Kolb Bros. Brewing Co. closed in 1936, Kolb started a beer distributor company that was renowned for delivering Buckeye beer until Miller bought the brand in 1972, putting the Kolb company out of business.
"From then on," Kolb's son-in-law told the Bay City Times, "he was a Budweiser man."
NSFW: This is standup, therefore, beware of foul language.
Here's a laugh to get us through the hump day.
As much as we can all rant, there's nothing quite like the fuming fury of a funny man. Above, you can check out a 10-minute sketch of Lewis Black ranting about the world of milk and the commodification of water, from Black on Broadway. It may be long, but its got enough laughs to make it feel like just a moment.
We're talking the kind of rant where the subject drives you crazy with aggravation, until it boils up into your eyes and makes you suffer short convulsive fits (as Black does while mentioning acidophilus, and sending me to tears). It's wickedly funny, both for Black's treatment of the matter, and its common sense.
Do me a favor and skip the annual "I will work out more this year" resolution that's practically designed to make you feel like a failure, and make a resolution that you can really get into this year. Of course I'm speaking of wine resolutions, the kind that are easy to make and hard to break. Here are mine:
1. Travel the world through wine. I actually get to travel quite a bit, considering that I have two young kids at home. Last year I went to California twice, to Washington, to Texas, to South Dakota, and to New York. Everywhere I go, I try to taste and experience as many new wines as possible. But you can taste the whole world through wine right at home by branching out beyond the same old bottle of California Chardonnay that you pop open twice a week for dinner. Try a Tempranillo from Spain, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, a Riesling from Germany, a Vouvray from France, a Malbec or Torrontes from Argentina, a Barbara from Italy. I want to taste more around the world, and learn about the cuisines to match.
2. Get certified. I've been writing about wine for several years now, and it's time to take some classes beyond my own self-study. Many wine writers don't, and it's certainly not a requirement, but one of the reasons I love the world of wine is its infinite possibility for education (as well as entertainment!). I'm looking into certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2009.
When I went out for sushi tonight, a few insidiously persistent fruit flies were driving me nuts. I clapped the first one out of the air, but didn't dare try for the next over my delicious selection of dragon rolls, sashimi, spicy tuna, and the rest. Why, oh why, couldn't the visitors have been lizards like the one above? Then I would've shared.
The above image is one of the Top Shots over at National Geographic. It seems that Bonnie Marsh was in Hawaii for a vacation when this cutie ran down the wall of the restaurant, licked her plate, and scooted. Talk about capturing the perfect moment!
If this happened to me, I'd gladly let the little thing get some nibbles, but what about you? Are there any animals that you'd share your tasty treats with?
I realize this topic may be a little more suited to Valentine's Day, but I think we should treat every day as Valentine's Day. Besides, I am a firm believer in the saying that food is love.
Eric over at the Jew and the Carrot was reminiscing with his parents about the home made latkes his mother used to make for his father. This led to the question, posed to readers, of how you might show your love with food. I personally like to make my special chocolate cookies for new boyfriends, and birthday cakes for family and friends. Also, every Christmas I like to make special goody packages for close relatives that live far away.
Behold the Whatafarm burger, which according to alanbeam.net, via about.blank is "a burger ordered from the Whataburger chain and includes chicken, egg, cheese and bacon. 2 parts cow, 2 parts chicken, 1 part pig."
I'm all for the orgiastic multi-species chow down, what with my penchant for Kentucky burgoo (2 formats of cow -- old and young, lamb, pig, and chicken) and applaud the orderers for their gastronomic gumption. If I were being all harrumphy about it, I could note that the menu offers pig in sausage form and a fish filet as well and they opted for neither, but hey - Michelangelo didn't knock out the Sistine Chapel on his first jaunt up the scaffolding.
We salute you with all hooves, claws and trotters up!
With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, my brain is buzzing with thoughts of Mexican food -- burritos, tamales, chorizo. But at some point, thoughts switch to faux Mexican dishes, the US concoctions that are more fusion than ethnic. This then leads me to my first forays into recipe creation. I've been cooking and baking since I was a little kid, but it wasn't until I hit puberty and got sick of those too-simple Old El Paso taco mixes that I discovered that recipes are nice, but not necessary.
My mother handed the kitchen over to me, and told me to make my own tacos, since I wasn't happy with the dry, plain mix. In a flurry, I was pulling out old spices that were covered with dust, sniffing, shrugging, and throwing them in. I scoured the fridge for anything that might work and added that. In a blink, I had a meal that was better than any powder or simple sauce. It was just as easy, there was no extra mess, and the result was so very worth it.
Check out the "recipe" after the jump, and let me know what your first unique creation was.
Researchers from Exeter and Oxford U asked 740 pregnant women (all first-time moms) to keep a food diary during their gestation periods.
Their findings? That women who ate more food and more nutrients were 24% more likely to give birth to a boy (specifically, 56% of the women in the group who ate the most gave birth to boys). The average woman who gave birth to a male consumed 2,413 calories a day and ate foods containing potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12. The odds of having a boy were also higher among women who consumed one bowl of cereal every day (though the researchers didn't specify whether the bowl was eaten at breakfast or not).
But some people are wary of the stats, saying that a man's sperm ultimately decides whether a child will be male or female, and that diet has little or nothing to do with it.
If anything, hopefully the study will remind and encourage pregnant women to eat a healthy, well-balanced meal no matter what sex their baby turns out to be.
Are you baking Earth Day-themed cookies? Making an organic fruit salad? Walking to the grocery store (with your reusable bag, of course)? Finally starting your own compost pile?
In this age of recycling, what's a trendy, cola-drinking gal to do when she finishes off her carbonated beverage of choice?
Why, make it into a necklace, of course! All the cool kids are turning their food and drink packaging into something lasting and eco-friendly: jewelry and accessories that are surprisingly fashionable and wearable, in that quirky, I-just-polished-off-a-Kit-Kat sort of way.
Here are some of coolest accessories made from food we could find. Here's hoping the designers rinsed them out first.
Gallery: Food packaging makes for a great accessory
One of the (many) perks of working for Google is that they offer free gourmet meals to all their employees at 17 different cafes across their sprawling network of offices. One discerning Google employee has made something of a name for himself within the company through his regular food recommendations and reviews that he posts to an internal email list for the culinary edification of his co-workers. He's become so well known in the Google community when it comes to food that he was asked to join the committee responsible for hiring the chefs.
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published an article about Thunder Parley, this notable Google food reviewer, in their workplace section. It's a fun read, not only for his story, but also as a peek into the world of free Google food.
Death, like taxes, is inevitable, but it's always sad when you hear of the passing of an old friend. The food world has been dealt a handful of blows in recent weeks with the deaths of some folks who helped to make the nation a tastier place.
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