Writing in The Root, Slate's online magazine covering African-American topics, Bryant Terry makes the argument that soul food has gotten a bad rap. Soul food is portrayed in popular culture as salty, fatty, sugar-laden comfort dishes like mac n' cheese, greens with ham hocks, fried chicken and lard biscuits. But half a century ago soul food meant the simple dishes Southern African-Americans ate for dinner, with plenty of fresh local ingredients - sauteed okra, stone ground grit cakes, homemade peach chutney. Sure there was fried chicken and cobbler, but that was hardly the whole picture, Terry says.
Terry, a Bay Area cookbook author originally from Memphis, hopes that bringing back locally focused, veggie-heavy soul food can help lower rates of obesity and diabetes in African-American communities. The article includes recipes for grit cakes and citrus collards with raisins. Yum.
Citing 19th century French food writer Brillat-Savarin's assertion that food preferences offer great insight into one's personality, Mimi Sheraton, writing in Slate, dissects Hillary Clinton's love of "oliveburgers" and popcorn with extra butter.
The presidential hopeful favors lamb (a gamier, more complex meat suggesting a certain sophistication?), enjoys spicy curry (a risk taker?) and digs into Dairy Queen blizzards on the campaign trail (woman of the people, or just pandering?). You'll have to check out the story for an analysis of the symbolism of carrot sticks versus onion rings...
Next up: McCain cuts the crusts off! Huckabee gets MSG headaches! Obama likes tangerine jellybeans, but can't stand the cherry ones!
Molly Wizenberg, the Seattleite behind the lyrical food blog, Orangette, is now appearing in Bon Appétit. Wizenberg's first monthly "Cooking Life" column is in the March issue, on stands now. In it, she tackles fear of baking with yeast, providing readers with a yummy-looking recipe for cinnamon rolls with cream cheese glaze.
If you haven't read Orangette, you should start - it's like reading a novel. A novel that's mostly about food. While her posts can sometimes get a little too folksy with the "oh goshes" and "darns," others, like the one about cooking with her father, will make you cry with their brilliant, raw emotion.
Molly's also got one of the great foodie love stories of the modern era. Her now-husband, Brandon, was introduced to her blog by a friend, tried her recipe for lemon cake and was so inspired he emailed her offering to take her out to dinner. Problem was, he lived in New York, she in Seattle. Three weeks later he flew out and they fell in love over gelato and strolls through Pike Place Market. When they got engaged a year later Molly got nearly 200 well-wishing posts on Orangette. Sweet, no?
I have been subscribing to Everyday Food, Martha Stewart's squat cooking magazine, since it's inception January 2003. I still have every single issue I've received (although right now I'm using issues 1-34 to hold up the corner of a wall-mounted cabinet in my living room that is falling apart). A couple of weeks ago, Megan at Not Martha posted about her own collection of Everyday Food mags, prompted because a commenter on her site had mentioned that the original issue of the magazine had sold for $50 on eBay. The best part of Megan's post is the list she put together, complete with links, to all the recipes from EF that she likes and uses.
Her post got me thinking about my own collection of EF mags and started me flipping through some of my old issues (the ones that aren't anchoring said piece of furniture, at least). I stumbled across a recipe in the December 2006 issue that I made once last year and remembered loving. It's for Braised Chicken with Shallots and is perfect for these cooler winter days. It's also easy and makes good leftovers. The recipe is after the jump.
I'll be the first to admit that FoodNetwork personality, cookbook author, and all-around celebrity chef Giada de Laurentiis isn't one of my favorites. I have no logical, fair reason, other than "she's annoying," because though she is "pretty" in a very standard view of what pretty might be (long, dark hair, cat eyes, deep cleavage), her head seems disproportionately large (physically, not figuratively) for the rest of her tiny, taut body, and when she "smiles," it looks so forced and unnatural that it almost looks like an evil grimace.
However, I now have real reason to not like her very much: an odd set of photos at Esquire that, given that it were anyone else, would be fairly sexy, but with Giada, looks downright disgusting.
An email I received from Jessica's Biscuit pointed out that the nominees for the International Association of Culinary Professions Awards (IACP) and the James Beard Foundation Awards were both announced yesterday. For those unfamiliar, both awards are akin to receiving an Oscar within the food community. Both recognize outstanding cookbooks, journalism and professionals in the food world, and while there is some overlap, the list of nominees for Beard Foundation Awards is far lengthier. Beard nominees for best food-related website include Leite's Culinaria, Epicurious and Dr. Vino's Wine Blog. There are also categories for webcasts, weekly newspaper sections, magazines, and a diverse array of awards chefs and cookbooks. The IACP is presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Knopf VP and editor Judith Jones (who helped launch Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking) and a Humanitarian Award to Frontera Grill's Rick Bayless. Go check out both sites and see if any of your favorites have made the lists of nominees.
Scents are a way of setting a particular product or advertisement apart from the competition, forcing people to take notice before turning to something else. Just look at the bus station ad for the Milk Board, which was an extreme example, but clearly generated a lot of attention. In a crowded marketplace, this type of unavoidable advertising is just what some companies need.
Recent products to jump on the scented ad bandwagon include Kraft Jell-O and White Fudge Chips Ahoy, which got full-page scratch and sniff ads in People Magazine and Diet Pepsi Jazz, which has scented coupons and "store signs infused with the new soft drink's [fragrance]." LG even used chocolate-scents to market their new Chocolate phones, although it probably triggered a chocolate craving before one for mobile phones.
Apple cider vinegar is a by-product of fermented apple (hard) cider, once one of the most popular and widely available alcoholic drinks in the US. Vinegar was used for preserving foods and was common in most households, where its sweet/tart flavor found a variety of other uses in sauces and dressings. Cooks Illustrated noticed that most people tend to reach for the store brand of cider vinegar - which does not get the same amount of shelf space as trendier balsamic vinegar does - and conducted a taste test in this month's issue to see if the brand made a difference.
The vinegars were tasted plain, in barbecue sauce, in pan sauce and in a vinaigrette. Tasters tended to prefer the vinegars with a sweeter, almost honeyed taste. The top two brands were Maille Apple Cider Vinegar and Spectrum Naturals Organic Apple Cider Vinegar (unfiltered), but even very common and inexpensive brands like White House and Heinz were found to be acceptable. So while there is a difference between brands, it probably won't make or break your dish.
And as a general tip, apple ciders with little apple bits still floating in them (unfiltered vinegars) tend to be a bit sweeter, with a bit more of an apple flavor than ones that are completely clear.
I don't know how I missed this last month, but the Chicago Tribune picked the 50 Best Magazines. Now normally, I am not a huge fan of magazines to begin with because I find them to be "brain candy" - less taste and less filling. However, I was still happy to see that several food magazines did appear in the Top 50, with Gourmet topping the glossy food mags at Number 9. The rest:
Number 12 - Cook's Illustrated
Number 18 - VegNews
Number 32 - Saveur
Number 44 - Everday Food
What? No Rachael Ray Magazine?!?!
Do you buy or subscribe to food magazines? Which ones, and why?
Writing in The Root, Slate's online magazine covering African-American topics, Bryant Terry makes the argument that soul food has gotten a bad rap. Soul food is portrayed in popular culture as salty, fatty, sugar-laden comfort dishes like mac n' cheese, greens with ham hocks, fried chicken and lard biscuits. But half a century ago soul food meant the simple dishes Southern African-Americans ate for dinner, with plenty of fresh local ingredients - sauteed okra, stone ground grit cakes, homemade peach chutney. Sure there was fried chicken and cobbler, but that was hardly the whole picture, Terry says. 
Citing 19th century French food writer 
An email I received from 
It was almost a year ago that 
Apple cider vinegar is a by-product of fermented apple (hard) cider, once one of the most popular and widely available alcoholic drinks in the US. Vinegar was used for preserving foods and was common in most households, where its sweet/tart flavor found a variety of other uses in sauces and dressings. 
I don't know how I missed this last month, but the Chicago Tribune 
10 More Dirty Restaurant Tricks
5 Things You Didn't Know About Turducken
10 Catchiest Food Jingles We Love to Hate
