President Obama made his first appearance Monday night on the "Late Show with David Letterman" as President of the United States, but it was a potato that stole the show.
The commander-in-chief -- who made his sixth appearance on the talk show (his first as President) to discuss Afghanistan, the economy, unemployment and health care -- was upstaged by a heart-shaped potato, brought to the show's taping by Mary Apple of Independence, Mo.
"The main reason I'm here?" the President said. "I want to see that heart-shaped potato."
Former President Clinton and President Obama. Photo: Charles Dharapak/Getty Images.
Two presidents known for their shared love of greasy foods chose a healthier choice for a meeting in New York.
After giving a speech to Wall Street on Monday, President Obama met up with former President Clinton at Greenwich Village's upscale Il Mulino, whose cuisine from Italy's Abruzzi region features dishes like Scaloppini Capriccio (veal sauteed in wine with prosciutto, fontina and mushrooms) and Red Snapper Sauteed with Seafood Sauce.
While the White House would not give Slashfood any information on the presidential menu, Clinton told reporters gathered outside that the two had "fish, pasta and salad," the Christian Science Monitor reports.
"It was very healthy. Even I was healthy," said Clinton, whose notorious taste for fast food -- the defunct McDonald's McRib sandwich in particular -- was a target of "Saturday Night Live" humor during his presidency.
Politicians are used to getting grilled, but when Bobby Flay dropped by the White House for a private lesson, the tables were turned. The chef schooled President Obama on his corn technique and the importance of not flipping positions on meaty matters.
Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:
To skin, or not to skin: Do you eat the delicious skins on your baked potato?
With high school graduations right around the corner, YumSugar comes to the rescue with a whole party menu.
Is it possible to be too controlled? The Obamas are under fire for dining decisions that are "too political."
How do little guys eat so much? Tiny Takeru Kobayashi is the pizza king after downing 5 3/4 Pizza Hut P'zones for the top prize in battle pizza.
Be still our cheesy heart -- a reader recipe for Chicken Parmesan.
Want to pre-prepare a tossed salad without sacrificing its crispness? Layer it early with the juicier ingredients on the bottom and toss it right before eating.
We've had Obama Pez dispensers, Obama sushi, Baracktoberfest Beer, now this: A portrait of our 44th president rendered entirely in breakfast cereal. Click through to CerealArt.com for a larger image. Though the artists, Hank Willis Thomas and Ryan Alexiev, don't specify which cereals they've used, I think I spy Cheerios, Cap'n Crunch, Honeycomb, Lucky Charms and Froot Loops.
What kind of statement is the portrait trying to make? Thomas and Alexiev have this to say: "The sugary sweet mosaic, made of thousands of cereal bits, depicts idea of what a healthily balanced breakfast (democracy) might look like when considering the role that marketing plays in myth building around corporate and political brands."
It's Washington tradition for the new first lady to lead a group of reporters through the official State Dining Room to see the china and flower arrangements laid out before a state dinner.
Michelle Obama, however, gave a slightly different tour yesterday afternoon, before the Obamas' first official dinner, honoring the country's governors. The first lady escorted not only reporters, but also the top six students from L'Academie de Cuisine in Maryland. And they didn't just get to see the china, the got to see...the kitchen. And meet the chefs. And sample some desserts. How cool is that.
The guests watched chefs prepare citrus salad with watermelon radishes, Chesapeake crab agnolotti, and a dish of wagyu beef and Nantucket scallops. Obama, an outspoken proponent of local and healthy eating, voiced her approval of the locals carrots being used in the beef and scallop dish."If it tastes like a real carrot, and it's really sweet, they're going to think that it's a piece of candy," she said, referring to her daughters. "So my kids are more inclined to try different vegetables if they are fresh and local and delicious."
Yes they did. it's President Obama's smiling face, rendered in loving detail in rice and fish bits, down to the oblong head shape. I'd love to tell you exactly what this is made from, but my Japanese skills are a bit, er...nonexistent, despite several years of working in various sushi restaurants. So Japanese-speaking Slashfoodies, please help me out by clicking through to the MSN Japan site and translating. Domo arigato! There's even a tutorial in case you want to make and eat the president's face at home.
When President Obama took over the White House last month, the wine world was abuzz with, well, the buzzword of his administration: hope. Storyafterstory declared him to be the savior, the messiah, of wine. He would rescue the White House from its teetotaling predecessor and bring the cellar back to its glory.
My two cents? Obama has bigger things to worry about. But 200 years ago, when the country was a lot smaller and depressions, world wars, and recessions were unimagined events of the future, Thomas Jefferson did not. After touring Europe, Jefferson returned home convinced that our county could produce wines on par with Europe's best. He imported vine cuttings form some of the best vineyards in Europe and planted them at his Virginia estate, Monticello.
Jefferson actually put wine on par with national issues, saying, "By making this wine vine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt."
Congressmen voting along party lines? That's nothing new. What caught my eye in the New York Times' coverage of the passing of the stimulus bill was the line, "Mr. Obama followed the House vote with a cocktail party at the White House for the Congressional leaders of both parties, from the House and the Senate." Not a reception, not a gathering--nothing so staid as that. A cocktail party! What better way to signal a change from the teetotaling former administration? We know Obama was all about The Wire--sounds like he might be a Mad Men fan as well.
I wasn't the only one to take particular note of this event. Over at Slate, John Dickerson appraises the value of alcohol in Washington politics and then puts Obama's soirée into a historical context, starting things off with a splash of the founding fathers, adding a shot of FDR and Truman, and finishing things off with an unfortunate twist of the too-besotted Nixon. Think of it as presidential history through a new lens: beer goggles.
On the one hand, I have to admit that I am a little creeped out by the amount of coverage that the Obama family is getting. There is no reason that I need to know the menu options offered by Sidwell Friends School or the identity of Michelle Obama's favorite clothing designer. These things have no impact on the President's ability to govern or on my day-to-day life.
On the other hand, I, like so many of my fellow Americans, am fascinated by my new President, and the more I learn about the little details of his life, the more human and real he seems. While I admit to being a little disturbed by the nascent cult of personality that seems to be developing around President Obama, I feel like I can trust him to keep a clear head, no matter how hard the country seems to be working on giving him a messiah complex. In fact, the man who emerges from this National Geographic trailer seems as level-headed as they come.
The Bush White House has been criticized for its total lack of finesse in serving wine at White House dinners (like the $300 Napa Valley wine they served at an economic summit on the global financial crisis), but you can't blame George W. too much--after all, he doesn't even drink. Besides, the same wine guy has picked the bottles since 1995.
Here's what the Obamas had at today's inauguration luncheon:
According to Forbes.com, these wines were chosen by a bipartisan Senate-House tasting committee. Now that would be a fun committee to elbow your way onto.
Last September, in one of those press appearances that was intended to show that he was just a normal guy, Barack Obama appeared on 60 Minutes and made tuna fish salad for his daughters. Although the recipe that he used was exceedingly simple (tuna fish, gherkin pickles, mayo, and dijon mustard), it quickly became political. The Western Fishboat Owners Association used it as an opportunity to shill for troll-caught albacore. With that in mind, they offered the following recipe:
Presidential Tuna Salad Sandwiches Makes 4 Sandwiches
2 six ounce cans of US troll-caught albacore 2 Tablespoons mayonnaise 1 lemon, juiced 1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish Salt and pepper to taste 8 slices of bread Lettuce and tomato slices to serve
Mix all but the last two ingredients together and assemble sandwiches. Enjoy! I fiddled with this recipe a little bit. Being a fan of crunchiness, I threw in a couple of stalks of chopped celery. Also, as sweet pickle relish is an open invitation to high fructose corn syrup, I switched it out for some finely chopped, homemade bread and butter pickles. I also used low-fat mayonnaise and tossed in a little powdered red pepper, just for fun.
Finally, as I am fairly cheap (and don't like to support trolls), I went with more mainstream tuna fish. After a brief taste test, I determined that my favorite was Bumble Bee Prime Fillet Solid White Albacore. Although it comes in a shiny gold can and has every appearance of being expensive, it actually cost a little bit less than standard albacore. My apologies to America's fishing trolls (or trolling fishermen; I really have a hard time differentiating between the two).
After all my adjustments, the only real distinguishing factor of this tuna salad was its small quantity of mayo and addition of lemon juice. Both of these proved fantastic, and I will definitely be using them in the future. If anybody comes across other examples of Obama cuisine, please send them my way!
Whether you voted for Obama or not, whether Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or etc., I don't think anyone denies this year's Inauguration Day is a historic event. And judging by the record crowds Washington, D.C. is expecting for Tuesday, everyone wants to get in on the celebration. President Bush had to declare a state of emergency to help cover the costs! Well, I'm declaring a state of beer-mergency (achem.) to figure out the perfect Inauguration Day beer. Let's see what we got...
Back in September, I wrote a post on Sixpoint Craft Ale's Hop Obama beer. At that time, I stated, "If Barack Obama wins the presidency, I'm guessing we might see [Hop Obama] for another four years."
Well, maybe those running the Brooklyn-based brewery should have heeded my advice: Sixpoint stopped making the beer after Election Day, and now patrons seeking to celebrate the big-O's big day have created a mini-madness to figure out who still stocks the brew. A few bars with serious foresight stashed their last remaining kegs for Election Day. And some, according to the NY Daily News, plan on charging a pretty penny for it.
Despite being Sixpoint's fastest-selling beer ever, it looks like this "Obama" is actually heading the way of George W. Bush: Don't expect it back anytime soon. With some savvy Google searching, New Yorkers can figure out where to go to get the last gulp of Hop Obama, but for the rest of us, don't dismay: We have options.
Whether mourning the loss of the current Presidential administration or counting the minutes until the new one takes over, all Americans are preparing to party (though not exactly like it's 1999) on January 20. You can take a look at the official document of the second Bush administration's legacy at the official site of The White House. Whether this heartens or disheartens you, once you've had enough, visit the First Lady's site.
First Ladies also leave legacies. Abigail Adams, Florence Harding and Hillary Clinton were known as powerfully insightful political partners to the President. Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosalynn Carter were forces to be reckoned with socially, as in their own social ways were Dolley Madison, Mamie Eisenhower and Jackie Kennedy. While Julia Grant was known as a lavish (to some, excessive) hostess, Lucy Hayes was Temperance. Did people who joked about Nancy Reagan's astrologer know about Mary Todd Lincoln's consorting with spiritualists? And did you know that Laura Bush has been amassing place settings?
Presidential China is not a new, frivolous development -- indeed, it is a time-honored tradition. As each administration takes residency, they impart their own style to the residence -- not that different, other than scale, from setting up housekeeping anywhere else. Just as we have presidential pets from horses and goats to scruffy dogs, so do we have china patterns, stemware, art, et cetera. Lest your social conscience be saluting, note: the Bush legacy china, along with other items, was purchased with funds from The White House Historical Association, The White House Endowment Trust, and The White House Historical Trust, each of which, as Mrs. Bush noted, are privately funded for the purpose acquiring objects for the White House.
We've had Obama Pez dispensers, Obama sushi, Baracktoberfest Beer, now this: A portrait of our 44th president rendered entirely in breakfast cereal. Click through to CerealArt.com for a larger image. Though the artists, Hank Willis Thomas and Ryan Alexiev, don't specify which cereals they've used, I think I spy Cheerios, Cap'n Crunch, Honeycomb, Lucky Charms and Froot Loops. 
Yes they did. it's President Obama's smiling face, rendered in loving detail in rice and fish bits, down to the oblong head shape. I'd love to tell you exactly what this is made from, but my Japanese skills are a bit, er...nonexistent, despite several years of working in various sushi restaurants. So Japanese-speaking Slashfoodies, please help me out by clicking through to the MSN Japan site and translating. Domo arigato! There's even a tutorial in case you want to make and eat the president's face at home.
When President Obama took over the White House last month, the wine world was abuzz with, well, the buzzword of his administration: hope. Story after story declared him to be the savior, the messiah, of wine. He would rescue the White House from its teetotaling predecessor and bring the cellar back to its glory. 
Congressmen voting along party lines? That's nothing new. What caught my eye in the New York Times' coverage of the passing of the stimulus bill was the line, "Mr. Obama followed the House vote with a cocktail party at the White House for the Congressional leaders of both parties, from the House and the Senate." Not a reception, not a gathering--nothing so staid as that. A cocktail party! What better way to signal a change from the teetotaling former administration? We know Obama was all about The Wire--sounds like he might be a Mad Men fan as well..jpg)
On the one hand, I have to admit that I am a little creeped out by the amount of coverage that the Obama family is getting. There is no reason that I need to know the menu options offered by Sidwell Friends School or the identity of Michelle Obama's favorite clothing designer. These things have no impact on the President's ability to govern or on my day-to-day life. 
.jpg)
Last September, in one of those press appearances that was intended to show that he was just a normal guy, Barack Obama appeared on 60 Minutes and made tuna fish salad for his daughters. Although the recipe that he used was exceedingly simple (tuna fish, gherkin pickles, mayo, and dijon mustard), it quickly became political. The Western Fishboat Owners Association used it as an opportunity to shill for troll-caught albacore. With that in mind, they offered the following recipe:
Whether you voted for Obama or not, whether Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or etc., I don't think anyone denies this year's Inauguration Day is a historic event. And judging by the record crowds Washington, D.C. is expecting for Tuesday, everyone wants to get in on the celebration. President Bush had to declare a state of emergency to help cover the costs! Well, I'm declaring a state of beer-mergency (achem.) to figure out the perfect Inauguration Day beer. Let's see what we got...
Whether mourning the loss of the current Presidential administration or counting the minutes until the new one takes over, all Americans are preparing to party (though not exactly like it's 1999) on January 20. You can take a look at the official document of the second Bush administration's legacy at the official site of The White House. Whether this heartens or disheartens you, once you've had enough, visit the First Lady's site. 
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