“Over the past couple of years, the burger has seen a surge in popularity. Even fine dining restaurants have been after the title of best burger, ushering it into a new culinary art form.” Read More: http://acqtaste.com/the-feed/musings-on-the-burger/
Madara
“While doing research for my book Hog and Hominy http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/tableOfContents, I came across some fascinating love and food story. Bill and Geraldine walker met each other during the Great Depression and decided to build a life and business together.” Read More: http://www.foodasalens.com/2013/02/love-and-barbecue.html
Reading: “Love and Barbecue”
“Trader Joe’s is known for traveling the globe to find a wide and ever-changing variety of foods. They recently went next door to bring back Organic Stone-Ground Mexican-Style Dark Chocolate, which has the shape, taste and paper packaging of traditional south-of-the-border chocolates.” Read More: http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2013/02/trader_joes_mexican_chocolate.php
Reading: “Trader Joe’s Mexican Chocolate + How to Make Mexican ...
“Absolutely do not miss this interview with writer/editor/Twitter aficionado Ruth Reichl. She talks about the demise of Gilt Taste and her new projects (including the novel Delicious). She shares her thoughts on food magazines (“I love, love Lucky Peach.” Read More: http://eater.com/archives/2013/02/11/ruth-reichl-unchained.php
Reading: “Ruth Reichl, Unchained”
“Any weight lost while on the moose cleanse is incidental. Did you know that pound for pound, the moose is the leanest ruminant on earth? It’s true. Moose are very in tune with their natural surroundings.” Read More: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/the-moose-cleanse/272788/
Reading: “The Moose Cleanse”
“At the apartment of the guy I was dating, I stood in front of a fully stocked refrigerator, shelves packed with homemade pickles, chicken stock and a flavor wheel of condiments. He chose scallops, which meant I was in charge of sides.” Read More: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/food/cooking-for-love-can-two-play-the-lead-in-the-kitchen-674121/
Reading: “Cooking for love: Can two play the lead in ...
“Maker’s Mark just got a little less stiff. The bourbon brand, known for its bottles sealed with red wax, told customers today that it’s reducing the amount of alcohol in the beverage in order to meet rising global demand.” Read More: http://qz.com/52478/makers-mark-waters-down-its-bourbon-to-meet-rising-demand/
Reading: “Maker’s Mark waters down its bourbon to meet rising ...
“You all know how much I like recreating dishes I have encountered on my travels once I return, right? For me, it’s the best way to prolong a vacation.” Read More: http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/2013/02/culturelicious-toronto/
Reading: “Culturelicious (Toronto)”
“It is said that the brownie was created at the Palmer House Hotel during the 1893 Columbian Exposition( The largest World’s Fair of it’s time) when the owner Bertha Palmer asked the chef to make a ‘ladies dessert’. Brownies were one of the very first prepackaged food ‘mixes’ ever sold.” […]
Reading: “National ‘Have a Brownie’ Day”
“But it’s only fair to also talk about the other side. When a daily job relies on boundary-less passion this much, the fine thread that keeps us going, that stretches far beyond strength we didn’t even know we had, can break.” Read More: http://www.likeastrawberrymilk.com/2013/02/how-to-become-a-pastry-chef-the-dark-side-of-stainless-steel/
Reading: “How to become a pastry chef? – The dark ...
“Here’s the first asking what we know about the history of the wok, and what are the links, if any, with India and even Turkey? The answer. Not much (though Professor Mair now promises more).” Read More: http://www.rachellaudan.com/2013/01/whats-the-history-of-the-wok-a-continuing-investigation.html
Reading: “What’s the History of the Wok? A Continuing Investigation”
I’ve been thinking about this painting by Lee Price a lot lately: I gave up eating sugar about 5 years ago, about the time that I was taking my comps in grad school and just before my divorce. Prior to doing so, from the ages of about 16-33, I spent […]
The Power of Doughnuts and Transformation of the Human Psyche
“Deciphering the meanings of the items around the Chinese New Year table is a lot like a treasure hunt. Each individual dish is steeped in tradition and is a homonym for a particular wish in the upcoming year. This year, the Spring Festival falls on Sunday, Feb. 10.” Read More: […]
Reading: “10 Essential Chinese New Year Dishes”
“Waiting tables has never paid my bills, a fact which I prefer to hide from my colleagues with deep sighs about the price of just about everything.” Read More: http://thisrecording.com/today/2012/3/13/in-which-we-dont-do-coke-in-the-bathroom-of-the-restaurant.html
Reading: “In Which We Don’t Do Coke In The Bathroom ...
“THE french fry was “almost sacrosanct for me,” Ray Kroc, one of the founders of McDonald’s, wrote in his autobiography, “its preparation a ritual to be followed religiously.” During the chain’s early years french fries were made from scratch every day.” Read More: http://www.rense.com/general7/whyy.htm
Reading: “Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good”
“These cooking/serving tools designed by Danish design firm KiBiSi have notches on the back so that they may gently rest on a pot or pan while you work. Made from white beech, they’re functionally minimal (or minimally functional?) as can only be expected from the manufacturer, Muuto.” Read More: http://www.betterlivingthroughdesign.com/accessories/muuto-cookingserving-set/
Reading: “Hang Around Cooking/Serving Set — ACCESSORIES”
“Here now, the cover of the next issue of David Chang and McSweeney’s cultish quarterly journal collaboration Lucky Peach, which is finally on its way to mailboxes and bookstores everywhere.” Read More: http://eater.com/archives/2013/02/08/heres-the-cover-for-lucky-peach-issue-6-the-apocalypse.php
Reading: “Here’s the Cover For Lucky Peach Issue 6: The ...
“Here’s an awesome video documenting the most important components that make up the ramen at Austin’s wildly popular Tatsu-Ya. The “culinary equation” that yields the ramen is the broth + the noodles + toppings, divided by the slurp.” Read More: http://eater.com/archives/2013/02/06/ramen-tatsuya-video.php#more
Reading: “Watch Mathematical Ramen Porn From Austin’s Tatsu-Ya”
“Some lovely food type, created by Nina Harcus, a 21 years old student.” Read More: http://typography-daily.com/2013/02/06/type-delight/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TypographyDaily+%28Typography+Daily%29
Reading: “Type delight”
“I think we can all agree that one of the hardest things about keeping a diet is the whole, “no sweets” part. But sadly, sugar is in practically everything we eat, so even when we think we are being good, sugar is sneaking its way into our diets.” Read More: […]
Reading: “Your Guide to Sugar [infographic]”
“Last year, IDEO announced their Startup-in-Residence program. Their first adoptee was Food Genius, an app to find restaurants by the dish you wanted to eat. But when they left IDEO’s program, Food Genius was no longer another foodie tool.” Read More: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671770/food-genius-scours-menus-to-turn-food-trends-into-infographics#1
Reading: “Food Genius Scours Menus To Turn Food Trends Into ...
“NEW YORK – February 6, 2013 – Hot off the grill – Bravo’s Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series and the No. 1 rated food show on cable, “Top Chef,” will be returning for an eleventh season.” Read More: http://eater.com/archives/2013/02/06/top-chef-season-eleven-is-coming-bravo-announces.php
Reading: “Top Chef Season Eleven Is Coming, Bravo Announces”
“Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the perfect soda-drinking experience, your own notion of cola consumption in its purist Platonic form. Sure, your favorite beverage will likely differ from mine (R.I.P.” Read More: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671769/crazy-eating-utensils-designed-to-stimulate-all-the-senses
Reading: “Crazy Eating Utensils, Designed To Stimulate All The Senses”
In a conversation with Bill Moyers, the scholar Joseph Campbell said that “if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are […]
Things I Discovered About eLearning from Writing for a Food ...
“Who in the world needs a specialized milk pan? Pfft, not me, that’s for sure, especially after trying to heat up milk for a matcha latte yesterday.” Read More: http://www.betterlivingthroughdesign.com/accessories/kaico-enamel-milk-pan/
Reading: “Kaico Enamel Milk Pan — ACCESSORIES”
“1. On Seattle: “For a long time now, one of the best and most interesting food scenes in America, period.”2. On the Tesla he rented while in Seattle: “They’ve got internet on this motherfucker, I can watch porn while I’m driving.”3.” Read More: http://eater.com/archives/2013/02/05/the-layovers-series-finale-in-seattle-just-the-one-liners.php
Reading: “The Layover’s Series Finale in Seattle: Just the One-Liners”
“I thought it was about time I had a new header more appropriate for a historian. And since I enjoy collecting and dissecting pictures of people grinding grains, I’ve put up this engraving entitled “L’art du fair pain à l’âge de pierre” (The Art of Making Bread in the Stone […]
Reading: “The Art of Making Bread in the Stone Age”
“In January 2012, I started Paper and Salt. The past year brought a lot of new things: new jobs, new friends, new recipes, new books, new travels.” Read More: http://paperandsalt.org/2013/01/19/of-books-and-cooks-5-lessons-from-year-1/
Reading: “Of Books and Cooks: 5 Lessons from Year 1”
“When James Joyce sat down and wrote, in Ulysses, “Her griddlecakes done to a goldenbrown hue and Queen Ann’s pudding of delightful creaminess,” he probably did not imagine that decades later, bloggers in the 21st century would be attempting to cook the very foods he described.” Read More: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/08/cooking-like-a-character/
Reading: “From the Page to the Plate: Bringing Literary Dishes ...
“The Federal (FDRL) is a Canadian design agency based in the nation’s capital of Ottawa. In a project entitled Maple Set, the Federal prototyped an incredible series of kitchen knives made from Maple wood that are designed to draw attention to the high polished blade.” Read More: http://twistedsifter.com/2013/02/wooden-kitchen-knives-by-the-federal/
Reading: “Kitchen Knives Made from Maple Wood”
“The Tampa Tribune food writer Jeff Houck boldly makes the call that television personality Anthony Bourdain is “our generation’s foul-mouthed Julia Child.” Read More: http://eater.com/archives/2013/02/04/breaking-anthony-bourdain-is-our-generations-julia-child.php
Reading: “Is Anthony Bourdain This Generation’s Julia Child?”
“Is your lemon juice really citrusy sugar water? Is that hunk of white tuna sushi actually escolar, a cheaper fish associated with its own kind of food poisoning?” Read More: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2013/02/dont-get-duped-six-foods-that-might-not-be-the-real-deal/
Reading: “Don’t Get Duped: Six Foods That Might Not Be ...
“Hot German beer soup. The History Beer soup! Soup made from beer! And there is no cheddar cheese or Guinness in sight–this is a sweet, German lager soup. This recipe comes from the generically named Practical Cook Book one of the most popular German cookbooks of all time.” Read More: http://www.fourpoundsflour.com/the-history-dish-beer-soup/
Reading: “The History Dish: Beer Soup”
“France came out on top at the Bocuse d’Or this week thanks to the efforts of team captain Thibaut Ruggeri. Ruggeri, who works as sous chef at the Lenôtre restaurant in Paris, devised two preparations for the competition: a meat platter using Irish beef and a fish dish using turbot.” […]
Reading: “Here’s How France Won the Bocuse d’Or 2013”
“Sweet potatoes most likely were carried to Polynesia well before the Spanish took the native Andean crop with them on voyages.” Read More: http://foodmuseum.com/entries/agriculture/sweet-potatoes-traveled-far-early
Reading: “Sweet Potatoes Traveled Far, Early”
“With the Super Bowl around the corner, it seems that buffalo chicken wings may have become the country’s favorite football-watching food.” Read More: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2013/02/a-brief-history-of-the-buffalo-chicken-wing/
Reading: “A Brief History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing”
*The following was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner. I’m always trying to recreate a specific piece of my lost youth: a paella I had while living with a wonderful family in Almeria, Spain on the Mediterranean coast. I honestly can’t remember the details of any other meal […]
Paella and the Reclamation of Youth
Holy effing pig on a pogo stick it’s COLD outside. As I write this post, the temperature outside has dropped to a very cruel -51 F. At that temperature, I think about food quite a lot, but not about cooking… I think about sinking my teeth into greasy, carbohydrate-rich […]
Somewhere Between the Knife and the Pen
Professional chefs know that a meal is a kind of performance, the dinner table a place of theater. So for the holidays I made sure to don my best chef’s hat and draw the red curtain on all my best cooking. Now, with the New Year upon us, I notice […]
Food Culture: a Creamy Moral Center
Just FYI, if you show up on an evening that’s a little slow, and if you appear to be enjoying the food, the chef will probably send over a little extra…
Seuol Sushi Cafe Dessert
Without a doubt the best food in Fairbanks: Seoul Sushi Cafe. The chef is consistently creative, as in these tuna tacos, the food is consistently good, and the service is consistently quirky and pleasant. My only complaint is that I can’t eat there often enough.
Photo Post
(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) Of all the Thanksgiving traditions I inherited from my family, “Always invite someone new” is my favorite. Over the years, this tradition has created some memorable feasts: I’ve reconnected with old friends, made new friends and watched as the “someone […]
Gratitude in a Pilgrim’s Hat
(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) In 1993, I returned from a brief stint as a nanny in France with a suitcase full of stinky cheese. Nineteen-year-old girls should bring home kitschy black berets or sleek leather handbags, maybe even a snow globe with the Eiffel […]
Stinky, Glorious Cheese
(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) People are sometimes surprised to find that I don’t own a blender, or a food processor or a spring-form pan. Recently a friend of mine was so appalled that I didn’t have what she referred to as a “proper spatula” […]
The Heart is a Muscle
According to UrbanSpoon, there are 231 places for me to get a bite eat in the city of Fairbanks. So why is it that when I’m trying to think of a place to have dinner on a Friday night, I can only think of 10 places to eat? Clearly, I […]
Operation “Eat It”
(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) You know you’re loved when someone pit-roasts an entire pig in your honor. During the last three years, Eddie Kim, a poet and the most recent friend of mine to depart from Fairbanks, has become, as another friend put it, […]
Goodbye to All That
(This piece was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) In his book “Street Food,” author Tom Kime wrote to “get a feel for the beating heart of any community, and to begin to understand a culture different from your own, you need to understand the food.” He’s right. For […]
Street Food or Something Like It
Caution: food writing creates a set of self esteem issues you probably haven’t seen since the 10th grade. Once word gets around that you write about food, people start acting funny. When a friend recently heard I was attending a small get together for which he was cooking, he remarked […]
Does This Blog Make My Butt Look Big?
Drinking season is almost upon us. Or, well, the summer drinking season. Perhaps my perspective is slightly skewed from hanging around too many MFA grad students, but it seems like Alaskans drink a lot. I know more than a handful of folks who brew their own beer, wine, or mead. […]
Drinking in Alaska: Don’t Bork It Up
First of all, the News-Miner, our local paper, asked me to write a monthly food column, and I was more than happy to oblige. My first one is out today, a short little piece on Salmon Cheesecake. Second of all, I want playlists. Dinner party playlists to be exact. I […]