Food Blog

Atkins, the Diet Company, Seeks Bankruptcy. Good. let’s all go out for bread and pasta. And beer.

Bad to the Last Drop NYTimes article on tap vs. bottled water.

US rice may carry an arsenic burden “Rice grown in the United States contains an average of 1.4 to 5 times more arsenic than rice from Europe, India and Bangladesh, according to a survey of grains from around the world.”

Demystifying Diet Coke(s) “For those of you who have expressed confusion over the many forms of diet and sugar free cokes now available to you, I offer an explanation, because I was confused so I did the research.”

Sushi Encyclopedism

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I hate post memes. They remind me of homework. I’m really bad with homework. Someone tagged me a while back with one of these, I wrote it, but never turned it in, my dog ate it or something. I really don’t mind the food ones that have interesting questions. Here’s an easy one.

1. Name your guiltiest of guilty pleasures and why you are ashamed to love it:
Kentucky Fried Chicken. My ONLY fast food. I eat it about once a month. In comparison my last McDonalds was over 2 years ago. I don’t know what it is about it, but the craving gets me, and I can eat an entire bucket. When the cashier asks me what size bucket, I say “the one on the roof”. With biscuits. Why am ashamed? I don’t know, they tell me it’s healthy. Seriously, I don’t feel well after eating it, and that should tell me something. There’s lots of other junk I eat once in awhile, but don’t feel bad about (i.e. Buffalo’s Joe’s suicide wings, and a couple of order’s of spicy cheddar waffle cut fries).

2. Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali or Julia Child?
Emeril has absolutely nothing to offer me. Perhaps it’s because I can’t take his show, so I don’t watch it, but when I try, there’s nothing new and nothing to learn. Julia is a legend, and I should do my own sort of Julie/Julia thing and try to make some of her recipes to learn some classics, but I’m afraid I just don’t find them very intriguing. I’d be wanting to experiment and mess up a classic dish like Coq au Vin by pouring a flavoured brandy into it. If her old shows were on I’d watch them. Back when she was on, I was watching Galloping Gourmet or something. Batali is awesome, his shows, even the campy one in Italy with the fumbling buddy are lessons in the culture, language, and food of Italy, I’ve had a great lunch at one of his restaurants (Esca, where my only complaint was that I saw other more important-looking people eating sea urchin, and we weren’t offered any) and he’s the best Iron Chef on the show. As I mentioned, we both worked in the food business at the same time, on the same street.

The pictures at Esca were taken February of last year and are of the Crudo, some delicatable raw seafood, tilefish and bluefin tuna and the Storione, Wild Columbia River Sturgeon with beets and watercress.

3. What do you think George W. Bush eats for lunch?
When not hosting those thousand dollar-a-plate things, I bet he eats something healthy and unpretentious – Tuna salad sandwich and soup or something like that. But then he’s aways out to lunch, right?

4. What is the last thing you ate?
An experimental dinner. Some chicken thighs pan fried in an iron skillet so the skin got nice and brown and crispy, then sauteed in a sauce of onions, ginger, curry leaves and a shot of Tuaca, which is an italian brandy-type liqueur flavored with vanilla and orange. The sweetness and the vanilla needed just the right amount of ginger, salt and hot pepper to balance, but I don’t think it quite worked. I don’t think I’ll use the Tuaca for this sort of thing again, but I might try it in my Sweet and Sour type dishes. The cross referenced flavor and seasoning match charts in Culinary Artistry (a very valuable book for this sort of experimentation) pair vanilla with fruit, fish and shellfish, so maybe it might be worth trying on something like scallops or shrimp, which take to brandy nicely.

5. What is worse on an airplane? A screaming baby or someone who won’t stop talking to you? Yes, this is when you tell your best “I was on a flight to…” story.
Not food related, but hey… My last flight a few weeks ago was filled with the screaming of kids. The whole flight, with several of them. One kid had been screaming the entire hour before he got on the plane in the terminal, and he was still screaming at the luggage carousel afterwards. The poor family of five was completely done for, even the other young kids couldn’t keep up with their little brother. I can shut an adult up, trust me. And if I can hear an adult through my earphones, he or she needs a tasering from an air marshal. Truthfully, I’ve never really had the chatty adult problem. Maybe I scare people. But then maybe I’m why that kid was screaming.

I’m not going to tag anyone with this, I hate assigning homework, but I’ll include the blogs that completed this assignment.

The instructions: “remember to add your site’s name to the bottom and move everyone up one” I’ll ignore since the first one is where I found it, and is a food blog that I need to add to the list. The second one is another that needs to be added, and where I found the first one. 3 and 4 are pretty funny blogs, and I already have number 5, a tasty blog from Sydney.

1. Around the Kitchen Table
2. BeautyJoyFood
3. Rintrah Roars
4. Don’t Make Me Drop My Purse
5. EatStuff
6. FoodBlog

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Byte this! Why food blogs are a powerful tool “More and more, supermarket consumers are using blogs to share tips and information. Phil Lempert looks at this phenomenon” Absolutely worthless article. I’d like to get paid doing “journalism” like this. Editor: “Hey Phil, do an article on food blogging for us. Mention what it was like before blogging, mention Matt Drudge to sound like you’ve heard of or read a blog, don’t do any research or try to find out if blogs really have had an effect on food consumerism, don’t cite any examples or come up with any stats, and don’t bother linking to any discussions or anything going on that might change food buying habits or educate readers into being smarter or more conscientious consumers. And don’t bother giving an example of one of the hundreds of regional blogs that give readers a massive amount of knowledge on food shopping and restaurant choices in their area.”

Why are people in the news media so afraid of linking?

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The Eat Local Challenge has challenged quite a few bloggers to eat nothing but local food for a month. It should be interesting. As for me, at the moment I’m too broke and transportation-hobbled to do the challenge any real justice, but I do promise to highlight local foods within the month, and I’ll try to find at least one a week that I don’t know about or haven’t tried yet. For instance I’ve been wanting to try Casteel Coffee, a small batch specialty coffee roaster on Central in Evanston. I’ll also poke around looking for some of these Illinois Wines. The State Fair in a few weeks has an Illinois Wine tasting tent, that’s fun and a good deal if you want to get drunk but avoid the Bud Tent.

If nothing else, I’ll try my darndest to only drink locally made beer (locally being about a hundred miles, probably including some Michigan and Southern Wisconsin brews).

In local food news:

Four men were charged today in connection with theft of about $100,000 worth of seafood and meat

Chicagoist does a Michigan Ave. Chocolate Crawl

Eat Chicago has complied and mapped the 27 winners of the LTHForum Great Neighborhood Restaurant Program, 2005. Sadly, I’ve only eaten at about 5 of those listed.

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I was just going to do a post on brand new (a couple of months or less) food blogs, but as I compile, I keep finding lots of them that have been around for 6 months or more. I’m just going to list all my current additions before they get out of hand. Don’t feel bad if you asked to be included and I missed you, there’s more coming.Bitter Greens Journal “This blog will serve as a running critique of industrial agriculture, a clearinghouse for info on sustainable farming, and a working manifesto for a liberation politics based on food.” Read the excellent recent post on Chow Hound Jim Leff and the “political economy of flavor”.Burritophile Burrito review blog. Started when a burritophile found himself in Lincoln NE, wishing there was a place to look up the best burrito in town. “Because it’s Lincoln, the closest burrito would probably be in Chicago, but the idea itself was pretty neat.” On the about page the FAQ asks what they think of wraps – “Wraps may be a subversive tool of the Christian Coalition, or Satan, or both. For more on wraps, read Things That Are Not Burritos.”Candyblog “A blog about candy, things made with sugar, things made with chocolate, you get the idea … these are my reviews of candy that I’ve tried recently.”Cooking in the ‘Cuse “Adventures of a foodie in Syracuse and Central New York”Culinary in the Desert Phoenix AZ.Eating New Jersey “Devoted to the great foods of New Jersey”Farmgirl Fare “A taste of country living without leaving home. Food writing & recipes, farm life tidbits, news from the organic heirloom garden & greenhouse, and step-by-step progress as I create a small artisan bread bakery–all from my 240-acre remote Missouri farm”Feasting in Phoenix “the random thoughts and reviews of Phoenix metro restaurants by Seth Chadwick, a native of the Valley of the Sun.”Food Beam “The food i love, the food i cook…”Food is nice North East EnglandGourmet Club SignOnSanDiego’s Food BlogI’m Mad and I Eat “Who says food and politics don’t taste good together?” Santa Venetia, CaliforniaJam Faced “One Man and His Kitchen – Mis-adventures in Cooking and Eating”James’ food “Pictures of my food. The stuff I eat and the things I make with recipes and tips. Plus maybe some restaurant reviews.”Kalyn’s Kitchen “my hybrid food blog, where you will find recipes for truly delicious food that just happens to be low carb.”Kuidaore “Cooking & eating to surfeited collapse” SingaporeLunch on Friday A bunch of guys use a lunch randomizer to figure out where to eat for lunch and blog about it. The random(lunch) script is fun to play with, just enter your zip code and go eat.Once Upon a Feast “For me, food has always been about much more than just throwing a bunch of ingredients together. Food is like music. It can sustain us through difficult times and make us smile, just like hearing a melody from a special time. It is about nurturing the soul and sharing special moments with those we love.” Toronto, CanadaPiggy’s Cooking Journal “… food, other stuff and more food…”Post-Haste TastePotlikker “filling a void in southern food blogging.”San Francisco Gourmet “For connoisseurs of fine dining and exquisite food in the Bay Area”What’s Cooking in Carolina? “Tips for party planning, theme parties, weddings, menus, recipes and decorating tips to give swank parties or dinners that delight your guests with beautiful table settings, floral arrangements and creative gourmet food.” North Carolina.Ya Rayi Our Rai“The meanings of rai: a thought, an opinion, a judgement, a point of view, advice, an aim, a plan, a will. A multi-author, cooperative collaboration.” New collaborative blog on North African and Middle Eastern cultures and cuisines.

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It always amazes me that everytime I update the list I find lots of food blogs that have been around for awhile, that I have either missed or absent-mindedly omitted. Here are a few.

Badthings Lots of things about food and farm choices piss this guy off.

Chopstick Cinema Celeste Heiter’s Daily Adventures in Asian Food & Film. She picks an Asian film, and cooks the cuisine of that film.

Chubby Hubby “Musings on Food Wine and marriage” Singapore. Excellent Photography.

Gastroville Two serious foodies “discriminating evaluation of restaurants in different categories/price points to maximize dining value for distinguishing and caring gourmets.”

The Gurgling Cod Boston

Monster Munching
Dining, cooking, and eating in and around Orange County, California.

Off the Bone

Twelve Two Two Fondue

Viva Epicurea! “Enjoying an epicurean life in Canada’s Thompson Okanagan” By the makers Independent America

Many more new blogs to come.

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