Unlikely Words » Food

Phantom cocktails

aaron cohen — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:49:10 +0000

In case you needed to make cocktails more interesting.

Via Stellar

###

Possibly related posts:

List of accompaniments to french fries

aaron cohen — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:45:23 +0000

The things they list on Wikipedia.

French fries are almost always salted just after cooking. They are then served with a variety of condiments, notably ketchup, curry, curry ketchup (mildly hot mix of the former), hot or chili sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, bearnaise sauce, tartar sauce, tzatziki, feta cheese, garlic sauce, fry sauce, ranch dressing, barbecue sauce, gravy, brown sauce, vinegar (especially malt vinegar), lemon, piccalilli, pickled cucumber, gherkins, very small pickled onions, fresh cheese curds (especially Canada), or honey.

###

Possibly related posts:

How to make scones (sexy)

aaron cohen — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:12:27 +0000

I've never liked scones, the muffin's bastard brother. Steve's video about scones, however, I love.

His coffee video isn't bad either.

###

Possibly related posts:

The Knife Maker

aaron cohen — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:07:56 +0000

Here's Made By Hand's 2nd video, The Knife Maker.

Via Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook, this description of the difference between David Chang and his dessert chef Christina Tosi:

In the Momofuku kitchens, where chefs are hospitalized for anxiety-related skin diseases, Tosi is calm. Tosi doesn’t yell. There is no need. She is Samantha from “Bewitched”—she is all serenity, because she knows that things will work out fine in the end. If someone screws up in a Dave Chang kitchen, Chang will scream and rage and tell the person he has no integrity and might as well be working at KFC; then he will have to lie down for a day to recover. One imagines that if anyone ever screwed up in a Christina Tosi kitchen, she would wiggle her nose and, with a magic ping, that person would simply disappear.

Also, Chang bought her 240 Take 5 candy bars for her birthday and challenged her to eat them in a month.

###

Possibly related posts:

Something fishy

aaron cohen — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:54:08 +0000

The Boston Globe recently completed a 5 month investigation into area restaurants mislabeling fish on their menu. The Globe collected samples from 134 restaurants, 183 samples in all, and mislabeling occurred in 87 or 48% of the cases. 24 of 26 fish labeled red snapper were not red snapper, and all 23 samples of white tuna were not white tuna. Interesting that over half of the mislabeled fish were either red snapper or white tuna. Without castigating any of the restaurants, some bigger names, chefs and chains, were found on the wrong side of the investigation.

I'd think the Globe could find other things to investigate for 5 months, but I'd be willing to forgive that if they had at least headlined the story, "Something Fishy" like I did.

###

Possibly related posts:

Michael Pollan vs Walmart

aaron cohen — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:51:14 +0000

"The upside -- if there is an upside -- to having a highly concentrated food economy where a very small number of corporations exert tremendous power is that when they move, everything changes," he said. He pointed to McDonald's decision, following years of complaints from customers and animal rights groups, to stop tolerating inhumane livestock slaughter. "The way the whole industry slaughtered animals changed overnight," he said. "You don't have to love McDonald's to see that engaging with them might actually produce some positive results."

Of course, the downside -- and there is a downside -- to engaging in conversations with representatives of powerful corporations is that they will spend the bulk of the time telling you what their company is doing right. And later, if they do make changes based on external pressure, they'll frame it as if they've simply discovered a new way to be right.

via Is Walmart allergic to Pollan?.

###

Possibly related posts:

Method Man’s Sour Patch Kids commercial

aaron cohen — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:57:44 +0000

Here's Method Man's Sour Patch Kids commercial. It's awesome. If you like Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man, Sour Patch Kids, or awesome stuff, you'll like this.

Via Jay Smooth / David Jacobs

###

Possibly related posts:

Ferran Adria’s other new job: Sports Nutritionist

aaron cohen — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:02:39 +0000

Ferran Adria has another new job. Sports nutritionist for FC Barcelona's youth team. (The other one is at Pepsi).

The Spanish club recruited famed chef Ferran Adria on Thursday to revamp its youth academy menu. The European champions say the former El Bulli chef will redesign the club's La Masia meals to 'foster healthy eating and exercise' by providing the Catalan club's future stars with the best possible diet.

Via Esquire

###

Possibly related posts:

Slow it down

aaron cohen — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:05:20 +0000

Daily reminder that everything is better in slow motion.

Via The Daily What

###

Possibly related posts:

My food stuff

aaron cohen — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:34:03 +0000

Our friend Ali made a video of the pop up restaurant we put together in May. It's only a minute and I'm psyched with how it came out.

Also, our summer project Eat at Adrian's got a nice review in the Boston Globe.

Eat at Adrian’s is part of a motel, and the atmosphere is fairly basic, aside from the view of Cape Cod Bay. The food, however, is anything but. The menu incorporates seasonal ingredients and local seafood, including a sampler of fish charcuterie. One evening it features a pot of cod rillettes, fish pate with pickled mustard seeds, smoked salmon, and fuchsia beet-cured scallops. These are accompanied by a variety of pickles (sunchokes!), mustard, and toasts.

Click through for the rest. Yes, we have a drink called the Honey Badger.

In more exciting news, tickets for this year's Ice Cream Showdown are on sale right now.

###

Possibly related posts:

Back to the start

aaron cohen — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:17:18 +0000

This spot for Chipotle featuring Willie Nelson, it's Pixar-ly poignant. Not bad for a fast food company, eh?

(Via Stellar)

###

Possibly related posts:

Just watch this video if you like good stuff

aaron cohen — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:03:05 +0000

(Via Stellar)

###

Possibly related posts:

For crying out loud. James Brown ramen advertisement

aaron cohen — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:29:58 +0000

Freddy Mercury wasn't enough, so here's ‪James Brown selling ramen.

Via CLiu

###

Possibly related posts:

El Bulli movie

aaron cohen — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:56:48 +0000

El Bulli is closing on Sunday right around the time that a new documentary, Cooking in Progress, about the famed restaurant is coming out. Along with the movie, there are a bunch of interesting links out there the last couple days.

*The NY Times reviewed it here.
*With the closing, the media has flocked and told us about it. This article is indicative of the "My Meall at El Bulli" genre.
*Earlier in the month, Mark Bittman wrote about cooking with Ferran Adria.
*An interview with Cooking in Progress maker, Gereon Wetzel.
*From several months ago, but still interesting, the NYTimes talks to several chefs about Adria's legacy. David Chang:

The fact is, he moved the entire spectrum of food in every direction, so that as a chef, even if you don’t like his style, he redefined everything you do. Closing down for half the year to do research? Changing the entire menu, 50 new dishes, every year? Amazing.

*Xanthe Clay calls Adria, "the genius that inspired a thousand restaurant disasters".
*And an interview in GQ talking about 'The Best Chef in the World':

That title doesn't exist. That person doesn't exist. Certainly when one is talking about the best chef in the world, one is referring to the influence that person has had in the field. If you have a lot of influence, then you're one of the best. That individual doesn't exist, and after all I don't work to be the best, I work to enjoy life. The consequence of that is that you're recognized for your work. I like to be recognized, but I don't work for recognition.

Trailer above via Kottke.

###

Possibly related posts:

Michelin Guide profile

aaron cohen — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:49:51 +0000

I didn't know the Michelin Guide had pulled out of Las Vegas (or Austria and LA for that matter), which is one of the things I learned from this profile on the restaurant guide's troubles in the Financial Times. Also, the Guide is losing $21 million a year. It makes sense historically, but it's so weird that this is published by a tire company.

See also this profile from the New Yorker of the Michelin's inspectors.

###

Possibly related posts:

Ron Swanson on food

aaron cohen — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:38:28 +0000

He seems to know what he's talking about.

"I'd go to a banquet in honor of those Somali pirates if they served bacon wrapped shrimp."
"I call this Turf and Turf."
"Fish meat is practically a vegetable."
"You had me at meat tornado."

Via @Jamie_Bear

###

Possibly related posts:

2 interesting links

aaron cohen — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:52:34 +0000

*A GQ interview with David Chang where he talks about plans to expand to Sydney and Toronto in 2012.

I was there last year and just fell in love with Australia—holy shit, the produce, the proteins, the fish. This place is insane. Why wouldn't you want to open a restaurant out here? We're going to try to use only Australian ingredients, with the exception of some fermented products from Japan and some wines from France.

*What Malcolm Gladwell reads.

Since my brain really only works in the morning, I try to keep that time free for writing and thinking and don't read any media at all until lunchtime, when I treat myself to The New York Times--the paper edition. At this point, I realize, I am almost a full 24 hours behind the news cycle. Is this is a problem? I have no idea. My brother, who is a teacher, always says that we place too much emphasis on the speed of knowledge acquistion, and not the quality of knowledge acquistion: I guess that means that the fact that I am still on Monday, when everyone else is on Tuesday, is okay.

###

Possibly related posts:

Olive Garden Italian cooking school not be what it claims?

aaron cohen — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:01:26 +0000

I don't want to shock anyone, but we may have been mislead. I think I saw the Olive Garden commercial touting their cooking school about 15 times before the message internalized and I realized that Olive Garden was talking about a cooking school to which they send their chefs and managers. I don't know if any of you have been to an Olive Garden lately, but I think they need to take a look at the curriculum. Turns out the school is more of a vacation, then educational facility.

I was a manager at Olive Garden and was sent to their culinary institute in Tuscany back in 2007. It was more like a hotel, during the off-season, with restaurant on site. They would let the Olive Garden come and stay in all the rooms and they would use the restaurant as a classroom for maybe an hour here or there and talk about spices or fresh produce for a minute before going site seeing all day. The only time we saw the "chef" was when she made a bolognese sauce while taking pictures with each of us to send to our local newspapers. Basically, yes, they send people to Italy every year. As a manager I still got paid my salary and didn't have to use vacation time, it counted as "work". They paid for everything from meals, sightseeing, flight, everything except souvenirs. But in return, they sent pre-written articles to out local newspaper with fake quotes from me and a group photo. Also every year when they would run the promotion, I was supposed to wear a special "chef" coat and make conversation with guests who ordered the promotional meals.

###

Possibly related posts:

Root beer is super water.

aaron cohen — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:50:32 +0000

Tom Haverford was riffing about food on Parks and Recreation and I had to transcribe it. If I knew how to use the computer, I'd just put up the clip on Youtube, but this is how I do it.

"'Serts are what I call desserts. 'Tretres are entrees. I call sandwiches, sannies, samdoozles, Adam Sandlers. Air conditioners are Cool Blasterz with a z, I don't know where that came from. I call cakes, big ol' cookies. I call noodles long ass rice. Fried chicken is fry fry chicky chick. Chicken parm is chicky chicky parm parm. Chicken Cacciatore is chicky catch. I call eggs pre-birds or future birds. Root beer is super water. Tortillas are bean blankies. And I call forks food rakes."

###

Possibly related posts: