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Our favorite products, gadgets, restaurants, bars, wine, beer, and food websites and blogs.
Wanna see something really scary? It’s freezer burn, and it’s eating away at your family’s precious store of stockpiled foods. And, with garden harvest season on the horizon, it’s more important than ever that scientists get cracking on this serious problem. Happily two are looking into it.
The pair have very different approaches: In Tokyo, Norio Owada has invented a device that uses a strong magnetic field to keep “the cream or beef’s water molecules swirling in liquid form even as their temperature plummets”—resulting in a cream cake frozen to minus-25 degrees that clangs when dropped, but when thawed tastes as good as fresh.
Meanwhile, University of Wisconsin–Madison food chemist Srinivasan Damodaran is working on a chemical solution to the problem. Inspired by the Arctic snow flea, Damodaran mixed gelatin with papaya enzymes to create an edible antifreeze that kept ice cream subjected to a range of temperature changes ice-crystal free. Put that in your fridge and freeze it.
Posted
on Friday, May 30th, 2008
by Miriam Wolf in Food Media |
More like this: arctic snow flea, forbes, freezer burn, media, norio owada, popular science, srinivasan damodaran, the grinder
Fresh draft beer at your fingertips. Not only does the Sanyo Kegerator pay for itself over time, it also creates less waste by ridding you of all those pesky beer cans and bottles. A bit bigger than a minifridge, it comes with a CO2 tap system, and works with home brews or store-bought kegs. It’s also easy to move from room to room because it has wheels on the bottom.
Sanyo Kegerator, $593.75
Posted
on Friday, May 30th, 2008
by Michele Foley in New Finds |
More like this: beer, draft beer, home brew, kegerator, product, products, sanyo, Wine and Drinks
Years ago, in a Saturday Night Live bit, comedian George Carlin bemoaned the dearth of blue food, bellowing, “Where is the blue food? We want the blue food! Probably [grants] immortality! They’re keeping it from us!”
Immortality? In a sense. It turns out that the color blue is an appetite suppressant. For whatever reason, blue doesn’t activate our “yum” response. A clever Japanese company has taken advantage of this fact to offer blue-tinted sunglasses that you can wear as a dieting aid (found via the Food & Wine blog). Pop on the glasses, and all food turns such a queasy shade that you’ll be shedding the pounds in no time.
If you’re dubious about whether blue food really is unappetizing, just check out the entries in the Amateur Gourmet’s Blue Food Parade from last year. (Personally, I don’t think the blueberry pie really counts; it’s more purple than blue.)
Still not convinced? Fine, then. Why not throw an all-blue dinner party?
Posted
on Friday, May 30th, 2008
by Traci Vogel in Food Media |
More like this: amateur gourmet, appetite suppressant, blue food, blue food parade, diet, dinner party, geekologie, george carlin, media, the grinder
The Internet is littered with dead food blogs, websites once full of enthusiasm and goodwill, now abandoned due to time constraints or burnout. Occasionally I stumble on the corpse of a blog that looks interesting and I really wish the author hadn’t jumped ship. 365 Cheeses is one of those blogs.
The premise is simple: try a new cheese every day for a year. It might be pedestrian if the write-ups weren’t so charming. Witness the report on Cambozola:
Cambozola and I have had a strange past. Something about the pre-printed Bavarian-blue cheese label seemed too processed, a little too contrived to me. The name had a fake, manufactured quality to it. I thought of it as a stuck up girl in the cafeteria who had no real grounds for her airs. With that prejudice I avoided even approaching her to find out if my assumptions were correct. Finally, having taken out all the other local girls and needing a date for Sunday night I decided to give Cambozola a try. We hit it off swimmingly.
Granted, perhaps eating a new cheese every day for a year proved a bit too much queso to bite off (either that or the Penicillium roqueforti got him), but I’m a little sad Mr. 365 decided to hang up his cheese knives. The final entry dates from last fall, a short piece about Bartlett blue cheese from Jasper Hill Farm of Vermont.
Posted
on Friday, May 30th, 2008
by Tea Austen Weaver in Food Media |
More like this: 365 cheeses, abandoned food blogs, bartlett blue cheese, jasper hill farm, media, the grinder, vermont
Most people interested in food cherish the sanctity of their taste buds. A recent New York Times article, however, describes parties dedicated to a little red berry that alters people’s flavor perceptions (registration required) for about an hour. The berry, known as “miracle fruit” (Synsepalum dulcificum), coats the tongue with a protein called miraculin, which “acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids,” according to the Times. Even bitter foods like lemons or spicy condiments like Tabasco are rendered as sugary as frosting.
Miracle fruit itself has almost no flavor, so it is used more as a premeal novelty than an ingredient. At miracle fruit parties, attendees eat the fruit, then test a table full of usually difficult foods, including Brussels sprouts, vinegar, and goat cheese, exclaiming that these now taste like, “Doughnut glaze, hot doughnut glaze!” Last year, Jacob Grier blogged at EatFoo about attending one of these parties, and the Wall Street Journal wrote an article that described efforts back in the 1970s to develop uses for the fruit and market it. Such plans were “scuttled,” says the Journal, after the FDA deemed miracle fruit a “food additive” and demanded testing.
It looks like interest in the fruit is back. Mixologists such as Lance Mayhew have been experimenting with miracle fruit cocktails. Instructables tells you how to grow your own, if you have the right climate (it’s a tropical plant). And Chowhounds have some sources to suggest as well.
Posted
on Friday, May 30th, 2008
by Traci Vogel in Food Media |
More like this: fruit, lance mayhew, media, miracle fruit, miracle fruit parties, new york times, sweet, synsepalum dulcificum, taste buds, the grinder, tropical
The deathwatch on New York restaurant Florent culminated this week with tributes from Frank Bruni in the New York Times (registration required) and David Amsden in New York magazine. The 24-hour French diner opened nearly 23 years ago, back when its Meatpacking District address connoted streets running with blood from the neighboring slaughterhouses.
These days, of course, MePa is home to designer boutiques and trendy nightclubs, and Florent’s landlord would probably have been dumb not to institute the rent increase (to $30,000 a month, according to the Times) that precipitated Florent’s closing. But the restaurant wasn’t just another MePa business. Its eponymous owner, Florent Morellet, became a New York icon, a French transplant whose interest in conceptual art and drag made the restaurant a natural hangout for artists. And where the artists go, the rock stars, fashion designers, celebrities, hipsters, and, eventually, tourists, follow. The restaurant even appeared in Sex and the City.
New York magazine offers up this characteristic quote from NYC council member Christine Quinn: “In Cheers everybody knew your name, right? Well, in Florent, everyone knows your name and your drag name.”
Less formal tributes are popping up all over. Yelp users describe their memories, as do the Chowhound boards, and Gawker commenters are less snarky than usual.
On Eater, commenter Pill Form says,
“After Bruni’s piece, I had lunch at Florent and had the delicious Vegetable Cous Cous supplemented with cut-up Merguez chunks. Every table was always occupied, the bar seats were also at a premium, and it was the sunny Friday before a long weekend. It’s a shame places like this, successful by most measures, can’t make it after a time.”
According to the New York magazine piece, rumors are that a new version of Florent might open in the Whitney Museum High Line satellite, so perhaps the vegetable couscous will live on.
Posted
on Thursday, May 29th, 2008
by Traci Vogel in Food Media |
More like this: closing, diner, florent, florent morellet, frank bruni, french, meatpacking district, media, mepa, new york, new york magazine, new york times, the grinder
Metropolitan Bakery is a Philadelphia institution. It’s known for crusty breads, delectable sweets, and killer granola. The latter is not your typical overly sweet, heavily spiced cereal. Instead it’s packed with dried fruit, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds, and filled out with wheat germ and oats for your health and taste buds. James Barrett, co-owner of the bakery, suggests switching up granola consumption by folding some into cookies or scones.
Metropolitan Bakery Granola, $6.95 for a 12-ounce bag
Posted
on Thursday, May 29th, 2008
by Kate Ramos in New Finds |
More like this: food, granola, james barrett, metropolitan bakery, philadelphia, product, products
Writers and artists speak in hushed tones about residencies, those much-sought-after opportunities to leave the real world and head to an artist colony to work on your craft for a few weeks or months. Now, at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California, chefs can have a similar opportunity: a yearlong culinary residency for early-career chefs to focus on the creative side of their jobs, far from the pressure and heat of a commercial kitchen.
The San Francisco Chronicle interviews Jessie Benthien, the current Montalvo chef in residence, and visits the little cottage she lives in not far from the wisteria-covered commons building where she cooks. It’s not all play for the culinary intern: She tends a small garden, teaches an occasional class to second-graders, and prepares dinner for the other artists in residence five nights a week. But, as the article points out, she takes walks in the morning and naps in the afternoon and spends her time reading cookbooks and getting to know the local food producers. It’s a far cry from the intensity of the line.
But what keeps Benthien awake during the time she planned to be napping? A fierce debate over farro versus quinoa. It’s a less stressful life, but food is still very much on the brain.
Posted
on Thursday, May 29th, 2008
by Tea Austen Weaver in Food Media |
More like this: chef sabbatical, culinary residency, jessie benthien, media, montalvo arts center, san francisco chronicle, the grinder
Let’s play connect the dots, kids. Shortly after the New York Times reported on the dramatic declines in agricultural research funding over the last few decades, here are two words that illustrate exactly why that drop-off matters: wheat fungus. (And don’t go shopping for it: Unlike corn fungus, it isn’t edible.)
This specific fungus is black stem rust, which, incidentally, is a pretty decent name for a death metal band. It isn’t new: According to New Scientist, the Romans used to pray to a stem rust god. The fungus “can reduce a field of ripening grain to a dead, tangled mass, and vast outbreaks regularly used to rip through wheat regions.” Thirty years ago, Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, developed a rust-resistant wheat variety that effectively stymied the fungus. Problem is, while it was playing dead, the fungus was actually developing a new, terrifying strain called Ug99. Now, as the Wall Street Journal reported this week (subscription required), the strain “has spread to Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen and Iran. Most commercial wheat grown world-wide has no resistance to the disease.” The UN says that areas in the immediate path of Ug99 grow 25 percent of the world’s wheat.
Ironically, the modern agriculture that Borlaug helped create—with its high inputs of fertilizer and water—may be a perfect breeding ground for black stem rust. To quote New Scientist: “[M]odern wheat fields are a damper, denser thicket of stems, where dew can linger till noon—just right for fungus.”
Posted
on Thursday, May 29th, 2008
by Nicholas Day in Food Media |
More like this: agriculture, black stem rust, farming, media, new scientist, norman borlaug, the grinder, ug99, wall street journal, wheat, wheat fungus, wheat prices
Rachael Ray isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but who knew she was a terrorist? Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin knew: A Dunkin’ Donuts ad featuring Ray wearing a black-and-white scarf has been pulled after Malkin claimed the scarf was a keffiyeh, the traditional headdress of Arab men. In her words:
The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons.
After blog fury ensued, Dunkin’ Donuts pulled the ad, saying the scarf “was selected by [Ray’s] stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial.”
The Huffington Post has a screen shot showing the offending scarf, and Ray does indeed look terrifying. But is her scarf traditional enough to be called a keffiyeh? Similar scarves have become such a ubiquitous hipster accessory that the likes of Lauren Bush and Meghan McCain have donned them, and the trend is pushed by Urban Outfitters, a store owned by a conservative Republican. It’s all so confusing.
Commenter pubius maximus at Salon suggests that changing the term doughnuts to freedom-nuts might help resolve the issue. Dunkin’ Freedom-nuts: yum-o.
Posted
on Thursday, May 29th, 2008
by Traci Vogel in Food Media |
More like this: advertisements, doughnuts, dunkin' donuts, keffiyeh, media, michelle malkin, rachael ray, terrorism, the grinder
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