Food Media
Our favorite products, gadgets, restaurants, bars, wine, beer, and food websites and blogs.
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Sharp news commentary blog the Awl breaks down Walmart’s $20 Thanksgiving feast, which actually includes a disturbingly long list of edible features for a disturbingly low price. Prices vary a bit from state to state, but in general your Jackson gets you:
• One 12-pound Grade A turkey
• Three 11- to 15.5-ounce cans Green Giant vegetables
• Two 14-ounce cans Ocean Spray cranberry sauce
• Three 6-ounce boxes of Stove Top stuffing
• One 5-pound bag of red potatoes
• One 12-count package of Sara Lee dinner rolls
• One 22-ounce pumpkin roll cake
This is both inspiring and terrifying.
Posted
by James Norton in Food Media |
More like this: $20, media, thanksgiving, thanksgiving feast, thanksgiving meal, the awl, walmart
Friday, November 13th, 2009
The Atlantic writes about an effort to take back the mai tai, a beverage that must surely rank among the most debased drinks in modern bartending. Typically a syrupy-sweet fruit bomb, it can—and should—have a more mature flavor. Julie Reiner, a New York mixologist, makes a mai tai “with aged rum, fresh lime, and almond syrup, with a little Corduba rum floated on top (so the last few sips aren’t diluted by melted ice).”
Not long ago, I edited a story by Nick Kosevich, a bartender whose attention to detail and interest in reviving now-too-sweet drinks (such as daiquiris) run parallel to Ms. Reiner’s; his meditation on the Old Fashioned ran for a few pages and included the following comparison of old school versus new school:
“Much of the modern-day Old Fashioned-related controversy can be blamed upon Wisconsinites. A Wisconsin Old Fashioned consists of 1 tsp of granulated sugar (usually a little white packet), 2 dashes of Angostura bitters, 1 1/2 oz of brandy, and a splash of 7Up. The sugar and bitters are added first with a splash of 7Up to dissolve the sugar, then the brandy is added, and topped with ice and 7Up to finish the drink. This version is then garnished with a flag (a bar term for an orange slice wrapped around a cherry) …
“The classic recipe for the drink is 1 sugar cube, 3 dashes of bitters, and 3 oz of bourbon or rye whiskey, not brandy, served in an old fashioned glass on the rocks with a lemon twist.”
The explosion of boutique liquors and bitters available for sale, and the press received by mixologists, may suggest that Americans are getting more sophisticated about their cocktails. But the menu at any given faux-neighborhood midrange chain restaurant is a good reminder that we still have a long way to go. Once the real mai tai has made it to T.G.I. Friday’s, we might be getting somewhere.
Posted
by James Norton in Food Media |
More like this: alcohol, atlantic, bartending, bourbon, classic drink recipes, drinks, julie reiner, liquor, mai tai, mixology, nick kosevich, nostalgia, old fashioned, rum, Wine and Drinks
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
The Hungry Beast has a revealing interview with Guy Fieri this week that unearths some interesting nuggets. To wit:
1. He owns a T-shirt cannon.
2. He is going on a national tour “in a bus stocked with Pabst Blue Ribbon and painted with flames.”
3., 4., and 5. “He now travels with a bodyguard to events, has bras and underwear thrown at him during cooking demos, and counts Sammy Hagar and members of AC/DC as close friends—no wonder he speaks about himself in rock-star language.”
Whoa. Visit the Hungry Beast to learn about Fieri’s other quirks, such as naming dishes things like No Can Beato This Taquito and Mac-Daddi-Roni Salad.
Posted
by Joyce Slaton in Food Media |
More like this: diners, dives, guy fieri, hungry beast, interview, media, next food network star
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Bruce Buschel is opening a restaurant. And he has some ideas about what he’d like his staff to do and not do. So many ideas, in fact, that he was able to supply the New York Times with a list of “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do.” Buschel is on the ball; witness some of the picks of his list:
“8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment.”
“20. Never refuse to substitute one vegetable for another.”
“32. Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them.”
Buschel was on NPR a few days later, and he had more to say. Here he is on servers touching customers:
“I think it’s not a polite thing to do. I think a lot of people can take it the wrong way. The study that’s being quoted doesn’t mention genders. I’m sure a lot of women think that if they touch a customer on the shoulder, their tip goes up. It may or may not be true. I just think that, again, you’re invading somebody’s space. I know recently, I was standing in a restaurant waiting at the bar and somebody came over from behind and actually physically moved me, grabbed my two shoulders and moved me. And I turned around and he said, the waiter has to get past. So there are all degrees of touching. And some people may get excited and some people may be offended. So I think the best thing is just to not do it.”
Yeah, keep your paws off me!
Posted
by Joyce Slaton in Food Media |
More like this: bruce buschel, etiquette, media, new york times, npr, talk of the nation, waiting tables
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
The brutally obvious nature of the picks in Topless Robot’s “10 Most Beloved and Unhealthy Gaming Snacks” doesn’t diminish the fleeting-if-all-too-real vicarious pleasure a casual reader picks up from hearing the analysis of total crap ranging from Oreos to Slim Jims to that ghastly World of Warcraft Mountain Dew.
On the topic of doughnuts, Topless Robot notes:
“It is one of the few foods you can buy a box of, bring it to a friend’s house and only your most picky of bitch friends will not find something they like.”
Not Pulitzer-caliber stuff, but, to be fair, Combos aren’t winning any James Beard Awards anytime soon.
Posted
by James Norton in Food Media |
More like this: combos, game fuel, junk food, media, mountain dew, oreos, snack food, topless robot, video games, videogames, world of warcraft
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
We’ve got a plum proposition for one very specific food journalist: Come and work for CHOW.com. We’ve got a food editor position open. Old media is crumbling around us, have you heard? And while you’re cleaning your hands of that sticky paste-up goo and worrying about filling the front of the book, or whatever it is print editors do these days, we’re entertaining readers and teaching people how to cook. Which is why you got into food media in the first place, right?
As we say in the job posting, the best candidate for this job will make us laugh. He or she will manage a kitchen, lead a team, and want to perform in front of the camera but not clown around or be superearnest. The food editor will, above all, convey information clearly and directly. He or she will think creatively about food and online media and techniques. Will love to eat and love to learn about food, yet will be skeptical about the old ways of doing things. The food editor will have ideas about bok choy and user engagement and online communities. But won’t use words like decadent and yummy.
We have other criteria; see the job listing on mediabistro.com or CBS Interactive.
Posted
by Davina Baum in Food Media |
More like this: chow, food editor, job posting, media
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
An almost completely innocuous Los Angeles Times article on raising vegetarian kids touched off rapidly updated and at times hilarious/offensive /interesting debate on dietary choices over at FARK.com.
An amuse-bouche of the back-and-forth:
“Vegetarians are the worst. Can’t we round them, teetotallers, religious people and rap-metal fans up and ship them off to Iran?”
“Why do vegetarians always look so unhealthy?”
“You’re an idiot.
Ever heard of Bill Pearl?
Four time Mr. Universe?
Used to rip license plates in half to demonstrate his strength?
He was a vegetarian -- lacto-ovo, but still a vegetarian.
Your theory -- he just kicked sand in its face.”
“My ancestors didn’t work their way up the food chain for me to become a vegetarian.”
“meat carnivores are militant and defensive about eating meat. I mean, I’d agree that vegetarians are annoying, but this thread is more self-righteous and annoying than any vegetarian that I’ve ever met.”
And, of course, you can’t do this argument without quoting Jim Gaffigan:
Posted
by James Norton in Food Media |
More like this: jim gaffigan, los angeles times, media, vegan, vegetarian
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
A recent visit to a normally well-stocked liquor emporium in Minneapolis in search of an excellent midrange single-malt brought this writer nothing but frustration—the stuff wasn’t available at the distributor level, a clerk explained, thanks in part to a booming Asian market with a seemingly endless thirst for good brown liquor.
That anecdote connects nicely with a Telegraph story about obscenely expensive bottles of old Scotch being “snapped up” by superrich customers in China and the Gulf States.
Whether the Scotches (which, unlike fine wines, don’t age once bottled) are worth the asking price or we’re witnessing another Rockefeller Center–style fleecing of the East by the West is up for debate.
From the Telegraph: “Dave Broom, contributing editor to Whisky Magazine: ‘The whiskies don’t have to be this pricey. I get the feeling sometimes that it’s more about lovely boxes than lovely liquid. That’s not to say malt whisky can’t operate in the luxury category, but some distillers are pushing things too far in my view.’”
Distillers, of course, take a different stance:
“David Robertson, head of the Dalmore brand, which released twelve bottles of The Dalmore Sirius 1951 vintage last month, said all of them had been bought within a week. ‘These are very limited editions of very old whiskies. There just isn’t much 50-year-old whisky around any more. We are lucky enough to have some,’ he said.”
If availability of great whiskey is a sign of civilizational power, the West may want to play some catch-up. And if it’s not, it’s still dashed annoying when Zipp’s is out of Highland Park 18.
Image source: Flickr member sashafatcat under Creative Commons
Posted
by James Norton in Food Media |
More like this: china, gulf states, india, liquor, luxury, media, telegraph, whiskey, whisky
Monday, November 9th, 2009
On November 12, Chef David Chang, who recently caught heat for dissing San Francisco chefs for only putting figs on a plate rather than manipulating food in interesting ways, is a featured speaker at the IdeaConference, sponsored by Advertising Age in New York. I’m intrigued to see what awkward badassery Chang will pull out next.
He was in fine form on Munchies, the new food show from VBS (see video clip below). Quick digression: I love VBS for three reasons. First, Spike Jonze is the creative director. And they have the rights to use any Black Lips song (and they make good use of it). Then there’s the cute show Special-Needs Pets, which is a real winner.
Munchies’ first episode profiles Chang. On the show, I enjoyed how candid he was, admitting he’s not the greatest chef and that he couldn’t keep up with the other cooks while working at Café Boulud. But the episode never followed through on how he actually got to where he is now, instead fast-forwarding to a night on the town with Chang and a New York Times writer who’s the coauthor of Chang’s new book. They didn’t seem to have enough to say to each other, and it looked like the producers off camera had to keep asking Chang more questions. When they arrived at Chang’s Ssam Bar, he got drunk and made some food for Chef José Andrés, who responded to a Chang condiment by saying, “Only a crazy mind would come up with a coffee-mayo bullshit.”
The whole thing felt a little uncomfortable and forced, and nothing actually happened in the unnecessarily long 12-minute video. So here’s my pitch to you VBS producers: Just get famous chefs into a tiny apartment, get them really, really drunk, and then have them cook something for you. Of course you’ll need five hot semicelebrities just hanging out at the shoot for no reason other than to try the chefs’ severely compromised dishes.
Posted
by Eric Slatkin in Food Media |
More like this: celebrity chefs, david chang, food tv, media, momofuku, new york, ssam bar, vbs, vice
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Here is a portrait of modern Britain in a tiny, terrifying gastronomic nutshell served up by the Telegraph:
“Chris Pether, 70, was told by his local Asda superstore in Aberdeen that health and safety rules prevented the sale of more than one loose lemon, orange or grapefruit. A supervisor explained the policy had been introduced to protect the public because local youths had been throwing the fruit at people.”
There you have it: Old men can no longer buy fruit because of a prevailing public opinion that fruit is most typically used as a missile hurled by thugs at passersby. It’s not exactly clear what dystopia this comes straight out of, but a number of British science-fiction writers are increasingly looking prophetic instead of merely grouchy.
Posted
by James Norton in Food Media |
More like this: asda, lemons, media, telegraph, throwing food
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