Tag: Food
What are the 50 Greatest Foods in the World?
by Eva Holland | 09.21.09 | 11:30 AM ET
The Guardian thinks they have the answers in this mouthwatering list. It’s a bold claim even by the standards of the lists-making-bold-claims genre, but still worth a browse.
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Yahoo! BuzzJulia Child, French Cuisine and the Empirical Method
by Eva Holland | 09.21.09 | 9:59 AM ET
There’s an interesting nugget in this New York Times story about the French cooking community’s views on Julia Child. One cookbook author, after calling Julia Child’s recipes “academic and bourgeois,” grudgingly admits that Child’s methodical American approach—she spent years carefully testing her recipes—has its advantages. “The French think that they are natural-born cooks; they prepare a dish off the top of their heads, without testing it,” she told the Times. “In France, we rush over explanations.” (Via The Book Bench)
Interview With Andrew Zimmern: Travels in a ‘Bizarre World’
by Joshua Berman | 09.15.09 | 10:22 AM ET
Credit: Travel Channel, L.L.C. Joshua Berman asks the Travel Channel host about his new show, his book, and the impact of globalization on culinary diversity
Roald Dahl’s Childhood Candy Store Found
by Eva Holland | 09.14.09 | 11:29 AM ET
Call it Charlie and the Chinese take-out joint. A literary landmark has been rediscovered at the Great Wall of China restaurant in Llandaff, Wales—where researchers believe Mrs. Pratchett’s Sweet Shop, the store thought to be the inspiration for Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “The Twits,” was originally located. A historic marker will go up this week, and I’m sure the Dahl pilgrims won’t be far behind. (Via The Book Bench)
‘The United Steaks of America’
by Michael Yessis | 09.10.09 | 10:13 AM ET
Alright, Al Franken. Impressive work drawing the map, but I’d be more amazed if you could do this with beef.
Airline Food Gets an Upgrade
by Eva Holland | 09.04.09 | 1:44 PM ET
You’ll still pay for it, of course. But with early attempts at for-purchase meals largely a bust, the airlines are trying again—bringing in known brand names (Ben & Jerry’s, for instance), celebrity chefs and more upscale options (fruit and cheese plate, anyone?) to replace the “soggy turkey sandwiches” we’ve all gotten to know so well.
So will passengers pay up for new, improved airline meals? I can’t speak for the rest of you, but they had me at “Cherry Garcia.”
Yunnan’s ‘Treats’
by Jeffrey Tayler | 09.03.09 | 10:27 AM ET
In one of Kunming's finest restaurants, Jeffrey Tayler samples the dragonfly larvae, bamboo bugs and grasshoppers
Beef Noodles in Taiwan, With a Persian Twist
by Eva Holland | 09.03.09 | 9:57 AM ET
I love a good tale of food cultures colliding—and this mouthwatering blog post from The Atlantic, about a Persian immigrant serving up his own brand of beef noodles in Taipei, certainly qualifies.
Here’s Davod Bagherzedh, the owner-chef of Laowai Yi Pin Niu Rou Mian (Translation: The Foreigner’s Bowl of Beef Noodles), on the key to his recipe:
“If I cooked them the traditional way, I could never compete with Taipei’s other stands, but if I make it with all Persian spices, I’d also have no business. So I import a spice from Iran called bahorat, a 12-spice mixture, and I add that to a blend of Chinese ingredients. It’s different, and people seem to love it.”
‘Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre World’ Premieres Tonight—He Goes to Cuba
by Jim Benning | 09.01.09 | 4:58 PM ET
Andrew Zimmern’s Travel Channel series “Bizarre Foods” has evolved into Bizarre World, and it debuts tonight at 10 E/P. The first show goes where few American travel shows have gone recently: Cuba. Judging from the description of the show, it would seem that bizarre foods still have a place in “Bizarre World”:
Andrew participates in the Santeria ritual that leaves him covered in blood. He devours the biggest tree rats he’s ever seen, and he discovers how to grow world-class tobacco.
McWorld Goes Local
by Jim Benning | 08.28.09 | 12:16 PM ET
Further evidence (not that we needed it) that a globalized McWorld does not necessarily mean global homogeneity: Increasingly—though it has been going on for years—fast food franchises around the world are rolling out menu items created for local tastes.
Domino’s pizzas come topped with squid in Taiwan, black beans in Guatemala and feta cheese in Greece. In China, Kentucky Fried Chicken sells rice congee, while Col. Sanders in India woos vegetarians with offerings like the Chana Snacker, a chickpea burger topped with Thousand Island sauce.
Pulitzer Finalist Takes Road Trips to Wawa, Sheetz
by Michael Yessis | 08.27.09 | 2:08 PM ET
Hank Stuever spent part of his summer traveling to the competing convenience stores throughout the mid-Atlantic, “a local sort of road trip, a mini-mart epic.” His story about it is odd and kinda brilliant. He writes about Wawa vs. Sheetz:
It’s even a toss-up to which one gets stranger as the night wears on. They come into the Sheetz on Prince William Parkway in Dale City in the darkest of night, and poke-poke-poke at the made-to-order menus on the touch-screens. Touch the picture of the sandwich you want. Touch the picture of the kind of cheese. Now touch the pictures of lettuce, the pickles. Now touch the mustard, the ketchup. The touch-screen system is not merely there to impress you. “We used to do it where you fill out a paper form and leave it in the basket, but people got smart and realized the paper at the bottom of the basket comes first, so they’d stick theirs in at the bottom and then you get problems,” Stan Sheetz says.
Also: “You would be shocked how many people can’t read and write.”
I also love this comment on the piece from JOKR715: “Finally, a fluff piece I care about!”
Frank Bruni on Italy and Eating
by Eva Holland | 08.20.09 | 1:02 PM ET
In a recent interview with the Book Bench, Bruni—who’s just wrapped up his five-year stint as the restaurant critic for the New York Times—offered some thoughts on food culture and social class in Italy. Here’s what he had to say about the Italian-American feasts of his childhood:
What I realized, after I went to Italy and lived in Rome, not in the rural south where my grandparents were from, that the ethos of food in my Italian-American family was a kind of peasant-immigrant ethos. I always thought of it as Italian, because it was my Italian. A bounty of food as a badge of accomplishment. What I learned later in life was that, that’s not so much Italian, as Italian-peasant immigrant. It has as much to do with socioeconomic status as it does with ethnicity.
Ohio: The Burger State?
by Eva Holland | 08.19.09 | 5:03 PM ET
The Cincinnati Enquirer points out that six of the top ten burgers listed in George Motz’s “Hamburger America: A State-by-State Guide to 100 Great Burger Joints” hail from Ohio. Perhaps it’s time for an update to the state nickname? (Via The Book Bench)
A Night at El Bulli, Frame by Frame
by Eva Holland | 08.19.09 | 10:34 AM ET
After a five-year effort, Amateur Gourmet blogger Adam Roberts finally landed a reservation at El Bulli, the Barcelona restaurant regularly dubbed the best in the world. He’s documented his 30-course evening in an entertaining comic strip/photo essay. David Farley interviewed El Bulli’s chef, Ferran Adria, for World Hum back in March. (Via The Morning News)
Berlin’s Currywurst Gets the Museum Treatment
by Eva Holland | 08.18.09 | 1:32 PM ET
The Berlin staple may not have set Alison Stein Wellner’s head on fire when she went looking for the world’s hottest foods, but it remains one of Germany’s favorite sausage variations. And now, currywurst—diced sausage doused in ketchup and curry powder—is getting a museum of its very own.
Some of the weirder details, from Reuters: “An array of interactive exhibits guide visitors along a ‘sauce trail’ through the history and variety of the beloved dish ... A spice chamber scents the air with curry powder as guests relax on the giant ‘sauce sofa’, shaped like a squirt of ketchup while an eco-alley assesses the environmental impact of fast food.”
A Short History of Fast Food and Travel
by Eva Holland | 08.18.09 | 12:04 PM ET
In the Smart Set, Tony Perrottet looks back to the post-Civil War era for the origins of American roadside fast food. Here’s a sample:
The long-distance trains from Omaha to San Francisco had dining cars only for the first-class passengers. Everyone else had to wait until the trains stopped at specific stations for scheduled meal breaks, when hundreds of passengers would madly dash into cavernous dining halls on the platforms. Inside, cadres of white-aproned waiters were poised to splash meat and potatoes onto their plates and granular coffee into their cups. The whistle would blow and patrons would have to abandon their half-eaten meals and dash back to the moving train. The whole indigestion-inducing process, travelers complained, might last only ten minutes.
For anyone else who’s made the agonizing bathroom-or-Big Mac decision on a flying Greyhound stopover lately—sound familiar?
In Search of America’s Most Bizarre Restaurants
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.09 | 10:09 AM ET
World Hum contributor Nicholas Gill lists his picks over at Forbes Traveler.
Finding British Food Around the World
by Eva Holland | 08.11.09 | 10:54 AM ET
I’m on the record about my love of British food, so I was pleased to find the Independent’s picks for the best spots to find the stuff outside of Britain. I know, I know: When I’m traveling, I should be pushing my gastronomic limits rather than retreating into comfort food—but still, it’s nice to know that if I ever crave bangers and mash in Corfu, Yorkshire pudding in Bangkok or a pint of London Pride in Tokyo, I’ll be well taken care of.
Nina and Tim Zagat: Movie Critics
by Eva Holland | 08.10.09 | 1:14 PM ET
In the Atlantic, the restaurant-reviewing power couple weighs in on Julie and Julia, the culinary comedy that opened this weekend. (Via The Daily Dish)
The Hard Life of Los Angeles’ Street Tamaleros*
by Jim Benning | 08.07.09 | 10:55 AM ET
We’ve written before about the sometimes tough plight of L.A.’s taco trucks. Fortunately, taco trucks these days are ascendant—thanks in part to the mobility patterns of young urbanites.
So let us now turn our attention to L.A.’s Mexican street-food vendors. They’ve never had it easy, what with gang battles sometimes raging around them and the watchful eye of health inspectors threatening their livelihoods.
Public radio’s Marketplace recently put together a fine little profile on the struggles of one tamale vendor who works the tough neighborhood of MacArthur Park.
Tamalero Antonio, who sells tamales out of a box mounted on a tricycle, told the show: “It’s dangerous. It’s very, very dangerous. You have to be careful with the gangs, you have to be careful with the police, you have to be careful with the cars. There are a lot of dangers in the street.”
(Via Boing Boing)
* Update 4:16 p.m. P.T. Speaking of dangers, today’s L.A. Times reports that at least 22 taco truck operators have been robbed at gunpoint in East L.A. in the last three months. (Thanks for the tip, Eli.)