You have to check this out! Just doing a bit of surfing after reading a SeriousEats.com thread about 'food that brings you to your knees,' and I had to say that their crabrolls are the best along with the fried clams and frappes!
http://www.hollyeats.com/FatBoy.htm
This captures it completely. Old fashioned drive-in with real carhops and those trays that hang on your car...how cool is that?
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Ethics of Eating
I'm not going to say much about this. No long diatribes, no soapboxes, no pounding my opinions, but I do ask you to read this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/us/09sushi.html?ref=dining
After seeing humpback and right whales from an observational boat in Provincetown, MA; seeing their beauty and feeling they've as much right to this world as I do, I just can't imagine eating them.
Some things in this world are just not meant to be food.
If you are inclined...see this: http://www.thecovemovie.com/
and this: http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
and this, if you dare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYKNCN1ESZM
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Really...this is all food!
You must check this link out and look, vewy, vewy close!!!
http://www.boredpanda.com/foodscapes-by-carl-warner/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BoredPanda+%28Bored+Panda%29
http://www.boredpanda.com/foodscapes-by-carl-warner/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BoredPanda+%28Bored+Panda%29
Monday, March 1, 2010
Live and In Person – Alton Brown is Awesome!
Most people who read about food or consider themselves foodies, know who Alton Brown is and some like him and some don’t. For those of us that like him, having a chance to be in his audience at a local fundraiser he did for a non-profit organization was sweet!
As a freelance writer, I have the opportunity to do and see things I otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to or better yet, wouldn’t even know about if I wasn’t out there looking and keeping my eyes and ears open.
However, this event was like the best kept secret in Upper Bucks County and I happened to find out from my boss who lives in East Stroudsburg – AKA, the Poconos. Seems her brother and his wife who are from Harleysville found out and told her about it and she just happened to mention it to me.
Lucky for me, I have the type of personality that could be described as terrier in nature and I keep at something till I get what I need or want. So, a few phone calls and emails later, I had secured two seats in the press section to see Alton Brown in person.
Always a fear to see someone famous that you really admire after having a one-sided relationship with their TV or radio or print persona. You hope that they are all you have imagined them to be.
In the past few years I have been lucky to have seen Garrison Keillor from Pubic Radio International and National Public Radio’s, A Prairie Home Companion and NPR’s David Sedaris. Both were great on stage and David Sedaris was lovely in person, chatting a bit during a book signing at the venue where I saw him. So far, I’ve been lucky to have good experiences, but there’s always that trepidation associated with the event.
Alton – and I call him that due to that one-sided relationship I have with him from watching The Food Network for the past 10 years – was even better in person than on TV. He exhibited his knowledge during a cooking demo, but his sense of humor and camaraderie with the audience was exceptional.
His Good Eats culinary assistant, Tamie Cook and he had a rapport that seems to occur when two people know one another well enough to work smoothly together and spar back and forth enough to see it’s fun for them and those of us watching.
Alton’s overall demeanor was the same as on Good Eats or Iron Chef America, just livelier and his attention to the audience was stunning…Quite up to poking verbal jibes back and forth when friendly hecklers spouted out silly questions or comments, he demonstrated to his fans that the stage show was unscripted and beyond the knowledge he also has a quick wit..
I took the opportunity to write about seeing him for the local paper I freelance for and if you’re interested, check this out http://www.buckscountyherald.com/~Dining%20Around%202-25.pdf
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Poll for Valentine's Day Dinner from Serious Eats
Found this interesting considering it's a HUGE day for restaurants...take the poll and tell me what you tink.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/02/poll-what-do-you-prefer-to-do-for-dinner-on-valentines-day.html
Are you inclined to this
Or this?
http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/02/poll-what-do-you-prefer-to-do-for-dinner-on-valentines-day.html
Are you inclined to this
Or this?
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Cast Iron Glory!
When I was about six or so, my mother had cooked something in a small cast iron frying pan. While we were having dinner, I had to get something over at the stove and grasped that firey hot handle and OOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWEEEEEEEEEEE...was that awful!
I burned every finger, my palm and my six-year-old pride.
Since then, I've never had much to do with cast iron cookware, but have heard nothing, but great things about it, so about two weeks ago, I went out an purchased a Lodge brand frying pan. It's the only brand made in the USA now.
I followed the directions on seasoning it and made breakfast of fried eggs that were really awesome!
This morning here on the East Coast, we awoke to blizzard conditions that has caused several states to have a state of emergency and prohibit non-emergency vehicles on the roads. So, after digging our way to the barn and feeding, I took a few minutes and baked a pineapple upsidedown cake. What better way to beat the bluster of winter than to have some cake!
I made the cake in my new cast iron frying pan and it came out wonderful!
I burned every finger, my palm and my six-year-old pride.
Since then, I've never had much to do with cast iron cookware, but have heard nothing, but great things about it, so about two weeks ago, I went out an purchased a Lodge brand frying pan. It's the only brand made in the USA now.
I followed the directions on seasoning it and made breakfast of fried eggs that were really awesome!
This morning here on the East Coast, we awoke to blizzard conditions that has caused several states to have a state of emergency and prohibit non-emergency vehicles on the roads. So, after digging our way to the barn and feeding, I took a few minutes and baked a pineapple upsidedown cake. What better way to beat the bluster of winter than to have some cake!
I made the cake in my new cast iron frying pan and it came out wonderful!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
No More Whining about Wine!
For years I’ve bought wine mostly based on the interesting and colorful artist-rendered labels, rather than on any understanding of the grape inside the bottle. I've always felt it was too complicated to learn about.
I started out enjoying a screw top Lambrusco because of its sweetness, but over the years I’ve come to enjoy a dryer red and on occasion, more acidic white wine.
I’ve been fortunate that friends have come through with the intermittent wines I have found appealing and I try to remember the labels as I shop and have been known to travel from one wine shop to another in search of the favored vino.
In the past year, I’ve taken to having a glass or two of wine when I come home from work most evenings if I’ve nothing else to do, but take care of dinner, the animals and relaxing.
This past January, Joanne and I took a foray to the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg. It has been decades since I attended while in vo-tech during my high school years and the first Joanne ever attended.
As we made our way through the building to the main exhibition hall, we entered to see the PA Winery booths to our left. Of course, I was headed over, but Joanne crinkled up her nose in obvious dismay saying how she really doesn’t like wine.
Over the years, I’m the wine drinker and she’s the beer drinker, but at some events she’s tried a sweet dessert wine such as a Moscato or a port and enjoyed, so I told her to ask the wine makers for a taste of their sweetest wines and try them.
Well, there we were at 9:30 on a Wednesday morning, pretty lit from tasting about a dozen teeny-tiny plastic tasting cups of wine each. Walking away, Joanne tells me she really enjoyed the ones she tasted. Inside I jumped for joy thinking I may have converted her!
The next week on my raid on the local Wine & Spirits Shop, I purchased a few sweet wines for Joanne to imbibe in with me in the evening.
Then I found out a local community college was giving courses on wine appreciation and asked a friend to go with me. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to, so Joanne said she’d step in and go with me to see what it was about. Now the jumping for joy was no longer inside, but coming out as I was glad to share this enjoyment and experience this learning opportunity with her.
So, off we went to Wine Appreciation: Wine 101 – The Basics, last Sunday and we were fully impressed.
The course taught by someone who has been enjoying, traveling, learning and educating about wine for quite some time and was extremely knowledgable on the topic. The class wasn’t too technical to not understand and yet not so simple as to bore.
The teacher had a Powerpoint presentation that showed information regarding fermentation, grape varieties, maps of the wine regions throughout the world, with an explanation of why they are the best places for grapes to grow. He spoke of old world wines and new world wines and their marked differences, yet complimented each on their uniqueness. A diagram of how to decipher labels was awesome and now I don’t feel like such a dummy reading a French or Italian label.
This man wasn’t a wine snob by any means and suggested that those bottles under $10 were just right for a party in the summer and if it’s a young wine, it’s meant to be consumed now, not in 10 years. He also commented that a higher priced wine isn’t necessarily a better wine, although with some, you get more complexity and the flavor is much more varied and appealing.
We tasted nine different wines: four reds and four whites and one white, sweet wine. Some were from California and others were varied, from New Zealand to France to Germany. All but one, I enjoyed. I’m not a fan of Chardonnay, but even the teacher didn’t like one of the two he had brought saying it was a wine put out before it’s time.
The tasting is so interesting. Swirling, viewing, sniffing, chewing, sniffing, viewing, swirling and really thinking about what your tasting in the wine from using all your senses is really unbelievable.
Some folks were saying they’ve had red wines taste different in the glass as you drink. The teacher agreed it was possible due to the oxygen in the wine. He explained the whole breathing concept, saying if you were stuck in a bottle for months, years, even, you too would want to get out and breathe and that’s what the wine needs.
Joanne has moved from the ‘I don’t like wine because it tastes like wine,’ to understanding what she’s tasting and smelling and that it’s not just an alcoholic beverage to be drunk just for the fun of it.
We have both watched the movie Sideways, which was fun, but then recently we’ve had the chance to see Bottle Shock. It was great for it’s story that is true and somewhat comical, but nonetheless, an important part of the California wine history. For us both, we can better understand the blood, sweat and tears that goes into growing the grapes, working those barrels and putting out a superior product.
Well, for Joanne and I, we are really into this new experience and are planning some weekend excursions to some local wineries. We want to learn more and more about this living, breathing liquid we’ve come to know as wine.
Cheers!
I started out enjoying a screw top Lambrusco because of its sweetness, but over the years I’ve come to enjoy a dryer red and on occasion, more acidic white wine.
I’ve been fortunate that friends have come through with the intermittent wines I have found appealing and I try to remember the labels as I shop and have been known to travel from one wine shop to another in search of the favored vino.
In the past year, I’ve taken to having a glass or two of wine when I come home from work most evenings if I’ve nothing else to do, but take care of dinner, the animals and relaxing.
This past January, Joanne and I took a foray to the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg. It has been decades since I attended while in vo-tech during my high school years and the first Joanne ever attended.
As we made our way through the building to the main exhibition hall, we entered to see the PA Winery booths to our left. Of course, I was headed over, but Joanne crinkled up her nose in obvious dismay saying how she really doesn’t like wine.
Over the years, I’m the wine drinker and she’s the beer drinker, but at some events she’s tried a sweet dessert wine such as a Moscato or a port and enjoyed, so I told her to ask the wine makers for a taste of their sweetest wines and try them.
Well, there we were at 9:30 on a Wednesday morning, pretty lit from tasting about a dozen teeny-tiny plastic tasting cups of wine each. Walking away, Joanne tells me she really enjoyed the ones she tasted. Inside I jumped for joy thinking I may have converted her!
The next week on my raid on the local Wine & Spirits Shop, I purchased a few sweet wines for Joanne to imbibe in with me in the evening.
Then I found out a local community college was giving courses on wine appreciation and asked a friend to go with me. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to, so Joanne said she’d step in and go with me to see what it was about. Now the jumping for joy was no longer inside, but coming out as I was glad to share this enjoyment and experience this learning opportunity with her.
So, off we went to Wine Appreciation: Wine 101 – The Basics, last Sunday and we were fully impressed.
The course taught by someone who has been enjoying, traveling, learning and educating about wine for quite some time and was extremely knowledgable on the topic. The class wasn’t too technical to not understand and yet not so simple as to bore.
The teacher had a Powerpoint presentation that showed information regarding fermentation, grape varieties, maps of the wine regions throughout the world, with an explanation of why they are the best places for grapes to grow. He spoke of old world wines and new world wines and their marked differences, yet complimented each on their uniqueness. A diagram of how to decipher labels was awesome and now I don’t feel like such a dummy reading a French or Italian label.
This man wasn’t a wine snob by any means and suggested that those bottles under $10 were just right for a party in the summer and if it’s a young wine, it’s meant to be consumed now, not in 10 years. He also commented that a higher priced wine isn’t necessarily a better wine, although with some, you get more complexity and the flavor is much more varied and appealing.
We tasted nine different wines: four reds and four whites and one white, sweet wine. Some were from California and others were varied, from New Zealand to France to Germany. All but one, I enjoyed. I’m not a fan of Chardonnay, but even the teacher didn’t like one of the two he had brought saying it was a wine put out before it’s time.
The tasting is so interesting. Swirling, viewing, sniffing, chewing, sniffing, viewing, swirling and really thinking about what your tasting in the wine from using all your senses is really unbelievable.
Some folks were saying they’ve had red wines taste different in the glass as you drink. The teacher agreed it was possible due to the oxygen in the wine. He explained the whole breathing concept, saying if you were stuck in a bottle for months, years, even, you too would want to get out and breathe and that’s what the wine needs.
Joanne has moved from the ‘I don’t like wine because it tastes like wine,’ to understanding what she’s tasting and smelling and that it’s not just an alcoholic beverage to be drunk just for the fun of it.
We have both watched the movie Sideways, which was fun, but then recently we’ve had the chance to see Bottle Shock. It was great for it’s story that is true and somewhat comical, but nonetheless, an important part of the California wine history. For us both, we can better understand the blood, sweat and tears that goes into growing the grapes, working those barrels and putting out a superior product.
Well, for Joanne and I, we are really into this new experience and are planning some weekend excursions to some local wineries. We want to learn more and more about this living, breathing liquid we’ve come to know as wine.
Cheers!
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