July 2009


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Worst. Beer Summit. Ever.

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Editor’s Note: After a year and a half indulging my nonstop food rants, the veggie gf, Alex, has finally gotten angry enough about something that she felt compelled to put it in blog form. What could have inspired this kind of simmering emotion? Well there are really only two things she gets this excited about: Barack Messiah Obama, and beer. Fortunately, today’s story involves both.

Like much of the nation, I’ve been following the story of Henry Louis Gates’s arrest and Obama’s subsequent media gaffe (sort of) with a fair amount of interest. But, being a big beer drinker and aspiring aficionado, in my opinion the most exciting thing to happen in the whole kerfuffle was yesterday’s so-called “beer summit.”  I love beer and I love talking out our differences and I mostly love Obama (even if he’s currently shirking his promise to federally fund needle exchange – sorry, unrelated Obama beef), so I eagerly refreshed the New York Times website until they gave me the deets I was looking for.

And then my jaw dropped.

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in Drinks / Politics / Rants & Raves 13 comments
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Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

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– Our Alaskan mystery eater was a little easy to guess, but too great to pass up. Where are the moose burgers, Sarah? Good job guessing, Amelia! You win a copy of Trish Magwood’s cookbook. Send us your address!

– This week’s other guessing game, Quotable Brooklyn, had most of you convinced I made up the quote about bacon (too obvious) but those of you who guessed number 7 were correct: “You might not believe this, but I can remember a time when you had to bike halfway across Fort Greene to find a decent stick of organic butter.” This must have been a little tougher than the Sarah Palin guessing game, because even Edible Brooklyn editor Gabrielle wasn’t sure:

I’m the editor of Edible Brooklyn, the main person responsible for, as you say, “the place where the pomposity of food writing and the pretentiousness of living in Brooklyn collide” and I am laughing out loud! To be fair, 5 of your 9 quotes are from one interview, a musician’s stream-of-thought quips about what’s in her fridge. But the point is right on – you nailed us! Well done. PS The fake line is #7 right–or is it #9? I’ve already forgotten!

– Finally, JoeHoya and Alex offer up some currant cooking tips, but keep ’em coming – we’ve got a ton of these things!

in Politics 0 comments
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Artsy Photo of the Day

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Currently, there are no plans for DC to switch to using currants as a new form of currency concurrently with the dollar.

in Photos 10 comments
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Top Chef Masters: Finale Round 1

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Leave it to Bravo to extend the Top Chef Masters franchise and add at least one more episode to the series finale. But hey, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. The final six has been whittled down to the final five and so for the first time all season, we have the same gang making a reappearance. I don’t know that I’ve ever appreciated how important a returning cast is until now. I know it’s cheesy, but I’m happy to see that we’re finally starting to become more familiar with these chefs.

The final champions round consists of the winners of the last six episodes: Rick Bayless, Anito Lo, Susanne Tracht, Hubert Keller, Michael Chiarello and Art Smith.

So this week no Wu-Tang lyrics, no letters to chefs, no rants about the host.. ah fuck it, Kelly Choi still sucks. But seriously, this week let’s just talk food, because last night TCM put front and center what we all tune in for every week: food porn.

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in TV 1 comments
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Culinary Institute of Amazingness

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When I told Gansie I was going on a work trip to Hyde Park, NY (home of FDR) she immediately screamed,

OMG that’s where the Culinary Institute of America is!! You have to eat there!

Luckily, the client had the same idea and made reservations at the Institute’s St. Andrew’s Cafe.

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When we were driving to the restaurant, it felt like we were at a normal college campus, except all of the students were walking around in chef outfits.  And the campus is gorgeous with one building that looks like an Italian villa. There are 6 total restaurant on campus, but I was pretty stoked about the one we went to because it had blooming tomato plants and herb gardens growing around the entrance.

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The food was absolutely amazing!  I ordered the Pan Seared Salmon (medium) with Saffron Pasta and Tomato Broth, Haricots Verts, Feta Cheese, Kalamata Olives.  The pasta was in large ribbons and literally was the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life (I mean I love saffron) and the salmon just melted in my mouth (is that weird?) Everything was seasoned to perfection. I literally don’t know how I managed to hold myself back from licking the plate (which I am prone to do). Well, I did use a piece of bread to basically wipe up every last morsel of deliciousness.

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in Desserts 6 comments
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Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: Food Network Gets Animated

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Have you been watcing Next Food Network Star?  I have.

Well, technically, I’ve had it on in the background as I try in vain to beat my mom’s top score in Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook.  How does she get so many damn points?!?!

So I’ve been kinda paying attention to this season.  I know that Debbie is gone, which means we won’t hear the word “Korean” every 14.7 seconds.   Anyway, the fact that I’ve not been 100% focused doesn’t mean that I’m not pulling hard for Jeffrey.  Why?  Because he’s just a severe overbite and some bright yellow skin away from being a Simpsons character, and I think the Food Network needs to diversify into animation.

Seriously, they don’t have a single cartoon character on the network — unless you count Paula Deen.

Zing! Pow! Smörg!

– Bourdain does Baltimore and a local complains about the hatchet job, saying he should have sat down with Duff Goldman.  Yeah, that would have gone well.

– Food Network is still going gangbusters during the recession despite dips in restaurant revenue.  This is because staying home and licking your TV screen is significantly cheaper than the prix fixe at The French Laundry.

After the jump…so close yet so far with Giada, “Is that Emeril losing at video poker?” and everyone’s favorite Italian cheftestant woos you with wine.

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in Celebs / TV 2 comments
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