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by tvff

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: On the Wings of Love

I’m not a complicated man. I’ve discussed many of my food weaknesses here on the site. For the most part, they’ve been very specific…a particular dish from a particular restaurant or a traditional recipe made in an exact way. But there is a more generic food item that gets me salivating like Pavlov’s Pup as soon as I hear the words.

Buffalo wings.

Dangle the possibility of deep fried chicken wings tossed in hot sauce (side of blue cheese dressing, please), and I’ll pretty much travel to the ends of the earth. Funny…the one place I don’t travel is the owl-mascotted restaurant chain that’s located less than a mile from my house, because Mrs. TVFF doesn’t look kindly on that establishment. Anywhere else buffalo wings appear is a place I’m going.

So when my Twitter reader started BINGing with a tweet from the local bar McGillin’s Olde Ale House — plenty of atmosphere, good food and great local microbrews — mentioning a special offer of $.25 wings, I knew what I’d be doing that evening. McGillin’s may be the oldest continuously operating tavern in Philly (since 1860), but they’re au courant with a Twitter account. Wings, twitter – you got my number, McGillin’s.

OK, enough e-drool. On to the smörg…

in Celebs / TV 7 comments

by BS

The Top 10 Top 10 Food Lists

You know we love our Top 10 lists here at Endless Simmer. So today we’re spreading the love around the web and shouting out the funniest food stories we’ve ever seen presented in list format: the very meta Top 10 Top 10 Food Lists:

10. Top 10 Songs With Sexually Suggestive Food Metaphors: From Tom Waits’ strawberry sundae surprise to MC Lyte’s hot peas and butter, the Frisky brings us the dirrrrtiest food songs of all time. Wait, I seriously thought that “peaches” song was just about peaches.

9. Top 10 Creepiest Fast Food Mascots: Remember that nasty Quizno’s rat/hamster thing? Seriously, what marketing exec OK’d that? And did you know Ronald McDonald used to be even weirder than he is now? Fanpop’s list will keep you up at night.

8. Top 10 Food and Drink Hacks: Lifehacker gets all Macgyver on your kitchen cabinet, with tips on how to build a fire from chocolate and Coke, freeze perfectly clear ice cubes, and open a beer bottle with one sheet of paper (seriously!)

7. Top 10 Sightings of Religious Figures in Food: That Virgin Mary is one hungry broad! Girl be showing up everywhere from grilled cheese to Cadbury’s. This list has her and her boy tracked.

6. Top 10 Uniquely ’80s Foods: Oh, hit me up with some Capri-Sun and California Raisins! Serious Eats has this nosh-talgic list, although I don’t know how they forgot Ecto Cooler.

Next: 1-5 of the Top 10 Food Lists

by C. Christy Concrete

Bobby Flay: Love/Hate

_{Bobby Flay and the finalists of The Next Food Network Star.}

At Toastmasters, they teach you not to start a speech without an opening joke, so:

Q: What do you get when you spell “Bobby Flay” backwards?
A: Tyler Florence.

Get it? Of course you do.

Like a lot of people, I have a love/hate relationship with Food Network. I adore the brainy didacticism of Good Eats, the goofy travelogue of Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives, and the stoner vibe of Ace Of Cakes. On the other hand, five fingers: I cringe at the encroaching blight of cooking competition shows, wonder why so many people tune in to Food Network Challenge just to watch a cake fall over, and if I have to sit through one more factory tour on Unwrapped, I’m gonna hurt somebody.

This week, Endless Simmer was invited to sit in on a conference call with Bobby Flay; New York native, television chef, and host of the fifth season of The Next Food Network Star. A lot of people have a love/hate relationship with Flay. They admire his passion for cooking, drool over his baby-fat good looks, but still hoot when he loses on Throwdown. Like it or not, Flay has become, along with several other single-name chefs, the new face of a post-Emeril Food Network.

Fortunately, we were able to eke out a little insight into the man’s mindset towards his profession and what the world thinks of him:

in Celebs / TV 3 comments

by tvff

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: 100% Hand-Made

Following up on ML’s Table for 12 post, I’ve been thinking about cheating. Do you feel better (more authentic, more accomplished, etc.) when you cook a dish using absolutely no pre-processed ingredients? Health concerns aside, do you feel better knowing that everything that appears in your dish started out at the most elemental level possible? Or are there certain prepared items that are just fine to include, like mayonnaise and canned chicken stock? I just ask because I made Caesar salad (not pictured above) from scratch the other night, and I was a little extra jazzed about the fact that everything — down to the breadcrumbs — was home-made.

So, is it OK to compromise on the “authenticity” of a dish by taking one or two Sandra Lee-esque shortcuts, or does making a dish in a completely elemental way truly add a meaningful touch?

I apologize for making you think on a Wednesday. Here’s some smörg to cleanse the palate.

– A look at Bobby Flay‘s newest cookbook, which just so happens to be part of the prize pack for our grilling contest. Be sure to enter by midnight tonight!

– Two former Hell’s Kitchen contestants, including Robert Hesse, are joining the kitchen at a restaurant in the Hamptons. The post gently refers to Robert as “memorable.” You’ll likely remember him as the giant dude who collapsed at the Borgata. Yeah, that’s memorable, alright.

After the jump…Ray-Ray keeps collecting the hardware, a culinary-journalism crisis of epic proportions and Tony Bourdain takes aim at your favorite grocery store.

in Celebs / TV 4 comments

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– Have you entered the ES/Food Network grilling challenge yet? What are you waiting for? Get your crazy grill tales in now and win a sweet summer grill set.

– Most ESers agree — the President should pardon spicy mustard-lovers. Westcoast: I love mustard. All types, shades, countries of origin — I love it. This Hannity thing is almost as dumb as saying that the reason your titties are all over the Internet is because it was windy and the photos were taken in between the shots you knew were happening.

But Harmony is unconvinced: Dijon or neon yellow, neither do it for me really. I like the hearty, thick brown mustards that have lots of spices.

And NeeNe knows what’s really important: Subway gives you the option of either yellow or spicy mustard. WWJD? What would Jared do?

As long as we’re OD-ing on mustard, over at Macheesmo, Nick (of homemade ketchup fame) is now making his own homemade mustard. Now that’s patriotic.

– Finally, a huge thank you to all ya’ll who came through big-time to help out with my vegetarian cooking dilemma. After the jump, check out what I ended up making:

in Celebs / Contests / Desserts / Veggie 5 comments

by tvff

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: A Dingo Ate My Soufflé

Food movies can be a dicey proposition. Sure, we were able to find plenty of great food movie scenes, but the truth of the matter is that there are plenty of bad food-centric movies out there. Does anybody remember Simply Irresistable? Yeah, that’s what I mean.

But I’m pretty sure that I’m going to like Julie & Julia. Why? For starters, it’s about Julia Child, who is scheduled to be canonized by the Pope any day now. Second, it stars Meryl Streep, and she’s doing an accent. I smell Oscar. And finally, I’m certain that I’ll love it because — as the trailer points out — it’s about a blogger! Once J&J takes off like gangbusters, it’s only a matter of time before Endless Simmer: The Movie. What will it be about? Who knows, but I guarantee strong language, needless violence and gratuitous nudity. Lots and lots of nudity.

Which leads me to my first point in the smörg…

– Padma Lakshmi showed up at the White House Correspondents Dinner in DC wearing a see-through dress. Really, Padma? Can’t you just cry out for attention with an overdose like every other celebrity? Photos NSFW, obviously.

– Two of our favorite food competition show runners-up, Kelsey Nixon of Next Food Network Star and Spike Mendelsohn of Top Chef, are starring in a new video series for Food2.com, the new site from the Food Network folks that features all kinds of original content and social media integration.

After the jump…a less-than-rare celebrity fashion sighting, two pretty boys team up to make America skinnier and the world’s greatest chef sends out for a slice.

in Celebs / TV 2 comments

by tvff

ES/Food Network Contest: How Crazy Can You Grill It?

It’s that time of year again! Spring! Which in addition to debilitating allergies, means it’s time to break out the grill. If the warmer weather wasn’t enough to clue you in to the onset of grilling season, the fact that you can’t flip on Food Network without seeing someone toiling away at an open flame would be a dead giveaway.

Oh, and speaking of giveaway, we’re partnering with the folks at Food Network for a little contest that will let you show off your grilling adventures, past or present. All you need to do is send us your story about the craziest thing you have ever grilled. Have a creative topping for that burger that goes beyond just Dijon mustard? Thrown something on the grill that you’re sure no one ever had grilled before you? Maybe you’ve traveled to the ends of the earth for the greatest grill of all. Send in your story and you can be rocking the grill like a pro this summer with our sweet grand prize:

Nobody grills it like Bobby Flay, whose Grill It! can be seen on Food Network on Sundays at 9 am. And so, it’s only fitting that our winner be able to do his or her best Bobby Flay impression with some real gear. So our first place winner will receive a Food Network / Bobby Flay Grilling Basket, which includes an All-Clad BBQ Tool Set, Bobby Flay’s Burger, Fries, and Shakes cookbook and a canvas bag. To our runners up, we’ll be sending copies of Down Home With The Neelys cookbook and a copy of the latest Food Network Magazine, which is all about the burger this month.

Now that you know what you’re getting, how do you enter? Tell us, in 100 words or less, about your most unusual, unique or just plain out-there grilling or barbecue experience, past or present. While we won’t be fact-checking, let’s keep it to true stories…we don’t want to hear about cooking brisket for Mahatma Gandhi and Napoleon. The story (and feel free to include photos!) should be sent to contests@endlesssimmer.com between now and midnight, Eastern time on Wednesday, May 20th.

We’ll be announcing the winners late next week, so get your story in now!

in Celebs / Contests / Personal / TV 8 comments

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