Trends - - Page 36

by BS

Do You Cook for You or Your Girl?

Ever since Maids asked the women of ES whether they’d rather eat like hungry girls or skinny bitches, I’ve wanted to pose a similar question to the XY side of the food blogosphere.

As a pretty passionate food fan, it’s always bugged me when guys subscribe to the Super Bowl commercial school of thought when it comes to cooking — i.e., we’d hardly be able to order a pizza without the help of a wife or girlfriend. Why do so many guys insist they are literally incapable of cooking? (Except of course, for grilling, which is caveman-like enough to get a pass.) Is it really possible that we males have ruled the world for millennia, but can’t operate a broiler on our own accord?

So I’m not sure whether to love or hate the new trend of food blogs I’ve been seeing — sites like the short-lived Cook for Your Girl and the newish Cook to Bang, which embrace the idea of men getting into the kitchen, but only as a means to get laid. Apparently, being a gourmet chef is now an acceptably manly thing for guys to do, but only if you’re thinking about getting in her pants while making your fancy-pants food.

Sure, they’re funny. Obviously I can appreciate the idea behind Bust-a-nut squash soup. Not to mention Get your chick under a brick chicken. And I’m not above a little chocolate seduction myself every now and then. But are we dudes really so ashamed of enjoying cooking that we have to hide behind this I’m-only-doing-it-for-the-poontang facade? Is there something so gay about a couple of bros bonding over a bacon explosion? Or a pine nut crusted tomato tart, for that matter?

So I’m wondering: how many of you guys only cook for its leg-spreading potential? Or do you enjoy cooking on its own merits? Let’s here from the fellas…

[poll id=”37″]

*Oh and before I get yelled at, I apologize in advance for the heterocentric nature of this post, but I felt the topic demanded it. ES would be more than happy to post a third in the series if anyone feels left out.

(Photo: Superstock)

by Maids

Paul and Yoko Break the Ice — Over Food

Press people the world over are in quite a lather about the historic reconciliation of Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. The two frenemies were brought to the bargaining table around (what else?) food.

Yoko and PaulMac reunited just to plug the Meat Free Mondays global campaign. Okay fine, they probably reconciled eons ago; I don’t really follow the Yoko v. Beatles feud, I just know I’m on her side. I personally have always loved the eccentric, feisty, ethereal Yoko more than John Lennon’s band members. If she can stomach PaulMac to join him in promoting the idea of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by reducing our consumption of domesticated critters, then more power to her.

Paul and Yoko’s idea is to slowly pull the meat-eaters of the world into the land of vegetarianism by urging people to go meat-free one day a week. The Meat Free Mondays site is chock full of recipes I need to try (as if I can follow a recipe…), food porn, and (oh yeah) information about the effect of excessive meat-eating on the environment. Like PETA, MFM also tries to lure us into vegetarianism with a list of celebs who don’t dig on flesh (Judi Dench, who knew?)

What do you think, ESers? Are you carnivores willing to give up one day of meat to save the planet from extinction? And what about you hard-line veggies? Are Paul and Yoko sell-outs for telling eaters they can just give up meat once a week instead of going the full monty? And yea or nay on Yoko’s hat?

(Pics: Frank Barratt/Getty Images via Black is the New Black and Sydney Morning Herald)

in Celebs / Trends / Veggie 5 comments

by gansie

Ask Tom, Answer Gansie: Stop the Bitchin’

A semi-regular feature where gansie gets to pretend she knows as much about dining as the Washington Post food critic.

D.C.: Dear Diners,

We want to make you happy, we want to provide you with great food, great service and have you leave us satisfied and content. That being said, we also like to minimize any potential problems (make them invisible). So when you arrive for a table and the dining room looks “half full” and we ask you to wait for a moment it may be that a server has just been triple sat (three tables at once) and we need to make an adjustment in the seating to give you a table in another section or maybe someone in the kitchen just dropped a tray of prep items, or passed out or well, just about any and everything. Please try and understand we are not trying to make you day any more difficult or harried, we are only making last second adjustments to make everyones experience better. And yes sometimes we fail. We’ll try and do better. Ciao!

Tom Sietsema: Hear, hear. Thanks for shedding some light on what goes on behind the scenes. Tell us where you toil!

gansie: <Relief> Wow. I absolutely love this confession. Well, maybe that’s the wrong connotative interpretation. I love this gossip. Even though I worked as a waitress, I never learned the art of hosting. It’s a practice in politeness, mathematics, politics and patience. I too am guilty of being all pissy when I see empty seats and the host tells me it’ll be a few minutes. With the calm of a dining room staring me in the face it’s easy to disregard the backstage craziness and perform an under-the-breath huff of frustration. Here is a lovely reminder: chill the fuck out or go home and fry yourself an egg.

in Drinks / Trends 4 comments

by gansie

There’s No Time For Frozen

I was totally tricked.

But that’s okay. I actually tried more frozen food in one sitting than I’ve had in my entire life. Learning experience, right?

I got this invite (above ) to a demonstration at a local cooking school. I briefly scanned the details, saw that I could bring a guest, let 80P check his schedule and then I confirmed. I assumed this event was tied to the chef, Trish Magwood‘s book tour. She would cook recipes from her book, the food writers would munch, possibly write about the event, and the cycle of: product—PR—press would continue as normal.

Now, I truly hate when bloggers bitch. Like I super fucking hate it. Food writers are truly blessed with ridiculous perks: free food, trips, wine, cookbooks and inflated egos. I guess that’s the problem in the first place. Maybe I expect too much.

in Rants & Raves / Trends 21 comments

by Maids

What’s the Deal with Eggs?

: Is the Verdict STILL out on eggs?

Have you all noticed the recent trend of medical professionals/nutritional scientists overturning the findings of other medical professionals/nutritional scientists? It’s kinda driving me batty. For instance, a few years back “they” all encouraged us to drink a glass of wine a day to ward off heart disease and obesity and to increase our longevity, but now “they” say as little as a glass of wine a day can lead to certain cancers in women. Granted, neither study influenced my wine intake one way or another, but I get peeved when “they” give me such a good justification for my propensity to sip a glass of Pinot with dinner only to yank away my pro-wine-imbibing talking-point willy-nilly, without the least consideration for my feelings on the matter (or the havoc that this news might wreak on my ability to persuade my tea-totaling family members to join me in a toast).

But the wine thing isn’t the controversy I want to hash out with ESers. My concern stems from the GREAT EGG DEBATE. And where better to discuss eggs than ES?

in Eggs / Rants & Raves / Trends 12 comments

by Lyndsey

Peanut Butter: A Revolutionary Divide

My mom looked down at our floor and said, “What is that down there?” Yes, she had found our large box of peanut butter which we order in bulk online direct from the company. With the peanut butter scare a while back, you’d think that would decrease our peanut butter use, but we have a favorite company, which was not part of the scare, and so our habits continued. We go through about one small container of peanut butter per week – hence the need to buy in bulk. We put it in oatmeal in the morning, and admittedly, sometimes the oatmeal tastes more peanut buttery than oatmealy. Still working out the balance.

There have been two big peanut butter debates that I’m fascinated by:

in Breakfast / Food Travel / Rants & Raves / Trends 12 comments

by ML

Why America Eats Shit

If you’re a tv junkie, you may have seen it.

It may have burned your corneas.

TLC has paired up with Ragu “sauce”, endorsing the product through the above pictured Hayes family. The Hayes star in the new series “Table For 12” (you know, the Jon and Kate replacement, now that shit hit the fan). There’s even a commercial with the busy family, with the tagline “more of the good stuff,” conveying the message that you can eat well for less if you buy Ragu sauce.

I admit, I eat jarred sauce from time to time. But not this shit. Personally, I think Ragu tastes like canned tomatoes covered in sugar packets, which is no surprise considering its third ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. It also contains “spices” and “natural flavor”….what??

Sure, I get it. Ten kids, busy mom, blah blah blah. But is Ragu really that affordable compared to homemade sauce, and is it really easier? I think opening just one of those jars is a bitch, more so if I was feeding twelve fucking people. I’d rather just throw some tomatoes and spices in a pot and let it cook. But of course, the media is endorsing the “moms (or dads) are too busy to cook” doctrine. Again.

Bottom line: if my roommate and I could make a batch of her family’s sauce while hungover (or still drunk) in between classes in our college apartment, so can anybody. Families don’t have to be subject to this torture, not even the big ones.

Who wants to film a public service announcement?

in Rants & Raves / Trends / TV 16 comments

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