Trends - - Page 49

by BS

My Cupcake Runneth Over

File this post under reason number 10,493 why I’m not allowed to have an office job and communicate with real live co-workers everyday.

So I’m working this freelance gig at a very trendy, stylish Manhattan publication. For Halloween, one of the editors brought in a box of cupcakes from some fancy-shmancy 12-dollar-a-cupcake bakery. I have made plenty of fun of the upper class cupcake trend, but I have to admit, these suckers were pretty great. Buttery vanilla cake with creamy pistachio frosting. They weren’t McAdams-loves-Gosling good, but they sure beat the hell out of that jar of stale tootsie rolls.

Once I finished licking the frosting off and devouring the cupcake, I was left sitting here staring at that delicious empty cupcake wrapper on my desk. I know, I know, you’re saying “hold up – delicious wrapper?!? What the hell?”

by BS

Xai Xai

Not to call myself a trendsetter or anything, but South Africa is so the next culinary fixation. Joining Madiba in Clinton Hill and Shebeen on Mott Street, NYC’s first South African wine bar, Xai Xai, opened in Hell’s Kitchen earlier this month. So I stopped in this week with endless simmer’s erstwhile mac-n-cheese expert, el, who was in town for some sort of conference, about mac-n-cheese I presume.

Despite the confusing name (Xai Xai, pronounced shy-shy, is a beach town in neighboring Mozambique), this laid-back spot is genuinely South African, complete with a chilled-out endless summer vibe, a lekker, straight-from-SA staff, and of course, a lengthy list of wines from Stellenbosch, (SA’s Napa). There are about a dozen different varieties of pinotage (a red wine made from a South African grape), and we had an especially tasty Anvil Road merlot-pinotage blend. Each glass of wine is served in a mini-decanter, a healthy portion for seven to twelve bucks.

Xai Xai also has a small plate menu, and while there is sadly no bunny chow, there’s plenty of biltong, South Africa’s famed cured meat snack. The biltong I encountered in South Africa was usually an incredibly dry, unappealing beef-jerky variation, but Xai Xai’s version is a thinly-sliced, salty product that goes nicely with their sample platter, which is really just an antipasti plate loaded with tasty meats and cheeses alongside some British-style meatpies, another South African staple.

Xai Xai
365 W. 51st Street
212.541.9241
www.xaixaiwinebar.com

More in Hell’s Kitchen: Leon Bakery, Tulcingo Del Valle

Photo: Cape of Good Hope, by me…why am I not there right now?

in Drinks / Food Travel / Red Meat / Trends 0 comments

by BS

Can You Spot the Clone?

Despite all the concerns about making sure everything we eat is organic and local and free-range, WIRED reports the latest trend in meatpacking is most decidedly not any of those things: cloned meat.

Remember that whole bruhaha about Dolly the cloned sheep and all those other animals crazy scientists from Scotland to Korea started cloning? Well it turns out they weren’t just doing that as a basis to create a Nazi scientist-esque world of human cloning where everyone looks like Brangelina. Apparently, there’s already a lot of money in cloning animals just for the sake of meat production.

in Bacon / Pig / Red Meat / Trends 0 comments

by 80 Proof

Aloe Vera Wang

Everywhere you look, you can pay too much for stuff.

Designer watches, cell phones, jeans. Name any product and a company offers a high-end model for discriminating customers. Drinks are no different. These days, wine is not the only beverage you can spend a wad of bills on. 50 dollar bourbons are commonplace, microbrewed specialty beers can run 10 bucks a six pack, and you can’t swing a dead cat without knocking over a new “premium” vodka.

Now I will wholeheartedly admit I am a sucker for small batch bourbon and willingly pay a top price for them. But what I have a hard time justifying is dolling out 10-15 bucks at a so-so bar for a [insert ingredient]-tini. And why shell out all this money when you can make fru fru drinks at home, for 1/3 the cost!

So after the break, I present to you 80 Proof’s world famous Aloe Vera Cocktail!

in Drinks / Endless Cocktails / Recipe / Trends 7 comments

by BS

Persimmon to Land

Personally, I like eating fresh mangoes and tomatoes and kiwis every day of the year, but the latest trend is all about the local, seasonal thing (global warming is so hot right now). Despite my aversion to not being able to have everything I want, when I want it, I have to say it is exciting to roll up to the farmers market and see a fruit I ain’t never seen all year. This week’s discovery: beautiful golden persimmons.

I had no idea what to make with these pretty little things, but they were three for a dollar so I picked up a trio. I got home and started to google, discovering right off the bat that there are two distinctively different types of persimmons.

One type, Hachiya persimmons, are acorn shaped and apparently cause an awful astringent taste if they are bitten at any point before they are perfectly ripe. I am actually a little intrigued to taste this sensation because the blogosphere hates on it with a vehemence usually reserved for Bush and Britney.

Upon further inspection I realized that the persimmons I bought were Fuyu persimmons, which have a rounder shape, don’t cause the nasty astringent taste at all, and can be eaten while still firm. (My farmers market called them Fuji, but they appear to be similar, if not the same, as Fuyu).

After cutting one open and finding it sweet and delicious, though not particularly strong, I decided to mess around and see what could be made out of a persimmon. My adventures, detailed after the jump, are attempts to incorporate this mysterious ingredient into some of my favorite foods. In case you don’t know me well enough yet, that means there’s some olive oil, alcohol, and of course, cheese.

in Cheese / Drinks / Recipe / Trends 1 comments

by BS

Hott Links: Puff the Magic Pastry

Washington Post food blogger Kim O’Donnell made the exact same kitchen faux pax that I did. I think we must be cooking soul mates. Don’t worry, Kim – one day we’ll meet in a flaky, phyllo heaven.

Celebrity hot sauces are so hot right now. [Stereogum]

Hidden between fluff pieces on General Petraeus and President Ahmenidijad, the New York Times Week in Review offers an in-depth analysis of the cupcake trend, asking such soul-wrenching questions as:

– Should cupcakes be banned from school bake sales? (No!)

– Can the cupcake loyalist support the sale of a chocolate Guinness cupcake with green-tea cream cheese frosting? (Bring it!)

– Has the cupcake been stolen from the people by the baking aristocracy (are you fucking kidding me?)

Photo: Stereogum

in Desserts / Trends 0 comments

by BS

All Popcorn, All the Time

Previously on ES, we told you how to pop your own corn, you didn’t listen, and we laughed at you when you got weird diseases from licking those microwavable bags clean.

Now, New York Magazine examines the shockingly high number of top-tier chefs who are following our popcorn lead. Of course, these fancy pants chefs jazz up their popping with all kinds of fatty goodness, because obviously, the problem with popcorn is that it’s just too healthy.

At Aquavit, chef Johan Svensson’s secret is to forget the oil, and instead he cooks his popcorn up in rendered duck fat. (Duck fat is so hot right now – cookthink has a good explanation why.)

But the clear winner has to be LES newcomer Spitzer’s Corner, where they wisely follow Endless Simmer Commandment #2 (there’s nothing bacon can’t improve). Their popcorn is cooked up in pork fat, topped with bacon bits, and then…wait for it….topped with more pork fat.

Bravo. Even G-d couldn’t find fault with such an ingenious use of pig.

Photo: 5 cent ride.

in Bacon / Fowl / Trends 2 comments