I think I’ve now seen 5 Facebook updates where someone has taken a picture of their car’s internal temperature and it has read over 100 degrees.
It’s fucking hot.
What should you do? Stay inside and play computer games. Be a hoagie hero. Or mix a fruity cocktail for cartoon duchebags on vacation. Just. Don’t. Go. Outside.
We’re always down for a good kid-people versus kid-haters food debate here at ES, whether it’s about child menus, kid-friendly cooking or hot dog design, so two items over at Good Bite caught my eye this week.
The first covers the growing debate about whether it’s kosher to take your tots to fine-dining venues:
It seems like the debate is separated into those who feel their dinner will be ruined by a crying child (and thus feel it’s an incredibly selfish move to bring a young child into a restaurant) versus those who want to teach kids restaurant etiquette and believe kids should be welcome in more formal dining venues.
What do you think? Is bringing your rugrats to Jean-Georges a great way to teach them about sophisticated food or a waste of your money and everyone else’s eardrums?
Which brings us to the second item — at least one celeb chef is firmly on the kiddies’ side:
You’ve heard of kids menus at restaurants, but have you heard of baby menus? Tyler Florence has recently released a line of baby food called Sprout and now he plans to serve Sprout in his three NorCal restaurants. What makes his baby food better? Florence says he “uses techniques like roasting to caramelize produce and bring out the natural sugars. The result is delicious, pure food.”
Hmm…I have to say that paying Tyler Florence to cook for your infant falls decidely on the “waste of your money” side of things. I mean, what’s next? Breast milk on the menu? Oh, right.
(Photo: Sprout)
While Britannia’s Slow Cooked Peking Duck may have not yielded all that much meat, it was definitely revolutionary in its originality. The Washington Post even picked up on it. Check out Britannia’s (Russell) shout out in Joe Yonan‘s solo cooking column.
[Cooking for One: Discovering Slow Cookers]
(Photo: Thin Glass)
Longtime ES readers remember when I made cheese for the first time and then talked smack about all the different kinds I was gonna start curdin up.
Um, yeah…I didn’t. I know, I’m kind of a slacker. But I’m totally gonna get back on the cheese cloth train, I swear. Getting me inspired this week is Kat over at Good Bite, who serves up a great step-by-step guide to making goat cheese—pics included—it’s well worth a look for any aspiring cheesehead.
Anyone else have cheesemaking stories to share?
(***For the uninformed, headline joke refers to my favorite Indian cultural moment so far)
Spring is this close and that means our long winter nightmare of farmers markets with only apples and sweet potatoes is just about over. Hopefully, this will be the first weekend when we show up to the market and say, “ooooh, what the hell is that?!”
To help us decode our anticipated bounty, our pals over at Good Bite have launched a weekly column on What’s In Season, focusing today on something I’ll admit I’d never heard of:
You may have seen this irregular, green, leathery-skinned fruit at the supermarket but it originates from South America. A cherimoya, or custard apple, tastes like a combination of banana, pineapple, and papaya with a cream-colored flesh flecked with black seeds. Cherimoyas should be firm without blemishes, and can be stored at room temperature until slightly soft and ripe. To serve, chill the cherimoya, cut it in half, spoon out the seeds and eat the flesh with a spoon.
As far as cooking, cherimoyas are frequently used in dessert recipes such as custards and puddings, hence the name “custard apple.” Because cherimoyas are in season right now at local farmers markets, next time you see one of these odd-looking fruits, rather than stare at it unknowingly, score a cherimoya to try raw or in one of the following recipes:
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If you haven’t yet discovered Good Bite, then you’re missing out on one of our favorite new food sites. With contributions from folks like David Lebovitz, Steamy Kitchen and even our nemesis Sandra Lee, it’s quickly shot to the top of our must-read list. To make sure you don’t miss out, we’ll be bringing you a weekly round-up of their best posts. This week they’ve got:
– An interview with Joel Robuchon, who talks Top Chef, El Bulli and In-N-Out (Yes, In-N-Out, and their photo of Robuchon sitting down for an animal-style is pretty priceless).
– A dish-by-dish recap of dinner at Robuchon’s new Vegas restaurant (think truffles, lots of truffles).
– Plus, a gourmet hot chocolate taste test.
