New Zealand -

by Emily

Breakfast Beer: It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere

We’ve all been there. The morning after a birthday/big game/house party/Wednesday, the harsh light of day beating through the window, you drag your carcass out of bed in search of something, anything that will make your pounding hangover subside, an attempt to take the edge off…then you see it: the can of warm, half-flat PBR on the counter. Dare you?! A hair of the dog can’t hurt, right? Bottoms up and hope for the best.

Well, a brewery in New Zealand says, enough is enough. Time to free morning beer from its stigma as “desperate hangover cure” and into a whole new perspective: elegant breakfast!

According to the NZ Herald, Moa brewery has released a new beer, a “cherry-flavoured, wheat lager,” that is being marketed as a breakfast beverage. Of course, this has simultaneously excited and outraged society. Some sources go so far as to call it “normalising pathological behaviour.” Hmm, pathological? The Moa brewery co-owner makes a valid counterpoint:

“Look at cultures like Germany where a lager in the right circumstances is part of the culture, or Italy where the grappa is used as a morning pick-me-up. Cultures around the world consume alcohol in the right way, and that includes breakfast.”

Beer as breakfast: a welcome addition to the table, or a plight upon society?

by Russell Warnick

The World Cup of Food

Image Courtesy of Nestor Cerami

We couldn’t let soccer’s 2010 FIFA World Cup go by without throwing in our two cents — which as you might expect, has less to do with our feet than with our mouths. So while serious sports fans spend this week debating which squads got the crap draw and which teams are most likely to make the second round, foodies can put all that aside and take a look at our 2010 World Cup Food and Drink Rankings, in which we’ve ranked the 32 participating nations from worst to best, based not on soccer skills but on the appeal of each country’s most iconic dish.

For the record, I offer no apologies for the dishes or the order in which they are ranked—I had many discussions with my international friends when researching these and they have disagreed with me on many—for that, you can leave your opinions in the comments.

#32. Australia – Vegemite on Toast

Usually when there is a petition on Facebook in support of something, you know it’s a desperate plea, and Vegemite on Toast is no exception. This isn’t one of those love-it-or-hate-it kind of foods, this is simply a hate it kind of food. Yes, there are nearly 111,000 facebook users on the record as supporting it, but I’m pretty sure that’s roughly the population of Australia, right? Let’s hope for their sake that the Aussie lads find something better to chow on before their matches in South Africa.

#31. Ivory Coast – Kedjenou

Factoid: the current coach of the Ivory Coast team is former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson. I’m sure old Sven has some tricks up his sleeves planned for the field, but you’ve got to admire the Ivory Coast’s cooking tricks, too. Kedjenou, like many other West African dishes, starts with some tough old chickens and basically cooks the shit out of them ’til they’re edible. It may not be the quickest way to make a meal taste good, but it sure as hell beats Vegemite.

#30. Slovenia – Buckwheat

I task you with something — Google “Slovenia” and “food.” Whatever the result is it’ll surely include buckwheat. Buckwheat, buckwheat and more buckwheat. Could you be any more boring, Slovenian cooks? If you must have a Slovenian soccer dish, I sifted through the ES archives and stumbled upon this tasty dish, vegetarian too — Wilted Greens with Buckwheat Noodles (and an egg).