2010 - - Page 18

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– Writer and state fair expert Kat Robinson emailed us to take issue with our top 10 state fair foods, noting that we neglected the Arkansas State Fair, which runs through October 17.

While shorter than some of the other fairs in our nation, many original ideas do come out of here. For instance, this year’s preview has shown that we have two items — Deep Fried Battered Hard Boiled Eggs and Chocolate Smooches (deep fried Hershey’s Kisses) that haven’t appeared elsewhere.

Well color us corrected! And hungry for a deep fried battered hard boiled egg. Thanks for the photo, Kat. Don’t miss her full food report on the Arkansas State Fair here. Seriously check it out — barbecued rabbit sandwiches and gator on a stick — heck yeah!

– Speaking of rabbit sandwiches, everybunny loves brit’s report on butchering a whole rabbit carcass. Erica:

by Russell Warnick

Top Chef Just Desserts Exit Interview: Episode 4

I’m still recovering from this week’s episode, so much drama and bitterness amongst the chef’testants. I just love it. The elimination challenge this week required the chefs to make a show piece based on the Lucent Dossier Experience–this felt a lot more like a poor man’s Food Network Challenge. But it did the trick and certainly created more drama in the stew room.

Keep reading to check out who walked, literally…

in TV 0 comments

by BS

ES Chats with the Michelin Man

Wednesday morning was the equivalent of Oscar nominations day for New York City chefs of a certain caliber, who woke up and found out whether they had won or lost a star from the esteemed French food critics at Michelin. (Yes, the same people who replace your tires are also the world’s most feared and respected food critics — go figure.) But it was also an interesting day for Jean-Luc Naret, Michelin’s directeur general, whose job is to personally call each chef and break the good (or bad) news. We caught up with the foodie world’s Santa Claus/Grinch to see how his big day went.

ES: So you actually call each of these chefs yourself? Are they expecting your call?
Jean-Luc Naret: Yes, I call each newly starred chef every year. You never know if they are expecting you. It’s sometimes really beautiful, such as with a chef like Cesar Ramirez at Brooklyn Fare [the first Brooklyn chef to ever receive two stars] who I called this morning and told him that he has two stars. That was a great call because he knows what it means. And it’s not two stars in Brooklyn — of course it is in Brooklyn, but it is two stars period. It means that his kitchen is becoming one of the best kitchens in the world. So he’s going to have a lot of focus on him now and hopefully he can keep it the same way.

But you also do the other call — when someone loses a star. Sounds awkward. How does that go?

in Restaurants 5 comments

by Russell Warnick

Bunny Bourguignon

When it comes to ingredients, I like them fresh and ready to use. For a while now I’ve been wanting to cook rabbit, and after tasting Birch & Barley‘s rabbit gnocchi, I knew it was time I tried to cook the hoppy little guy.

Finding rabbit isn’t easy. It’s not just something you can pick up at Safeway or Whole Foods. Instead, I turned to one of DC’s many weekday farmers’ markets. I took a late lunch one Thursday afternoon and headed out to the White House Farmers Market where I found Garden Path Farm and their one “rabbit” left.

This is where it gets interesting.

At a little over 2 pounds, I assumed the vacuum-packed rabbit was meat, just meat, and I could cube and make a tasty Bunny Bourguignon. How was I wrong!

Continue reading to see what happened, but be warned, the following photos are not for the squeamish.

in Recipe / Red Meat 15 comments

by JR Moreau

Everyone Likes It Hot

Editors’ Note: Please welcome new ES contributor JR Moreau. The talented blogger behind Not So Literal is branching out to share his eating experiences with us.

This past summer I moved to Boulder, Colorado, home of the Colorado University Buffs (Buffaloes). This is destiny because I do in fact love all things Buffalo. Buffalo meat is tasty, Buffalo sauce is yummy, and Buffalo, New York is… kinda cool.

But as I sat and contemplated the awesomeness of anything prefixed by the word “Buffalo” I suddenly felt sad. I felt remorseful that I could enjoy home-made hot wings made out of chicken and other carnivorous materials and my vegan and vegetarian friends couldn’t share the experience. So I slept on it, ate hot wings at restaurants with friends, drank beers and put as much of my spare brainpower into how I could create an imitation hot-wing experience that would do justice to what I love about hot wings. It came to me on a mountaintop, in the middle of a thunderstorm, with Beethoven’s 9th blaring….

in Fowl / Recipe / Veggie 7 comments

by gansie

Another Victim of the High Fructose Corn Syrup Backlash

What can I say? Even a girl who’s tasked to write about food on a daily basis needs a pizza and fries kind of night. And so we ordered a large cheese and crispy potatoes on the side. This would have been an uneventful meal save for the use of new ketchup.

It looks like Heinz has fallen to the sword of real sugar and came out with a no-high fructose corn syrup rendition of their tomato spread. Last Target trip, my boyfriend picked up “Simply Heinz” and promptly ditched its chemical predecessor, therefore crippling our chances for a quick blind taste test.

Now, I totally fucking hate ketchup. (Viva la Mustard!) And, frankly, I’m not even sure if homemade ketchup could persuade me otherwise. But I saved one fry from a dip into a spicy mustard for a taste of the newly enhanced, newly natural ketchup. To me, it still tasted like ketchup. I’m still baffled why people want this weird sweet liquid crap on their fries, or anything. Why is it so sweet? Why!

Anyway, 80, an official ambassador for ketchup, liked the new product:

A little bit different. Less sweet. Lighter. Tastes like ketchup I had in England years ago. I probably could tell the difference in a taste test.

So for now, we’ll have to take his word on the difference. But I did steal a packet that they sent with the fries. Testing for another day. In the meantime, feel free to read some brain washing by the Corn Refiners Association.

Photo from flickr user Maalokki

in Trends 6 comments

by BS

Groupon Madness

Hey ESers — the friendly folks at Groupon are still throwing their hard-earned money at ya’ll.

This week, another Endless Simmer reader will be chosen to win $20 in free groupon bucks, which gets you a free meal or drink at a groupon establishment of your choice (this week’s options will include Habana Room in NYC and Sweely Estate Winery for you DC drinkers).

All you have to do to enter is follow ES on twittter and RT any of our tweets giving you a headsup about this week’s groupon deals (hint: like this one!)

PS – Congrats to last week’s winners, GoGastronomy and ASH811.

in Drinks 0 comments

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