Plate It or Hate It
Recent food world discoveries the ES crew is loving and hating
Plate It: Flashlight Grill Tongs
Problem: 60-degree February days means grilling season has started six months early, but it still gets dark outside at 5pm. Solution: Put a light on it! Available from homewetbar.com.
Hate It: Cup-a-Cake
Problem: You need to carry a single cupcake around with you all day, but just hate how the frosting gets all over everything in your purse. Wait, no…Really? Did this need to be invented?
Plate It: Bacon Cures Nosebleeds
A new medical study recommends a method called “nasal packing with strips of cured pork” as an effective way to treat uncontrollable nosebleeds…Quote: “Cured salted pork crafted as a nasal tampon and packed within the nasal vaults successfully stopped nasal hemorrhage promptly, effectively, and without sequelae…” Don’t know what the eff sequelae are, but we just replaced the tissue box by our bed with a box of bacon. Another win for the pig.
Hate It: Foam on Everything
Quite possibly Top Chef’s worst legacy. Yes, we all thought molecular gastronomy was pretty cool when it started, but does every half-fancy restaurant in America now have to serve their dishes with tasteless, inexplicable foams on top? It used to be a problem when it looked like someone spit on your salmon. Guess what? It still is. (Photo: Jose and Roxanne)
Plate It: Funny Food
365 ways to make your breakfast look like animals, plants and dinosaurs? Sign us up! This book is supposed to be for children? Don’t care; still want it.
Hate It: Pop-Up Everything
Another trend that needs to die. When did it become all the rage for restaurants to be low-quality, rushed together, and short-lived? Sure, the occasional tryout pop-up is great, but enough is enough. Take Jose Andres’ America Eats Tavern in DC, which opened as a six-month pop-up and then was extended for another six months. A restaurant concept that lasts a year used to be called a failed business! (Photo: jenny8lee)
that foam looks nasty!
totally agree on the foam thing – ick. But, she says sheepishly, I own not one but two cupcake holders!!! lol my kids love them!
ceecee
http://www.withnthekitchen.blogspot.com
I agree with most of these except that when done right, pop-ups are wicked fun. The problem is that they are done wrong more often than not. There are some really cool ones going on in Boston right now. Staff from the most expensive restaurant are occupying random kitchens around the city a few nights a month from midnight -3am to serve ramen. Another is a 7 course tasting menu a few nights a week at a bakery, and apparently there is a secret roti pop-up out of some guys garage in Jamaica Plain.