The Food Of Love: Oh, forget about music already. What should you
cook if you want to woo a lover? According to Lisa Hilton, it all depends on what nationality (s)he is and what country you're living in...
P.S. Shame on The Observer for choosing the inflammatory but incidental title I've Never Had Good Sex With A Vegetarian!
posted by MiguelCardoso
on May 15, 2004 -
23 comments
Do Most People Even Know What They're Eating? Pork is served as veal; tilapia as red snapper and who knows what goes into sausages and other processed meat and fish products? You don't have to be an observant Jew or Muslim to be worried. How many years have those chicken pieces been frozen? How much
pork and beef have been added to them? As food is increasingly disguised (fish fingers, chicken nuggets, beefburgers) to hide its origins, feeding on hypocritical popular revulsion with animals' existence, death - and carcasses! - aren't consumers setting themselves up for an ever greater measure of food fraud? That is, if they still care. (And no, it's not just an American phenomenon.) [
Via The Daily Gullet. ]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Jan 23, 2004 -
49 comments
Is It Politically Incorrect To Decry The Eating And Killing Of Civet Cats? Is Western consciousness of hypocrisy (due to the enormous number of animals we kill for food) preventing us from criticizing countries, like China, where practically all animals are eaten? Is sentimentality and the protection of animals we regard as cute better than having no qualms at all? I'm sure that the ratio of animals killed-per-capita is higher in the West than in China. Is there any moral difference? Probably not. Why, then, is it so shocking?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Jan 19, 2004 -
24 comments
Hangover Heaven By The Sea: In 1969, Canadian Montenegran
Walter Chell invented the
Caesar Cocktail as the perfect reflection of (and introduction to) Italian food, by mixing tomato juice, clam juice and oregano with Brazilian lime juice and Russian vodka. Canada, Montenegro, Italy, Russia, Brazil, California: is this the perfect multi-ethnic hangover-buster or what? [
More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Jan 1, 2004 -
27 comments
The BBC Is Looking For The Best Sandwich In The World: Can you help? Sandwiches are supposedly easy but, come to think of it,
perfect sandwiches are actually quite difficult to invent and produce. Bread gets wet; lettuce wilts; flavours and textures clash. Personally, I like English
tea sandwiches best; though the
Mediterranean versions are a meal in themselves. But if you had to stake your life and reputation on one fulfilling and tastebud-enticing sandwich, which one would it be? To go.
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 6, 2003 -
63 comments
Of All The Quintessential American Dishes which almost every American makes a different way and passionately insists on defining and even spelling as narrowly and personally as possible, my favourite - and many Europeans' (who think it's Mexican and so safe to love) - is undoubtedly
chili con carne. This website is the first I've seen which
begins to address the complexity of the deliciousness that is
a bowl of red.
Mmmm...![
Mine, I make very Portuguesely with olive oil, far too many onions, severe garlic overload, a full bottle of dry white wine, lots of fresh parsley, fresh piri-piri pimentos, steamed red beans and...sacrilege!...big fat (wild, whenever I can get them) mushrooms.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on May 14, 2003 -
60 comments
The Best Food You Never Had: Reading Jake Adam York's juicy essay on the art of the
barbecue, I was once again sadly reminded I've never had the pleasure of tasting real, Southern U.S. open-pit
barbecue. I have no idea whether it's better in
Texas,
Kansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky or Georgia; whether
pork is better than beef; smoked is tastier than plain... Then I realized there are quite a number of other delicious foods (
like fresh abalone sashimi; Alaskan king crab cooked live; a clam-bake on the beach; real wasabi; smoked sablefish; fresh unsalted caviar; an oyster Po'Boy...) I've never tried. It's an interesting gastronomic category: something you've read about and heard about and probably drooled over, that you just
know you'd love if only you had a chance to try it! So forgive my curiosity: what's the best food you've never had? [
Main link via Arts and Letters Daily]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Feb 12, 2003 -
95 comments
As American As Apple Pie What Exactly? What food is truly American? Professor Louis Grivetti, of the University of California at Davis, provides a set of excellent, discussion-settling answers, packed with reliable and curious facts. (Be sure to click on the fascinating "
Did You Know?" links at the bottom of each of the 10 classic American food groups.) How many Europeans know, for instance, that tomatoes, potatoes,
corn, peppers, artichokes and lima beans all came from America? Not much supposedly ancestral Mediterranean cooking could get by without tomatoes, potatoes and peppers...
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Jan 28, 2003 -
44 comments
XXXmas! Wherever and whoever's celebrating, no matter what your religious beliefs are, Xmas (in the Christian-dominated world at least) means over-indulgence and conspicuous consumption. The standard fare and behaviour, however, vary wildly. Here's a
standard Christmas menu for Portugal and a glimpse into one of Barcelona's less savoury
traditions to start the ball rolling. Just how different are MeFi Xmas experiences? Hey, do they have anything in common at all?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Dec 17, 2002 -
24 comments
Good Ol' Foreign Home Cookin': Mexicans, Italians and other foreigners are just as surprised with what passes for Mexican and Italian food in the U.S. as Indians are to encounter
chicken tikka
masala or vindaloos in the U.K. Americans and Brits visiting the countries whose cuisines they think they know and love must be similarly surprised. Well, purists be damned! Not only is "faux foreign" cuisine sometimes very tasty (less pretentious than "fusion" cooking, for instance), in some cases (e.g. Tex Mex) it can be a damn sight better than the supposed original. And let no one argue these confusions aren't fun... [
Apologies it the post looks funny and full of ampersands and the links don't work: my first no-right-clicking post on a mac...]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Dec 13, 2002 -
74 comments
How To Say Yes (Or No) To British Food: Apart from the language barrier (ably demolished by
Mike Etherington's magnificent online
dictionary), British food has a
dreadful reputation all over the world. Yet people who try it, whatever their nationality, often find they enjoy it. If it's
properly made, that is. Enter
Helen Watson's impeccable and ethnically correct
recipes. And those who can't be bothered to cook can always plump for the many ready-made
goodies (and some real stinkers) now offered by internet mail order firms. The most promising has got to be, with over 2,500 goodies, the
FBC Brit Shop. Unfortunately it's based in Japan and will only start delivering in September. The best of the rest is probably yummy
British Delights. My mother's English so I'm obviously biased, but aren't a lot of people missing out on the unique gastronomic charms of the good old United K?
Oh yes![
FBC link pilfered from the Boing Boing larder.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Aug 3, 2002 -
63 comments
Food For Thought For Serious Foodies And Would-Be Pros: Egullet.com is mainly written
by professional cooks
for professional cooks
but obsessive, perfectionist gastronomes like you and I can join in too. It's delightful and delicious; like a MetaFilter for fussy gluttons, over-curious gourmets and gastro-porn addicts. Today, celebrated chefs
Dan Barber and
Michael Anthony, currently wowing New Yorkers at the
Blue Hill restaurant, will be answering questions from hoi-polloi such as ourselves. My question's already in...[
From the August issue of Food and Wine magazine, where Michael Anthony was interviewed as one of the best new American chefs.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Jul 25, 2002 -
12 comments
Forget the Anthrax, Honey: Eat your Apple Pie According to the NYT's restaurant critic William Grimes, comfort food is making a comeback in the wake of WTC. Mine is cream and butter-loaded mashed potatoes with garlicky lamb chops. What's yours? And what does it all
mean?
(This is No. 629 in the All-American Anti-Terrorist Counter-Measures Series)
Reg: rebarba/pachacha
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Oct 24, 2001 -
47 comments
