A trip to Ella’s had me thinking up a homemade version of their menu item called “The Roots.” The original dish is a combination of oven roasted sweet potato, shallots, pearl onions, pecans, mild chilies and herbs drizzled with balsamic reduction and crumbled feta. The problem with this dish is that the sweet potatoes, balsamic and pecans make it too sweet for my sensitive taste [...]
Sole is no stranger to the rap game. He put out his first vinyl at age 16, appeared in magazines like Playboy, Spin and Rolling Stone, launched a record label in ’98 (Anticon), avoided releasing solo albums for seven years, left said record label due to “ideological business differences” in 2010 and helped spearhead the alternative hip-hope genre. The man best known for his far [...]
Zo, a frequent reader of this blog, sent me this Borgore track (from the newest EP) which includes the lines “I want to eat the whole cake, I’m not sharing” and “you should’ve learned bitches love cake.” In the note that went with it Zo suggested that someday a cake will be baked and it will be eaten so fast that even the recipe will [...]
Florida has an ant infestation like none I’ve ever seen before. We are talking mounds the size of a coconut, jutting up one after another like a miniature version of the Rocky Mountains. Normally these guys don’t bother me. But during the last few days, ever since that messy Debby came to town, these little creatures have been seeking out higher and dryer ground. I’ve [...]
One of the earliest food memories I have is my mom cooking up a Philly style cheesesteak in our kitchen. The room sizzled with the smell of crisping meat and melting cheese that would eventually be dispatched to a crusty, long roll. I would burn my tongue just to get the sandwich right as it came out of the pan. I knew no other meat sandwich. [...]
My first four months in Florida, which occurred back in 2004, were everything I dreamed they’d be. Those days were filled with girls in bikinis, beach trips, drinking margaritas by the pool and the best damn pizza I’ve ever tasted. Alright, I’m lying. Except for the pizza thing. In actuality my first four months consisted of overzealous campus police, stolen car stereos and hurricanes. Lots [...]
After my experience with pomegranate gastrique I was left with two things. First, there was a half bottle of pomegranate juice in my refrigerator that needed to be used. Second, I wanted to give the gastrique process another go so I could begin honing my skills for the gastrique world championships. I’m going to rule that s**t. Somewhere in the space/time/minus the vinegar continuum that [...]
According to their press release Zucchini Drive artists Marcus Graap and Tom De Geeter have a “knack for cooking up surprising music from unlikely ingredients.” Their new track “Jaguar Sky” certainly fits this mold. Starting with a low key, forlorn beginning the listener initially feels like four minutes of this and I might kill myself (from depression, not the music sucking). But something as simple [...]
Like an accountant at a sleazy multinational corporation I am, every so often, consumed by the desire to cook my books. Not in the idiomatic way that society has come to appreciate that term but in a more literal way. I read a book, it talks about food, I want to make it. Not every book has a strong connection with food. Some scarcely mention [...]
