May 2005 Archives

Interesting story in Slate by David Plotz, who fulfilled a dream by visiting some of the great BBQ centers of the U.S. Thanks to Jason for the link.

He came home with a great story and a 4 digit cholesterol level but it was worth it. Check it out.

Thursday, June 2nd is the deadline for the latest Food Fight™. Rules and judging criteria are here.

Hopefully you got a few good shots of your Memorial Day's BBQ! If you weren't able to keep the wolves from your dish while you went for the camera, there's still time to whip something up today or tomorrow. Remember, good closeups of your dish are what gets the "drool factor" high enough to win. Good luck!!!

Photo: AP, from an AP article.

Okay, this is nuts. For hundreds of years now, citizens and ambulance drivers have gathered in the hills of Gloucestershire to watch a bunch of idiots roll down a steep 640 foot long hill chasing a round, 8 pound hunk of cheese towards the finish line.

This year's winner Chris Anderson, a 17 year old local lunatic said as he lay on a stretcher caressing his winnings like Paris Hilton fondles a dividend check:

"The pain was worth it," Anderson said. "This cheese is going straight in a cupboard when I get home. It's definitely not for eating."

Lots more information, video and more pictures here.

I made this for some vegetarian friends this weekend. It was a huge hit, so I thought I'd share it. It's a simple way to complement a simple grilled piece of meat or fish for a weekday meal, too. Lots of ways to vary this too, feel free to customize as you see fit.

It has quite a few ingredients, so the recipe is in the extended entry.

Well, I thought I was done posting for the day but here's a bonus, because I give 'til it hurts. From the AP and Yahoo news:

Eric Anduri was charged with misdemeanor battery for throwing a cup of beer at Jason Giambi on May 14th. Giambi, whose reception in Oakland has been frosty at best since becoming a Yankee, refused to press charges but the local DA has proceeded anyway.

``We have enough other witnesses to proceed with the case,'' Deputy District Attorney Paul Pinney said.

A misdemeanor battery charge ``can be any kind of harmful or offensive touching. You can spit on somebody and that can be battery,'' Pinney added.

I think they're missing the larger issue here. This guy wasted a beer! What's up with that?

Hangin's too good for him, I say...

I'm really looking forward to this long weekend. We've really been busting butt getting the new Desert Island Foods.com site ready to launch by June 10th. A big shout-out to the graphics gurus at Bonilla Design and programming ace Gary at iBlue Interactive for their hard work and serious expertise.

I expect to have Survival Spice™, DIF T-Shirts and maybe a few other new items in stock by then, so please keep it in mind when you're planning your Father's Day gifts!

Have a great weekend, and please take a minute to remember what it's all about, too.

Now get grilling!!!!

Just a reminder, the deadline for the latest Food Fight™ is June 2nd. Rules and judging criteria are here.

We're getting some good entries in again and I hope to get some great Memorial Day entries so keep your cameras handy while you're cooking this weekend! Remember, good closeups of your dish are what gets the "drool factor" high enough to win. Good luck!!!

Happy Friday, everyone. Quite a few new readers have stopped by in the last few days, welcome! Here's a joke that was in the email yesterday, thanks to Jerry for sharing:

Butt Measurement

A man and his wife were working in their garden one
day and the man looks over at his wife and says:
"Your butt is getting really big, I mean really big.

I bet your butt is bigger than the barbecue."
With that he proceeded to get a measuring tape and
measure the grill and then went over to where his wife
was working and measured his wife's bottom.

"Yes, I was right, your butt is two inches wider than
the barbecue!!!"
The woman chose to ignore her husband.

Later that night in bed, the husband is feeling
frisky.

He makes some advances towards his wife who
completely brushes him off.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

She answers: "Do you really think I'm going to fire up
this big-a$$ grill for one little weenie?

Hee hee...

BTW, the pork butt in the picture above (pun absolutely intended) was made by rubbing with Survival Spice™ and then smoked in hickory for 4 hours, then finished in a 250º oven until it fell apart.

Norma Lyon, known to Iowans as The Butter Cow Lady, is famous for her life-like butter sculptures.

This year's entry for the Iowa State Fair- Tiger Woods.

A major fan of Tiger's, she plans to model him beside a real Tiger, according to the AP:

"I've watched when he hasn't played, but it's not near as fun," she said.

This may sound politically incorrect, but didn't she read "Little Black Sambo?" All the tigers turn into butter.

UPDATE: I felt a little uncomfortable making the "Little Black Sambo" association, so I did a little Googling. Here's an interesting wiki about the history of the word and the book. Interesting that it was set in India and that the butter is actually ghee, which is clarified butter that is then browned.

Spaghetti arrabiata with hot Italian sausage, red peppers, onions, tomato and organic thyme, oregano and torn basil, topped with grated Parmesan cheese.

A lot of people are intimidated with making pasta dishes like this because they haven't learned how to make a simple pan sauce. It's important to know how to do this, it's so much simpler than making tomato sauce.

Once you've sauteéd your meat and veg, deglaze with a 1/4 C or so of white wine (I keep a bottle of leftover wine in the fridge specifically for this), and gently stir to incorporate the browned bits in the pan. Note I said browned, not blackened, if you've scorched anything get the nasty bits out before you start your sauce.

Once you've done this, add a 1/2 C of stock and 2 chopped Roma tomatoes, whatever fresh herbs you want to use and simmer a few minutes. Taste for seasoning and add crushed red peppers, salt and pepper accordingly. Add your cooked 1/2 pound of pasta, give it a few minutes to come together and plate it up with some grated Parmesan.

A quick time-saver I want to make sure you know about. If you're cooking pasta for 2, cook the whole pound and save 1/2 of it, lightly oiled in a 1 quart zip-lock bag for later in the week. It will hold for days like this and it makes for a quick second meal, which is what I did here. Actually, I made this whole meal from leftovers, we had the sausage, peppers and onions earlier in the week so this whole dish took less than 10 minutes. Gotta love that...

So, what did you have for dinner last night?

Okay, this is marginally about food but I found the picture fascinating. There can't possibly be a bone in her body, can there?

Very cool Yahoo slide show. Lots of cool pictures to kill a few minutes.

Agata e Romeo, one of the hottest restaurants in Rome, was recently left in the cold by Bill Clinton, who had made a lunch reservation for 18 and then failed to turn up, according to The Scotsman:

Yesterday, a waiter at the restaurant said: "We had a call from one of his security team making the reservation and then a visit to check out the place.

"It was all confirmed and the boss even ordered in more food and wine - he spent an extra £1,000, but he [Clinton] never turned up.

"The boss was furious as he didn't even have the decency to cancel. When he called the security guard to find out what was happening he said 'change of plan' and just put the phone down."

Last night, Mr Caraccio said: "The story is true, but I don't really want to comment any further.

Mr. Caraccio is considering a lawsuit but going after a high profile celeb is probably not a smart move in the long run, I would think.

Via the AP:

Dorothy Densmore, an 86 year old woman from Charlotte, N.C. was arrested after she called 911 repeatedly last Sunday.

Why did she call? Because a pizza parlor refused to deliver a pizza to her, calling her "a crazy old coot."

She continued to call 911 even after being warned to stop, and after attacking the investigating officer was charged with 911 abuse and resisting a police officer.

She's either completely off her rocker or it's really good pizza...

Thurl Ravenscroft, whose name you may not recognize but was known throughout the world as the voice of Tony the Tiger, died in California of prostate cancer Sunday at age 91.

A terrific singer, he also sang the classic song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", though was never credited for his work. He also did a lot of work for Disney amusement park rides like "Pirates of the Caribbean".

For more about this talented man's life, click here and here.

(Photo:PRN)

Coor's has introduced the "Cooler Box", an 18-pack of Coors or Coors Light plastic bottles in a plastic box that can be iced down by removing the top of the packaging.

I think this is a great idea but isn't Coors from Colorado via Molson's in Toronto? What in the world is a Pittsburgh company doing helping to shill Coors and not Iron City? Because if you could get IC cold enough, it might be drinkable.

Okay, maybe not. But I do like a cold Rolling Rock once in a while.

Blogging is thirsty work. What time is it, anyway?...

Here's a link to a guy who's doing a good job educating home cooks. Check out The Reluctant Gourmet when you get a chance, there's some good basic information and recipes there.

(Photo: AFP)

French biologist Pascal Commenil has introduced a new wrinkle into the high end cosmetics industry- a face cream made from grapes.

In an AFP story, Commenil hopes discriminating consumers will want to 'save face' by paying $130 per jar of the fruity goo, which he justifies by the fact that it takes 10,000 pounds of grapes to make a pound of product.

Is he nuts? This may be sour grapes, but can't they make Champagne with those? Judging by the look on his face, I hope it works better than it tastes...

This may be a new record, I managed to work in at least one bad pun per paragraph. Please forgive me for not leaving them to 'wither on the vine'... Feel free to groan in the comments, I probably deserve it. Probably.

VS.

I got an email last week asking me about mixers, so here's my opinion on Hobart vs. Kitchen Aid:

Basically, I think the Hobart is a better way to go than a Kitchen Aid for "power" bakers but the Kitchen Aid does well for the average home cook.

The Hobart has a much better single speed motor with gears to change between the 3 speeds. Think of it as a manual transmission, you have to stop the mixer to change speeds but it has a much higher top speed than other home mixers and when you're in a hurry it makes all the difference. They're naturally more expensive but a terrific investment if you're thinking long term. You can find out more about them here.

Most Kitchen Aid models out there have 5 or 6 speeds and have a lot of available attachments. It's not nearly as robust as the Hobart, though, and I have a real beef with its ability to scrape the bottom of a mixture. The Hobart kicks its butt in that regard.

So which one is for you? I'm a Hobart guy but I own a KA that I got as a gift and it works okay. It does a lot of things but to me it doesn't do an amazing job doing any of them. I've used a lot of Hobarts over the years in professional kitchens and I have to say you see a lot of the home Kitchen Aids used in restaurants these days because it's a cheap way to add extra mixers for small stuff.

I hope this helps. Anyone else have an opinion to share or any buying tips? Leave them in the comments.

Grill it up, folks! The new Desert Island Foods.com website should be live around June 10th, just in time to get your Survival Spice™ orders in for Father's Day! We should have T-shirts and maybe a few other products "on the shelf" too, so keep us in mind when buying the perfect gift for Dad!

And don't forget about the latest Food Fight, which will end June 2nd.

A Seoul restaurant owner has certainly made the best of a bad situation.

Six elephants escaped from a local zoo and when 3 of them crashed through the window of a restaurant owned by Keum Taek-hoon on April 20, completely trashing the place, eating whatever they could get their trunks on, Keum schrewdly realized the marketing potential. Using the insurance money, she changed the eatery to an elephant theme. Via Reuters:

Keum said patrons have been heading to her newly reopened restaurant out of curiosity and sales have doubled.

"What can I say about the elephants? Thank you for causing the trouble? Well, that just might be right," Keum said.

Okay, this is a little too cute for me but it's a slow news day.

Noodles & Company, a Colorado-based restaurant chain in 10 states I'd frankly never heard of that features noodle-based dishes (oddly enough!), ran a "National Asparagus Queen" contest. It's hard to believe that Donald Trump hasn't gotten ahold of this one yet.

This year's winner is Allison Doyle From Brookfield, Wisconsin, who beat a field of 7,500 entries More information about Allison and the contest is here.

Have a great weekend, everyone. And remember to get your Food Fight™ entries in!

I was asked recently what the difference is between macerate and marinate. There are varying interpretations in the cooking world, but here's what I was taught in culinary school smashed up with my own opinion:

While both involve soaking something in a liquid to impart the flavor of the liquid, marinating is generally done under refrigeration and can frequently involve an acidic element in the liquid, which will tenderize and begin to 'cook' the meat or whatever is being marinated. You should be aware of this, especially if you intend to marinate overnight or even longer. Doing this with potentially tough cuts of meat such as flank steak will make your next London Broil much more tender.

Macerating is done at room temperature. It most frequently involves fruits and vegetables in liquid, but macerating also refers to a technique to draw out moisture using salt or sugar. It's a good idea to salt eggplant, for example, fairly heavily for an hour before using if you want to remove some of the bitterness. As the salt enters, it bursts the cells of the eggplant, releasing moisture. Make sure you wipe off unabsorbed salt and press out the remaining liquid before breading or grilling.

Sugar is also a powerful macerating agent. Try adding sugar to shredded cabbage before making coleslaw. Let it macerate for an hour or so, pouring off the liquid that leeches from the cabbage. Your cabbage will absorb much more of whatever dressing you add later and you won't get that watery mess you see frequently. You can and should also do this with apples or other fruit before making pies.

I hope that helps. If you have any other questions about cooking techniques or food science, email me. I'll post questions I think a lot of people are curious about.

For those of you that may have missed the first one, "Food Fight™" is a photo and recipe contest. Submit a picture of a dish you've made along with the recipe. Winners get their entry in the "Food Fight™ Hall of Fame" and hopefully the first Desert Island Foods™.com T-Shirt, otherwise it will be a tin of Survival Spice™.

See your recipe in lights!!! Be a home chef superstar!!! Kill a little time and have fun doing it!!!

The Rules, once again:

Imagination, execution and "drool factor" are the primary judging criteria. If your dish is lavish, fine, but a hot dog can still kick your ass if it's done well. I'm not saying the judges are going to favor recipes using Desert Island Foods.com™ products, but it could break a tie.

Photos must be transmitted via email with the subject line "Food Fight submission", should be no larger than about 500 pixels in any dimension and no more than 200K in size. If any of this tech stuff makes you dizzy, submit it anyway you can and I'll convert it for you if you win.

Recipes should be easy to understand and in this format:

1) Title
2) Your degree of difficulty from 1 (easy) to 5 (hard)
3) Approximate prep and cooking times
4) Full list of ingredients in U.S. units
5) Numbered easy to follow preparation steps.

If your dish is somewhat elaborate, which is great, wherever practical try to provide time-saving hints if someone wants to make your dish in a hurry.

Good luck! The contest will end June 2nd, the Thursday after Memorial Day. Let's have some great BBQ pics this time! Make sure to take nice close-ups of your dish, a few of them last time were taken too far away to have any "drool" factor and that hurt you in the scoring.

The lawyers make me post this:

Legal Notice:

By posting to "Food Fight™", you retain the rights to your pictures and recipes but grant Desert Island Foods™, LLC. and its present and future affiliates or assigns permission to use, publish and reproduce your pictures, recipes and comments in perpetuity.

Get cooking! And remember, have fun with it. Fun counts...

I've had a few emails asking how to comment on a post. I think it's great that quite a few regular visitors to this site are new to blogging. Welcome!

At the bottom of every post there is a time stamp and beside it, a link to the comments page. Just click on 'comments' to read the comments already posted, (the number in paranthesis beside 'comments' is the amount of current comments), or to post a comment of your own.

BTW, the time stamp is the permanent link to that particular post. If you want to email a friend about a particular post, (and I hope you do!), just right-click on the time and select "copy link" and then paste the link (ctrl +v) into your email. It's that easy!

Hope that helps. Feel free to comment on a post, your feedback is welcome. If you have any other questions about blogging, email me. Thanks for reading.

Dried proscuitto and passion fruit sponge (Photo: NY Times)

Alinea
1723 N. Halsted
Chicago, IL 60614
(312) 867-1001
www.alinearestaurant.com

I've been watching the development of Alinea with great interest over at eGullet. The NY Times featured it recently in an interesting article on avant food, thanks to John for the tip.

Check out the slide show in the Times article, very cool stuff.

Having been suitably inspired by this post, I intend to spend the rest of the week perfecting my "meat loaf and mashed potatoes on a stick" concept. It's the gravy that's the tricky part. Film at 11.

This is just wrong, via the Greeley Tribune and Yahoo News:

A Denver man, Ross Hopkins, has been fired from his job as a warehouse supervisor at American Eagle Distributing Co., a Bud distributor in the Denver area, for allegedly drinking Coors while off duty.

"They flat-out told me: 'We're putting food on your table so you could put it on theirs?"' he said Tuesday. "I thought I could drink it, no problem."

In a court filing, American Eagle said Hopkins' termination "was necessary to avoid a conflict of interest with his responsibilities to American Eagle and/or the appearance of such a conflict of interest."

They 'canned' him despite a Colorado law that forbids firing employees for legal activity away from the workplace. He wasn't wearing a uniform and according to him, he had actually ordered a Bud and a waitress mistakenly brought him a Coors.

The son-in-law of the distributor's majority shareholder also was at the bar and offered twice to buy him a Budweiser but Hopkins turned it down both times.

He was fired the following Monday.

Maybe I should institute a policy to fire Desert Island Foods™ employees for saying "Bam!" Sheesh.

The email address on American Eagle's website is here, if you're feeling chatty.

After I posted about the health benefits of grapes this morning, I felt that I had let you, the faithful reader, down a bit. Sure it was informative but it just wasn't out there enough, so I found this.

I haven't tried it myself yet, but let's just say I'll be heading to the store soon. This is potentially dangerous and generally kind of a dumb thing to do so I'm not recommending that you try it yourself but if you do, let me know. Pictures would be great.

You do have a fire extinguisher, don't you?

Okay, not a lot to laugh about here but a new study indicates that a diet rich in grapes may alleviate and even help to reverse the symptoms associated with an enlarged prostate in older men. The study was done by the Albany College of Pharmacy and released by the California Table Grape Commission.

"We are amazed at just how potent grapes appear to be in protecting against these urinary dysfunctions," said lead investigator Robert Levin, Ph.D., of the Albany College of Pharmacy.

"We saw more impact with the grape preparation than with other agents tested. The results from this study are highly relevant to our male population: eating grapes every day might significantly reduce the progression of bladder dysfunction resulting from an enlarged prostate."

Levin added that "the sooner men begin this regimen the more effective it would be."

Read the whole thing, especially if you're entering the age where this comes into play. Obviously the CA grape folks have a vested interest in this so expect a little bias there, but it seems to be good news.

I, for my part, am going to double my wine intake. Hey, it's for science...

In an effort to woo more health-conscious consumers, McDonald's has been working on a slightly healthier version of their famous French Fries by lowering the amount of trans-fat in the oil the potatoes are fried in.

Trans-fats, for those who aren't familiar with the term, are partially hydrogenated fats, which are created to make a solid fat out of something that wouldn't normally be solid at room temperature. This process is the reason that most peanut butter doesn't seperate at room temperature unless it's all-natural and is used in countless other products like pie crusts and margarine.

Basically, the process involves bubbling a hydrogen gas through the oil, which gradually makes the oil become a fat as it absorbs the gas. Although it naturally occurs in meat and dairy products, trans-fats are now thought to increase bad (LDL) cholesterol and destroy the good (HDL) stuff.

Of course, this could backfire, as an A/P article I found at Forbes points out:

But rolling out a new cooking oil for its fries could pose a risk to sales of one of McDonald's most popular menu items, said Janna Sampson of Oakbrook Investments, which owns more than 1 million McDonald's shares. "It's hard to imagine they can do that without some effect on the taste or texture of the fries," she said.

"I just don't think the people buying fries care that much" about trans fat, Sampson added.

Exactly right. If you're watching your cholesterol levels, avoid French Fries in the first place.

I like to make my own by slicing potatoes into wedges or 1/4" slices. drizzling them with canola or olive oil then sprinkling them with Survival Spice™ and roasting on a sheet pan in a 300º oven until tender, then cranking the oven up to 425º until they're as crispy as you like them.

Today's word is "nebuchadnezzar". The largest wine commercially available to my knowledge, it holds 15 liters of wine, about 20 standard-size bottles. The other sizes, from next-largest to smallest, are Balthazar (12L), Salmanazar (9L), Imperial (6L), Methuselah (6L), Rehoboam (4.5L), Jeroboam and double magnum (3L), magnum (1.5L), standard, half bottle (375ml), and split (1/4 bottle or 187 ml)

When buying a nebuchadnezzar or something more modest, keep in mind that a larger volume of wine will age far more slowly than a standard 750 ml bottle, especially a cabernet/Bordeaux type of red. A lot of people have enjoyed a specific vintage of a red wine in a standard bottle and then bought a larger size for a special occasion and have been really disappointed when they learned that it really wasn't drinkable yet.

If you do splurge, invite me over to drink it, won't you? I'd be happy to bring the cheese and crackers...

From this A/P article:

Las Vegas created its own giant cake last weekend in celebration of the city's 100th birthday. The cake, assembled by 600 volunteers, weighed 130,000 pounds and measured 102 feet long, 52 feet wide and 20 inches high.

The previous record was set in 1989 when Fort Payne, AL created a 128,238 pound Alabama-shaped treat for its' centennial.

This was in the email this morning. It's vaguely food-related so I'll share it. h/t Joe:

A couple had only been married for two weeks. The husband, although very much in love, couldn't wait to go out on  the town and party with his old buddies. So, he said to his new wife, "Honey, I'll be right back."

Where are you going, Coochy Coo?" asked the wife.
"I'm going to the bar, Pretty Face. I'm going to have a beer."
The wife said, "You want a beer, my love?" She opened the door to the refrigerator and showed him 25 different kinds of beer, brands from 12 different countries: Germany, Holland, Japan, India, etc.

The husband didn't know what to do, and the only thing that he could think of saying was, "Yes, Lollipop... but at the bar... you know... they have frozen glasses... " He didn't get to finish the sentence, because the wife interrupted him by saying, "You want a frozen glass, Puppy Face?"

She took a huge beer mug out of the freezer, so frozen that she was  getting chills just holding it.
The husband, looking a bit pale, said, "Yes, Tootsie Roll, but at the bar they have those hors d'oeuvres that are  really delicious... I won't be long.  I'll be right back. I promise. OK?"

"You want hors d'oeuvres, Poochie Pooh?"  She opened the oven and took out 5 dishes  of different hors d'oeuvres: chicken wings, pigs in blankets, mushroom caps, and pork strips.

"But my sweet honey... at the bar.... you know ...there's swearing, dirty words and all that..."

"You want dirty words, Cutie Pie?...

"LISTEN UP D#$KHEAD!  SIT DOWN, SHUT THE H*LL UP, DRINK YOUR D&MN BEER IN YOUR D&MN FROZEN MUG AND EAT YOUR F@#%ING HORS 'OEUVRES BECAUSE YOUR MARRIED A$$ ISN'T GOING TO NO F@#%ING BAR! THAT S%$T IS OVER...GOT IT,  A$$HOLE?"

...and they lived happily ever after. Isn't that a sweet story?
 

They don't have fish sticks but it's still pretty good:

Le Bernardin, New York's internationally acclaimed four star seafood restaurant, was born in Paris in 1972 by sibling duo Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze. Dedicated entirely to the cuisine of Gilbert Le Coze, the self-taught seafood wizard, it only served fish: Fresh, simple and prepared with respect.

Reknown chef Eric Ripert became a partner after the death of Gilbert Le Coze. Since then, this Manhattan classic has won the coveted James Beard Award for "Outstanding Restaurant" in America, and in May 2003 Eric Ripert was named "Outstanding Chef" by the James Beard Foundation. The 2004 Zagat's Guide rated Le Bernardin number one for food in New York.

Eric Ripert released the first Le Bernadin cookbook in 1998. You can check it out here:

Submitted by Steve from Seattle- Food Fight™ winner 5/14/2005:

This dish came from my great aunt Kate.
She used to make it for us as kids when we visited her in northern Michigan.
I got the recipe from my grandmother,(Kate's sister), years after Kate passed away and i make it quite often still.

Heres the breakdown of ingredients:

1 6" red cabbage
2 Red apples
1 red onion
4 strips bacon
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar...not apple flavored vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 lb polish sausage

1/4 and core the cabbage and slice into 1/4" slices
Cut the apple into 1/8ths and core, slice the 1/8ths into 1/4" pieces
1/4 the onion and slice into 1/8" slices
Cut the bacon strips into 1/2 pieces.
Cut the polish sausage in 1/2 lengthwise and slice into 3/4" pieces
Mix the vinegar and brown sugar in a small bowl.

In a seperate pan, brown the sausage slowly to your liking. ( i like mine a bit crispy on the outside for this dish)

Brown the bacon slowly till crispy in a 16" saute pan and remove from grease.

Add the cabbage, apples, and onion to the grease and cook covered, sitrring now and then, till well cooked down and liquid is gone.

Remove the lid and fry the cabbage mixture till it starts to carmalize a bit then add vinegar brown sugar mix. Stir around to deglaze the pan and add the bacon and cooked sausage.

Congratulations to Steve from Seattle, WA for being the very first Food Fight™ winner!!! His winning dish is called "Sweet Fried Red Cabbage with Kielbasa." The final dish is at the bottom of the page.

Lots to comment on here. First, great job with the mise-en-place, (the prep work). Well organized, sir. He did all the right things- slowly rendering the bacon, then removing it to cook the cabbage in the grease. Cooking the kielbasa seperately is also a great idea, it gives you full control over the browning. Basic home cooking done perfectly!

I've added some other spices to this too when I've made it- a tiny bit of cloves, allspice, cinammon, a crushed juniper berry, a splash of red wine and some red currant jelly but remember, it's easy to ruin a dish with too much of this stuff.

I also like the way Steve documented the procedure. You don't have to do anything this elaborate to win but it was great to watch the dish in progress. Truly well done, Steve.

Steve wins a tin of Survival Spice™ and the distinction of being the very first Food Fight™ winner. Congratulations again!

Thanks to everyone who entered, it was a tough decision. Lots of good entries and a few great ones! As Food Fight™ grows, I'll be awarding second and third prizes too, so don't give up if you didn't win.

The next Food Fight™ starts soon and runs through Memorial Day so you can enter your Memorial Day BBQ dishes. Remember, the "rules" are here.

Have a great weekend everyone, I've been getting a lot of nice emails about the blog, it definitely makes it more fun to do.

Here's Steve's winning entry:

"Getting Started"

"Red Cabbage, Red Apples, Red Onion, Sliced"

"Bacon, Cooked till crispy and removed, keep grease to cook Cabbage in."

"Cooking Cabbage, Apples, and Onion in Bacon fat"

"When Cabbage is cooked down and starts to fry,
Add 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar, 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar.
Add crispy Bacon and Cooked Kielbasa and Serve."

Our customers are always finding new uses for Survival Spice™. This from Samantha in Phoenix, AZ:

I made spaghetti and meatballs with your spice blend. I put a lot in the meatballs and some in the spaghetti sauce. My mother-in-law normally hates spaghetti but she had two bowls!

I haven't tried it yet but there are no rules. If you like it, eat it! I do like it on mac and cheese, though, after a customer tipped me off to that.

Maybe that's a new slogan: "Survival Spice™- keeping mother-in-laws happy since 2004!" Or not.

This is it! Entries close tonight and I've had some good ones already. Rules are here and remember, have fun with it! Good close-ups of your dish are best for the web.

Keep it simple and don't sweat the small stuff, really. The winner, which will be announced tomorrow, gets a free tin of Survival Spice™, and the 'honor' of being the First Food Fight™ champion.

If you can't enter this time, you'll have another opportunity in a few weeks, just in time for Memorial Day BBQs!

The holiday was made up by Thomas and Ruth Roy, but it's okay with me.

Why stop there? How about "eat what you want" month?

If you really want to celebrate, check out Steve H., who wrote a cookbook called "Eat What You Want and Die Like a Man: The World's Unhealthiest Cookbook." You may not agree with his politics, and to get the disclaimers out of the way, his site can be a bit crude, NSFW, and is not for the prissy, blah blah blah, but he cracks me up.

Sliced smoked pork butt and roasted corn with romaine, radishes, jack cheese, radishes and organic home grown red pepper, parsley and chives. Easy and really good, because I cooked the pork and corn over the weekend when I had some time.

A lot of people don't like leftovers, and I understand that, but I try to use them in a different way than I did originally, salad instead of pork sandwiches and the corn on the cob. That way you don't feel like you're eating the same thing over and over.

I need to be eating more salads these days, I'm afraid...

The phrase of the day is "invert sugar". Used primarily in candies, baked goods and syrups due to its smaller, more stable crystals, it is created by heating a simple syrup (equal parts of sugar and water) with an acid of some sort, usually lemon juice or cream of tartar until it breaks down into glucose and fructose.

Without getting too nerdy about it, invert sugar gets its name from the fact that reflected light is inverted when viewed in a polarimeter compared to pure sucrose.

Mixtures of pure sugar and invert sugar are used because they are even sweeter than 100% sugar or inverts. This medium invert sugar will extend shelf life, especially in low fat versions of baked goods because they moisten products so less water needs to be used, which accelerates staling and spoilage.

Invert sugars also assist in the browning of caramels and make frozen foods softer by lowering the freezing point of the mixture.

Cool stuff, huh?

The first Food Fight submissions must be in by Thursday night, the 12th. Rules are here, but remember, it doesn't have to be a masterpiece.

Keep it simple and don't kill yourselves over it! The winner, which I'll try to announce Friday, gets a free tin of Survival Spice™, which of course is the best spice rub going, IMHO.

Cook or eat anything good this weekend? I smoked a pork butt and grilled some corn for dinner. No pictures, sorry, but maybe I'll make a salad tonight with the leftovers for your drooling pleasure.

If you're nice...

Fast facts from the pragmatic chef™. Did you know:

• The name comes from the Indian word 'ahuacatl', which translates to 'testicle', referring to its shape?
• They can weigh up to 4 pounds?
• Avocados have 60% more potassium pound for pound than banannas?
• Adding lemon juice or other acids will slow the browning for a few hours?
• You can keep your guacamole green for up to 24 hours by refrigerating it covered with Saran Wrap™, pressing it down so it touches the surface? Saran Wrap™ is made from PVDC, which is far less permeable to oxygen than other types of plastic wrap, up to 500 times less, I've read. Try it and let me know if it works for you. [I have no affiliation with Saran Wrap™, BTW, I just think it kicks ass.]
• That I don't particularly care for avocados? I compile tasty tidbits like this because I care about you, the faithful TPC reader. And because it's kind of a slow news day.

(I'm not sure if this picture is from this year's competition, just so you know...)

This practically writes itself, via Fox News and Yahoo:

Think of it as rock climbing — except on a mountain of Chinese buns.

Hong Kong is relaunching the annual bun-snatching tradition on suburban Cheung Chau island after a 26-year break. Officials called off the ritual of climbing up a tower of buns after one tower collapsed in 1978, injuring 100 people.

The official 46-foot bun climbing tower, 10-feet in diameter, is now buttressed by a concrete foundation designed by government architects and supported by a steel frame.

Competitors are trained by the Hong Kong Mountaineering Union. Padding is installed at the bottom of the bun tower.

The result: modern rock climbing meets Hong Kong tradition.

On Sunday, [41] bun snatchers wearing gloves with ropes attached to their bodies scrambled up the scaffolding — free of buns for now — in a preliminary competition. The 12 who reached the top of the tower fastest qualified for the final.

"We hope bun snatching can be available all year if the public thinks it's fun," Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho said on a radio show.

"Now this is turning from a tradition to a . . . sporting event," Ho said.

Gone is the mad scramble to the top of the bun tower. The 12 finalists of this year's bun snatching contest will pack their bags with as many buns as possible within a given period, with the higher buns worth more points. The competitor with the most points wins.

I think it's kind of lame that they don't actually climb a wall of buns anymore in the final. I, for one, am going to protest this by wallowing in a few dozen jelly-filled Dunkin' Donuts in the back yard. With no padding whatsoever.

A futile gesture? Perhaps, but I think it's important to take a stand.

Just wasting time on a Saturday morning? Try this:

Apologies to the cat lovers out there.

My high score so far: 717 feet. Can you beat it?

Update: Haven't beat my high score but I've gotten emails from 'upset' cat lovers. If you can find a puppy-tossing game, I'd be happy to post it in the interest of fairness, but you never see those.

I wonder why? :©)

Update 2: Okay Lisa, this is the best I can find. You can drop the puppy if it makes you feel better... ;©)

You have until May 12th to get your entry in. The rules for submission are here.
Cook something up this weekend and take a picture and send it in, along with a basic recipe/technique to me.

It really doesn't have to be elaborate or elegantly photographed to win, so go for it! I've gotten a few good ones so far but I think they can be beat.

Have fun with it! The winner gets their entry posted here and a free tin of Survival Spice™.

The phrase of the day is "a la polonaise", a French phrase meaning 'in the style of Poland'. There are a million interpretations of this, of course, but generally it refers to a cooked vegetable topped with a mixture of finely chopped hard-boiled eggs, bread crumbs, parsley and butter then broiled briefly to brown the breadcrumbs.

Try it on cauliflower, asparagus or brocolli some time!

Or one of your favorite jokes, for that matter...

Sky Radio Network, Sexy Inc., and Travel ala Mode present the 2004-2005 World's 100 Sexiest Hotels.

Sexiest Hotels is a luxury travel-ranking service and co-venture between Sexy Inc., Sky Radio Network, Inc., SkyAuction.com and Travel Ala Mode on American Airlines, US Airways, United Airlines, Northwest and America West Airlines.

It's worth checking out, but I'm not so sure about this list. I've stayed in 3 or 4 of them and none of them had a round revolving bed. Now that's sexy...

And while I'm thinking about it, what's so sexy about oysters, especially raw ones? I mean, I love them and they're supposedly an aphrodisiac but come on, ladies, would you really eat raw oysters just to 'please your man' if you didn't like them?

I've always wanted an outdoor oven and stumbled upon this site done by a guy named Robert Musa. He and his family built a horno and a tandoori oven in their back yard and his blogs document the successes and failures along the way. My hat's off to him!

Katy Sparks, the brilliant and beautiful chef behind the food at Quilty's, and a Food & Wine Best New Chef for 1998, has taken over the stoves of Compass on the Upper West Side. Compass is at 208 West 70th Street (b/w Amsterdam and West End Aves., 212-875-8600.

On another note, Katy has just gotten her first cookbook deal with the esteemed and venerable editor Judith Jones of Knopf. Stay tuned for a Fall 2005 release.

She can really cook. The crab cake recipe here looks really simple and tasty. Notice there's no Old Bay seasoning or any other big flavors to bury the subtle flavor of the lump crab meat. If you're trying to save a few bucks, you can go 50/50 with lump crab meat and shredded, which is also tasty but has a different consistency. Remember, it's important to handle it gently to avoid crushing the delicate lumps you've just paid big bucks for.

Rate her on the Scoville scale and let me know if you try making the crab cake recipe. I'd rate her cayenne.

Via Yahoo News:

Gourmet coffee retailer Tastes of The World announces availability of the rarest and most exotic gourmet coffee ever, Kopi Luwak Blend, through their online coffee and tea store (http://www.tastesoftheworld.net). Kopi Luwak gourmet coffee actually passes completely through the digestive tract of the exotic Indonesian palm civet without being digested by the animal.

The palm civet, long seen as a pest on coffee plantations, eats and eventually passes the undigested coffee cherries in its waste. The beans are then patiently harvested from the forest floor near coffee plantations and carefully roasted. The digestive juices of the animal are said to very slightly ferment the beans without harming them, adding a gentle nutty flavor to the roasted beans that is highly prized by the discriminating coffee gourmet.

I'd heard about this before. I've never tried it and it might be really good for all I know, but you have to wonder who was desperate enough for a cup of coffee to try it first. Wouldn't that be something if Starbucks trained their baristas to do that?

Club Lago
331 W. Superior St.
312-337-9444
no website
$$

I had a few good meals while in Chicago and one great one at Club Lago, a neighborhood place that's been cranking out family recipes since 1952.

We had the calamari, which was light and fried to perfection. Calamari is one of those things you should cook for 2 minutes or 2 hours so it's not rubbery, and when it was served with their amazing marinara sauce for dipping it truly became a meal in itself.

The mosticolli and meatballs, a benchmark I like to order the first time in any Italian restaurant, was superb; and the pork special of the day, a stuffed roulade braised slowly with vegetables and served with noodles in a light brown gravy was truly one of the best things I've eaten in years.

Follow the link to learn more about this unpretentious gem of a restaurant and absolutely stop in if you're ever in Chicago.

I'm back from Chicago and very encouraged. Lots of great response to the Desert Island Foods.com™ concept and actually tasted a few things that I'd be proud to add to our line. I'll be posting on those to get your feedback soon.

Still in Chicago after two days of serious snacking, so light blogging today, except for this rather filling story from the AP:

CLEARFIELD, Pa. (AP) - The burger war is growing. Literally. Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, which lost its crown as the home of the world's biggest burger earlier this year, is now offering a new burger that weighs a whopping 15 pounds.

Dubbed the Beer Barrel Belly Buster, the burger comes with 10.5 pounds of ground beef, 25 slices of cheese, a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, two onions, a cup-and-a-half each of mayonnaise, relish, ketchup, mustard and banana peppers - and a bun.

It costs $30.

"It can feed a family of 10," said Denny Liegey Sr., the restaurant's owner.

Mercifully, there's no pictures. Read the whole thing, if it doesn't gross you out...

... from McCormick Place, on the floor of the 2005 Spring Fancy Foods Show, Chicago:

"Wow. I'm incredibly full."