Category: Links

Stuff to read while I’m gone

I leave for Syria on Wednesday, for a week of dining with Anissa Helou and a gang of other people who think this is a delicious idea. It is my third trip to Syria, and I cannot wait. I’m looking forward to green almonds, buttery sweets, passing kindnesses and maybe the elusive desert truffle. I will probably be too stuffed too blog regularly, but believe you me, I will let you know in the end.

In the meantime, you may content yourself with SALTS: The Society for the Appreciation of the Lowly Tinned Sardine. The helpful folks sent me a link months ago–I’m finally leaping into action. I’m a huge canned sardine fan, having been raised on them enthusiastically enough that I thought it was normal to take them for school lunch. No one ever wanted to swap with me, but their loss.

Also, if you need some more home-cooking inspiration, visit Cathy Erway at Not Eating Out in New York. If you’re not hopelessly out of the Brooklyn food loop like I am, you probably already know about her. But it is great to see someone take the leap to home cooking (especially in NYC), and rock it in such a short time. Totally coincidentally, she has a book coming out this fall, from the same publisher as ours and Tamara’s. And I like that a lot of her food skews Asian-y, because I don’t cook that way much.

And in that same vein, yowza, thanks Eric Gower, aka The Breakaway Cook! His food is the kick in the pants I need–I’ve got a pantry full of spices, condiments and assorted syrups, and a lot of days I do precious little with it. His blog might also be the way I break into Japanese food, which I’ve failed with before because I can’t get the underlying rules. I promptly ordered his cookbook, and am very excited to see it.

Between that and my Syria trip, this summer, it’s gonna be hot in my kitchen, for sure.

Food2: Amateur Gourmet

OK, I found something genuinely entertaining, and not something that exists in a weird I’ve-heard-this-is-cool universe: The Amateur Gourmet shorts.

I haven’t been a big fan of the Amateur Gourmet online because…I dunno. He’s not enough of a wise-ass or something. I admit I gave him about one chance, about five years ago.

But in person, he’s actually kind of adorable. And there is just enough to weirdness to make me not feel like a tool for watching food TV.

(Clip after the jump, to stop the autoplay annoyance.)
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Food2: Kitchen Conspirators

This is interesting. Food2, a new online arm of the Food Network empire, is on the march.

One of the things I’ve been waiting for is a (for now) online-only show called Kitchen Conspirators, which basically takes the supper club idea and gives it the reality-TV treatment.

I think Tamara and I might’ve even put our names in to be the “underground chefs” on this show–I was out of the country last summer when there was some back-and-forth with the Food Network.

So it makes it doubly funny to watch some of the episodes and sort of see my experience reflected in it. It’s what I imagine having your life adapted into a movie must be like. There’s more mainstream music; there’s a narrative arc that you never quite noticed at the time; there are wacky montages.

But let’s just say that after a little brainstorming session, I do not turn to Tamara and propose, “Let’s go to band practice and rip out those Scorpions covers.”

(To be fair, it looks like the mustachioed guy barely managed to say that with a straight face either. Er. I mean, I hope? I get lost in the layers of hipster irony.)

I guess FN is holding out the option of putting this on TV, because it’s still edited for a 30-minute time slot (although broken into smaller “episodes” for the web). I’d really like to see a more self-contained, short version. And I’d also like to see the party! That’s a weird let-down at the end…and that’s coming from someone who generally likes planning the parties much more than the parties themselves.

Embedded clip after the jump, so it’s not auto-play cacophony here on the main page.
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New CiRT: Pad Thai

Check it, if you’re not already on the Cooking in Real Time podcast tip:

Cooking in Real Time Episode 7: Pad Thai and Cucumber Salad

Wherein I only barely remember all of the damn ingredients that go into pad thai. And wherein I utterly fail to make a joke about pad-casting–wasted opportunity!

But really, if you’ve been meaning to kick the takeout habit, this is a good place to start.

PS: If you like the podcast, I’d hugely appreciate reviews/mega-tons of stars on iTunes. You can review without subscribing, even.

NY Times: Caged Pork Fanatic

Last week, Peter sent me a link to this lunatic op-ed in the NY Times. Short version: foodies are all wrong in promoting free-range meat, because it will surely kill them. Factory farming is so much safer. Or I guess that’s what he was saying. It gets pretty loopy at the end.

I read it, thought about it, sputtered a little and did not really have time to articulate what was so totally wrong with the guy’s thinking. In fact, I read it, and then went out and had a piece of toast with tasty free-range jamon serrano on it for breakfast, along with my fresh-squeezed orange juice. Call me a foodie, whatever–I’m sure I’m eating better than this ass in Texas.

Fortunately, while I was digesting, the incisive Ms. Julie Powell came along and wrote something sharp about it for me, and noted the addendum the Times had to print. Que sorpresa. (That’s Spanish for “no doy.”)

Pistilli: even worse than I thought

Because my long-ago ranting about the f-ing Pistilli development by the park (oooh, it’s called Riverview! Posh!) is still my most popular post ever, I feel obliged to pass on this hilarious tidbit:

Pictures of The Oddity that is Pistilli Riverview East Co-op at 19-19 24th Ave in Astoria (via Curbed)

The photos are pretty shocking. Back before all my old comments got wiped (boo, Yahoo), a few people were kind enough to post their impressions of the interiors. But even the most graphic descriptions don’t quite conjure the heinousness like a couple of random hallway snapshots do. I think Pistilli buys that curlicue font in bulk.

pistilliMeanwhile, Pistilli is installing green glass on the monster tower rising in front of my house. I bet that’ll look real classy, with that beige-y-gray brick they’re using. Novel, even.

Spring!

victoryIt’s all over the news, so I’m sure you know: The Obamas are planting a vegetable garden. Fan-fucking-tastic! (This is not gratuitous swearing.)

Meanwhile, Hook Echoes is revived! Also fantastic. Jefe, teller of many stories, is in Austin, and I am so envious of his general problem-solving and gardening skillz.

And further meanwhile, I’m about to head to Spain, and I’ll be, by the serendipity of Craigslist, meeting up with and staying chez Heather Coburn Flores, the author of Food Not Lawns. Excellent.

And while I’m doing that, my friend Deb will be planting wildflowers all over Bedford-Stuyvesant. Check out the plans for Bed-Stuy Meadow at 21st Century Plowshare. If we had more actual earth in Astoria, I’d suggest we do it here. But we’re pretty paved over. If you live somewhere with even a little exposed earth, toss some seeds in there. You never know what might happen.

Happy spring!