quid.pro

Whiskey doesn’t care

How can you not want to read this article in Food Republic?

“...[Y]ou literally chose the coolest liquor in the world to insult. And guess what? Whiskey doesn’t care. That’s what makes it cool. The only other liquor that’s anywhere near as cool is Tequila. But Tequila’s always been too crazy to really be cool. Tequila will cut you for looking at its woman, then laugh while the cops drag it off to jail, and spit at you during the trial. And trust me you don’t want to pick on Vodka either. Dude doesn’t have much of a personality, but I swear he goes to the gym twice a day. You want the nerd of the liquor crew? Try Gin. You can give Gin an atomic wedgie and the worst it’ll do is scream that his daddy will have you banned from the yacht club.”

How to screw up oatmeal

Our office is right across the street from a McDonalds and as I walked to work this morning I noticed a sign up for their new oatmeal product. I love me the oatmeal — although still wouldn't have thought about buying it at McDonalds. Now I definitely won't... amazing how well they screwed it up.

Incredibly, the McDonald’s product contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and only 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger or Egg McMuffin. (Even without the brown sugar it has more calories than a McDonald’s hamburger.)

Via The New York Times Blogs

Bison grass. It's not just for bison anymore.

As any long-term reader of my mobile blog knows, I like the cocktails. And if I had any mentor in the ways of the cocktail, it would be a bartender named Scott Baird, formerly of Coco 500. I drank before I met Scott but I didn't drink well until after I met him.

In 2006 before I headed to Japan for a business trip I mentioned where I was going and asked Scott if wanted me to bring him anything back. He had one word — Żubrówka. Scott doesn't like vodka, he's much more a tequila guy. But Żubrówka vodka was different and more importantly illegal in the United States. I think as much as anything else it was a challenge and Mena (who ended up locating it) and I were up to the challenge.

And by the way, I bought a bottle for myself too. It's a great drink with heavy vanilla overtones, best straight over ice. In the last few years, it's been reformulated enough to pass US laws and is now available in the US. I bought a bottle recently for a dear friend who is a vodka fanatic and she was very proud to point me at this Wall Street Journal story. She's convinced I was once again ahead of the curve. I'm not that good but I have good friends, thank you Scott.

Żubrówka has been a Polish national drink for centuries and a cult favorite internationally for decades. But in the U.S., it's taboo because the Food and Drug Administration prohibits a potentially toxic chemical that occurs naturally in bison grass, coumarin. Until recently, only a few black-market bottles were available, mainly in the Polish neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Chicago.

Read the story and then go buy a bottle. Trust me (and Scott). It's not like any vodka you've ever tasted.

7 Places to Eat in Half Moon Bay

Friend of the show Michael Sippey asked me earlier about good restaurants in Half Moon Bay, California. Michael is passing through town with his two daughters and was looking for a good place to eat. Even with the rain expected today, Half Moon Bay is a fun place to visit for a midday drive and bite to eat. Michael's was not the first such request I've received (I'm the Half Moon Bay maven in my social network) and when I realized how many decent family restaurants we have here, I thought it was worth a good (SEO-laden) post.

So here goes, my family friendly 7 fun places to eat in Half Moon Bay.

1. Sushi Main Street - This is actually one of my favorite sushi restaurants in the Bay Area, it's surprisingly good. Kirin on tap and a menu full of interesting dishes beyond all the regulars. You'd expect a seaside town to do good fish.
2. Half Moon Bay Brewing Company - A nice brewpub, very friendly family. The kids can run around and not bother anyone, there's a big fish tank for them to stare at, good beer on tap for you and a simple menu with good food. Occasional live music. My favorite is the fish tacos, you'd expect a seaside town to do good fish.
3. Sam's Chowder House - Sam's is right on highway 1. It's always very busy and is a grade higher than HMB Brew Pub. Food and drinks are more varied, the view of the ocean is better but it's more expensive and a bit less kid friendly. Funnily enough, I don't like their chowder.
4. Tres Amigos - Best tacos ever. For those of you who think the world ends at the Mission.
5. Costanera - A relatively new Peruvian restaurant that's also directly off highway 1 at land's end (right before Devil's Slide). Don't let the Peruvian scare you, it's Spanish tapas style and very good bar food. You will not escape without drinking Pisco.
6. Barbara's Fishtrap - A Half Moon Bay institution and seaside fish place that's usually crowded and always worth it. They make all of the dishes you'd expect and I really like their chowder. Right across the street from the HMB Brew Pub so you can have a drink in one and grab food in the other. You'd expect a seaside town to do good fish.
7. Mezzaluna - A nice family Italian restaurant where the kids can get simple pasta and you can get a great italian meal. My favorite dish is the lasagne but I've never had a bad piece of pasta or pizza here.

Come out and visit. The rain just makes the ocean more interesting.

Finding the Frisco

Nice little piece by Frank Bruni in The New York Times about the Frisco cocktail (also known as the No. 15 below). I've never been a huge Bénédictine drinker (in fact, never been a Bénédictine drinker at all) so I need to go buy a bottle to give this cocktail a shot. Unless any of my friends know of a good SF local that serves them well. The drink is another in the long, happy line of Manhattan variants.

Last month I dined in a Los Angeles restaurant called Test Kitchen, which provides space for chefs from other establishments to try out new menus or put dishes through trial runs. On the night I was there the proprietors of Red Medicine, a progressive Vietnamese place that was getting ready to open, were introducing their food and cocktails, including a drink identified as the No. 15 and described as a mix of rye, Bénédictine and lemon. I had a No. 15 early in the seven-course dinner and several more as the meal unfolded because the drink so nicely matched the food and so beautifully hit the spot.

Just as interesting to me (especially as a long-time viewer of Top Chef) is the idea of  Test Kitchen. I've got to find my way down there too!

Father's Day was two days too early

This is actually an advertising story and quite frankly I'm far less interested in how they're marketing the product than when I can buy it. I've always been an M&M fanatic and my usual Father's Day gift (as it was this year) is a bunch of M&Ms, M&M dispensers and M&M toys. I also love pretzels. Today is a good day in the annals of my candy habit.

FOR those who like a bit of salt and crunch in their chocolate, M&Ms has a new twist on its 69-year-old candy classic. The company put a nugget of pretzel inside its candy, to cater to the growing consumer taste for mixing sweet and salty flavors.

via The New York Times

Just to be clear, it's a magazine not a seasoning

Finally, something to do with those Gourmet archives:

Soon to join the parade is, well, Parade Publications, part of Advance Publications, which plans to introduce a newspaper magazine and a Web site under the Dash brand — no relation to the Mrs. Dash brand of seasonings from Alberto-Culver or the Dash brand of detergent once sold by Procter & Gamble.

via The New York Times

Pot. It's a pun. Get it?

Highlight of my reading last week -- which continues to go up thanks to the iPad -- was a story in the New York Times about the influence of marijuana on current chef culture. I really had to limit myself on what I pulled out for this post, the whole story was priceless paragraph after paragraph. But in particular:

In case you're not clear on the topic, the money shot, pull quote and blogger-bait blockquote hits you immediately in the second graf.

“Everybody smokes dope after work,” said Anthony Bourdain, the author and chef who made his name chronicling drugs and debauchery in professional kitchens. “People you would never imagine.”

And in the I-guess-that-was-a-compliment category....

Even for people who don’t use illegal drugs, the deep flavors and sensory appeal of dishes like the breakfast burrito pizza at Roberta’s in Bushwick, Brooklyn, have an undeniable appeal.

What, me defensive?

“You need to have some thought and some skill to make these dishes,” she [Gail Simmons] said. “It’s not just, ‘I’m twirling around at a Dead concert and I stumbled upon this cool dish.’ ”

So many more. Very much worth reading for, um, most of the people I know.

(Sneaking this one in before the Lost-blogoTwitto-wackiness starts.)

Heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving

The heritage breeds were popular 100 years ago but almost disappeared until preservationists, sustainable agriculture advocates and food enthusiasts worked to bring them back into vogue. They are generally raised on small farms, allowed to feed on pasture and roam freely. While broad-breasted birds can mature in 14 weeks, heritage birds take 28 weeks.

Enthusiasts say they taste better and have firmer, darker meat. But the birds also come with a compelling story that a frozen Butterball can’t match. Breeds from a bygone era, allowed to run free, are promoted as the edible embodiment of older ways of farming and eating — a political statement with a side of cranberry sauce. (via New York Times)

We've done the heritage turkey thing for the last two or three Thanksgivings and it's definitely worth it. So much more flavorful and, well, turkey tasting.

Perky Jerky

ThinkGeek, how I love you. Full disclosure, I'm on the board of its parent company SourceForge, Inc. so I'm biased. But probably the better disclosure is that I'm also a total geek and wish TG existed 20 years ago (OK, 25 years ago) when this would have been the coolest thing ever to eat. Now it's just the coolest thing ever to blog about (and probably buy as a holiday present for my son and a few others on my list):

It’s 5am and you’ve been gaming hard since you woke up twelve hours ago. A twinge of hunger gnaws at your belly. Your eyes droop from the exhaustion of intense competition. Do you go make coffee? Do you call for your mom to get you a sandwich? NO! You reach for caffeinated beef jerky! Satisfy your craving for caffeine and your hunger all without going idle. (Buy at ThinkGeek)

Their food section is developing quite nicely. Did I mention Baconnaise?