March 5, 2011
Spring Tasting Wednesday March 23rd.
February 26, 2011
February 21, 2011
Serving Cage Free Sauder's Eggs.
February 14, 2011
Mexican Tortas.
Dense, filling and delicious a Mexican torta is a sandwich traditionally layered with beef, pork or chicken, cheese, mayo, avocado, lettuce and tomato. Defined by adaptability as much as recipe - the torta reflects the best ingredients of the region in which it’s served.
The one seemingly unbreakable law of the mexican-style torta is French bread, either telera (soft round rolls) or bolillo (torpedo shaped with a crust) perfect for texture and maintaining outside containment.
French bread on a Mexican sandwich - how did that happen? As with most history - actual events & myth married forming legend; leaving torta history in the hands of the teller. Our crackerjack research team has a hunch the torta is an indirect result of France's 1862 Invasion of Mexico. At war thousands of miles from home, French soldiers saw no need to deprive themselves good bread; building bakeries & introducing techniques long outlasting the invasion.
Ever wonder what you were celebrating on Cinco de Mayo? Of course you already knew it was Mexican militia men prevailing over the French at the Battle of Puebla which is why you always serve tortas at your Cinco de Mayo parties.
Mexican torta...there's others? South America, Italy, Philippines and even Mexico serve what's referred to by locals as a torta, with ingredients, technique and style unique to their country or regions within the country.
Why you care. You're playing the deserted island game with foodie friends - pick torta and free yourself from endless theoretical culinary monotony. Then drop your impressively extensive torta knowledge all while watching their faces knowing you're winning friends and influencing people.
February 7, 2011
Easier Being Green.
Who knew doing the right thing could taste so good?
February 1, 2011
Most revolutionary cookbook you've never seen.
What happens when a Cambridge quantum theory cosmologist collaborates with a futurist on a cookbook? What if they got real crazy & invited an award-winning nature photographer to contribute and a former Chief Technology Officer from Microsoft tagged along? What if they were all one person and his name was Nathan Myhrvold?
After earning a doctorate in theoretical and mathematical physics at Princeton, working with Stephen Hawking on curved spaced time and quantum field theory at Cambridge and serving as chief technology officer for Microsoft, what's left to accomplish? Turns out write a cookbook.
Typical of Myhrvold, it's not a typical cookbook. A 6 volume 2,400 page revolution described by luminary chef and molecular gastronomist Ferran Adria as changing the way we understand the kitchen. And for $625 Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking can be yours. In March. Probably - the date has been pushed several times.
(Notice the preview pic only had 5 volumes)
Learning of Myhrvold and Modernest Cuisine in Saveur I was intrigued, determined to purchase a copy. Until I saw the price. Holy wow. Why so expensive? Turns out the high cost is pretty simple if only midly less frustrating. With a custom laboratory/kitchen designed and built for the research and a staff of 20 researchers - they had to write the book on writing the book. And then publish it themselves. And the Myhrvoldian cherry - he developed new photographic techniques to document the research contained in the book.
From the book's site: In Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet—scientists, inventors, and accomplished cooks in their own right—have created a six-volume 2,400-page set that reveals science-inspired techniques for preparing food that ranges from the otherworldly to the sublime. The authors—and their 20-person team at The Cooking Lab—have achieved astounding new flavors and textures by using tools such as water baths, homogenizers, centrifuges, and ingredients such as hydrocolloids, emulsifiers, and enzymes. It is a work destined to reinvent cooking.
Also worth checking out - The Modernist Cuisine blog.
With postings on Inside the Lab with the team, sick photos like this one of a cutaway wok while cooking, or you just want to check out a high speed video of The Leidenfrost Effect - should keep you occupied while you're saving.
The Pad Thai Cutaway features a halved wok containing sizzling hot oil, noodles, and the dish’s other components.
All Filler no Killer?
From Tacobell.com
"We're cooking with a proprietary recipe to give our seasoned beef flavor and texture, just like you would with any recipe you cook at home."
Remember when grandma used to use her special autolyzed yeast extract & soy lecithin recipe
with the silicon dioxide and sodium phosphates?
Ingredients for Spicy Beef from Tacobell.com
Beef, Water, Seasoning [Isolated Oat Product, Salt, Chili Pepper, Onion Powder, Tomato Powder, Oats (Wheat), Soy Lecithin, Sugar, Spices, Maltodextrin, Soybean Oil (Anti-dusting Agent), Garlic Powder, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, Cocoa Powder (Processed With Alkali), Silicon Dioxide, Natural Flavors, Yeast, Modified Corn Starch, Natural Smoke Flavor], Salt, Sodium Phosphates. CONTAINS SOYBEAN, WHEAT
January 28, 2011
Supermarkets Inc.
CNBC's new documentary Supermarkets Inc. goes behind the scenes of the nation's biggest supermarket chains.
With 48,000 items in a typical grocery store, ever wonder
who decides what to carry & where it's placed?
Why is milk always at the end of an aisle?
Ever imagine heat mapping is involved in the process?
What does your customer loyalty card really say about you?
For a preview click here.
More info, air dates and show times click here.
January 25, 2011
January 20, 2011
Help Save Full Day K in Basking Ridge
Wanna help the kids? Donate to help save full day kindergarten in Basking Ridge. With over $416,200 raised to date there's only $3,800 to go. Check out: http://brfulldayk.org/
January 14, 2011
Check out The Magic of Saffron & Cervantes from his
cooking show Made in Spain. Hulu has all 24 episodes of Season 1 for free.
January 10, 2011
Top Ten Restaurant Ads of 2010
we present to you the Top Ten Restaurant Ads of 2010. We dare you not to laugh. Make that double dare.