Archive for July, 2009
Flaccid or Rigid?: Fish Sticks
My mother hates to cook. But if you ask her why she did it, religiously, everyday, for practically every one of our meals, she’ll tell you she did it out of necessity. Having grown up on a farm (a real farm, one with domesticated farm animals, manure, outhouses and light years from the nearest grocery [...]
Bewleys Cafe – An Irish Institution
No visit to the Fair City of Dublin is complete without a visit to the famous Bewleys Cafe on Grafton Street. My mother first visited the cafe back in the 50s with her grandmother, and since then, we have always popped in every time we have passed through Dublin for a coffee and a tasty [...]
Taking Control
A friend of mine passed this along – it’s a documentary called Controlling Our Food that apparently aired in France in 2008 (many of you may have already heard of it) but it certainly is not one that will be aired anytime soon here in the U.S. Why? It doesn’t have too nice things to say [...]
Pharaoh and The Hogan Family
What do an Egyptian pharaoh and the Hogan Family have to do with food? In fact, what do they have do with each other? Rameses is in the Ten Commandments with Rameses every Easter, and Easter is time for eggs and large family brunches…. Sandy Duncan was in The Hogan Family, the 80s family sitcom, [...]
Fabulously, Not Fabulous
As a Food Network enthusiast (junkie) and lover of food (fine and not-so-fine), I’ve come to adore many of the celebrity chefs/personalities featured on the cable channel. While most chefs on the network can satiate my Food Network crave, there is one person, in particular, with whom I feel a stratospheric and kindred connection … [...]
Pygmalion’s Cake Mountain
If you cannot tell already, Zomppa Patty is a true baker. She’s creative yet analytical; flexible and adaptive (helpful when certain flours aren’t rising properly or eggs are a bit larger than normal) yet precise and deliberate (I sometimes call it a wee bit anal retentive), dramatic (check out the colors) yet strangely patient when [...]
Drag Queen Shrimp
Happy Fourth from the other side of the pond. I spent the evening of the Fourth at the home of the Durham Bulls where Team USA cleaned out Team Guatemala 18-1 by the bottom of the 8th inning. They called the game at that point…everyone was anxious for the fireworks, which admittedly, were some of [...]
Happy Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain!
Seems rather appropriate that I should write a post on July 4th from the UK! I have been in the kingdom for 5 days now, and have had a glorious time to date. British cuisine is traditionally renowned for being pretty bland and unimaginative. This is kind of outdated really, as over the past decade [...]
Food: The Little Black Dress
Nothing earth-shattering today, but to pass a thoughtful article by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle. Carrol deftly articulates the central role of food. As he says, “start with the food.” I couldn’t agree more–food is always in fashion. It impacts everything, everything-politics, religion, the economy…. What seems trendy now is often a revitalization [...]
