Shrimp and avocados are two perfect foods, FACT, and one of my favorite parties this year was the Spot Prawn fest at my friend Ben‘s. But the secret with Spot Prawns fresh from the ocean is that they are best eaten raw and straight. I think 50% made it to the cooking pot, the rest having been consumed amaebi sashimi-style, and if you’re sure of the provenance and freshness of the shrimp, there is no better way to eat them. I mean, if you really must tempurize something, use a yam for god’s sake and leave these sweet babies aloooooone!
October 1, 2012
Sunday Food Porn: Shrimp and Avocado Sushi edition
September 25, 2012
Late Monday Technically Tuesday Food Porn
You’re welcome.
September 3, 2012
Sunday Food Porn of a long weekend: Baked Potato Grilled Cheese Sandwich
For this incredible creation there can be only one word, and that word? Is OOGATZ!
There’s a recipe, too! Check it out and keep it handy for the next time you tumble headlong off the Atkins diet!
August 29, 2012
The French Press and the Cocktail Shaker
If, improbably, you were to ask the Manolo, “Manolo, what are your two favorite utensils,” he would reply, “The french press and the cocktail shaker!”
The French press and the cocktail shaker are not merely artifacts of beverage production, but exemplars of civilized life. The proper use of either of them force upon us the sort of ritual of preparation, the tiny tea ceremony, whose orders we must follow exactly if we hope to achieve perfection.
In the morning, it is the heating of the water, the grinding of the fairtrade coffee (from Ringtons), the pouring of the water to the proper level, the stirring of the pot, the placing of the lid, and then the waiting, three minutes of anticipation. Only, at the very last, is the plunging of the press, done so carefully, so deliberately, with such satisfaction.
In the afternoon, the ritual is different but similar. The ice, the gin, the whisper of vermouth, the vigorous shaking, up and down, up and down, and then the celebratory decanting, the careful, deliberate pouring of the elixir into our glass. Ayyy! Keep out the ice!
What can be more civilized than this? Done alone or with friends, the proper employment of the French press and the cocktail shaker are marks of civilization, tokens that we have triumphed over our primitive past.
“But, Manolo,” you may ask, “what of the tea pot?”
It has it’s place, the Manolo cannot deny. The drinking of tea is the civilized act, although, too often, the tea pot is rendered frou-frou fussy, with its baroque patterns and garish colors.
The colorful teapot lacks the solemn, pleasant dignity of the French press and cocktail shaker, which makes the latter two the superior objects, and their employment the superior act.
And so, dear friends, raise your glass and hoist your mug to the French press and the cocktail shakers, two of mankind’s greatest inventions.
August 27, 2012
Sunday Food Porn, slightly delayed Cake Edition
Just as with the real thing and our belleh, this GIF of a gorgeous lemon cake is probably going to be too big to fit in the blog, but Sooooooo worth it anyway. Click on the image to view it in full size 3D GIF form.
August 22, 2012
GPOY: Learning to cook
Let’s just say the lessons aren’t going as planned. God, I need a drink.
Phyllis Diller, what might have bean…
This was real. This was a real thing. The late, great Phyllis Diller had her own line of chili and apparently it wasn’t half bad.
Except for the puns.
You can judge for yourself what kind of a kook cook she was by playtesting her recipe for stuffed mushroom caps, from the Celebrity Cookbook byy Johna Blinn.
Warning: it comes from the days when salt, pepper, and parsley comprised the bulk of a cook’s spice repertoire. Click to enlarge, if you DARE! Can you imagine what Food Network would be like with a Phyllis Diller cooking show? It would be like a kegger at Auntie Mame’s, that’s what it would be like, and she would snap Giada like a twig.
Via CrazyDiscoMadness.
August 19, 2012
Sunday Food Porn: Wasabi Grilled Cheese Sandwich
From the Buzzfeed post Brilliant or Really Gross. Can there be any question of the brilliance of this???