I got a tip from Jeffrey Saad to check out Kalustyan's for urfa biber, the smokey turkish ground pepper.
Food and Drink
August 04, 2009
August 03, 2009
Recent e-mail from Food Network
Another recipe that includes bacon, along with a Red Lobster ad featuring the dish created by Jeffrey Saad, recently defeated by Mel the Magnificent.
His recipe was really based on barramundi, but changed to tilapia by Red Lobster for some reason. Jeffrey might consider taking his "cooking without borders" (not "Ingredient Smuggler" as suggested by Alton), to a Web-based venue. TV is too expensive to produce, and requires a lot more ad money to pull off. You can produce Web content, quicker, less expensively, and reach the dedicated, hardcore foodies.
Jeffrey, good luck.
Alton's sardine diet sheds 45 pounds in 5 months
Word is, a book is in the works. Please not another diet book. “The Sardine Diet.”
You can get plenty of omega 3s from flax seed, walnuts, etc. This is one more complicated kitchen ritual, that no one will follow, but seems brilliant.
Meanwhile, on the other FN shows, they’re pushing BBQ, bacon, butter and Red Lobster. Go figure.
And did Alton give up cooking all those cakes and pastry, as well as the deep fat fried foods so typical of the Southern cuisine he promotes? What made him see the light (or lite)?
(The photo is from a recent promo for the new season of Iron Chef America.)
August 02, 2009
July 28, 2009
Shows for foodies on Hulu
I started off watching the "Slow Food - Australia" episode of the "Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie" series, but eventually I found a number of full episode, food-related shows including Molto Mario, Ann Burrell's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Flay's Throwdown, After Hours with Daniel Boulud, Made in Spain with Jose Andres (he does some traditional tapas besides the molecular gastronomy shtick), and others.
Here's the blurb about the "Diary of a Foodie":
"Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie" answers all of these questions and more in delicious, half-hour episodes that look at the world food first. Produced by WGBH and Zero Point Zero Productions in association with Gourmet magazine and Discovery Networks International, and exclusively sponsored by TIAA-CREF, the show travels to the world’s must-see food destinations-Italy, Brazil, Peru, China, Australia, and the United States, to name a few-unearthing a feast of fabulous food trends, exotic ingredients, and in-the-know food players.
Food Network, why is your pasta so blue?
The top photo is the Food Network's view of their Tagliatelle with Corn and Cherry Tomatoes recipe. I'm not sure what the blue cast is doing for this image. I'm assuming they were using a white plate, if so the cast is quite noticeable. It increases the overall contrast at the detriment of the warm colors of the corn, tomatoes and pasta. See how the pasta in the top photo looks gray.
I could see if this were part of a scene where the plates were on a table in open shade with a bright, sunlight lit background. Here I don't understand the reason for the blue.
UPDATE: Another photo of the same dish at the recipe page is way too red, not to mention the creepy background.
