For all the CSA fans in the house...

I was perusing Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools blog as I am wont to do when I stumbled across this recent review of LocalHarvest, a CSA/co-op/community agriculture/farmer's market/restaurant search tool that helps you locate such offerings in your area. I'm fascinated by the almost natural synergy (excuse the hackneyed term, but it's early) of back-to-basics movements and new social networking technologies. Many of the locations we're familiar with came up with a simple zip code search (North Star, The Sipples, Wayward Seed, North Market, and many more), so it passed my rigorous testing, at least.

On an entirely unrelated note, for the gastronomic sadists out there: FancyFastFoods is a site dedicated to helping those Cheesy Gordita Crunches and McRib Sandwiches realize their culinary apogee (well, aesthetically... certainly not nutritionally or taste-wise). The food photography, incidentally, is incredible. Like tapas? Here's what you can do with cheap, greasy White Castle fare:

I Cried at Lunch Today, But For All The Right Reasons...

Fans of street food, Mexican cuisine, budgetary constraint, and the porcine flesh, do take note: Worthington is now home to a new restaurant dubbed Taco Al Pastor. It's an unassuming little joint that doles out the usual Mexican fare (burritos, quesadillas, etc.), but is also one of the only places in the area that serves its eponymous dish: street tacos filled with spit-cooked pork made tender by the enzymatic caresses of pineapple, plus an assortment of spices, herbs, etc. They're all the rage in Mexico City (more here)... Three tacos and a can of Diet Coke for under $5. Go get some.

Will single-source chocolate be the next food item to go extreme?

Our friend Alan at Patric Chocolate introduced his new chocolate bar today. It's sooooo EXTREME!!! 70% Madagascar bar with freakin' nibs! This may blow any candy bar on the market out of the water. As I told Alan, this bar is ridunculous, for sheez. Buy one and get the 411 here.

beautiful & delicious

Being friends with Jason offers a multitude of benefits. And many of them are edible! Here's his take on summer snacks before a movie. All ingredients are local.

books for foodies: got a recommendation?

Friends,

To declare the completely obvious, I love foodie-ish books. In the spring I read Molly's book A Homemade Life. Earlier this summer I breezed through Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires and 2008's Best Food Writing. I'm looking for more. Do you have an suggestions, foodie books you've loved beyond the super popular titles (like the important work of Michael Pollan or Animal, Vegetable, Miracle)?

Libation: A Bitter Alchemy caught my eye today. What else do you have for me?

You Scream, We All Scream

R and I have been ice cream-making fools as of late. My mom gave us the ice cream attachment for the KitchenAid mixer for our birthdays. (Remember that R is older than me.) So, we've put it to good use.

Actually, R has put it to good use. She's made lavender, chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla (with real vanilla bean) ice cream so far. All have been excellent. It's not Jenni's, but it's good. And R made it all.

Until now.

I made a ice cream with Bell's Expedition Stout using a recipe from Perfect Scoop. The original actually called for Guinness Stout which is little on the weak side for me. An imperial Russian stout like the Bell's Expedition is more than twice as alcoholic and infinitely more flavorful.

Due to the extra alcohol, the ice cream was soft, but it was very good. Chocolate, roasted malt, hops, coffee all assaulted my taste buds. It was great for my tastes, but R complained of bitterness. That may have been the hops. Pairing this ice cream with some vanilla would probably cut the bitterness.

So, for your own Bell's Expedition Stout ice cream, here's what you do:

1. Turn to page 32 of Perfect Scoop.
2. Follow the directions using high-end, organic milk chocolate and substituting a Russian imperial stout for the Guinness.
3. Mix and chill.
4. Drink the rest of the beer.
5. Churn in your ice cream maker. (Here, Ziplock bags, salt, and ice will probably not do.)
6. Freeze.
7. Enjoy.

For Your Reading Pleasure...

From the WIRED SCIENCE blog, an article on an upstart web service called FarmsReach used to coordinate farmers' market vendors and area (Bay area) restaurants specializing in local, sustainable food. We could use something like that here in Columbus, so... yeah... somebody get started on that.

Food Web, Meet Interweb: The Networked Future of Farms

By Alexis Madrigal

Ahhh, Rhubarb. We meet again.

Yet another fantastic recipe from Simply Recipes - this time, a wonderfully easy and tasty rhubarb sorbet from guest contributor Garrett McCord (of Vanilla Garlic).


















My only alteration was to add a few drops of food coloring to the finished puree (since my rhubarb was mostly of the green variety), to get that sweet pink color. Next time I think I'll reduce the sugar by 1/2 cup or so to try to retain a bit more of the rhubarb's tart flavor, but this is really good as is, and the recipe makes a generous amount.

Also worth noting - I used a stick blender right in the pan, rather than the method mentioned in the original recipe. It worked great.

So, when you get tired of all those pies and crumbles ... try this. It's a keeper.

Summer Beer Project

This post originally appeared on my blog, but I thought I'd reproduce it here...

One of my favorite pastimes of the summer (well, any season really) is the consumption of beer. Each year, I get hooked on a particular beer or other recreational beverage (mojitos come to mind) and am always on the lookout for something to both quench my thirst and lighten my mood.

I was thinking about this summer's drink du jour as the sun decided to visit Misery today. What will be this summer's drink? Will it be an old stand-by or something new. I've decided to explore the possibilities throughout the summer. But before this project begins, let me cover a few favorites or possible winners for the summer.


Cream Ales
This is a style that I barely knew existed. Then my mom delivered some New Glarus this evening, including some of their cream ale Spotted Cow. Cream ales are top-fermented beers that go through an extended period of cold-conditioning or lagering. The Spotted Cow I had tonight was light and refreshing, perfect for summer.


Summer Beer
This one will have beer purists gagging, but it's a good option if you want refreshment and alcohol without the heaviness of several beers. First, you fill a typical pint glass about 2/3 full with an unfiltered wheat beer. Boulevard Wheat works the best for this. Then, pour in a shot of vodka and top it off with lemonade. My friend TJ introduced me to the summer beer a summer or two back. Apparently, it's a big thing in Lawrence, but I won't tell if you won't.


Stout Float
I love ice cream. I love stouts. However, until I came to COMO, I would have never put the two together. Somehow, it makes sense. This is a drink with which I may have to experiment. Should I use dry stouts or over-the-top imperial stouts (like the Dogfish Head World Wide Stout that nearly knocked me on my ass this evening)? This could be either the most fun of the summer drinks or the most disappointing.


Oberon with Orange Slice
Here's another drink that makes beer purists gag, but I swear by this combination. It was customary in Columbus to toss a slice of orange into a wheat beer, but none compare to Bell's Oberon. The best part might be eating the orange slice at the end.


Dogfish Head Festina Pêche
This is the first beer that cannot be had in Misery, but a quick trip to Illinois will make this terrible reality go away. This is one of the few beers I've had that is light enough, low enough on the alcohol (4.5% ABV), and features just the right amount of fruit to be a one-and-done summer drink. It has rather complex layers of flavoring with a touch of sourness that satisfies after one bottle. I still have three of my four-pack, waiting for warmer weather.


Negra Modelo with Lime
Mexican drinks are often synonymous with summer. I prefer the darker Negra Modelo with a slice of lime. The trick is to see whether you can properly get your lime from the neck of the bottle to the bottom without spilling it all over the place.

I realize that these drinks are beer-specific, but I write about beer. What are you willing to try? What do you think will be this summer's drink du jour? Let me know if you try any of these suggestions. Leave me something in the comments.

Bacon-ham-cheese hamburger Doughnut

While at an event this weekend, someone (not me) cooked up this bacon-ham-cheese hamburger doughnut. Oh the things people will do with food. Apparently the doughnut "bun" gets a bit lost in all that flavor. Luckily we didn't have to call the paramedics.



Recipe:
Find one glazed doughnut left over from breakfast. Cut in half.
Grill two ground beef patties on charcoal grill.
Grill two or more slices of bacon on charcoal grill.
Grill two or more slices of ham on charcoal grill.
Layer bacon, ham, and cheese between ground beef patties.
Layer more bacon, ham, and cheese on top of ground beef patty.
Lightly toast doughnut.
Put assembled ground beef patties, ham, bacon, and cheese between the two halves of the toasted glazed doughnut.
Eat. Feel your blood turning to sludge. Have the paramedics on speed dial.

Turns out, L. Ron was right all along.

A gift for the human race, bestowed upon us by the great master Xenu:

(Thanks and blessed glory be to Nick for picking up this bag o' awesome while on a Cali-Philly road trip.)

Nutraloaf: Repulsive or Awesome

One of my favorite topics of conversation among friends (at the bar or whatnot) is: would you rather lose a major limb or lose your taste buds forever? I find this question to be great for conversation because you quickly identify the foodies in the group and listening to people talk about their relationships to food/cookery/eating is endlessly interesting. At least to me. For the record, you can have my leg but don’t take away my ability to enjoy my just-spicy-enough Sriracha laced cabbage.

Today, while eating lunch with my friends Sam and Wio at Wild Bistro, we approached a related topic. In light of the economy, what is the perfectly nutritional and economic meal? And would you want to eat it? Also, if such a “meal” could be made into an affordable supplement, would you take it and potentially forgo other foodstuffs, saving yourself a boatload of money but sacrificing the pleasures of food?

After returning to the library, Sam emailed this: Nutraloaf. It’s a nutritionally complete “cuisine” fed to misbehaving prison inmates as a punishment. It’s controversial. Is it abuse? Is it brilliant? Does it tap into our core beliefs that all people deserve recognizable foodstuffs that they enjoy, at least to a degree?

It turns out I have a lot of thoughts on Nutraloaf. I like to imagine prison kitchens competing to see who can make the best/worst Nutraloaf. Criteria for judging could be: How bad does it taste? Can you taste the sawdust in it? How super nutritious can it be pushed to be? (SUPER NUTRALOAF could be endorsed by and marketed to athletes!) How long does it last before expiration? How cheap is its production? Also there could be a competition for presentation: ugliest Nutraloaf, molding Nutraloaf into a miniature version of the penitentiary, etc.

Also, what about Nutraloaf eating contests? Forget shoveling delicious pies and Nathan's hotdogs in competitors' mouths! Take it to a new level!

For the super adventurous, here’s a recipe via NPR. Scott Simon ate it.

Would you eat it?

(Thanks go to Sam, who distracted me from my dissertation for a good 30 minutes by alerting me to Nutraloaf.)

Patric Chocolate

There are chocolatiers and there are chocolate makers. In COMO, we have a chocolate maker. His name is Alan McClure. What makes him a chocolate maker? Well, he takes the chocolate from bean to bar (although, technically, it's not a bean) instead of just melting it with some sugar and milk over caramel or peanuts or whatever. Alan is a true artisan in the chocolate world.

Anyway, R and I have befriended Alan and his chocolate over the past several months. We met at a beer tasting and Alan is a foodie that would make us all proud. He hunts down the best meats and produce all over the Show-Me state, not to mention the lengths he goes to (including trips to Madagascar) to bring people the best chocolate.

I realize that V-day is over, but it's not too late to support a true food lover like Alan. Go to his website, buy a bar or three. He also sells hot chocolate discs and cocoa nibs. You can thank me later.

Bacon Explosion

I really think one of you meaties out there needs to make it. And then photograph it. And then eat it. And then blog it. Of course.

Rad Dog's Owner featured in ALIVE

The current issue of Columbus Alive has a feature on Rad Dog proprieter/cart pusher Tawd Bell. I'm glad to see him get the press; he seems like a stand-up guy, and even I (an insufferable, life-long carnivore) find his vegan victuals pretty tasty. Biggest take-away from the article: a joint venture with the Pattycake Vegan Bakery owner is in the works.