eat me drink me

On Tuesday night I hit up Brooklyn Bowl to see one of my favorite bands, Cibo Matto, which incidentally is a group dedicated to food. Cibo Matto in fact means “crazy food,” and Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, the Japanese ladies behind the music, incorporate both ideas in their songs. For example, they played Birthday Cake, a funny song about a mom making her kid a really gross confection for his birthday.  They sing, “Extra sugar, extra salt, extra oil and MSG! Shut up and eat! Too bad, no bon appetit! Shut up and eat! You know my love is sweet!” There are other songs comparing love to sugar on a spoon and obsessing about beef jerky.

A Q&A with Hatori in the Village Voice touches on how the duo (with extra memeber here and there including Sean Lennon) started singing about food back in the mid-90s.

“Yuka and I both grew up in Japan and Japan is like that, we just love food. Especially Yuka, I feel like, wow, she is really into food! But me as well. It is almost precious, for both of us. Food and music.” (read the whole thing here)

I wanted to include one of my favorite songs, Artichoke, but couldn’t find a decent version of it so linking you to another fun song (that they also played at the show), Know Your Chicken. I was so glad they decided to tour after years apart. And based on the fun, lively show, it sounded like they still cook well together. My only regret, not getting a T-shirt.

Photo by Brian Everett of EVRT Studio

I know it’s been a while, heck, it’s been over 6 months since I have updated my food blog but I guess that’s how things go sometimes.  Of course I kept meaning to do it, but this article I read in Slate pushed me over the edge–I had to write about the devastating news that pickles might cause cancer.

I know, WTF.  Brian Palmer said this in his piece:

“Doctors have repeatedly attempted to substantiate the connection between pickled vegetables and cancer through clinical studies, with mixed results. But, taken as a whole, there does seem to be an association.”

Does this mean I should now avoid one of my favorite foods? True, pickles tend to be packed with sodium, which doctors have been saying for years that it’s  bad for us, but I have a hard time accepting that an innocent, tart, pickled vegetable could be evil. The most unfortunate part, Palmer suggests homemade pickled goods proved the worst kind, stating that mass produced gherkins don’t actually ferment, hence leaving out the step where microbes eat the vegetables sugar, turning it into alcohol, acids, and some (possible) cancer-causing carcinogens.

Ah! Instead of my life being over I am instead going to share with you my favorite pickles with you, if I’m damned you might as well be too.

Top 5 pickles: Rick’s Picks smokra’, McClure’s spicy pickles, Wheelhouse Pickles, house made pickles at The Vanderbilt and at Buttermilk Channel.

If someone makes me a bacon suit, I will love you forever. Or, if you don’t want to break out your needle and thread, how about these other porcine themed vestments?

Bacon Slip-On Shoes

Bacon Makes Everything Better T-shirt

Bacon Tie

Bacon Belt

Bacon, Egg, and Toast Scarf

And for you vegetarians out there, let us not forget the watermelon shoes (still on my wish list).

I haven’t seen Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World yet, but it’s definitely on my list.  In preparation for the movie, my roommate and I started reading the comics and were pleasantly surprised by how good they are, and how much food makes the scene.  Scott and Ramona eat noodles together, the band meets up at a diner called Sneaky Dee’s, there are burgers after the beach, breakfasts of eggs and bacon, and a drunken tequila night.  I can’t wait to see how the movie compares, or, like many campy action films,  if they neglect the most basic need, eating. › Continue reading

Fresh Green Chilies at the Hatch Valley Chile Festival

Ever since I left Denver, Colorado in August 2002 and made my way to Brooklyn, there is only one thing I really missed: green chilies.  Sorry East coasters, you don’t know what I am talking about unless you happened to spend some time in the Southwest and indulged in the these delicious, hot, and meaty green peppers.  This love and constant craving finally drove me to hit up the Hatch Valley Chile Festival in the tiny town of Hatch, New Mexico this year.  › Continue reading

Um, yum? When I was at the Edible Cocktail event a few weeks ago I met Rick Field of Rick’s Picks.  I had to go over and gush at him about his pickles (what’s a girl to do?), and he was flattered enough to send me a T-shirt with my favorite one: Smokra’.  Yes, spicy, pickled, okra with a splash of paprika.

The first time I tried Rick’s Picks was at Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  They have an awesome pickle platter and the okra was on it.  Instantly I was hooked.  Rarely can I afford to get an $8 jar of the stuff, but when I do, I treasure it all the way to the brine.

Ella Morton of the URDB and SPAM cattle

I can’t help it, I love the Universal Record Database, a group of wacky people that help others from around the world set any world record the wish.  Maybe my adoration is because my first introduction to them dealt with a live, world record event based solely on food: piles, mounds, stacks, and pieces of it.  I saw the world’s longest cupcake kabab, the most tortillas tossed and the tallest s’more.  The second time I wrote about the URDB was for a Time Out New York feature, in which all but one of the record setters were using food (Tabasco, sugar, chocolate, and wine, or at least a wine bottle).  So, imagine my glee when they produced a food themed episode of their new video segment,  The URDB World Record Show. Watch this episode and find out who peeled a banana the fastest, the largest spam cattle herd, who made the largest Lucky Charms beard, and more.

The URDB World Record Show: Top 5 Food Records

Last night cocktails flowed like water at Edible Brooklyn’s Good Spirits event at the Bell House.  As the quarterly magazine’s first event at this venue, they certainly got the goods right, unfortunately the place was packed by 7pm and many of the stands ran out of food and/or drink by 7:30.  Lucky me, I got there early and indulged in the melty Duroc pork belly on polenta chips from Fette Sau and sipped their paired cocktail, The Gardiner, which had Hudson Corn whiskey, lime, and a rim of the restaurant’s special rub. › Continue reading

Get ready for the first ever Gourmet Latino Festival, which will hit restaurants and the Astor Center in June.  As they transform the Astor Center in to “a corner of Latin America,” the three Latina women behind the festival; Karen Uribe, Claudia Castro, and Mariana Suarez are giddy.  They have been planning and scheduling this event for two years, and, with the help of Centrico chef Aaron Sanchez and beverage expert Steve Olson, they are ready to go.

“We want to bring out the nuances throughout the different Latin cultures,” said Uribe last night during the festival preview.  “We really want to make it a cultural thing, not just about the food.”

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Who doesn’t love a pile of spicy, smoky, diced tomatoes with cilantro, lime, jalapeno, and onion, all mixed together and placed on top a corn chip, burrito, or taco?  In Colorado, you go to a Mexican restaurant and immediately they serve you a ramekin of garlicky tomato puree, rarely the bowl of fresh pico de gallo you get in New York (which people mistakenly call salsa).

But as New York Times writer Julia Moskin dives into the new Mexico chic cuisine that has popped up all over the city, she finds that a lot of places are getting this simple sounding, but not so simple dish, right.  Surprisingly, as a Mexican food snob, I totally agree with this article.  There are some great places to get some unique and tasty salsas.  Her list includes: Cascabel Taqueria, La Superior, Hecho en Dumbo, and more.  I would definitely add Cabrito, one of my personal favorite taco spots here, to the list.

Who has your favorite salsa?  And, what is the best way to make it?

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