Mystery Shishito peppers – which ones are hot?
Do you like vegetarian
and vegan that’s not shaped like SPAM?
Will you eat pizza in a pan
from a wood-fired oven, if you can?
I love to eat meat, this is true
but I’ll try veggies here with you
and all this food that’s fresh, not canned
I’ll bet I’ll love it, Sam-I-Am!
Working on the small size popcorn at the OC Fair
The Orange County Fair is an annual event that evokes a range of emotions, from eager anticipation of what gastronomic Frankensteinian contraption will be the talk of the county fair season to fear and dread of indigestion. Although Chicken Charlie’s traveling semi of deep-fried comestibles is usually the front-runner in a race for the most outrageous dish, the competition is fierce, with the only clear winner being the fairgoers themselves. The OC Fair consistently steps up its culinary game, with head-to-head knife fights between prestigious Orange County chefs, a proliferation of food trucks, cooking demonstrations from celebrity chefs, artistically-carved food by Chef Ray Duey, and the sideshow cavalcade of food we’ve come to expect from the gala end-of-summer event.
The Dead Chef series at Unamicatessen in Los Angeles
The Media Age has created a glut of celebrity chefs that are known more for their eccentric behavior, brash, on-camera demeanors, and globe-trotting searches for the most elaborate, exorbitant or bizarre dishes than will be remembered for creating landmark signature cuisine. L.A.’s Umamicatessen hopes to bring to light some of the great trail-blazers that have since packed their Wusthofs and Globals and headed off to The Great Kitchen in the Sky with their 10-week series, Dead Chefs at The Residence, from Maestro Martino de Rossi of Como (born 1430) through Sylvia Woods (who died in 2012). The dinner homages will be held every Thursday night during the 10-week run with a variety of L.A.’s brightest and best recreating menu items and cookbook entries from each chef.
Introducing Chef Matthew Hirtz of World Empanadas
What started out four years ago as an ambitious showcase for some of the Los Angeles area’s most popular and innovative gourmet food trucks and vendors has snowballed into a massive annual celebration of the best of the gastronomic culture of Southern California and beyond. The event has grown so large that it can no longer be contained by the historic Rose Bowl – in addition to restaurants, trucks and stands competing in gladiatorial combat inside the hallowed arena, the festivities will be spilling out into the stadium’s environs. In order to ensure that the food presented by over 100 vendors flows like the wine at Cupcake Vineyards‘ mobile lounge, a modest 5,000 tickets will made available. While many of the returning champions and local favorites will be represented, there will also be a plethora of fresh faces and representation from chefs and restaurants from as far south as Baja California.
Braised muskrat meat
The consumption of large rodentia is usually a plot line for a survival drama or doomsday novel, and yet North American native the muskrat has been prized for its fur and meat for centuries. While not a true rat, the muskrat belongs to the same cute and cuddly family as the beaver, leading a quiet, peaceful life primarily as an aquatic herbivore like its cousin. Muskrats are found throughout most of the United States and Canada, and while they occur as far south as northern parts of Mexico, they are scarce in Florida (largely because alligators are thought to keep their population in check). The name comes from scent glands (located in the usual naughty regions) that are used to mark their territory, and yet when dressed properly (and I don’t mean in a fur coat), they have very little funk factor. Continue reading
