Who doesn’t love them? Here’s a gem by my old friend Kristy Athens, which, among other things, explains the range of bacon ordering doneness, from limp to “cook the sh*t out of it.” We used to be in a writing group together, which mainly consisted of eating and drinking for hours and hours with a few similarly-inclined pals, which is why I love this clip. Move over Scorsese, now there’s something meatier.
The sky may be falling on Wall Street, but we’ll always have beer. It makes us happy; it’s inexpensive; it’s readily available. What’s not to like? And fall is an especially good time to drink it. The Great American Beer Festivalis in just a few weeks; the traditional Oktoberfest in Munichstarted just two days ago—and will go for another 13—but there are plenty of reasons raise a glass of beer right now, and close to home instead.
For the last five years I’ve had the incredibly good fortune to join my friend Seth Fletcher in rating the best beers in the land (or sometimes the world) for MEN’S JOURNAL, a somber task we approach with monkish restraint (OK, we enjoy it mightily, but if we actually finished the hundreds of bottles we sample each summer the story would never happen. Much returns to Earth from whence it came. And we have notebooks, piles of them. We swear.)
This year’s list is on newsstands now, and this time, the premise was deceptively simple: if you like ‘X’ mass beer, try ‘Y’ craft variation. Are you a Guinness drinker? Then try Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter, available in 19 states and counting. With an eye toward America’s smallest, most artisanal craft brewers—some with only a handful of employees—we dedicated ourselves to coming up with a list of exceptional American (and in one case, Quebecois) craft beers that are a bit harder to find, but so worth the effort. Many of these beers are available in NYC, on tap or in bottles at bars likeThe Blind Tiger, Bar Great Harry, DBA, Against The Grain, Spuyten Duyvil, The Diamond, the Brazen Head, and more. There’s also a mini-profile of beer provocateur Vinnie Cilurzo (of California’s Russian River Brewing Company). Enjoy!
Today’s Timeshas an interesting article on a fruit that alters one’s perception of taste to make virtually everything taste sweet–even vinegar and mustard. Of all the gems in this story about so-called Miracle Fruit, orSynsepalum dulcificum–not the least of which is that the main character, a lawyer named Franz Aliquo who calls himself ‘Supreme Commander’, throws “flavor-tripping” parties, or, in words from his blog, “Bacchanalian flavor smackdowns”–the best was this exchange:
“One woman wanted to see Mr. Aliquo eat a berry before she tried one. “What, you don’t trust me?” he said.
She replied, “Well, I just met you.”
Another guest said, “But you met him on the Internet, so it’s safe.”
Also interesting was the fact that a bar set to open in Portland, Oregon, the Beaker & Flask (you go, hometown) has experimented with miracle fruit foams in cocktails. The question is, how much miracle fruit is too much of a good thing? [Via NYT, and Thrillist]
I’ve bent many an ear with tales of a certain coffee roaster from my hometown of Portland, Oregon, where the black and bitter can do wonders for the grey and melancholy that is the Rose City’s curiously beloved meteorological norm. That’d be Stumptown, the brainchild of Duane Sorenson, whose passion for fairly-traded, sustainable—and ultra high quality—coffee approaches the monastic. But he’s no shut-in: Sorenson leads annual source trips to such coffee-growing nations as Yemen, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, leading curious imbibers to the source. [I wrote about Duane's never-ending search for the perfect bean in 2003 for National Geographic Adventure, describing a remote plantation in Guatemala known as Finca El Valle that comes damn close to producing it.]While there is undoubtedly some good coffee going on here in the city—thanks, Gorilla—it’s not exactly easy to get a good cup. So it was with joy I read (via Eater) that Sorenson’s search-and-deliver mission has finally landed in NYC. According to the item (linked to eGullet), Ninth Street Espresso will begin taking Wednesday and Friday deliveries of Hair Bender, an appropriately-named espresso blend derived from five coffees grown in three major world cultivation areas. Even better, goes the report, Stumptown will soon be setting up a Brooklyn roaster to facilitate the impending, city-wide jones. Anyone care to nominate their favorite NYC espresso spot? Noms will be tested in person—and shared here.
Oregon chef has his own Big Night at New York gala
From the Portland Oregonian FOODday section today, May 15, 2007
Park Kitchen’s Scott Dolich didn’t win a Beard award, but that didn’t stop his revelry
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - CHRISTIAN DeBENEDETTI – NEW YORK CITY For Scott Dolich, chef of Portland’s Park Kitchen, the night really began with a camera flash. Not from the paparazzi lining the velvet ropes (those would come moments later) but from his own, as the nominee for the James Beard Foundation award for best chef in the Northwest snapped a shot of his 5-year-old daughter, Maddie, on her very first red carpet walk.” Actually, the night began with me getting a bit carsick as I tried to tie my own bow tie using directions I printed off the Internet,” Dolich later joked. Tricky formalwear notwithstanding, there was much to be excited about. Read the rest of this entry »
Robert Greene’s book ‘The 48 Laws of Power’—an update of Sun-Tzu and Machiavelli that has taken hold in the hip-hop community—talks about the tactical dangers of ‘outshining the master’, as I learned from Nick Paumgarten’s latest article in The New Yorker. This weekend I got the chance to see the upshot of such ambition, and take a break from my usual freelancer’s diet of pizza by the slice, cold cereal, and bagels, by tagging along as a group of Portland, Oregon’s top chefs visited New York City. Late last week, Leather Storrs and Greg Smith, chef and sous chef of Noble Rot, along with Scott Dolich and David Padberg of Park Kitchen, rolled in with about 600 lbs of Oregon-made goodies to prepare and serve guests of the James Beard House on Saturday. The anticipation mounted from Thursday as the posse prepped for the big meal, mainly in the way that chefs seem to enjoy most when not actually at the stove: by insulting, quizzing, or laughing at each other, eating out on the town, smoking, drinking, or generally behaving badly. Read the rest of this entry »
A native Oregonian currently living in Brooklyn, I write about food, drink, travel, the environment, and current events for magazines and newspapers.
on the web: www.christiandebenedetti.com
another blog: christiandebenedetti.wordpress.com
e: christiandebenedetti [AT] mac [DOT] com
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I’ve bent many an ear with tales of a certain coffee roaster from my hometown of Portland, Oregon, where the black and bitter can do wonders for the grey and melancholy that is the Rose City’s curiously beloved meteorological norm. That’d be Stumptown, the brainchild of Duane Sorenson, whose passion for fairly-traded, sustainable—and ultra high quality—coffee approaches the monastic. But he’s no shut-in: Sorenson leads annual source trips to such coffee-growing nations as Yemen, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, leading curious imbibers to the source. [I wrote about Duane's never-ending search for the perfect bean in 2003 for National Geographic Adventure, describing a remote plantation in Guatemala known as Finca El Valle that comes damn close to producing it.]While there is undoubtedly some good coffee going on here in the city—thanks, Gorilla—it’s not exactly easy to get a good cup. So it was with joy I read (via Eater) that Sorenson’s search-and-deliver mission has finally landed in NYC. According to the item (linked to eGullet), Ninth Street Espresso will begin taking Wednesday and Friday deliveries of Hair Bender, an appropriately-named espresso blend derived from five coffees grown in three major world cultivation areas. Even better, goes the report, Stumptown will soon be setting up a Brooklyn roaster to facilitate the impending, city-wide jones. Anyone care to nominate their favorite NYC espresso spot? Noms will be tested in person—and shared here. 