The New York Times has an interesting blog post questioning whether cropping a photo of Dick Cheney cutting meat distorts the truth. My thought: if Dick Cheney rested the meat longer before slicing it up, it wouldn’t bleed so much.
The New York Times has an interesting blog post questioning whether cropping a photo of Dick Cheney cutting meat distorts the truth. My thought: if Dick Cheney rested the meat longer before slicing it up, it wouldn’t bleed so much.
I’ve seen several links today to The Stag Cook Book, published in 1922 with the subtitle “Written for Men by Men.” I’m pretty sure it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever read.
The book’s concept is simple — famous people of the time were asked to supply recipes and short essays. It has a recipe for waffles from Warren G. Harding, Houdini’s deviled eggs, and Charlie Chaplin’s steak and kidney pie. Rube Goldberg supplied a funny article about hash. Montague Glass provides a recipe for bouillabaisse that’s a timeless piece of food writing. Frank Ward O’Malley’s article on Rum-Tum-Tiddy captures its period better than an entire season of Mad Men.
There’s something fascinating on every page. How differently did people eat in 1922 than they do today? A quick trip through the book provides the answer. S. S. McLure’s instructions for cooking an omelette stand the test of time. Douglas Fairbanks’ bread tart will not be made in any kitchen we’re likely to visit.
This book illustrates why long copyright terms are such a poor idea. This book is out of print, and even if it weren’t, nobody would buy it. But at the same time, it’s a fascinating historical artifact and I’m ecstatic that it’s available online. You should be, too.
Tyler Cowen has posted a list of dishes he uses to evaluate the quality of ethnic restuarants. For example, he evaluates Turkish restaurants based on the doner kebab:
Turkish: Doner Kebab, taking special care to ponder the tanginess of the yogurt and how it interacts with the meat.
I find that when it comes to “bar food”, you can tell a lot from the fries. Are they the frozen, institutional fries or were they hand cut on the premises? If the latter, chances are they care about the quality of the other things they serve as well.
When it comes to Mexican restaurants and taco places, tortillas are key. It’s hard to take a place seriously if it doesn’t make fresh tortillas.
I’d be curious to know what people consider the best barometer dish to be at Italian restaurants.
The New York Times has a list of food myths, solicited from a variety of experts. The main takeaway is that all you really need to pay attention to when it comes to diet is Michael Pollan’s 2007 article on nutrition, in which he provides a simple suggestion:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Everything else seems to be subject to change based on the latest of the research and the fashions and hysteria of the day.
Update: More evidence that eating lots of red meat is really bad for you. My advice is to turn to fried chicken for refuge.
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Rick Bayless on Twitter
Top Chef Masters winner Rick Bayless explains what he likes about Twitter:
Bayless, who is no doubt incredibly busy running three popular restaurants, writing cook books, and creating a television series on regional Mexican food, seems to have endless energy for answering questions of all kinds for people on Twitter. His output is impressive.