Advances in food technology might lead to curing world hunger one day, but for now it brings us Esslack Gold and Silver edible spray paint. Developed by the same folks (or Volken - it's a German company) that brought us Espresso Vodka and Chocolate Glue, Esslack Food Finishes can be applied to everything from salad to spare ribs to sponge cake, and promise to make this year's holiday season - really, any season - especially blingy.
If you're hankering for a margarita lately, it must be because Cinco de Mayo is approaching. The day celebrates May 5, 1862 when, armed with pitchforks and clubs the people of Puebla, Mexico fought off the invasion of Napoleon III's French forces. (Imagine Mexico owned by the French.) The day has since come to symbolize the triumph of all North American people over foreign occupation.
Every year there are a number of ways to celebrate the date no matter where you are. A skydiving school in Vancouver celebrates with an annual group jump; in Malta they have a Cinco de Mayo Beer Festival; and numerous cities throughout the U.S. celebrate the day with a festival in the park. However it's celebrated, observation of the date is never meant to glorify the military battle itself, but rather the spirit of independence and respective national pride.
So Feliz Cinco de Mayo, everyone! Here's a selection of Texas Margarita recipes to help you celebrate.
In light of government and corporate spending scandals that have come to light recently, we think we may have found a site that's been used by a few fat cats to disguise their scotch-soaked lunches as work-related expenses. NYC steakhouse Maloney & Porcelli presents ExpenseASteak.com. Enter the amount you paid for your "business lunch" and the receipt generator does the rest, creating imaginary expenses for office supplies, business books and lunch food you supposedly ate at your desk because you're far too busy to step out for lunch. You're that dedicated.
This site's for big fat liars.
Leave it to the people that brought us Saab, H&M and tiny meatballs to invent something so fantastic as sparkling vodka. These Swedish little bubbles in Camitz Sparkling will tickle more than just your nose; they'll address your taste fancy, and your sense of visual delight as well. Just in time for the holidays, this little pioneer is now available across North America, and promises to be a harbinger of what's to come from the spirit world.
Every ten years or so, interest in vampires makes a comeback into the collective trendthirst. Bela Lugosi, Anne Rice, Stephenie Meyer with her Twilight series, beautiful Anna Paquin in her new Southern Gothic nosferatic drama, True Blood - the list drips on.
Well to help quench the thirst of those who can't get enough, here's the perfect accessory to your presence at this year's Halloween party. Blood Energy Potion is a sugar beverage that's packaged - well it's packaged like that. It has an entire campaign, website and social media presence designed for it. And with barely a disclaimer (it's there if you look for it) the makers of this plasma sac walk a fine line, and do so cleverly.
A true and venerable staple on the American confectionary scene, Necco Wafers have been around since 1847. Today, four billion of them are made every year - enough to wrap around the world twice if placed edge to edge.
The original wafer recipe has remained virtually unchanged since their invention years ago, but consumer trends have led Necco (The New England Confectionary Company) to reconsider the make-up of these little gems. And so for the first time, Necco wafers will now start to be made with only natural ingredients.
The list of new natural ingredients now includes beet juice, purple cabbage, cocoa powder and turmeric. Likewise, pastel greens and purple shades have been replaced with brown, yellow, taupe, pink and grey.
Well the temperature is dropping slowly, which means that my appetite is starting to wake up again, and it wants comfort food. The people at Smitten Kitchen have found a way to lure you into staying home on a Sunday afternoon and cooking. By signing up to their free food blog, you'll receive to your inbox, periodic little e-feasts, replete with gorgeous photos and the accompanying recipe for the featured item, which today was Mushroom and Barley Pie (pictured). Smitten we are.
Every day in Japan, students across the country eat lunches prepared by the school they attend, following a tradition that began in 1890. These meals, called 'kyushoku' are now proving popular in fast-food restaurants and taverns, not because the food is so delicious, but rather because they give Japanese citizens a chance to reflect upon their youths in the public school system. One tavern by the name of "Gakko ni Iko!" or "Let's Go Back To School", in the Shizuoka Prefecture features desks, chairs and a blackboard from a defunct elementary school. The difference in this classroom though, is that alcohol is served with the noodles. It makes me want to visit my old alma mater with a glass in hand.
Humanity is rediscovering the pleasures of salt. Worshipped for millennia for its power to heal, not to mention its primitive potential to preserve food, salt has played a key role in our civilization. And now, gourmet salts are powdering the world with delightful flavours and sensations we'd never dreamed of before, as well as upping the visual experience of cruets everywhere thanks to some of those colours. So long, Sifto. Bonjour Himalayan Pink and Salish Smoked. The site below has a salt gift shop where you can order sample sets of gourmet salts to begin the next level of your gastro-sensual education. Popcorn will never be the same.
Every day in New York City, a kitchen in a truck by the name of Sugar makes the rounds, selling freshly baked cookies, brownies and the sweet like to passersby. The Treats Truck was the brainchild of Kim Ima and borne of her dual love of baking and New York City. Ima offers a rotating selection of both innovati and classics including Oatmeal Jammies, Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies and rice crispy squares. Ima and her team don't purport to make anything fancy, merely some of the best baked sweets you could grab on a weekday Manhattan afternoon. The website offers a daily schedule of when and where in the city "Sugar" might be found. Available for special orders.
Make no bones about it. New York's Brooklyn Brothers presents Fat Pig Chocolate and lays no claim to even attempting to make it sound better for you than it is. It IS chocolate. Mind you, it's organic and ya, it's wrapped like THAT, so guilt levels will remain low in relation to the pleasure metre reading of your body's other senses. Available for mail order.
