Epicurious.com: Editor's Blog

Name That Food 2! The Answers

Michael Y. Park — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:18:00 -0400

Want to find out how you did on yesterday's visual-foodie test? Here are the answers, and the accompanying zoomed-out pics. 1. How ya like them apples? More answers after the jump. 2. Grilled pineapple on flank steak. 3. More flank steak, this time with three different sauces. 4. Bacon-wrapped sea scallops. 5. Rocky-road ice cream with a topping of black cherries in liqueur, from Franklin Fountain in Philadelphia. 6. Enchilada, rice and black beans from a chain eatery. 7. Chocolate-covered ice cream from Providence, R.I. 8. The inside of a pig's snout. How'd you do? Anyone get them all?

Should You Eat More Carbs to Lose Weight?

Megan O. Steintrager — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:53:59 -0400

The latest headline from Epicurious sister site Nutrition Data's blog sure caught my attention: What?! People who eat more carbs tend to be thinner? ND's Monica Reinagel reports that a study published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association "observed that the lower the percentage of carbohydrates in your diet, the more likely you are to be overweight or obese." Check out the Nutrition Data article for more details, including some observations that cast doubt about whether this means we should all start scarfing down bags of chips. The study does seem to back up Epicurious's healthy eating philosophy: It's wise to include plenty of whole grains, fruits, and veggies in your diet. In other words, don't fear the potatoes, rice, and pasta! It also ties in nicely with my colleague Lauren Salkeld's recent blog about Dr. Sanjay Gupta's pledge to eat less meat. What do you think of the study? Will it cause you to eat more carbs?

Ribs, BBQ, Salmon, and More Events

Joanne Camas — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:10:10 -0400

Louisiana: New Orleans Tales of the Cocktail (July 8-12) Pennsylvania: Vegetarian Summerfest (July 8-12) Vermont: Taste of Champlain Food Festival (July 8-12) Alaska: Copper River Wild Salmon Festival (July 9-11) Montana: Montana Governor's Cup Walleye Tournament (July 9-12) New York: Big Rib Bar-B-Que and Blues Fest (July 9-12) Tennessee: Oak Grove 59th Annual Fish Fry (July 10) Minnesota: Turkey Festival (July 10-11) Ohio: North Market Food and Ohio Wine Festival (July 10-12) California: Santa Barbara French Festival (July 11-12)

How Do You Like Your Salsa: Mild, Medium, or Hot?

Carolina Santos-Neves — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:34:48 -0400

Our next blind taste test will feature top-selling salsas. But we need to narrow down the options. The key question: What style of salsa do you prefer? What style of salsa do you prefer?(trends) Place your vote and look for the results of our salsa taste test later this summer.

Eat Less Meat: CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta Talks About Healthy Eating at 40

Lauren Salkeld — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:38:46 -0400

This morning on CNN, medical correspondent (and practicing neurosurgeon) Dr. Sanjay Gupta discussed getting fit before turning 40. He talked about the need to get more exercise and watch what you eat, pointing out that as you get older, even if you maintain the same diet and exercise habits, you're likely to gain 2 pounds a year. Yikes! That's 40 pounds in 20 years. Gupta is turning 40 in 4 months and one of the steps he's taking to keep slim and trim is restricting the amount of meat he eats. (As you get older, the fat and calories get harder and harder to work off.) To help them cut back, Gupta and his wife decided to stop preparing meat at home. They will continue to eat meat out (at restaurants, parties, etc.) but wanted a system for limiting their intake. (For more on Gupta's turning 40 health initiative, check out his blog or follow him on twitter.) Are you cutting back on meat or changing your diet as you get older?

Name That Food 2!

Michael Y. Park — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:59:00 -0400

It's that time again: How accomplished a visual foodie are you? The game is simple. Simply guess what foods you're seeing. Once again, let's start it off with the easy stuff .... Food No. 1 Food No. 2 (There are two elements to the dish pictured here. Try to name both.) Food No. 3 Food No. 4 Food No. 5 Food No. 6 (Be as specific as you can, and name the optional addition.) Food No. 7 Food No. 8 Got your answers down? Find out how right you were back on Epi-Log tomorrow.

The World's Biggest Hamburger

Tanya Steel — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:53:28 -0400

While we were all busy wolfing down burger after burger last weekend, the Phoenix Seagaia resort in Japan stole our crown for building the world's largest burger, according to Japan Probe. Mallie's Sports Grill in Southgate, Michigan held the record with a 185 pound whopper until last Sunday, when 15 chefs cooked up two-all beef patties weighing in at 300 pounds, and yes, it looks like there is special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun. Okay Mallie, your move.

Fourth Annual Wine.Dine.Donate Dinner in San Francisco

Tanya Steel — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:17:00 -0400

As longtime Epicuriouseans know, we created Wine.Dine.Donate four years ago, hopefully inspiring you to host dinners for hunger-relief and hosting our own series of intimate parties around the country with celebrity chefs, to raise awareness of--and money for--America's hunger crisis. From the outset, we partnered with Feeding America, the nation's largest network of food banks, and remain committed to helping the 25 million that the organization feeds annually. This year is no exception and so on August 6, we will have our fourth annual Wine.Dine.Donate dinner in San Francisco. This will also be the opening night dinner for the first ever San Francisco Chefs.Food.Wine festival. Cookbook author Martin Yan, Slanted Door's Charles Phan and E&O's Arnold Wong will be cooking a spectacular three-course sit-down feast at E&O Trading Company that begins with hors d'oeuvres and cocktails. Each of the courses cooked by these masters of Asian cuisine will be paired with crisp New Zealand wines. Tickets are $150 and the dinner benefits the San Francisco Food Bank. The SF Chefs.Food.Wine festival is a four-day extravaganza of cooking demos (I will be doing a demo at Macy's, cooking healthy dishes families will love), seminars, book signings, wine tastings, and cocktail parties. Virtually all the city's top toques will be on hand to feed us, so that we may help feed others. I hope to see you there.

Burgundy Travel, Food, and Wine

Megan O. Steintrager — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:02:00 -0400

If you're planning a trip to Burgundy, France, or just enjoy looking at jaw-dropping travel photos of wineries, farmers' markets, castles, and horses, check out the new Burgundy travel guide from Epicurious's sister site, Concierge. For more on what and where to eat in the region, see Epi's own Burgundy culinary travel guide. Plus, see the French recipes and cooking videos in our Around the World in 80 Dishes series. And speaking of happenings in France, congrats to Team Garmin-Slipstream, who are featured in our Energy Food story, for a great performance in today's stage of the Tour de France. Photo by Alison Harris

Jambalaya, a Contest, and Chef John Besh

Michael Y. Park — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:17:00 -0400

Jambalaya. Just say it with me: Jam. Bah. Lay. Ah. Mouth watering yet? If not, maybe you just don't like perhaps the most incredible thing to come out of Louisiana besides Huey Long. In that case, move along. If you're still with, let me share a couple nuggets of culinary wisdom I learned from chef John Besh, celebrated chef/owner of August in New Orleans. "We're really talking about the master recipes of Louisiana cooking, and jambalaya's one of them," he said during a recent telephone interview. "Although you'll have variations on that recipe, depending on what town you're from, how your mother cooked it, and so on, it's the Jesse Tree of Louisiana: We can trace all these influences in it. Jambon, "ham," from the French; laya, the Swahili word for "rice," the andouille sausage we know to be French actually brought by Germans in the mid- to late-1800s. Then the Italians came and added their influences. I love exploring the historical aspects of a dish to get to the guts of it." Besh, who himself favors the Creole style of jambalaya over the Cajun, uses tomatoes and relatively more spices and peppers in his home-cooked jambalaya. It's the result of a three-hour process that he explains thusly: "We use a cast-iron pot we've been making jambalaya in for years, heat it over propane or coals or charcoal, add the lard to the well-seasoned cast-iron pot, and then start rendering your meats in it. You brown all your meats ... it could be adding bacon or ground pork; I love using chicken wings and legs, things that will add flavor to the rice. Then I add the onions and caramelize them till they're mahogany in color. Then I throw in remainder of the holy trinity of Louisiana cooking, bell peppers and celery. (Since they have more water, they won't brown as much.) I add garlic ... add the rice. Don't add water just yet, stir the rice and coat it with fat and until you smell that nutty aroma. Then the stock. So you throw in bay leaves and little bit of salt, cover, let it cook without disturbing on a low, low simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. In the meantime, that's when you figure out if you add shrimp, which you should add 10 minutes before it's finished to let the shrimp steam with the rice. If you're using crawfish tails, they go in about five minutes before the rice is ready. You just add in the right sequence, and everything is perfectly cooked." "The big question: Do we add tomatoes or don't we? That really depends on which side of the state you grew up in. I grew up in the shadows of New Orleans, so we add a little bit of tomato. I don't like it red, but I do like the tradition of adding some chopped tomatoes to it, adding some richness. Cajun style, they prefer it more mahogany brown." Besh calls himself a "kitchen-sink"...