To polish rocks, nature uses water, sand and motion.
To polish ideas and identities, we use the same approach
— a mix of inspiration, grit and energy.
It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.
HooplaHa has created a mash-up in honor of boy-bander Justin Timberlake set to his song Suit & Tie.
Ramen Noodles, Bok Choy and BBQ ribs on one sandwich. That's right.
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
From one of our favorite blogs, Laughing Squid "Malaysian artist Hong Yi has embarked on a project to create a piece of artwork out of food for every day in March. The results so far are quite excellent and range from reproductions of classic works to original creations. You can follow her project on Instagram."weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
Mermaids who ride lobster, and other glamorous menu art of decades past from Smithsonian Magazine. And if you're wondering what an oyster loaf is, read here. Hint, it's from San Francisco.It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.
We're on a Scots-themed groove this week getting ready for our trip to Scotland with Rotifer's song Aberdeen Marine Lab.
"He's coming with my chips
He's battered and he's fried
I've slapped him on a plate
He's got nowhere to hide
They plucked him from the deep
They pulled him from the sea
I put him in a bag
And brought him home with me"
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
Here come the Snakes!
Sunday, February 10 is Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Snake.
Happy New Year & Bon Appétit!
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.
This week's snack is a dance along line up, Nordic-style. Feel the Sprockets...
It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.
Carole King sings of the joys of Chicken Soup with Rice to a Maurice Sendak animation. What's not to love?
"In January it's so nice
While slipping on the sliding ice
To sip hot chicken soup with rice
Sipping once, sipping twice
Sipping chicken soup with rice"
Uploaded by yonnco on 2012-10-17.
Livingston is a small farming town located in the Central Valley of California about 100 miles due east of San Francisco. It is the site of the original Yamato Colony, founded in the early 20th century by Japanese immigrants originating from Wakayama-ken and Chiba-ken. Once settled, they began extensive farming activities, eventually founding the Livingston Cooperative Society in 1914. Painstakingly, these settlers cleared land to plant grapes and peaches followed by almonds, eggplant, sweet potatoes, melons, tomatoes and asparagus.
The Yamato Colony is the only known Japanese community in California to develop without a Buddhist temple, not because of any particular mission, but more likely due to the community’s efforts to blend into the existing European-American community that surrounded them. Two separate Livingston Methodist churches, one “Japanese” and one “White,” merged in 1977, forming the Livingston United Methodist Church. This is when Mochitsuki, the rice pounding ceremony, began in the sleepy little town.
Every year, the community comes together during the week between Christmas and New Year to steam, grind, pound, and shape balls of glutinous rice known as mochi. This year, 500 pounds of dry sweet rice were cooked, pounded to a smooth paste, and formed into approximately six thousand individual mochi balls. Attended by around 100 people of all ages and origins, Mochitsuki is one of the community’s most important fundraisers and cross-cultural and cross-generational activities.
Mochi is an important element in the celebration of the Japanese New Year. It is common that two balls of mochi topped with a clementine are placed on altars. This is called kagami mochi. Mochi is also eaten during the New Year’s meal in a soup. Children especially like to eat mochi that has been formed into beautiful round confections, often filled with sweet red bean paste or around flavored creams and sweet fruits.
The process of making mochi at the Livingston Mochitsuki goes like this:
Two large “scoops” of rice, about five pounds, are steamed in traditional wood steamer frames. The frames, piled four high, are cooked over kettles converted from oil drums. These makeshift steam kettles are fired with almond wood from the local orchards.
The rice is steamed for 35 minutes, then run through a grinder. Mochi can be made directly, without grinding, from the whole grain rice. But for the last few years, the younger generations have embraced “new” technologies; the Livingston group has been using their grinder for a few years now.
Once the rice is ground to a coarse paste, it is transferred to a usu, a large mortar. In Livingston they have two usu carved from granite. The usu is manned by a team of two “pounders,” wielding large wooden mallets known as kine, and a “rotator,” who coordinates the pounders and turns the sticky rice mass. The rotator is always an experienced hand who has the extremely important task of manipulating the mochi so that it becomes uniformly smooth. Seated on a short stool, armed only with hot water and a rice paddle, the rotator is responsible for guiding the pounders while keeping his hands and head out of harm’s way
Smooth and sticky, the mochi is taken from the usu to the “finishers.” The women and children gather around vast tables to pinch, roll and dust mochi balls. Care must be taken since the mochi develops a crust as it cools. The finishers make plain mochi balls with some and pinch the mochi paste around sweet fillings for others, all the while catching up on family news and community gossip. The finishing room in Livingston is the large church hall and is filled with four generations, all working seamlessly together.
When all the mochi has been portioned and cooled, the weighing and sorting begins. Bags of pre-orders are prepared and the cash table is set up. Slowly the congregation shuffles through picking up their mochi order. Everyone takes the opportunity to catch up on the holiday latest and to grab a snack and a cup of coffee in the volunteer kitchen.
It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.
A Tribe Called Quest serves up some old school hip hop with Ham 'N' Eggs.
"Now drop the beat, so I can talk about my favorite tastings
The food that is the everlasting, see I'm not fasting
I'm gobbling, like a dog on turkey
Beef jerky, slim jims, I eat sometimes
I like lemons and limes
And if not that, take it the road see and the salad sopped
Sit back, relax, listen to some hip hop"
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
This week we're waxing 70's and 80's nostalgic with Time for Timer, the cartoon champion of healthy eating.
The PSA classic, You Are What You Eat
And our personal favorite, Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese (which we pretty much do all the time)
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.
Sarah Vaughan sings of Black Coffee and the blues.
"I'm talking to the shadows 1 o'clock to 4
And Lord, how slow the moments go When all I do is pour
Black coffee, since the blues caught my eye"
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
Truffle sex: "The black truffle has always been assumed to be a self-fertilizing fungus, but it's not..."
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, our hearts go out to our friends and fellow travelers in food in the Northeast.
We send our best to the farmers who have seen the last of their harvest and their infrastructure destroyed.
To the chefs who will find themselves without a stove once the power comes back and the bills get paid (or not paid).
To the line cooks and dishwashers who can't get to work from the outer boroughs without the subway.
And to everybody who has gone without power, or water or a hot meal.
On a related note, maybe there's hope in one of our favorite foods — oysters. One source for help for increasing storms: plant more oysters argues Paul Greenberg in a New York Times OpEd. "But what is fairly certain is that storms like Sandy are going to grow stronger and more frequent, and our shorelines will become more vulnerable. For the present storm, all we could do was stock up on canned goods and fill up our bathtubs. But for the storms to come, we’d better start planting a lot more oysters."
It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.
Doris Day sings of her true loves in Tacos, Enchiladas and Beans.
"From the snow-capped mountains to the coral shores
You're the only one my heart adores
You've only got three competitors
Tacos, enchiladas and beans"
weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food
