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Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Pixie Dust

This makes me happy! Colored sugar I bought at a cake supply store. For anyone reading with access to Williams Sonoma, DON’T BUY FROM THERE! They will rob you blind! $8 at WS vs. $1.50 at the supply store.

Burrata Ball

My cousin and I went to Bottega Louie last week where she introduced me to burrata, a mozzarella shell that houses more mozzarella and cream. As one article put it, silky on the outside, creamy on the inside. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to do it again with some from TJ's (Trader Joe's) to enjoy on this perfect windless day.

Food Connection

Something horrific has just happened. I just realized that they no longer make Nestle Crunch Ice Cream Bars!!! I wondered why I hadn't had it in a while, so I went to the supermarket and the only thing I could find similar to it was this thing called EskimoPie!? I suspect that Nestle Crunch Ice Cream bar handed the baton over to EskimoPie, and that they are really one and the same thing. How do I know this? Because on the package, it said, "Pleasing families since 1921" Really? I have NEVER been pleased by an EskimoPie before. It also says, "Artificially flavored vanilla with Nestle Crunch coating". So it's really the same thing, right? When I opened the box, the individual bars were packaged just like the Crunch bars in plain white foil bags. And the taste? Exactly the same.

I'm always baffled when food companies make decisions like these with their products without giving their customers any sort of explanation. I think they underestimate the emotional connection customers have with their products. A simple "Nestle Crunch Ice Cream Bars are now Eskimo Pies!" would've put me at ease. But no, all they leave us with are scattered breadcrumbs, and we're somehow supposed to just figure out what brought about the sudden disappearance of our favorite foods.

The other disturbing thing is that I did a quick google search and NOBODY thought this was out of the ordinary. It's not that no one wrote anything about it. They did. They were just all, "I'm so glad EskimoPies are back!" Whuuut?

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.

The Geometry Of Pasta

Who knew this book existed?

The Italians have a secret. Over the centuries, they have pioneered more than 300 shapes of pasta, each with a history, a story to tell, and an affinity for particular foods.

Find it on Amazon.

Giant Shells

I am by no means a cook, more like an assembler, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to get these giant pasta shells! From What Katie Ate. Click the image to enlarge.

America, the Kings of Convenience

Coming from a country like the Philippines, it still amazes me to see things like this in the states. And by 'amaze', i mean half 'disgusts' and half something else. I guess it's a sign of the times that people can't be bothered to boil their own eggs anymore. When you think about it, it's actually on the same level as bottled water. If you want to save the planet, you don't need to buy bamboo paper or fabric made out of cassette tapes. Just boil your own freaking eggs.

A Rare Sampling

Remember the Five Spices seasoning I sprinkled on the Spring Onion Pancakes in this post? Well I decided to share it with a friend who is both a foodie and Taiwanese. I love sending friends little surprises and this was a perfect excuse.

I put a wooden type O, that I got from a friend, to good use. Olivia is my friend's daughter's name.

The sun comes from the Taiwanese flag.

Jell-O Mold Competition!

The Feedbag goes to the Jell-o Mold Competition from The Feedbag on Vimeo.

I really love this!
Via SwissMiss.

Spring Onion Pancakes

UPDATE! My Auntie Angie's response to my question on whether they sell these locally:

"There is in the Chinese supermarket but BAD, compared to the ones from Taiwan. Even in Taiwan there are so many kinds, its Key's officemate who comes from the south (Tainan) - he said he can get us the BEST onion pancake there is, same one who got the powder for you. He is now my best friend!! Anyway, everyone even in the office is asking me. Would you believe I brought 60 pcs and all are gone except for the last 4 which I am protecting with my life!"

I've been addicted to a couple Taiwanese food items lately. First is some Five Spices seasoning from the street food vendors over there. Second is a new discovery for me -- Spring onion pancakes! They're bought frozen, in pancake shapes; all you have to do it fry them (no oil!) in a pan until they brown. Put them all together and you have a very carb-bloated, sodiumized Nikki. A big thank you to my Auntie Angie and cousin Chiao for introducing it to me. I had about two today.

If you can't get to Taiwan, here, here, and here, are some recipes I found online. Haven't tried any of them yet though, so if you end up trying any of them, I'd love to hear from you!

GOOD: The 37 or so Ingredients in a Twinkie

Look at this amazing picture show I saw on GOOD! This is making the gears in my head turn with ideas!

A popular rule of thumb among proponents of healthy food is that the fewer ingredients there are in something, better it is for you. With a remarkable 37 or so ingredients, many of which are polysyllabic chemical compounds, Twinkies would seem to embody the antithesis of that rule.

The photographer Dwight Eschliman was never a health nut himself, but he was raised by one; his mom kept her kids away from meat, dairy, or any kind of processed food. When Eschilman went away to college, he loosened up a bit, allowing himself to indulge in all sorts of previously forbidden treats, but by the time he had kids of his own, he found a renewed appreciation for simple, healthy food—and a renewed skepticism of chemical-filled, preservative-laden snacks. He'd also developed a love of disassembling ojects and photographing their component parts.

"Thus, this project," he writes in his photography book 37 or so Ingredients. "It's the product of a kid that was raised to be suspicious of foods that weren't assembled in mom's kitchen, and bordering on obsessive compulsive."

Cloud Pasta!

I bought cloud-shaped pasta!

Marshmallows

My previous post reminded me of all the marshmallow projects I've been reading about/seeing recently on the web and most especially on Martha Stewart Living.

Cloud and heart cut-outs.

Martha Stewart "Baby Butts".

Martha Stewart Snowflakes.

La Charcuterie

Look at how perfect this is for a preserved meat shop!!! Why didn't I think of this! Business cards are salami, and displayed in netting just like real cured meat, and their stationery is made of butcher paper. WIth salami stickers.

Oh. La Charcuterie is a deli in Vancouver that serves sandwiches filled with deli meats. Rethink are the designers.

Review: Kind bars

I recently rediscovered these healthy fruit bars called Kind. I'm talking more specifically about the Cranberry and Almonds version, which is labelled as Kind Plus. Other fruity health bars are made of what feels like mushed up pieces of nuts and fruit. You can't really tell any more what is what because they're all ground to look like the same thing, just different colors. I thought this was how it really was, until I came across Kind's Cranberry and Almond bar. There are literally whole pieces of fruit and nut -- WHOLE cranberries, WHOLE ALMONDS, and better yet, WHOLE macadamia nuts. It felt like I was eating something real, but in a quick, portable format.

For some reason, I've only seen this version on sale at Starbucks. Supermarkets only carry the other versions which I don't like so much. It's also not cheap at $1.95 each, but I would recommend at least trying it.