April | 2014 | ideas that taste good

It’s 1967 all over again

April 27, 2014 by antdina

That oak which sits in your front yard. Or at the top of the street. Or in the city plaza. Began as a seedling. Through many miracles it found water and light and grew to the sky. And while we admire the giant it has become, the seedling never went away. Instead, that young green shoot expanded out as much as it shot up. Elementary school explains this truth to the open minds of children. The cross cut of an old tree reveals […]

Categories: The Taste Lab • Tags: Chicken Surprise, easy recipe, Florence Hanford, food, home, Philadelphia Electric Company, puff pastry, salad

What literary and visual masters already know

April 20, 2014 by antdina

It is a shade of blue that rarely appears in nature. Perhaps on a sunny day in the Mediterranean, the sea will offer up this crisscross of blue and green. A faint touch of milk to smooth out the acidity of refracted light. It might also appear in the nest of a mother robin. An eggshell painted for Easter’s new day. Or perhaps the shade of a semi-precious gemstone from the Navajo desert. Turquoise set into necklaces and bracelets line the stalls […]

Categories: Design • Tags: chef, color, contrast, Cotogna, drama, foil, Goodalls, Green Mesquite, sushi, Tiffany, Tiffany blue box, Tokyo

For tonights menu, make it jacks or better

April 13, 2014 by antdina

The boy leaves his mother alone in the house. While she grips her shall tightly across worn shoulders, he leads the family cow down a midnight trail. It was their only possession outside of the shack they called home. It was their only linkage to income. A paltry fee for pale of milk is how they kept their bellies half empty. If he did not act quickly they would slowly fade under the blanket of winter. An hour into the journey, a hermit […]

Categories: The Taste Lab • Tags: arugula, desert topping and floor wax, jacks or better, olive oil, Pizza, plum seed oil, proscuitto, Vom Fass

In his hands, it’s no longer tacky

April 6, 2014 by antdina

What if Zorro worked at Benihana? Or maybe Mario Andretti operated a taxi cab? How about Steinbeck writing personal ads? That’s pretty much what cheese and crackers at Paul Qui’s self-named restaurant is like. The idea of elevated kitsch cooking is not new. The minute that Barclay’s Prime put a hundred dollar philly cheesesteak on the menu… or Ina Garten topped meatloaf with caramelized, rosemary-infused onions… or someone plumped up mac and cheese with lobster meat, we crossed the chasm from red-neck […]

Categories: Food Finds • Tags: aerosol cheese, cheese and crackers, Easy Cheese, Elvis, parmesan, Paul Qui, Qui, Ritz cracker, squeeze cheese, Velvet Elvis

ideas that taste good

storytelling through food

Monthly Archives: April 2014

It’s 1967 all over again

What literary and visual masters already know

For tonights menu, make it jacks or better

In his hands, it’s no longer tacky