Meaning | ideas that taste good

Two brothers fight over innovation

August 30, 2015 by antdina

Tom and Terry live in an unforgotten corner of Arizona. Most days, their parents are away from home. It doesn’t bother them. They unlock their 5th and 4th grade imagination to evenly divide the world. Tom dislikes strawberries. It’s bitter and tart. However chocolate sings to his soul. To Terry, chocolate tastes more like dirt than the dusty field across from the house. He prefers to slide on sweet strawberry silk. This friendly categorization continues with everything. Even in joint play. Tom is Captain […]

Categories: Food Finds, Meaning • Tags: brothers, Chicago, hot air ballon, innovation, Nonna, ravioli, Trattoria 10

http://saurian.net/Cinnamon-Tree-Frog.html

The opposite of cinnamon is not frog

June 21, 2015 by antdina

The right brain doesn’t understand rules. It makes no value judgments or waits for a polite moment to ask a question. It simply looks for patterns. Certainly that must be the reason why some ask “what is the opposite of cinnamon?” A simple question with no defensible answer. Sure. Sugar is the automatic response. And why not. Those two flavors are paired up in nearly every recipe. Need an apple to pie? A cookie to dust? Chocolate to enhance? The Fred Astaire […]

Categories: Meaning • Tags: cinnamon, citrus, contrast, cream, cucumber, cucumber raita, foil, fugue, Jurafsky, lamb tagine, opposite, spice, Taste Buds and Molecules, The Flavor Bible, The Flavor Thesaurus, The Language of Food

Leave a comment

Some people are just born with teeth

March 30, 2014 by antdina

Fr. Chris Billac, S.J. taught in Jesuit schools. He was infamous for bad puns across Texas and Louisiana. While cruising between tightly arranged desks, his wingtips would crush a toe or two. Without skipping a beat, he’d turn his head and offer, “you walk on your feet all day, don’t you? So why can’t I?” When asked about his age his reply never wavered, “I am ask old as my gums and older than my teeth.” Which is to say “I gave […]

Categories: Meaning • Tags: corn dog, crunch, fried, fried ice cream, frying, squash blossoms, teeth, tempura, texture

Leave a comment

Becoming remarkable defies common sense

March 23, 2014 by antdina

You stand at the entrance of a large painting gallery. The ceiling floats 3 stories above your head. The warm lighting rakes across textured fabric that papers the wall. Hundreds of people press against a railing that gives distance from just one picture. It stands alone, a single wall shielded by bullet-proof glass and watched by uniformed guards. Even though the image is only the size of a postage stamp from where you stand, you recognize the most famous painting in […]

Categories: Meaning • Tags: da Vinci, deviled eggs, eggs, filet mignon, Mona Lisa, steak, Sullivan's, truffle, umami

The charm of the South is in the phrase

March 2, 2014 by antdina

Like white on rice. Lower than a snakes belly. She could start an argument in an empty house. Elvis has left the building. He’s so dumb he couldn’t pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel. These are idioms of the American South. Crisp images that accelerate meaning. Ingredients harvested from what we see. Rice. Snakes. Boots. Elvis. Want to taste more? Check out the Examiner. They have listed the top 50 Souther-isms. And 50 more. […]

Categories: Meaning • Tags: 11 Plates, 11 Plates & Wine, bergamot, brussel sprouts, culinary synonyms, Dominique Labeaud, rib, short rib

Leave a comment

Mon Ami, Bahn Mi

December 29, 2013 by antdina

Time to hang another jersey in the rafters. Right next to Philly cheese steak, meatball sub, and the Dagwood, we have Bahn Mi. That irresistible combination of crusty bread, crunchy veggies, succulent pork and cilantro. The Vietnamese give the world another perfect sandwich. What most Americans expect from a bahn mi is a mashup of traditional Vietnamese ingredients and that which they stole during the French colonization: bread and mayo. From the sunny shores of LA to the icy waters […]

Categories: Meaning • Tags: baguette, bahn mi, chicken, Elizabeth Street Cafe, food, Nomnom Truck, pork, sandwich, taco, Taco Deli, Vietnamese

Leave a comment

Eating from the Witch’s Kitchen

December 15, 2013 by antdina

Our demeanor changes in the cold. When the temperature drops, we curse the breeze by calling it “gust.” We speak ill of “windchill.” Eyes narrow and brows furrow when feet step into icy air. And our palates change too. Stomachs echo the howls of the Winter. We hunger for rich flavors born from marathon cooking times. Spoons are promoted from the dessert position to their place next to the knife. We slurp up every last bit. No calorie left behind. […]

Categories: Meaning • Tags: Austria, bitter, bitter greens, brussel sprouts, Bufalina, cold, food, fruit, hazlenut, Munich, NoRTH, nuts, phonemes, salad, wind, winter, witch, witch's kitchen

Leave a comment

Before anything else, we taste the name

September 29, 2013 by antdina

Funny how some words we just know. Like the word “menu.” Do you remember ever looking it up the dictionary? Or asking somebody for a definition? Chances are that you did not. It came into your vocabulary as if by osmosis. It is older than your teeth, as my Latin teacher would say. The fact of the matter is that “menu” is a French term that remains virtually unchanged across languages. Travel to Holland or Italy and the waiter will […]

Categories: Meaning • Tags: american heritage dictionary, dish, evil wiener, food, menu, minutus, restaurant

Leave a comment

Let’s rename it to “Rosememory”

September 1, 2013 by antdina

Despite scorching temperatures outside, the end of Summer is upon us. Not much time to enjoy the Fourth Turning of baseball’s regular season. It is the end of free play. The end of spontaneous trips for snow cones in the middle of the day. Back to school with heavy book bags and freshly polished linoleum. No. New obligations crowd our minds. Why is it that we do not typically delight in endings? Because it marks the completion of what we enjoy. We […]

Categories: Meaning, The Taste Lab • Tags: desert, food, home, memory, pineapple, rosemary

Leave a comment

Who knew that crunch was an emotional trigger?

August 18, 2013 by antdina

Anne Marie Chaker at The Wall Street Journal gave us some new insights how monster consumer brands are amping up texture in products. It seems that preferences for mouth feel can put consumers into one of four categories: chewers; crunchers; smooshers; or suckers. The findings suggest that we reach for snacks that not only match our style but the situation around us. Christine Kalvenes, Frito Lay VP of Innovation, explains in the WSJ online video, that time of day or […]

Categories: Meaning • Tags: emotion, food, texture, Wall Street Journal

ideas that taste good

storytelling through food

Category Archives: Meaning

Two brothers fight over innovation

The opposite of cinnamon is not frog

Some people are just born with teeth

Becoming remarkable defies common sense

The charm of the South is in the phrase

Mon Ami, Bahn Mi

Eating from the Witch’s Kitchen

Before anything else, we taste the name

Let’s rename it to “Rosememory”

Who knew that crunch was an emotional trigger?