Grilled, marinated and broiled are but three ways your dinner will come prepared should you order Mai Village's Bò 7 Món, or "seven courses of beef." This kind of commitment to a single ingredient does not go unnoticed, which is why the St. Paul Vietnamese restaurant has the won the attention and admiration of the Minnesota Beef Council. The organization has bestowed the restaurant, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, with its don't-mess-with-me sounding "Beef Backer Award."
Eating mass quantities of beef among many courses apparently isn't unusual in Vietnam. According to the restaurant:
Its origin unknown, Bò 7 Món has been a favorite traditional Vietnamese food for centuries. It is believed to have its roots In the Mekong Delta, but is popular in many regions of Vietnam. Weary travelers would sit at an open-air roadside cafe to enjoy this meal, and to gaze upon a village decorated by orchids, and Beautiful Mai flowers.
Curiouser and curiouser? Here's the details on the meal, which costs just $18.95 per person:
KFC's paying two Indiana cities $7,500 apiece to advertise its new "fiery" chicken wings on local fire hydrants and fire extinguishers the AP reports. The company says the move springs out of a benevolent desire to help the cash-strapped communities pay for some much-needed new equipment and is in the process of expanding the program to other communities. Really, KFC?
Marketplace Morning Report's Bill Radke perhaps said it best on Wednesday morning's show:
"I'm not saying it's a bad idea KFC, but I'm warning you, someone will take their dog to one of those fire hydrants and they will post the video on the Internet. Just so you know."
Food Network Humor compiled shots of the best foodgasms of 2009, including three of Giada De Laurentiis (scroll all the way to the bottom, the best one's last), two of Rachael Ray, and a not-exactly-foodgasm-but-funny-anyway one of Alton Brown. Here's hoping you have your very own foodgasm this Christmas.
Snoop cooks his brownies at 420 degrees. How about you?
Coolio's not the only one making rounds on the cooking show circuit. Rapper Snoop Dogg showed up Friday on Martha Stewart's show for "Christmas Cookie Day" where the two whipped up a batch of -- surprise! -- green brownies. Dressed in a sweet black velvet suit and dark sunglasses (contrasted by Martha and her enthusiastic Christmas sweater-clad audience), Snoop proceeds to make a number of predictable, though still funny, pot references.
Dude could have at least chosen something like Burger King and gone as Mr. King. Even Pringles or Fritos would have been more suitable monikers, but one British man has seen fit to change his name to his favorite type of "crisps." The man's new name? Ahem ... Mr. Monster Munch.
According to Fox, 26-year-old Chris Hunt eats the Walkers-brand Monster Munch morning, noon, and night, and has even come up with recipes incorporating them. The news channel quotes the man:
''I just can't get enough of them," Munch explained. "I just don't want to give up Monster Munch. I loved them when I was a lad and when they brought out the new retro packs I must admit my heart skipped a beat."
Munch said his friends didn't know what to think when he told them of his plan to change his name.
"They looked at me like I was nuts and dared me to change my name," Munch said. "I don't think they thought I would go through with it -- but now I demand to be called either 'Monster' or 'Mr. Munch.'"
You gotta appreciate that kind of passion at least a little bit, no?
Hoping to get some action this Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving's always been one of the sexier holidays in our book. Drunken overindulgence is always a turn-on. Here's a hand-picked Thanksgiving meal idea -- recipes included -- inspired by the site (and book-in-waiting?) Cook to Bang. Think of it as your Thanksgiving Guide to Getting it On.
David Chang (l) and Momofuku co-author Peter Meehan.
Vice's online TV network VBS.tv has launched a food component called "Munchies," slated to profile chefs, food critics and other foodie personalities via short videos.
The first 12-minute installment features decorated culinary darling Chef David Chang tooling around town with NYT writer Peter Meehan and hobnobbing with Spanish Chef José Andrés. Chang owns a mini-empire of Korean-inspired restaurants in the Big Apple, which originated with Momofuku Noodle Bar and now includes several offshoots. Their success led to a Momofuku cookbook, co-authored with Meehan, which released last month.
Chang's honesty and candor in the video are refreshing and watching it. You sort of feel like you're part of the crowd. The Food Section describes it best: "Tune in for lots of self-deprecation, swearing, drinking, and pork buns."
If you've done just one Google search in the last week or so, you've seen Cookie Monster or Grover or Bert & Ernie gracing the the search engine logo and know that this week marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic children's show Sesame Street.
One of the many great things about the show is its characters' celebration of (or obsession with) food. What may not be as clear to the casual five-year-old viewer as to the nostalgic adult fan is that the show just billows with food references, from Cookie Monster's obvious affinity to Grover's frustrating work as a waiter to the Amazing Mumford's "A la peanut butter sandwiches!"
To honor the show's milestone and to have an excuse to go through some hilarious old clips, we've put together some of our favorite food-related skits:
The UK's Department of Health (with the wildly appropriate acronym "DoH") has begun sponsoring broadcasts of "The Simpsons" with an ad inspired by the show and created by the animators of "Wallace and Gromit." ("The Simpsons'" former sponsor, Domino's Pizza, was deemed unfit.)
The ad features several faceless figures (and a faceless dog) in the Simpson living room, munching on junk food that is subsequently replaced with fruit and "veg" by another figure that swoops in over them, and the sorta witty, peculiar tagline: "Change4Life [the name of the campaign] supporting the Simpsons ... sometimes."
Wonderful Pistachios has rolled out a $15 million "Get Crackin'" ad campaign featuring B- and C-list (and that's probably being generous) celebrities including, perhaps most notably, Levi Johnston, aka Bristol Palin's baby daddy.
The eight, 15-second slots are pretty tongue-in-cheek for the most part, playing on the personal or professional foibles of the featured persona. Johnston's has him approaching paparazzi alongside his real-life bodyguard, crunching into a nut with a voiceover saying, "Now Levi Johnston does it with protection." Christopher Knight aka Peter Brady and wife Adrienne Curry's spot features the couple lounging on a couch, clothes strewn on the floor and the voiceover: "Newlyweds do it five times a day." (Weren't they newlyweds, like, five years ago?)
"Oh my, oh me, this lunch meat's bourgeoise!" We know this is so last February, but we recently became reacquainted with this crazy catchy and annoying but also fairly hilarious Hillshire Farms lunchmeat ad and can't escape it. It's kind of like that tabbouleh song from a while back. Remember that? Ha! Happy Monday, everyone! P.S. Who the heck is Stevie Ryan?
You might want to play this in private if you're concerned about your foodie credentials, 'cause they're likely to take a tumble when you play "Cheese or Font?" The online quick-thinking either-or game has been making its way around the interwebs for a few days now. Is "saga" a cheese or a font? What about "beaumarchais?" You might be surprised. See what you get when you try your hand. On a recent round of 20, I got only 50 percent correct, ie FAIL! No belaboring allowed. Just go with your guts. And let us know what you get.
Just when you're in the mood for a little nostalgia, up pops an old Hamm's ad to save the day [thanks to Serious Eats]. Love the "convincing" tone, the "mmmm" and the weird, backward refrain: "Hamm's the beer refreshing." It really does kind of make you want to go camping and drink beer though.
Jingle lyrics so you can sing along (first and last verses only) after the jump.
"I need to get a girlfriend," a man yelled at the top of his lungs in an effort to win the prize, a year's worth of Whoppers.
"Professor, give me my credits," exclaimed another.
In an effort to market the arrival of its new Angry Whopper in Japan, Burger King this week hosted an "angry shouting challenge," the AP reports. Don't you kind of wish you were there?
The Angry Whopper, which launched late last year in the U.S. and features jalapenos and hot sauce on, basically, a bacon cheeseburger, was introduced to Japan this week, with a sauce "slightly adapted to Japanese tastes" (lemme guess: soy sauce?).
Burgers are, apparently, back in Japan. After a five-plus year hiatus, the AP says, Burger King returned to Japan in 2007 and isn't looking back. The younger set who've grew up on McDonalds are eager to try new, more gourmet options, which somehow, sort of includes BK the article says.
Oh so serious! A Guinness "adjudicator" deems a 150-pound Minnesota-made cupcake the world's biggest.
A 150+ pound cupcake presented at the Mall of America for SpongeBob SquarePants' 10th birthday won top honors from the Guinness Book of World Records this past weekend as the world's biggest. According to cakes.com, the cupcake's Anoka-based baker, the monstrosity included 15 pounds of fudge filling (like two newborn babies) and 60 pounds of yellow icing (about like, oh, say, an adult Labrador).
And what deserving soup kitchen got to distribute the cake to its hungry customers? Why it wasn't a soup kitchen at all, but a pig farm! Out of concerns that too many people would only get plain cake in their serving, the company elected to let a bunch of hogs get in on the celebration. As a consolation, cakes.com gave away 4,000 individual cupcakes to mall patrons.
CP's Blotter blogged yesterday about a weekend mishap in Mount Pleasant, Wis. involving one of Oscar Mayer's fleet of Wienermobiles. Apparently the driver meant to drive in reverse?
A friend of Hot Dish points out a goldmine comment to the Strib's story, Reason Number xxx that the comments section is typically more illuminating and/or funny than the story itself. From commenter johnnyshwai:
There was also a beer spill yesterday in Madison, a bean spill last week near Janesville/Beloit, a hot dog spill in Oshkosh and a keg spill near Miller Park in April too. Cookout time! There's a Facebook group dedicated to the phenomenon: Wisconsin Truck Spill Barbecue.
It's like Spike TV meets the Food Network! Awesome. Now if we could only get some food trucks involved in some high speed chases ...
A Hot Dish reader brought this Onion-produced news bit on a "product innovation that may change the way Americans eat" to our attention. Love the dude with food smeared on his face, all giving a "serious" news interview, the lady on the cell phone, and the kid scooping his free toy out of his kids' meal feedbag. Best quote: "For, you know, an additional 50 cents, they'll just throw the soda right in there." Watch out, Jon Stewart.
You may recall Sarah "The Cheese Lady" Kaufmann. Hot Dish blogged about the ambitious Wisconsin cheese sculptor a few months ago when she came to town to carve a 500-pound bear and a Sioux warrior and princess -- all out of cheese.
Well, you'll never guess what happened. The Cheese Lady done got hitched. It's true! The July 4 ceremony was pirate-themed, with cheese-inspired rings ("bands of gold with cheese dimples and holes"), flags emblazoned "Love Anchored in Cheese," and a 32-foot long ship named MV Cheese Lady. Um, awesome.
Photo courtesy Peter Vanderveer
How did the lovely couple meet? Oh, why when Sarah went to San Diego to present a 600-pound cheese replica of the USS Ronald Reagan of course! Congrats to the happy couple!
Songs with Sexually Suggestive Food Metaphors
Endless Simmer sums up some of its favorite food-related top 10 lists, like this one on songs with sensual food metaphors, courtesy the Frisky.
It seems things have gotten a little more explicit since Steve Miller Band sang, "You're the cutest thing I ever did see. Really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree."
A Mankato beef jerky company is bent out of shape over the alleged behavior of its CEO according to a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Minneapolis. In an entertaining article, the Pioneer Press reports that bad blood between the CEO and his father, who not- so-incidentally owns a competing beef jerky enterprise, led him to drive his own company to the ground. The paper writes:
You'd totally pick up and eat one of these little guys, right?
Before yesterday, EU residents' eyes were shielded from the horror of misshapen fruit and vegetables, or "veg," in their supermarkets. As of yesterday, things have changed. New rules will permit the sale of deformed food. From the Telegraph of London:
Jim Fitzpatrick, Food and Farming Minister, said: "The new marketing regulations will help supermarkets and greengrocers label their fruit and vegetables correctly, and will provide more choice for people who aren't bothered by what shape their five a day comes in.
The article says the change affects 26 types of fruits and vegetables.
This year's State Fair food offerings might seem a little weak, but at least no one has proposed steamed Twinkies. The Onion reports that Illinois consumers asked for healthier options and the fair obliged with a lighter version of the deep-fried goodies. Reactions, apparently, have been mixed. One longtime fair-goer reports: "They're still Twinkies, even though you have to suck 'em up through a straw." Eww!!
P.S. Did you hear about the glacier-size meat shelf that broke free from Iowa, causing an alarming rise in global meat levels?!?
Piers Morgan (who totally looks like the love child of David Brent and Simon Cowell but is really just some British tabloid publisher slash television show host who has no shame) is baring it all -- or, rather, most of it all -- for Burger King's new-ish fragrance (yes, fragrance) "Flame." Hot Dish reported on the burger behemoth's advancement into the scent scene last December, noting Serious Eats' evaluation of "Flame" as smelling like "a truckstop bathroom air freshener," "Lincoln logs," and "a hetero man trying to be even more hetero." And here we are, six months later. "Flame" remains undoused. The billboard ads will reportedly be on display in London only. Don't miss the "making of" vid.
Yesterday, the Star Tribune's Whistleblower exposed a grave injustice
on the front of the Sunday edition: Ariel Wade, a wheelchair-bound
ex-stripper, can't drive her mobility scooter through the White
Castle drivethru at 11 p.m. when she wants delicious
mini-cheeseburgers.
Like all sensible fast food restaurants, White Castle only allows
automotive vehicles in the drivethru, for fear that someone like Wade
would get run over by an SUV.
But Wade says that's discrimination against the disabled, because
the drivethru stays open one hour later than the dining room, and she
has a Constitutional right to life, liberty, and late-night
Slyders.
Arturo Palmerin paused on the boxing line, where he has worked for 18 years. "Whatever," he said. "A lot of things." Then he said, "I have no idea."
"It's bread," Mr. Vargas said, standing beside him.
"Bread?" Mr. Palmerin said.
"Bread," said Mr. Vargas.
Take that, you masochistic health nuts (present company included). It's effing bread. Bread sprayed with vitamins and minerals at that. Bread sprayed with vitamins and minerals built on a history of deception.
A new donut shop opened in California last month, complete with a padded cell, straightjacket and group therapy corner and donuts with names like "Cocoa Kooks," "Mallow dramatic" and "Cereal Killer." News stories say Psycho Donuts has been doing brisk business -- with lines out the door on the weekends -- but has also got mental health advocates huffily knocking on their door. This is so going on The Daily Show or another late night show, if it hasn't already.
Kids shouldn't be the only ones having fun during an Easter egg hunt, right? Check out this step-by-step guide (and the prank-in-action video at the end) to interfering with the innocent fun of young children on Easter morning.
"It's not about Great Britain, it's about great butter!" Somehow I'm just not convinced, John Lydon, and it doesn't take much to get me on board with butter. Did you forget to pay your taxes, or say, accidentally invest your dough with a guy named Bernie Madoff? Why are you trying to sell me butter, former Sex Pistols frontman, why?
Sometimes when celebrities turn into corporate hucksters its endearing and funny (like Willie Nelson's self-mocking H&R Block ad, or John McEnroe doing the same). Sometimes it's just ... distracting and uncomfortable (like Dylan shilling for Victoria's Secret, or Mikhail Gorbachev's print ads for Louis Vuitton).
The "Brief Jerky:" a good reason to renew interest in Etsy.
Raise your hand if you've tried and failed to navigate the online crafts bazaar Etsy.com. Put your hand down if you're fine with that and can go regular-shopping. Put your hand down if you have ADD. Now, the rest of you: think of a very, very narrow interest. Keeping in the spirit of Hot Dish, let's go with a food item, say, meatballs.
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