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January 31, 2006
Bowls of Super Cake (or how we learned to love Super Bowl weekend)
We hate the sport, but love the sin. The sin of gluttony that is. While friends and family are placing bets on which the winning team will be, we're not even sure who's in the finale. Is that what they call that final football game played on Superbowl Sunday?
We're too distracted by the circulating Superbowl Evite menus to pay any attention to whether it's the Patriots and Redskins duking it out on the green or not. We must dedicate our time to determining where the evening should be spent to guarantee that we get the tastiest of Superbowl hors d'oeuvres offerings. Everybody knows that the Super Bowl Sunday venue is chosen based not on screen size but on quality of table spread. This year to accomplish our mission properly, we will divide, conquer and reconvene with sampler platters from around Brooklyn.
We know from past experience where to go to get the heavenly cheesy spinach squares that have more butter than cheese & spinach combined. Then there's the invitation to sample the slowest smoked ribs on the planet. And since Whole Foods has overstocked their football cake supply, you're guaranteed free football cake samples if you're content to avoid the TV screens and hang around that cute sample man.
Posted by Cakehead at 03:33 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2006
Overheard in New York
Everyone knows that the best way to find good eats is through word of mouth. And what better way to find out what to eat and where to eat than from evesdropping on strangers on the streets of New York? Overheard in New York has compiled a special collection of food-related conversations in their " Build Up An Appetite" archive. Here are some of the conversations that were overheard:
Guy: If I ever become a cannibal, now I'll know what cuts of meat to ask for.
--South Street Seaport Museum
Overheard by: Karyn RegalGuy: I had a turkey injected with pomegranate juice once. It was very delicious.
--N trainChick on cell: Yeah, if I'm really hungry it doesn't matter about morals anymore, I'll just dive right into bacon, anything. Totally forget about the vegan thing. So for god's sake don't ever leave me alone with bacon. Or human.
--52nd & LexingtonGirl: So I actually tried garlic knots one day when I wasn't high and I was like, "Wow, these are good...and there's really garlic on them, too!"
--Washington Square Park
Overheard by: buffa
Posted by Cakehead at 03:15 PM | Comments (1)
January 20, 2006
Ratings Cake of the Week
So the "family-friendly" folks at ABC are SO smart that we decided to give them the cake of the week award. Those pesky Christians can't stop them from keeping their ratings high. ABC's too smart for that.
Ten days before "Welcome to the Neighborhood," a new reality show where gay couples compete to win a McMansion in a suburban cul-de-sac, was scheduled to air, ABC pulled the show from their programming.
Before the program was pulled there was of course the threat of that thing the Christians do best: a boycott. As we all know, Christians are easily influenced and wouldn't stand a chance of remaining straight if a program about a gay couple were to broadcast. ABC has wisely decided that they're would not put Christians in that awkward situation. And they certainly were not going to allow their business to fail just because a few Christians are scared. Now that's a business model that companies could really learn from.
You may have thought that you were immune to the Christian strong arming and brainwashing. Oh, you say, I'm too smart to succomb to their tricks. You can't fire and brimestone me into changing my ways. Well, if they can fire and brimestoned ABC, the second-ranked network in the nation, then they may be coming after you next. You may be strong, but these days there's no match for the strength the homophobic Jesus. Bird flu, schmerd flu. This is the pandemic to immunize yourself against. We recommend constructing a long trough and filling it with butter beans and macaroni and cheese wiz. If the thumpers have access to an all-you-can eat situation, maybe they won't come after you. Here are some favorite Christian dishes to include in your buffet to ward of the Christian spirits.
An alternative to the trough solution is a photo albums filled with pictures from a heterosexual wedding. Christians love this. Click here for a full photo kit to ward off the Jesus filled zombies.
Posted by Cakehead at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2006
Screening: "How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)"
[Film Forum via Flavor Pill]
So they're not actually serving Watermelon at the showing of this documentary about Melvin van Peebles. But we love any mention the sugar watery stuff.
when: Friday, January 20th - Thursday, January 26 (3:30 & 7:30pm)
where: Film Forum (209 W Houston St, 212.727.8110)
** Friday, January 20, @ 7:30
Meet MELVIN VAN PEEBLES, DIRECTOR JOE ANGIO
AND PRODUCER MICHAEL SOLOMON IN PERSON!
And if you're the seventh person to answer the Flavor Pill trivia question correctly, wins a pair of tickets to a screening on Monday, Jan 23rd at 7: 30 PM
Q: Which country is the world's largest watermelon producer?
Posted by Cakehead at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2006
I have a dream....
[From Ameliaaah via Gothamist]:
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and all the others who have been to a mountain top of cake, Ameliaaah's cakes are for you. As cake decorater extraordinaire Ameliaaah shows us that at heart she's a cake decorator for freedom.
Posted by Cakehead at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2006
Hotdogs for Homophobes
From Conan O'Brien via Devil Ducky
We've always been pretty sure that homophobes think that gayness is catching - and can even be transmitted through food. This Conan O'Brien skit (the definitive source on the subject) confirmed our suspicions. Click the image to view.
Posted by Cakehead at 01:51 PM | Comments (1)
January 10, 2006
Just Eat It
Chef Homaro Cantu of Moto in Chicago munches on a photo of himself printed on edible paper. The cookie's fortune is edible, too.
[from USA Today via Sharlene]:
When USA Today reports the trend among chefs to create art you can eat, you know the movement has arrived.
Around the world, a handful of kitchen counterculture chefs are playing with food in ways that probably make their mamas queasy. Some are trying to harness science and technology to better feed the masses, while others simply want to goose the gizzards of the meat-and-potatoes crowd. But they're all committed to reinvigorating the art of eating.
Posted by Cakehead at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2006
Cooking with the stars (circa early '90s)
Best Cookbook of 2005
We received a lot of great cookbooks as Christmas gifts this year. But none come close to topping our favorite: Cooking with The Young and the Restless: Recipes from Television's Favorite Soap Opera. Not only does the book come complete with favorite recipes of Young & Restless characters, but it structures the book in a logical arch that plays on the theme of life being a soap opera: it begins with the romantic meals, followed by dishes to be served at weddings and ends with meals for one. Along the way stroll down memory lane with photos, descriptions of favorite dishes by the characters themselves.
Some of the romantic dinners for two suggest obvious dishes like "Zinfandel-Braised Red & Green Cabbages" and "Cold Curried Chicken." Sadly there were no pictures of the dishes (only glam shots of the stars).
Zinfandel-Braised Red & Green Cabbages When the cruciferous vegetables rein supreme, the winter months can be filled with this regal presentation of the affordable cabbage.
Nikki and Victor
The book concludes on a somber note with "Recipes for Singles."
Everyone is single at some point, and sometimes it seems like the right person will never appear. Sometimes romance is elusive even when it seems to be all around. The singles of Genoa City know what it's like to eat alone, and some are tired of the easy fast-food route. They look instead for practical recipes that are easy to make and can also be prepared for more than one serving.
We feel better already. The one bit of solace that singles reading this book will find is that the recipes for singles are far superior to the "Dinner for Two," "Romantic Meals," "Weddings and Honeymoon" chapters.
Recipes for singles range from complicated recipes like "Country Ham and Oyster Poor Boy" to the one-ingredient recipe of "Baked Colorful Corn Tortilla Chips." With this simple dish all you have to do is find a store that sells chips that come in red, white and blue; buy them and eat them (although the cookbook takes almost an entire page to state this).
Favorite quotes from the recipes:
Mushroom Lasagna Florentine - "Phyllis sometimes worries that she puts in too much mozzarella for Danny, but that has never happned. Why does Phyllis worry about little things like cholesterol and not big things like paternity and fires?"
Monogram Focaccia - "This dough is particularly suited for forming the initials of a special friend."
Jess Walton's Beef Stroganoff - "Jess says, when I was a kid I used to imagine that I was a Russian princess. I'd be in bed and I'd get under the covers and imagine that I was being spirited across the tundra in a horse-drawn sleigh; it would make me feel cozy and protected. I'd fall asleep. I think that's why I like beef stroganoff."
Cheeseheads Green-and-Gold Football - "This football-shaped cheeseball might just set off a frenzy. Two of the state's star cheeses are mixed with the aid of a food processor with a secret punt of port."
**We'd like to note that despite the overly simplistic menus, this book is a great resource for high school students studying for the verbal section of the SATS. There was an unusually high proportion of big words sprinkled throughout the book. Either the writer of the cookbook is super smart or she got her hands on some serious Thesauri.
Posted by Cakehead at 04:33 AM | Comments (1)
January 06, 2006
Top 101 Restaurants if you have an expense account
101 examples of expense account dining
[from New York Magazine, "101 Best Restaurants" by Adam Platt]:
When I called my friend the Food Aristocrat with the news that the magazine was adopting a star system for the rating of restaurants, she let out a small, agitated sigh. “Boy, are you screwed,” she said.
We think Adam Platt should be less concerned about his "Food Aristocrat" friend and more concerned about the "Food Masses."
We admit that we'd like to dine at all 101 of the restaurants to which Adam Platt has presented one, two, three, four and five stars in his New York Magazine ranking. We've read the same prior reviews Adam used as leads. We've drooled over the same menus. But the difference between Adam and us is that we don't have an expense account. If I knew that my company was going to pay for meals at 101 plus restaurants of my choosing, I too would choose Manhattan's most expensive offerings.
But while we were drooling over the menus we were also checking out the menu prices. And not one of the restaurants that Adam has presented offers even a remotely reasonably priced meal. Sure the meals are art. They look and taste delicious and best of all you can be assured that the room will be lit by the warm glow of trust and hedgefund money. But now that New York Magazine has hit the stands with its top 101, we guarantee that the lustery glow of the rich at each of these restaurants will have faded and instead you'll be sitting in the muddled light of suckers who have followed the advise of the expense account-touting restaurant reviewer. Who is the New York Magazine's audience if all 101 options present require a couple to burn through $250 in one sitting? Are they the same people who are creating the demand for luxury apartments instead of middle-income housing? And perhaps burn is not the correct metaphor. Tossing your money down the shithole is more apt - because after enjoying your New York Mag-endorsed meal you can be sure that you will have pissed your hard-earned dough down the toilet on an overly extravagant meal.
Maybe New York Magazine is a cheap way for the middle-income people of this city to live vicariously through the rich. If that's what this top 101 is, then more power to you. Unfortunately, I think the list is a restaurant reviewer who has not done his homework. There are thousands of delicious and affordable dining spots throughout this city. Unfortunately, to find them would require relinquishing that free meal at Per Se or WD-50. And with this kind of free ticket, why dig when you can dine.
Posted by Cakehead at 01:49 AM | Comments (4)
January 05, 2006
These cakes are watching your every move
Gallery of Cakes with Eyes
What's worse than cakes with eyes staring you down from a bakery window? How about secret wiretaps on your home phone. This week's cake of the week goes to that President who some claim as their own. You know the one. He's admitted to illegally wiretapping United States residents. This impeachable offense deserves not one spying cake with beady eyes, but a whole gallery of them. From alien to teddy bear eyes, these cake eyes are going to be watching to see what stunt Bush tries to get away with next.
And while we're talking wiretaps, we'd like to also extend this cake of the week to Supreme Court nominee, Sam Alito. In 1984, while working for the Reagan administration he wrote in a memo that federal officials should not be subject to accountability for ordering domestic wiretaps without a legally required warrant. Great. Why not renounce the Constitution, declare a state of fascism and write up a list of top ten rules we as citizens should abide by according to our fearless leader. And if a person doesn't obey, execute the sucker! Stay tuned for next week's cake of the week.
Cake gallery comes via:
Cakes from The Girl Who Ate Everything
Ned Batchelder's blog
Crunchy Thoughts
Kate Sullivan Cakes
Posted by Cakehead at 02:21 PM | Comments (6)
January 04, 2006
Give the gift of spork
fork money clip
[Fork Art via BoingBoing]
Are you like us? Still shopping for Christmas and Hanukah present? Well, here’s the perfect gift for all your friends and family who like to shovel food into their mouths. These original Fork Art designs pay homage to that marvelous device that carries precious food from plate to mouth. It's fork art. Lots of it and reasonably priced.
Posted by Cakehead at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2006
EXPOSE UNCOVERED....Finally, your questions are answered: Who has the best corporate cafeteria? Why Cakehead hasn't been posting
Complaints have been rolling in since Labor Day.
"What happened? I was closely following your food and Jesus diatribe. Is the site kaput?"
No, we weren't taken hostage by a posse of cake-craving Christian hypocrites. And we haven't abandoned the site because we were recruited for a high paying job in the food service or genetic modification industry. The truth behind the cakehead disappearance is we've been on a hunt. We've put daily entries on hold temporarily to tour the country to find the best corporate cafeterias this nation has to offer. Since the majority of your life is spent at work, we want you to know where to work to get the very best grub. We know where your priorities lie. You're putting up with the workplace grind to get a paycheck to buy your next delicious feast. But now, thanks to the cakehead search you no longer have to spend your hard-earned dollars on expensive restaurant meals. We want you to get your meal on the Man's dime. And since it's the Man who's picking up the tab, why not find the most generous Man who has the best dining tastes?
At the Google holiday party we knew DJ AM would suck, but we didn't think the food would.
The Cakehead mobile has burned rubber and fuel to research this lofty pursuit. We've travel the country interviewing good honest workers in blue & red states searching for that cafeteria that brings meaning to the daily grind.
Our bellies have both celebrated and suffered. We're aching and plump - stretched larger than we thought we could become. Unlike wine tasters, we swallow. And in the end we don't regret this sacrifice (an extended stay in a weightloss treatment center, might be beneficial). But since weightloss don't come free, we'll continue to eat. And hopefully our loyal readers will too. Our final report comes to you based not on a quick mouth swashing and spitting. We've tracked the flavors and effects from first bite to the final stages of digestion. When we report the winning cafeteria, it will not be based on a floozy wino's interpretation – but is rather an in-depth study.
As it turns out the best place to work and be fed is Google. The Gen-Xers are the unsung heroes of the free dining in the workplace movement. Sure the Conde-cafeteria is swell. But that food don't come free. Leave it to one of the only dot-com hold outs to provide that fully stocked refrigerator that makes work seem like that awesome babysitting gig at the Lamberts. You know, the family with that refrigerator stocked with the kettle fried pototo chips that tasted so good when dipped in that delicious black truffle butter, then followed by the Ciao Bella frozen bonbon chasers. That's what it like to work for Google. Whenever you have a craving just open the company fridge and there are all the snacks a girl could want. All for free.
So, now you're thinking, if the daily provisions provided by the company are that good, then the holiday party must have been incredible. We're sorry to be the ones to shatter the façade. Google is not THE place to be seen when it comes to party crashing. Forget the horrific djing by Nicole Richie's ex, DJ A.M. It's a given that he would be crap. We just expected more of the food.
Sure we snacked on a few sandwiches: steak stuck between two carb-packed bulky rolls that would make a waify Google gal gasp. We ate the spinach casserole and the pecan diamonds from the dessert table. But frankly, the food at the holiday party made us feel deluded. Like we had selected the wrong corporate cafeteria as the winner. We felt empty. Confused. Months of web-post productivity had been abandoned for this quest. And now with the attendance of a mere holiday party our ability to judge good versus bad was being called into question.
Not only were the hors d'oeuvres a disaster, but we were forced to spend the evening responding to riddles and euphemism about who was rich and who wasn't. (We later learned that when a Google engineer introduces himself mumbling in the same breath, "I'm Stan and I've worked at Google since 2000" it was his not-so-subtle way of saying,"I'm a billionaire and even though I’m really dorky please have sex with me." But poor starving dorks are more our type and who wants to sleep with an empty billionaire who was thrown off kilter when he learned that we are not women swayed by fortune. Food is the only way to our hearts.)
To make a long story short, at the Google party we were ready to abandon ship. To relinquish our research data and surrender to a factory job, or table waiting or anything that didn't involve assessing corporate cafeteria quality. That is until we realized our own error.
Across the room the glistening ice sculpture, carved in the recognizable google font beckoned us nearer. We noticed a gush of liquid flowing from the second "g" and we needed to investigate. As we approached it all became clear. Holiday parties aren't about the food. They're about the liquor. And in the end what we saw before us confirmed that Google was worthy of the best corporate cafeteria title. After a year of eating delicious free food, the workers don’t want more free food at the holiday party. They want free drinks. Of course free drinks in the corporate cafeteria would deter productivity. But at the holiday party the drinks were running free. Out of each letter in the word google flowed a different blend of liquors.
G = (Blue)
Stoli Vanilla
Triple Sec
Blue Curacao
Pineapple Juice
O = (Red)
Vodka
Triple Sec
Lime
Cranberry or Chambord (TBD)
O = (Yellow)
Malibu Rum
Pineapple
G = (Blue
Stoli Vanilla
Triple Sec
Blue Curacao
Pineapple Juice
L = (Green)
Vodka
Apple Pucker
Triple Sec
E = (Red)
Vodka
Triple Sec
Lime Juice
Happy workers, drunk on the ice factory's nectar, were proof to us that Google has earned it's title as best cafeteria by day -- best holiday party spirits one night a year.
Posted by Cakehead at 05:32 AM | Comments (3)
