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May 31, 2007

Udderly Delicious

Now that scientists have found a cow with the skim-milk-producing genetic trait, we're hoping the next developments will be mutant cows that produce soy milk and soft serve frozen yogurt.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (UPI) -- Scientists in New Zealand have successfully bred a cow that produces skim milk and the firm behind the process said herds of the animals are on the horizon.

Officials at the biotech firm, ViaLactia, said the new breeding program would allow them to gain a significant foothold in the world`s food industry by marketing to health-conscious consumers, The Times of London said Sunday.

ViaLactia`s chief scientist, Russell Snell, said the cow`s milk is significantly healthier in three ways.

'She produces a normal level of protein in her milk but substantially less fat, and the fat she does produce has much more unsaturated fat,' Snell said. 'She also produces milk with very high levels of omega3 oils.'

The firm found the cow in 2001, but Snell said true success came when the company learned the animal could pass the trait onto its offspring.

[science.monstersandcritics.com via Buzzfeed]

Posted by Cakehead at 03:40 AM | Comments (0)

May 29, 2007

Activity: Crawfish Festival

When Flavorpill announced that the Crawfish Festival in New Jersey next weekend, we cleared our weekend and booked tickets for a getaway to the Garden State. With a large contingent of family members in Louisiana, we have have a direct access to the very best ettouffee and pecan pie recipes. But to have the authentic dishes brought to our neck of the woods by the Louisiana natives makes for an event not to be missed.

Cajun Eats 'n Beats - Crawfish Fest
What: Four tons of live crawfish are bound from Louisiana to New Jersey for this year's Crawfish Fest, a mini jazz-fest that combines hedonistic eating with music that could only have originated in the funky swamp of New Orleans.
When: Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3
Where: Sussex County Fairgrounds, 37 Plains Rd, Augusta, NJ, map
Travel: Catch a direct bus from Port Authority.
Fee: $30 / $25 advance, A two-day festival pass is $45.
Music: The four swinging (trom)bones of Bonerama and the stinging riffs of blues master Sonny Landreth set up headliners the New Orleans Social Club — pianist Henry Butler, the Meters' George Porter Jr and Leo Nocentelli, with Ivan Neville, and Raymond Weber. Lafayette's Cajun upstarts the Pine Leaf Boys will get you to the dance floor, and zydeco master Geno Delafose will keep you there, working off the beignets, jambalaya, po-boys, and boiled crawfish.

Sunday music: Day two of the fest features Dr. John, Cowboy Mouth, and Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen.

Posted by Cakehead at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

Quails Gone Wild

quails on a blanket

Rather than kick off the barbecue season with the traditional fare, we decided to go wild this Memorial Day weekend. Guests were instructed to bring their favorite wild game to grill or smoke. The result was quite an eclectic collection of creatures. If you lined them up you'd have a veritable evolution line leading from sea to upright mammals on land. Okay, not upright mammals, but we had everything from shark, squid, quail, lamb, venison and rabbit represented on the fire. There was even promise of crocodile and zebra, but those friends must have been mauled by lions because they never arrived.

We finished off the evening with thick slices of coconut cake, a reminder that it's almost time to lather up with coconut oil sunscreen and hit the beach.

For some more dirty pictures of the quail click here.

Read on for the smoked rabbit and coconut cake recipes.

Smoked Rabbit
Mario, our trusted butcher, warned us that rabbit is prone to toughness. He suggested that we soak the hare he provided in a marinade of oil, vinegar and garlic overnight. As added insurance that our guests wouldn't be chewing endlessly, we decided to haul out our smoker and roasted the rabbit at low temperature to lock in flavor and moisture. The result was a sweet smoky meat that fell loosely off the little rib bones.

Marinade:
1 whole headless rabbit, skinned and dressed
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup cider vinegar
juice of one lemon
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. coarsely ground pepper
2 cloves of minced garlic

Soak the hare overnight in the marinade.

Smoker Preparation:
We use a bullet style smoker. It looks like an upright hollow bullet in which a water pan separates the grill racks from the direct heat of the barbecue brickets.

Soak a handful of your favorite woodchips in a pan of water. We like hickory or applewood.
In the base of the smoker, light a pile of charcoal brickets.
When the flame subsides and the coals are glowing red, add the woodchips to the fire, then place the water pan and grill rack stack over the brickets.
Put the marinated rabbit on a grill rack and cover.

The rabbit should be tender and ready in about 3-4 hours. To test if the meat is done, insert a fork into the flesh. If you can twist the fork and the meat shreds away with the consistency of pulled pork, the rabbit is ready for eating. The meat tastes like a rich smoky chicken.

Coconut Cake
In the preparation of the the rabbit (and quail) we consulted The Joy of Cooking quite heavily. The chapters on small game and wildfowl were very helpful and it introduced us to birds like the figpecker, thrushes, moorhens and gallinules. In our perusal of this helpful reference book, we came stumbled upon a recipe for coconut layer cake. That's when our mouth really began to water. Below is a variation on the Joy of Cooking coconut cake.

**Have all ingredients at 70 degrees. Grease two round cake pans that are 8-10" in diameter. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:
Sift before measuring:
2 2/3 cups cake flour

Resift with:
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream until soft:
1 cup butter

Add gradually and cream until light:
2 cups sifted sugar

Beat in, one at a time:
4 egg yolks

Add:
1 1/4 tsp. coconut oil

Add flour mixture to the butter mixture in about 3 parts, alternating with:
1 cup milk

Fold into the batter:
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp. salt

Stir the batter until smooth after each addition. Whip until stiff, but not dry:
4 egg whites.

Fold them lightly into the batter.

Pour batter into greased cake pans. Cook for 30-35 minutes. Cool cakes on rack. The frost.

Frosting:
1 cup butter
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 Tbs. milk
1 cup grated coconut
1 tsp. lemon zest.

Cream the butter and smooth. Whip in sugar, adding milk if frosting gets dry. Fold in coconut and lemon zest.

Posted by Cakehead at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2007

To Do this Memorial Day Weekend: Books, Beer, Crisco & BBQ

Friday, May 25
What: Dance Dance Library Revolution
When: Friday, May 25th, 10:30pm
Where: Enid's (560 Manhattan Ave), Williamsburg
Subway: L to Bedford Ave, G to Nassau Ave
Cost: Free
Tonight check out Dance Dance Library Revolution, Dewey Decimal themed cocktails help librarian groupies find what they're looking for at Enid's. The fashion-forward folks of The Desk Set (a group of librarians devoted to soaking in the area's literary and alcoholic offerings) host. Jonathan from New York Night Train spins tunes to unravel the tightest of buns and fog everyone's glasses. Prepare to be shushed!
**First drink free with a donation of a non-fiction paperback to Books Through Bars.

What: Diamonds, Rings, & Cutlass Supremes 2 - free barbecue & cheep drinks, no cover (with RSVP)
When: Friday, May 25, 9-10 PM
Where: Hope Lounge, 10 Hope Street (Grand and Metropolitian), Williamsburg
RSVP: mastro@takeovertheory.com
Music by DJs Evil Dee, Yamez and Iron Lyon. Giftbags to those who RSVP with goodies from Skullcandy, Day in the Lyfe, Connected Mag, Takeover Theory, and Methods Clothing. The crowd swings toward hip-hop but if you bring enough friends, you bring your own crowd.
[via MyOpenBar]

Saturday, May 26th
What: Barbecue at Flatbush Farm
When: Saturday, May 26, 2-6 PM
Where: 78 St. Marks Avenue and Flatbush
Memorial Day weekend is meant for barbecuing and that's what Flatbush Farm does best.

Sunday, May 27th
What: Bike Brooklyn's Beer Blitz
When: Sunday, May 27, 2-5 PM
Where: Start at The City Reliquary, 370 Metropolitan Ave at Havemeyer and Withers, Williamsburg
Fee: $25, includes two beers from the Brooklyn Brewery
Bike throughout North Brooklyn with licensed NYC tour guides and learn the history of Bushwick's Brewing community on the site of Brewers Row - 14 blocks that once hosted over 20 Breweries throughout the 19th century. From Brewers Row we head to The Boulevard - Bushwick Avenue - and gaze upon the last standing mansions of the Beer Barons' heyday. Biking further East, we visit Evergreen Cemetary and visit a veritable post-mortem Brewers' Row - the plot of land where many old German Brewing families are buried. Finally we return to Williamsburg and the Brooklyn Brewery where we raise a toast to the Breweries of yesteryear.

What: Disco Crisco Twister
When: Sunday, May 25th, 7 PM
Where: Arlene's Grocery, 95 Stanton St between Orchard and Ludlow St
Fee: $8
When you marry our favorite music genre, with our favorite cooking ingredient and our favorite game, you're guaranteed a night of fun. Audience members will have the opportunity to form teams of four to six people and compete for pride and prizes, playing games such as Name That Tune, Truth or Dare Jenga, Live Band Musical Chairs, Flip Cup, Intimate Orange Relay Race, and Twister (with a twist).

Posted by Cakehead at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2007

Welcome Wagon Presents Nibble-Free Chocolate Breast

Yesterday, the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper and Observer magazine launched their very own food blog, Word of Mouth. To welcome them to the blogosphere, we present them with a chocolate breast, made by their British compatriot, Prudence Emma Staite, a contemporary artist that "works primarily with food substances" and runs the Food is Art website.

She believes that food itself is art and that art should be interactive...Thus eating becomes performative, but also problematic. The desirability of the encounter Prudence contructs for viewers is questionable: who is watching? Who else has touched, tasted or nibbled?

To the writers of Word of Mouth, we hope you have many opportunities to have truly "performative" eating experiences that are never "problematic." Don't worry, this is a virgin chocolate breast. It's never been touched, tasted or nibbled.

Posted by Cakehead at 03:19 AM | Comments (1)

May 22, 2007

Activity: Tomorrow Night Stuff Your Face to Help Fight Childhood Hunger

It's not too late to buy your tickets for Taste of the Nation NYC 2007 - an evening of tasting and toasting to support the fight against childhood hunger. As always, you can sample from a smörgåsbord of tastes from more than 50 of the finest restaurants in New York. Tickets are a little steep this year at over $200 a pop. But if you can spare the change, it's a worthy cause and you're guaranteed some good eating.

When: Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Time: 7:30 - 10:30 pm
Where: Roseland Ballroom
239 West 52nd Street (b/w Broadway and 8th Avenue), New York, NY 10019
212.247.0200

Posted by Cakehead at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)

Frat Boys on the Loose

Has anyone else noticed how many fratty types seem to be running rampant in Manhattan these days? Is this a trend that will only continue to worsen into a zombie-like takeover by boys in polos and khakis? Well, we say, if you can't fight 'em, join them. Or at least fight them at Frat Boy Pong.

In Frat Boy Pong, you are a geek who finds himself in a battle of beer ping pong at a frat house. The object is to get the frat boy drunk.

Click here to give it a whirl.

Posted by Cakehead at 04:06 AM | Comments (0)

The Hasselhoff Diet

We haven't counted calories since seventh grade when one of us feigned anorexia to impress the other girls who seemed to talk of nothing but their eating disorder. If you're hoping to launch an eating disorder of your own, check out what celebrities eat to keep their figures miniscule. Or you want to skip the eating disorder, but lose some pounds, just watch the drunk Hasselhoff video again. You'll be so repulsed by his approach to eating that you will lose your appetite and shed those stubborn pounds.

And for something new and different, click here to see pictures of celebrities stuffing their mouths with food.

[via Celebrities Eating]

Posted by Cakehead at 03:49 AM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2007

Congressman: Eat my face

Is your Congressman or woman in bed with special interest groups, fattening her belly with a bottomless slush puppy fund? Cakehead is launching a nationwide campaign to remind representatives that they're supposed to be representing the people and not business interests. Get them out of bed with the lobby groups with a special breakfast in bed. The menu: a gelatin mold of your face.

To participate, first send away for the Eat Yer Face Gelatin Mold Kit. It's only $19.95, $59.95 for a family of four. The kit will provide you with all the tools necessary to make a gelatin mold of your face. Then stick the neatly formed globual in the mail. Mailing addresses can be found here and here.

Let's remind Congress that the nation is made up of gelatin faces, not gelatin office parks.

Posted by Cakehead at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2007

Meat versus Milk

grilled Wallaby

Wallaby meat is one of our favorites to throw on the grill. But now Australian scientists are recommending we drink Wallaby milk to protect against antibiotic resistant drugs. We haven't tried it yet, but we imagine that it tastes just as good as cat milk.

An antimicrobial compound produced in wallaby milk could be a new weapon in the continuing battle against antibiotic-resistant superbugs, say researchers conducting pre-clinical trials.

This is one of a number of compounds recently found in marsupials, such as koalas, that have exciting medical applications. Young wallabies don't develop an immune system until 100 days after birth, yet they typically manage to avoid infection. This compound is part of the reason why, say Australian scientists.

[from cosmosmagazine.com via Newsvine]

For how to cook wallaby meat, click here. It's also tasty in lasagna.

Posted by Cakehead at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2007

Kick Ass Bar Listings in Williamsburg

Harefield Road, image c/o noahkalina.com

What do we like even more than eating? You guessed it. Drinking. We're here to tell you who to turn to for the very best bar listings in Williamsburg? Hint: It's not New York Magazine and it's not Time Out New York. It's FreeWilliamsburg.

Posted by Cakehead at 01:06 AM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2007

2nd annual Crafty-Pie: A Williamsburg craft fair featuring Handmade Crafts and Homemade Pie

We know you already plans in place for the Kentucky Derby. But do you have plans for the after party, on Seiso de Mayo? We can think of nothing more fun than eating pie and buying crafts.Take a trip to Williamsburg to do just that!

When:Sunday, May 6th, 12-6pm
Where:Union Pool, 484 Union Ave (at Meeker Ave) Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Diretions:Take the L or G to Metropolitan/Lorimer- it's right next to the BQE

What do derby girls, Brooklyn artists, trapeze troupes, and their friends do in their spare time? They create cool crafts & tasty treats for dogs and people alike! Come check out the 2nd Annual Crafty-Pie! The backyard is open at Union Pool, so come have a drink and slice of pie and waltz through the display of handmade wares including: screened shirts & unmentionables, accessories, handbags, pillows, pies, dog treats and more!

Posted by Cakehead at 03:05 AM | Comments (0)