Let’s be completely honest for a minute. Is there anything better than really good fried food? Imagine the perfect piece of fried chicken. Crisp on the outside, moist on the interior. Or maybe it is fresh from the fryer french fries from McDonald’s. Hot and crunchy with just the right amount of salt. And I haven’t even mentioned fried desserts like doughnuts or fried Oreos. Whatever it is you think of, great fried food can stand up against any other type of cuisine.

All that being said, I don’t know how much frying people are doing at home. My guess is very little either because of health concerns, safety concerns or worries about it being hard. I’m not going to try and argue that frying is healthy. You’re submerging food in liquid fat. However, it can be done safely and with little or no fuss. Also, if done properly you can mitigate some of the health issues with frying so that after eating you don’t feel the need to fast for six months to make up for it.

Frying using takes place in one of two forms and with one of two types of coating. Either you are deep frying, immersing the food entirely in oil, or you are pan frying, in which the food is only about half submerged and is flipped over at least once during the cooking process. Food is either coated in a breading or flour mixture, or some form of batter. For this method, we’ll analyze each of the cooking methods and each of the coatings. As always, what follows isn’t a recipe but rather a how-to guide with tips for frying and frying well. Read the rest of this entry »

It is December 20th, which means a few things. One, Christmas is just around the corner, you’re probably well aware of that. However, the latter portion of December also brings us the annual release of the New England Brewing Company’s Imperial Stout Trooper beer.

Imperial Stout Trooper is a dark full beer with a chocolate/coffee taste. It is, by far, the best chocolate beer I’ve ever had, and while I won’t entirely speak for Jesse, he enjoys it as well. All the worse that this beer only arrives during a two week period in December.

If the name didn’t give it away, it is indeed inspired by Star Wars. Inspired might be a bit of a stretch given that the only relationship to the galaxy far far away is the name and the picture of the storm trooper on the label. Admittedly, this is the first thing that attracted Jesse and me to it.

Finding this beer is almost as hard as waiting the 50 weeks during the year when it isn’t available. It is only available in the New England area, though a liquor store here and there might snag a few bottles. The brewery’s website doesn’t help, neither does their Twitter feed.

Your only choice is to just call up liquor stores in the area and ask around. Some will be kind enough to put you on a list and call you back if they get it in stock. If they don’t do lists, just keep calling back until you get the restraining order in the mail.

Luckily for you, I’ve taken the liberty of crazy calling every liquor store in the tri-state area and I have it on good authority that the beer is on its way, but that it might not actually get released till after Christmas. Puts a bit of a kink in any plans you have on gifting this, but your friends will forgive you if the present arrives a few days later. If not, well then they aren’t your friends, and you can just keep all the beer for yourself. May the Force be with you.

I’ve always loved the odd and off the wall approach to kitchen tools that Fred has. The Mix Sticks and Pastasaurus have been staples in my kitchen for years, so it came as no surprise that I fell in love with the Ninjabread Men cookie cutters. Read the rest of this entry »

As part of our ongoing series COOKING FOR ONE, we look at the challenges, advantages, and unique circumstances that people face when cooking by themselves.

If you didn’t know already, people are strange. There are enough public examples to convince anyone of our collective weirdness, but it’s behind closed doors that we really start to go off the rails. Think of your neighbor or best friend. What do you think they do when no one is looking? Kind of frightening to imagine isn’t it? Well, that is partially the topic of a great book called What We Eat When We Eat Alone, by Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin. Read the rest of this entry »

With a new season of Top Chef well underway it is easy to lose yourself in a roster of new cheftestants. With so many former winners and finalists opening restaurants, we decided to check in on one of the most memorable contestants the show has ever seen, Chef Mike Isabella. Isabella is remembered not just for his big smile and personality, but because he had one of the best runs in show history when he emerged as a dark horse during the All-Stars season and narrowly lost to favorite Richard Blaze in the finals.

Currently, I cook for only three people: me, myself and I. This is not by choice, but by circumstance. A single guy living with roommates who all keep very disparate schedules means many solitary nights at the stove and eating dinner while churning through my Netflix queue. I know I am not alone in this predicament, even people in a relationship will have to fend for themselves from time to time. Many people who I talk to seem to have a real stigma or problem with the idea of “cooking for one”. I often hear that it is difficult, they can’t decide what to make, their motivation disappears, they don’t know how to shop, etc.

To try and calm some of these anxieties, I’m starting a little series on “Cooking for One”. In this first installment, we’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages to cooking by yourself. What follows is by no means a complete list, but where I note disadvantages I’ve tried and give some possible solutions. I think you’ll find that cooking alone is perfectly fine and may help you become a better cook. Read the rest of this entry »

With this weekend being informally known as Halloweekend, even Wizards of the Coast is getting in on the action by giving away exclusive Innistrad themed M&Ms!

Magic M&Ms!

And the other side:

Ponder this question for a moment. What exactly is American food? If someone asked you how would you answer?

There are some pretty obvious answers, but rather than a unifying theory of food, you’d probably just answer with individual examples. Those examples aren’t going to be totally correct either. Pizza? Nope, that’s Italian. A hot dog? Sorry German. A really great steak dinner? Sorry, but you’ve got France to thank for that one. Maybe, the hamburger? Actually it is also derived from German cuisine. Apple pie? They’ve been making pies in Europe since the dawn of time. And while turkey might be American, the roasting of birds also has a long and proud tradition in Europe.

The only thing you can call “American Cuisine” and be accurate, is barbecue, Pure and simple. Within barbecue there are many regional permutations which resemble the same differences that you find within cuisines all over the world.

The rest of the cuisine is made up of various derivations and bastardizations of the other cuisines of the world. Several factors contributed to this. We lack some of the same ingredients in both character and quantity. Large immigrant populations who brought traditional cuisines to our shores were forced to adapt to different resources. Many of those groups began to interact and their cuisines fused together. Still other traditions were simply lost to history with the passing of generations.

So I guess the answer to the question is the same one we can use when asked what is America?

A melting pot. The ultimate in fusion cooking. I would love to see Outback put “a fusion restaurant” sign out front but I sense that might lead to confusion. Read the rest of this entry »

I spent fair amount of time in college hanging out with nerdy guys.  That pretty much means that instead of spending Friday nights trashed in a mini skirt (though there were a few of those), I was more likely to be eating take-out on a dorm floor while watching action movies and making penis jokes.

However, ordering pizza and wings got old pretty fast, so my friend ET came up with an innovative, new way to indulge: World Tour.  When I asked him how he came up with the idea, he simply said:

<wise, old wizard voice>”We were four friends who were fat.  Not physically, of course, but mentally. Mentally hungry and the only thing that could suppress the hunger was cutting off all blood flow through greasy foods.”</wise, old wizard voice>

And thus, an epic journey began.

Read the rest of this entry »