My Favorite New Food Blogs of 2008
The interregnum between Christmas and New Year’s is a slow one for most daily and weekly news outlets. So’s the case on Serious Eats. We planned an onslaught of year-in-review posts, but readers grew tired of it before I could post about my favorite new (or new-to-me) food blogs of 2008. So I’ll just do it on Kublog.
Grocery Eats: Serious Eats New York editor Zach Brooks discovered DJ Grocery’s General Tso’s Philly cheesesteak on a message board, posted about it, and not long after, the good DJ was inspired to start a blog documenting his (and, later, his contributors’) insane experiments with extreme food mashups. His first post was titled “Fuck, Yes,” and pretty much set the tone for the site. With plenty of cursing and craziness, it’s a great antidote to all the too-precious food blogs out there.
So Good: Though D.C.-based Jon Eick started his blog in August 2007, it really seemed to blow up in 2008, with his coverage of the Papa John’s/LeBron James/”Crybaby” T-shirt controversy. He was totally one top of crazy food-related current events. Thank you, Jon, for highlighting the Shawn Johnson “Makes My Taco Pop” commercial.
Fast Food Critic: Timothy appeared out of nowhere in March with a concept that seemed easily dismissable—reviews of fast food meals. Who is not familiar with the stuff the major chains put out? I thought. But FFC manages to take a seeingly common subject and find great nuggets of wisdom and humor in it. He’s tempermental and has threatened to quit blogging at least once, but we’re glad he’s back. I’m looking forward to more in 2009, Timothy.
Eat Me Daily: This blog popped on the scene in in October, with a smart, funny, wry take on food culture. Lots of great posts about cookbooks, food-related art, food media, and video snippets from popular TV shows. Too often food sites tend to all go echo-chamber on you, covering the same stories in the same way, but the anonymous staff of Eat Me Daily often finds a great new angle on the stories everyone is talking about.
Lazer Dancer Guy on the NYC R Train Subway Last Night
I heard this guy before I saw him last night as I boarded the R train at Pacific Street. He marched down the car, stiffly, robotically, with an old-school boombox, which he put on the floor near the front of the train. He then started to do warm-up exercises before doing a weird dance.
He was wearing a T-shirt that said “Lazer 1″ on the back (yes, misspelled, if memory serves), along with animal-print tights and, I think, sweatbands.
At one point, the music segued into Kenny Loggins’s “Highway to the Danger Zone” just as the train made a stop, and then he did a funny move—running comically out of the train and then back in before the doors closed. A dangerous move, as he ran the risk of getting shut out and losing his boombox.
Passenger reaction went from perplexed to amused pretty quickly, and the girl who got up went down there to take some cameraphone pictures of him, which you’ll see her doing at the end of the video just before the doors close on the show.
My Burrito
Yum. I liked my burrito.
There were some burritos on the menu: Regular (rice, bean, meat), Especial (rice, bean, meat, cheese), and Super (rice, bean, meat, cheese, sour cream, guac).
The GF gets the regular saying that’s how real San Franciscans get theirs, but I wanted cheese, so I went for the Especial.
Of course, I wanted to be down with the people, so I asked for “an ess-pess-cee-ahl burrito.”
The woman was like, “WHA?”
Me, sheepishly: “Um, ess-special burrito?”
That worked, and the lady and the customers behind me laughed.
Whatever. That’s how you pronounce it in Spanish.
‘Walking on a Dream’ Video
The video is about as insane as the album art. Completely over the top and ridiculous. I saw one MP3 blog describe them as “what music will look and sound like in 2012.”
DAILY-ISH LINKS
Links from Monday, December 15, 2008 to Saturday, January 3, 2009
- Matt Smith is 11th Doctor Who
I haven't been following the Doctor Who news recently, but I started to hear about the search for the 11th doctor a couple months ago. They just announced it's some guy named Matt Smith. Bill Nighy was in the running, and I think he would have been awesome. David Tennant was a brilliant Doctor Who, and I don't know how anyone could top him. Smith will have a tough act to follow. I hope he proves me wrong and surprises me, but I don't know if anyone will be as good as Tennant, who handily replaced Tom Baker as my favorite. - Victoria Burger Blog
- Fine Art Spotted On Fellini’s Pizza Boxes
For Pizza Box Museum. From Green Olive Media. Some rather nice pizza boxes.
Links for Monday, December 15, 2008
- Recipe: Bollywood Cooking — Murg Makhani (Creamy Butter Chicken)
Another one from "What's for Lunch, Honey?" - Recipe: Bollywood Cooking — Chicken Tikka Masala
Another one from "What's for Lunch, Honey?" - Recipe: South African Chicken Biryani
This looks good. From the blog "What's for Lunch, Honey?"
Links from Tuesday, November 25, 2008 to Friday, December 12, 2008
- ‘After 96 Years, a Press Closes in Brooklyn’
Video from WYNC: "Before Xeroxing and digital images, businesses would take their orders for menus, posters and receipt booklets to a local printer to be set in type and pressed to paper. Henington Press in Park Slope, Brooklyn was just that kind of place. It’s a family business that started in 1912 and is going to close this winter. Before the presses stop, WNYC’s Kathleen Horan dropped by and talked with the press’s owner, David Harris."
(tags: none) - Pizza Slayer
A pizza blog based in Columbus, Ohio. Looks like the folks behind it are in a band called Pizza Slayer.
(tags: pizza blogs BTSlice Ohio ) - Kisai Denshoku Aluminum LED Watch
I don't even wear a watch anymore—and I typically don't like gimmick watches—but this one is awesome. "Inspired by the neon skylines of Shinjuku." Parallel LCD bars stack up in sequence to tell the time. Add the bars together—hours, 10-minute periods, and single minutes—to get the time.
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Links from Saturday, November 15, 2008 to Tuesday, November 25, 2008
- ‘Special’ T-Shirt
Inspired by the "CBS Special Presentation" intro from the '80s. Want. A little pricey at $28, though.
(tags: none) - The Queen’s Favorite Drink
Gin and Dubonnet. Thirty percent Gordon's gin, 70 percent dubonnet. With a lemon slice *under* two square cubes of ice.
(tags: none) - Cheap Healthy Good: Easy Vegetarian Bean Chili
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Links for Friday, November 14, 2008
- Jessi Klein Hates Foodies
"Let me be clear: I really love eating and I love food. I think anyone who knows how to cook anything is a genius, and I always appreciate the time and love that goes into a home-made meal. And I love going to restaurants. I love menus and forks and appetizers and the anticipation of desserts. But I hate that foodies feel like every meal has to have the same wow-factor as their birthday blowjob. I once tried to make dining plans with a foodie friend and it took over ninety minutes to agree on a place that met all of her qualifications for ambiance, cuisine, and service. You would have thought we were negotiating Israeli borders."
(tags: none) - God Bless America Pizza Box
A candidate for the "Pizza Box Museum" I'd like to start on Slice. From Kathryn Yu's Flickr photostream.
(tags: none) - Alcapurria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alcapurria is a dish from Puerto Rico made from a mixture of ground plantains and yautía or green banana and yautía or yuca, filled with ground beef or crab meat and deep fried in oil. Many Puerto Ricans enjoy this dish and are often found eating it at the beach with friends. "Alcapurrias" are also one of the many dishes served on the kiosko stands.
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Links from Monday, November 10, 2008 to Thursday, November 13, 2008
- Flickredit
Allows you to download and keep backups of your Flickr photos. Good to have. You never know what will happen to online services in this day and age. Especially with Yahoo circling the drain. It's Java-based, so should work with Mac/PC both.
(tags: Flickr Flickr:Hacks photos technology ) - Macabre but Fascinating: Death Masks of Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Isaac Newton
Steve Heller has them on his site, The Daily Heller
(tags: death deathmasks AbeLincoln BenjaminFranklin IsaacNewton TheDailyHeller )
Links from Wednesday, November 5, 2008 to Thursday, November 6, 2008
- Newspaper Framing at thePaperFramer.Com
Costs about $53 for a 12-by-22-inch frame — large enough to fit a broadsheet newspaper, like, say, the November 5, 2008, cover of the New York Times.
(tags: newspapers framing ) - Quartz Composer: Tiger’s Sleeper Hit App?
Dan Dickinson's hint on how to build your own screensavers for Mac OS X. Old news, but it took me a while to find this again so I'm bookmarking it here on Delicious.
(tags: MacOSX computers OSX screensavers DIY DanDickinson ) - Highlights (or, Possibly, ‘Lowlights’) from Newsweek’s Special Election Project
"The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. 'Why would they try to make people hate us?' Michelle asked a top campaign aide."
(tags: politics Election2008 Newsweek MichelleObama BarackObama magazines )
