I haven't had a "50 People Try to…" video from Epicurious for a while, so let's correct that. These are the videos were Epicurious magazine sets a pretty basic cooking task and brings 50 people into their kitchen to see if they can accomplish it. And since none of the people tend to be accomplished with cooking, the results tend to be entertaining. Then, at the end, an Epicurious chef comes in to show how it's done. This time, they try to slice an avocado. Compared to most episodes, a few people actually get it right, or pretty close. Though most...well, don't.
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The other day, I wrote about the song “Time after Time,” which I dearly love, written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, from the 1947 movie It Happened in Brooklyn. It became a standard and has had several dozen recordings made over the decades. I thought I’d post one of my favorites. Not just for the specific recording – which is wonderful, performed by Margaret Whiting – but mostly for how masterfully and emotionally it’s used at the very end of the 2009 movie, Julie and Julia. In fact, this is such a cleverly-constructed scene, it's one of my favorite "last scenes" in a movie. A young woman, Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) has gone to a Smithsonian Institution exhibit re-creating Julia Child's kitchen to honor her hero (who was played by Meryl Streep), after having painstakingly spent a year preparing - and blogging about - every single recipe in the classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking that Child struggled for a great many years to co-write and then finally get published. 'Tis the season -- for watermelon, that is. And because I love watermelon, we're going to have an extravaganza of three videos on cutting the suckers. (None of these are exactly the way I cut them, since I tend to buy the smaller, round, seedless "personal" watermelons. But the last two videos are pretty close.) First though, we'll start with one of the those "50 People Try to..." videos from Epicurious.com. Not shockingly, what these people are flailingly trying to do is cut a watermelon. The fun of the video aside, this is the best instruction at the end for how to cut a watermelon in wedges. This next video is short, only about a minute, and comes from The Racheal Ray Show. It's close to how I've been cutting my watermelons, though with a couple of slight differences. The first is that they're using a bigger watermelon that I use, but it's still basically round, like mine. The other is that her Senior Culinary Producer is showing how to cut spears, and I like cubes. So, I just easily slice the rinds off the ends and then easily cut the spears in to cubes. Finally, this third video is a new way I've learned, and definitely weird on the surface, but I've been trying lately with reasonable success. I'm not sure if it's faster or better than my "lattice" version above, but it may be, and it's fun. It comes from Alton Brown. This is for a regular watermelon, but works just as well with one of my round fellows. And it uses...a cheese slicer! (Hey, I told you it was weird.) And then I turn each wheel into cubes by making cross-lattice cuts. I haven't mastered a smooth move with the cheese slicer, but I'm getting better. And if I leave too much watermelon on the rind -- that's fine, I just snack on it while continuing with the cutting. By the way, if you want to try the last method, but don't have a cheese slicer, this is the one I got here from Amazon. It's currently being sold for $12, which is 40% its regular price. It has 4.3 stars out of 5, and I like it because the screws on the side make it easy to remove the guide (which is necessary to take off, in order to use for slicing off the watermelon rinds.) This week, the Naked Lunch podcast goes all food, but is very interesting, infectious and entertaining. The guest is Chef Daniele Uditi -- the acclaimed chef of Pizzana in Los Angeles, with three locations (though they ship nationwide and recently opened a place in Dallas) and pizza judge on Hulu's "Best In Dough" series. The conversation was recorded in the kitchen area of Pizza in Beverly Hills, and as part of this year's Los Angeles Times Food Bowl, the public was invited to feast along with the hosts. As the site writes, “This event benefitted one of Phil's favorite charities, Project Angel Food food bank, while the delicious food prepared by Daniele and his extraordinary staff benefitted anyone who got to eat that night. Daniele tells his inspiring and sometimes hilarious success story coming to America, while Phil, David and Daniele answer some questions that the guests at Pizzana jotted down in between courses.”
I can’t embed the audio, but if you click on the link here, it will take you to the website, where you just click on the “Play” arrow underneath the photo. This will be of interest to members of the Writers Guild in Los Angeles. Sorry to all others.
Gino’s East is one of the more popular deep dish restaurants in Chicago. A few years ago, they opened a branch in Sherman Oaks, which is owned and operated by longtIme WGAW member Tod Himmel and SAG/AFTRA member Dan Michaels. They sent an email today with a bunch of new specials, but then wrote (and the bold-face is all theirs) -- "We would not have been able to open our business if not for the wages, benefits, residuals and pensions we earned thanks to our guilds’ collective bargaining. "We support our WGAW comrades in the fight for a living wage. Bring in your WGA/SAG card and receive 25% off any pizza during the work stoppage." Well, good on them. They're located at 12924 Riverside Drive,, Sherman Oaks. (818) 788-5050. This is a link to their website. Their Facebook page here has more information about the restaurant. On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild celebrate the first year of "Naked Lunch," with what they call – “An All-Star ‘Lunch’ For Foodies: One Year To Chew On!” As the show writes, Phil and David “look back and chew things over with legendary chefs including Roy Choi, Nancy Silverton and Wolfgang Puck and a overflowing buffet of celebrity foodies including Valerie Bertinelli, Kevin Bacon, Allison Janney, and Patton Oswalt, and many, many more.”
I can’t embed the audio, but if you click on the link here, it will take you to the website, where you just click on the “Play” arrow underneath the photo. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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