The Ultimate Foodie Infographic!

I wish I could show the whole thing in full size here but I fear I will be violating some sort of copyright if I do that.  But do check out this flowchart graphic (a taste of which - pun intended - is above) from the Information is Beautiful website.  British infographic artist David McCandless combs the recipes at Epicurious.com and 1000 Recipes on BBC Food to find the most common ingredients that go with main ingredients in recipes.  He calls this his "infoodgraphic".  It covers meat and vegetarian offerings, too.  Plus it's just a fascinating piece of work.

You can also buy a hi-res version of his graphic at his online store for $7.50. (H/T Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast)

Life After People: the McDonald's Edition

Hat tip to the GOOD Blog via the Daily Dish (neither is a food site), another reason to heed Morgan Spurlock and Super Size Me: a McDonald's Happy Meal looks (though perhaps doesn't taste) pretty much the same after 4 1/2 months. Manitoba-born New York City artist Sally Davies found out as much and the Refinery 29 website chronicles a sample of her work.

This is a typical Happy Meal after 137 days:


My guess is the ice, at least, would have melted.

Various and Sundry Food Thoughts

Blogger Brunch

I went to a fun blogger brunch at Julie's place. We had about ten or twelve people show up, all area (though not all food) bloggers. Nice meeting or seeing y'all again, Rachel, Simone, Meg, Xani, Erin, Jamaila (who has four blogs), Janet and Anne. I had no idea that so many bloggers were either designers or lawyers / in pre-law. And Julie, you have a lovely kitchen. Everything was good and I can't remember everything I ate . I liked it all, but there were a few good quiches, some tasty fruit salad, hummus and the best sundried tomato pesto/spread/dip I have ever had. I need that recipe again. I made a buttermilk pie, the recipe for which I found on the NPR website.

Help Friends, Get Korean Food

I had to leave early to help some friends move into a nice new house just across the street from the Rotunda. It was an easy move distance-wise because they are moving out of their smaller house in Hampden. They lived on one of the side streets where there is absolutely no parking in any way, shape or form. Ever. They are very happy now - parking all the time! Plus they treated me to Suzie Soba's for dinner afterwards. I still love her bibimbap, but do try the bulgogi when you can.

From the "This Stuff Is Naaaaas-ty!" Files

Don't. Ever. Buy. This:


It does not taste like cherries, or chocolate, or Dr. Pepper (Diet Dr. Pepper actually does, remarkably). I bought it not looking, thinking I had picked up just your ordinary Diet Dr. Pepper. I forced myself to drink it just to not waste the $1.35 plus tax, but I couldn't get through much. Out in the trash with barely a few ounces gone.

So should I even bother canceling my dinner reservations for Friday night?

You know, I don't even give a flying confit about Top Chef 4, despite the fact that this recent fourth season of Project Runway rocked (and congrats to Annapolis-born winner Christian - you go, fierce girl! He's only 22, too). Instead, I am contentedly watching Aftermath: Population Zero on the National Geographic Channel. I tried to watch it Sunday night but fell asleep halfway through (yes, 9PM on the day that we set the clocks forward - so really my body thought it was 8:00!). I'm catching up now, 'cuz I love these post-apocalyptic, "what-if" type shows. It's the latest version of (unrelated) Alan Wiseman's book The World Without Us, my favorite book of 2007, and the ensuing (also unrelated) "sex'd up TV special," Life After People on the History Channel. The premise of all of them: what would happen to the world, animals and all, if every last human being - every man, woman and child - disappeared all at once? What of ours would last, and for how long? And how would other animals and life forms last? Our pets, SOL if they can't get outta the house (I can haz owner back pleez? I can hungree.), the NY Subway flooded in less than 2 days (Which o' yooze turned the pumps off?) and nuclear power stations eventually overheat and explode because nobody's around to stop it (Oops). But on the plus side, our ancient buildings and monuments would survive, as would some modern stone and copper structures (Statue of Liberty hangs around for thousands of years, and Mount Rushmore for millions, though most skyscrapers will be gone in a century). And National Geographic is fun anyway. Most of their specials are pretty well done.

And then there's this:

This is too weird for the workweek. Is it the weekend yet?




Dear Lord.

Strange food things on the TV lately...

A few mini-posts together...

From the "Once again, I know no Southerner who would eat that" files

I joke about Paula Deen a bit. I still do like her, despite all the dangerous things she has been making lately. But I am first to admit that she's becoming a parody of herself. The latest shocking thing that I saw her make was on her recent brunch episode. Most of the stuff she made looked tasty to me - garlic cheese grits (a stick of butter - fattening), a fruit parfait (seems safe, though looks can be deceiving), etc.

Then came this. Her burger (not so bad) between two halves of a two Krispy Kreme donuts (WHOA!), topped with a fried egg (my chest hurts...) and several slices of bacon (What's that sharp pain in my left arm?). She told her friend, who sang at her most recent wedding and who got the first bite (nice way to treat a friend), "We're gonna get arrested for this!" So even Paula realizes what a bad idea this is!

***Gasp!*** AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Here! It'll make ya' FEEL good FEEL good FEEL good FEEL good FEEL good FEEL good*

Again - this is for a brunch. You probably won't see this on the menu at Gertrude's. Actually you don't find this on the menu at the Lady and Sons in Savannah either. Wonder why?

I'm actually surprised she didn't deep-fry it.

From the "Heheheh, See my super-keen bachelor pad in my mom's basement" files

I have searched all over the web to find a video of this absurd, irritating ad (enough people on bad commercial websites have bitched about it). But alas, no one has had the foresight to YouTube it yet. So I just took some photos. Y'all know this ad. It's Golden Corral's "steakdar" ad.

I can so tell that he's rare. All us rare guys can "sense" it.

"Steak-dar" - it's a gift. Insert own punchline.

ESP for steaks?

*EXTRA kudos to anyone who remembers THAT reference. Hint: anti-drug PSA, Saturday morning TV in the 1980's. It might've been local to Baltimore but I could be wrong.

Vegetable Orchestra

The Vegetable Orchestra - a group of Austrian musicians that have turned raw veggies and gourds into musical instruments. It really needs no further explanation.

Trash becomes you - no, literally

From Your Daily Awesome: two artists use the trash they collected over the previous six months to make themselves! This piece: "Dirty White Trash (with Gulls)" - dead gulls. Just what are these people eating?

From the "OMFG" Files

Perhaps the only time you will see the words "Japanese" and "ham art" in the same sentence. From Serious Eats.