Home > Relish Austin > Archives > 2010 > April > 13 > Entry
Hot Links: KFC’s new low, food blogger potluck, Fey makes out with a brownie
Now They’ve Really Done It: I can’t even bring myself to try KFC’s new Double Down sandwich. Just can’t do it, even after Slashfood said cheese and bacon sandwiched between two fried chicken breasts wasn’t all that bad. New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton got himself stalked by Eater when he went to try it. (The official word from Sifton: “a disgusting meal.”) Fast food companies are just going to keep developing gimmicky products when they know the foodosphere will respond with a flood of coverage even though the product is just downright ridiculous, not to mention greasy and packed with a day’s worth of sodium.
Pulitzer for Meaty Reporting: Michael Moss of the New York Times won a Pulitzer this week for his story last year, “The Burger That Shattered Her Life” about a 22-year-old woman who was left paralyzed after eating ground beef contaminated with E.coli.
Food Blogger Potluck: I was kid-wrangling during the Austin food bloggers’ potluck this weekend, so I didn’t get much of a chance to shoot photographs of the delicious dishes the bloggers brought. I’ll leave the storytelling to Aimee Wenske, Franish Nonspeaker, Girl Gone Grits, Lisa is Cooking, Thai Cooking with Jam and Foodie is the New 40. Thanks to all the local food bloggers who attended.
Hopping on the Train: Both CNN and the Huffington Post are getting into the food blogging game. HuffPoFood, which — like everything else on that site — appears to be a clusterfudge of aggregated content, started on Monday; no launch date yet for CNN.
With or Without Nuts: Tina Fey is winning back our belly laughs. There’s more funny in 22 minutes of “30 Rock” than in all of “Date Night,” but the funny is back in this Brownie Husband skit from Saturday Night Live. “Brownie Husband can satisfy all of your cravings…The perfect blend of rich fudge and emotional intimacy.” We still love you, Tina Fey.
Food Revolution, episode 4: Those sly editors at ABC set us up for a good one this week. The battle between Jamie and radio host Rod escalated to a bet that Jamie could teach 1,000 people to cook in a week. It was dramatic. There were tears. The governor showed up. Jamie won. Happy ending, at least for now. There are only a few more weeks left of the show (you can watch them all here), and he surely hasn’t conquered the city yet. The coolest part of the whole episode was when he got dozens of Marshall University students to do a flash mob stir fry dance, which Ryan Seacrest, the show’s executive producer, posted on YouTube.
(The Times has this interesting profile of Oliver based on an interview just as the show premiered, where the chef talks about the Oliver brand, not being able to get bank loans, being away from his wife who is expecting their fourth child and big wigs in Washington pulled out of their commitments to talk with him after the negative press started.)
Props, Homeslice: The New York-based pizza blog Slice has deemed Austin’s Homeslice a close approximation of true New York-style pizza, even though it is “just a tad too flat.”
Bill Maher, meet Alice: Eater has a nice recap of Alice Water’s appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” including a clips with a few funny jokes about peaches, McDonald’s and France. The interview between two food-conscious Garden State natives isn’t quite the zinger you’d expect, but it’s still worth watching.
45 Across, Folded Eggs: Food52 has started a food crossword series with puzzle maker and food writer Michele Humes. I’m horrible at crosswords, no matter the theme, but for you cruciverbalists out there, you can print it out or complete it online.
Chef Besh on the Small Screen: Ahead of his appearance in Austin for the Hill Country Wine and Food Festival this weekend, reports surface that New Orleans chef and author John Besh has not one but two TV shows coming up this summer. One is on PBS and will be based on his 2009 book, “My New Orleans.” The second, starting in June, will really thrust Besh into the national spotlight: “Inedible to Incredible” on TLC, which he describes as the “What Not to Wear of the food world.” You know I’m just dying to ask him about this one at his cooking class on Saturday.
‘Insatiable’ headed to Starz? Famed restaurant critic Gael Greene confirmed this week that Starz is looking at creating an hourlong series based on Greene’s “Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess,” which outlines her time, ahem, on top of the New York food scene in the 70s and 80s.
Comic Book Planters: Dissertation to Dirt found a cool way to sprout seeds: Manga comic books.
Plastic-Free Lunch: Last summer, I wrote a story about tiffins and bento boxes, and now The Kitchn has this list of 10 other reusable lunch containers.
Manga planters photo by Koshi Kawachi, carrot photo by Peter Tsai.
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By Jodi
April 13, 2010 3:14 PM | Link to this
Fantastic job, Addie. I loved every bit (bite) [byte].
By kunde
May 9, 2011 11:31 AM | Link to this
Lots of excellent reading here, thank you! I was browsing on yahoo when I found your article, I’m going to add your feed to Google Reader, I look forward to additional from you.