The Food Monkey

Northeastern journalism student Julie Balise was kind enough to do her project on New Media and the Internet on the story of The Food Monkey. In addition to being a respectable journalist, Julie is a budding blogger and runs Lollipops and Crisps.

You can check out her article here:
http://lollipopsncrispsjb.blogspot.com/2008/12/food-for-blog.html

In the article, Julie has some interesting thoughts about the blog world from fellow bloggers, readers of The Food Monkey, as well as insite from The Boston Globe’s Food Editor Sheryl Julian.

Enjoy!

From The Food Network:

Love to watch the Food Network but can’t cook as well as your favorite Star? Now’s your chance to have your Grilling question answered, possibly even in-person! Inspired by letters from fans, Dear Food Network features top chefs answering your cooking concerns, problems and challenges.

We’re looking for fans who want to learn about grilling with global flavors. Do you always stick to the same old flavors because you don’t know how to use international spices? Are you confused about what techniques to use on the grill?

If that sounds like you, then email us a 20 second video telling us the following:
- Your name and where you live
- Your global grilling question
- Who is your favorite Food Network star? OR are you such a huge fan that you just love Food Network no matter who’s on?

You can send videos through www.yousendit.com addressed to foodnetworkcasting@gmail.com.

Please ALSO email foodnetworkcasting@gmail.com with your stats (name, age, city/state, living situation, contact info) plus a recent photo, a little about yourself, and your cooking questions.

We’re looking for real fans with big personalities – so don’t be shy! Have fun with the video and show us who you are!

The best questions will be used on the show and you may even get to come in and cook with your favorite star!

All entries must be received no later than Friday January 2nd.

A few good tips on how to handle your Champagne for this evening:

This year, I’m actually choosing to go with prosecco instead of champagne. Prosecco is an sparkling wine that is produced in the Veneto region of Italy, whose capital is (you guessed it) Venice. Though it is made from different varietals of grape than champagne and undergoes a far less rigorous means of production, prosecco is a great inexpensive alternative to champagne for those on a budget, or for anyone who wants to try something different.

See you all in 2009!!!

CNN Money recently did a photo essay on the World’s Priciest Foods. If for some reason you wish to shower your loved ones with the crème de la crème of culinary commodities this holiday season, look no further.

From coffee beans that have been passed through the GI tract of a furry arboreal creature, to a rare giant fish thought to bring good luck, there’s much to blow your hard earned cash on!

Here’s the list:

Read the full article from CNN Money here:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0807/gallery.most_expensive_foods.fsb/

(Thanks Aly!)

Everything is better wrapped in bacon, even your holiday gifts. So this year, be sure to make whatever gifts you’re giving feel even more special by wrapping them in bacon–gift wrap, that is.

Bacon wrapping paper is available at ecrater.com for $3.95 for two 20″x30″ sheets. If only it were scratch and sniff!

What to put in your bacon wrapping paper? Why not buy that special guy or favorite food blogger in your life Uncle Oinker’s Bacon Scented Bacon Print Tuxedo. This handsome porcine scented number is available from mcphee.com, retails for $99.99, and from the looks of this picture, will make any guy a sure hit with the ladies!

From mcfee.com

Each Tuxedo is tailored from chemically treated latex print fabric in one of four different sizes. Best of all, it smells just like bacon sizzling in the pan. Dry clean only.

‘Tis truly the season to surround yourself and your loved ones in bacon!

Just a quick note that my piece on the TV show Chronicle will re-air tonight at 7:30pm on Channel 5, for those who didn’t get a chance to see it the first time around!

Please note: Pho Republique no longer offers the 2 dollar dim sum. If you ever stop by, let them know they should bring it back!

(via b3ta)

Given the somewhat recent resurgence of offal in fine dining and extolment of hoofs and snouts in the food media by the likes of Zimmern and Bourdain, as well as the publication of The Whole Beast, I present to you the pictures of what it takes to cook a pig’s head from bakedchefs.com.

These pictures are NOT for the squeamish so please click at your own risk.

Also, here’s a recipe for Crisp Roasted Pig’s Head from recipeland:

Out of work? Want to network and eat on the cheap? Or just want to eat on the cheap?

Game On!, by Fenway, will be hosting its Pink Slip Celebration on Thursday, December 18th from 6PM until closing with cheap appetizers and a chance to network with representatives from local staffing agencies.

From the Herald:

Game On! is holding a pink slip celebration on Thursday, Dec. 18, with reduced-priced appetizers. The $4 menu at the Lansdowne Street pub includes Lay-Off My Nachos, Pay-Raise Potstickers, Workin’ Wings and 401 K-alamari. Food can be washed down with inexpensive specialty drinks like Jobless Juice and Under Pressure Punch. (read more)

Also, you’ll get the chance to take swings at Fenway’s visiting team batting cages!

Wheeler Del Torro, the owner of Wheeler’s Frozen Desserts Co., a Boston-Based, high-end, vegan ice cream business, will be converting his test kitchen a new full-service vegan café.

“I think people hear vegan and they think militants eating twigs and dirt! I love eating and I’m not going to create anything that doesn’t taste good,” said Wheeler a former carnivore. Well, my experience with vegan cafés shows that people think that because many of them ARE filled with militants eating twigs and dirt. So I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can do! I truly appreciate good vegetarian/vegan food the rare times I have come across it.

I believe the trick to enjoying vegan food is to try to not think of the proteins as replacements for the real thing. Faux meat does not taste like real meat, regardless of what any vegan says (though they have chicken pretty close). So if you expect the vegan protein to have the same texture as the meat, you will be dissappointed and perhaps revolted–much like the experience of picking up someone else’s drink by accident and tasting sprite when you expected coke. If you change your mindset, however, to thinking of what you’re eating as “soy texture #1″ and “soy texture #2″ rather than un-beef, and un-chicken, then you can really enjoy what vegan restaurants have to offer.

I went to the opening of Wheeler’s Frozen Desserts, and when you stopped expecting it to taste like real ice cream, it wasn’t half bad. Plus you had a bunch of flavors filled to the brim with gobs of goodness like fruit and peanut butter.

For the café, Wheeler has set out to create a series of quick-serve salads, soups and sandwiches at a comfortable price point to target both the lunchtime crowd in Boston and encourage “healthy slackers” to choose his location to hang out over their local coffee house.

The 30-seat “Wheeler’s Café & Ice Cream Bar at 334 Massachusetts Ave. will be open Monday – Saturday 11:30AM – 10:00PM and Sundays: 11:30AM – 9:00PM serving lunch, snacks time goodies and hopefully serve as a loitering-friendly spot with organic teas, couches, free Wi-Fi and occasionally feature DJ’s spinning gentle jazz, house and trip-hop.

I look forward to giving this a try with an open mind, and you should too!