A Royal Breakfast

Tomorrow is the Royal Wedding - just in case you haven't received the memo. 

We're excited for all the fanfare - and wishing that we had the day off in America as well to celebrate.  We would certainly spend the day drinking mimosas out of tea cups wearing festive hats.

The Queen and Soon-to-be Princess Kate - in Hats

Loyal to our English roots, we will be up at 5 am to watch the BBC and we will be making the Queen's Scones to set the mood.

 

Queen Elizabeth made these scones in 1959 for President Dwight Eisenhower at Balmoral Castle near Edinburgh.  A year after the barbecue in the Scottish highlands, she sent the recipe to the President.  This recipe is now included  in an upcoming exhibition at the National Archives.  For more information, visit their website.

Queen Elizabeth’s Drop Scones

Ingredients
4 teacups of flour
4 tbsp of  treacle (sugar syrup)
2 teacups of milk
2 whole eggs
2 tsps baking soda
3 tsps cream of tartar
2 tbsp melted butter

Directions
Beat eggs, sugar and about half the milk together. Add flour, and mix well. Add the remaining milk as required. Mix in bicarbonate and cream of tartar, fold in the melted butter.

Drop onto baking sheet by the teaspoon full. Bake at 400 degree for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Enough for 16 people.



We love the teacup as a measuring device!  How sophisticated!

We will measure using this amazing teacup by Undergrowth::

Blaue Blume Tea Cup - Undergrowth Design

 Until the procession at 5am!

Obsession Worthy: Root

If you are a frequent reader of Gastronomista - you know we like our cocktails.  We like proper Manhattans served up, Bourbon on the rocks, Hefeweizen on a beautiful spring day.  We also love well crafted liquors that forgo excessive flavoring and coloring, and instead focus on the craft that is required to make an exceptional product.  This is precisely why we were so excited when we learned about Root Liquor. 

Root was created by Steven Grasse, who won our hearts years ago with his creation of our personal all-time favorite Hendrick's Gin.  He's done it again with Root - using the Pennsylvania Dutch and Native American recipe for Root Tea.  Root Tea is was originally brewed with Sassafras, Sarsaparilla, Wintergreen birch bark, and other roots and herbs, and was believed to be an herbal remedy. 

When prohibition rolled into town, Root Tea was banned along with other alcoholic beverages.  Charles Hires, a Philadelphia pharmacist, created a virgin Root Tea by removing the alcohol and adding soda water and sold it as Hires Root Beer in 1866.  



Root has used as close to as authentic recipe as possible - minus the Sassafras of course - and has made one impressive liquor.  It is extremely close in flavor to what we remember Root Beer to be from our youth, and yet has that kick that we adore so much in our current adult beverages.  With flavors of caramel, vanilla, citrus, spearmint, and a tasty smoky finish - we certainly have a new house favorite. 

Illustration by It Looks Good To Me

It is pretty rare for a completely new liquor concept to hit the market - and even more rare for that concept to be so delicious (not to mention it's handsome packaging).  We are thrilled that Root has finally made its way to Brooklyn.  (Root's absence in New York was making us miss Philadelphia in new heart pounding ways). 

Check out the Art in the Age website - where you can get recipes for Root cocktails (in addition to recipes for it's sister liquor Snap).  We are also completely devastated by Art in the Age's logo and overall "unity of art, craft, design, & contemplation".  Spot on friends, spot on. 

Edible Bites - Anna Garforth

Sometimes wisdom comes in rare forms - rare forms that make you listen that much more.  We've been fans of Barbara Kruger for a long time - an artist who used the word as a medium - an artist who made us think about who we are as women and how we participate in society around us.

Today the lettering is ever-popular.  In the age of the computer, it seems people have fallen out of love with the pixel, and are veering towards hand-lettering.  Ah yes, the return of craft (we've been waiting for you, good friend).

We turn to Anna Garforth - an artist who is using different mediums to form typography.  Her work is smart, witty, and in this case, tasty.

Her Edible Poster spelling out "Bite off more than you can chew" - a good mantra in life, we think.  And it's made out of cookies.  yes. please.

And what the heck: A few more of her pieces (non-food related) after the jump:

Something I Ate

The ladies of Gastronomista are proud to be participating in SOMETHING I ATE, a collaborative food & art project between two of our lady crushes: Sam Kim, of SkimKim Food and Kat Popiel of On Plate, Still Hungry.

We are joined by an amazingly talented roster of artists, each of whom has chosen a defining meal, ingredient or experience - of which Sam will present her seasonal local interpretation! Gastronomista's material of choice? Root - of root beer fame - graciously provided by Art in the Age. We will be unveiling our inaugural art collaboration, #sweet, at Rouge 58 in Williamsburg on April 29th! The exhibit, co-curated by Joann Kim of Greenpoint Open Studios, will remain on show until May 1st.

Please join us by purchasing tickets for $30 at http://somethingiateny.eventbrite.com.

Get your tickets now! There will be food, drink, merriment - not to mention some seriously crushworthy ladies. How's that for a Friday night?

See you there!

HK Honey - Urban Beekeepers

Michael Leung of HK Honey at the Ngau Tau Bee Farm

Urban Beekeeping has become increasingly popular around these parts - last summer it seemed like everyone was keeping bees on their roof, or in their back yard, or hanging off their fire escape (just kidding about that one).  We like bees.  We like urban beekeeping.  We really like it when strange things happen - such as the Brooklyn bees that hit up the Dells' Maraschino Cherries Company in Red Hook and subsequently made red honey.  Now that is awesome. 

But we digress.

Now beekeeping in Hong Kong? That's something we can chew on.  HK Honey is a group of beekeepers, artists and designers who are keeping bees via their network of bee farms, harvesting the honey and serving it up for the masses.  Founded by Michael Leung (a product designer), HK Honey distributes boxes of bees around the incredible skyline of Hong Kong.  It is really amazing that the bees thrive in the city, and dear reader, we need them - they help pollinate roughly one third of our food! 

Their locally sourced honey is packaged intelligently: the glass is reusable, and the lid of the honey container doubles as a candle.  Genius we say.

You should probably know by now, we are suckers for packaging, but we are total suckers for a well edited, beautiful video that kinda makes us want to order a box of our own of those charming little guys.   This wonderful piece is directed by Kiku Ohe.

Without further ado:


Nokia - HK Honey from The Silentlights on Vimeo.

Check out the Waggle Dance after the jump:

Pornocrates - Félicien Rops

Every once in a while we like to check out some of the old stuff - the masters as it were.. This gorgeous number we found while doing some research on engraving techniques.

Félicien Rops, Pornocrates 1896

Mr Rops was born in 1833 in Namur and was educated at the University of Brussels. He is often associated with the symbolists, who were acting against the naturalist movement.

All art history aside, we like the dreamy nature of this etching, and we're curious where that delicious looking swine is leading our heroine.

Perhaps to the kitchen.


check out more tasty nibbles here

HuffPo: Spring Cleaning! 5 Kitchen Tools Every Gastronomista Needs... to Throw Away

Ah, Spring! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, our kitchen is...

A mess.

An overwhelming, drawer-bulging, disorganized mess. Our motto with food is often, "more is more," but when it comes to our kitchen, our cabinets overfloweth, and our anxiety groweth.

Thus we present to you a short guide to help other Gastronomistas separate the wheat from the chaff. We suggest you grab an Extra Large Hefty bag and get to tossing!

The Apple Slicer



We’ve got to hand it to this gizmo - it makes a pleasing sound when tossed backwards over our heads. Otherwise, we can’t see how this item is useful. When it’s new and sharp enough to actually cut through an apple, it will unfailingly leave you with at least 30% of the core. After 5 uses, though, it no longer even deigns to slice without prodigious elbow grease. Our advice? Pick up a knife. Or, hey, get a little wild - eat that apple whole!

The Rice Steamer



Ah, the Rice Steamer: a large, cumbersome, plastic device that takes up a lot of space and makes only rice. Guess what else is a rice steamer? A pot. A pot is also kind enough to agree to cook other things, from stews to pasta. Kick that rice steamer to the curb. Think of all of the cabinet space you'll free up for genuinely useful items.

The Tea Ball



This item is perfect for tea enthusiasts who love picking leaves out of their teeth. The concept is great, and we adore the lack of waste, but sadly, this item just never, ever works.

The Salad Spinner



We know we will incite the rage of many home chefs by insulting this item, but hear us out. Our kitchens just aren't that large. A Salad Spinner is. Use a colander and a kitchen towel to wash and dry your leaves, then reward yourself by buying a nice big salad bowl that you suddenly have storage space for.

The Egg Cracker



Cracking eggs! SO HARD, are we right? No... we're not. If you can't successfully crack an egg without a spring-loaded device, please, for the sake of us all, get out of the kitchen. Run, don't walk. The infomercial for this gizmo is very useful, though... for a laugh.

Zergüt - A Gastronomic Short Film

So we're a little excited about this one here at Gastronomista HQ - we've been starving for some gorgeous imagery to get us through the week - and now this.  Our mouths water, our eyes tear, and we suddenly don't feel so guilty for those rotting bell peppers at the bottom of our refrigerator.

A short animation by the Los Angeles based multimedia artists Natasha Subramaniam & Alisa Lapidus with the cinematography of Oliver Fitzgerald was shot over two years - and they sum it up best in their synopsis:

"Within a refrigerator, a battle ensues as moldy, decaying foods forgotten in the depths of the black rise up against the fresh ingredients that reside in the front.   These confrontations escalate, as foods morph, disintegrate, dance, explode, and become a textural, abstract display of color and form culminating in a grand scale finale sequence that results in their obliteration.  Set to Sergei Prokofiev's Opus 84, Dance of the Knights, from the ballet Romeo & Juliet, Zergüt merges cinema, gastronomy, and classical music through stop-motion animation and high-speed filmmaking, bringing alive a culinary universe in the vein of a contemporary day Fantasia.  Zergüt focuses on the unique, often overlooked beauty of everyday eatable delights."

Bring. It. On.


Untitled from Zergüt on Vimeo.

Seems like they are still doing some fund raising to finish the film - if we were in LA we would go to their event on May 15 - if you are in the area details are here.

And now for some seriously gorgeous stills from Zergüt:

And then there's this bit: in slow motion  - set your own soundtrack.  What a teaser. 


Untitled from Zergüt on Vimeo.


We cannot wait for the film's completion.  The film is dangerously inciting - good versus evil, explosions, character disintegration, stop animation!  Much more to come from this pair, we are certain of that.

Cakesplosion!!!

You may remember the Cupcake Cannon - a project by Johnny Cupcakes that got us all hot and bothered a while back.  We've found a perfect sequel to that cakey mess - Autoerotique's Turn Up The Volume video directed by Miles Jay & Derek Blais
. 

 Awesome.  If you have a spare minute, watch the video, we love the black eggs and black butter!  



via This is Colossal

Exceptional Eggs

Early Spring always makes us nostalgic about decorating Easter eggs. We fondly remember the fizzy tablets, the tart whiff of vinegar, the nests of green plastic tinsel. But now that we are oh-so-sophisticated adults, it all seems a little, well, lo-fi to us.

Enter the Egg-Bot.

Created by "motion control" artist Bruce Shapiro in 1990, the Egg-Bot uses a Sharpie and rotating motor to create intricate, Escher-esque patterns on delicate eggshell. The results are a far cry from the pastel Paas of your youth.

"Laid By a Chicken, Not a Bunny"

Escher Egg

At $195 - $220, available at Evil Mad Science, the Egg-Bot is not a wallet-friendly way to upgrade your huevos, but the machine will decorate most small, spherical objects, so you can use it to create custom Christmas ornaments, too. So that's more like $100 dollars per Judeo-Christian holiday! How could you ever resist???

Eggzact definition

Additionally, the kit is open-source, which means the upgrades and expansions you could apply are basically endless. Code is available to stretch your designs, fill in hash marks, and even create tiny mazes on your eggs. More fun than an Easter egg hunt? You decide.

Amazing stipple self-portrait by dnewman2010 via Flickr

Via swissmiss

Photos via Flickr

Cocktail Redux: Solerno Grapefruit Margaritas

We love going out for a proper cocktail - but sometimes one must bring the proper cocktail home. 

This weekend we decided to mix up the Margarita.  We've been longtime fans of the Grand Marnier Margarita - but quite honestly, we were downright wooed by that handsome Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur bottle.  (Grand Marnier, time to step up your game).  With the abundance of grapefruits around we decided to mix up some Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit and Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur Margaritas.  Major Yums.

1/2 Part Solerno Liqueur
1 1/2 Parts Tequila Blanco
Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice

Shaken with Ice

Rim Glass with Fresh Blood Orange Juice, garnish with Blood Orange Rind. 

Solerno is a Blood Orange Liqueur that is made and bottled in Sicily, triple distilled with Sanquinello oranges, orange zest, and Sicilian lemons.  We were surprised that the liqueur was clear - but very full in flavor.  It's quite refreshing served with soda water.  We're also pleased to learn that Solerno is sweetened with sucrose from sugar beets, not corn syrup.  All that goodness, and quite frankly, we're smitten with the bottle.  What a beauty.

Tote Roundup

Everyone loves a good tote.  They are great for the grocery store, impromptu picnics, newspaper and baguette carrying, taking Proust to the park for some leisure reading...you know, whatever. 

Today we bring you a round up of our favorite food inspired totes:

Black Cherry Tote - $25

Piggy Goes to the Market - $22

 

Rooster - $10

Broccoli Yum - $25

Spatula Tote - $14

T-Rex Dreams of Bacon - $25

 

Saturday Morning Special - $19

Watermelons - $13

Nom Nom Nom - $10

Last but not least:

Eat Them Before They Eat You - $15

Now where are those cupcakes...must...devour.