Etsy Find of the Day

We often browse Etsy for wonderful treasures, and the not-so wonderful treasures, but today we came up lucky.  We are loving these totes by Avril Loreti:

I Heart Mixers

Double Chocolate Doughnut Tote Bag

Sprinkles Doughnut Tote Bag

Even though we try to deny it, doughnuts are inexplicably delicious.  We are addicts. There, we said it. These scrumptious totes have the craving surging through our blood streams.  Off to Peter Pan we go, we think it's a red velvet kind of morning.

Hot Chocolate, Hot Ladies, Hot Fonts

New packaging for Mindy's Hot Chocolate in Chicago.  Lovin' it.  But what's not to love - hot chocolate, hot ladies, hot fonts. 

We're also loving designer Kyle Tezak's website. Good stuff. Good stuff.

My favorite line from "Eat Pray Love"

From Liz Gilbert's new Italian landlady,

"All you American girls want is pasta and (wink, wink) sausage."

Isn't that the truth? Someone, please, whisk me away on an Italian vacay.

Speaking of Cider

We're loving the new design for Woodpecker Cider - originally made in 1894.  We thinks it's a cider weekend..

Before:

 Woodpecker Premium

After:

Image via The Dieline

Swedish Cider Swedish Cider Swedish Cider

Try saying that five times in a row. That'll twist your tongue in a jiffy. But here's a much easier way to get your tongue in a tickle: Kopparberg Premium Cider.

Nothing hits the spot on a melty swelty summer day like an ice cold hard cider. Especially when its melty swelty after midnight and your strapping boyfriend brings home a cool 6-pack of Kopparberg just for you. Talk about getting your tongue in a knot.

Our favorite is pear, but elderberry and lime also sounds perfect for the waning days of summer.

We especially like the hallelujah lights behind all the fruits in the packaging. That's pretty much how it feels - love at first sip. Can you hear that heavenly choir now?

Stencil It In

Reykjavik-based visual artist Megan Herbert has created a series of laser cut stencils inspired by knitting needle and pastoral imagery. Originally dreamt up for decorating coffee foam, the stencils can of course be repurposed for embellishing all sorts of goodies with "a dusting of sugar, a blizzard of sugar." The stencils are available on her website for 25 Euro for the pair.

Thanks, CoolHunting!

So, we were wondering...

Do you think Anna Wintour has a secret stash of Momofuku pork buns hidden under her bed that she tears into when no one is watching?

The Changster made it into Vogue's coveted September issue in a spread with Naomi Watts, a smattering of models and two other dudes we've never seen before. The blogosphere is all up in a tizzy about it, with writers wondering what the heck this editorial entitled "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" could be all about. One tip by "thelovehater", which seems likely, is that it's an editorial publicizing Ms. Wintour's second annual Fashion's Night Out, interviewing participants about their experiences with fashion in NYC.

An Ode to Salt by Pablo Neruda

This salt
in the saltcellar
I once saw in the salt mines.
I know
you won't
believe me,
but
it sings,
salt sings, the skin
of the salt mines
sings
with a mouth smothered
by the earth.
I shivered in those solitudes
when I heard
the voice of
the salt
in the desert.
Near Antofagasta
the nitrous
pampa
resounds:
a broken
voice,
a mournful
song.

In its caves
the salt moans, mountain
of buried light,
translucent cathedral,
crystal of the sea, oblivion
of the waves.

And then on every table
in the world,
salt,
we see your piquant
powder
sprinkling
vital light
upon
our food. Preserver
of the ancient
holds of ships,
discoverer
on
the high seas,
earliest
sailor
of the unknown, shifting
byways of the foam.
Dust of the sea, in you
the tongue receives a kiss
from ocean night:
taste imparts to every seasoned
dish your ocean essence;
the smallest,
miniature
wave from the saltcellar
reveals to us
more than domestic whiteness;
in it, we taste infinitude.



Image by Leigh Beisch
via Sunset Magazine

Hungry For Love

To quote one of our favorite film critics, Anthony Lane of the New Yorker: The best sex you will get all year, if that’s what you crave in your moviegoing, is between Tilda Swinton and a prawn.

After finally seeing "I Am Love," I could not agree more. No spoiler alert here. The ladies at Gastronomista HQ would far rather whet your appetite than ruin it. Suffice to say that I Am Love, or, Io Sono l'Amore, deliciously integrates its exquisite food right into the storytelling. Nary a plot point goes by without some culinary delight demanding our attention and pointing to the subtext.nally seeing "I Am Love," I could not agree more. No spoiler alert here. to the

pea cream & courgette flowers

Tilda Swinton plays Emma Recchi, a transplanted Russian beauty who has married into an Italian family of unimaginable wealth. Having fulfilled her duty by raising three beautiful children, Emma has lost all sense of purpose. Friendless, with the exception of her housekeeper Ida, Emma wanders through her villa and the streets of Italy with what seems like expertise and command but we soon see that this veneer disintegrates at the slightest disruption. By the end of the film, we have a woman broken, then reborn. A story of personal awakening, I Am Love has some of the most witty, heartbreaking and visually luscious scenes we've seen at the cinema all year.

mixed fish with crunchy vegetables

The aforementioned prawn, glistening and translucent, signals the beginning of what will be an insatiable love. Confidences are shared over a box of Laduree macaroons and betrayal descends upon the Recchi house the moment a glance is shared over a delicate bowl of ukha, a clear Russian fish soup.

this ukha will break your heart.

And while we love, love, LOVE Tilda Swinton in all her magnificence, a part of our hearts belongs to Edoardo Gabbriellini, who plays Antonio. The chef who brings a hand baked cake as a peace offering, the chef who distills his own elderberry extract from the flowers on his land, the chef who undresses a woman by first tenderly removing her shoes.

Antonio, Antonio. Yes. We swoon over Antonio. And we're not the only ones. Run, don't walk, to the theater. Do not wait for DVD on this one. Culinary visions like these are a dish best served on a big screen.

An Ode to The Frozen Beverage

This barmaid's freezer is primed with a motor

And now I must hereby go forth and quote her:
"Here at the factory

of the world's greatest daquiri
The key to the drink is the tasty rum floater."

This particular floater in question is Ron Zacapa 23, a premium Guatemalan 23-year aged rum, made with concentrated virgin sugar cane honey and barrel aged in the solera method, a complex blending used most traditionally for sherry production. The Zacapa Daquiri is made with a frozen blend of Zacapa 23, fresh lime juice and sugar, and topped with even more Zacapa goodness.

And where, might you ask, were we drinking this nectar of the gods? Last night Tasting Table hosted a summer rum punch get-together at Cienfuegos, the hidden rum sanctuary above a Cuban sandwich shop on the corner of 6th and A in Manhattan's East Village. Here are a few shots care of GuestOfAGuest of all that went down in that airy loft above the sweltering heat.

"Well, Hola, come on in. Go past the bar, under the hanging HVAC, up the stairs, and around the corner, and you'll find a rolicking good time inside. Bienvenido!"

"I know you thought the daquiris were good, but you should try my tasty punch. It will knock your knickers off!"

"Oh, that's what did it!"