The Mighty Doughnut - Emily Eveleth

It's no new news that we really like doughnuts.  What's not to like?  There's something so optimistic about doughnuts - pillowy clouds filled with jams and creams, sprinkled with crystalline sugar and crunchy jimmies, fragile yet so easy to greedily devour.  Guaranteed bliss for anyone who partakes.

What's better than a warm doughnut?  How about a doughnut bigger than you, mere human? Oozing, glistening in the light, opening itself, tempting you to reach out and taste it's sweet-sweet filling.

That's what we bring you today, dear readers.  Artist, Emily Eveleth paints just that - enormous doughnuts - but they are so much more than just paintings of doughnuts.

While doughnuts are a common everyday object, Eveleth's treatment of them brings them to life, giving them personality, and making them human in so many ways.  These doughnuts have personalities and emotions - some are heroic, some defeated, some are confident, some are lonely, some flirtatious, but all of them beautiful and magnificent. 

We find ourselves feeling for these doughy characters.  Wanting to befriend them, comfort them, listen to their stories, and understand how they came to be.

 

 

Mighty, lonely, and poised - these doughnuts are more than kitsch americana - these doughnuts are us. Somehow they speak to the human condition - because maybe we too are filled with jams and creams, sprinkled with crystalline sugar, fragile, yet so easy to greedily devour.


Want more?  Check out Emily Eveleth's website.

Werner Herzog On Chickens

The filmmaker, documentarian, and philosopher shares his always memorable sense of observation, this time opining on chickens.

Werner Herzog on Chickens from Tom Streithorst on Vimeo.

Though Herzog does not love chickens as much as we do, might we suggest a little tête-à-tête on the topic with another man with opinions on chickens, Ira Glass?

Just a thought.

Love & Tarts for All

Happy Valentines Day

xxG

A Taste of Fashion Week - Buddakan & Imitation of Christ

This week we were invited to attend the Imitation of Christ preview of their F/W 2012 collection at the ever-epic Buddakan.  The show was dramatic and romantic - highlighted with a magician who made birds appear, women disappear, and awed the audience with flames.  We were impressed.

We've always loved Buddakan - a spectacular space that juxtaposes light and dark, compressed bar spaces with grand double-height dining rooms, taxidermy birds with wax covered bird candle holders.  The lighting is always fantastic (a mark of a well designed restaurant if you ask this girl) for everyone wants to look amazing while dining out.

As one could expect, there was much excitement in the air - models stood (with much strength and perseverance) for 2 hours as bloggers snapped photos, editors meticulously noted, interns tweeted, and yet the magician continued to entertain.  We were seduced by the romantic dresses (specifically that stunning red number), big, messy-yet-lady-like hair, and dramatic eyes all under the massive chandeliers of the main dining room.  Ah, how we crave.  

As we lusted for silk frocks we sipped on champagne spiked with fruit, nibbled on dumplings filled with Edamame, and ate bites of charred beef to name a few of the delicious appetizers that were passed around the crowd.

We continue to be so obsessed by the Edamame dumplings that we did some google research to turn up the recipe!  It sounds rather simple, and we will be making them tonight for our Valentines Day Feast.

Recipe: Edamame Dumplings
Michael Schulson, Previous Executive Chef, Buddakan
Brian Ray & Yang Huang, Current Executive Chefs

Edamame Filling:
3 cups edamame
1/2 pound butter
1/2 cup cream

25 store-bought wonton wrappers

Preparation

In water, cook the edamame until tender. Strain and puree with the other ingredients. Refrigerate the filling overnight until firm.

Put a teaspoon of the filling on a wonton skin; brush with water and fold in half to seal. Steam 5 pieces of the dumplings until tender, approximately 5 minutes.
Serving Size

Makes 25 pieces

**We could taste some Truffle when at Buddakan, so we will be adding a very light touch of Truffle Oil for some extra oomph.

The Library

Recipe via MSNBC

Gastronomista Gift Guide: The Littlest Gourmand

Today we're pleased to present a guest post by one of our favorite gals around, Miss Amanda de Beaufort of the wildly successful parent-style blog, Coos & Ahhs.  Whenever we're in a jam for gifts to get for the little ones in our life, we always turn to C&A for some seriously cute and stylish finds.  Additionally, we're terribly fond of her son, Master Henry Hugh, who is not only one stylish two year old, but also is quite the little gourmand.  We've seen the little chap down raw oysters, pasta carbonara, steak - pretty much whatever mom's eating, and she's always serving up something divine.

So we asked Miss de Beaufort to give us a round up of some of the best foodie finds she can recommend for the little gourmands in your life. 

Without further ado:

Gifts for the Littlest Gourmand

I am honored to contribute this gift guide for my favorite foodie ladies!

Like most food-loving parents, one of my greatest fears was giving birth to a picky eater. Okay, slight exaggeration! Kids are kids, but I strongly feel that feeding your child real, homemade, healthy food as much as possible is key to a healthy adventurous eater. Here are some of my favorite foodie gifts for little ones...happy eating! 

1. The baby & toddler cookbook 2. Boon modware utensils 3. Deuz napkid bib 4. Sili squeeze--take purees  on the go! 5. Beaba babycook 6. Rookie red training chopsticks 7. Marimekko karkuteilla kids set 8. Boon fruit and veggie slicer 9. Zoku popmaker and sticks

Want more?  Pop in over at Coos & Ahhs!

xx Amanda de Beaufort

Pops of Joy

People.  Popcorn is delicious.  Don't even try to hide it - it's the reason you go to the movies, it's the reason you stay at that bar for hours after you should, and its a main staple of your diet.  It is for us too, and that's where the truffle salt comes into play....

Popcorn.  Watch it come to delicious fruition in 12 seconds:

My Skills Include Eating Donuts

Sometimes twitter is full of gems.  Today we laughed out loud when we saw this tweet from Mitchell Davis over at Cook and Eat Better - explaining subtle nuisances of social media through....donuts. Genius, we say!

Follow @kitchensense for more..

Cocktails - An Infographic

There are times when blogging has its benefits - getting invited to fabulous parties, getting to taste delicious treats, and finding out when awesome products drop.  Today, we were thrilled to learn that Pop Chart Lab (of Candy Chart, and Beer Chart fame) took our advice and made a Cocktail Chart. (The jury is still out on if they took our advice to make a cocktail chart per se - but great minds think alike, nonetheless.) We are suckers for a good infographic - and their new libation chart has us swooning, not to mention thirsty for a cocktail. 

Sometimes you need a little guidance when it comes to cocktail hour.  You've got Gin, Cherry Brandy, half an orange, but no idea what to make.  Just refer to the chart - which will guide you, oh woeful bartender, to the proper measurements, garnishes, cordials, sodas, juices, condiments, and glassware. There are even little flaming icons for when a cocktail needs a little flambé.

Your cocktail hour will never be lost again.

Want one?  (We sure do.)  Order one here: $28.

Faye Dunaway Peels & Eats an Egg

That's all it is.

And that's all it needs to be.

Gastropyromania

What do you get when you mix a pyromaniac, a super sick camera, and a lab where one can blow up whatever their heart desires?

Well, this:

Welcome to the world of Alan Sailer - a mad scientist of sorts.  Mr Sailer is a photographer who builds his own air-gap microflash, read, 1/1,000,000 of a second who spends his nights exploding pretty much everything in sight, sometimes to achieve terrifying effects...

But we are interested in his choices of content - fruits, candies, sodas, all blown to tiny tiny bits.  You know, in case you were wondering what your twizzlers looked like from a different perspective...

Enjoy.

For more on this uber-flash : click here.

Daily Behbeh

Oh Wednesday, what a drag you can be. 

We were delighted when our friend, Jejon Yeung sent us his collection of whimsical and socially poignant drawings of the adorable bear, Behbeh.  Sometimes a little cuteness really helps the day get on. 

Behbeh has adventures that make us hard workin' gals jealous; mud baths, tours of Santa Fe, snowboarding, site seeing.  It also seems that Behbeh is quite the foodie - getting into some delicious finds during his travels.  We must confess, we find ourselves relating to this little guy...like perhaps he's reading our minds... 

A few of our favorites:

Mmmm Chicken Wings

Martinis are a Girl's (and a Bear's) Best Friend

 

The Longest 150 Second's of One's Life

 

Happiness is a Lollipop Bigger Than Your Head

 

Workin' Hard for the Guacamole

 

Drats, My Martini!

 

Nom Nom

 

Sharing is Caring

 

Now Where to Put Them...

 

Wheatgrass Shots - $5 Extra

 

So. Violating.

 

French Fries = Heaven.

Carry on BehBeh - we'll be watching...

DIY Chocolate Bars

We're big fans of chocolate here at Gastro HQ - very often a bit of the dark stuff is what we need in the afternoon.  But sometimes just chocolate is a bit dull.  Enter, peanut butter.  Yes, we've been known to slather peanut butter all over a bar of chocolate, undoubtedly ending up all over our faces and frocks.  So ladylike, we know.

Thankfully, designer Elsa Lambient has saved our day!  Chocolate actually designed to hold toppings!  Ms. Lambient has cleverly added two different compartments, one on top for your fruits, nuts, or other gooey additions, and a drawer, as it were, for your neater, crispier treats.  Our imaginations are running wild with the possibilities! 

In the words of the designer:

A modular design allows for three types of chocolate that can support two added ingredients: black chocolate has a hole to contain fruit, milk chocolate has spaces for nuts, and white chocolate is surfaced to hold liquids, and all three contain a hollowed compartment for inserted flavored wafers, perhaps nougat, biscuit or caramel.

And an adorable stop animation?  Now you're just torturing us....

SWEET PLAY by Elsa Lambinet from Jan Czarlewski on Vimeo.



via Dezeen

All The Cabbage Fetishists, Put Your Hands Up

Cato the Elder once said "It is the cabbage that surpasses all other vegetables."

Babe Ruth is said to have kept a wet leaf under his hat on particularly warm game days.

The leafy green orb even spawned the Cabbage Patch dolls, which ranged from sweet to regrettable (Al Roker and Stephen Tyler versions were made. Why, cabbage, why?)

So cabbage is versatile. I get it. Pickled, fermented, boiled, slawed, in doll form and dolma, it is quite the multiple role player.

But is it sexy?

Bubble or Squeak?

I guess it's a matter of, ahem, taste - but these renderings of green leafed glamazons by artist Ju Duoqi shed new light on cabbage's more appealing properties.

Green Goddess

In this YouTube interview, Ju says one of the things she loves about working with vegetables is how easily you can turn them into pretty much anything she imagines. She's done interpretations of Van Gogh and the Mona Lisa, even small vegetable museums.

Bok Choy Booty

Can the cabbages bring the boys to the yard?

Family friendly or borderline-NSFW? We can't tell.

Charles Dickens Over Rice

Happy New Year! With a food, art and film-filled NYC staycation under my belt, this hostess is back in action, dedicated to bringing you more food, more culture, more art, more design, more everything into your life this year.

During one of my loll-around-and-look-at-pretty-things-on-the-Internet days, I came across "Library," a project by NYC-based artist and curator Trong G. Nguyen. Started in 2007 and currently ongoing, Nguyen paints entire texts of authors like Roland Barthes and Charles Dickens onto individual kernels of rice.

Roland Barthes: La chambre clair (Camera Lucida)

Once I got past imagining how labor-intensive this process might be, I realized the stark and minimal presentation is super pleasing to look at. It's a compact, distilled way of combining both order and chaos: inside the bags, words are jumbled around in a nonsensical mess, but outside the bags are things we recognize, understand and can categorize. Charles Dickens. The Wizard of Oz. Library date stamps.

This book is overdue.

We can take it a step further when we start to think about rice being a food, and how we consume books, or even more generally, stories. We take them in by reading, or hearing, so then something that existed independently on its own outside of you, now exists inside in a different form. Which is really just eating with your eyes, don't you think?

Brain Food

Maybe not the best way to re-read The Wizard of Oz, but thought provoking, when you start to think about the many different forms that stories, can take in today's ever-changing culture and technology.

Books on rice are neither books, nor rice. Discuss.