Reading Offline: Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments
by Alex Boese
Really odd book about various "scientific" experiments, some gruesome, many just insane. Have't yet gotten to the elephants on acid part, but am definitely freaked out by the "let's decapitate an animal and try to keep just the head alive" chapter. Ugh.
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
by Nancy Milford
I never read much of Millay before, but Milford wrote a really interesting biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, so I was interested to see her next book. Still in the first chapter, but the prolog was amusing in itself. I always appreciate reading the background of how the author started on the book.
Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
I gave this to Jon as a gift a while back and only just recently remembered I never did borrow and read it myself. Am very amused so far. Sadly it's not the updated edition I've linked to - preface in our copy's dated Nov. 2000. Wonder what's been added/changed/corrected.
The New Kings of Nonfiction
by Ira Glass
Collection of nonfiction articles previously published in various magazines. Bought a while back in an airport and there are still a few articles I haven't finished reading. I really liked the Bill Buford article that became Among the Thugs.
...About?...
Batgrl is a pop culture junky who loves to mess about with cameras and video games. And is constantly amused by Jon, who she did honest and truly did meet online. Though she's been blogging since the '90s, evil sp@m'rs managed to break the old blog, and thus there's only more recent stuff here. (No great loss, actually!)
Alert! Some of my favorite folk are blogging at the Meat Blog - about yes, meat products. Always room for a fun food blog, especially since I know there will be a plethora of good weird linkage there. Which got me looking for food sites to pass along - and then I remembered this great DallasFood.org Chicken Fried Steak Series. I really wish there was someone in San Diego posting about restaurants like this. Jon and I are just too casual about eating out to replicate this kind of blog - but reading it definitely makes me want to go try some of those places, and I suppose it helps that I once lived in Dallas. Meanwhile I can try to hunt up some local chicken fried steak.
2 habanero chiles, stems and seeds removed, chopped
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
2T salt
8 cloves garlic
Combine the above with the spice mix in a blender, and puree.
Juice of 5 lemons splash tequila 5 pounds pork butt, cut into 2-inch cubes Combine all ingredients in a zip-top bag and mix well. Line a 9x13 pan with banana leaves; add the pork mixture; fold over the leaves to cover, then cover tightly with foil. Bake 4 hours at 325; serve over rice.
After you watch that video - if you aren't hungry for the dish then you surely must be dead.
I don't know that I'd go to the trouble of actually making my own tortillas, but I have to admit, that's what really makes a superior breakfast taco. And it's a great thing to eat around 3:00am, if you happen to still be up at that hour. Anyway, if you enjoyed those two clips then, according to this article at SlashFilm, you can look forward to another recipe on the Grindhouse dvd:
Grindhouse DVD Details Revealed
Peter Sciretta, SlashFilm.com, April 3rd, 2007
"...One of the subplots in Rodriguez' Planet Terror involves a cook who plans to take his BBQ recipe to his grave. But fear not, Robert promises that the recipe will be included on the DVD in the return of his infamous "10 Minute Cooking School" feature.
"I'm going to start it with this quote: No Texan ever gives away his Barbecue recipe. He takes it to the grave! Then it says Ten Minute Cooking School: Texas Barbecue… From The Grave!""
And from the same blog (yes, I'm just link gleaning like mad today, but I admit it!) - OEDIPUS REX (with vegetables) (YouTube). In which cauliflower do indeed make the perfect sheep. And due to sexual situations (just the audio really, I mean, it's a potato and a tomato) and violence, this is not safe for work. Copyright Mama's Boy Productions. Because I do read the credits to films, even when the stars are vegetables.
___________________________
* From the thread on DallasFood.org where I found out about Rodriguez's videos, the author of the food articles (Scott-DFW, or at least I believe he's the site's author) actually tried the recipe and had this to say:
"I made Rodriguez's cochinita pibil tonight, following his recipe exactly.
Here's what it ended up looking like:
[photo looks good!]
Not bad. But here are a few comments on the recipe...
-- Rodriguez's recipe is extremely achiote-heavy. He uses more than twice as much annatto seed, per pound of pork, as any other recipe I have for cochinita pibil. May be a matter of taste, but I'd dial it back to 2 or 3 tbsp.
-- Deseeding and deveining the two habaneros pretty much eliminates the heat, given the amount of achiote paste the recipe makes. By the time I realized this, I'd already thrown the seeds and veins down the garbage disposal. (Thank goodness for chiles pequins.)
-- The citrus character just didn't taste right. I'm sure he chose OJ/lemon/vinegar based on the likelihood that a teenager watching this up in Minnesota won't have access to Seville oranges (aka sour oranges). But, living in Texas, Seville oranges are as close as your nearest Fiesta or Carnival (or I imagine, at three times the price, Central Market). I'd drop the fruit juice cocktail and stick with a cup to a cup and a half of Seville orange juice.
-- Looking at some other recipes (e.g., Kennedy, Bayless, et al.), I see a number of them include additional herbs and spices, beyond the annatto/cumin/pepper/clove/allspice combo in Rodriguez's recipe. Cinnamon and/or Mexican oregano might be worth adding. But before adding anything else, I'd want to make sure I'd found the right balance with what's already there.
-- Instead of tossing this in the oven, I'd be interested to see how it would turn out in the smoker. (Pit-roasting is how the dish originated.)
If anyone else gives it a shot, let me know how it goes.
And sadly, no one else has posted after that. Some people on the YouTube pages have commented on trying the recipes, but nothing this detailed. 2 CommentsComments:
Oh. My. God. As if I wasn't already in such deep lust for him (despite the fact that his children have such ridiculous names, or maybe because of it, I'm not sure), I find out now that he makes his own tortillas. I may have to deduct points since he uses a mixer (!!) instead of his hands, but he gets extra points for keeping lard around. Sigh.
He does turn the tortillas on the griddle without a fork or tongs, so you know hes' done it repeatedly. Deep Sigh.
Yes I have to go out for breakfast tacos - or at least for Mexican food with handmade tortillas - tomorrow. I can't wait to see what his bbq recipe is!
