Food tattoos

At 23 years old, i hesitantly and regrettably got a tattoo of a pixie.Its not a tramp stamp but it is on my body for eternity!! There was no magical or honorable reason why i picked this particular tattoo, other than i thought a pixie would be cute. Forever it will be on my body and forever i will have to explain to people what it is and the stupid reason i got it!!I thought about what i could've put on my body instead, if i could do it all over again. First of all, i wouldnt ever do it again for many reasons, but if i could, it would have to be something that was meaningful and that reminded me of something lovely and beautiful and close to my heart. I thought about the loves of my life. My parents, my nieces and nephews, Jesus Christ and of course food!! I thought about how cute it would be to have a lollipop, a fork or a Hershey's Kiss tattooed on the inside of my wrist or ankle. Who was i kidding, no one loved food enough to tattoo it onto their bodies right?? Well i guess there are many people who do and i found a gallery on Flickr that shows slightly crazy people that have done just that!! Check them out. I love the cupcake, lollipop and hamburger tattoos... on someone elses body of course!!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/foodtatts/pool/

Those Crazy Koreans!!!

I had a craving this weekend for this spicy Korean noodle dish that i absolutely love,love, love!!I bought Sunchang gochujang or this red pepper paste in K-town, but i had no idea how to go about using it. I looked all over the internet for the correct way to prepare it and i stumbled upon these hilarious Korean girls who have way too much fun blogging about cooking Korean food at CRAZY KOREAN COOKING. At first i thought they were cheesy and then i thought they were freakin hilarious!!!They are two, attractive, Korean women who apparently dont take themselves too seriously, which i love!!They have a blast explaining the proper way to make everything from spicy pork bone soup to kimchi pancake and Jap Chae!They break into song and dance while listing ingredients and make short film indie intros to each of their posts!!!I love them!!If only i had a cool, silly cooking buddy, that would blog recipes on video with me while we do the robot and dress up in dominatrix attire!!I think we'd get more hits than that Perez guy!! Enjoy!!

Free Italian ice on the Upper West side at Rita's

A new yummy fat trap just opened up in my neighborhood this week!! I'm a little concerned because it's across the street from my gym. "Dam" i thought, i just started to workout with a personal trainer, to you know "get a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model body"!! Ugh!!! Anyway, as annoyed as i was, i realized that there had to be a good side to this situation. And as a true foodie i decided to find out what the fuss about Rita's Ice was all about, after all their motto is  "Ice, Custard and Happiness= Rita's". I had never heard of the place but apparently there's over 200 franchises in the country that are extremely popular wherever they pop up!! Rita's Ice was the brainchild of  Bob Tumolos, who was a firefighter from Philidelphia, that wanted to supplement his income by selling Italian ice or "water ice" from the porch window of his home in the 80's. Since then it has become a famous franchise and has a cult following. Rita's is new to New York City and the first franchise has opened on the Upper West side. This week all day and night they are offering free "water ice"!!Rita's Ice is made of real fresh fruit and ice. They have over 20 flavors that also happen to be fat free,cholesterol free and trans-fat free!!Yeah!! I can actually eat some after a good workout and not feel the least bit guilty!!! The flavors, some of which i've offcourse sampled already,are refreshing and delicious. I tried their most popular seller mango ice, had a bit of the birthday cake flavor and couldnt leave until i had the green apple, which reminded me for some weird reason of the fabulous green apple martinis from The Abbey in Los Angeles. They make other interesting flavors like Georgia Peach,passion fruit, strawberry margarita and can you believe Swedish fish sweet tea flavor!!!Rita's also has the creamiest frozen custard i've had. Their custards come in vanilla,chocolate, strawberry, orange cream and coffee flavor!!!Yum!! I had the chocolate custard and inhaled a serving in a matter of minutes!!There go all the crunches and lunges i did today!!Crap!! The custards don't fall under the fat free,cholesterol free list so be careful!!But they are amazing!!They have other variations of their custards and ices that they call different names based on how they mix them up. For example a Misto is custard and ice mixed together, a Blendini is a Misto with additional yummy cookies and candies mixed into it like Oreo's, Nilla wafers and M & M minis and a Ritaccino is any custard and ice mixed with coffee. Hurry to get your free ice this week but if you want the custard and not to mention the calories,cholestrol and fat you have to pay up!!No free custard just ice. I know... the nerve!!

Rita's Ice
2486 Broadway
New York,NY 10025
Mon- Thurs 11am to 11pm

My other favorite blog of the month: Luxirare

OMG!!!I just stumbled upon this amazing food and fashion blog!!What this girl does with fashion and photography is truly innovative and inspiring but what she does with food is down right exciting and sexy!! She comes up with the most refreshing and brilliant ideas!! Im jealous that she is so talented and a genius in her creativity, but i am also encouraged by her to seriously take up photography and think outside the box once more when it comes to blogging and my often safe mainstream ideas about whats interesting to the public. Believe it or not,what caught my eye where these mini lollipop pies i saw pictures of,which were displayed on another website,that also happend to be admiring and displaying her work. She's not a recipe girl and will rarely post a recipe for a dish or food item she displays on her blog, but she will respond to readers comments on her blogs and give simple advice and short explanations. I am totally going to try out her creations but put my own twist to it. I love how she came up with the idea of lollipop pies because of her desire to have pie without all the calories and without all the fatty filing. She,like me,loves the crust on most pies than the filing anyway!!Check out Luxirare and be awed and inspired like me at how she turns a blog into food and fashion erotica!!! *photo:Luxirare.com

The Brooklyn Taco Experiment

On January 31st, 2010 i went to Brooklyn to support my good friend, great chef and avid food competitor Andrew in a taco making competition he was participating in. The competition was called The Brooklyn Taco Experiment, an event created by a pair of cookoff obsessed foodies Theo Peck and Nick Suarez. It was an event where cooks of various levels of expertise came to show off what they each thought were the best tacos in New York. A week before the competition Andrew had a few friends over to sample some of the possible tacos he would be competing with. Everything from savory chicken mole tacos to carnitas cooked to a tender perfection where some of my favorites we sampled. I couldnt wait to cheer him on and attend my first food competition!!I was even more excited and actually a little intimidated to find out that i would be taste testing each and every taco competing in the The Experiment. Apparently news about the event spread fast amongst New York foodies and tickets to the event sold out the day before the event. Thank you Andrew for making sure i got a ticket!!The event which was held at The Bell House in Brooklyn was basically a four hour taco glutton fest!! I went in thinking i was going to nibble on only a few samples of  local taco creations until i entered the main hall at the Bell House and was given a voting slip that contained the names of 30 different competitiors!!Whoa!!30 tacos really?? The aroma coming from Bell House was amazing!!And the crowd who patiently waited outside in the freezing cold(some for over an hour) to have their turn to taste tacos after tacos, ran around to each taco station in a desperate and feverish pace, drooling to taste what they were smelling!!! I thought it would be a Iron Chef style competition but instead it was designed like a wine tasting but with tacos.With local talent DJ Kilahertz playing fun taco eating music in the background,i proceeded to grab my first taco sample and then my second taco sample. I realized that in order for me to judge properly and get the best experience from this event, i had to have a game plan!!I knew that ultimately i was going to vote for Andrew's tacos but like a true foodie i had to scope out or should i say taste out the competition. I was extremely excited to see that so many of the competitiors thought outside the box in terms of their taco creations. There were breakfast tacos made with pork belly, Indian influenced tacos made with curried chicken, pork tacos braised in hibiscus flowers,duck tacos,shrimp tacos and even for the vegetarian or vegan there were tempeh and cilantro tacos. I enjoyed the fact that many also chose to break away from the usual salsa and Tapatio sauce and create their own condiments like tequilla cremes, cactus pear vinagrettes, spicy bearnaise sauce, sweet corn and bacon bit relish and would you believe truffled chicharrones!!! I was in taco heaven and i didnt want to leave!Some of my favorite tacos where the simply made ones in which flavor and close to home cooking yumminess was all that mattered. Andrew offcourse chose to make just that.... simply delicious and close to home tasting tacos. Mike Mcgowan another competitor impressed me as well with his shredded osso bucco and braised short rib tacos that had no bells and whistles just plain goodness!!The Brooklyn Taco Experiment i found  was not only a great food event and foodie heaven but it was an oppurtunity to raise money for a good cause. Portions of the ticket proceeds went to ovarian cancer research and Andrew being the sweetheart that he is promised to donate $10 to Haiti earthquake relief  efforts for every one of his friends that attended the competition to support him.The competition which was sponsored by Aeromexico and Tortillera Chinantla, was not only being judged by New York City foodies but by well respected, well known chefs and food experts of the culinary world. Iron Chef judge and Bon Appetit editor Andrew Knowlton, owner/chef of  Cascabel Taqueria Todd Mitgang and David Vendley of Calexico were a few of the judges whose job it was to also consume 30 different tacos and somehow determine who was worthy of the taco making crown.In the end, a group of guys who called themselves Serious Business and who also happen to be wearing silly taco outfits throughout the competition, were crowned the ultimate winners based on the main judges selection. Ironically enough i was only able to eat twenty-six tacos, and i use the word "eat" loosely because some tacos werent worthy of more than a bite or two. Serious business just happend to be one of the four tacos that i just didn't have any more room in my already stretched out belly to consume. Serious Business won a round trip ticket to Mexico and some money to spend. Andrew my good friend didn't win any money or a trip but he sure did win my respect and the respect of a few other New York foodies that attended the event that day!! I have a renewed  love for tacos and have been inspired to work on my own abilities in making kick ass tacos and do so with an open mind and more of a willingness to think outside the box in terms of ingredients.Spamitos are my latest idea in tacos. Good old Spam cooked in a green chile sauce and doused with lots of cheddar cheese. Stay tuned for the recipe. I hope know one has come up with that one yet!!!Feel free to donate to Haiti relief efforts and/or ovarian cancer research by clicking on the links above and following the instructions online!!

Georgetown cupcakes

Whenever im on vacation or on a road trip either here in the states or overseas, i always make it a habit of doing my research and finding the best of whatever the country or town has to offer. Im not saying that im high maintenance or need five star cuisine,hotel or high end brand name stores. I research the places that the locals have made a buzz about or that travelers before me have written about or made recommendations to. Most people check out the most popular restaurant in the city or the coolest bar. I on the other hand check out weird things like the best cheese shop,breakfast spot and cupcake place in town. Cupcake places are by far my fave thing to go check out. The cupcake craze has taken pandemic proportions with  major cupcake shops in almost every big city in America and Canada. From Magnolia's and Crumbs in New York City to Sprinkles and Yummy cupcakes in Los Angeles. Cupcake shops seem to be popping up in every city not just the big ones.Case in point was my recent trip to Washington D.C. and a quick cab ride to Georgetown to check out the famous university campus,the quaint and historical bricklined streets and offcourse the famous Exorcist movie stairs (you know the one where the priest fell to his death). Anyway, i heard about a cupcake place in downtown Georgetown called what else Georgetown Cupcake. Offcourse upon arrival, like every popular cupcake shop there was a lovely line with mostly women waiting for their turn to buy a box or two of these scrumptious creations that they will all eat in one sitting and regret the rest of the year! I always feel ridiculous getting in line for cupcakes but i just had to. They had their everyday flavors like chocolate, red velvet and vanilla and then they had amazing flavors like peanut butter fudge, chocolate mint, lemon blossom, honey banana and toffee crunch!!The selection changes daily and some flavors are only seasonal! I had the peanut butter fudge cupcake which is made of valrhona chocolate, a fudge center and a peanut butter icing that tasted just like the smoothest,richest,creamest Skippy i've ever tasted. Then there was the coconut cupcake that had the most amazing vanilla cream cheese icing i've tasted in awhile. It wasnt too coconutty either if thats even a word! I dont like coconut anything usually but Georgetown cupcakes did it and other usually boring flavors just right.The two ladies who were inspired by their grannies and quit there jobs in fashion and finance to create this great spot, pride themselves in using only gourmet products in their cupcakes like Madagascar bourbon vanilla, valrhona chocolate and callebaut ganache.