I am literally astounded by sheer lack of alcohol-related postings on the blogosphere on this fine wintry morning, the last day of 2007. My question: How precisely are we supposed to stock up on liquor for this evening's festivities without guidance from the world wide web? j/k

Here are the only alcohol-related stories I came across today:

According to researchers, ancient Pueblo Indians brewed a form of corn beer approximately 300 years before the Spanish arrived with grapes and wine in the 16 century. This apparently contradicts accepted claims that the pocket of Pueblos in New Mexico did not have alcohol until the arrival of the first Europeans. The finding is based on tests that were performed on 800 year old potsherds from the region. Using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, scientists determined that the ancient pottery contained fermented residue that is characteristic of beer production.

The MSNBC website also has a related story about 9000 year old wine from China. Accordingly, scientists found similar residue from ceramics that originated approximately 7000 B.C.

When it comes to traditional alcohols, few are more controversial than the legendary absinthe. This green herb infused liqueur was the drink of choice in the 19th and 20th centuries by artists and writers, including Vincent Van Gogh, Emile Zola, Edgar Degas, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. It was banned for nearly a century because of its 120 proof potency and fears of its psycho-active ingredient: worm wood. Absinthe was believed to cause various hallucinogenic effects, reputedly driving people insane. However, according to NBC11.com, sometime mid-December, the American Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in Alameda, California reversed the ban and ok'd the distribution of a specific version of absinthe to consumers. The distiller, St. George's Spirits, produced approximately 1500 bottles for the holiday season and sold them at $75 USD/bottle or $300 USD/case. According to the distiller's spokesperson, the bottles were quickly snapped up by people ranging from their 20's to 70's.

On another somewhat more constructive note, a member of the modding community at HardOcp.com built a working computer using a former Ballentine scotch bottle. The work is literally astounding. Just look at the how clean the cuts are. It is amazing how small computer foot prints have become.

Whatever your chosen drink for the New Year, please partake responsibly. Happy New Year from us at foodiePrints. Cheers!

It's been a long time coming, but a new version of foodiePrints was launched early this morning.

The new version includes the following modifications:

Major changes:

• Upgrade to the newest version of the Nuclues CMS
• Reworking of the skin to give a cleaner and more efficient layout
• Addition of a tagging system
• Addition of a paging system

Minor changes:

• Larger images
• Entry counts for each category
• Renaming of the "greatEats" category to "recipeBox"
• Inclusion of the "addthis.com" functionality.

Here are before and after pictures for comparison:

Before

After

Even more important, the foodiePrints blog is now under the foodieprints.com domain. Its new url is http://www.foodieprints.com. I recently purchased the domain name and will be using it for the foreseeable future. The former url, http://www.missingnotes.org/blog, will eventually lead to my personal blog: missingPrints. It will host non-food related entries

There is also a small collection of backdated entries on foodiePrints that I used to test the above modifications.

One glaring feature that I have yet to solve involves fancy urls. As such, a good number of links from the previous version of foodiePrints will be temporarily unusable. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience. I am working on it.

Cheers. Good eating to all.

UPDATE (Jan. 2, 2008, 10:02 pm): Fancy urls work and I fixed the problem with the flash videos not showing the preview images...

With the new year fast approaching, Tanya Steel of Epicurious.com, released a top 7-list of "Worst Food Trends" for 2007.

1. Macho Fast Food
2. Vanity Vodkas
3. The Ubiquitous $40 Entree
4. Hot Spots You Can't Find
5. Truffles the Size of a Softball
6. Restaurants "In Preview"

For more detail on each trend, please visit the Epicurious website. The list is very entertaining.

For instance, take the number 2 worst food trend. Its anecdote about premium vanity vodkas specifically targets the vodka baring the name "Donald Trump."

Announced during the summer of 2006, Trump Super Premium Vodka is quintuple-distilled in Holland by Dutch master distiller Jacques de Lat. It is bottled in a Bruni Glass design, with labels and outer decorations by New York designer and artist Milton Glaser. It is distributed by Drinks Americas and retails for approximately $33 USD/750 mL bottle.

Unfortunately, Trump's somewhat comically named vodka was not listed on another of this year's top 7 lists. This one comes from Trifter.com and is entitled:
Seven Outrageous Luxury Vodkas: Strictly for Connoisseurs. Its top 3 vodkas follow:

Gold Leaf Vodka:

Yes, those are flakes of 24-carot gold leaf
Made in France, this vodka is quadrupled distilled and its ingredients include underground spring water. Cost: $60 USD/750 mL bottle.

DIVA Premium Vodka:

Those coloured beads are genuine precious stones
Made in Scotland by Blackwood Distillers, this vodka is filtered through a sand of crushed gemstones. The vodka itself is bottled with precious stones. Depending on the choice of gemstones, a bottle of this vodka costs between $3700 and $1 million USD.

Gun Vodka:

Tommy Gun Goodness
Made in the United States, this vodka is bottled in a machine gun shaped 750 ml glass bottle. Most popular on American Army and Air bases, a bottle will run you $50 USD.

While it didn't make the grade, Trump's vodka is nevertheless outrageously popular. According to yahoo.com, Drinks Americas shipped approximately $5.2 million USD or 46 000 cases of Trump Premium Vodka during the fourth quarter of 2007. As a result, for 2008, the Trump vodka line will be extended with flavors, including lemon, orange, raspberry, and grape.

It seems that Japanese consumers are being tempted by something other than cheese-stuffed crust at Pizza Hut. Introduced sometime last summer (July 2007), Pizza Hut's newest "innovation" in stuffed crust encases chunks of hot dog wieners or processed cheddar in individual pieces of dough. These pieces are then attached to pizzas in place of the traditional crust. A medium sized "double roll" pizza costs 3000 yen or approximately $20 USD. A large will set you back 4000 yen, $30 USD.

Like a lot of other North Americans, my Christmas food memories include buttery turkey, herb stuffing, baked potatoes, candied yams, and steamed artichokes. These are the dishes that most often graced the table during Christmas dinner. Christmas, however, was not limited to savory foods. I also have fond memories of sweet confections: "Pot of Gold" Chocolates, shortbread cookies, sugar cookies, freshly baked apple pie, and gingerbread.

There are few better ways to celebrate Christmas with young children than to make, shape, decorate, and bake gingerbread cookies. Just put aprons on the kids, break out the cookie cutters, and watch as little hands make quick work of ginger bread batter. Besides making gingerbread men and women, more industrious children construct Christmas houses. I've even heard of young engineers taking thin slabs of gingerbread to assemble circuit boards, complete with candy semi-conductor components.

Take for instance the Windell H. Oskay, author of the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratory website and blog. According to one of his postings, he used graham crackers and candy to put together a remarkably accurate breadboard according to a circuit diagram. His techniques can apply equally well to gingerbread substrates.

Diodes:

1N914 small-signal diodes
Assembled from pretzel sticks, icing, food colouring, and either jujubes or miniature marshmallows.

Resistor:

100k brown-black-yellow Resistor
Assembled from wint-o-green life savers, icing, and food colouring.

Capacitors:

Electrolytic Capacitor

Domino Capacitor
Assembled from pretzel sticks and either candy-coated licorice or "Brixx" candies.

Completed Circuit:

Completed Circuit
Put together, Oskay built a 555 LED blinking circuit you can eat.

Educational and satisfying :)

During Christmas, I like to give the gift of chocolate. For years, I've supported the somewhat mundane tradition of gifting boxed chocolates. Initially, I started with the classic Hershey's "Pot of Gold" in the original long black rectangular boxes. They have been and will continue to be a tradition in my family. We open a box on Christmas morning when we unwrap our gifts. I have fond memories of opening presents while enjoying a sweet morsel of chocolate. Later, I moved to Laura Secord chocolates. I even dabbled in Godiva and Stubbe.

Stubbe is a family-run company that has been making premium Chocolates since 1845 in Germany. The first Canadian store opened in 1989. Today, there are two locations, one in Ottawa (375 Dalhousie Street) and one in Toronto. This Christmas, to my delight, my manager gave out boxes of Stubbe chocolates to his employees.

Stubbe Chocolates

Hand-made Chocolates at their best
Please note that Stubbe is very highly regarded by the online community at the Ottawa Foodies website.

During the past two Christmases, I have given up gifting boxed chocolates in favor of hand crafting gift baskets. I do this for three reasons: 1) boxed chocolates can be purchased at almost any department store these days, 2) each basket can be personalized for its recipient, and 3) nothing breaks my heart more than seeing anemic Christmas baskets that are propped up with paper instead of sweets.

Take for instance the following baskets that I found from Dollarama.

Sad Christmas Baskets

Barely alive, we can rebuild them. We have the technology. We have the capability to build a better basket. These will be they. Better than they were before. Better, fuller, more satisfying.

Firstly, I dismantled the original baskets and binned the candies. The were nothing more than poor facsimiles of Werther's Originals anyways.

Binned with Prejudice

Secondly, I rebuilt them with proper Christmas chocolates: Ferrero Rocher, Liquor Chocolate Bottles, Lindor Lindts, Moritz Icy Squares, and individual boxes of Russel Stover chocolates.

LIndor Lindts

and other proper Christmas chocolates

Rebuilt Baskets
And yes, I usually raid the local Giant Tiger for provisions.

Thirdly, I re-wrapped them in cellophane.

Re-Wrapped

Observe! Christmas baskets with substance :)

Santa Basket

Bear Basket

Each basket found a grateful home!

Particulars:
Giant Tiger
1085 Wellington Street

Stubbe Chocolates, Ottawa
375 Dalhousie Street
(613)241-1040

According to an article from Reuters that was picked up by Yahoo News, there is a political movement in Italy to enforce stricter rules on the production and distribution of a popular seasonal Milanese cake, called Panettone. This is because, while domestic Italian bakers need to produce Panettone destined for domestic markets in compliance with established legal guidelines, Panettone made elsewhere or Panettone destined for foreign markets do not. By law, for instance, only butter and beer yeast can be used to make Panettone destined for Italian households. As such, Italians feel that Panettone originating from Latin America or exported to other countries should only be considered Panettone-like or "Italian-style", but not authentic.

In response, the Italian agriculture ministry has proposed raising the issue with the European union and World Trade Organization. His aim: restrict the name Panettone to Italian-made cakes. His goal: to better ensure a customer understands the difference authenticity makes and to protect domestic bakers. The proposed restriction is similar to current Italian law governing wine, cheese, and charcuterie. For example, only Parmesan cheese and prosciutto produced in Parma, Italy can be called Parmigiano parmesan cheese or Parma Prociutto.

To contextualize the situation, Italian producers bake approximately 117 million Panettone and similar pandoro cakes every Christmas. The industry is valued at approximately $859 million USD, approximately $7.50/cake. At one time, Panettone was a specialty product, calling for higher prices. However, according to Wikipedia, fierce domestic competition at the End of World War II commodetized the specialty cake, making it affordable for everyone. Furthermore, Italian expats to Argentina and Brazil brought there love of Panettone to Central and South America where it became popular and spawned a new industry. There, it is traditionally served during Christmas and enjoyed with Hot Cocoa or liquor.

What is Panettone? Panettone is an egg-rich yeast-levenned cake that is studded with candied fruit peel, nuts, and raisins. It originated in Milan and is traditionally served during Christmas and New Year. Traditional panettone is baked in a cylindrical tube, producing its characteristic shape. When baked, a puffed dome is usually produced on top.

Cultural protectionist sentiment aside, the origins of the Milanese tradition for producing Panettone is very interesting. The following are two possible origins from the Wikipedia entry on the subject:

More after the jump...

If ever you thought about teaching the principle of halving or doubling to children, look no further than cookery.

Here' s a clip from Philip Morrison's PBS program, "The Ring of Truth: Atoms", circa 1987. It features Chef Kin Jing Mark, making authentic pulled noodles. The method demonstrates the principle of halving.


Regarding the doubling principle, here is a homegrown clip from two graduates of the Cordon Bleu. It features self titled Ms. Glaze and Chez Tse, making puff pastry.

The photo of Ida, a polar bear from New York City's famed Central Park zoo, comes from Yahoo.com, care of the Wildlife Conservation Society. In it, Ida looks to be eagerly pursuing the last bits of her peanut butter, trout, and whipped cream treat from an over-sized holiday gift box.

Ida's predicament reminds me of a delightful novel I read as a grade schooler: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Bloom. In it, one chapter finds a precocious youngster, named Fudge, becoming difficult during breakfast. In response, his father delivers a last ditch ultimatum, "Eat it or wear it!" Two year old Fudge chooses to "wear it", so his father marches him upstairs into the bathroom and dumps a bowl of cornflakes over his head. Later on, things backfire when Fudge again decides to "wear it" in a restaurant. To the horror of his parents, he proceeds to smear mashed potatoes on a wall and dumps a plate of peas on his head.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is but the first in a series of books that trace the childhoods of Fudge and his elder brother Peter as they grow up. They are great beginner novels for early readers.

How is this food related? Parents of young children everywhere are no doubt familiar with the frustrations of feeding time. Take heart, some of us difficult eaters eventually learn to eat. Some of us learn to eat well too.

Two weekends ago, friends came over to my place after dinner to chat and enjoy dessert. Jenn disappeared into the kitchen to make a Japanese sponge cake, called a kastella. I entertained.

While several of my guests argued the finer points of application development on mac vs. Linux platforms, another guest, a fellow foodie and dear friend from my university days, picked up my November 2007 issue of the Ottawa Magazine. Like me, she immediately turned to this year's list of top 10 "Best Restaurants" according to guest columnist, respected critic, and cooking television producer, Chris Knight. That's right folks, Knight's top 10 for 2007 is out!

For people new to the Ottawa Magazine, each year, around November-ish, Knight releases a top 10 list for restaurants in the national capital region. It is his determination of the best and brightest in the local restaurant scene. The criteria for Knight's top 10 list follows:

1. The restaurant needs to be a fine dining establishment.
2. The restaurant needs to be on the tip of your tongue when your current boss, former mentor, hero, and father in law says he's coming to Ottawa and wants you to recommend a place to go with the "missus" for their 40th wedding anniversary.

If you don't believe me, I'll happily show you the page in the November 2006 issue of the Ottawa magazine, where Knight actually states this.

Along with his annual top 10 list, Knight also includes a short list of restaurants that just nearly missed edging someone out and joining the list themselves. These restaurants will most likely be contenders for next year's list.

And without further ado, here are Ottawa's Best Restaurants for 2007:

1. Beckta Dining and Wine: 226 Nepean Street - (613)238-7063
2. Le Baccara: 1, boulevard du Casino - (819)772-6210
3. Domus Café: 87 Murray Street - (613)241-6007
4. Restaurant E18teen (new head chef since 2006: Matthew Carmichael, protegé of Susur Lee): 18 York Street - (613)244-1188
5. The Wellington Gastropub (chef/owner: Chris Deraiche, former head chef of E18teen): 1325 Wellington Street - (613)729-1315
6. Ambiente: 101-18 Beechwood avenue - (613)744-6509
7. Juniper Kitchen and Wine Bar (changed location since 2006): 245 Richmond Road - (613)728-0220
8. Social Restaurant + Lounge: 537 Sussex Drive - (613)789-7355
9. Perspectives: Brookstreet, 525 Legget Drive - (613)271-18000
10. Les Fougerès: 782, route 105, Chelsea - (819)827-8942

Here are Knight's 6 Restaurants "to watch":

1. Absinthe Café Resto Bar (new location since 2006): 1208 Wellington Street - (613)761-1138
2. Canvas Resto Bar (at the former location of Absinthe): 65 Holland Avenue - (613)729-1991
3. Allium (my personal favourite restaurant): 87 Holland Avenue - (613)792-1313
4. Benitz Bistro: 327 Somerset Street West - (613)567-8100
5. Luxe Bistro (formerly 47 York Restaurant, new name, new ownership, new head chef: René Rodriguez): 47 York Street - (613)241-8805
6. The Whalesbone Oyster House (new head chef: Steve Wall): 430 Bank Street - (613)231-8569

As I told my friend, the November issue of the Ottawa magazine is to foodies what the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit issue is to sport fans. Both are issued once annually. Both are eagerly awaited.

For me, my meager restaurant budget only permits me to visit a precious few fine dining establishments during a given year. Chris Knight's top 10 list and his write-ups on each incumbent restaurant provide much needed reconnaissance, information that will let me spend my money more wisely.

Regarding this year's choices, Knight has confirmed the existence of Ottawa's Epicurean Row. Two of his top 10 and three of his 6 "to watch" are located in the Wellington Village, almost within walking distance of each other.

To Arup Jana, chef/owner of Allium, congratulations. I'll be by your restaurant soon to get my copy of the magazine signed!

Oh, if you're interested in Knight's top 10 pics for last year, they follow:

More after the jump...

Apparently, a high end gourmet food store in New York's Greenwich Village, Balducci's, decided to advertise its ham to a yet untapped market for Hannukah (Chanukah, being an alternate spelling for the Jewish holiday). According to Jewish dietary laws, pork and other products from pigs are considered unclean. The advertising faux-pas was originally discovered by novelist Nancy Kay Shapiro. Instead of alerting management, she posted her a picture of the advertising on the Internet. The image ended up on Seth Godin's blog and an article appeared on Yahoo News today. When Shapiro returned to the store on the first night of Hannukah, the sign had been taken down. According to the Yahoo news article, management at Balducci's claims the sign pictured a mistake and blamed a stock clerk.

This one comes from BBC-news and again involves New Yorkers, a husband and wife. The husband is a former counter-terrorism police officer named Anthony Chiafolo. In 2005, after 22 years of service with the NYPD, he was suspended for failing a random drug test. The reason: his wife, Catherine, surreptitiously added approximately 6 joints worth of marijuana to his meatballs, effectively drugging him. Her intent was to force him to retire. After a short investigation, an administrative judge recommended that Chiofalo be reinstated to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, but NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly rejected the recommendation and fired Chiafolo instead. Anthony Chiafolo is now suing to get his job back. Both husband and wife have recently submitted to and passed lie detector tests about how illicit substances entered the former police officer's system.

Yesterday afternoon, a colleague of mine sent me a link to an image from Madrid, Spain, of a really geeky Christmas tree that displayed pacman in all its 8-bit glory. The "pacman" tree was very amusing, but not food-related. Happily, that very evening, a friend forwarded me a link to an image of a Christmas tree made entirely of emptied beer bottles. The image has since been picked up by other blogs and ended up on digg.com. One of the blogs identified the beer bottles as having come from the Dutch beer brewery, Grolsh. I just hope that the bottles are recycled after the Yultide season.

BTW, beer trees using Grolsh beer bottles have been attempted before. Here's a picture of a Canadian one that was built in Montreal.

Food craziness to all! Cheers!

One of my guilty pleasures is popping by the "Most Popular" News section of Yahoo's online news website. I visit the section once a day to see what news story is most viewed and what images are most e-mailed.

Today's collection of most e-mailed images includes one that involves another guilty pleasure of mine: Lindt chocolate truffles by Lindor. Every Christmas, I literally traffic the confections. Lindt chocolates goto friends in gift baskets. I stuff stockings with Lindt chocolates and I always keep a constantly replenished candy dish of them during the week before Christmas.

Apparently, an enterprising London fashion designer decided to go one step further and made a dress out of them. A picture of a model wearing the dress is one of Yahoo's "most e-mailed" images today.

Suspiciously, the attached caption does not specifically refer to Lindor, but it does identify a Swiss manufacturer. Equally dubious is the 70 000 calories designation. Everyone knows that Christmas chocolates have no calories!

James Barber, better known as the Urban Peasant, passed away last Thursday (November 29, 2007). According to the National Post website, Barber was reading a cookbook in his home, a pot of soup simmering on the stove, when he died of natural causes.

Author of 12 cookbooks and one children's book, noted columnist for the National Post, and regular contributor to such publications as Western Living magazine, Barber gained national recognition for his role as host of a popular CBC television cooking show, the "Urban Peasant." As the urban peasant, Barber's featured recipes espoused his philosophy for simple high-quality food.

My personal memories of the Urban Peasant involve his gentle and unassuming manner towards preparing food. From de-boning chicken for stir fries to cutting potatoes for a less-than-traditional gratin, his easy-going techniques could be mixed and matched to produce simple dishes that any home cook could put together for a quick dinner. Though I am old enough to remember cooking shows from the late 80s, his was the first cooking show I regularly followed. Like many other Canadians, I loyally tuned in to the CBC during the mid-afternoons in 90s.

James Barber will be missed.

The picture comes from the James Barber website, the Urban Hub.

Recently, google processed several searches for me on the subject of ginger-bread. In the sites it returned, I somehow turned up the following Christmas-oriented 4 port usb-hub, complete with 1 GB strawberries.


USB Christmas Strawberry Shortcake Hub

Shortcake Hub with 1 GB strawberries

According to newlaunches.com, the rather sumptuous-looking hub is being sold by Japanese manufacturer SolidAlliance. It measures 120×120×130mm and weighs 650g. The cost cost: ¥50,000 or $455.

If strawberries aren't really your style, SolidAlliance also makes usb memory devices shaped like tempura shrimp and deep fried crab claws that plug into the strawberry shortcake hub.

Deep fried memory devices...

SolidAlliance is also chalk full of other usb edibles:

• 1 GB usb siu mai
• 1 GB usb cream puffs
• 1 GB sea urchin roe?
• various 1 GB Sushi

Please note that my proficiency in Japanese is non-existent, so feel free to correct me on the above list.