Forking Tasty

Forking Tasty Magazine: Issue 1

Most of you know my day job keeps me tied pretty tight to the latest digital wizbang. One trend that has fascinated me for some time is the digital magazine. With apps like Aol Editions and Flipboard making our internet consumption prettier and simpler I decided to try out a few digital ‘zine products for our first ever Forking Tasty Magazine Issue. Technically it’s a REEL TASTY recap issue but, if you like it, we’ll make the next issue more FT Universal.

Go ahead try it. Click the center of the image where it says “expand”.

What you’ll see is the Issuu version of the magazine. We also produced a MagCloud version. MagCloud is HP’s digital, but printable, magazine division. The advantage of MagCloud is a digital and printed version of each issue is available. If you’d like to touch the Forking Tasty Mag you can order one up and have it shipped right to your door.

Thanksgiving in Canada

I bet yesterday was a rough day back. I hope you all had as amazing and as restful a Thanksgiving weekend as I did. I clocked in with an average of 8.5 hours of sleep per night. That’s unheard of in this family. Well rested and well fed I share with you a few of the delicious, authentic, fresh and traditional goodie’s my amazing mother-in-law whipped up for our London, Ontario Thanksgiving weekend starting with the above channa masala.

To set the tone here’s a little video of…

Thanksbringing 2011

This past Sunday was our third annual Thanksbringing meal. Those not familiar with the ritual can brush up here. As the name implies, Thanksbringing is the yearly potluck in which I open my kitchen up to my wonderful friends who take turns cooking and heating up their contribution to the feast.

This year we played things a bit different in the meat department. In past years we…

Red Velvet Mishap

A baker I am not. I will be the first to admit that I prefer to cook without measurements and recipes. A “little” of this or a “sprinkle” of that, along with a good gut sense, is truly all you need when cooking. An uncanny olfactory system and more taste buds per capital than the population of some horrible new Williamsburg restaurants (another post) helps a lot too.

Baking on the other hand is a completely different story. Hence this failed Red Velvet cake. Longs tory short, I am attempting a tres leche cake for Thanksbringing today. As a back up I bought a box of cake mix. It so happened that it was buy one get one free. I went for the red velvet thinking, “How hard can it be?” Obviously, for me, kinda hard. I’ll tell ya how the tres leche comes out. Stay tuned.

European Fiesta

For three months this summer I was cruising through the Mediterranean experiencing life in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, France and Monaco. I’m sure you have caught a couple of my posts while I was there. I could have done a lot more posts but there was so much food I encountered on my travels that it would become a full time job just to write them all. I put together this video to show you all the amazing food I either ate or saw and wanted to eat. The food in europe is so fresh and delicious it makes it really hard to stop eating. The company I got to enjoy the food with made it even better. The things that stood out to me were the multiple wine and olive oil tastings I went to. Not only did I taste the incredible wine and ridiculous olive oil but the food they served as well was equally delicious and authentic. I learned a lot about the different wines and the acidities in the olive oil. Many of the meals I ate each had it’s own uniqueness to it. From my company to the service to the food and drinks, the mediterranean had it all to make each experience a memorable one.

Bullet to Bratwurst

Last week I had the unique opportunity to partake in an ancient ritual that in modern days has come under quite a lot of scrutiny. I’ll let the video speak for itself, mostly. I will say, I love meat. I think our industrial food chain is a disturbing mess but at the root, eating meat is a pleasure that I will not willingly give up. The recent advent of smaller farms providing better living conditions, feed and slaughter practices have thankfully given me an alternative to funding these disastrous factory farms and “processing” plants through my meat habit. I am conscious of where I by my meat from. How they were raised and how they were killed are just as important as what they taste like. In fact the two go hand in hand. That said it is very difficult to buy meat from these sources all the time. Not to mention expensive. I hope, over time, these smaller farms become the norm and the availability and usage increase to become the norm. The video above chronicles my very personal experience on the road to this goal. Enjoy.

If you are looking for more, my friend Liza does a great job telling a bovine story.

Sucka for Packaging

It sucks in New York right now. Dark at 5:30 is a total mind screwball. All the more reason to get a 5pm coffee. Which is exactly what I did. As I waited for my indulgent and spontaneously ordered lemon square, I wondered what was taking an extra minute. New Yorkers are so impatient. Seconds later this box arrived. I was confused and apparently my face gave me away. The barista looked down at the box, then back at me and smiled as he went off to make a grande carmel, mocha, latte, with soy, equal and no foam. Never-the-less. I was amused. I love good packaging. If Starbucks is trying to act more like Apple I love it. No food establishment has yet to beat my UK favorite EAT. Just look at their packaging and design. Simple and lovely. As much as I liked my little Starbucks box I couldn’t help but think of the extra time it takes to box it up, the extra expense for the box, and the cost to store those boxes. This reminds me of one of my favorite packings of all time. The original McDonald’s Yogurt parfait container. It was a flipped soda lid that keep the granola and yogurt separate. Talk about a multitasking, money saving idea. Dear Starbucks, thanks but all that hassle for this little thing seems a touch ineffiecient.

A Quick Hit From Venice

My buddy Sean Bell and I sent out to explore Venice. Sean had been there before and I asked him for the Sean Bell Tour of Venice. We set out in the morning and had a lot of walking to do that day. Sean, (not a morning person fyi, typical musician) needed a quick fix before we get into the heart of Venice. The video shows the typical sandwich you can get at numerous cafes around Venice, let alone most of italy. However, this sandwich was filled with tuna and olives and was one of Sean’s favorite. Me on he other hand, I can’t stand the smell of tunafish let alone the taste. It was just the pick-me-up Sean needed to give me a great tour of Venice. We walked and saw one of the most unique cities I have ever been to. Where in a normal city you have road, Venice has rivers. Cities have cars, Venice has boats. It’s different but a very beautiful city.