Forking Tasty

Lil’ Tasties

Now that I’ve been married for a year, the questions about kids have crept back into the Sunday dinner conversation. Little hints pop up here and there like baby carrots in our salad or wine served from sippy cups. You know those subtle Italian and Indian parents, so gentle. Well, unknown to them we have been cultivating our own crop of lil’ tasties. With the help of IKEA, our little guys are pretty grown up and were ready to journey out into the real world for a little adventure. Last week Carmine Carrot, Bruno Broccoli and Sophia Strawberry boarded the Box Express heading off on a world wide tour ultimately landing in Washington DC. They are stopping there to visit their new friends Roman and Vera whom they met earlier in the year. So far they seem to be having a great time and learning a lot about the world. We’ll keep you posted on their adventures and whereabouts from time to time. For now, this is about as close to kids as we are going to get. So take those rubber nipples off the cordial glasses please.

Bangered!

London called and I answered with wife in tow. A 72 hour long banger and mash crawl sent us to the far ends of London proper allowing us to discover a myriad of tasty outside of our self-prescribed sausage hunt. A few delicious, quick food joints and a small disappointment at one of London’s most famous chef’s hot spots are among the oven fresh topics. Look for the highlights in upcoming posts this week and next. We might even get to print a few words from my wife on this one. Her “Born in Britain” was in full effect and the nostalgia meter was off the chart. For now think about eating 10 sausages in 3 days. Then look close at the above image. Tasty right?

Burrito Video Fix

Because Chipotle is Tasty, I love animation and they took a nice, big, 2 minute long media risk on this Sunday’s Grammy awards. That’s why I give you this lovely snap of my carnitas burrito with guacamole (extra charge). I have not done a corporate endorsement for a “fast food” spot since the KFC Double Down and Chipotle deserves some love for everything listed above. The video is worth the time. You may even need a tissue. The burrito is one of the best in the city since no one from San Francisco has bothered to come out here and teach us how to make a proper one. Jump to see the video.

Layers of Love

It’s a little know fact that I heart heart day. It’s always been about much more than getting a great gift for your husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend. Just like we give thanks for our family, friends and life at Thanksgiving, Valentines Day is about giving love to those people and things that touch your heart. Call me a big mush or even harsher words that attempt to diminish my manhood. That’s fine. I’m still going to love this fabricated Hallmark holiday dedicated to that same emotion. As you grind your teeth, pick up some over priced flowers and rush to meet your significant other at a crowded, inflated priced prix fix someplace that is momentarily gussied up for romance, take a pause to quietly remember the people in your life you love the most. Then eat an overindulgent dessert to seal the thought. Happy Valentine’s Day to those who agree with me and to those who hate me for writing this. I leave you with my top 5 Valentiney things I saw today.

5. Google’s take
4. A geeky proposal
3. Well said
2. Eat your heart out
1. Remember those butterflies

A moment in Philadelphia

Memory is an odd thing. Mix taste that with and you’ll get some really strange stories. If you ask me, these are some of the best memories to have but then again I write this blog. What would you expect?

The bite you see above was the very last thing I ate on a recent visit to Talula’s Garden, one of Steven Starr’s newest and best Philadelphia restaurants. Yes, there were plenty of other amazing bites as I progressed from bar cocktail to appetizers, to entrees and through dessert. The  braised veal rosemary pappardelle with kale, mushrooms, and garlic-tomato jus made me tingle. The Florida pink snapper with grapefruit, fennel, fingerlings, herbs and warm baby lettuces burned itself into my brain. The miniature cupcake trio of a spiced pumpkin, a dark chocolate-peanut butter and a sweet cream-apple was an olfactory hat trick. But, it was these small cardamom chips that blew my mind. Their subtle but super complex taste became the single dominant memory from this meal. When I talk about this restaurant, when I recommend it, when I mention Philadelphia even, I talk about these crumbs. The small, seemingly insignificant chips placed next to a simple cup of coffee is the dominant menu item that flashes instantly to mind. Dan Gilbert can explain much better than I can what happens to an experience memory days, months and years after it’s moment but if these little sweets can leave such a lasting impression, imagine how superb all the “real food” must be. Get there. Tell me your story.

Options of Joy

I promise this will be my last post for at least a week about the absurdity of product options available in the US. This one tickled my marketing bone conjuring up an audible chuckle while standing in my local grocery store. I understand the naming and purpose of “Ultra Joy”. It’s a better, soapier, thicker, fresher and greener product. Conventional wisdom would dictate that the alternate option be “Joy”. It’s not. It’s actually “Non-Ultra Joy”. I don’t know about you but I’m not buying non-ultra anything. Seems to me this is what happens when you let the production team name the product instead of consulting the marketing team first.

No Frills

When I was ten years old part of my weekly adventure was accompanying my mother to the food store. In 1984, on Long Island, the major supermarket was Pathmark. At the time, I had no idea I wanted to be a designer. I had no idea I would come to love great advertising and marketing because of the emotional reach it could have. I had no idea great design could subconciously change peoples behavior. What I did know is that I loved the NO FRILLS aisle. The NO FRILLS aisle amalgamated all supermarket items from canned spaghetti to laundry detergent into one simplistic, typographically genius, less-is-more designed, perfectly merchandised  row. At a time of “new and improved”, “extra-strength” and “free prize inside” package design the NO FRILLS aisle was way ahead of it’s time in both aesthetics as well as convenience. Think Apple Store and Muji. Years later, I now realize what I felt and my behavior in the NO FRILLS aisle were the catalyst for my entire career. In particular, my focus on the power of behavioral science in my designs, marketing and communication with consumers stems from this aha moment.

Sadly, the NO FRILLS aisle no longer exists. On a recent trip to Canada my Mother-in-Law took me to Loblaws, one of Canada’s largest supermarkets, for a special surprise…

‘Wich Hunting: Pilot Episode

While in Italy I realized that there’s a lot happening around the world between two slices of bread. Anthony and I have travelled the world eating everything from Balut in the Philippines to blood sausage in Argentina. In every destination there has always been a sandwich shop. Some were good and some were bad but they all had their unique take on this ubiquitous meal. The origin of the sandwich is highly debated and we’ll dive into that on our journey as we discover, taste and debate the best sandwiches in the world.

Lobster 7 Ways

This story is all about the challenge to out do last years dinner. Before we get into that there are a few things I’ll quickly clear up so you’re up to speed. Italian Christmas Eve is traditionally referred to as “The Feast of the Seven Fishes”. To understand the history of this Italian tradition and its origins, read this. To understand the Anello’s bastardized version of this yearly feast, review this or this. Now that that’s out of the way let’s get to the meat of the post, or should I say “the crustacean”.

Taking the seven potential fish dishes and focusing them on one fish done seven ways was a formidable challenge. It was first proposed back in September by my Uncle Brian, the ring leader of Anello/Nardone over-indulgence. Taking the challenge under consideration he and I began swapping recipes to attempt a sort of coup de grace Christmas Eve feast. The jury is still out whether we succeeded. Never-the-less, the next page has all the dishes and stories from the front range (electric BTW) on what worked, broke, surprised and wowed…

Italy Market Fix

I love markets. It’s the one thing that connects me faster and better with a culture than any other thing I do in a foreign city. Whether it’s an American supermarket an Asian hawker market or a European food market the effect is the same. Today I’ll let the images do the majority of the talking to drive this point home. The below slideshow will take you through the good, ugly and weird of two Italian markets I visited on my recent trip. A few highlights, starting with the above veal brain. Look out for the stuffed rooster neck and the the skinned rabbit in the slideshow. The offal counter is another key image that you don’t see very often. A guy who only serves organs and intestine for a living. It takes a strong man. Enjoy the images, I hope it inspires you to poke around the local market more on your next excursion.

View Italian Markets in a larger map