Vibrant India

We first wrote about Chitra Agrawal when we discovered her Brooklyn Delhi products. Since then she’s been up to a lot more than just jarring delicious pickled things from India. Her latest edition to your Indian food education comes in book form with Vibrant India. South Indian cooking is not the Indian dishes that commonly pop to mind for us Americans. Having a South Indian mother-in-law has schooled me on these flavorful and light regional tastes. Chitra draws from her mother’s cooking bringing Bangalore all the way to Brooklyn where she adds her own twists to these vegetarian classics. I’ve often proclaimed, “I could go full vegetarian.” after eating at my in-laws for a weekend. As a pretty serious carnivore, that says a lot about her book and the deliciousness potential. Point is, there’s something for everyone in this book. Vegan, vegetarians, paleo or carnivore the flavors and simplicity will swoon you. We promise.

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Culture | Books

Italian Street Food

Today’s post comes on the heels of two commingled happenings. First, My Head of Culinary is trouncing about in Parma checking out brown cows and pig legs. Second, The Food Book Fair kicks off it’s 2017 edition. So, a book on Italian Street Food is more than appropriate. If any of you have spent any time in Italy, as Paola, the author of this guide to goodness, has, you know getting a bad meal is tough anywhere on the boot. But, the culinary road less traveled lies in the nooks and crannies that are street food. A rice ball, a porchetta sandwich or a panini from a stand or off the beaten path vendor with a tiny hole in the wall (literally sometimes) shop are the true diamonds in the rough of this food gem country. Paola Bacchia was born Australian but has always looked to Italy as her Italian migrant parents made it impossible not to. Her book chronicles the recipes of these undiscovered street classics in a way that only an enamored 1st generation non-Italain can. If this book redlines your drool factor, Paola hosts a cooking school in Melbourne, Australia and annual workshops at the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School in Sicily where you can taste some of the beauty this book reveals.

Culture | Books

You don’t have to be Ryan Seacrest to Close 2020 with the Perfect Classy AF Cocktails.

Tonight most celebrate the beginning of a new year. Oddly, I always thought we were celebrating the closing of the previous year. To that end, the close of the notorious 2020 seems like an appropriate moment for my type of celebration. For such a monumental celebration you need to summon the classy AF in all aspects of your evening. That walk from your bedroom to your living room party will be your own personal red carpet tonight. Make sure those sweatpants are bedazzled AF. Hell maybe even throw on that tiara. In addition prepare your imbibe plan appropriately with a Kindle download of the Classy AF Cocktails book. Special attention to the author Calligraphuck. Great name and secret designer/comedian persona. Inside you will find the classics done classy (as the name implies) but the real win is the snarky setups to each drink. Said to celebrate the fine arts of drinking and swearing, the intro paragraphs to each cocktail set the mood with phrases like “When the day hands you your ass” OR “Sure the Cosmo may have fallen out of fashion but it definitely doesn’t have a stick up it’s ass.” This is language we can get behind especially as we bid ado to our the evils of 2020. This falls in line with my 2020 daily rituals of foul mouthed mundane moments like my use of the equally abrasive Carrot weather app. We’re starting with the classiest take out pizza and a Sbagliato, quickly moving on to Negronis and will most likely wake up still holding the remnants of an old fashioned. We hope you have as much revelry as possible shutting down the year that shut us ALL down. See you in 2021 hopefully in a effectively vaccinated, eradicate COVID world.

Culture | Books

Interrupting Chicken Book

Here at FT HQ, we’re used to chicken of the fried, roasted, baked, and, well, eaten variety. But that doesn’t mean we can’t talk up the alternatives, like David Ezra Stein’s “Interrupting Chicken”, an illustrated story-within-a-story book geared towards the sleepy little chicks in your life. Let’s hope this funny, not-so-cautionary tale about a young chicken named “Chicken” who can’t stop interrupting his bedtime story succeeds in easing your clutch into quick and uninterrupted slumber instead of, well, the opposite. If, on the other hand, you’re reading this to your brood in Bushwick after a drink and draw, all bets on sleep are off. You know as well as we do you’ll finish the story at Roberta’s.

Culture | Entertainment

Foodie Dice

Play culinary casino with your next meal and let fate decide your flavor. We’ll say it over and over again at FTHQ, playing with your food makes it taste better. Lady luck adds a bit of mystery and mayhem to that fun. Last time we rolled ‘em we wound up with a baked lemon, dandelion green salad. Double down on that.

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