Kitchen Confidential

I just finished watching the entire first (and only) season of Kitchen Confidential on Hulu.com (where you can watch a lot of television shows and movies for free...with limited commercial interruption!). The show is based on Anthony Bourdain's best-selling autobiography and follows the fall and comeback of a young talented chef named Jack Bourdain (Bradley Cooper).

I can't believe that Fox canceled this show back in 2005 (and after airing just five episodes!). Then I remember this is the same network that canceled Arrested Development. Now they have such great shows such as Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?, Don't Forget the Lyrics! and Hole in the Wall (Can you sense my sarcasm here?...Though I would have to give them credit for So You Think You Can Dance and Gordon's shows - yes, we're on a first name basis now).

After watching the last episode, I felt sad that it was the end of my journey with these characters. It wasn't as bad as watching the last episode of My So-Called Life, but still, Kitchen Confidential was funny and engaging. I kept wondering, has a show ever been resurrected after having been canceled? Probably not.

Maybe it's my obsession with restaurants and cooking in general that makes me like it so much. Go watch it on Hulu and tell me what you think. Episodes are only 20 minutes long, but I guarantee you'll want to watch another one right away.

Can you survive on $1 a day for food?

image courtesy of One Dollar Diet Project

Just read in the NY Times about a couple who decided to do a month long experiment to see if they could survive on just a dollar a day for food. What they found (unsurprisingly) is that that the cheaper foods tend to be junk foods devoid of nutritionally value.

You can read about their experience on their blog, One Dollar Diet Project.

Congratulations! (& Food Fact)

Congratulations to Obama! And now on to the food fact...

image courtesy of yellowpages.com

According to an interview in January 2008, Obama said that his favorite food was from Italian Fiesta Pizzeria in Hyde Park, Chicago. I will definitely visit this carry-out place next time I visit Tara (I can't believe I missed out a few weeks ago!)

If you haven't already, please vote!

image courtesy of http://obeygiant.com

I know this isn't food-related, but please remember to vote!

Japanese Slang for...

image courtesy of NY Times

I just read an interesting article on the New York Times about cooking one pot meals with the rice cooker.

I came across this part in the article and laughed out loud (the part in bold):

John Youngsun Park, a designer of video games in the San Francisco Bay Area, blasts the heat on his Sanyo to make noo roong ji, the toasted crust of rice that forms at the bottom of the traditional Korean stone rice pot. “You just want to see what it can do,” Mr. Park said. In fact, it can poach, steam and simmer, as well as turn out a crisp noo roong ji.

“People love that toasted-rice taste,” he said. “It’s even a flavor of ice cream in Seoul.” (Japanese cooks, however, consider toasted rice overcooked and highly undesirable. The unwanted crust left stuck to the bottom of the rice cooker is called okoge — the same word used as slang for a single woman who spends a lot of time with gay men.)

What?

While I was pondering how crusty rice equates to what Americans would refer to as a "fag hag," I suddenly had a vision of crusty semen at the bottom of the rice cooker. Gross.

I don't think I can eat bi bim bop ever again.