You've seen the Snackadium, the pizza with a pepperoni football, the zillion layer dip, but come Sunday you might want a more literal football food -- inari, the sushi we've always called "footballs." The basic inarizushi is simply filled with seasoned white sticky rice, a fancier version might add some shredded teriyaki chicken and carrots, and this one, I went full-on, stuffing it with bacon and char siu fried rice.
Read recipe headlines or captions and you might think cooking has turned into a version of Name That Tune. Take any dish, let’s say a salad in this case. Can’t you just see it, opponents stand across from each other on a cardboard cut out game show set, sizing each other up, looking for tells. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly practically plays in the background.
“Jim, I can make that salad in 7 ingredients,” says Contestant #1.
“I can make it in 5,” replies Contestant #2.
#1 rocks from left foot to right to left again. “Uhhh, Jim, I can make it in 3.”
Sensing uncertainty, #2 points, “Make that salad.”
Alright, let’s do it. Easy peasy Sesame Sugar Snap Peas.
Ramen is going through something of a renaissance, a resurgence. Whether on the kitschy side with ramen burgers or the explosion of ramen joints in NYC, most notably Ivan Ramen on the Lower East Side, the food world is paying attention again to those squiggly noodles in broth. And for the first time in years, we’re seeing new entrants to the ramen market on grocery store shelves, like Lotus Foods’ Rice Ramen.
The other night Wolf and I were watching House of Cards and talking about Kevin Spacey. We’re doling out the episodes, one per evening rather than gorging on the whole season. When was it that Kevin Spacey broke out? We reckoned it was the trifecta of The Ref, Usual Suspects and Swimming with Sharks that really put him on the map. Two years later, in 1997, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil came out. Now I admit, I haven’t seen this film in years, and really all I could remember about it was that it was set in New Orleans. So I looked it up on IMDB and I haven’t stopped laughing since. Look at that ‘stache!
