Accidental Hedonist

Last week I listed the names of various British foodstuffs so that we could take an easy swipe at English cuisine. Some of you have asked to tell what those foods were, so here they are in all of their glory… Aberdeen Nips – Smoked Haddock on Toast Beef Cecils – Meatballs Black Pudding – [...]

Since some of you liked the stats that I put up about Fast Food, here are some more stats surrounding Candy Bars. Again, there’s no judgement here. I’m simply reporting the facts (gosh, I’ve always wanted to say that). Amount the average American spends on Candy – $84 Amount of candy consumed annually by the [...]

Two somewhat related items caught my eye today: FDA allows limited health claim for Splenda and Wrigley puts gum under health tests Why do McNeil Nutritionals (maker of Splenda) and Wrigley want to be able to put health claims on their products? Money of course. When Subway’s popular Jared campaign communicated the idea that eating [...]

Yes, I used the past tense in the title of the post as it is now possible to get a decent cup of coffee. Thanks in large part to the fine folks at Peet’s coffee in San Francisco (from which Starbucks owes a debt of gratitude), there is a large collection of people who know [...]

We’ve talked about Mexican Coke before, and my position hasn’t changed at all in the past two months. Pure Cane sugar sodas taste better than those with super-sweetened HFCS and Coke executives are still clueless when it comes to addressing this issue. But here’s a new article to fill those of you new to issue, [...]

Shelly’s daughter Amanda helped me out with these cookies/pastries, and I have to say that she did a wonderful job. This Sicilian treat can be a sticky mess, as you’re dealing with honey in the batter. This is also a very sweet pastry, as you’re not only dealing with honey, but with a cup of [...]

Y’see, this is the kind of web site that gets me in trouble at home. Coming home with $100 worth of salt is a risky proposition, because it’s a safe bet that I won’t use a fair amount of anything I buy. Here’s the thing – part of me believes that some gourmet salts are [...]

It’s the summer of 1683 and the city of Vienna is under seige. The Ottoman Empire has asked that the Hapsburg city to surrender, and the leaders have told the Turks to (and I’m paraphrasing here) “take a long leap off a short pier”. The siege of Vienna was under way. One of the many [...]

By now we’ve all heard that the USDA wishes to cut back on testing for Mad Cow, under the auspices that the “free market” will pick up the slack. There’s a little kink in their rationalization that most people are unaware. BSE tests are doled out by the USDA. You can’t get a testing kit [...]

I’ve said it before, and I will most certainly say it again: The best recipes are often times the simplest. No special techniques need to be learned, no obscure ingredient needs to be found; simply several well known ingredients can be combined to make something fabulous. This dish is a great example of that. It’s [...]

In the 2 + years of doing this blog, I have never featured a spice or herb. This is an oversight on my part, as I’ve been focusing so much on food products, that the items we use to flavor our food have been left unresearched. I’m about to change that by focusing on Salt [...]

Murad IV was a the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, and a particularly insidious one to boot. He’s also a fairly grisly footnote in the history of coffee. It is said that the Murad often walked the city in disguise in order to hear what the public were saying about him. [...]