Thursday, March 30, 2017

GIVEAWAY: Cochon555 BESPOKE and Heritage BBQ in Boston, April 8-9

UPDATE: first round winners have been chosen but you can still enter to win a pair of VIP tickets to the Sunday Heritage BBQ on www.facebook.com/gourmetpigs !

Cochon555 is a competition and food festival dedicated to promoting heritage pig breeds. At the main event in each city, five chefs will partner with five farms to prepare dishes, utilizing 1500 lbs of heritage breed pork! The Heritage BBQ is coming to Boston at SoWa on April 9, as part of a three-day weekend of food, art, and thought called BESPOKE.

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It starts with CREATE on Friday evening, April 7. CREATE showcases Boston's artists paired with the city's guests and bartenders. On Saturday there'll be a forum (which I'll talk about shortly), a local producers' market and chef's pantry and a charity dinner. Sunday is the main event, the Heritage BBQ, where the chefs from Townsman, La Brasa, Loyal Nine, Tapestry, and Juliet will compete head to head, or nose to tail, for the Prince (or Princess) of Porc title. I'm also giving away two VIP tickets ($400 value) to the Heritage BBQ, which you can enter via Instagram until April 4 here.

They're also incorporating a new component this year, a forum called BESPOKE: An Exploration of Taste & Thought. Taking place on Saturday, April 8 from 9AM to 2:30PM, the Bespoke forum will feature keynote speeches on the topic of Food and Landscape, and a panel on the topic of Power, Labor, and Class in the Food Industry. Beyond the food for thoughts, the day will also be interspersed with a pop-up ramen bar and tastings of German Rieslings and Glenfiddich scotch. There will also be plenty of cold brew to keep everyone going.
 

Tickets to the BESPOKE event is $70 per person and can be purchased here. Want to try your luck? I'm partnering with Cochon555 to give away one ticket to the Bespoke event! You can enter via this widget:
  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, March 27, 2017

Five Movies About Food You can Watch on FiOs On Demand

I've been waiting for Verizon FiOs to come to Dorchester ever since I moved here in May, and now they're finally here (and Roxbury)!

Getting Verizon FiOs isn't only about the internet and TV service, though. Did you know you can stream TV shows and movies anywhere with FiOs On Demand? Most of the TV shows are available for free for FiOs customers, and the newer release movies can be rented or purchased.

Of course, I've been browsing what they have for streaming (you're welcome). Here are five movies about food you can watch online with FiOs On Demand:

Chef

This was a star-studded feel-good movie that will make you look for the best food trucks in your town, or anywhere that makes Cubano sandwiches.
It follows Jon Favreau as a disillusioned chef who quit his fine dining head chef job. Unsure what to do next, he heads to Miami, gets a food truck, starts driving towards Los Angeles while stopping and serving food - all the while bonding with his young son. Oh, and they get to stop and eat at Franklin's BBQ in Austin without waiting in line. JEALOUS. Not to mention all the star cameos.
Fun fact: Jon Favreau trained with LA's chef Roy Choi so he can do his own cooking in the movie.


The Hundred-Foot Journey

After their old restaurant was attacked and their mother killed, an Indian family moves to France to start a new life. They set up their Indian restaurant in front of an upscale French restaurant and get into a rivalry with the French restaurant's owner (Helen Miren). Meanwhile, the son of the Indian family wants to get into French cooking. Lots of mouthwatering food scenes in this cute movie, both Indian and French!
PS. Sadly, the sea urchin dish they were cooking in the opening scene is not a real dish. Too bad, it looked amazing.

Julie & Julia
A story about Julie Powell, who started an ambitious project of cooking each of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" - the film is intertwined with the life story of Julia Child. Meryl Streep as Julia Child is a combination of two of my favorite characters. I loved the wit and heart in the Julia Child's storyline here, and of course, the food looked great.

Ratatouille (free)
Basically the best movie ever, right, guys? Do I even have to really tell you what the movie is about? OK, fine. One of my favorite Pixar's movies (although I love pretty much all of them), Ratatouille follows Remy, a Parisian rat with an impeccable palate and can cook to boot. He befriends a garbage boy-turned-cook named Linguini and make amazing food to eventually impress the skinny food critic, Anton Ego.





Food, Inc

An outlier in the list, Food, Inc is not a light-hearted, feel-good movie. Instead, it's a look at how our food is produced. It's a documentary of the food chain in the United States and a sobering look at how large corporations are controlling the US food industry. Still, it's a well-done documentary that has been nominated for an Academy Award - and it's very important to know where our food comes from.


You can check if FiOs is now available at your address using this link: fios.verizon.com/

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Verizon Fios as part of the #BostonFiOs campaign


Friday, March 24, 2017

Brunch at Firefly's Romantic Patio (Studio City, Los Angeles, CA)

by Bryan Tsunoda (discovering-la.com)

Firefly has consistently been on the list of Top Romantic Restaurants in LA. I guess I haven’t romanced my wife enough lately because we haven’t been there. I recently attended a media tasting to sample their Sunday brunch offerings.

Customers enter into what appears to be a library lounge setting with couches and a classic bar from the past. Walking past the bar, you enter the bright patio which appears to be outdoors, but is protected from the elements by a translucent covering. 
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Along the wall are Moroccan-style cabanas that can close for privacy.
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Food Network and Cutthroat Kitchen star, chef Perry Pollaci, took over the kitchen last November. He’s a C.I.A. alum and has used his talents in New York City, Paris and Madrid restaurants. More recently he’s worked at Church and State and Kendall’s Brasserie, and has transformed The Royce into a cutting edge wood-fired steakhouse. He also volunteers his time at Slideluck LA which is dedicated to building and strengthening community through food and art. 

If you are the type that enjoys a continental breakfast, you’ll appreciate the variety of fresh baked pastries. Despite how good everything looked, I only tried a couple of them. The raspberry tart was fruit filled, flakey and quite tasty. A few of us were impressed by the sticky bun because it had a crisp exterior and wasn’t overly sweet.
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I sampled both the lobster and veggie scrambles. The eggs had a nice buttery taste and were extremely light and fluffy. 
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Naturally I veered towards the lobster scramble because they were made with truffle butter, tarragon, and topped with caviar. I would definitely order that again.

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