Why didn’t the chicken cross the blog?
By Chef John from Food Wishes Video Recipes
A loyal, and observant, reader informed me that my almost famous buttermilk fried chicken recipe had not made the move over to my new blog. I was shocked and appalled. But, I recovered quickly, and so here you go. As you’ll see, the secret is getting the spice mix into the marinade, and into the chicken, instead of just the flour.Our Indian and eastern music writer Andrea Pflaumer brings us word of a didjeridu hoe-down this Friday. -ed
Down under Meets over the Top
by Andrea Pflaumer
Some curious concoctions, like chocolate/garlic sorbet, are best left in the minds of wannabe chefs on the Food Channel. Others, like Teed Rockwell's Australian Bebop Ragas, serve up a mighty tasty fare. On Friday, October 5th, Berkeley's Freight and Salvage hosts Rockwell's ABR trio, featuring Stephen Kent on didjeridu, Sameer Gupta on tabla and drums, and Rockwell on his own uniquely tuned and strung Chapman Stick Touchstyle Fretboard.
As ‘raga’ suggests, the music is rooted in India, but the performers are given license to draw on each of their global influences. Rockwell, a long-time presence in the traditional music scene, is another Bay Area alum of the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael. After years of performing music from South America, China, Africa and Ireland, he eventually returned to his first love, North Indian Hindustani ragas. He describes their appeal: “[Ragas] have the intellectual subtlety of quantum physics, the spiritual profundity of the Vedas, and the heartfelt emotion of a lover’s cry.”
Percussionist Sameer Gupta, also no stranger to the East, brings maturity from the jazz genre, counting among his influences Mingus, Miles and Coltrane. Gupta’s self-described ‘sonic samurai’ persona, brings to this music ...
While I've had had my differences with Chronicle Notes And Errata columnist Mark Morford in the past, today -- in his trademark shrieking, hyperkinetic style -- Morford really nails the ambiguity many people feel about Whole Foods, that "glorious hellbeast grocerypalooza ... this otherwordly vibration, this wickedly overblown slice of succulent, obnoxious, must-have lifestyle nirvana ... "
Please God, tell me you're getting paid by the word for this shit.
At any rate, one thousand adjectives later, Morford does arrive at something like a firm stand on Whole Foods: "We should fall on our all-American gluttonous knees right this minute in a devout collective wish, a giant wail of hope that more corporations follow in Whole Foods' footsteps."
The truth seems to fall somewhere in between, because while Whole Foods is easy to love, it's even easier to love to hate, if you know what I mean. For a more level-headed discussion of the Whole Foods organic equation, check out Slate's excellent The Dark Secrets of Whole Foods.
Whole Foods world pic by Klieger on Flickr
-- Brian Bernbaum
Not only is October Vegetarian Awareness Month, it's also National Pretzel Month, which may or may not have something to do with the timing of Oktoberfest. Everyone knows beer and pretzels are a classic combination. Or maybe there's some shadowy pretzel lobby in Washington (There is, after all, an American Pretzel Association) waging war against the other, much more popular snack foods.
One thing is certain: pretzels get no respect. In fact, while potato chips hold about 38 percent of the market and tortilla chips about 26 percent, the poor little pretzel rings in at a measly 8 percent. Even if pretzels aren't the flashiest snack food around, they certainly have history on their side.
While potato chips were reportedly invented in 1853 and tortilla chips in the late 1940s, pretzel lore holds that in the year 610 an Italian monk formed the first pretzel to represent arms folded in prayer, the three holes symbolizing the holy trinity.
And consider this: has any other snack food even come close to toppling a U.S. president? I think not.
-- Brian Bernbaum
So we're loving former Riker's Island corrections officer turned neo-retro-vintage soul queen Sharon Jones latest album '100 Days, 100 Nights.' The 50-something soul singer has a ton of life experience yet she remains more vital and relevant than ever before. As such, her latest album offers three key life lessons.
1)Track: "100 Days 100 Nights"
Lesson: "It takes 100 days and 100 nights to know a man's heart, but longer before he knows his own."
Application: Ladies, don't give it up till the fourth month. Men, shit or get off the pot by month six. You should know how you feel by then.
2) "Be Easy"
Lesson: "If you want the girl to come to you, you got to leave a little room for guessing. Just be easy, baby."
Application: This one's self explanatory, but so hard to follow. Be desireless and she'll be yours. The last thing on your mind should be sex. People are mammals just like dogs, they like to give chase.
3) "Let Them Knock"
Lesson: "Let them knock upon my door, until their hands are black and blue, I'm not answering for no one, until my man and I are through."
Application: Like Paris Hilton's green-dicked baller once said, 'forget your fucking phone!' If you're with a dude in an intimate sitch, for the love of god, give him your full fucking attention. Men have feelings too. Concentrate on what's going on instead of worrying about your sister or the laundry, and you might not have to fake another orgasm.
For more life lessons, go buy 100 Days 100 Nights here.
Radiohead's letting its fans set the price for download their next album in seven days. According to a poll conducted by NME, the average price fans would pay is about $10. The Wall St. Journal reports it costs $3.40 to distribute, netting Thom and company $6.60 profit per sale $10 sale. Normal CDs costs $6.40 to manufacture distribute and sell, says the Journal, who recommend a fixed rate lest we all become commie bastards.
Check this quote from the EBX's interview with the Cure this week. The 30 year-old band is struggling to complete their latest 33-song album and they've canceled tons of tour dates to finish it, except for the Download Festival:
"It's hard to find subject matter that really matters to me, things that I really want to sing. ... I figure if I don't have anything to write about, I shouldn't be writing."
Dude, Bob, that's a great lyric right there. Now go put some guy-liner on an give it your best shot.
This week, the SF Weekly takes another look at the world's greatest masked villian rapper and his performance problems. Eric K. Arnold says the Bay Area may never forgive him, while (below) Ben Westhoff investigates rumors of the supervillian's demise.
By Ben Westhoff
The MF Doom situation just keeps getting weirder.
After he apparently sent in an imposter to play his show at the Independent in August and subsequently canceled the rest of his tour (including a make-up show here), he was scheduled to play the New York-Tokyo Music Festival on September 22.
The masked sadist never showed, of course, and according to Grandgood.com, it was announced that Doom canceled “because he’s in the hospital fighting or his life.”
Rakim played a short set in his place and even apparently offered a “moment of silence” for Doom.
If he was actually seriously ill (like, in the bad way) that would win him some sympathy points from jilted fans, right?
But one of Doom’s labels, Stones Throw, issued a statement denying those rumors last week. It read, in part:
Every day for the past month we’ve been hit up by people wanting explanations, statements, clarifications, and declarations about MF DOOM. Is he lip synching? (No. Listen to the videos on Youtube.) Is he an impostor? (No, but he did lose some pounds.) Is he in the hospital? (No, he’s in his studio… or if not there, you can find him in the pub with the grub stain.)Reached earlier this morning at his home in Georgia, an alive and well MF DOOM issued this statement: “What up? I’m dead.”
Devin Horwitz, a close friend of Doom’s and president of Nature Sounds, another of the rapper’s labels, tells me today: “Doom was sick but it was nothing life threatening. He wasn’t feeling well before, but he’s fine now, and fans don’t need to be concerned.”
Horwitz says he hasn’t spoken with him specifically regarding the New York-Tokyo Music Festival or the Independent show, but adds that he seriously doubts Doom ever used an imposter or lip-synched.
The Stones Throw link is now dead, which is perhaps not surprising, as it raises more questions that it answers. First of all, YouTube videos like this one (check out the 1:20 mark) are more incriminating than exonerating. Second, why deny the existence of an imposter, without explaining what happened at the Independent? And third, if Doom’s so healthy he’s cavorting at pubs, why does he keep missing shows?
Maybe this is the craziest publicity stunt Doom has pulled. Maybe he’s actually been dead for six weeks. Or maybe his act is just starting to wear thin.
