Y&H suspects most folks will watch this loooong video not because the recipe is worth a damn but because the cook is wearing some sexy black outfit and rubbing her leg of lamb with a spice mixture. Why do I imagine Beavis saying, “Heh-heh, she’s rubbing her leg of lamb with a spice mixture!”

Far more entertaining to Y&H are the comments at Serious Eats, where I first spotted this video. There are more than 20 of them, some mean and nasty and downright funny. I sort of feel bad about reposting a few of them after the jump:

Read More “Hot Kitchen Prepares a Roast Leg of Lamb” »

Leave it to colleague Erin Zimmer over at Serious Eats to find this gem of a video. The dude in this vid can help you make your very own hot dog skin flute or, as it’s known in some circles, the “gristle whistle.” My favorite line: The leftover drill meat, the instrument man claims, can “be saved for other uses.” Yeah, for like filling the rusty holes in your car.

Just a day after the New York Times announced that Sam Sifton would be its next restaurant reviewer, the blogosphere and the dead-tree media have been tirelessly carving up the critic like a roast pig. Here’s a taste of what’s been written about Sifton so far:

• Eater.con has put together a dossier on Sifton. It lists his likes and dislikes, his favorite restaurants, and even what his voice sounds like.

Read More “Times’ New Dining Critic Gets His First Reviews” »

Returning food to the kitchen is a delicate business, particularly in these economic times. No restaurant wants to swallow the costs of a 32-oz. porterhouse just because you think it’s five degrees beyond medium-rare. (And likewise, you don’t want to waste your meager wages on some flavorless piece of meat that no amount of salt or A-1 sauce can save.)  This playful vid from Howcast, which I found on Serious Eats, provides some helpful perspective on when (and how) to return your unappetizing entree.

Until this afternoon, I had never heard about The Grill Sergeants, and my life has been the poorer for it. I saw this clip on Serious Eats and just love the show’s star chef, Sgt. First Class Brad Turner, who’s like the James Brown of the kitchen. He can prepare a bananas foster cheesecake and sing the chorus to “Just My Imagination.” I dare Emeril or Flay to try that. Wait, no, I don’t.

You can watch the weekly show on the Pentagon Channel (who knew there was such a thing?), which is available through some cable providers, or you can catch it online. It even has a podcast. For more info, check out NPR’s profile of The Grill Sergeants.

For two years, Leslie Kelly used to walk into restaurants as the feared critic of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (OK, Y&H is taking creative license here; I have no idea whether Kelly was feared or not, but as a general rule, restaurateurs tremble at the thought of a negative review from major daily newspapers, particularly in this economy.) But Kelly’s reign of terror ended in March when the P-I went poof—and transformed overnight into an online only paper.

Kelly, like so many unfortunate souls in our moribund industry, lost her job as a result.

As a friend of Y&H’s said a long time ago when we both lost jobs as critics at the Houston Post, there’s not much calling for door-to-door criticism in the real world. In other words, good luck finding a job as a critic once you’ve lost it. Canned critics often go from full-time gigs to the tenuous, exploitative, free-for-all world of freelancing. Let me tell you, it sucks.

Kelly can no doubt sympathize. She took her laid-off mouth to one of her favorite restaurants in Seattle, Tom Douglas‘ artisan pizzeria Serious Pie, and asked for a job, despite having no experience in a professional kitchen. Douglas, who must be one helluva guy, agreed to take Kelly on. The former critic is now chronicling her days as a cook for Serious Eats.

Read More “Laid-Off Restaurant Critic Turns to Restaurant Kitchen for Work” »

There’s a reason why the Wall Street Journal’s Eric Felton is my favorite spirits writer. He’s not afraid to think outside the box, or inside the idiot box, where he drew inspiration for his latest column on fictional cocktails. Read it with pleasure. Serious Eats has doggedly tracked down a number of the original TV sources, which I have brazenly stolen and reposted here.

The “usual”:

Read More “When a G&T Won’t Do. WSJ Explores Ned Flanders’ Planters Punch.” »

Thank God for Ed Levine over at Serious Eats. He’s not afraid to speak his mind about food, the problems of his ongoing diet, or the issues that Barack Obama (aka, Mr. Hope and Change) can actually address during his coming administration. Sustainability, organics, and other food issues won’t be among them, he believes. Writes Levine:

Read More “Serious Eat’s Levine: Food Issues Not a High Priority for Obama” »

Serious Eats, one of my daily go-to sites about food and culture, has jumped head-first into the year-end list business. The site has counted down its Top 10 blog posts of the year. I’m not sure what it says about us, culturally, that an item about a new fast-food container tops the list. But whatever it says, I’m sure it’s not very flattering.

Serious Eats’ sister site on pizza, Slice, has also posted its Top 8 items of the year.

Photo courtesy of Serious Eats.

As our friend Erin Zimmer reports over at Serious Eats, some lonely soul paid $7.25 on eBay for this baked diorama of animal-cracker critters getting it on. According to the original eBay listing, the New Hampshire seller wrote:

As you can see from the pictures, What we have here is a bull making sweet, sweet love to a donkey. (too bad it isn’t an elephant—it would make a great political piece!) My wife pulled this out of a bowl of animal crackers a few weeks ago. I have been storing it in an air-tight bag since! The cracker was baked like this!!! No foul play!

Last time, this auction had over 5,000 hits last time with over 200 people watching it!

I know you are laughing right now.

I know you think this is crazy.

I know you need this.

Bid now!

You wanna bet that the animal crackers were dry-humping?