Wasn't a big fan of Bradley Cooper at first.Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images
As promised, Anthony Bourdain hit Reddit today for one of the site's Ask Me Anythings. He's got a lot of projects in the works, so there was plenty to talk about, and to his credit, he took on all Taste-related sell-out questions head-on. To spare you having to deal with Reddit's UI, we've culled the best responses, straight ahead.
Deliciousness lurks within. Really.Photo: Brian J. Lapseritis
We're intrepid eaters. We've supped in lonesome gas stations, ramshackle taquerias, dingy dim sum parlors. However, we'd never sucked down enchiladas in a potholed parking lot adjacent to a rundown flea market that looks like a condemned David Lynch movie set ... until this weekend. And, boy, are we glad we did.
Author, cook, TV host, cartoon character, and gadfly Anthony Bourdain will grace the digital hallways of Reddit later on today, at 3 p.m. EST. Watch this space for the official AMA link, and in the meantime, prepare your most burning questions. [Helen Cho/Twitter, Reddit]
Hope they were from Dunkin'.
Several hungry Globe staffers are Tweeting photos of a box of doughnuts sent by celebrity sibling Donnie Wahlberg. What a nice gesture! Reporter Meredith Goldstein says she thinks it's for his new reality show, but we're guessing it's actually to apologize for his brother's painful repartee with Ted last night at the Oscars. [Twitter/GeoffEdgers]
Coming to a bench-press near you.
Face it, right up there with the arrival of asteroids from deep space, we've been seriously due for a smiting of Greek yogurt that will not only build muscle and burn fat, but also give those who ingest it the manly fortitude to walk away from General Zod after he's been imprisoned in an elliptical machine and gets a little pissy. Ooh-rah, people of the world who don't skip breakfast, here's Powerful, which you may have guessed by now is so much "more than a yogurt" that it's brogurt: "In a niche typically dominated by female consumers," its website tells us, "we decided to develop a new Greek yogurt specifically suited to address the unique health and nutrition needs of the most neglected consumers in the category: men." This high-protein, no-fat, all-beast snack — spotted this weekend at Fairway and Brooklyn Fare — is going to dominate your lunchbox, beef up your sperm count, and help you pinpoint your inner abs.. Ladies, be careful out there! This yogurt isn't for you!
Happy customers at Taipei Gourmet.
Who knew? Well, we did, because we eat at Taipei Gourmet all the time. But Metrowest is often derided as a culinary wasteland (despite the new Johnny Rockets in Acton). Luckily, Travel + Leisure offers a glimmer of hope: "The staff’s hospitality and attention to detail rival their made-fresh-daily food," they write. In fact, TG takes its place alongside Mission Chinese in San Francisco, X'ian Famous Foods in New York, and the amazing Koi Palace in Daly City, California. Not too shabby, Lexington!
Nigella Lawson at Allium in The Four Seasons, Chicago.Photo: Sky Full of Bacon
It took a trip to Italy for the 19-year-old Nigella Lawson to discover who she really was:Â an Italian soul in an (imposingly tall and chic) English body. That, at least, is the premise behind her newest cookbook, Nigellissima (Clarkson Potter, $35), released two weeks ago in the U.S. The cookbook author, who also happens to be one of the judges on The Taste, came to Chicago last week for a quick book tour of the Midwest. And figuring that she'd probably had enough questions about Anthony Bourdain and TV in general, we stuck to talking about the universal love for Italian food, and how going to Italy at an impressionable age literally changed her life and made her the single-named star she is today. You can't hear the rounded, brandy-voiced tones and precise diction with which she answered our questions, but her warm affection for the subject of Italian food and culture comes through even in cold type.
He made millions of meals better.Photo: Tabasco
The iconic 145-year-old hot-sauce company lost its chairman and CEO Paul McIlhenny on Saturday to an apparent heart attack, the New York Times reports. McIlhenny, who died in New Orleans, was a sixth-generation descendent of the company's founder, a Civil War-era food tinkerer. He had worked for the company for 45 years and served as its chief executive for the last 13.
The Academy Award winner told MTV that she was so stressed while getting ready for the show that she "forgot" to eat, so she asked one of her handlers to pick her up a Happy Meal from a nearby McDonald's. No word on if she got to eat in time to accept her award, but starvation could explain her big fall. Somewhere, a McDonald's exec is thinking there's actually a possibility she'd star in a commercial.
The busy DiBiccari brothers officially debut Tavern Road today at 343 Congress St. in Fort Point. Per a release, "Each week, Tavern Road spotlights a locally-raised whole animal and features entrees and appetizers that utilize every part of the chosen suspect." (Louis DiBiccari has a particular affinity for porchetta.) Also cool: TR Street Food, a fast-casual and (price-conscious!) takeout spot that will open in March, adjacent to the main dining room, with a global bent.
Swedish Meatball-gate: The next big hurdle.
Quantities of unregulated horsemeat that infiltrated Europe's food supply and subsequently turned up in a staggering number of grocery-store and food-service products like Burger King's burgers, Findus's prepackaged frozen lasagna dinners, Tesco's hamburgers, have also now been discovered in IKEA's Swedish meatballs and in Bird Eye's chilli con carne and bolognese sauces. Birds Eye's parent company announced on Friday that samples of its chili con carne distributed throughout Europe tested positive for horse DNA, and authorities in Scotland recalled the entire frozen hamburger from primary schools countrywide, both signs that the issue of the tainted food may be far from resolved. Now it's come down to Ikea's beloved Swedish meatballs.
“Cookin is gooood!”
I'm picky about meatball subs so when I say is good it's really good
“Awsome food and drink”
After spending all your hard earned dollars in the Pru enjoy a few cool one here before you take the T home.
“Absolutely Amazing”
Having worked at Olive Garden for 3 years I guess I never really knew what REAL Italian food tasted like.
