'Antojitos: Festive and Flavorful Mexican Small Plates'
by Barbara Sibley and Margaritte Malfy with Mary Goodbody
Photography by Lucy Schaeffer Ten Speed Press -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
Antojitos, as Barbara Sibley and Margaritte Malfy explain in their book of the same name, are small bites sometimes eaten as appetizers in Mexican cuisine and sometime just downed as a street snack to satisfy between-meals hunger pangs.
The owners of New York City's La Palapa have written a book that covers all manner of these spicy snacks -- from empanadas and tacos to ceviches and mole. Along the way, they give brief stories about the dishes as well as menus perfect for any fiesta, and colorful pages filled with images of Loteria cards and stock Mexican art that add a whimsical touch to the cookbook.
See what we tested and whether it's worth buying after the jump.
Julia Child certainly could make a mean boeuf bourguignon, but did you know she could also whip up the building blocks of life?
It's kind of scary watching her describe scientific diagrams using her chef's knife as a pointer. But it's helpful for all us home cooks that she converts grams into teaspoons. Bon appetit!
In the arena of giant food, the record for the world's largest meatball doesn't last long.
It was just this September that Jimmy Kimmel and crew bested a Mexican meatball to take back the prize of world's largest meatball for America. But just five weeks later, the late-night funnyman's large lunch was bested by an Italian eatery in New Hampshire.
Nonni's Italian Eatery crafted a meatball on Sunday at a Holiday Inn in Concord, N.H., that decimated Kimmel's 198.6-pound meatball by about 25 pounds.
Here's something vampire fans didn't have to wait an eternity for -- a "Twilight"-themed restaurant is slated to open in Forks, Wash., the real setting for the fictional teen vampire romance novels.
Annette and Tim Root plan to open the "Twilight" restaurant next year, the Peninsula Daily News reports. The family restaurant, tentatively named Volterra after the Italian city where all the powerful vampires live in Stephenie Meyer's series, will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. No word on whether blood will be on the menu.
What do you think? Dumb idea or good marketing strategy?
Jolt Cola -- the evening study fuel of many a cramming student and the precursor to caffeine-packed energy drinks like Red Bull -- may soon be no more.
Jolt Co. Inc. filed for bankruptcy last year after racking up more than $5 million in debt to a Chicago can manufacturer. The company was optimistic about restructuring, but plans fell apart this week, putting the future of the double-caffeinated cola into jeopardy, a Jolt attorney told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
"The name will show up someplace else, but just that," William I. Kohn of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff told the paper. "I don't see anybody buying the entire package."
Jolt founder Carl J. Rapp, who started the company in 1985, fought the restructuring of the company and blamed its current situation on an investment group that owns a large stake in the company, the paper reports.
Will you miss Jolt Cola? Spill it in the comments.
Slashfood's sister site Urlesque found this wonderful Internet Meme Cake and others including O Rly? Owl, Snakes on a Plane and even a Rick Roll treat.
'Savory Baking: Warm and Inspiring Recipes for Crisp, Crumbly, Flaky Pastries'
by Mary Cech
Photography by Noel Barnhurst Chronicle Books -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
Baking doesn't have to be a sweet thing, as Mary Cech proves in her new cookbook "Savory Baking." The veteran pastry chef turns traditional pastries upside down with recipes for seafood strudel, Yukon gold brown betty and caprese-salad-filled profiteroles in this mouthwatering book.
You don't have to throw out everything you know about baking to feel at home in Cech's kitchen. Instead, you'll use your skills to whip up creative twists to the classics.
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
File this under Halloween fright: Police in Iowa City, Iowa, are seeking a man who allegedly punched a man in the eye at a fast-food restaurant after accusing him of being a zombie.
The incident happened on Sunday morning at Panchero's in Iowa City as the victim was ordering food, the Iowa City Press Citizen reports. The suspect, between 6-foot and 6-foot-2, punched the "zombie" again and broke his nose after the victim attempted to call police.
No word yet on whether the man who was assaulted was ordering brains.
We told you Thursday about the seven-patty Burger King Windows 7 Whopper, but now you can see the price of eating this special one-week-only promotion to celebrate the launch of Microsoft Windows 7 in Japan.
CheapAssGamer bought two of the burgers in Akihabara, Japan, and did their best to down 'em. Check it out in the video above.
Soupy Sales, the comedian responsible for 20,000 pies to the face, has died at the age of 83.
Sales, who built his comedic reputation with characters like White Fang and Black Tooth on children's TV shows in Detroit and New York, took his first cream pie to the face in 1951, the Associated Press reports. He died Thursday in a hospice in the Bronx, N.Y., after battling health problems.
"I'll probably be remembered for the pies, and that's all right," Sales said in 1985.
Have any Soupy pie memories? Let us know in the comments below.
Proving once again that the holiday season seems to start earlier every year, one woman claims to have found Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in her pork chop.
Sue Church stopped by WGHP-TV in High Point, N.C., on Tuesday with a pork chop that she thinks resembles the reindeer made famous by the Johnny Marks song.
What do you think? Is it Rudolph? And have you ever seen an image in your food? Let us know in the comments below.
Despite smoking bans at restaurants in cities across the country, the restaurant matchbook is experiencing a "fragile renaissance" of sorts, the New York Times reports.
"When a state or municipality imposes a ban, we see a hesitation in reordering and a fall-off in new business," Mark Nackman, the owner and president of AdMatch, an importer based in New York City told the Times. "Then the volumes start to creep back up, so that within a year or so we see some resurgence in statewide sales. Matches have universal appeal, and that's the mystery -- that one little package could resonate with familiarity, maybe beauty and a feeling of value."
It helps that they're highly collectible. Do you have a matchbook collection or have a favorite matchbook from your dining travels? Spill it in the comments.
Cheese with that pie? It might taste good, but it's definitely not required by law in the Dairy State.
The Wisconsin State Journal debunked the myth that Wisconsin requires apple pie to be served with cheese at restaurants in the state. The paper asked Connie Von Der Heide at the Wisconsin State Law Library whether or not state law required cheese to accompany the pie after a reader inquired about it.
"It certainly sounds plausible since after all this is the Dairy State, but the answer is no," she said. "The 1935 Laws of Wis., ch. 106 came close; it required serving a small amount of cheese and butter with meals in restaurants (effective from June 1935 to March 1937)."
What crazy food laws have you heard of? Let us know in the comments below.
We've long been fans of Jen Yates' fantastically funny food blog, Cake Wrecks, so we were mighty pleased to find the she's finally assembled enough disastrous misspellings, ill-conceived concept cakes and just downright nasty icing snafus to fill a whole book, "Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong."
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