Does anything capture the flavor of summer quite so perfectly as a popsicle? Chances are, just the thought of a treacly, neon-red line of strawberry-flavored melt dribbling down your chin takes you back to some perfect summer evening of your childhood. Throw in some fireflies and a pair of flip-flops, and you're twelve again.
As Nation's Restaurant News reports, this summer seems to be marking a resurgence of the popsicle -- but this time they're coming from restaurants, not ice cream trucks, and the flavors are for grown-up palates.
In New York, these run the gamut from the Latin-inspired, such as tamarind-chile and mango-pineapple spiked with chile de arbol (Ofrenda Cocina Mexicana) and sweet corn and caramel popcorn (Rosa Mexicano), to Asian treats, such ascalamansi, mago lassi and Thai coffee (Rickshaw Dumpling Bar). In Las Vegas, guests at the Mandarin Oriental can order lemon-thyme, raspberry tea-passion fruit and watermelon-lemongrass pops poolside.
They may be the most expensive menusin the world -- and we're not talking about the price of the truffle mac 'n' cheese.
It's the menus themselves: at a restaurant in Sydney, Australia, the hostess doesn't hand you a boring old paper menu, but a brand new iPad. The custom app at Mundo, in North Sydney, not only allows you to touch screen your way through the restaurant's selection of internationally inspired tapas, but when you've decided between the Szechwan Calamari or the Kingfish Ceviche, you can send the order to the kitchen yourself.
The "bizarre food" craze shows no signs of abating. Spurred on by television personalities and tell-all books, intrepid eaters continue to search the globe for the strangest -- and most off-putting -- edibles they can get their hands on. Which explains the skyrocketing popularity of the latest extreme tourist activity in Cambodia: hunting and eating tarantulas.
The hairy spiders are considered a delicacy in Kampong Cham Town and Sukon, and locals have begun offering visitors the chance to capture their own. The hunting party visits forests and cashew plantations to find the spiders, catching the nocturnal creatures while they're sleeping by poking sticks into their holes.
And then, cue the dinner bell. Deep frying the spiders is a popular technique -- they're served with salt and garlic. Prefer a drink? No worries. You can get your tarantula mixed into a rice wine and jack fruit cocktail.
Us food folks love the kitchen. A place where delicious meals are prepared and then consumed? It's naturally our favorite room in the home. So when it comes time to replace those tired countertops, rusty plumbing or appliances on the fritz, our bellies drive us to open our wallets for the most lavish, extravagant remodel.
Keeping us in check, though, are our friends over at ShelterPop, who took the advice of some handy, thrifty designers on how remodeling money should, or more importantly, should not be spent. Rather than falling for trends, these experts encourage homeowners to "recycle consciously, refine gradually and regret minimally."
.
No comments:
Post a Comment