Hannah, the Domestic Gothess, made these simply perfect eclairs with a toasted marshmallow cream filling. She dipped the tops in melted chocolate, then added gourmet marshmallows. For a special treat, she covered the tops with craquelin, which is a type of French pastry dough. This give her s'more eclairs an extra crunch and sweetness. You can find her full recipe here.
-via Tasteologie
When you're only allowed to eat one cookie, then you need to stretch the definition of "one". Joe Castro, the head chef at Quest Nutrtion in Los Angeles developed Cookieception and photographed it appropriately with a background of Cookie Monster blue. You can find his recipe here.
The obvious next step would be to use this giant cookie as a topping for a larger cookie.
-via Thrillist
So you've already had the rainbow grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast. What's for lunch? I suggest the rainbow pizza. Amy of the marvelous food blog Oh, Bite It made this pepperoni pizza with an extra thick layer of mozzarella on top.
As soon as she pulled it out of the oven, she dripped food coloring into the cheese and spread the colors through the cheese with a fork. It's like a food version of a sonic rainboom!
Rainbow grilled cheese? That just seems like something you wouldn’t want to try. Rainbow foods are usually sweet, or at least that’s what the brain tells you. But this is from Hong Kong, so who knows? The description doesn’t sound too bad:
Sold by Hong Kong’s Kala Toast, the sandwiches cost 42 HKD (around $5 USD). And that cheese you see isn’t just colored — it’s also flavored. The blue is lavender, green is basil and red is tomato; the yellow is actually a combination of gruyere, emmental, mozzarella, and cheddar cheese.
See more pictures of this odd sandwich at Uproxx.
Over 27 seasons on TV, there’s been a lot of food featured on the TV show The Simpsons. Eats Like a Duck chronicles those foods one at a time, with references to the episode it appeared in and recipes. For example, in the episode “Homerpalooza” (season 7), Homer tries to sneak homemade Kahlua into a concert. Yes, that’s a bad idea, but this is Homer we’re talking about. Still, homemade Kailua can be a great thing used in the proper context.
Other recipes include Bart’s Grilled Twizzlers, A Cool Glass of Turnip Juice, Blandoori, Clove Tom Collins Pie, and of course, The Flaming Homer. -via Metafilter
Dominique Ansel, the inventor of the cronut, is hard at work developing new and tasty pastries. Here's a religieuse (more refined people might be offended by the term "donut"), which means two filled choux pastries stacked on top of each other. Ansel has decorated this one to look like a contented pig. It's available at Ansel's bakery in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan
Neatorama is proud to bring you a guest post from Ernie Smith, the editor of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog.
(Image credit: Flickr user Grant)
The salad bar is something that many restauranteurs claim to have invented, but we know for sure that just one guy invented the sneeze guard.
In January, a major lobbying group for the school lunch industry won a victory that involved salad bars. The School Nutrition Association, feeling the pressure because of what it called arduous nutrition rules, fought for (and won) a slightly more reasonable policy, including rules that specifically allowed schools to continue to offer salad bars to those super-grubby, messy kids. Some local health inspectors tried to veto the salad bars, claiming they created health hazards. But the updated law Congress came up with clarified that salad bars are safe. Today’s issue ponders why salad bars have become so common and whether the scale is trying to rip us off.
“You know, I looked at what was the problem with restaurants. You’d go in, the waiter would come up to the table, maybe he wouldn’t, and then he’d take an order, and disappear for a while. You’d fill up on bread. I said I want to let the customer see what he’s getting. And that includes a salad.”
— Norman Brinker, a groundbreaking restauranteur during the 1960s and 1970s, discussing his claimed invention of the salad bar concept for his Steak & Ale restaurant chain. Whether he did or not is a point of dispute, but he most certainly had the most success with it. (He also played a key role in the expansion of two other chains that you’re probably more familiar with, Chili’s and Bennigan’s.) Brinker, who gained status as a business guru before his death, was a master at building a more casual approach to dining—hiring cheery college students instead of snooty waiters and creating a vibe that encouraged repeat visits. And to think, it all started with the salad bar.
(Photo: hateyou218)
Soft serve vanilla ice cream in a cone is a true treat on any day. You could even say that it's a common luxury. So why not dress it accordingly? There's an ice cream shop in Kanazawa, Japan that sells its ice cream cones in gold foil. That's not gold-colored foil, mind you, but actually gold.
(Photo: Thrillist)
What would convince Ron Swanson to try ethnic food? Maybe this meat tornado in Leo's Taco Truck in Los Angeles. It didn't literally kill a guy last year (as far as I know), but it does offer top-tier Mexican food.
The truck serves tacos al pastor, which is a type of vertical roasting. Serious Eats describes it:
There, in true al pastor form, the taqueras marinate thin, thin slices of pork shoulder in a mixture of chilies and aromatics colored bright red with achiote. The slices are then stacked onto a vertical skewer, forming a large, bell-shaped trompo (spinning top), which gets topped with an onion and pineapple, and slowly rotates in front of a vertical grill.
I love a great piece of ripe fruit, but I admit, I love cake a little more, which is why this fruit basket looks so amazing to me. That's right -it's all cake. Don't believe me, check out this picture.
These surprising delights were made by Christine McConnell, author of Deceptive Desserts. Each of the cakes inside are different and in all the basket contains lime meringues, caramel apple pies, blueberry lemon hand pies, pear tarts, orange creme cakes and chocolate coated raisin grapes. Well, at least some of them contain real fruits inside.
The Brothers Green give us step-by-step instructions for making classic Taco Bell items at home. You might think this is more trouble than its worth, but listen: I’ve been a fan of the Taco Bell Meximelt since they were introduced in the early ‘80s. Back then they were meat- and cheese-filled and heavenly. I still like them, but now they have very little of anything inside. Sometimes they forget the meat completely, sometimes you can’t find any cheese, and you can take a couple of bites with no tomato, so making them at home would be nice.
The first video explains the ground beef, refried beans, fire sauce, nacho cheese sauce, tacos, crunch wrap supreme, double decker taco, and Mexican pizza. Although you really can’t explain Mexican pizza.
The second video has the seasoned steak, marinated chicken, creamy jalapeño (Baja) sauce, quesadillas, Baja gordita, chalupa, grilled stuffed burrito, and the cheesy gordita crunch.
If your favorite isn’t here, remember that most of Taco Bell’s dishes are combination of basic items that are pretty easy to figure out. And I’m going to make that quesadilla, sans steak, as soon I stock up on groceries. -via Digg
When is a marshmallow more than a marshmallow? When it's a work of art, of course. Instagram user Meaghan Mountford (@mallowart) proves that marshmallows are a surprisingly good canvas with her delightful mallow creations.
No word on whether or not the mallows are still edible after they are beautified, but who could eat such charming works of art anyway?
Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. That's why, when you want a top-grade pizza, you call in The Vulgar Chef.
This week, he went deliciously overboard cooking pizza. He prepared two circles of pizza dough, one slightly smaller than the other. Then he placed between them a whole frozen pizza that he had already cooked and cooled. He baked this assembly briefly, then flipped it over and added toppings, such as cheese and tomato sauce. Most importantly, he added miniature pizzas on bagel bites.
The result is a profoundly pizza-like pizza. It's the Inception of the pizza world. You can find more photos and a production video by The Vulgar Chef here (content warning: foul language).
(Photo: Atlanta Braves)
Do you need a snack while watching a game at Turner Field in Atlanta? Then pop over to a concession stand. For $26, you'll be able to buy a Burgerizza. That's a massive bacon cheeseburger sandwiched between two whole pizzas.
This is 1 of 9 insane stadium foods offered this year at Major League Baseball parks rounded up by First We Feast. Others include Froot Loop-covered hot dogs and a Monster energy drink barbecue sandwich.
To make a Monte Cristo sandwich, assemble white bread, sliced ham or turkey, and Swiss cheese. Dip the sandwich in egg batter, then either deep fry or pan fry the result. When it's done, sprinkle it with powdered sugar.
Crafted Donuts in Fountain Valley, California offers this sandwich in a marvelous donut form. The traditional fillings, as well as what appears to be strawberry and lemon jelly, fill the interior of this breakfast treat. Yummy!
-via Thrillist
