Blog Roll Addition -- The Chicken Contests

Well, I haven't updated the links in my blog roll as I've been promising, but I didn't want to wait for that elusive update before I added The Chicken Contests, the blog/website of Jose A. G. Shapiro, who I share my j weekly column with.

Josie writes about her family, recipes and entries (and wins) to cooking contests.  Hope you'll click by and say hi.

For more recommended links - please see my blog roll post here. You can find the link in my right hand column any time.

BTW --  October 14th marked the eighth anniversary of Blog Appetit.  Thanks for your support, readership and feedback.

Fixating on Veggie Fixation

Just added a new blog to my links section:  Veggie Fixation
It's one of those blogs that focuses on food and writing not necessarily page views and monetization.
Lots of vegetarian and vegan goodness.

To check out my link section (which still needs a bit of a clean up and update), click here.

Adding to My Suggested Links Section

I have been remiss in updating my long-neglected links section.  My lack of attention to my blogroll is especially shameful since I so enjoy clicking through other blogs' links to discover new favorites.

One of these days, I'm going to give it a complete overhaul, but for now I just wanted to introduce you to Anna Mindess's blog East Bay Ethnic Eats.  Even if you don't live in the area roughly bounded by being east of San Francisco and west of the Sacramento River delta, you'll find lots of interesting stories about food and the people behind it on Anna's blog.  You can read more about her and where else you might find her writing here.

Enjoy. 
(Oh, and I promise to revitalize the links section soon.  And if you are looking for my recommendations in the future, look for the link to the links in the right hand column of Blog Appetit.)

Postcards from a Broad

I'm sorry I didn't think of the above. It's the blog title for talented, fiesty, funny and wonderful Marlena Spieler. She's tricoastal (or something like that), has an knack for great writing and an instinct for great food.


I'm adding her blog, Postcards from a Broad, to my blog links. I hope you will check it out.

You can see all the blogs on my blogroll here on my links page.

6/9/11 Update: Marlena has been pretty inactive on this blog lately. She seems to update her website more often, so check in with her there.

Some Blog Roll Additions

I thought I would add some new blogs to my links (a complete list here)

Pink Sky is about crafts and food and the winner of my I Wanna Be a Food Writer Menu for Hope V package.

Viet World Kitchen cooks up not just Vietnamese and Asian food but her take on all the cuisines that make up American food.

A Year of Crockpotting is no crackpot. She just is a great resource for this timeshifting device.

Eating Simply is about eating healthily and economically, goals I whole-heartedly support.

There are lots of other good blogs out there and several more I plan on adding to my links list soon.

Update: I just found this blog and I'm so excited about its vegetable focus and writing I just had to add it right away" La Vida Veggie out of Boston.

6/9/11 Update:  Pink Sky has not been active since 2009, but her old posts are still up and inspiring. Viet World Kitchen is still posting and as active and wonderful as ever.  Year of Crockpotting, is still there and still a good source for slow cooking and other recipes, but fame has come with a price.  She writes a number of sponsored posts.  They are well marked as such and still informative.  Eating Simply seems to have morphed into Kari's Creations, a food and gardening blog with some wonderful photography. La Vida Veggie is well not necessarily veggie anymore but still posting.

All My Links

May We Recommend -- The Blog Appetit Blog Roll -- Some Other Websites and Blogs You Might Savor

• I Wanna Be a Food Writer
• 101 Cookbooks
• Becks&Posh
• Been There Ate That
• Chez Pim
• The Chicken Contests
• Chocolate&Zucchini
• Cooking with Amy
• Cook Sister!
• Creampuffs in Venice
• Curious Cook
• David Lebovitz
• East Bay Ethnic Eats
• Eating Simply
• Food Blog Sc'ool
• Fresh Approach Cooking
• The Inadvertent Gardner
• In Mol Araan
• In Praise of Sardines
• Jumbo Empandas
• La Vida Veggie
• Kayln's Kitchen
• One Hot Stove
• Paris Breakfasts
• Pink Sky
• Postcards from a Broad
• Simply Recipes
• Smitten Kitchen
• Soul Fusion Kitchen
• Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy
• Sugar Savvy
• Sweetnicks
• Veggie Venture
• Tea and Cookies
• Vanessa Barrington
• Veggie Fixation
• Vinography
• Viet World Food
• Well Fed Network
• White Trash BBQ
• A Year of Crockpotting

Five Things (Well a Lot More Than Five) That You Probably Don't Know About Me Plus My Egg Cream Recipe

Sylvie of the wonderful Soul Fusion Kitchen (which I will add to my blog roll next time I update) tagged me for my very first MEME -- Five Things About Me.

So here's some things about me that might help explain me, Blog Appetit or both. Since I tend to digress and over explain, I suspect it will end up being 500 things about me.

1. I'm an ex-New Yorker with a not-so-secret weakness for black and white cookies, pastrami sandwiches, subways (and public transit systems of any kind), ethnic enclaves and egg creams (see below). I like the Chrysler Building more than the Empire State, like to ride the Staten Island Ferry, and enjoy wandering around the Upper East Side and the Lower West Side. The Strand bookstore ("18 miles of books") is my idea of heaven as is Kitchen Arts and Letters. My two current favorite museums (besides the Metropolitan) are the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and the NYC Transit Museum (in Brooklyn). I nominate Brooklyn for my second favorite borough (county -- New York has 5) and not just because I was born there! My last "name brand" meal in NYC was at the Spice Market in the meat-packing district, which was wonderful, but I still miss the $1.80 duck lo mein (and big enough to share) I used to get at Wo Hop's when I went to New York University a gizillion years ago. My tourist tip is to buy the day or multi day pass for the transit system. Good on buses and subways, it saves you money and aggravation.

2. While I always wanted to be a writer of some sort, my secret desire was to write the books for Broadway musicals. The book is the "story" part, not the music or lyrics. I have no musical talent, so I guess my ambition was at least partly realistic. At other points in my life I wanted to be a university professor (of history, big surprise there), a marketing vice president, a newspaper publisher and an urban affairs and planning newspaper columnist. I have been a reporter, editor, copyeditor, public relations specialist, marketing communicator, and a few other things. The closest thing I came to writing plays was in second grade. I wrote a stirring one act play on the industrialization of shoe manufacturing in New England. (I think it was second grade, but that seems more like fourth grade sophistication to me). No copies survive. My fantasy jobs now musical book writer (who knows, Broadway musicals could make a comeback), magazine editor and talk show host.

3. I tried to learn tap dancing as an adult. It was not pretty, but it has made me a better critic of tap performances on screen and stage. I prefer Fred Astaire over Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers over Ann Miller, and still mourn the untimely passing of Gregory Hines. When Fred passed away I put on my tap shoes and lugged out my portable dance floor (which doubled as a carpet protector under my desk chair.) When I was dating my now husband, I took it as a favorable sign that Fred and Mr. Blog Appetit shared the same birthday (May 10). I guess it is no surprise to you that I'm an old-movie fiend, that Turner Classic Movies is my favorite cable channel and my top old movie faves (for now, they change regularly) are Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe and Reckless with Jean Harlow and with Rosalind Russell, another screen fave. From screwball comedies to musicals to film noirs, I pretty much like anything that is decently written, well acted and gives a good sense of the time and place.

4. Besides New York, I've also lived in Baltimore, MD, Irvington, NJ (just outside Newark), Palo Alto, CA, San Francisco, CA and now Oakland, CA. My husband grew up in Chicago so I pick up the midwest perspective from him. I still like my pizza with a nicely blistered thin crust, which I eat by picking up the slice and folding it over. Eating deep dish Chicago pizza with a knife and fork just isn't the same.

5. The most recent best thing I ever ate was a roast mutton soup in Xi An, China. It cost about $2. The night before I had a meal that was almost as good in Shanghai. It cost $125.

The Perfect (At Least to Me) Egg Cream

There are still a few soda fountains and candy shops that make this around NYC. The last time I had one it was in the East Village and it was served in a paper cup, which made me feel that you can' t go home again. Think of an egg cream as kind of like the Frapuccino of Old New York.

Large, clear glass
Good chocolate syrup (the traditional is Foxes U-Bet, but I'm not a stickler on this, it should just have a good chocolate taste), more or less to your taste. I like my chocolate strong!
Milk (whole, non-fat, I don't care)
Seltzer Water (sometimes called soda water, but not club soda if you can avoid it -- club soda adds salt which affects the purity of this holy drink. No sparkling mineral waters, either. Use the plain type without any flavorings.)
A long, metal spoon

Add an appropriate to you slug of chocolate syrup to the bottom of a tall class. Pour in about an inch or so of cold milk. Top with seltzer (be careful, it will foam and threaten to go over the top, so pour slowly and add more when the foam subsides if needed.)

Use the long spoon to carefully stir. This will result in a milk chocolate colored drink topped with white foam. Some people prefer to stir twice, once after adding the milk and again after the seltzer is added. This results in an all-brown drink which would leave me aghast, but it is your choice. Some people claim pouring the seltzer down the back side of the bowl of the spoon will reduce the foaming. Since I like the visual of the foam and I'm picky enough about the process to begin with I'll let you decide if you'd like to include this in your egg cream choregraphy. Also I assume you've realized there is no egg and no cream in the drink. Stories abound about why.

Serve with a straw. And maybe a black and white cookie.

Variations: Make it a Reform Egg Cream Instead of an Orthodox one by subbing out other syrups. A vanilla egg cream tastes like a marshmallow. One of the best I ever had back in my New York days was at David's Pot Bellied Stove on Christopher Street. They made it for me with mocha (coffee mixed into chocolate syrup). I think they are gone now, but McNulty's is still there across the street. That's the place I first got into teas, but I digress.

As part of the rules of this MEME I'm supposed to tag five others. I will do so later. Watch this space.

Thanks again, Sylvie!

Bonus Info: My sons used to be very proud of me because I could drive a stick shift.

Lots of Links on the Side(bar)

A relatively new feature on my side bar (towards the bottom, I'll wait while you scroll down to check it out) is the Foodie Blog Roll.

It is a way for dedicated food bloggers to link to one another and spread the joy. I hope you will take a few minutes and explore some of the food blogs that participate in the blog roll.

A Jumbo Addition to the Blog Roll

A while back, I donated a prize to the Menu for Hope raffle, "The I Wanna Be a Food Writer" package of books. Brilynn of Jumbo Empandas was the winner, but I got something out of it, too, -- a new blog to check out. Jumbo Empandas has to be one of the nicest looking adaptations of a straight Blogger template I've seen (very inspiring). It's full of Brilynn's observations, recipes and beautiful photos. I hope you'll check it out. Brilynn has been a regular reader (and commenter) of Blog Appetit for some time, so this link is long overdue.

If you want to be a food writer and didn't win my prize here's the books I recommend. They are available through most bookstores here in the U.S. and on Amazon in Canada and England. (FYI - Amazon in U.K. seems to have great shipping deals if you live elsewhere in Europe.)

• Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob
• The Recipe Writer's Handbook by Ostmann and Baker
• The New Food Lover's Companion by Herbst

If you have a food writing resource you'd like to add to this list, please leave a comment below.

A New Year's Present to Blog Appetit'ers -- New Links

It's been a while since I added to my blogroll (the list of sites I enjoy that I post on my side bar.) It's not really a fair representation of all the blogs I read, but I rarely take the time to update it. My apologies to all the wonderful bloggers and blogs out there, I promise one day to catch up with you all (probably AFTER I make the transition to the new Blogger). Meanwhile here are two blogs that I have been reading and recommend:

Harold McGee is known for his clear, incisive writing on the science of food. Now he blogs, too.
Check out his new blog, Curious Cook.

From the scientific to the romantic. It's easy to guess what Paris Breakfasts' obsession is, but its' creator doesn't limit herself to just breakfast in Paris, she also does tea, coffee and hot chocolate and the accompanying pastries and other goodies. In addition to serving up her experiences and photographs, blogger Carol Gillet also shares her delicate watercolors of her cups, saucers, macarons and other table top delights.

A New Taste to the Blogroll

Please click on over and get to know Peanut Butter and Purple Onions, a delightful food blog written by two sisters, one on the West Coast and one on the East. Memories of childhood books, food rambles (and ramblings), recipes and the occassional cat photo dot PB&PO's blogscape. I enjoy visiting the sisters and think you will, too.

You'll find PB&PO's link at left.

6/9/11 Update:  This blog no longer exists.

Belated Blog Roll

I'll be adding the following sites to my link section ASAP. In the meantime, please check out the following.

Creampuffs in Venice features the writings, photos and recipes of Ivonne. Her background is Italian, her current home is Toronto, her writing is enticing. Plus, I love the name.

Becks&Posh must be the go-to blog for the food and restaurants of San Francisco, even for me, and I live in the area! Sam is British, her boyfriend, Fred, is French, and she has a unique perspective that really comes through. Sam is also the "headmistress" of the blog Food Blog Sc'ool, a lifesafer for me, a still somewhat neophyte food blogger.

Please also check out Cooking With Amy, Simply Recipes and 101 Cookbooks, all of which I have mentioned in previous posts.

Watch for more blog roll introductions to come. You might want to check out these blog rolls of honor from the archives:

"Introducing"
"Blog Roll Please"
"Another Link"

ARF ARF and a Bow Wow

Sweetnicks of the blog of the same name is one busy blogger. She does the weekend dog blogging feature (lots of cute pix of a blogger's best friend), participates in many blogging events and does good deeds, as well as sharing with us her love of food and eating. Oh, and she's a busy mom.

One of her newest features is a Tuesday night round up of recipes featuring antioxidants, veggies and fruits, with she calls ARF (for Antioxidant Rich Food) 5-a day-roundup.

This is the second of her ARF/5-a-Day roundups and Blog Appetit leads off the delicious pack with Vacation Condo Soup.

I hope you will check out her weekly roundups as well as pay regular visits to her site. I know I do. You'll find Sweenicks listed under "Links."

Another Link

I had the good fortune to meet Brett, creator of In Praise of Sardines, a few weeks ago. I've long been impressed with his blog, and not just because I (and hence Blog Appetit) belong to that coven of closet sardine lovers.

His blog continually impresses with its depth of coverage of San Francisco Bay Area ethnic cuisines as well as his travelogues which have taken him in the six short months he's been a blogger to New York, Los Angeles and Spain. He's entertaining, the blog is well written and there are recipes, too. I hope you will click on over and check out In Praise of Sardines

To celebrate his inclusion in my links, I thought I would toss in this photograph of the sardine catch at Half Moon Bay, California, last summer.

How do I praise sardines? Let me count the ways, starting with grilled, fresh, eaten beachside on the Costa Brava. Wish you could have been there. Wish I was back there.

Introducing ....

... two more links.

A Chip off the Old Block?

David Lebovitz (creator of NY's famed David's chocolate chip and other cookies) at http://www.davidlebovitz.com is a fun site full of chocolate advice, recipes and David's experiences in Paris and on the road in the U.S. teaching cooking classes. It's chocolate bliss without the calories!

Not for Vegetarians Only

Veggie Venture at http://www.kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com is the site I originally wanted to create more than four years ago. I never got around to it but Alanna did. She posts a new veggie-based recipe and/or adventure every day. Her recipes are for omnivores and many include meat, chicken, etc.

Blogroll, Please

On most blogs over to the left or right of the main post you'll find a section called something like "links" or "blogs I like" or similar.

Listed under that heading will be a list of blog names that you can click and visit. The assortment of links a blog boosts reflect the taste, interests and friendships (cyber or otherwise) of the blog's creator.

Random link clicking has resulted in some very pleasurable time spent at sites I otherwise would not have known about.

It has always been Blog Appetit's intent to feature a blogroll of it's very own, but I wanted to take my time and introduce my blogs of choice a few at a time so you, my loyal 10s of readers, would understand their selection and inclusion.

Today I unveil my first real links (since I Wanna Be A Food Writer is one of my own blogs, I don't know if it counts as a real link.)

Chocolate and Zucchini is probably one of the best known and most visited food blogs. It was the first blog I had ever visited. Clotilde is a French woman who has lived (and cooked) in America and who gets it -- food, fun and Paris. Her blog made me want to start my own.

http://www.chocolateandzucchini.com

Fresh Approach Cooking is a newer blog site must for me. Fun writing style, a real point of view and food, glorious food. Recipes, photos, fun facts and resources. I've decided that Rachael has got to be my new best friend.

http://www.freshcatering.blogspot.com


So check out these blog food finds. Let me know what you think and if you have any you'd like to recommend to me. Watch for more blogroll introductions.