Sign up for Cooking Channel's contest - The Perfect 3!

Are you an expert when it comes to brownies? What about tacos? Are hamburgers more of your thing? Then you should sign up for Cooking Channel's online contest - the grand prize is a trip to New York and your very own web episode that showcases your ability to cook the perfect version of one of the below 13 categories:

13 Categories:

• Brownies
• Burgers
• Cakes
• Chicken
• Cookies
• Exotic Dishes
• Hot and Spicy Chili
• Pancakes
• Pies
• Potatoes
• Salads
• Sandwiches
• Tacos

You can see all the details here. I would sign up, but since I work for Cooking Channel, I'm excluded. So, honor me by submitting your recipe!

Not just gingerbread houses...

Today I came across this amazing video that shows the progressive build of a 17-ft. gingerbread tree at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Orlando, FL. The tree is made up of only 6 ingredients, but check out the quantities:

1,050 pounds of honey
800 pounds of flour
600 pounds of powdered sugar
35 pounds of spices
600 pounds of chocolate
180 pounds of apricot glaze

As someone who enjoys building gingerbread houses, but to put it nicely, lacks the architectural prowess it might take to construct these seasonal builds, I'm in awe of this production. Check out the time lapse video below (and if this doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will).

Zagat launches food truck tracking site

Today, Zagat announced a free website that is aimed at the food truck fan base around New York - FoodTrucks.Zagat.com. Functional on mobile browsers (but not available as a smartphone app), the site allows users to track their favorite food trucks throughout the city and presumably take a more strategic approach to tracking down their favorite waffles for lunch.

Per the press release the company issued, the site plots real-time locations of New York's food trucks on a map. Trucks will be able to update their locations using specialized Tweets. Still in beta, users can search for food trucks by location, cuisine by Zagat food rating. Once a user has chosen a food truck, the site will indicate its location, social media links, as well as its Zagat ratings and reviews.

With my iPhone addiction currently being managed, I might have to let this site slip through to my list of cool mobile sites to visit. That being said, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a mobile app and an optimized experience specifically for my phone.

Kings of Pastry showing at New York's Film Forum

For those of you that enjoy the extremely niche food film genre, you must make a point to check out the Kings of Pastry, showing at Film Forum.

The folks at Film Forum describe the film as:

From the makers of the documentary classics DONT LOOK BACK and THE WAR ROOM. Pennebaker and Hegedus are simply the best — so when they turn their sights on the competition for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOF), France’s Nobel Prize for pastry, you’re in for a treat. Sixteen chefs whip up the most gorgeous, delectable, gravity-defying concoctions, and there is edge-of-the seat drama as they deliver their fantastical, spun-sugar desserts to the display table. The inevitable disasters prove both poignant and hilarious. When the film played in the U.K., critics dubbed it “the culinary HURT LOCKER”; “gastro-porn of the highest quality…as thrilling as any Olympic final”; and “quite possibly one of the most delicious films ever committed to celluloid.”

Additionally, filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, along with film subject Jacquy Pfeiffer and award-winning pastry and found/owner of Jaques Torres Chocolate chef Jacques Torres, will be on hand Wednesday, September 15, for the 6:30 and 8:20 shows for a Q&A session following the film

Pennebaker and Hegedus will also be on hand on Thursday, September 16, for the 6:30 and 8:20 shows.

For those of you that need a little more convincing to see the film, you can view the trailer here.

Kings of Pastry

Wednesday, September 15 – Tuesday, September 28
Two Weeks
Showtimes: 1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10
Click here to purchase tickets. 10

I love New York City, but this is ridiculous...

 (Image courtesy of The Pitch)

I learned this week that  in New York, whole bagels are not taxed, but sliced ones are. My immediate response was befuddlement. I think my eyebrows raised as well, and I'm sure my mouth was slightly agape. This tends to be my physical reaction to news such as this.


The Wall Street Journal ( you can see the full article here) brought this to my attention. They report:

State tax officials, under orders from cash-strapped Albany to ramp up their audit and compliance efforts, have begun to enforce one of the more obscure distinctions within the state's sales tax law.

In New York, the sale of whole bagels isn't subject to sales tax. But the tax does apply to "sliced or prepared bagels (with cream cheese or other toppings)," according to the state Department of Taxation and Finance. And if the bagel is eaten in the store, even if it's never been touched by a knife, it's also taxed.

Let me point out something before I go on - I'm actually a fan of ordering a bagel and requesting that it not be toasted or sliced. I do this because I absolutely loathe the gargantuan amounts of cream cheese that is inevitably spread on said bagel. It's almost as if I ordered a carton of cream cheese with a side of bagel. Am I wrong?

However, my inability to understand ridiculous laws such as taxing bagels simply because they are "sliced or prepared" has prompted me to write this post. This is right up there with the Oklahoma law that states whaling is illegal. Whaling in Oklahoma? Okay?

Oklahoma does have one weird law I can get behind:  Oklahoma will not tolerate anyone taking a bite out of another's hamburger.