Small Bites
Little Vittles
In years past, spiced wine and eggnog were the only holiday drinking options. Recently, however, a spate of beers inspired by the season have popped up at microbreweries across the country, as brewers get in touch with old Northern European recipes or just get bored and see what ingredients can be shoehorned in. Christmas trees, gingerbread cookies, pie — take all this stuff, jam it into the world's largest blender and you may or may not get a drink like Sly Fox's Christmas Ale. With touches of ginger, clove, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg, you might think the Phoenixville-based brewery's concoction has the potential to get out of hand. But rather than tasting muddled, it serves the Proustian purpose of pulling holidays past from the depths of your memory. —Benjamin Hollis
|
Using moist, delicate biscuits to retell Dante's descent into hell, London-based graphic designer/illustrator Jamie Wieck has wickedly crafted 26 tasty circles and squares side by side in his limited-edition giclée print, titled Dante's Tea Break. Unveiling a pretty bite with each bit of downward progress (the cookies are labeled with Alighieri's circles and regions of hell), Wieck begins with the rich, simple buttery blends before traveling toward custard creams, jam-dolloped shortbreads and ever-promising Oreos. Once your eyes reach the last bunch of snack cakes — perfect, icing-topped mini-gems — you know you're screwed. Available at jamiewieck.com. —Amy Strauss
If the sight of eggnog makes your gut clench in anticipatory pain, rejoice and be glad — the first commercially available eggnog for the can't-mess-with-milk set is now on sale in the Northeast. The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse estimates that America's lactose-intolerant population numbers between 30 million and 50 million, so the enzyme-enhanced nog could very well become the Furby/Tickle Me Elmo/Nintendo Wii of Christmas '08. Lactaid milks are super-pasteurized, resulting in an extended shelf life, and are made accessible via the addition of lactase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down lactose. Visit lactaid.com for a dollar-off coupon. No links for SoCo coupons, though — you're on your own when it comes to alcoholic enhancement. —Felicia D'Ambrosio
|
How many bubbles are in a bottle of champagne? It's just one of the 1,000 brain teasers Joyce Lock, owner of culinary firm Stir, serves up in her themed trivia game Foodie Fight. Topics range from culinary science and food in film to wine pairing and exotic cuisine. With questions divided into five categories (Foodiesphere, Food Stars, Company's Coming, What's Cooking and Lab and Field), players flex their epicurean muscles to fill their individual game boards first (up to six can play). Other questions that'll prove your hours of Alton Brown-watching were well-spent: What shape is a Japanese tamago omelette pan? (It's square.) Who shed her shoes, and a White House job, and bought a tiny specialty food store — and eventually cinched a TV gig? (The Barefoot Contessa's Ina Garten.) Oh, and for you winos — 49 million bubbles are trapped in an still-corked bottle of the sparkly stuff. —Amy Strauss
Also In This Week's Food Section
Hog Wild
In Like Lynn
citypaper.net exclusive: Holiday Q&A with Lynn Rosen
Soba Up
You Ask We Answer
Comments
Be the first to comment on this article.