I love cookbooks and I especially love really wonderful cookbook design. I’m talking luscious photography that makes you want to dive in and devour every morsel. Beautiful typography that illuminates the text. Rich, matte paper that feels weighty between your fingers.
Two cookbooks that fit that description recently made their way into my life. Mad Hungry: Feeding Men & Boys by Lucinda Scala Quinn captured my eye during a recent library visit. While the title would not necessarily compel me, the unique canvas cover with its over sized chunky text convinced me to pull it off the shelf and peek inside. I was not disappointed. Each page drew me in with its elegant simplicity and full-page photos. Later I realized that the design was done by one of my favorite designers (a coincidence? I think not.) who I had lost track of. Jennifer Muller’s company was called Lucky Tangerine Design Studio and I had discovered her website while doing research for my own site a number of years ago. I thought she had disappeared by she had re-named her business Jennifer Muller Design. How lovely to reconnect via a cookbook.
page from Mad Hungry
Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson is the second cookbook. I read about it on someone’s blog (I can’t remember which one) and reserved it at the library. I picked it up a few days ago and was excited to find out that the design has many of the same elements as Hungry Men – gorgeous full-page photography, heavy matte stock, and clean elegant page layout. Super Natural was designed by Toni Tajima of Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House. She doesn’t seem to have her own website but I will definitely spend some time on the Ten Speed site to see more of their books.
page from Super Natural Cooking
What cookbooks move you?
I’ve always loved interesting names for paint and fabric colors. I just came across these fun ones from Lisa Stickley, a London-based designer who makes whimsical handbags, accessories, pillows, and more. When I was in London last year, I bought one of her purses and use it all the time.
Speaking of mustard, I’m a big fan – of the color and the condiment. There is an interesting article by Malcolm Gladwell called The Ketchup Conundrum which explores why ketchup has stayed the same while mustard comes in many varieties. I have also come across The National Mustard Museum – online not in person – in Middleton, Wisconsin.
mustard seeds
I’ve thought about making my own mustard but haven’t taken the plunge yet. Here is a mustard recipe from Simple Good and Tasty in case you want to venture into this territory:
Homemade Yellow Mustard
- 1/2 cup yellow mustard seeds
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 1/2 tsp. sugar
- Your pick of spices (to taste), optional
Instructions:
- Soak the mustard seeds in the vinegar and water, making sure the seeds are covered by the liquid. Leave soaking for 2 days.
- Add the sugar and spices to the seeds mixture. I suggest using allspices and turmeric, but many others are good as well. Begin with about 1 tsp. of each spice. Blend mixture until it reaches desired consistency, adding water if needed.
The mustard will at first seem extremely spicy, but will mellow out after a day or two in the fridge. To make honey mustard, mix the completed yellow mustard with local honey at a 1:1 ratio.
Enjoy!
So you want start your own food truck? Where do you start? Here are several online articles that can guide you along your journey. Each quick summary links to the original article.
The Short Leash in Phoenix, image from The Hot Sheet Blog
Need to Know’s take on Food Trucks..from PBS.org
Reporter talks about legalization of food trucks in San Bernardino County, California.
Owner of the first Filipino food truck in So Cal, The Manila Machine, answers questions about what it’s like to run a food truck. “Where do you go to the bathroom?” apparently is a common question! (note: The Manila Machine has gone on hiatus. Read more at the website.)
Nuts and bolts of starting a food truck
More nuts and bolts from parking to insurance to permits
Story from ReadyMade about a duo who started a food truck devoted to sustainable food.
Food trucks Q & A with food equipment expert Jim Wixson, CFSP
“Food Trucks: Making Your Restaurant Concept Mobile” “At the recent StarChefs.com International Chefs Congress, food writer Josh Ozersky called the food truck movement ‘one of the definitive moments of this generation.’
What’s it gonna cost me? Article from FrySmith on “The Cost of Running A Food Truck.”
Eye candy!! 12 Coolest Mobile Food sites
And lastly, a link to a food truck manufacturer’s website – Armenco.
Have your perceptions changed? Let me know!
Thanks to Renee Liu for compiling these links!
Mac and Cheeza menu
It’s the new frontier of hipster gourmet food. Combining one trendy food, in this example cupcakes, with an old childhood favorite, push pops. Meringue Bake Shop in Southern California has invented these goodies – layers of cake, buttercream and other tasty treats – and sells them for $39 a dozen. CoolHaus in LA makes ice cream sandwich creations inspired by architects and a while back I wrote about meatloaf cupcakes sold by a bakery in Chicago.
Comfort food with a modern twist is another way to describe this. How many restaurants are serving their version of Mac n Cheese (there’s a restaurant in LA called Mac and Cheeza) or for the local Tucson angle, the Sonoran dog?Janos Wilder’s take is the J-Dawg, served during happy hour at J Bar. I suppose even food trucks fit into the trend. We all remember ice cream and hot dog trucks from our childhood. The move to gourmet mobile taps into our culinary nostalgia. Perhaps any popular trend has to have a tie to something familiar.
Trendwatching.com, the sister site to my fave Springwise, coined the phrase Snobbmodities almost 10 years ago. Snobbmodities “describes the phenomenon of turning completely mundane commodities into chic, popular luxury items or goods, offering consumers a bewildering number of varieties of what were once invisible parts of daily life.” Everything from coffee to wine to salt has fallen under this trend. Before Starbucks, weren’t we satisfied with regular or decaf?
Is all of the variety just about new business opportunities? Or as the world becomes smaller and ideas more global, are we all searching for the next new and different thing? Whatever the motivation, I think it makes life more fun and interesting. Whenever I hear about something like PushCakes or meatloaf cupcakes I get excited. What new food trends are you excited about?
"Journey is the Destination Youth Classics" shoe by TOMS
My friend Margie recently returned from the Association of Fundraising Professional’s conference in Chicago where she heard Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS Shoes speak. I had heard of TOMS shoes but not about Mycoskie, who started the company after a visit to Argentina where he befriended children that did not have shoes to protect their feet. He also learned that in many places, children without shoes can’t attend school. He launched the company in his apartment with the concept that for every pair of shoes purchased, he would donate a pair to a child in need.
What an inspiring concept. Margie made the comparison between TOMS shoes and other corporations that only give a small percent of their profits to charitable organizations, and feels that TOMS raises the standard of corporate philanthropy.
Sibley Eyeglass Frame by Warby Parker
Another example of a business implementing this philosophy is Warby Parker, an eyewear company. I read about Warby Parker in a magazine in my doctor’s office and looked up the website. The Our Story page describes their philosophy – “A collaboration between four close friends, Warby Parker was conceived as an alternative to the overpriced and bland eyewear available today. Prescription eyewear simply should not cost $300+.” Now that’s a concept. The description goes on to say, “We believe that everyone has the right to see.” Warby Parker donates one pair to an individual in need for every pair that it sells. All eyeglasses cost $95 (frames + prescription lenses) and are only available through the website.
I love that these businesses have integrated philanthropy as a key element of their businesses. I also love that Warby Parker is re-inventing the eye wear paradigm plus has great design sense (“vintage-inspired with a fashion forward twist.”)
Should this be the future of corporate giving – buy one give one? What other companies do you know of that are putting this concept into practice?
I must admit I never thought too much about the difference between food trucks and carts. I just thought different cities had different names; Portland called them carts and LA called them trucks. Today, I was reading a 2009 interview by T.W. Barrett of the Culinary Types blog with Brett Burmeister, Portland’s Food Cart Ambassador and the man behind the Food Carts Portland website. Here’s an excerpt.
“I ask about the proper terminology. What’s the difference between a food truck and a food cart? Unlike the trucks, our food carts don’t have to move,” says Brett. “Most of the food carts that are downtown – they’re parked. They’re on wheels and they can go somewhere, because that’s the code. The county said if it has an axel, it’s a food cart versus a restaurant.”
Of course!
Images courtesy of Jack in the Box
The food truck craze is not going away. I read in the Huffington Post that Jack in the Box launched its Munchie Mobile on Friday in San Diego. The 34-foot truck does not have the traditional Jack in the Box colors or look. For some reason, they chose a 70s-inspired airbrushed theme with Jack as a Roman warrior driving a chariot. The design does not appeal to me but I suppose that’s because I’m not the target demographic. You can follow the truck on Twitter (on the Twitter page it describes itself as “the ultimate food truck.”) and Facebook.
I learned a new word at the Tucson Festival of Books last weekend. No, it wasn’t through a panel or workshop or even by picking up a book. It was from Daniel Davis of Steam Crow, a Phoenix-based “monster-punk studio.” I was racing through the exhibit area after watching my friend Sheila moderate a panel on the 1960s and this corner booth filled with funky prints and books caught my attention. After snatching a few freebies including a cut-out papercraft steamcar, I started hyperventilating when I saw a series of prints featuring food personalities. As you may know from reading my recent post, Bread with Personalities, I am crazy about food characters.
I told Daniel how much I loved them and he said he didn’t know how long the “kawaii” prints would be popular. What is kawaii? I asked and was told that kawaii means “cute” in Japanese and is used to describe a Japanese artistic/cultural style. The Wikipedia entry says, “Since the 1970s, cuteness has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms.”
How could I not know this word? I have been following Japanese kawaii since I loved Hello Kitty as a kid and I pride myself as being on the cutting-edge of cool and hip culture. Maybe I am not as cool as I think I am. Have you heard of the word? Let me know!
Start cleaning out your closets and your junk drawers to get ready for the Spring SO CO (South of Congress) Swap-o-Rama!!!
It’s Saturday, March 19th from 12pm – 3pm at Arts Marketplace, 40 W. Broadway, downtown Tucson.
Admission is free!
We’ll have an embellishment station where you can add fabric, stitching, bows, you name it to your newly acquired garments ($1 donation) and Melissa Aquino will teach you how to make a purse out of a T-shirt!
Tell your friends!!!
{Poster by Susan Seely Roe}
One of my favorite websites is Springwise, a roundup of innovative business/non-profit ideas. They rely on a team of “Spotters” from around the world to identify these fledgling enterprises. Anyone can become a spotter, you just have to sign up and send in your recommendations. Yesterday I was catching up (they send out a weekly email but I usually wait a few months to read all of them) and one caught my eye that I would like to share here.
Philanthroper. We all know about Groupon and LivingSocial, these one-huge-deal-a-day sites. I’m getting tired of them myself but I was pleased to hear about a group taking the same concept and applying it to philanthropy. The concept is each day a different non-profit is featured and you can click to donate $1 to that organization. Just $1 dollar. No more. No less.
I think it’s a brilliant idea that will be most effective when massive numbers of people participate. Imagine 1 million people signed up to give $1 a day to an organization. Each day a different group could receive one million dollars!
Now you might be wondering how they can afford to do this. Don’t institutions like PayPal and credit card companies take too much of a percentage to make this ineffective? Well, here is their answer:
“When you make a donation anywhere online, chances are, a considerable chunk just disappeared for banking fees and administrative overhead. The best in this business take anywhere from 3-5% of your donation before it gets to your nonprofit. And those numbers skyrocket, as high as 25% and beyond. That’s why you can’t donate as little as a $1 to most nonprofits online. Too much is lost in transit.
Every time you donate, mPayy takes 1% of your donation — a penny — to cover unavoidable banking fees. As for us? We take nothing. The money never touches our hands. I mean, who wants to get rich off the needy?”
Pretty cool, huh?
