Binging with Babish: Szechuan Sauce Revisited (From Real Sample!)
Adults FoodLast round, my efforts to recreate the fabled McDonald's Szechuan Sauce were wild, flailing shots in the dark, pathetic and meager attempts to recreate a long-lost condiment out of scanty information and back-alley sources.
Why We Eat Too Much
Adults FoodWe're hugely invested in the idea that the cause of obesity lies with diet - and that we should therefore solve the problem with kale and apple soup (and other such products). But the real cause of obesity has nothing to do with food. It lies in our emotional under-nourishment. We will start to eat less when we feel more connected, more understood and more in touch with our feelings.
Binging with Babish: The Ultimeatum from Regular Show
Adults FoodRegular Show regularly shows some fantastical and impossible food items - sandwiches that kill you, wings that kill you, skydiving pizza pockets - but few are quite so worthy of recreation as the Ultimeatum, the burger-within-a-burger-between-two-burgers. And ketchup from the Himalayas. Follow along this week to see if we can beat Chef Ajay Maldonaldo at his own game.
Binging with Babish: Courtesan au Chocolat from Grand Budapest Hotel
Adults FoodWes Anderson's films are rife with clashing color schemes, furrow-browed pedantry, and rich character development set against an oddly symmetrical backdrop. In the case of The Grand Budapest Hotel, it's also home to a pastry as precious as its parentage.
Binging with Babish: Puerco Pibil from Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Adults FoodOnce Upon a Time in Mexico, against all odds, played a large role in the creation of BwB - my first-ever DVD, its special features showed me that I could one day be a filmmaker *and* a chef. In this 2003 Banderas action-comedy, Johnny Depp inexplicably caps a cook for making this Yucatanian special a bit too perfectly; as director Robert Rodriguez says, make at your own peril.
Binging with Babish: Lemon Pepper Wet from Atlanta
Adults FoodLemon Pepper Wet is an Atlantan institution, virtually unknown outside the Peach State until Donald Glover's groundbreaking series made us salivate without even showing us the pay dirt. Look behind the Pulp-Fiction-style glowing MacGuffin and see the saucy, zesty wings underneath with this week's episode. Shout out to J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for his groundbreaking oven wing technique.
How does caffeine keep us awake? - Hanan Qasim
Adults FoodOver 100,000 metric tons of caffeine are consumed around the world every year. That's equivalent to the weight of 14 Eiffel Towers! Caffeine helps us feel alert, focused, and energetic, even if we haven't had enough sleep - but it can also raise our blood pressure and make us feel anxious. So how does it keep us awake? Hanan Qasim shares the science behind the world's most widely used drug.
Binging with Babish: Game of Thrones
Adults FoodThis weekend we're welcoming back the show that has the monopoly on lurid violence, epic battles, and wholly unnecessary nudity: Game of Thrones. George R.R. Martin's ability to describe the crunching of a skull is rivalled only by his ability to describe the crunching of a pastry, so it's only fitting that this sexy saga is home to some serious food porn. I'm a main character in this show, so my life is decidedly in danger this week.
Pay-It-Forward Pizza | Rosa's Fresh Pizza // 60 Second Docs
Adults FoodAt Rosa's Fresh Pizza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pies aren't just for paying customers. In a pay-it-forward pizza initiative that began three years ago, people who lunch at the neighborhood pizzeria can donate a dollar and provide a slice for homeless people who otherwise can't afford it, using a system of Post-It notes to keep track of slices that can be redeemed. So far, says owner Mason Wartman, the community has given away more than 150,000 free slices -- plus an immeasurable amount of dignity -- to the homeless.
Binging with Babish: Tomate du Saltambique from The West Wing
Adults FoodPresident Josiah Bartlet, apart from being a charismatic and noble leader of these United States, had a real thing for food. Be it the Butterball turkey hotline or pumpkin soup with cheese gnocchi, the man knew both good policy and food. If only he weren't a figment of Aaron Sorkin's imagination, much like this interpretation of Alain Passard's dessert tomato.