Thursday, August 25, 2011

Lucky Peach Food Quarterly by David Chang & Peter Meehan


Hailed as a masterpiece of modern food culture by Time magazine and lauded by the NYTimes, Lucky Peach is one more outlet for David Chang's success. A present day Midas; whatever he touches turns into Troy Ounces. This magazine though, is the confluence of many great culinary minds weighing in on different themes for each quarterly release. Harold McGee, Bourdain, Wylie Dufresne, Peter Meehan and many others all have interviews or contributions.

Irreverant writing, travelogues, art, photography and a TON of ramen recipes. Ramen is the theme this issue and each subsequent issue will have varying themes. Issue 2 will be pastry. This quarterly is not about trends, its by and about the trendmakers and their ruminations. A culinary journal is an apt description. I have read it cover to cover and its pretty awesome. It gets a bit geeky and esoteric. So what, who cares (in the tone of Joy Behar)? There are interesting takes on current food trends by the chefs (Wylie Dufresne, NYC King of Molecular Gastronomy gives a good lashing to the farm-to-table folks. Nice.)

Here is a recipe preview that just sings Chang and Pork-Topia:

Red Eye Gravy-Serves 2

2 Thick Slices of American Country Ham
1/2 Cup Brewed Coffee
2 spoonfulls of Brown sugar (Tablespoons I suppose)

1. Render the ham-cook over medium heat in a skillet. You are just looking to brown it at the edges. Find ham that has some fat on it, or you're wasting your time and you should probably just make this with bacon.
2.Once the ham is warmed through and the pan is good and greasy with ham fat, remove the ham to a platter. Turn the heat up to high. Add a couple of spoonfulls of brown sugar and whats left of your morning coffee.
3. To finish-cook it down, stirring all the while until the coffee has more or less disappeared. Et voila! Red-eye gravy. pour it over biscuits. if you find you don't have enough gravy, you probably need more ham, too, soget back to the stove and make another batch.


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