Hasta La Ideas

A new snack perfect for the couch or the bar gives you half the pop and all of the crunch and flavor

One of the great joys of eating a bowl of popcorn is picking out the half-popped kernels that settle to the bottom. Imagine the gluttonous excitement of finding Halfpops—a bag full of only half popped kernels. What it takes away from the satisfaction of the popcorn bowl search it makes up for with its all natural, nothing artificial, gluten free and tasty crunchy goodness.

CEO and co-founder Mike Fitzgerald (a former professional race car driver) came across a patent for the process and acquired it in 2009. It took more than a year to find the right methodology and tweak the otherwise standard industrial popping equipment to create Halfpops. The process involves both “manipulating the moisture content” of the kernels and then preventing them from fully popping. Interestingly, the process doesn’t produce any fully popped kernels, so nothing is wasted. Mike says that the process is “actually pretty difficult to do.” Now if they could only remove the shells…

Halfpops are currently available in two flavors—Natural Butter and Pure Ocean Sea Salt and Natural Aged White Cheddar, though voting has already begun on their site for the next flavor. Halfpops are made in Seattle and available in local markets. The rest of us can order online directly from Halfpops. A case of 16 2oz bags sells for $24.

An intensely personal cookbook by brothers and chefs

The day before Michael and Bryan Voltaggio‘s collaborative new cookbook VOLT ink. hit the shelves this week we talked over a delicious lunch at chef George Mendes’s Aldea. Sharing a meal with the Voltaggio brothers is a lens into their worlds and their bonds—to each other, their families and the people they work with. The heavily-tattooed, good-looking and highly-acclaimed chef brothers have achieved great professional success by their early thirties—having conquered Top Chef’s 6th season (Bryan came in second, Michael first), and opening eponymous restaurants (Bryan’s VOLT in their native Frederick, VA and Michael’s just-opened MVink and ink.sack in Los Angeles).

Their new cookbook is cleverly constructed around families—the one they share, their respective professional families in the kitchens of their restaurants, and the food they cook with, which is presented in an unusual arrangement of 20 family groups (from avian to goosefoot to nightshade). Each brother contributes half of the book’s 80 recipes, and this is where it gets interesting. Though they share a common family and childhood history, one that drew them both into the kitchen, their educational, professional and life experience has taken them on different though sometimes converging paths (they both worked for chef Charlie Palmer, for example, but in different restaurants in different cities). These adult experiences are the twist that brings flavor to the dishes and the methods for creating them, as the brothers seldom have the opportunity to cook together.

The book is naturally highly personal, with several of the recipes reminiscent of their childhood memories of food and meals with family and friends. Michael’s Smelt Fish Sticks with Tomato-Hazelnut cream recalls the tartar-topped fried fish stick of his youth, and Bryan recalls a trip to Memphis in his BBQ Sable Fish dish.

The beautiful book features photos by Ed Anderson, capturing both the finished dishes and the spirit with which they were made. More of an artistic achievement better suited to special meals than a useful tool for day-to-day cooking, the book features extensive use of Voltaggio favorites like sous vide, liquid nitrogen and dehydration, though each recipe offers alternatives for less skilled or less equipped cooks. The layout of the book is especially helpful for cooks looking to produce seasonal dishes, as you can browse by whatever ingredients are fresh and available.

Some highlights include Bryan’s Mock Oyster, which plays with oyster leaf and salsify (aka oyster plant) to create a dish that mimics the plants’ namesake. We also really liked the look of Michael’s Pork Belly, Big Squid Ramen in which he substitutes sliced squid for noodles.

The book’s celebration of family and the contrasting styles of the two brothers reminds us all of the intensely inter-personal nature of food and its role in our lives. The physical book is available from Amazon; an iBook version with bonus recipes and video content is available in the iTunes store.

Photos courtesy of Ed Anderson; portrait by Evan Orensten

Cherry spoons and bone-shaped treats—pas pour les chiens!

On a recent visit to beloved Parisian boulangerie and patisserie Poilâne, we scooped up the two newest flavors in their line of savory and sweet biscuits—cherry cookies in the shape of spoons (nicely complimenting their curry forks and shortbread spoons) and dog bones aptly called Pas Pour Les Chiens (not for dogs).

The bone-shaped cookies by celebrity cartoon dogs Caperino and Peperone (little caper and big pepperoni—”guess why”), most famous for their work with Paris boutique Colette, certainly look like something made for K9s, but non. According to a charming comic strip enclosed in each box of eight, the cookies simply got their shape during the dogs’ hijinks with their hats in the Poilâne kitchen.

Olivier Kuntzel and Florence Deygas, the artists behind Caperino and Peperone, also helped to design the packaging on the Pas Pour Les Chiens biscuits—just the latest extension of their cartoon characters, whose repertoire of collaborations includes Swarovski, Nike, Fendi, Kidrobot and several others.

As for their flavor, Chef Lior Lev Sercarz of La Boîte created a spicy blend of nutmeg and ground peppercorns called “Fourmis Rouge” (Red Ant), bridging savory and sweet tastes. The cherry spoons are all sweet, with just a hint of the fruit, for a snack at any time throughout the day.

The biscuits are baked in Paris and shipped to NYC, selling for $15 for a box of eight at La Bôite. Or, pick them up from the Poilâne online shop or their stores in Paris and London.

Bring some all-natural aloha to your tastebuds with this small-batch granola from Kauai

Since 1986 Anahola Granola has been handmaking granola with a focus on fresh, quality ingredients in Hawaii. Founder Becky Burns’ obsession with the region’s surplus of exotic, tropical flavors dates back even further to when she bought a one-way ticket to the islands in the summer of ’69. This affinity for the land combined with baking skills learned as a child pushed Burns to start her venture by selling granola at local fairs and farmer’s markets throughout the islands. As demand grew so did production, while the recipe stayed the same.

Standards for quality remain unchanged too; each variety of granola—original, tropical, mango ginger—ships the day after it’s made. Our personal preference leans toward the tropical granola, made with the Anahola mix of whole grain oats, seeds and local honeys, superbly accented with sun-ripened papaya, coconut and sweet pineapple.

For granola on the go, the MacaMania bars burst with the same delicious island flavors. Using Burn’s original granola as a base, the bar is studded with Hawaiian-grown macadamia nuts, flavored with sweet honey and brown sugar, and gets its crunch from puffed brown rice cereal. We may have just been hungry, but the sliced MacaMania bar disappeared seconds after we snapped these images.

Burns’ treats are now served in many of Hawaii’s upscale hotels and restaurants, and sell through a long list of health food stores, cafes, grocery stores, as well as from Anahola Granola’s online store. Each 12-ounce bag sells for $6, while the MacaMania bars go for $2.50 each.

Quante volte lo avrei voluto usare in un giappo/cinese. Design by Aïssa Logerot.
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