Taco de Asador

The book that launched a thousand one-eyed salutes in the pants of food geeks across the globe was the literal elephant in the room during dinner at the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory (IVL). This lab nee motorcycle machine shop is where every parametric recipe and epic image present in Modernist Cuisine was developed, created, tested, replicated and documented by Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet along with a team of dozens of stagiares.

Lab Kitchen- Maxime Bilet, left

I should say every image was created in the lab save the one of ballistics gelatin, which was shot in the forest at night. Picture a gaggle of lab coat-clad boy-men traipsing through the dark woods armed with sheet pans of gel and a wildly expensive camera with which to capture the quivering nuances of goo as it shimmies through space. And yes, for those of you considering bellying-up to the standing-room only bar that doles out volumes of the book for the not inconsiderable sum of $466.62 (current price on Amazon), you WILL get the recipe for ballistics gelatin. Read more

*It’s tricky for a soldier to lug around a DSLR camera while deployed, hence these decidedly non-food geek point-and-shoot shots.

I’m going to call this a “guest post” of sorts. Brad, a close friend of mine from childhood,  is in the Army. I don’t see nearly enough of him nowadays, because he’s been busy bomb-dodging in Iraq. I appreciate that there are people like him in this world willing to do what they do so that I can enjoy a relatively-bucolic life. I have been meaning to share his story for some time, but it did not  fit within the context of this blog- until now. It occurred to me to ask Brad about life in Iraq as it pertains to food. The answers reveal so much more.

When I received his responses to my questions, I experienced a series of emotions. Initially I felt frivolous for asking, coupled with a grave sense of guilt over the existence of this “war.” Ultimately, however, I realized that completing this exercise provided him with a welcome respite from his unsavory surroundings, and so it was for the best.

It’s a meaty read, as I chose to preserve his answers in their entirety rather than truncate, but I think you’ll find it worth your attention.

Brad: First off I have to give you some context of my situation. Nine hours ago our patrol was hit yet again by a large IED (roadside bomb). I thought my only friend within the platoon just got blown off the planet but much to my relief he had just stopped his vehicle because he noticed something wasn’t quite right. The bomb in the road went off in front of him and engulfed him in thick black smoke but left him otherwise unharmed.

Yesterday while walking to the platoon office with this same friend, we heard a loud zip above our heads followed by a large explosion 75 meters to our left. Long story short, we had a 200 meter dash for safety. It was a rocket that detonated into a concrete wall. Just prior to these two incidents, I had another encounter moments after reporting for duty after a two week trip back home. It happened an hour after I got off the chopper. Two RPG’s (rocket-propelled grenades) fired at our observation post and at one of our towers. Not that those places serve any particular interest, it’s just where the enemy has a fetish for attacking.

That being said, I’m now on to the questions which I sincerely look forward to answering.

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*horror of horrors, this post is light on pictures.. It’s so rife with soul-bearing and topic traipsing that I didn’t feel a set of images would have enough unification to tie-in the words. Not one to leave you high and dry, however, if you are a good little reader and make it all the way to the end, you will be rewarded with a short video created by The Wind Attack, featuring Salty Seattle, and showcasing a project conjured by The Chocolate of Meats and Sippity Sup with participation by their friends, Joy the Baker and Out A Thyme.

If the little Linda in this shot knew how great last week would be, she would've been grinning from dimple to dimple

Last week was one of those “pinch me” weeks. First I got to meet my idol, my muse, my longtime inspiration for all things nouveau cuisine- Grant Achatz. Then I had the surreal experience of watching myself on television on a super fantastic program called Food(ography). I made madcap recipes for the Food(ography) crew and they chose to feature a particularly fun one, mozzarella balloons. As it turns out, on the same night that my episode of Food(ography) aired, another wacky new television show called Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen featured mozzarella balloons too, with a different outcome. The star of the show, Top Chef Marcel Vigneron, attempts the balloons and decrees that they “aren’t feasible.” Well Marcel, if you’d like a lesson, my kitchen is your kitchen.

The real icing (duck fat) on the cake (rillettes) however, was discovering that the reigning queen of food, Ms. Ruth Reichl herself, had featured a blog post and recipe of mine on her website. As I said on my facebook account when I first heard, “that’s like god asking to make out with you.” Read more