Food news antipasto

It’s Sunday, which means time for a review of all the little items that I found interesting over the week but that did not warrant an entire post. We’ll begin with the kitchen hack of the week: Martha Stewart’s method to remove those pesky price stickers that are applied to cookware and serving ware. It involves a common appliance that most of us have, but it isn’t a kitchen appliance. Martha uses a hair dryer to heat up the sticker (and therefore the glue), so that it peels off without leaving a residue. I tried the hack this evening and while the sticker did not come off in one piece, there was almost no glue left on the bottom of the item. Score another one for Martha.  

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between almond paste and marzipan? It’s easy to get the two confused, but indexed magazine Taste of Home sets us straight. Almond paste is the simpler of the two, containing just almonds, sugar, and (frequently) glycerin. Marzipan, however, contains additional sugar, water, and sometimes egg whites. The article also explains what exactly fondant is made of – when you learn what the ingredients are, you will better understand why it doesn’t taste great. 

If you like podcasts, comedians, and food, you might want to tune into comedian Dan Ahdoot’s new podcast ‘Green Eggs and Dan’. In the irreverant program, Ahdoot talk with other comedians about a range of topics, kicking off the conversation with a discussion of what is in their refrigerators. “Fridges are the real windows to the soul,” Ahdoot says in the introduction to the podcast. 

Turning to a more serious topic, I am highlighting a podcast featuring J. Kenji López-Alt, who is mostly known for his scientific approach to recipes. Before he worked for America’s Test Kitchen and later Serious Eats, Kenji was as a line cook, beginning at the elegant No. 9 Park restaurant and continuing through a string of high-end establishments. Those days of working in professional kitchens exposed Kenji to a harsh environment that included significant abuse. Now that he has started his own restaurant, Kenji is taking the lessons he learned from his time at the back of the house to run a kitchen that is free from the machismo and cruelty he observed. He explains how he’s doing that on the podcast Man Up.

Photo of Marzipan from Delicious Magazine (UK)