YumSugar

Hello Nurse! Is Our Table Ready?

YumSugar — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:44:51 -0700

In marketing terms, a trend can't be declared until there is at least three of the same thing. Well, third times a charm and I am officially declaring waitresses dressed as "hot nurses" a trend. Back in December I told you about the Heart Attack Grill in Arizona - and now I can tell you about two new places in Asia.

First there's the hospital-themed restaurant-bar in Tapei, D.S. Music Restaurant, where customers can sit around a hospital bed and order "medicine" from a menu and have it drip into their glasses from a vat suspended from the ceiling.

Second is a bar in Shenzhen (south China) where the bartenders are dressed as nurses and serve wine and drinks from syringes and test tubes.

Those two places, combined with the Heart Attack Grill, definitely equal a trend. What's next? Barmacy? Oh wait, there used to be one of those in New York, not to mention Damien Hirst's defunct fancy Pharmacy in London. Maybe the medical trend is just coming back?

Source: Spluch
Image Source

Caffeine Could Be Good For Women's Memory

YumSugar — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:03:11 -0700

What was this post going to be about? I completely forgot what I was going to write. If only I drank more caffeine...

According to a new French study, drinking three or more daily cups of coffee or tea may help women preserve their memory. Participants in the study took several tests over the course of four years. The women who stated they drank at least three cups of coffee or tea per day showed less of a drop in test scores during the study, than their non-caffeine drinking counterparts. Although the study was conducted on older women (65+), and is only observational, I can't help but wonder whether if I should start my daily coffee routine back up.

Source: CBS News via Topix
Image Source

What to Do If You Swallow a Fish Bone

YumSugar — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:30:52 -0700

Over the weekend, my guy and I were enjoying a salmon fillet with soy glaze that we'd made together for dinner, when he got a small pin bone stuck in his throat. I told him I had the perfect solution for his problem, and it wasn't the water he was pounding. Instead, I brought him a soft piece of bread.

When a fish bone gets lodged in your passageways, the best remedy, I've found, is a small chunk of bread - it surrounds the bone, helping to move it down. Of course, if you have serious, persistent pain, seek medical help. You don't, after all, want to wind to wake up weeks later, like a Taiwanese woman did, with a pointed object piercing the side of your neck!

Source: Flickr User FotoosVanRobin

Man Dies in Company-Sponsored Pastry Eating Contest

YumSugar — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:00:22 -0800

A few months ago we noticed that competitive eating was a rapidly growing "sport": This year, 1.5 million people tuned in to ESPN to watch the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, and there's now a game, Major League Eating, available on the Nintendo Wii. Yet while it's entertainment for many, it comes at a cost for others. Yesterday, Saurab Sabharwal, a 22-year-old engineer at Nokia-Siemens in Gurgaon, India, died during a company-sponsored pastry eating contest held in the office cafeteria. After choking, he ran to the bathroom alone, and was found unconscious an hour later. Colleagues called for an ambulance, which rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. This isn't the first death we've heard of from competitive eating. Last month, a Taiwanese student fell unconscious and died during a steamed bun eating contest.

Does this call for further measures to be taken, so that others don't get hurt? Should a medical expert have been mandated to stand by, just in case? Or should government officials consider placing a ban on eating contests?

Source

Saucy PETA Campaign Links Vegetarianism to Virility

YumSugar — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:00:07 -0700

Animal-rights organization PETA is known for its head-turning campaigns, and its latest one is no different. PETA Asia Pacific's newest ads feature model-actress Alicia Mayer in a lingerie set holding a suggestive banana, provoking, "Eating meat got you down? Get it up! Go vegetarian." PETA states:

A man who stuffs his belly full of dead pig flesh in the kitchen might end up delivering dead wood in the bedroom. High cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancer and inflammation, and hormonal imbalances cause the vast majority of all cases of impotence. The good news is that medical science has proved that all of these conditions can be virtually eliminated with a low-fat vegan diet.

My guess is that this campaign is part of an effort by PETA to turn more guys into vegetarians. After all, masculinity has long been associated with eating meat. While I find the ad entertaining, I'm not sure it will be enough to convert insecure men. Do you find the tagline amusing or offensive? And could you see it converting more males into vegetarians?

Source

Would You Quit Your Job and Go to Pastry School?

YumSugar — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 05:01:33 -0700

I was listening to NPR the other day, when I heard a story about how many white-collar professionals are swapping their power suits for aprons. The folks behind Sprinkles Cupcakes did it, and they're not the only ones. In fact, the California School of Culinary Arts just added their first evening and weekend patisserie program. Rebecca Mars of CSCA, said:

"They're now wanting to pursue maybe a passion they've always had... Now they've seen some success with other businesses like Sprinkles, and they've seen that they're successful and think they could probably be as well."

Why folks are doing this, no one's really sure. Maybe it's because everyone is currently "self-medicating" with sweets, and people want in on the trend before it's over. No matter what the cause, I think it's fantastic. Although it does make me wonder just how many cupcake shops one town needs...

How about you, would you quit your job and go to pastry school?

Source

Take Two and Call Me In The Morning

YumSugar — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:13:33 -0700

As I've mentioned before, we've got a small candy problem here at Sugar HQ. So it should come as no surprise that at least five of my cohorts forwarded this information to me.

In the town of Barcelona, Spain, the coolest candy store has set up shop. Designed by studio m, the store - called Happy Pills - has taken the pharmacy theme and run with it. The narrow, hallway sized shop is your standard, by-the-pound candy store, except that everything is packaged in plastic medicine-style bottles. They also have pre-packed "medical kits" and "first aid" supplies.

It reminds me a bit of the emergency chocolate bar, and well you know, I guess sometimes a spoonful of sugar is the best medicine after all.

My question is, how long until someone replaces the Sugar HQ first aid kit with this one?!?

Source: Design Milk

One On One With Gail Simmons - Part 1

YumSugar — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:10:40 -0700

A few weeks ago PartySugar and I were supposed to meet Top Chef's resident ice queen - yes, the one from Food & Wine magazine - only she never showed up. Instead we met the wonderfully sweet, surprisingly goofy Gail Simmons. So how does someone so nice get such a bad-a** reputation? Turns out it's all due to editing, but we'll get to that later.

We met Simmons, who was in town for a wine festival in Sonoma, at Boulettes Larder for a picturesque breakfast at the Ferry Building. And while she wouldn't divulge any Top Chef secrets - except to say that a lot of the blogs have been wrong, something that was obvious last week - she did offer up a few behind the scene tidbits, as well as the rundown of her career - and yes, she is perfectly qualified to be a judge.

If you've ever wanted to know more about this Top Chef judge, check out part one of our interview with her. And be sure to come back next week for part two! read more

We started the morning off with a little bit of random chit-chat - she was miraculously given a convertible at the rental car agency and was picking up Season 2 winner Ilan Hall at the airport - but quickly moved on to how she got her start. Believe it or not, her mother ran a small cooking school and wrote a food column, I guess you could say a culinary career was in her genes.

"My mother had a food column. - I'm from Canada. I'll confess, that's my dirty little secret. I grew up in Toronto. - She was writing for the Globe and Mail [Canada's largest national paper] and had a small cooking school out of our home. That being said, I never wanted to be anything like my mom. Not for any reason, as she's extraordinary, but at the age of 18, you don't want to be told you're just like your mom."

Although her future was right in front of her nose, Gail Simmons had to go out and do something for herself. First stop was McGill University in Montreal where she majored in anthropology and Spanish language. While there she cooked for herself and her friends and eventually started writing restaurant reviews for the school paper.

"Even though my mother was in the food industry, for most of my life, it never occurred to me that that could be a career. When I graduated all of my friends were literally going to law school, medical school, or doing their MBAs. When you'd go around the table and get to Gail it was like, 'Well, I really like to eat.'"

Unsure of what was next, she moved back to Toronto and received an internship at a monthly magazine called Toronto Life. While there she found herself being drawn to the food department. After a few small pieces and reviews, she realized that she couldn't deny it any longer, she was following her mom's footsteps. With a short stint at the magazine on her resumé, she transferred to a new national newspaper where it became evident that in order to move up in this newly-found profession, she would have to learn more about food. So she packed her bags - or should I say knives - and moved to New York to attend an impacted culinary school program.

"I loved it, it was like food camp. All of a sudden I realized I knew nothing about food, and I don't know how I thought I did before. You realize that the language of food and the language of chefs is so different. But it definitely solidified that I was in the right place. I figured it out, I found out what I wanted to do."

However, it wasn't enough to have a culinary school education under her belt. In order to be bonafide, she had to serve some time in a real kitchen. She first cooked at Le Cirque 2000 and later at Jean-Georges's Vong.

"It was the hardest job I've ever had in my life. The only time I've ever lost weight was when I worked in a kitchen. It was a lot of hardwork, you're on your feet all day. It was super demanding on my body and on my mind. The first few years of being a cook is really manual labor. Tons and tons of carrots, or the perfect dice."

After a while she realized that she wanted to use the writing side of her brain more and by a stroke of good luck and a lot of serendipity, she ended up landing a gig as Jeffrey Steingarten's assistant.

"I was talking with the school's career services director and he asked me what my dream job was. I had just finished The Man Who Ate Everything and said that my dream job was to be Jeffery Steingarten's assistant. He looked at me and said, 'That's so funny, he's looking for an assistant.' I swear to you, that was exactly how the conversation went. That was a Friday, I got my resume in on Monday, I interviewed Wednesday and got the job the following Friday... Alone in a house with him for two years, making goose, after goose, after pizza, after goose, was a crazy adventure."

After two years with Steingarten, she became the special events manager for Daniel Boulud's The Dinex Group and is currently the Special Projects Manager for Food & Wine Magazine.

See folks? I told you that she was qualified to judge! And now that you know a little bit more about her, wait until you discover what she thinks about reality TV, food trends, and what she'd be doing if she wasn't in the food world. Be sure to come back next week for part two of our chat with Gail!

Image Source

National Daiquiri Day

partysugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:03:23 -0700

According to the generally accepted legend, in 1905 a mining engineer named Jennings Cox landed on the shores of a Cuban beach called Daiquiri. When he ran out of gin while entertaining fellow Americans, Cox invented the daiquiri. He had an abundant supply of rum, sugar, and limes and the drink was an invention of necessity. The daiquiri stayed local until a US Navy medical officer introduced it to Washington DC's army and navy clubs. Later, the drink was highly popularized by Earnest Hemingway who enjoyed the cocktail with twice as much rum at the famous Cuban bar, El Flordita. Rumor has it that he once consumed 16 daiquiris in one sitting! To make a classic daiquiri - it is National Daiquiri day! - read more

Classic Daiquiri
From Epicurious
Image Source

2 ounces light rum
1 ounce plus one teaspoon fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup or superfine sugar

In cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. Shake vigorously, then strain into cocktail glass.

Makes 1.

Print recipe with images | without images

Image Source

Come Party With Me: Graduation - Invites

partysugar — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 07:08:19 -0700

If you are in charge of planning a graduation party this year - whether it's for a sixth grader who's heading off to junior high or a medical student who's finishing their PhD - be sure to follow along in this week's party plan. All week I'll be providing you with inspiring ideas, delicious dishes, and much more to help make your grad bash the most memorable party around. Remember it's your party and you can be as traditional or nontraditional as you want. Sure you could spend a bunch of money on formal announcements with matching invitations, but you could also create an equally intriguing invitation on your computer at home like I'm doing for my little sister. To see what I've put together in no time at all read more

Tricia, my sister is graduating from college on June 17. She doesn't want to send out super stuffy invitations and asked me to incorporate the symbol of her sorority, the fleur de lys, into a simple yet stylish announcement instead. It's a good idea to keep the invite easy because you will want to send out lots of announcements. To make a similar invitation you will need:

a symbol or image such as the one below
a computer & printer
cardstock
glue
scissors

To assemble a similar invitation:

Start by adding a border to your symbol image. Once satisfied with the image print out.

Create a new document in word. Write out the details of the graduation and the party. Make it clear whether the guest is invited to the commencement ceremony, the party, or both. For Tricia's I wrote the following in the text Snell Roundhand, size 16:

The Dean, Faculty & Graduating Class of the
Eleanor Roosevelt College at USCD
Are proud to announce the commencement of

Patricia Hogan Sweeney
With a degree in
International Relations & Migration Studies
on
Sunday the 17 of June
Two Thousand And Seven

Please join her family in a toast to the grad
With appetizers and champagne
Sunday evening, 7:00 pm
PartySugar’s House, San Francisco

Rsvp 415.555.5553

Print out a test copy and double check the spelling and information before you print out a massive quantity.

Print out on the cardstock of your choice.

Glue the fleur de lys symbol page to the back.

Slide into an envelope, address with your best handwriting and send.

Whose graduation are you celebrating this year? How will you be saluting their accomplishments? Please share with me below!

View 11 Photos ›