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Come Party With Me: Gossip Girl Premiere - Drinks

partysugar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:50:55 -0700

No season premiere party is complete without a special drink, especially if the show in question is Gossip Girl, where the characters seem to be constantly guzzling cocktails. All the recipes I'm making next Monday night were created by acclaimed New York City chefs: Daniel Boulud, Mario Batali, Eric Ripert - Blair and Serena have surely dined at their respective restaurants.

Not to be forgotten is Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The Frenchman came up with this Champagne-based concoction, an elegant take on the classic bellini. Instead of peach nectar, Jean-Georges uses a combination of cherry puree and yuzu juice.

Don't worry if you can't get your hands on fresh yuzu; Vongerichten recommends a mixture of tangerine and lime juice instead. To look at the recipe, keep reading.

Definition: Yuzu

YumSugar — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:00:20 -0700

Yuzu
A citrus fruit of East Asian origin that is tangerine sized and green or yellow in color, with a tart flavor and distinctive floral aroma. Yuzu is rarely eaten as a raw fruit (and its fresh form is hard to come by in the United States). Rather, its juice is used to flavor dishes and sauces, and its rind is used to make marmalade or garnish foods such as miso soup.
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For The Love Of Ice Cream Roundup

YumSugar — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 07:01:38 -0700

Well everyone, it looks like we do indeed all scream for ice scream! I am so impressed, when I asked you all to submit your own ice cream post, I was not expecting such a great turnout - there were 26 entries! They ranged from adult ice cream sodas to watermelon bombs and everything in between. One of my personal favorites even has a video to accompany it.

Entries #1 & #2
Our first two entries come from TeamSugar members beamer1 and crispet1. For this challenge they've put their minds together and have come up with a mango frappe and a scoop of mango ice cream with sticky rice. They both sound amazing, I'm not sure which one I would choose!

Entries #3 & 4
TeamSugar member sumnboutme wants to make sure we know about Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream with flavors like Thai Chili, Salty Caramel and Goat Cheese with Balsamic Cherries, how can you go wrong?! Sumnboutme also wants to make sure we check out her recipe for a Lemon Fog Martini - vodka, triple sec, lemon sorbet, sign me up!

Entry #5
The next entry comes from Curious Alice. She has a whole batch of ice cream tips including, great definitions, how to make your own ice cream, and a review of several machines.

Entry #6
Pam of Project Foodie reminds us all that no matter where you are in life, ice cream is always a first love.

Entry #7
J in Walnut Creek has a great story about how when she was a child, she and her pal stole ice cream, dropped it on the floor and ate it anyway. Loved it!

Entry #8
It's as if TS member luvbriere is trying to melt my heart. What could be better than an orange custard ice cream? How about and orange custard that is mixed with chocolate chips and caramel & chocolate swirls.

Entry #9
All the way from Turkey we have Cenk at Cafe Fernando with amazing sounding Gianduja Gelato. Oh and did I mention it was an ice cream sandwich too?

To check out the rest of the spectacular ice cream roundup (and believe me, it's worth it, you guys were awesome), read more

Entry #10
Paula wanted to let us know about the best ginger ice cream ever. It's so good she suggests you eat it naked, as in plain!

Entry #11
Kat from Berkeley based KungFoodie, wrote in to tell us about her Honey Sweet Frozen Peach Yogurt. Anytime yogurt can be described as XXX sounds fab to me!

Entry #12
PartySugar's gonna drool when she sees this dulce de leche & nougat ice cream that Rachel dreamed up.

Entry #13
Mercedes in New York sends us two classic Italian deserts in one with a tiramisu ice cream. Plus, she's got an ice cream project up her sleeve for the month of August!

Entry #14
Anne sends this Irish Coffee Ice Cream Cake all the way from Sweden! The best part? You don't even need an ice cream maker!

Entry #15
My French is a little rusty, but Edith sent in this lovely white chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate chunks proving that great food transcends languages.

Entry #16
Jason of YuzuMura sends this intriguing recip for pistachio saffron kulfi. I can't wait to try it!

Entry #17
My pal Meeta at What's For Lunch, Honey? brings us this show-stopping, beautiful, don't settle for second best cherry semifreddo cake.

Entry #18
Ulrike writes in all the way from Nothern Germany just to share choclate ice cream. If you're not a fan of chocolate, there's always marzipan, honey lavender, tarragon and more!

Entry #19
TeamSugar member mellafe would love to share her favorite drink Cafe Helado. Coffee powder, milk, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream? Yum!

Entry #20
Gabi from The Feast Within has graced us with a spiced Ibarra Mexican chocolate ice cream. Delish!

Entry #21
TeamSugar member radarkitty sends us this great tale about ice cream, baseball and a famous old man.

Entry #22
WildHeavenFarm tempts our palates with something she calls Dirty Monkey Ice Cream. There isn't a photo to accompany it because it was devoured before one could be taken!

Entry #23
Who says ice cream soda has to be for kids? Not davie_k, she suggests adding a shot of vodka to an ice cream soda for a nice grown-up twist.

Entry #24
Why stop at vodka? Our own SweetPeasMom continues the adult ice cream trend with her Pina Colada Smoothie. Ice cream and rum!!! Seriously do I need to say anything else?!

Entry #25
And finally our last entry comes from lickety split who decided to make the beautiful watermelon bombe. Check out the video below:

Entry #26
Update: This one went missing in my inbox, but you guys can not miss out on it. Brooke from Colorado sends us a simple recipe for an amazingly simple, extremly sniful fabulous ice cream cake. I'm going to have to make this one sometime!

Thanks again to everyone who sent in their submissions! If you still haven't had your fill of ice cream, don't forget that we're still creating new ice cream sandwiches each week!

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Top Chef: May the Best Chef Win (Season 2 Finale Recap)

YumSugar — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:29:52 -0800

Well, we reached the end of Top Chef Season 2! We can now stop speculating which chef is better than the other. Was the finale what you expected? Did you have money on the right candidate? Or did you just stop caring after last week?

The episode starts off with Marcel and Ilan frolicking on a beach in Hawaii. They eat fresh sea urchin for breakfast (which, although my opinion of sea urchin is not always high, I was crazy jealous of) and Marcel even gets stung by one and is forced to pee on his hand. At this point I need to stop the recap for a second and say that I have been tastefully avoiding this topic all season long, but really what was the whole Ilan wanting to pee on Marcel, how homo-erotic was that? And have you noticed it all season long?? - Okay back to recap.

The chefs are told they need to make a 5-course dinner for eight. They get to pick up their produce at a local farmer's market. They will then have four hours of prep time before heading to their respective restaurants where they will have one hour to cook. Ilan is cooking at Donatoni's Restaurant and Marcel will cook at Imari.

Full recap with big time spoilers ahead, including the WINNER, so read more

Before heading to the farmer's market, the finalists are greeted with ghosts from their past. Mike, Mia, Betty, Frank, Elia and Sam are there to be sous chefs. Surprisingly, half of them want to work with Ilan and the other half, Marcel. Marcel ends up choosing Sam, who convinces him to pick Mikey (which, no offense to Mikey, but really, you've a lot on the line and you pick the perpetually stoney-sounding Mikey??). Ilan chooses his BFF Elia and then Betty. Frank and Mia once again get sent packing.

Each chef needed to prepare a five course meal, for eight guests.
The guests were:

The three regulars (Padma, Gail and Tom)
Hubert Keller
Michelle Bernstein
Scott Conant
Roy Yamaguchi
Wylie Dufrense

The chefs both end up picking great produce (did you see those rambutans!?!) and built their recipes around what they saw. Ilan was up first and he served:

Overall the judges loved the meal, they thought the appetizer was okay, they LOVED the soup, thought the lobster sauce on the squab was great, wished they could get more from the short ribs, but were crazy for the dessert. From my vantage point, I thought the soup sounded great (I love gazpacho, so a macadamia nut gazpacho sounded even more delicious) and I definitely wanted to try the bay leaf fritter. Talk about a great infusion of sweet and savory!

Next up was Marcel. Now right from the beginning you knew this was going to be a disaster. They had talking head clips of Mikey and Sam talking about a hectic kitchen, and then the Bravo TV cameraman zoomed in on several trays left in the hotel fridge. Like I said, not a good sign. However Marcel still managed to pull out a great looking meal. He served:

Like I mentioned earlier, there were a few snafus. Marcel's ingenious encapsulated vinaigrette teardrops didn't work due to the humidity and the fish for the third dish got left behind (lucky for Marcel, Sam was able to whip up an alternate dish). The judges, however, enjoyed the meal. They liked the texture of the urchin, they thought the salad was a bit weak, loved the balanced flavor of the sea beans, thought his beef was better than Ilan's and thought the blinis were whimsical and clever. From my point of view, I also thought the blinis looked fun, I couldn't figure out why on earth he would tell the judges that he forgot the fish, and I was saddened by the fact that his tear drops didn't work out.

Now for the judge's table. They liked everything and were split on whom to declare the winner, so they got some input from the sous chefs. Elia said Ilan should win because his food was superior (even if she didn't taste or see Marcel's), Mikey and Sam confessed that Marcel's kitchen wasn't run very well. Sam also took credit for the sea beans.

After much deliberation, the judges finally have a winner.
This year's Top Chef is Ilan Hall.
Were you surprised? I wasn't really, although I wouldn't have been surprised if Marcel won either.

Now for a few things to discuss:

Marcel telling the judges he forgot the fish. Why would you do that?
Even though Sam fixed the fish dish, he takes credit for the sea beans, but weren't the sea beans actually Marcel's idea? He said he was going to do fish with palm and sea beans

Elia dissing Marcel - Really did she need to get so petty? I've lost a lot of respect for her.
Were you as weirded out as I was about the whole urchins and peeing scene?
Would you have chosen Mikey as a sous chef?
Was the fish forgotten on purpose?
At the end Marcel says, "I thought it was going to take more than saffron and paprika to beat me." My guy swears he said "f**king saffron." Did you hear it?
Before declaring the winner Tom says, "One of you may go on to be the superior chef, but in the end our decision was based on who we believe to be the best chef right now." Do you think he believes Marcel will be a better chef than Ilan?
Did you think the right person won?

Discuss!

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Source: Bravo TV