Epic Portions

Author: Todd

  • Tabbouleh makes you shake your booty

    This is great. Makes me want a falafel!

  • I Want Prison Carrott Cake

    Check out this recipe for Rikers Island prison carrot cake. Apparently its the favorite of the inmates.  If it’s good enough for Rikers, it should be good enough for you, your family, and literally…your 12,999 closest friends.  Just gotta make 100 of the batches below:

    Yay! 25 Loaves of Prison-made Carrot Cake!

    Rikers Island Carrot Cake

    25 pounds sugar

    3 gallons vegetable oil

    25 pounds flour

    8 ounces salt

    1 pound baking powder

    8 ounces baking soda

    6 ounces nutmeg

    6 ounces allspice

    4 ounces clove powder

    4 ounces ginger

    8 ounces cinnamon

    25 pounds carrots

    25 pounds eggs

    8 pounds walnuts

    20 pounds raisins

    8 ounces vanilla extract

    1. Place in a mixing bowl – sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove powder, allspice, baking powder, baking sods, salt. Using a paddle mix on slow for five minutes.

    2. Add raisins, carrots, walnuts, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract mix on slow speed for an additional five minutes.

    3. Increase speed to medium for 10 minutes.

    4. Pour into loaf pans. Pans should be three-quarters full.

    5. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes.

    Each batch makes 25 loaves of carrot cake.

    Maybe cut this recipe by 25?  Now THAT’S a math problem you can sink your teeth into.  Heh.  Heh. Heh.  Why do I suddenly feel like that guy from reading rainbow?

    Why does Rikers look like my old dorm room?

  • Restaurant Tickets

    "I told you, I don't want 9:00 reservations. I want 8:30 reservations!" "Can I get a corner table?" "Do these come with wine?"

    Grant Achatz, the chef of Chicago’s Alinea, which is currently ranked as the #10 restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine, has come up with a way of making restaurant eating a bit more…stramlined.   Check out the NY Times article where Achatz talks about selling tickets to his new restaurant (instead of taking reservations) as a way of saving money, making restaurant reservations transferable easily (his staff don’t have to do didilly), and taking the awkward food-for-money transactions out of an otherwise excellent evening (How much DO you tip on a $500 bill?).  You basically buy a prix fix meal. Tickets for later in the evening would be cheaper (off-peak tickets), which is sort of equivalent to a matinee show.

    Here’s my question:  Would there be scalpers for tickets like this?

    This figure ads nothing at all to this post. I just thought this dude was hilarious.

    Alinea is booked for months solid.  It’s like that his NEXT Restaurant (the actual name!) will be too.  How much would you pay for a reservation tomorrow?  Craigslist/StubHub?/Ebay would LIGHT UP if this idea catches on.   No matter what happens….Alinea.  I want to go to there.