What's your State's weirdest food?

Analyzing Food Genius database of 88,000 menus, Co.Design built this map of the each state’s most unusual popular food.

Check out the top 5 interesting foods of each state here. Continue...

Eastern European cities made out of food!

Food stylist Anna Kevillle Joyce partnered up with photographer Agustin Nieto to do an amazing photo series illustrating four famous capitals in Eastern Europe with delicious local foods, taking "playing with your food" to the next level!

Check out more capitals here.



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Read about the story behind Try The World on Zipcar's travel magazine

Read about how my co-founder and I launched Try The World, an gourmet subscription box delivering amazing food from around the world right to your door on Zipcar's online travel magazine. Continue...

Do you love international food?

Sign up for Try The World, my new subscription box service that will send you a box of the most authentic and delicious gourmet products from a different country every two months!

The gourmet journey begins with Paris, Tokyo and Rio... and goes on to other fun destinations! Each box contains a delightful selection of yummy treats (along with some unexpected finds) from around the world and a Culture Book with movies, music, recipes, and more!

Http://TryTheWorld.com



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Kat and Steven Page try brain quesadillas on The Illegal Eater

Today I met Steven Page, former singer of The Barenaked Ladies, to shoot an episode for his new reality TV show "The Illegal Eater", which premiers this fall on the Canadian Network Travel+Escape. 

Steven Page and Kat of Weird Food Club

We met at La Superior, a Mexican restaurant in Williamsburg, to try some pork brain quesadillas (sesadillas), beef tongue tacos (tacos de lengua), and a Mexican corn dish called esquites. Since March Steven has been traveling throughout the US and Canada to try unusual and illegal foods, some cooked in speakeatery style restaurants.  In this episode of Illegal Eater, Steven and I chat about indulgence in food, and how extreme and bizarre foods, like balut or live octopus, can be a form of indulgence.

La Superior's taco de lengua, sesadilla, and esquites (photo by Nacxitl)

As we ate our brain quesadillas, our conversation took us to the fact that all parts of the animals could be eaten, including bull penis and testicles. When I asked him if he’s ever had Rocky Mountain oysters, Steven joked that he’s never eaten testicles, at least not ones detached from the shaft.

I had a really great time with Steven. He’s a down to earth, fun and adventurous guy with a great sense of humor. I was seriously impressed by his ability to improvise, one of his signature traits that made Barenaked Ladies famous.

To follow Steven Page on his adventure, like the The Illegal Eater on facebook.

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Life is too short to not try the world :)

 Hi All -

I am proud to announce that I have turned my passion for international food into a new business!

It's called Try The World (www.trytheworld.com)

Try The World is a subscription box service delivering the best products from the most exciting places in the world to your door. Every 60 days, we ship a box of our curated picks from a different country.

We launched this week and are excited to present our first box - the Classic Paris Box.

This box includes some of the finest gourmet products made by family-owned (some over a hundred years old!)businesses using traditional methods sourced from across France. We are most excited about our sel de guerande (considered the most prized of all salts for its texture and complex mineral content), all natural black olive tapenade from the South of France, and a chestnut spread (yes for you weird food lovers, this one might be a hit!)

Clément Faugier

Chestnut spread

 I am super excited about this box as I have been a huge fan of all things French ever since I lived in Paris for a year back in 2005-2006. We've timed the launch of this box specifically for Mother's Day because pretty much all mothers love French things - n'est ce pas?  It really makes a great gift. :)

We are working hard on our next 2 boxes - Tokyo and Istanbul! If you know of any particular amazing Japanese or Turkish products that we simply must include, please send me a note at sayhello at trytheworld dot com.


In the meantime, please like and share our facebook page to stay tuned.

Thank you!!

Xoxo
Kat Continue...

Ladurée introduces new flavors - tomorrow!

Today I had the pleasure of tasting the new rose & green tea macaron that will be available starting tomorrow, Saturday February 2, at Ladurée in New York. It combines two of my favorite things – Le Pétale de Rose macaron and green tea cream filling, a mix of romantic French and traditional Japanese. It is a concoction that melts in your mouth, confuses yet enchants you at the same time. When tasting it, it brings both the associations of a blooming rose garden in France and a matcha tea ceremony in Kyoto.

Ladurée rose petal macaron

Ladurée window display in New York

This was my first time visiting Ladurée. I squealed when I saw the store front – decorated with its signature macaron pyramids and fans, purses, and shoes! The magic continued when I entered inside – the rainbow display of macarons, chocolates, candies, jams as well as candles, key chains, stationary, and scarves.  It was too hard to decide what I wanted so I got a set of 6 macarons, a green cone of dragee almonds and some white chocolates.
Ladurée’s only store in the United States (864 Madison Avenue, New York) is also introducing a cognac flavored macaron tomorrow. If you’d like to get one for yourself, be prepared to wait in line. We heard that when this store opened, the line circled around 2 blocks. But it’s not just New Yorkers that are dinge for Ladurée, the lines in Paris at Ladurée shops can be just as long!

The most adorable little box!

Mint is my favorite new color – love how it matches my shoes!

Alexandre, the store manager, divulged that the next Ladurée store will be in Soho on Spring Street, and will likely open in November of 2013. It’s going to be much more than just a macaron shop. It will also be a salon de thés with seating room. In addition to macarons and chocolates, they will offer an assortment of pastries. I can’t wait!

Be sure to check out the two new flavors!

What are your favorite Ladurée flavors?

Kat
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A brief list of our fave bizarre food joints in New York City

With an increasing number of TV shows that venture out and review a range of exotic and bizarre foods around the world, the American palette has become more adventurous in the past few years. Dishes that were once considered strange or reserved for a specific ethnic group have become increasingly sought after as delicacies by a wider demographic. For those in New York City seeking to try bizarre cuisine, consider some of the following locations:

Maharlika, 111 1st Ave, New York, 646-392-7880 This trendy new Filipino restaurant knows its roots and isn’t scared to stray away from the average eater’s comfort zone. Here, you might notice people eating what appears to be a poached egg, but take a closer look and you’ll notice bits of bones and feathers in its own broth. What could it possibly be? Maharlika offers this fertilized duck embryo called a Balut, which is a popular Filipino street snack. Their signature dish, Pampangan Style Sizzling Sisig, consists of pig ears, snout and belly, which is boiled, grilled and sautéed. If you’re feeling less daring but still in the mood for something relatively unconventional, try the beer battered, fresh-from-can, Spam Fries.

El Pequeño Coffee Shop, 86-10 Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights, Queens, 718-205-7128 With a name like that, you might expect to find more muffins and bagels and less roasted guinea pig. But that’s just what you’ll find at this Ecuadorian restaurant located in Queens. This off-menu item, the Cuy, or guinea pig, is spit roasted and served whole–with the head intact. El Pequeño’s began as a humble coffee shop around 15 years ago, but over the years it has morphed into one of New York City’s premier destinations for a modern take on authentic Ecuadorian cuisine.

Sik Gaek, 161-29 Crocheron Ave, Flushing, Queens, 718-321-7770 & 49-11 Roosevelt Ave, Woodside, Queens, 718-205-4555 The most popular item on the extensive menu at this Korean restaurant is Sannakji, or live octopus. Arriving at your table whole and actually moving on its own platter, the octopus will continue quivering even after it is killed right before your eyes. Upon your request, Sik Gaek’s chefs will then chop the tentacles up into smaller pieces, which will eventually cause the octopus to cease wiggling. The real reason to have them chopped up, though, is so you can dip the pieces into the restaurant’s delicious homemade chili sauce.

Watch Weird Food Club members struggle with moving octopus tentacles here.

Ali’s Kebab Café, 2512 Steinway St, Astoria, Queens, 718-728-9858 At this small Egyptian restaurant in Astoria, be sure to ask owner, chef, and artist, Ali el Sayed, for “the good stuff”. You’ll soon be treated with a heaping serving of pan-seared lamb brains, a sautéed lamb heart, spicy veal sweetbreads and finely chopped goat testicles. There’s no menu, so if “the good stuff” seems a bit too wild, the owner will gladly list the dishes he is serving that day. This quaint atmosphere adds to the authentic feel of a real café in Egypt, and enhances the overall eating experience for any good bizarre foods aficionado.
Guest post by Angie Picardo.
Angie Picardo is a staff writer for NerdWallet, a website dedicated to helping consumers find the best credit cards, travel advice, and soon, recipes. Continue...

How many weird foods have you tried?

I tried 89 of 100 rare foods, making me a "True Foodie", according to this quiz.

Only 8 people have tried all 100 foods on this list.

I have yet to try: kangaroo, black truffle, Pavlova cake, fugu, mangosteen, morel mushrooms, chile relleno, purple ketchup, or dessert pizza!



How many rare foods on that list have you tried? Continue...

Hurricane Irene gave us a reason to smile

Everyone on the East Coast prepared for Irene as if the end of the world was coming. We boarded up our windows and stocked up on water and canned food, as the government instructed us all to do. Some of us even evacuated our homes.

My family and I decided to spend the night of the wicked storm together in Bergen County, one of the more elevated areas of New Jersey.

We had a great evening together and even decided to eat dinner with candles lit, to celebrate the impending power outage early. The storm came at night. Wind whistled. Thunder roared. Lightning struck. Massive downpour of rain flooded streets.

When all cleared up in the morning, we took a stroll outside to check the damage. Yes, small rivers formed in the streets, and branches were scattered around. Yes, a few trees were downed. And yep, we didn't have power.

Yet there was one great thing that surprised us all: a fantastic sea of mushrooms covered our neighbors' lawns. It was the greatest harvest of wild mushrooms that any of us had ever seen in our lives. Thanks to Irene, conditions were perfect for thousands of fungi to spring up literally overnight in our suburban town.

Being Russian, our eyes bulging with excitement, we ran with our bags and knives to go mushroom hunting. We looked for lawns that were marked as not chemically treated and collected these completely under-appreciated, misunderstood and even feared things called mushrooms, with permission from property owners (who while expressing their concern for our safety allowed us to do as we liked!).

We collected multiple bags of gorgeous chanterelles, russulas, and boletes. Some of these species can sell for up to $30 per pound! Needless to say, we went home with our booty happy as clams, and proceeded to clean, cut and cook these beauties on our grill and in the fireplace, producing the most spectacular meal.



Nothing tastes better than the food you hunt or gather yourself!


WARNING: mushroom hunting requires expertise! Before attempting this yourself, please review these guidelines to avoid mushrooms that are not only bitter but lethal! Continue...