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Pig's Head

On Gourmet.com, Chris Cosentino demonstrates how to butcher a whole pig's head (via Serious Eats), and how to make porchetta di testa from the meat, skin, snout, tongue, &c. Not for the squeamish, I guess.

At the Whole Hog cooking class I went to a couple of months ago, the instructor butchered a pig's leg while we watched, but a pig's head is even more fascinating.

And, I have to say--the look on the pig's face in the photo to the right makes me laugh every time I see it.

The Ark: Prayer for the Weekend

Leave it to me to be more than a year behind on hearing about a new Ark album (Prayer for the Weekend). It's happened before, after all--and the album hasn't been released in the US (joining all but one of their other albums as import-only).

I'm still absorbing it [1], but so far, it's more of the glam-disco pop that The Ark do better than anyone else, so that makes me happy.

Previously: I saw The Ark perform live, which show ranks among the best I've seen.

[1] Yes, that probably makes it sound more complex than it really is. The Ark don't make "difficult" music, generally, and that's a good thing.

The Alinea Cookbook

The Alinea cookbook (via Michael Ruhlman) looks absolutely gorgeous. And only $31.50!

Of course, the recipes are difficult:

Will it be criticized? No doubt many will take pot shots at it for the difficulty of the recipes, but that would be a little silly. This is not a home-cook book. This is a document of the exact recipes the Alinea brigade uses. It's very complex stuff and some of the techniques are difficult to pull off, requiring a good deal of skill and delicacy.

But I do love a challenge.

Solange

From the Embarrassment of Riches department: Choosing a favorite track from Solange's Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams is tough, people!

In fact, I've only listened to the album straight-through once, because I keep skipping back to my favorite tracks: "T.O.N.Y.", "Would've Been the One", and "Sandcastle Disco".

Fluxblog has a good writeup of "Would've Been the One". I liked this bit, in particular, because it calls out the bass line, which is just incredible when it builds into the chorus:

This [tension] comes through in her voice just as much as the track, with does some nice tricks with sustained digital decay and boasts a bass line that shifts from a loose, airy groove to a tight, nervous chug as it edges up to the chorus.

And here's the video for "Sandcastle Disco":

Bad Cover Version

Oh, and speaking of Guns N' Roses, Linkin Park's cover of "Sweet Child O' Mine" is so bad that it almost ruins the original song, for me.

Don't miss the guitar solo! But, on the plus side, I suppose we've now found a guitar player less capable than Lil' Wayne.

The Jungle

I've been listening to Appetite for Destruction a lot, lately, so this origin story behind "Welcome to the Jungle" was a welcome read:

Some think the legend of Guns N' Roses began in the nighttime Los Angeles of 1985, a distant echo of West Hollywood's neon-lit Sunset Strip. Others think it should begin ten years earlier, at the confluence of two Indiana rivers, the Wabash and the Tippecanoe, in the 1970s. But in this telling, the GN'R saga begins in gritty New York, in upper Manhattan, on a sweltering, run-down street in the late afternoon of a summer day in 1980.

Cars

Yes, it's come to this: I actually laughed at a New Yorker cartoon, today. But, but... it's so funny!

Market

We took a break from our usual weekend visits to the Ferry Building Farmers Market this weekend--recent weeks have found it far too crowded, far too busy, far too much.

Instead, we walked down the hill to our local Noe Valley Farmers Market (website powered by Movable Type!), which we hadn't been to in over a year, now. And it's grown a lot, in that time, and for the better. There are still things I miss from the Ferry Building market: Mijita, Primavera, and other places to snack; the mushroom vendors; the varieties of arugula; &c.

But I prefer the layout & the pace of the Noe Valley market, and obviously, the fact that it's within walking distance for us is a huge plus.

Anyway, I bought some hangar steak at the Prather Ranch booth (this in itself is a great new addition from the last time we came to the market), and tonight I cooked that up with a shallot & red wine sauce (this recipe is a good approximation of how I cooked it), along with a classic steakhouse salad (well, a variation thereof, using goat cheese instead of blue cheese). Very tasty!

Lots of Batali

I enjoyed this quote from Mario Batali in the press release about the new Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine video game:

"I'm delighted to be involved with Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine," said Chef Batali. "My video game counterpart is as passionate and competitive in the virtual Kitchen Stadium as I am in real life..."

Speaking of Batali, I made a batch of his Basic Tomato Sauce last weekend. It was satisfying work, and when it was over, I had around four cups of fantastic sauce, most of which I froze. I've used some of it already in making spaghetti and meatballs this week--they were wonderful.

And finally, you can watch Batali making the pasta sauce on this episode of Molto Mario, which even features special guest Michael Stipe:

Nike+ and iPhone

The leaked screenshots for the upcoming iPhone Nike+ interface almost make me excited enough to start running again:

We've known that Nike+ has long been in development for the iPhone. Now we're finally getting a peek at the first shots of the interface. From what we can skim, Nike+ users will get all of the nifty performance graphs right on the phone (before this stuff was available on the web only).

And! Google Maps integration for running routes, which may be my favorite part of all.