Archive for the ‘Discover’ Category
Modernize Your Holiday Traditions
December 15, 2009
There are few times of the year that are as tradition-heavy as the current holiday season. And it makes perfect sense: What better way to welcome a new year than with a return to our roots? Traditions are a way to remind us of our origins. They often take us back home, return us to the cultures in which we grew up, and help to keep us grounded.
They can also get pretty repetitive if you aren’t careful.
Repetition is, of course, at the heart of tradition, but that doesn’t mean you can’t infuse your rituals with a little creativity. Bringing something new to your holiday celebration can help keep your traditions relevant and it means you won’t confuse the traditional with the blasé.
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Print ThisPosted in Cooking, Dining DNA, Discover, Traditions, holiday season | No Comments »
The Four Hidden Corners of the Wine World
November 11, 2009
It’s a small world, especially when it comes to wine. Italy, France and Spain’s strangle hold on the wine industry may have been slightly loosened by the blossoming of New World wine regions in the Americas and Australia, but much of the world of oenology has remained bafflingly closed. Isn’t there a whole globe of soils and flavors yet to be discovered?
As consumers’ general interest in specialty foods and drinks, as well as the public’s ability to research and educate itself on wine, continues to strengthen, it’s inevitable that more grapevines will take root in unexplored regions. To accelerate this process, we’ve assembled a brief geography lesson on some of the world’s most under-the-radar wine regions. It’s time to dust off your atlas and fill up your glass with bold new tastes, for the world of viticulture has much in store for your palate.
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Posted in Canada, China, Discover, England, India, Wine | 1 Comment »
Singapore’s Stature Rising as the Mecca of Fusion
October 29, 2009
It’s not surprising that six of the world’s most renowned chefs would eventually find their way to Singapore. Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, Wolfgang Puck, Santi Santamaria, Guy Savoy, and Tetsuya Wakuda will all be bringing their own restaurants to the lavish Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. With them, they bring their famed cooking brands and could further illuminate the Singaporean culinary renaissance that has been brewing under the radar.
Singaporean dining is shaped by duality. On the one hand, the country has a knack for attracting internationally known chefs from other countries. On the other, the deeply rooted hawker dining scene is one that’s built on local tradition. One might think the arrival of celebrity chefs could overshadow the less glamorous, yet more widespread, traditional, local cuisine (plastic furniture and fluorescent lighting often provide the extent of the décor at hawker dining spots), but Singapore is a nation that seems at ease with the intermingling of cultures. For every headline that mentions a celebrity chef in Singapore, another puts the spotlight on a locally-run restaurant.
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Posted in Culinary Trends, Discover, Innovation, Singapore | No Comments »
Diwali Celebrates the Enjoyment of Life
October 15, 2009
This Saturday marks the arrival of Diwali, India’s five-day festival of lights. As a national holiday, Diwali presents an opportunity for the diverse populations of the country to celebrate life. Jain, Sikh, and Hindu cultures alike share in the occasion, and each religion infuses the holiday with its own mythology.
Common themes provide unifying threads that help to draw together each group’s unique approach to the festival: all celebrate the triumph of good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and the enjoyment of life. Lighting diyas – small clay pots filled with oil – is also a widespread tradition. Read More »
Posted in Discover, India, World Holidays | No Comments »
Happy Korean Thanksgiving! Happy Chuseok!
September 29, 2009
October 2, 2009 marks the first of the three days of Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival. Much like Thanksgiving in the United States, Chuseok is a time for indulging in a bounty of traditional foods (like fruits and songpyeon: rice cakes filled with grains like red beans, jujube, and chestnuts, and steamed over pine needles); for reuniting with family; and for remembering ancestors. It’s also a time for epic traffic jams – the yearly mass exodus from Seoul to relatives in neighboring cities can quadruple travel times for those leaving the capital city.
Chuseok underlines how – in the face of rapid industrialization and modernization – Korean culture still imbues family ties with great importance and tries to maintain continuity between older and younger generations. It also lays bare some national challenges – like the nature of traditional gender roles (questions arise over whether or not women should still be expected to prepare the holiday meal) and the separation of North and South Korea (approximately 7 million families have been separated since the end of the Korean war due to the stringent North-South division).
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Posted in Discover, South Korea, World Holidays | No Comments »
Churning Out Decadent Pleasures with Ice Cream
September 18, 2009
Dessert just got a lot more sinful with the opening of The Icecreamists Pop-Up Ice Cream Boutique at London’s Ultralounge in Selfridges. The shop, which will remain open until November 1, is making a name for itself by reappropriating our innocent childhood visions of ice cream. The most infamous of their treats is likely the Sex Pistol, a recipe infused with gingko biloba, arginine, and guarana. It’s essentially a frozen Viagra cocktail (with a shot of absinthe thrown in for good measure). The management has capped the limit for this treat to one per customer – either to prevent libidinal overload or to pump up the allure of the concoction. Though the general focus is on original, hand-crafted recipes, that doesn’t mean the shop’s presentation isn’t helping to draw in customers.
One visit to the shop’s web site makes it clear that this is no mom-and-pop ice cream parlor – unless, of course, mom and pop happen to be a couple of Gothic foodies with a penchant for leather. An animated metallic skull emblem is the company logo; and customers are greeted with a photo of two topless women with ice cream dripping down their torsos under a tagline that reads: “God save the cream.” Indeed, libido seems to be a recurring theme.
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Posted in Branding, Discover, Indulge, London | No Comments »
