Andrew Zimmern

I was featured last week as The Soup's Clip of the Week, making a classic voiceover faux paus.   Guess I should've paused a bit more between the first and last name.  Feel free to ask for Myke Hawke on your next prank phone call.

You might know him as an MC or Producer, but I know DJ Quik as the man who enjoyed Bizarre Foods: Morocco enough to sample it. How cool is that! Thanks for making my day, Quik.

Check out the source (the music begins about 2:30 minutes into the clip):

...followed by Quik's final product.

Joanne Camas posted the her five least favorite food words on Epicurious. I can't get onboard with spleen or offal... "lacquered" I understand.  What are your least favorite food words?

Our first visit to this French/English city in the Province of Quebec included some wonderful bistro lunches at Lemeac, L’Express, and the Pan Asian restaurant KoKo.  Daily sightseeing focused on walking and more walking while visiting cathedrals, art museums (a John Lennon retrospective, “Imagine”), and interesting, diverse neighborhoods.  Our three favorite restaurants were:

We fell in love with Bethenny's wit, charm and fantastic impersonations of her cast mates on The Real Housewives of New York City. Of course, she's also got the moves in the kitchen. AndrewZimmern.com spoke to the Skinnygirl herself about her new best-selling book, her favorite restaurants in NYC, and making healthy, delicious food choices without feeling deprived. 

AndrewZimmern.com:  How did you get your start in the kitchen?

Bethenny Frankel:  As a child I would watch cooking shows rather than cartoons. I have always loved to cook and could make the best scrambled eggs around. My confidence in the kitchen began at culinary school for food and healing.

AZ.com:  Your new book, Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting, is currently on the New York Times Bestseller List.  Why do you think this book resonates with people?

BF:  This book is the massive gold key that unlocks the safe to thinness forever with no deprivation, no dieting, no gimmicks and teaches people how to have a healthy relationship with food and turn their food noise into a food voice.

AZ.com:  What are some simple ways to incorporate healthier eating habits into your life without giving up great tasting food?

BF:  Your diet is a bank account and you decide how and where to invest. Good investment foods are higher in fiber, brighter in color and lower in calories. My book contains a toolbox of tips that will guide you through any date, vacation, holiday, mini-mart or any situation in life.

What's the strangest thing Andrew's ever eaten?  Favorite place for seafood in Boston?  Where can you find bizarre foods in your own backyard? Ask AZ all these questions LIVE after the final episode of Bizarre Foods. The chat begins tonight at 11PM ET.

James Beard-winning chef Tim McKee is scheduled to take over the reigns at the most cold and sterile restaurant in town.  On July 20th, the Gurthrie's Cue will become Sea Change, focusing on sustainable seafood (buzzword alert!).

McKee was kind enough to invite me to a tasting at the new joint last week. Since becoming Andrew’s right hand lady in 2007, I’ve met McKee quite a few times.  We’ve since discovered we both hail from Stillwater, he was friends with my uncle Brain in 6th grade and his sister lives next door to my Grandma.  I was honored to receive an invite to a private tasting at this summer’s most anticipated restaurant opening...  Just me and a handful of his chefs and managers. We tried nearly everything on the menu.  They’ve still got about a month to work out some of the kinks, but I’m telling you Twin Citizens, you won’t be disappointed.  It’s a perfect place for a meal before a show, but the restaurant will be a destination all on its own.

I gotta be honest:  I don’t exactly know everything I ate.  I didn’t have a menu to read. Dishes were placed in front of me, I took a bite, the passed it on to the next person. I was along for the ride. But I can say the mussel appetizer was phenomenal, complete with toast for soaking up the broth (in my opinion, the best way to eat mussels).  I also really dug on a Korean-inspired pork tenderloin/pork belly, complete with some sort of tarragon sauce.  And the one pasta dish I tried (and anyone who has eaten a few meals with me knows that rice and noodle dishes are not my thing), complete with shrimp and uni (yes, uni, ladies and gentlemen), was simple, but certainly not ordinary. 

Here at la officina de Zimmern, we love Top Chef.  Leah Cohen certainly brought a dash of drama to last season, but this talented culinista offers a lot more than tabloid fodder. Now executive chef at Centro Vinoteca, we spoke with Cohen about cooking in Italy, filling Anne Burrell's shoes and that infamous kiss with Top Chef winner, Hosea. 

AndrewZimmern.com: You come from a Filipino, Russian-Romanian Jewish family. How did that shape the way you ate growing up?   

Leah Cohen:  I think the Filipino part influenced me the most. I have been going to the Philippines since I was 5 years old. When we go to the Philippines we always stop somewhere else in Asia.  I was very lucky as a child to be exposed to so many different cultures and different kinds of cuisine

AZ.com:  After studying at the CIA, you spent over a year cooking in Italy.  How did that experience influence your cooking style? What do you miss most about living and working there? Anything you don’t miss at all?

LC:  Before going to Italy I don’t really think I had a cooking style. My experience in Italy really helped shape myself as a cook. What I miss the most about living in Italy is the culture, the food, the men, and the Vespas. I love Vespas and would really love to have one in NYC but its too dangerous (says my mom, not me).  I don’t miss is being the only person in a small town who spoke English and although I picked up the language rather quickly I was always wondering whether I was saying the right thing or not when having conversations in Italian.

Locally grown food for thought is hard to come by, at least the good stuff is harder to find these days as thousands of amateur gastro-nauts take to the internet in hopes of becoming the next cross between Ruhlman, Ed Levine and Google. But no matter where you live, you should check out www.heavytable.com. It's one of my fave online distractions these days and I can think of a dozen well read international mega sites that could learn a thing or two about a realistic POV from the folks at Heavy Table.

It's June. The sun is shining. Birds are chirping. Girls are wearing waaay too tiny booty shorts (shout to the chick I saw last night at Dulano's... you'll probably never read this, but lady, those aren't shorts. They're underwear.) When the Minnesota weather takes a turn for the better, I turn to my favorite summer beverage [after beer], the iced coffee.

Without getting too into the boring details, I've been working on a time-consuming project and spending most evenings at Twin Cities coffee shops. And here's what I am not understanding: Why is iced coffee so freaking expensive?

Keep in mind, I am not ordering a cold press coffee.  In fact, on days that I'm feeling especially broke, I make my own at home, taking regular ol' coffee, sticking it in the fridge for a half an hour and adding ice.  Tastes the same to me.  So why did it cost me $4.03 for a glass of iced coffee last night? Aren't I drinking coffee simply placed in the fridge? Worse yet, maybe it's what they do with day old coffee. 

I hate to say it, but Starbuck's really got me thinking I was getting ripped off my local coffee shop. You can get your caffeine-loving mitts on a grande iced coffee  for only $1.95 plus tax. Having said that, I'd rather support my local coffee shop (er...shops. I live in a city saturated with them), but am still miffed that adding ice and a straw tacks on two extra bucks. 

My question to you all: Why is iced coffee so spendy? Am I missing something huge that occurs between the brewing and adding ice cubes phase? I want to continue tooling around town a la Mary Louise-Parker on Weeds, sipping on my iced coffee and feeling fabulous. Maybe dealing drugs is the only way one can fund an iced coffee habit.