Filed under: Openings, British Isles, Candy

I just love it when food and art overlap. Food artist Prudence Emma Staite has created a collection of works that recreate famous paintings out of chocolate Smarties. There's a wide range, from Pop Art to some more classical works.

The collection is showing at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood in east London on Friday. It's all part of the Smartie Art Exhibit, which is celebrating the return of the blue Smartie.

Do you think Nestle would sponsor an exhibition if they brought anything else back? I'd have to do some research about what to reintroduce, but I bet I could think of something. What do you think would make a good food art project?

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Filed under: Openings, America

Mom said, "Don't play with your food," but I don't recall her saying, "Don't paint on your food." She probably thought it wouldn't come up - little did she know.

According to their Flickr site, The Great Tortilla Conspiracy is an art show that uses tortillas as a canvas to "raise issues related to identity, immigration, miracle tortilla apparitions, the high price of tortillas in Mexico, and the rise of Transgenic Corn".

The tortilla art exhibit runs through April 23th at San Fransisco's SomArts Bay Gallery. It features a tortilla hall of fame with portraits of artists and community leaders on tortillas. What a "corny" honor to be drawn on a tortilla!

Next time I'm out for Mexican food I may have to use my fork and some red and green salsa to start painting. It sounds like fun!

If you could paint something on a tortilla, what would it be?

For more information on the art show, visit The Great Tortilla Conspiracy.

[via Bunrab]

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Filed under: Openings, Newspapers

No more smuggling outside food into the stadium, because at the new Nationals baseball park, they're letting you bring your own food to the game, no questions asked.

Unlike neighboring RFK Stadium, the current home of the Nats, fans can tote in their own sandwiches and sodas instead of paying an arm and a leg for them at the stadium.

Nationals spokeswoman Chartese Burnett was quoted in a WTOPNews piece as saying, "I don't know who's going to want to bring in food with all the great offerings at Nationals park."

Gee, I dunno, Chartese - maybe people who don't want to shell out their life's savings for lunch at the ballgame. But if you get hungry after eating your meals from home, a full list of the stadium's vendors - including Ben's Chili Bowl, Boardwalk Fries, and La Piccola Gelateria - is available here. The new stadium is slated to open March 30.

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Filed under: Openings, Restaurants, Business, Asia

Have you ever had a craving for a nice Big Mac and those tasty french fries, but were too busy to go to McDonald's (or its drive though)? If you live in Shanghai, China then you don't have to wait much longer. The Big Mac giant will soon be taking orders for delivery.

In an effort to compete with Yum! Brands', which has twice as many restaurants in China (Pizza Hut, KFC), McDonald's in Shanghai has been building up a supply of 300 scooters. That will help the burger chain deliver to about half of the city's 14 million residents.

That's a good start, but the company really wants to expand. This year will see about 125 new franchises and probably 150 next year. First they'll catch up with Yum! Brands, then surpass them. McDonald's will start slowly with China, then take over the world! Mwa ha ha ha! Oh, wait, haven't they already done that?

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Filed under: Openings, West Coast, Restaurants, America

I've been waaaaiting.

And now the day is here. The LA outpost of Craft is finally opening tomorrow! The restaurant is at 10100 Constellation Blvd (between Century Park East and Avenue of the Stars), Century City.

For those of us who may not be familiar, Craft is the restaurant by chef-owner Tom Colicchio, yes, that Tom Colicchio with whom you might be more familiar if you watch Top Chef. Chef Colicchio has been honored by the James Beard Foundation (Best New Restaurant 2002).

And yes, yes y'all, I scored a reservation for tomorrow night -- oh, alright. I scored myself a "date" who had the reservation -- so look out for my utterly shameless gushing in the days to follow.

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Filed under: Openings, On the Blogs, New Products

While it's not all that nice to be a tease by saying "There's something cool you don't know about, and we're not going to tell you...yet," I couldn't help but bring Curious Fork to our attention.

The website is all of one page. It only has a small form to sign up to be "part of the wildest thing to hit the culinary world." I am quite sure that this is going to be some sort of foray into web 2.0 with a food-focused social network. More than anything though, I love the play on words that's a version of a palindrome, and the anti-mirror imaged logo.

Hurry up Curious Fork. Or Furious Cork. Or whatever you are. We're waiting!

[via: tastespotting]

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Filed under: Openings, Restaurants, Midwest Cities

Chicago is turning into quite the dining mecca these days - although fans of the city will certainly say that it has always been a source of good eats - with excellent options at all levels, from the comfort of deep-dish pizza to highly innovative molecular gastronomy concepts. A new face is about to enter the dining scene there, bringing something to the dining scene that London, Las Vegas, Tokyo, New York and several other cities already enjoy: L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Joel Robuchon, who is (arguably) one of the greatest chefs of our time, will be opening the seventh L'Atelier later this year.

The restaurant is known for offering an upscale take on comfort food - complete with a dining counter - a dining counter that serves dishes that far exceed anything you'll find at a diner elsewhere.

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Filed under: Openings, Dinner, Trends, Stores & Shopping, How To, Did you know?, New Products, America

Make and take meal assembly stores are on the up-rise with dozens of chains, franchises, and stand alone stores around the country. These are basically commercial kitchens with changing monthly menus where you pay a fee and they supply the food and recipes.You assemble the dish and they cook it for you, and/or chill or freeze it so you can take them home. During the next week or two you can heat them up for your families dinner as a fast, healthy, and tasty alternative to having to cook from scratch every night of the week.

I interviewed last week to work at one local place, Let's Dish, so I could find out if I wanted to open a franchise myself. The photo is of their Chicken with Cranberry Chutney, one of their menu items. Another store nearby, Sip and Supper announced their opening a few days ago with their unique idea of pairing wines and premium beer to go with their meals. Then, in the past few days several articles hit the papers.

For the next few years make and take meals are going to be big stuff. The prices vary but they tend to be cheaper than ordering out, but not as inexpensive as shopping yourself. If time is short, but you can spare a half a day every week or so, they can be good options for putting real meals on your family's table. They may not be for everyone, but I say why not check them out, whether to use as a time-saver, or even to open your own franchise. If anyone has tried them please let me know what you think.

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Filed under: Openings, Beer, British Isles, Restaurants, Business, Television/Film, Cocktails, Trends, America, Europe

What is happeneing here?

He's an acclaimed chef in Britain with seven Michelin stars, and yet he has gone the way of many chefpires (chef-empires) - television shows, restaurants in Hollywood and all over the world opening at breakneck speed, and now comes to this? Gordon Ramsay will be opening a chain of pubs. Is Gordon Ramsay going the way of...TGI Friday's?!?

Ramsay's business managers are making big plans to acquire and license to country inns that would sell beer and spirits, but focus primarily on the food.

I don't know, let's just hope the chef never loses his "flair."

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Filed under: Openings, South America, Science, Asia, Australia, Caribbean, On the Blogs, Northern Africa, Central Africa, New Zealand, Middle East, New Products, America, Europe, North America

We've mentioned the new Netscape here on Slashfood before. In case you haven't heard, what used to be an alternative web browser to Internet Explorer, netscape.com, got an extreme makeover in mid-June and has become a social bookmarking site, similar to del.icio.us, digg (technology) or flickr (photos), but for news. In case you're not familiar with social bookmarking, it is the concept of users collecting bookmarks of their favorite websites, and sharing them with the community. Users can collect, categorize, and "tag" bookmarks, which makes it easier for other users to find similar bookmarks. On sites like digg and newsvine, users can "vote" on each others' stories.

Over on Netscape, it's mostly about news, but users can also submit stories in a number of "channels," or categories - from Art & Design to Careers & Jobs to Health & Fitness to Popular Videos. It goes without saying that Slashfood's favorite channel is Food & Travel, but we'll get into more detail about that shortly.

Continue reading Using the new Netscape from a Slashfoodie perspective

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