2012 food and dining predictions #4 {Grains, Grains, Grains and....more grains}

Welcome to CB.com's 2012 food and dining predictions. I've always loved postulating about where food and food culture is headed. Sometimes I'm spot on, and other times I've failed miserably. We feel that we have a pretty good pulse on this industry and want to look into that crystal ball and lay out some educated guesses on what the food retail industry may look like like in 2012 without any of the Nicholas Cage Mayan calendar nonsense.

Let's continue with our educated guessing!

With so many past diet trends based on avoiding bread, it’s a wonder that baking and bread cookbooks are still selling off the shelves. America's eating populous always welcomes the newest trend or fad when it comes to quick and rapid weight loss. We've been duped for long enough when it comes to bread and grains, and  we will see a resurgence in 2012 with our society gravitating towards a more traditional approach to these health friendly power punchers.

While people without medical restrictions continue to hop aboard  the bread-free bandwagon as a wishful way to lose weight, education and insight about pound packing processed foods, will continue to grow and resonate with many people. Studies have continued to show that eating whole grains instead of refined grains lowers the risk of many chronic diseases. Sorry Cap'n Crunch - you've scraped and irritated the top of my mouth for long enough.  While benefits are most pronounced for those consuming at least 3 servings daily, some studies show reduced risks from as little as one serving daily. Bam!

The message: every whole grain in your diet helps, significantly.

Restaurants in 2012 will continue their foray into this world of heart healthy grains. As technology and social media continue to crack the code on communicating healthy options to the masses, many restaurants will have to adapt their menus to the oncoming onslaught of inquires and requests for minimally process breads and confections.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions:

#10 - The inconvenience of Food 

#9 - Personal Investment and Ownership

#8 - Minimal is the new black

#7 - The fusion of family style meals and belittlement

#6 - Beer is King, not the King of Beer
#5 - Cloud Eating and Cooking

Recipe Linkage: Hoisin Glazed Sesame Chicken Lolipops

Lil' Wayne would be proud of these lolipops

We're going to start sharing daily recipes for some of our favorite sites out on the "intertubes". I've been told I'm a Hoisin huslter. It's true, I've had some pretty inappropriate one nighties with this Asian lovely. This recipe comes from the fine folks at The Culinary Lens.

 Recipe: 

12 Chicken Drumsticks
2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp seasoned rice-wine vinegar
1 Tbsp honey
2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp sesame oil
Black and White Sesame Seeds (Optional To Garnish)

The lollipops are made by cutting of the knuckle of the drumstick and then pushing the meat down to form a ball. You will expose the bone which will act as the stick. The glaze is made by combining all the remaining ingredients. Brush the glaze on to your drumsticks and roast at 350 C till cooked through.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions #4 {Small Batch Items}

Small Batch(ing) for the masses

Welcome to CB.com's 2012 food and dining predictions. I've always loved postulating about where food and food culture is headed. Sometimes I'm spot on, and other times I've failed miserably. We feel that we have a pretty good pulse on this industry and want to look into that crystal ball and lay out some educated guesses on what the food retail industry may look like like in 2012 without any of the Nicholas Cage Mayan calendar nonsense.

Let's continue with our educated guessing!


Coming in at number four on our countdown is the movement towards limited and small batch items. For restaurants and consumers that want to be part of a small, eclectic group that can tout a unique item that isn't available to the larger populous, this is their new outlet. Local craft distilleries are making small batches of bourbon, rye, vodka, gin and bitters. There is a movement towards urban neo-ruralism that has apartment dwellers in cities canning tomatoes, keeping bees, raising chickens and churning butter. Sometimes these folks are selling their products to independent grocers and restaurants, bypassing the standardized procurement cycle.  The small farmers are the new gastronomic superheros, sourced and touted on restaurant menus. The independent butcher shops are opening across the country with unfamiliar and creative cuts like Denver steak and Petite tender. We are continuing to see more small batch specialty meats, too, like bison, goat and rabbit.

With the conservative and sustainable mindset trumping all prior notions, people are not wasting in large amounts. The mentality of a lot of folks are that when they eat these products, they want to make sure they are appropriately respected and paid homage to. The small batch momentum also is a reflection of our recent past of the casual dining push into large and hearty serving sizes that have added inches to may waistlines in this country. We are currently witnessing a culinary manifesto promoting purity, simplicity, freshness and ethics.These principles could never be churned into a mass distribution system and that's what gives it a competitive edge. The inability to replicate at a large level.

If it's an item you put in your mouth, there's a small batch steward out there giving it a unique spin. Go search for it, you might be pleasantly surprised.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions:

#10 - The inconvenience of Food 

#9 - Personal Investment and Ownership

#8 - Minimal is the new black

#7 - The fusion of family style meals and belittlement

#6 - Beer is King, not the King of Beer
#5 - Cloud Eating and Cooking

2012 Food and Dining Predictions #5 {Cloud Eating and cooking}

Let me show you how we make this

Welcome to CB.com's 2012 food and dining predictions. I've always loved postulating about where food and food culture is headed. Sometimes I'm spot on, and other times I've failed miserably. We feel that we have a pretty good pulse on this industry and want to look into that crystal ball and lay out some educated guesses on what the food retail industry may look like like in 2012 without any of the Nicholas Cage Mayan calendar nonsense.

Let's continue with our educated guessing!

Coming in at number five on our countdown is Cloud Eating. What is Cloud Eating you say? Well, it's the open book and source for anything and everything for food, recipes, techniques and long lasting secrets once held onto by pretentious chefs and lab techs prior to the onset of technology. Cloud eating is being able to recreate and produce anything, from anywhere. Outside of the original Coke recipe, pretty much any of your favorite food and snacks are floating somewhere out on the intertubes -or- Cloud.

Websites such as Yummly and Epicurious have created a virtual hub for anything you've ever wanted to put in your body. The ability for someone to master a niche craft right from their computer has never been so accessible. If you have a kitchen, tools and a computer - you can master the french skills that were once held for the esteemed culinary schools around the world. All it takes is imagination and ingenuity. Culinary schools are expensive, and they do not necessarily prepare you for the real world like many offset degrees. Big or small, the education is generally the same and the cooking skills don’t change much.  As with most colleges the name of the school will only get her in the door. 

 As the Internet continues to process, collect and host applicable information, some of the remedial skills we once inherited from schools and universities can be now done through alternative outlets. Would I want a Brain Surgeon to learn how to cut my skull open from a blog site, no. You understand the point though - I hope.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions:

#10 - The inconvenience of Food 

#9 - Personal Investment and Ownership

#8 - Minimal is the new black

#7 - The fusion of family style meals and belittlement

#6 - Beer is King, not the King of Beer

Coffee Roasting 101 - Da Truth about the Roast and Taste

Getting your "Crack" on.

As many of you know, I love good coffee. I've been known to act eradicable and inappropriate for a certain amount of money to get my cuppa Joe. Most of us don't realize what the roast means in terms of getting the flavor you want out of the bean.  Given a good-quality bean, roasting is probably the single most important factor influencing the flavor of coffee. The most significant variable is degree, or darkness, of roast. The longer the coffee is held in the roaster and/or the higher the roasting temperature, the darker the bean. The darker the bean, the more tangy and bittersweet the flavor.

Returning to terminology, coffee drinkers are so habitual that entire nations march from coffee initiation to grave knowing only one style of roast. This uniformity accounts for the popular terminology for describing roasts: French roast, usually the darkest; Italian roast, a little less dark; and Viennese or light French, only slightly darker than the traditional American norm.

This assigning of national names to coffee roasts is a bit arbitrary, but has some basis in fact. French roasters, particularly those in parts of Northern France, do roast coffee very darkly, justifying the epithet French for the very darkest roast style. And, very generally, southern Europeans roast their coffee darker than northern Europeans. I will leave the question of whether darkness of roast correlates to the relative intensity of nocturnal habits among the various nations of coffee drinkers to those who may want to consider the issue over their second cup of dark-roast coffee.

However, the "standard" roast against which the French and Italian roasts of America are implicitly measured varies both by region and by roaster. Berkeley-based Peet's Coffee & Tea, which initiated the current American fashion for very dark roasting, brings all of its coffee to an extremely dark degree of roast. Consequently, the "regular" Peet's roast is far darker than many other roasters' French roasts. Traditionally, the American West Coast prefers a darker roast standard than the East Coast, with the Midwest appropriately somewhere between. Some of the darkest roasting in the world goes on in the American Southwest.

The success of Starbucks with its darker roast style has, in part, altered this regional pattern. Many newer roasting companies, regardless of region, are now attempting to imitate the original Starbucks dark-roasting style. Unfortunately, many of these newcomers tend to be clumsy in their imitation, resulting in dried-out, burned coffees. Meanwhile, Starbucks itself has pulled back from its original dark-roasting position. And, being Starbucks, has come up with its own copyrighted terms for various degrees of roast as they interact with the coffees being roasted. In Starbucks-speak, 2000 edition, a traditional American medium roast is Milder Dimensions; a slightly darker roast Lively Impressions; a moderately dark roast Rich Traditions, and a dark roast Bold Expressions.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) has gone in the opposite naming direction from the fanciful route taken by the Starbucks' publicists. The SCAA has promulgated a straightforward, no-nonsense set of terminology for roast and related that terminology to objective, instrument-determined criteria for degree of roast. The SCAA terminology, which is as practical as a Volvo station wagon (and about as exciting), runs from Light Brown for the lightest roast, through Medium Brown for the middle of the range, to Very Dark Brown for the darkest, with various intermediate stages defined by inspiring terms like Light-Medium Brown and Moderately Dark Brown. Despite its blunt simplicity, the SCAA system probably gives the specialty coffee buyer the clearest available set of guidelines for describing roast.

The only way to really understand roast is to associate flavor with the color and appearance of the bean rather than with name alone. Don't play that name game. 'Nuff Said.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions #6 {Beer is King, not the King of Beer}

Welcome to CB.com's 2012 food and dining predictions. I've always loved postulating about where food and food culture is headed. Sometimes I'm spot on, and other times I've failed miserably. We feel that we have a pretty good pulse on this industry and want to look into that crystal ball and lay out some educated guesses on what the food retail industry may look like like in 2012 without any of the Nicholas Cage Mayan calendar nonsense.

Let's continue with our educated guessing!

Coming in at number six on our countdown is beer. Good beer has been that hyperactive cousin to wine for many when it comes to formal dinner pairings and understanding the nuances of what good craft beer represents.Wine has been the "Go To" receiver in crunch time and it's had a great run. Well done Vino.

America has been duped by commodity beer flavored water for too long. Beverage conglomerates such as Coors, Anheuser Busch (InBev) and Miller Brewing Company have led the charge with tasteless malt punch for the past 35 years. Fortunately we're in the midst of a craft beer renaissance.

All you have to do is look at this graph to understand. I love logistics.

The big boys are scared, and they have good reason. Beer has unfolded in a way where many could not have predicted. Chefs turned brewers have infused eclectic flavors and production methods to churn out a new style of craft beers. Restaurants like The Publican in Chicago have proved that pairing great beer with food can be a recipe for success. Beer is as versatile as it is diverse, providing both complementary and contrasting experiences when paired with food. Also, the piece of mind of drinking a crafted pint versus a bottle of Bud has given place to a social culture hierarchy. (Don't tell Nascar that)

Beer: It's just not for pretzels anymore

The range of pairings, many food experts agree, is as diverse as it's wine counterpart. Examples I like are a great Cornish Lobster Salad -  Paired with Lagunitas Brewing Company Pils and Deschutes Brewery Mirror Pond Pale Ale. Or take your favorite selection of British cheeses and pair with Victory Brewing Company Storm King Stout and Green Flash Brewing Co.'s IPA. You can be over simplistic or as complex as your taste buds will allow you.

We believe Craft beer will push the context of beverages the same way the wine boom did in the late 70's and early 80's. More and more people are realizing good beer is nothing to sniff at, and as more Americans realize they don’t have to drink watered down lagers, we expect huge growth in the wildly diverse craft sector to just keep growing – unless, politicians like Scott Walker have their way.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions:

#10 - The inconvenience of Food 

#9 - Personal Investment and Ownership

#8 - Minimal is the new black

#7 - The fusion of family style meals and belittlement

2012 Food and Dining Predictions: #7 {The fusion of Family Style meals and Belittlement}

"We believe in treating our customers like part of the family," manager Dean Friesz said during Friday's grand opening of a new Ernie's location on Jericho Turnpike in Garden City. "That's why Ernie's offers, free with every Old-Fashioned Super-Duper Ernie's Entree, accusations, belittlement, and other barely disguised expressions of bitterness, despair and sour regret that typify American family interaction. (via: The Onion)

*Where would society be without The Onion?

Welcome to CB.com's 2012 food and dining predictions. I've always loved postulating about where food and food culture is headed. Sometimes I'm spot on, and other times I've failed miserably. We feel that we have a pretty good pulse on this industry and want to look into that crystal ball and lay out some educated guesses on what the food retail industry may look like like in 2012 without any of the Nicholas Cage Mayan calendar nonsense.

Let's continue with our educated guessing!

Coming in at number seven in our countdown is a slightly altered return to family style dining in 2012. Most of us know family dining as casual dining restaurants where food is often served on platters and the diners serve themselves. Most of us know this concept within the Italian dining format. I can see a model that works within any categorized construct, including QSR, fine dining, modern Bistro and even the bakery-cafe segment. Many of us enjoy the ability to share conversation and food together, and to date this has mostly been relegated to traditional Italian.

With the onset of farm to table concepts, I'm starting to see a unique revival of community and sharing. Many communal table restaurants are slowly migrating towards a family style application. Restaurants are starting to hold weekly family style dinner nights that deviates from their traditional model to embrace this ever popular trend. I'm curious to see what type of adaptation this can bring to more non-traditional venues such as counter service and fast casual concepts. This style of eating has been tough to win over some folks. Many see it as conforming and often that they have to compromise to the group as a whole. Both are valid points, but I see a new breed of this model that can help facilitate the diners ability to choose appropriately within boundaries. The Buca Di Beppo's of the world have held the covenant flame for stewarding family style, which has made it unappealing for many. Eating this way has been seen as a "once a year" meal for family and friends and has deterred frequent visits.

With a little creative menu ingenuity and individual touch, family style dining will make us rethink about "how" we eat out in the future.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions:

#10 - The inconvenience of Food 

#9 - Personal Investment and Ownership

#8 - Minimal is the new black

12 Beers, Christmas, Tom Selleck and a baby {Consolidated Preeminent Booze Review}

I'm Judge Dredd

We figured it's time to get back to our roots here at Chopbiscuit and continue the reviews of The World's Best draughts. We're often seen walking our pints throughout town and cuddling with our favorite Belgium's at the Cinema. Beer is our canvas and we paint that canvas by drinking more beer. We have poked fun at our favorite canned beers in the past, but ultimately we love the best in craft beer brewing. Whether it's a Belgium White, American Brown Ale, Japanese Rice lager or an oatmeal stout - We enjoy a good beer and a firm hand shake. So, let's continue the exposition with our reviews.

*Special Honorary Review*

Outside of my normal day job, I like to think that I'm the luminary of craft beer tasting. Even though I know I'm not at that level yet, I'm bound and determined to go down as the "Super taster of all Super tasters".

A few days ago I participated in The Local Pub and Tea house's - 12 Beers of Christmas. Since I was in town and thirsty, I figured it was common courtesy to grace this establishment and perform the 12 Beer written exam. I was ready, both mentally and physically. I've felt as if I've been prepared for this my entire life. Everything I've done prior - has led me to these shot glasses.

If I pass, I can get into a Private Beer School

The script was easy - just drink 12 beers from lightest to darkest and rate them. Easy enough. They made the evening extremely non cerebral by giving the folks a nice little beer list (seen above). To make this much easier in terms of reviewing, I'm going to create the list below and tell you what I thought.

The Twelve Beers of Christmas

Ridgeway Bad Elf - Shelton Brothers, England.

Light Golden Color with mild malt and hop flavors and a biscuity citrus nose.
Beer: English IPA  
Rating: 2 Biscuits 
Review: A nice mild malt. Not enough citrus or acidity notes.

Clipper City Yule Tide - Clipper City Brewing, Baltimore, MD
Clear Golden Ale with grassy flavored aromas and fruity notes
Beer: Tripple Belgium Ale    
Rating: 3 Biscuits 
Review: I believed I wouldn't like this Tripel. I was proved wrong.I loved the subtle fruit and mouth feel. I will bath in this Ale relatively soon.

Abita Christmas Brown Ale - Abita Springs, LA
Medium body with hints of toffee and roasted dark malts with a dry finish
Beer: Brown Ale    
Rating: 2 Biscuits 
Review: Meh. I'm a big fan of their Purple Haze, but this one is very ordinary.

Full Sail Wreck the Halls - Full Sail Brewing, Hood River, OR 
Dark Amber with piney citrus scent and a spiced bitter finish
Beer: American IPA 
Rating: 2 Biscuits 
Review: A nice spiced IPA. That's it.

Rogue Mogul Madness - Rogue Ales, Newport, OR 
Dark Ruby Ale with sweet pine and malty notes with a bitter hop finish
Beer: Winter Ale 
Rating: 3 Biscuits 
Review: In standard Rogue fashion, a hoppy, full aroma ale. I'm a Rogue fan.

Breckenridge Christmas - Breckenridge Brewery, Denver, CO
Medium Brown with yeasty spiciness, warm malts and mild bitterness 
Beer: American Style Strong Ale 
Rating: 2 Biscuits 
Review: I liked the yeast notes and had a good malt structure. Full and strong - like Serbian woman.

Jenlain Noel - Duyck, France
Deep Amber with sweet honey and clover. Malty and sweet.
Beer: Amber Ale 
Rating:1 Biscuit
Review: No Sir, I didn't like it.


Hoppin Frog Frosted Frog - Hoppin' Frog Brewery, Akron, OH
Medium bodied rub-brown ale with hints of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and clove. 
Beer: Winter Warmer 
Rating: 4 Biscuits 
Review: Best Christmas beer in America right now.  If you like Winter warmer's - this is your beer. It has bold Xmas spices to get your groove on under the mistle toe.

St. Peter's Cream Stout - St. Peter's Brewery, England
Dark black stout with milk chocolate, coffee nose and slightly sweet finish
Beer: Milk/Sweet Stout 
Rating: 2 Biscuits 
Review: I was picking up a lot of hops and was wondering why it's called a cream stout. But, that's apparently the old benchmark for those mates across the pond

St. Bernardus Christmas Ale - Belgium
Dark brown with yeasty toffee aromas, bittersweet chocolate and mild hops
Beer: Belgium Strong Dark Ale 
Rating: 3 biscuits 
Review: This bastard had a huge mouth. 10% ABV will surely get you there. Nice coffee, chocolate overtones and finish.

Victory Storm King - Victory Brewery , Dowington, PA
Jet black stout with coffee notes, smokiness and strong hop bitterness
Beer: Russian Imperial Stout 
Rating: 1 biscuit 
Review: Not my "thang". A bit smoky and I didn't like the bitterness. I'm a fan of Victory though, just didn't like this stout.

Sierra Nevada Life & Limb - Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, NV
Full bodied collaboration between Sierra Nevada and Dogfish 
Beer: Strong. Strong. Strong. Beer. 
Rating: 4 biscuits 
Review: This is a one and done beer. Nice maple and birch flavor with a huge punch. No funnels here kids.

2012 Food and Dining Predictions: #8 {Minimal is the new black}

Just a few years ago, many food concepts were still caught up with being big and cheeky. The more colors, wall ornaments, splattered slogans and flare - the better. The bigger the entree, the louder the apron and the "never-ending" soup or salad bowl caught the eye of many future diabetes and obesity applicants. The restaurant industry in the 90's and early 21st century was about getting the most out of each customer - both mentally and financially. Before small plates and tapas options were rightly pushed into the mainstream, we were all on the Texas bandwagon. Why have a mid-size (Toyota Camry) cut of beef when you could go Monster Truck size for a few bucks extra. If you want a 1/2 gallon of high fructose corn syrup infused soda, we'll be glad to oblige that request. Hell, we even bought more house than we actually needed and some stay at home mom's in Miami decided that they must frolic about town in their new gigantic Hummer. I never really understood that one.

So, after the economic recession of '08 and a slight re-adjustment of what food and materials mean to the most of us, we're starting to come back around. Some of us down sized into a more moderate home and started to really think about what those "things" mean to us. Food is a prime example of culture and the experience of food will follow this trend into 2012. If you look at some independent concepts such as Commis and Benu in San Francisco, they've seem to do "more" with "less". They've left out all the ancillary messaging and sparkle and created their concepts around the people,  food and conversation.

In the months ahead when you eat out, you can expect to see less description about each dish and more single words spaced far apart often all in lower case letters. You can expect to see simple surroundings and recognizable offerings being featured. You will see staff that have no flare and are dressed as if they were over to your house for a dinner party. For most diners, a cleaner, sustainable approach to this model seems to have an elevated and less pretentious mood. If you start seeing concepts moving in this direction, you can tell them that this lil' blog called it out. I will let you know where they can send the checks - payable to "Money Laundering".

2012 Food and Dining Predictions:

#10 - The inconvenience of Food 

#9 - Personal Investment and Ownership

Chopbiscuit preeminent booze review: Rogue - Dead Guy Ale

We figured it's time to get back to our roots here at Chopbiscuit and continue the reviews of The World's Best draughts. We're often seen walking our pints throughout town and cuddling with our favorite Belgium's at the Cinema. Beer is our canvas and we paint that canvas by drinking more beer. We have poked fun at our favorite canned beers in the past, but ultimately we love the best in craft beer brewing. Whether it's a Belgium White, American Brown Ale, Japanese Rice lager or an oatmeal stout - We enjoy a good beer and a firm hand shake. So, let's continue the exposition with our reviews.

Get your hippie drinking on

Brewery: Rogue Ales, Newport, OR
Beer: Dead Guy Ale
Beer style description: German Maibock
Color: Light Gold
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 40

Rogue Ales are consistently known for their innovation and detailed process of brewing American hand crafted ales. They've won just about every award imaginable for their lineups of great American draughts. I've unfortunately never been out to their brewery, but it's on my bucket list of booze stops before I kick the bucket. Dead Guy Ale is a bock blend that put them on the map across the country. In the early 1990s Dead Guy Ale was created by Rogue as a private tap sticker to celebrate the Mayan Day of the Dead (November 1st, All Souls Day) for Casa U Betcha in Portland, Oregon. Pretty Cheeky eh? The Dead Guy design proved so popular with consumers and especially Grateful Dead fans, they made it the label for their Maierbock ale.

I've dranken plenty of Dead Guy Ale's before and often wondered if it was part of the bock family.  The Ale Pours a golden amber with about an inch of fluffy white head that lasted for awhile. I tasted some grassy and herbaly hops that quickly moved into some biscuity malts and a slight touch of sweetness. I was waiting for the sweetness to render some more characteristics, but it never progressed. Overall it had a little stringent mouth feel on the back of my tongue. A very drinkable beer for the ABV and would be a great starter beer for the commodity beer drinker.

Two out of four Biscuits