Samples and Gossip

A few of the product samples we receive each week.

I try to reserve at least one weekend morning totally devoted to foodie things. Usually this means catching up on reading, podcasts, whatever I've saved on the DVR, cooking, chatting on the phone, emailing and trying to stay open to new ideas. I often pick up a lot of news I can't fit into a post but want to. So, this is kind of an homemade hash of stuff.

Here is a link to a (now-endangered species) Boston Globe article I read on Bistronomics. It was interesting to me as my fellow blogger Aidan Brooks is based, or was based until last week, in Barcelona. He's now in the process of relocating to Valencia so now we'll all be able to learn about cutting edge cuisine in that part of Spain, as well.

Then there was a bit of gossip from foodie insider Chris Lyons: CHILMARK TAVERN is to open at Beetlebung Corner in Chilmark. More interesting is that CHILMARK TAVERN’s executive chef will be Paul O’Connell, whose acclaimed Chez Henri bistro in Cambridge, Massachusetts has racked up regional and national accolades for almost 15 years now. O’Connell, leaving Chez Henri temporarily in the hands of his longtime chef de cuisine Mark Thompson, plans to open CHILMARK TAVERN at 9 State Road in late May. Hmmm ... makes sense since most of Cambridge migrates out to Martha's Vineyard for Summer anyway but this Summer, in particular, is bound to be newsworthy with Obama and Chelsea and all.



We attended a recent event at the Cambridge home of Blair Baldwin, the founder of Cookum.com recently. It was nice to spend a few hours over crackers and cheese and some very nice snacks with other passionate foodies and bloggers in the area. The goal of the site is to create a social network for people who want to share food in all kinds of ways. It's never been done before and we are always happy to be involved in something that's a first.



Last but not least, Meryl Streep is looking pretty damn credible as Julia Child in the Summer film release entitled: JULIE AND JULIA. It's partly based on Childs'autobiography of how she became interested in cooking while working with her husband Paul in the foreign service (translation - as a spy) in France.