Hillary Eaton

Originally appeared on MUNCHIES (VICE)

Make / April 11, 2018

Manila’s Best Cocktails Are Made With the Help of Shamans

“Orange soda mixed with gasoline,” Kalel Demetrio says, thinking back to the most memorable drink he’s come across while scouring the Philippines in search of cocktail inspiration. “[On a foraging research mission] I came across some rebels and farmers living in the mountains and they showed me some of their unique regional produce and their favorite drink. I didn’t know it was gasoline at first—they drink it like a shot because it burns.”

Demetrio, known as Liquido Maestro, has spent the better part of the past decade researching and documenting rare and little-known regional Filipino produce and ingredients, with the goal of creating a cocktail culture in Manila that celebrates Filipino products. With his hands in the creation of cocktail lists at over 28 different bars and restaurants around Manila and the Philippines, Demetrio’s unique approach and focus has been instrumental in bringing Filipino cocktail culture to where it is today.

“What’s been missing is Filipino heritage and attitude,” Demetrio explains. “But my industry is now realizing the power of our own produce and our sense of patriotism is on another level now.”

Originally appeared on Food & Wine

Eat / April 11, 2018

Nas Opens Sweet Chick in the Queens Neighborhood Where He Grew Up

On the eve of the April 9 opening of a Sweet Chick in his hometown, Long Island City, Nas recounts the origins of the dish his and partner John Seymour’s restaurant is famous for: chicken and waffles. “If Billie Holiday or Duke Ellington sang all night in Harlem, the whole city would drive into upper Manhattan and party ‘til the wee hours of the night and eventually, they’d get hungry,” he tells Food and Wine.

“Do they want breakfast; do they want dinner? It’s five, six in the morning and they’ve been partying all night, they think: let’s have both.’ The kitchen’s been going all night and they’ve been partying all night and somebody mixed their chicken with a waffle, and there you have it. That’s the whole thing.”

The hip hop-saturated chicken and waffle restaurants in New York and Los Angeles started by Seymour (the new location is the fifth) is the rapper and entrepreneur’s first foray into the food world. And while it may seem like his love of good fried chicken got the rapper to finally dip his toes into the restaurant world (he does have an entire track dedicated to the stuff), it was just as much about the restaurant’s musical soul.

“The first time I walked into Sweet Chick, they were playing original samples from some of the greatest hip hop songs ever made,” he says. “Samples that were just as hot as the rap record that they were later turned into. The vibe was just … it was for today’s guys.”

Originally appeared on Eater

Travel / April 11, 2018

The 38 Essential Santiago Restaurants

Santiago is experiencing a culinary renaissance like it’s never seen before, says food and travel writer Hillary Eaton. Chile’s capital city, famous for its stunning setting amid the Andes as well as its mix of modern and Spanish colonial architecture, has long been on tourists’ radars.

“For decades, the Santiago dining scene has been divided into two categories: casual Chilean comfort food and European fine dining,” Eaton says. “But thanks to a new generation of chefs, Chilean cuisine doesn’t just mean pisco sours, fuente de soda diner food, empanadas from stands de comidas (street carts), or the loaded completo (hot dog)anymore.” Chefs are focusing on high-quality Chilean ingredients, experimenting with market-driven tasting menus, and integrating flavors and techniques from around the world. The city’s most vital dining experiences reflect a mix of the historic restaurants that have long been a part of Santiago’s cultural fabric and this new guard.

Without further ado, and in geographic order, the 38 essential dishes and restaurants of Santiago, Chile.

Originally appeared on Food & Wine

Make / April 11, 2018

The Hottest New Caviar Service Is … Vegan

When the day calls for you to treat yourself, there’s really no better way than to indulge in caviar service. From those delicate, mother-of-pearl spoons to the perfectly bronzed blinis and the shiny little beads of onyx-colored sturgeon eggs looking up at you (just beggin’ for that ‘gram), it’s an experience known to evoke a happy dance in even the staunchest of reserved restaurant-goers.

While the ornate experience itself is classic, the latest in caviar isn’t about tapping into your inner-tsar, instead it’s all about saying by to the Old World and embracing your inner plant-based-loving Angeleno and going … completely vegan.

Originally appeared on Food & Wine

Travel / April 11, 2018

Five-Story Rubik’s Cube Will House the World’s Most Immersive Wine-Tasting Experience

Driving through the rolling hills of South Australia’s McLaren Vale wine region, surrounded by vines planted by 19th-century European settlers and cellar doors of Australia’s oldest wineries, the last thing you’d expect to find is a multi-dimensional, five-story-tall Rubik’s cube. But at d’Arenberg winery, that’s exactly what you’ll find. The architectural marvel of bold shards of mirror and glass and metal is home to one of the world’s most immersive, anticipated wine-tasting experiences, and it is set to finally open this November.

Dubbed the d’Arenberg cube, this $14 million AUD project dreamed up by d’Arenberg’s lovably eccentric, fourth-generation winemaker, Chester Osborn, will be equal parts cellar door, art gallery, immersive tasting room and fine-dining destination. Each of the elements have the explicit intent of shattering your senses and heightening them to the optimal sensory place for wine tasting.

Originally appeared on VICE (MUNCHIES)

Travel / April 11, 2018

Why Dominique Crenn Wants to Plant a Million Trees in Haiti

Dominique Crenn—she of the poetic tasting menu at Michelin-starred Atelier Crenn— has long been known as a chef that’s as talented as she is tireless. But the chef’s latest endeavor just might be the most impressive project she’s worked on thus far.

It’s Root Project, an aid project put together by Crenn and Zesa Raw co-founder Michelle Jean with the goal of helping farmers in Haiti replant coffee and cocoa plants after the complete devastation of local crops following Hurricane Matthew. The project’s goal is to plant 1 million trees alongside Haitian farmers and chefs. We caught up with Crenn to see what this project could mean for the farmers of Haiti and to discuss chefs’ social and environmental responsibilities.

Originally appeared on VICE (MUNCHIES)

Make / April 11, 2018

How a Former Porn Star Found a New Life in Hot Sauce

There’s a lot of masochism in hot sauce. When you move beyond the relative safety of Tabasco, Sriracha, and Tapatío, much of the market is made up of small-production sauces with gimmicky names and labels promising every conceivable level of delicious pain.

Take hot sauces like the Reaper Sling Blade—made with one of the world’s hottest peppers, the Carolina Reaper—or The Black Mamba, which boasts a rating of 2.5 million on the heat-rating Scoville scale. (For reference, a standard jalapeño falls somewhere between 3,500 and 10,000 Scoville units.) The problem with most of these super-hot sauces, however, is that while they effectively set your mouth on fire, they contain little in the way of real flavor.

Originally appeared on VICE (MUNCHIES)

Travel / April 11, 2018

Why Vegas Is Embracing a New Wave of Restaurants

For years, the food scene on the Las Vegas strip could be largely divided into two categories: fine dining or chain-casual. Screaming Eagle in Zalto stemware or a liter of boozy neon slushy through a sippy straw. Celebrity chefs or mega chains. Joël Robuchon or Hooters. 

But as more and more people begin to plan trips around memorable food experiences, Las Vegas’ strip has begun to shape-shift around the fact that a huge number of their potential visitors are of a new breed. They can’t (or don’t want) to drop $445 per person on a tasting menu but they also appreciate good food and want more than just cheese-covered drunk food—except when that’s exactly what they want, of course.

They’re the type of people who watch Chef’s Table and Instagram their food. They’re Millennials who are happy to wait in wind, rain, or snow for the cruffins, Nashville-style hot chickens, and top-rated xiao long baos of the world. They’re the kind conscientious eaters who think about the politics of the James Beard Awards, the dilemmas of included gratuity, and the demise of Lucky Peach.

For better or worse, if you’re reading this, they’re you and me.

Originally appeared on Food & Wine

Make / April 11, 2018

You Can Now Turn All Your Food into Unicorn Food

Finding someone who hasn’t heard of unicorn food might be rarer than finding an actual unicorn. While 2017 may technically be the year of the rooster, we all know it’s really the year of the unicorn. Did you know unicorn ramen is a thing now? Because it is.

Coffee houses, restaurants and even mega-chains have embraced the trend, attracting foodies that flock in masses for that unicorn-colored ‘gram. Starbucks ruled social media the week they served the limited-edition Unicorn Frappuccino, thanks to fans of the mythical, horned creature’s namesake food.

But for those who like their food best served in photogenic layers of pinks, purples and blue—we have some good news. Thanks to Pearl Butter, a new line of unicorn food in a jar, you can now transform everything you eat into unicorn food in the comfort of your own home.

 

Originally appeared on Food & Wine

Make / April 11, 2018

Here’s How Michelin Stars Actually Affect the Restaurant Business

The Michelin guide has long been the defacto authority on the world’s best dining. But as gourmet culture reaches peak mainstream popularity and old culinary hierarchies remain in flux, how does gaining, losing and (gasp) renouncing a star actually affect a restaurant’s business?

Historically, receiving a single Michelin star has led to an increase in customers for restaurants. Take chef John Fraser, whose New York restaurant Nix joined the Michelin star rankings this year (and whose website features “Proud new owner of a Michelin star” as a central banner). He said that receiving a Michelin star “has drastically increased business at both Nix and Dovetail.” An added bonus? “With the stars, I do feel now we are able to retain a higher level of staff than before.”