Hillary Eaton

Originally appeared on Playboy

Make / July 9, 2018

Inebriated Healing? The Shamanic Cocktail Movement Is Here

Imagine a goblet of foraged healing herb infused spirits, set ablaze and brought to you by men wearing the oversized animus tribal masks of ancient healers to represent the gods of their forefathers—a traditional leather cased drum, beaten wildly, filling the air with the echoing drone of the primordial. 

No, this is not the start of the ayahuasca journey of your dreams (or nightmares, according to a few horror stories). This is exactly what you get with you order the Ritual ng Agimat at Agimat Foraging Bar. The Manila, Philippines bar is dedicated to using entirely native Filipino ingredients with an emphasis placed on foraged plants, many of which are traditionally used by shamans. While trending wellness ingredients like turmeric or CBD have been popping up in your cocktails for a while, the latest innovation pushing the bounds of cocktail culture comes in the form of herbs and plants traditionally used by shaman to heal, intoxicate, and elevate to the divine. 

Originally appeared on Food & Wine

Eat / July 9, 2018

L.A.’s Newest Filipino Spot May Be Its Most Ambitious Yet

When I think of Charles Olalia I think of halo-halo. Let me explain: Upon a recent visit to the Philippines I found myself in the backyard of Olalia’s childhood home. “You can’t go to the Philippines and not come to my house for dinner,” Olalia had said. At the end of the meal, he opened an ice chest filled with halo-halo in plastic takeaway cups. “It’s from Razon’s; it’s a two-hour drive from here, but we went to get it today because you had to try it. It’s the best in Manila.”

This is just how the chef operates, with an effortless hospitality and enthusiasm. Olalia has applied this same ethos to define and even name Ma’am Sir, the chef’s newest expression of Filipino cuisine, opening this week in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. 

Originally appeared on Food & Wine

Make / July 9, 2018

Patrick Duffy to Open First-Ever L.A. Theater Bar That You Don’t Need Tickets For

While you may remember Patrick Duffy for his iconic role on the beloved ’80s sitcom, Dallas, the 69-year-old is adding a new role to his resume that you won’t find on IMBD: bar owner.

Dubbed The Broadwater Plunge, Duffy’s forthcoming bar is a project brought to life alongside his son (and fellow actor) Padraich Duffy and the younger Duffy’s wife, actress Emily Kosloski. But the family affair doesn’t stop there; Duffy’s new bar, which will open in May, actually marks the fourth generation of Duffys in the bar business. The senior Duffy grew up in an apartment connected to his parents’ bar, called The Owl, in rural Montana.

“The Owl always felt like just another room in our apartment,” Duffy said in a press release. “On weekends, for instance, my sister and I would get out of bed and wander into the bar before it opened just as anyone else might go into the kitchen.”

 

Originally appeared on Food & Wine

Eat / May 2, 2018

Bestia’s Ori Menashe Opens Long-Awaited Middle Eastern Concept

If there’s one thing you should know going into the highly anticipated new Arts District restaurant, Bavel, it’s that you won’t be eating Israeli food. Nor will you be eating Turkish, Moroccan, or Georgian food, strictly speaking. Instead, you’ll be eating Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis’ food.

The second restaurant from the husband-and-wife team behind L.A.’s perpetually buzzing Bestia, Bavel is the loosely defined as Middle Eastern concept named for the Hebrew word for “Babel.” The Judeao-Christian tale referencing a unified Middle East torn apart through the confusion of language, Bavel is a cuisine unified by the heritages and experiences of its two creators.

Influenced equally by Menashe’s Moroccan, Turkish, Georgian, and Israeli roots as it is by Gergis’ memories of her father’s Egyptian food and her mother’s Ukrainian pierogis, Bavel is the sort of chef-reflective cuisine that leaves a singular definition lacking. 

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.