Tartar Sauce

I saw a History Channel program about Ghengis Khan the other day. He conquered the Tartars, which set me to wonder how Tartar Sauce got its name and what it might have to do with the Tartars. According to this source, it means "rough" in French, and Tartars were rough, nasty and violent types. Also, they ate shredded beef, sometimes raw, which is where Steak Tartare gets its name. Tartars took their name from Tartarus, the Greek version of hell.

Fancy Blueberries

I haven't visited Kiss My Spatula in a while, and it is full of wonderful photographs and recipes, though the latter are usually out of my league. The style of the blog has changed a bit, but it is still very fancy and nice. Would you like some Blueberry-Quinoa Tart?

International Bacon Day

Mmmmm. Bacon.

Photo

Levy Christiano, Brazil

Quite a goal I say, but as the old cliche goes, “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” Besides, they’ve still got quite some time, I just hope it’s enough for them to make it. My intestines would go wild if the Azkals make it to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. (My intestines would burst if I make it to Brazil.)

And I salute them for introducing the world of football to the Filipinos. They brought sport into the scene and performed remarkably good for rookies in the big field. From now on, I’m looking forward to their matches and I hope they excel dramatically.

Go, Azkals! Go!

BR BIZ: French Food Fight (via BBC News - Carrefour and Casino fight for Brazil’s Pao de Acucar)

(via Brazil’s Congress: Paying for Consensus « Observing Brazil)

Will Future Ranchers Celebrate the Story of a Sacred Tree?:

I actually like this article mostly for the good description of the local Brazilian festival. I think the author gets a lot more vague when describing how she is working to reduce deforestation. I think some of the things described are good (realizing that local people depend on ranching and have an economic need to continue deforestation with their current ranching practices), but I think other ideas (getting paid not to cut down trees) are probably not long term realistic. I think that rehabilitating pasture and changing grazing practices to not exhaust pasture makes a lot of sense.

Levy Christiano, Brazil

Rio de janeiro

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Brazil

Cidade de Goiás / Goiás / Brazil

Can’t waittt… 3 more years!

Porto Alegre, Brazil

Twin Cities Adventure: MIX 2011 and Sammiches

Minneapolis Indie Xpo 2011



Next year's MIX has been confirmed as taking place at the Soap Factory again. I knew they were working on that, but now it's official.

Best Twin Cities' Sandwiches



Image from The Couchwarmers.

John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, is one of my heroes. I'll make anything into a sandwich. If you serve meat and there's also some kind of bread on the table, you can bet I'll wrap one around the other. Even cupcakes are better now that I've figured out how to turn them into delicious, frosting sandwiches.

So I've made note of all these great Twin Cities sandwiches and am checking them off. I just tried the Vietnamese Bánh Mì at Ngon yesterday (the pickled veggies were delicious, but the aioli was way too spicy for me) and am moving on to the Citizen Joe next.