We’ve been seeing the veggies in your dessert trend, but we are now totally on board with the veggies in your cocktails trend after trying this beet martini at NYC’s Riverpark. Called “The Roots,” this drink is made up of beet infused vodka, ginger, citrus and basil and it had us craving just one more serving of vegetables- who would have ever thought!?

Impossibly cool article this month in Town & Country on the visceral thrill of foraging on the New Jersey Audubon Society’s preserved acreage. The article presents the foraging trend as an ancient passtime that caters fully to both gastronomes and environmental conservationists. The foraging trend is of course by no means new, but this refined take is a far cry from the hipster-eating-weeds version of the recently popular urban foraging movement (the article actually recommends against foraging in compromised soil from parking lots and such— that and New York City has outlawed foraging in public parks). 

Restaurants such as Daniel NYC in Manhattan and Forage LA cater to the posh forager crowd with their mostly-foraged menus. High end general stores such as Brook Farm General Store in Williamsburg cater to the nouveau forager with their high end pruning sheers and gathering adirondack baskets, “perfect for foraging in the forest”. And even more agriculturally-oriented magazines like Wilder are getting more attention recently in the blogosphere. It seems like the cleaned-up foraging excursion is exactly the kind of “wild” Gen Ys can get behind.

Ever dreamed of ordering up cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar, peanut butter, cotton candy, or gummy bears in your coffee? Me neither, but apparently the thousands of creative coffee connoisseurs toying with Seattle’s Best Coffee’s new Facebook contest are coming up with some interesting ideas. The ‘Create Your Deliciousness’ campaign lets users experiment with unconventional (to say the least!) coffee combinations with the aforementioned ingredients, plus countless others. Birthday cake coffee, anyone? 100 virtual-baristas per day win free bags of Seattle’s Best Coffee, and the company benefits from seeing what people really fantasize about in their coffee, promising to make the best concoctions into reality. 

The release of this Princess Bride wine proves that a branded product does not have to be about a current entertainment vehicle in order for people to go crazy for it. Farm Boy, fetch me that bottle! 

(Source: jezebel.com)

Every year, Super Bowl Sunday culture indoctrinates a new, quirky tradition that allows the rest of us who will not watch another football game for the rest of the calendar year to stay interested; The Puppy Bowl, The Kitten Half Time Show, the real half time show, the commercials, the drinking games, the food. This year, Soho restaurant The Dutch takes this idea a step further by offering patrons the $99.95 Super Bowl Fried Chicken Feast that includes sixteen pieces of fried chicken, sides of cole slaw, honey butter biscuits, mashed potatoes and hot sauce. The meal feeds 4-6 New Yorkers in Soho, and 2-3 real Giants fans. The gourmet-ification of the Superbowl seems to be a Thing, with Tom Colichio spot Riverpark also offering reservations to a high-end buffet for the game! 

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Superbowl Sunday doesn’t have to only mean chips and dip. With sweets like these people are more interested in dessert delights.

Adventurous eating moves beyond the dinner table and extends itself into adventurous imbibing. More sophisticated and more savage than shotgunning a beer, bone luging combines food trends of red meat, adventurous eating, and innovative alcohol consumption. 

BeerMe is the digital equivalent of having a bar tending best friend in every bar in town. There are just three simple steps to ensuring that you can track down your favorite craft brew whenever it’s on tap in Los Angeles: input your favorite beers into BeerMe, follow your favorite bars from BeerMe’s curated list, then rush to the nearest bar to enjoy a pint of local Idiot IPA. 

We love beer, we love curating, and we love the find-a-favorite platform that BeerMe is pioneering.

Watch out, omnivores, pescetarians, paleos and vegans – a new rank has edged itself into the food consumption vernacular.  We wrote about it in one of our 2011 reports,and now The Values Institute at DGWB predicts the rise of the flexitarian as a major 2012 trend in consumer health.  Flexitarians cut back on meat in the diet significantly without going full-on vegetarian (check out the popular Meatless Mondays). It’s nice to know that we can delay our virtuous goal of going vegan for one more year.  So may the best eater win! We know who’s going to be flexing their muscle, or lack thereof, in the ring.

Yes, really. The newest way to get your daily dose of veggies vodka is through alcoholic soups. Brilliant multi-tasking! The Bryant Park Hotel’s Cellar Bar is helping you eat a “meal” and get your drank on at the same time with their three new seasonal soups, which actually sound delicious and (maybe) nutritious. 

These “Soup Cocktails” are the dreamy-sounding Lobster Bisque infused with Harvey’s Bristol Crème and porto, Herb-Tomato blended with vodka and raspberry liqueur, and a Carrot Ginger with Domaine de Canton and Frangelico liqueurs. Lunchtime or happy hour? Who cares! 

The holidays are over, which must mean that it is almost Valentines Day! Not to leave our readers underprepared, here is an initial chocolate idea for the sweetest 2012 valentines: planetary alignment. Not zodiac, but a science fair set of gourmet chocolate surrounding the different color pallets of each planet. Mercury for example, features a ganache of lemon, mango, and coconut. Available through the Rihga Royal Hotel in Japan.

So few holiday treats look healthy…and adorable. 

(Source: fuckyeahdessert)