Not a vodka martini, either shaken or stirred.

It's whisky. Bourbon if you want to get specific.

In the books, he drinks bourbon 37 times, and orders a vodka martini only 19.

Overall, he has 101 drinks with some sort of whisky involved.

If you look at the films, he drinks more champagne than vodka martinis.

And that's today episode of completely trivial trivia.

stats from atomicmartini.

"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths."

-- Reynolds Price

I love movies that offer that irresistible moment when food takes center-stage as a storytelling device. Food often conjures up elusive aspects of a character, elements that might not be apparent otherwise. A good example is from my all-time favorite movie, The Godfather. After Paulie betrays Vito Corleone (Brando), Clemenza and Rocco take care of Paulie with 2 shots to the head while he sits in the driver's seat of the car. As they prepare to walk away, Clemenza instructs Rocco to "leave the gun, take the cannolis." In another scene Clemenza shows Michael (Al Pacino) how to make sauce to feed 20 men. As he stands at the stove putting together the sauce it's obvious that Clemenza enjoys the nurturing aspect of cooking.

In the beginning of Little Miss Sunshine the Hoover family is defined by a dinner conversation that begins with Grandpa Edwin Hoover's (Alan Arkin) rant when Sheryl Hoover (Toni Colette) brings fast food chicken home for her family's dinner:

"Every night it's the fucking chicken! Holy God Almighty! Is it possible just once we could get something to eat for dinner around here that's not the goddamned fucking chicken? "

Sometimes, a movie will give you a fabulous recipe. Once Upon A Time In Mexico was a confusing movie for me, but I loved Agent Sands' (Johnny Depp) obsession with the slow roasted pork called Puerco Pibil. It's a simple Yucatan dish that uses annatto seed to make an achiote paste. This flavorful, porky delight has a distinct spicy-citrusy flavor. Its piquant aroma will drive you absolutely crazy (yee-haw, woo-hoo, woot...crazy!) while it cooks.

If you'd like to check out director Robert Rodriguez's 10 minute cooking school video go to this post at What geeks eat... This dish is still a family favorite and even though I posted about it a year ago I only had a handful of readers then...it's too good to let it languish in oblivion.

Puerco Pibil
Adapted from Robert Rodriguez's 10 Minute Cooking School video
Click here for a printer friendly recipe.

5 tbsp annatto seed
2 tsp cumin seed
8 allspice
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 jalapeno peppers
2 tbsp. salt
8 cloves garlic
juice of 5 Lemons
5 lbs. pork shoulder roast

Grind all the spices. Add everything except the pork to a blender jar and pulse until it is well mixed. Cut the pork into large chunks. Put the pork and the marinade into a ziploc bag and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat the oven to 325F. Dump the pork and the marinade into a dutch oven and cover it with a lid. Bake in the oven for 3 hours. Serve with rice.

Other notable and amusing film food moments are:

• The steak scene in Raging Bull
• The wiseguy's prison scene in Goodfellas
• The lobster scene in Annie Hall
• All of Home For The Holidays (the best thanksgiving film, ever)
• The song A Little Priest in Sweeney Todd
• The Seven Samurai for it's focus on rice (thanks to my son Alex for this one)
• The sticky bun dance in Shaolin Soccer (thanks to my son Dexter for this one)

What's your favorite food moment in film?

Ooo.. A food trivia list from Mental Floss!

Some of you know how much I love how food has influenced our culture. This would include our language. For example:

The Cold Shoulder

Believe it or not, there was a time when giving someone the cold shoulder didn’t just mean publicly snubbing them, it actually meant handing them a cold shoulder, as in a cold shoulder of beef. During the Middle Ages, the easiest way to hint to guests that they’d overstayed their welcome was to serve them a heaping mound of cold cow parts. A few platters of nothing but shoulder were supposed to drive away even the most persistent of guests.

Several more like these can be found at Mental Floss.

Get it? Heat? Chile? *taps microphone* Hullo, is this thing on?

If you'll pardon my attempt at lame puns, I want address the issue about what makes chiles, y'know, so hot.

The substances that give chile peppers their heat are the alkaloid capsaicin, and other related chemicals. These substances are collectively called capsaicinoids. For the record, the other capsaicinoids are:

• dihydrocapsaicin
• nordihydrocapsaicin
• homodihydrocapsaicin
• homocapsaicin

Say them aloud at a party, and you'll be sure to leave others either impressed or befuddled.

Speaking of impressing people, I could let you know how capsaicinoids interact with your body, creating the sensation of pain and heat. For instance, I could write "The sensations associated with capsaicin result from capsaicin's chemical interaction with your sensory neurons. Capsaicin binds to a receptor called the vanilloid receptor subtype 1. This binding allows positively-charged ions to pass through the cell membrane and into the cell. This results in a "depolarization" of the neuron, causing the neuron to signal your brain with, what medical professionals call, an 'owie'".

I could write that, but you'd probably fall asleep as soon as I mentioned the phrase "vanilloid receptor subtype 1". I base this assumption only on the fact that I slightly nodded off myself, and I typed out the darn thing.

Different chiles have different levels of capsaicinoids found within their fruits. This is why you can eat a bell pepper without any fuss, yet cry like Halle Berry winning an Oscar when taking a bite out of a scotch bonnet. The Scoville scale is a measure of the amount on capsaicinoids found in a chile pepper. Coincidentally named after it's developer, William Scoville, the scale is set by measuring a dilution of pepper extract in sugar water until the 'heat' of a pepper is no longer detectable. As Wikipedia explains:

...a sweet pepper, containing no capsaicin at all, has a Scoville rating of zero, meaning no heat detectable even undiluted. Conversely, the hottest chiles, such as habaneros, have a rating of 300,000 or more, indicating that their extract has to be diluted 300,000-fold before the capsaicin present is undetectable.

The Scoville scale now uses high pressure liquid chromatography in order to get a precise number. As it turns out, 15 Scoville units is roughly equivalent to one part capsaicin per million.

That's only some of the science behind chile peppers. Later, I'll post a list of varieties of chiles and each of their Scoville level. It promises to be fun interesting in a trivial sort of way.

Technorati Tags: food, chile, chile pepper, food trivia

More info to gnaw on if you like these sort of posts. Personally? I like these sort of posts.

• - There are five classifications of lettuce, with several varieties beneath in each classification:

  Butterhead Lettuces: Small, round, with loose leafs, these leafs range from pale green on the outside leaves to light yellow green on the inside leaves. Butterhead varieties include Boston and Bibb varieties.

  Crisphead Lettuces: Solid heads of tightly wrapped leaves. Varieties include Iceberg and Batavian. If you have the option, choose the Batavian over the Iceberg. Trust me on this.

  Looseleaf Lettuces: Leaves come from a single stalk rather than wrapped in a head. These leaves are more delicate than Crispheads and Butterheads.

  Celtuce: Chinese Lettuce. Known for it's thickened soft stem which is perfectly edible, as opposed to the stems of Crispheads.

  Romaine: An elongated head of dark green, narrow, stiff leaves, with distinctive ribs reaching nearly the tip of each leaf.

• - Purchase Lettuce that is crisp, clean and free of blemishes.
• - for looseleaf leattuce, purchase lettuce that has unbroken leaves, with no wilting.
• - Avoid iceberg lettuce that is lack any green coloring or have loose leaves.
• - Avoid Romaine lettuce that has rust coloring.
• - Do not soak your lettuce. Run your leaves under cold water and then dry by soaking on paper towels or with a salad spinner.
• - Crisphead and Romaine varieties of lettuce can be kept in a refrigerator for up to a week after purchase. Other varieties, 3-4 days tops.
• - Do not store lettuce next to bananas,apples, pears or tomatoes. The ethylene that these fruits give off will brown your lettuce prematurely.
• - Dry your lettuce before storing.
• - 1 lb of lettuce leaves equals roughly six cups.
• - There is no proof that tearing leaves will allow your leaves to brown slower than if you cut them by knife. But hand torn lettuce certainly looks better than chopped lettuce.
• - The greener leaves of lettuce contains more vitamins and minerals then the paler leaves. More flavor as well.

And now you know more about Lettuce than you ever thought you could.

Some of you may already know how to make sauces. I was not one of those people. So imagine my surprise back when I was making cheese dishes when I discovered how blessed easy it is to make a béchamel sauce. If sauces intimidate you, then a béchamel sauce is the perfect place to start.

First, a few words about the sauce. It's a white sauce. It's also one of the five Mother sauces. A mother sauce is a sauce that once you learn how to make properly, you can alter the recipe a tad to get a different result. For example, once you master the recipe below (and you will in about 15 minutes of time), you can add various herbs along with the the milk, and change the taste of the sauce. Word on the street is that dill is marvelous, and peppercorns are also a great addition. Experiment on your own and see what you can arrive at.

Béchamel sauce is often used on vegetables and fish. In fact, legend has it that Marquis Louis de Béchamel, a 17th century financier who held the honorary post of chief steward of King Louis XIV's household, is said to have invented Béchamel Sauce when trying to come up with a new way of serving and eating dried cod. However, I'm inclined to believe Béchamel was actually invented by the Italians, as the majority of French cuisine was actually heavily influenced by the Italians in the 16th century. It's no surprise that you can also use it on pasta in a pinch, but cream sauces (sans flour) might be a better option.

Anyway, here's the recipe for a basic béchamel sauce.

• 2 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 Tablespoons of AP Flour
• 1 cup of Milk

In a sauce pan placed over medium heat, melt the butter. The moment the butter is completely liquified (no foam please), whisk in the flour. This should result in a roux. Cook for approximately three minutes, but do not allow to brown.

Add the milk, 1/4 cup at a time. Whisk into the roux until a smooth, velvety consistency is maintained. Once reached, add another 1/4 cup of milk. Repeat until milk is gone.

That's all there is to it. Pretty simply huh? Some folks say that you need to scald the milk beforehand, but I had no problem reaching the desired consistency with cold milk. Maybe I got lucky.

Some people like a thicker béchamel sauce. If this is you, simply add another tablespoon of butter, and another Tablespoon of flour (do not add any additional milk). If you want the sauce thinner, subtract a tablespoon of both butter and flour.

I'm not particularly religious, at least in the Judeo-Christian traditions, but I can easily appreciate the holidays that affect the American Culture. This weekend, a fairly big one occurs.

Easter.

One thing that has always made me wonder about Easter is how the heck did chocolate come to represent the resurrection of Christ. After a bit of reading, I have found the answer.

Easter Chocolate has nothing to do with the resurrection. Rather, it can be traced to the pagan celebration of all things spring related, with the vernal equinox and such. Hares and eggs have long represented fertility, which is a fairly big deal when it comes to spring. Those wacky Germans, always looking for an excuse to add chocolate to anything celebration, probably were the first to make chocolate eggs and hares. My own theory (not based on anything other than an anecdotal familiarity with religion) contends that chocolate was often seen as a luxury, and after the several weeks of fasting and giving up items of pleasure for lent, chocolate was one of the first items re-introduced to the decadent Catholics and Lutherns.

Later the tradition immigrated to here in the United States along with the Germans, where the custom took hold in the culture after after the Civil War.

Baskets of food for Easter dinner used to be taken to church to be blessed. Over time, this became instead baskets of chocolates for children left behind by the Easter Bunny.

So if you've ever wondered what's up with Jesus and Chocolate, now you have a clearer understanding. We eat chocolate bunnies due to a melding of Pagan and Catholic traditions. As to why the head is the first thing we eat off of a chocolate bunny, it's because we're sadistic bastards.

Happy Easter!

Amaze your friends! Stun your family! Answer a question or two on "Jeopardy!". Here's the latest basic tips and trivia for Lentils!

• Lentils (Lens culinaris) are a small legume of the pea family with round, flattened seeds in pods.
• The Latin name for lentils, 'lens' gives us the name for the lentil-shaped piece of convex glass.
• 1 cup of dried lentils = 3 1/2 cups soaked
• You can freeze dried lentils indefinately
• Lentils do not require soaking, as opposed to other legumes.
• Wait until lentils are done cooking until you add acidic ingredients (tomatoes, lemon, vinegar, etc).
• You can soak lentils if you want to lower your cooking time.
• Lentils require 12 minutes to cooked if pre-soaked, 20 if cooked dried.
• The Lentil is most likely the oldest cultivated legume, and is believed to be native to southwestern Asia, perhaps northern Syria. Seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs dating from the 12 Dynasty (2400 B.C.), and there is also evidence of their cultivation as early as 6,000 B.C.
• Lentils are rich in protein and carbohydrates, and are a good source of calcium, phosphorus, iron and B vitamins. Lentils are found in various colors, white, green, red, yellow, brown, and orange, and are sold dried, like beans.

People are all a flutter of the 100th birthday of the Hamburger and its introduction at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. For those not in the know, the St. Louis Fair was a culinary seminal event, as it supposedly not only introduced the hamburger, but also Iced Tea, the ice cream cone, and the hot dog.

But just like those who think that the Earl of Sandwich invented the idea of meat on bread, the idea that the hamburger is 100 years old this year is false.

Ground beef on bread has been around ever since people have learned to grind meat. Steak Tartare was often served on bread, and it would take no great leap to actually form the ground beef into a patty shape and serve on bread. During the Middle Ages, thick blocks of coarse stale bread called trenchers were used in place of plates. Meats and other foods were piled on top of the bread to be eaten with their fingers.

According to "The Food Chronology - A Food Lover's Compendium of Events and Anecdotes, from Prehistory to the Present, by James Trager", as of 1836 yhe first printed American menu is issued by New York's 5-year-old Delmonico's Restaurant at 494 Pearl Street and list as one of its most expensive dishes "hamburger steak" The "bil of far" offer a "regualr dinner" at 12 cents and lists hamburger steak at 10 cents.

In 1885 Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, Wisconsin, at the age of 15, sold hamburgers from his ox-drawn food stand at the Outagamie County Fair. He went to the Outagamie County Fair and set up a stand selling meatballs. Business wasn't good and he quickly realized that it was because meatballs were too difficult to eat while strolling around the fair. In a flash of innovation, he flattened the meatballs, placed them between two slices of bread.

So the hamburger is one hundred years old? Hardly. 1904 was the year that the hamburger (as well as iced tea, and the hot dog) became popular, thank in large part to the exposure garnered at the World's Fair. The food, however, already had existed throughout the world.

I have a friend who continually corrects my bad english. Most times I accept the correction with grace, as I do think that the ability to speak well affects how people react to you. But there are times that I want to yell at her.."Hey, back off sister! I'm embracing my lower middle-class roots! And if that means that I regress into my background and say 'Krysta and me went to the mall', well then that's what happens." I then usually visualize myself apologizing profusely at the outburst, and carrying the feelings of vindication and guilt at the same time.
Yeah, my fantasies are what we call "robust".

At any rate, I now find myself in the position of being much like my friend, correcting people and scoffing at them behind their back. Only it's not my skill in the Queen's English that allows me to feel superior...as evidenced by my writing. Rather, it's the knowledge of the difference between "High Tea" and "Low Tea".

It started at the B & O Bistro, where I came across their High Tea menu.

"Amateurs", I thought. "Not one shepard's pie on the menu."

Later, I found myself snickering at the high class Sorrento Hotel, who offered a $28 High Tea, including such items as salmon roulades, chicken curry barquettes, celery root salad in cucumber cups, fresh fruit tartlets, madelines, mini cream puffs, petit fours, chocolate pralines, miniature cookies and fresh baked apricot and cherry scones with Devonshire cream and preserves. Again, these items are not part of the traditional British high tea event.

Sorrento has since changed their menu to read the more appropriate "afternoon tea", but they still only serve Barnes & Watson tea found in tea bags rather than loose leaf. Hard to forgive them for that, especially at $28 a pop. A quick bit of research finds that High Tea is often used when referring to Tea Houses. So let me impart a piece of information.

Tea time in Britain is determined by the height of the table on which the food is served. Low tea is the tea in which crustless sandwiches, petit fors, and salmon roulades are likely to be served. It is a meal of the leisure class, and it takes place between 3-4 p in the afternoon.

High Tea is for the working class of Britain and is akin to our dinner. Meat pies, joints of mutton, and other hearty foods are most likely to be served. Ever hear of Bangers and Mash? Most likely it's served at High tea. If you want High Tea in Seattle, head to Fado, as it has the menu most like that of high tea.

So next time someone states that they've had high tea, respond with "Really? How was the Corned beef and Cabbage?" You can then sit and feel smug with your superior knowledge. And then ask if they used tea bags or loose leaf tea. Respond accordingly. Your friends will most likely look upon you with awe and annoyance.