Say what you will about their burgers - though it’s a challenge to think of something they haven’t said about themselves already - but White Castle’s branding and marketing departments deserve an award.

As they have done every year for a while now , White Castle will be serving candlelit dinner from 5-9pm on Valentine’s Day, complete with pink tablecloths, the Cupid Crave Kit, and BYOB bottle service - perfect for you and your totally chill significant other (especially if their name happens to be Kumar).

Photos of happy couples are posted to their website (consentually, of course) the next day. There’s nothing more romantic than a cheap date that makes you laugh. Genius!

She’s the professional bartender whose liquor experiments have created a following with Van Gogh’s loyal fans, infusing fashionable flavors into the average cocktail that put the everyday Cosmopolitan to shame. From special requests at weddings, to entertaining with high-class flavor in mind, Stacy enjoys the enviable position of ‘research and development’ at Van Gogh Vodka, serving up deliciously sinful drinks for any and every occasion.

When she’s not concocting a new Van Gogh martini or cocktail, Stacy Nicoll can be found podcasting her signature recipes online with ‘Gogh Casts’, and blogging about the latest vodka lineup from the Van Gogh brand. We pulled out our shot glasses and cocktail shakers for a quick lesson on making the perfect martini—followed by a few Q&As:

TN: What’s the one vodka everyone should have in their bar?
SN: Since most people probably already have classic 80-proof vodka, I would recommend Van Gogh Double Espresso® Double Caffeine Vodka. Its unique flavor is always a crowd pleaser.

TN: What’s something most people don’t know about vodka?
SN: It can be used in cooking recipes, as well as cocktails. We often use Van Gogh Vodka’s many exotic flavors as marinades, which are perfect for grilling. Van Gogh Pineapple, Coconut, Citroen and Pomegranate vodkas are just a few that can be used to flavor seafood and poultry. Double Espresso®;, Espresso, Dutch Chocolate, Vanilla and Wild Appel are delicious in a variety of desserts including cakes and can even be used to dress up ice cream instead of syrup.

TN: What’s the easiest drink to make with vodka?
SN:  Van Gogh’s 17 flavored vodkas are cocktails in a bottle – simply select your favorite flavor, chill, pour and repeat!

...continued: Who is Stacy Nicoll?

   

She’s a health foodie with a gift for making food tasty, healthy, and delicious, sharing her talents as a celebrity chef for the likes of Paris Hilton, Susan Sarandon, and Alicia Silverstone. 

After being recognized as a break-out star on Martha Stewart’s Apprentice in 2005, Bethenny Frankel is sharing healthy eating tips and techniques for gourmet tastes around the country. When she’s not busy taping shows for her YouTube cooking demos, you’ll find her writing, cooking, or developing a few more signature dishes.  We managed to catch some of her kitchen secrets on ThisNext.

TN:  What’s the biggest myth people have about eating healthy?
BF:  People buy into the latest fad like it’s religion. People will turn down a piece of watermelon and eat a chemical-laden Atkins bar because it’s the most recent fad. We need to learn how to participate in a healthy eating lifestyle that will last forever, it’s a marathon not a sprint!  Unlike any other thing in life, the more we know about dieting, the fatter our society becomes. Practice hasn’t made perfect, we need to go back to basics.

TN:  Have you learned anything from your A-list clients?
BF: I’ve learned just how many different food personalities there are. Mariska Hargitay eats a healthy Mediterranean diet involving grains, fish, meat, poultry, vegetables, and real food. Paris Hilton eats whatever she wants but in small portions. She eats what she wants then move on. Denis Leary eats six times a day keeping his metabolism going. Alicia Silverstone is a devout vegan. Each of these eating styles is healthy but for completely different reasons.

...continued: Who is Bethenny Frankel?

They’re a couple of LA-based Grub Gals who launched ‘As You Like It Catering’ and the award-winning restaurant, Grub. They’ve become famous for some of the area’s freshest ‘California Comfort Food’ and insist on beautiful presentation and food preparation from scratch. You might have caught them on television with NBC’s Recipe TV, The World’s Greatest Chefs and the Food Network’s Rachel Ray’s Tasty Travels. Betty made the Ba-Da-Bing Betty’s Grilled Cheese Sandwich famous with Al Roker on the Today Show. The tasty sandwich won the Top Chef award, and can now be found on TGI Friday’s menus all over the world, and now The Grub Gals can be found on ThisNext. 

We managed to catch up with their busy lives for some Q&A.

TN:  Where does your passion for grub grow from?
GG:  Our passion comes from the joy of creation. To take raw products, experiment with different combinations and come up with something unique and delicious is one of most rewarding things we do as chefs.

...continued: Who Are The Grub Gals?

...continued: Cassoulet, s'il vous plaît

The good folks at Leite’s Culinaria have posted their list of the Best 20 Food Books of 2006. Topping the list is not a cookbook, but Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

“If you haven’t read it, do yourself the favor. It’s one of the most important food books to come along in memory. In it Pollan traces four meals back to their natural roots: a McDonald’s lunch eaten on the go, a meal made with ingredients from Whole Foods, a chicken dinner cooked with foods from a small über-organic Virginia farm, and a banquet comprised of items Pollan foraged and hunted. You’ll be fascinated, horrified, awestruck, and think twice about the foods you put in your body. Plus we guarantee you’ll never look at corn the same way again.”

I’m inclined to agree with their nomination; after all, I included it in the Culinary Lit gift guide. Pollan’s book is not only important and extremely edifying, but an outright enjoyable read. It will force you to see everything you eat in a new light. It will make you long for a pastoral farm where happy animals produce healthful food. And it will probably squelch any fantasies you’ve had about boar hunting. In any case, it will absolutely change the way you eat, or at least what you know about what you eat.

For those in need of a diet makeover, ThisNext is beginning to form a mini-library of healthy-eating books suited to many a food-focused goal. Whether you’re looking to drop a jeans size or incorporate more organic food into your meals, revamping your routine with the help of a new read can be one of the simplest ways to do good for your body, mind, and even the planet.

Take Jeff Cox’s Organic Cook’s Bible: How to Select and Cook the Best Ingredients on the Market, recommended by our recently interviewed shopcaster Fanny The Fairy. With 250 recipes using more than 150 organic ingredients, the book encourages readers to support Earth-friendly forms of food production and become more connected to what they’re consuming (“I love this book because i think it’s important to know the food you eat,” says Fanny in her shopcast).

With a similar emphasis on exploring organic foods – especially of the locally, sustainably grown variety – Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry’s Grub presents healthy eating as a form of activism. In her review at Fit Fare, Sara Maamouri dubs the book “a fired-up call to action” that teaches readers “exactly what they can do to change their food future,” while at the same time serving as “a reminder that ultimately, food should be a fun, creative part of our lives, and not simply a bland and boring fuel.”

...continued: Healthy reads

This is surely a shopcast waiting to happen. Melissa of The Traveler’s Lunchbox (whom we featured once before) sent out the clarion call to bloggers everywhere: What are the five things that you’ve eaten that you think everyone should eat before they die?

The response was strong, and all of us now have several thousand things we absolutely must eat before we die. Better get cracking.

It sort of begs the question: What five things must you shop for before you die? (Other than, you know, caskets and headstones and stuff.) 

Here at ThisNext, we appreciate a little ambition, whether it be the pursuit of the perfect meal or plans somewhat more grand. So Garrett at Vanilla Garlic is our kinda guy. We got up close and personal with Garrett, who had a few things to say about premium pans, world domination and keeping it shibby.

When you’re not systematically consuming all that the Sacramento/Davis area dining scene has to offer, what do you do?
I forgot that I do other things, hmm… Well, if I’m not at work toiling away or at home spoiling the cats Cid and Mace, I’m probably cooking, swimming, reading a new book, researching the next place to dine with my partner Rob, or trying to figure out a way to take over a small South American country.

Vanilla and garlic are not two flavors that leap to mind as a great pairing. What is the significance of your blog’s name?
Well, basically I have to keep a variety of both ingredients on hand or I’ll shrivel up and die, much like Madonna with attention. They’re two such diametric flavors, yet so integral in cooking, I can’t imagine living without them. That, and it sounded damn catchy. Plus I have a recipe or two where they work together perfectly!

...continued: Interview: Garrett from Vanilla Garlic

Anyone who’s even remotely health-conscious knows the importance of upping your intake of antioxidants: The free-radical-fighting substances are linked to everything from cancer prevention and heart protection to better eyesight and enhanced longevity. And – unless your daily diet is very much of the meat-and-potatoes variety – antioxidants are anything but elusive. You can slurp on a watermelon slice to soak up lots of lycopene, down a glass of OJ for the vitamin C power, or crunch through a carrot to get your beta-carotene.

For some of most antioxidant-rich foods and supplements around, just take a peek at all the very phytonutrient-friendly picks popping up on ThisNext. From the indulgent to the hardcore healthy, our shopcasters know all about the stuff you need to turn back the clock and fight off disease like some kind of superhero.

...continued: ThisNext: Your #1 antioxidant source

Move over, Iron Chef: Makiko (Maki) Itoh reigns supreme in the food blog world. A native of Tokyo, erstwhile resident of New York and England, she ultimately became an expat in Switzerland, crossroads of Europe. Her blog, i was just really very hungry, is one of the most revered food blogs in the world (and #1 in Switzerland!). Maki graciously took some time out of her busy schedule to tell us a little about gender politics, finding a taste of Japanese amidst the Alps and finding the best shopping in the world.

When you’re not musing on the more delicious things in life, what  do you do?
In my working life I work at a web and forms/application design and development company. In my spare time I like to make things, travel whenever and wherever I can, and browse flea markets and vintage/antique shops.

You’re truly a citizen of the world, born in Tokyo and now in Switzerland via New York and England. How does that global view influence your tastes when it comes to food and products?
It makes me very nostalgic for things from where I used to live  (Japanese stationery! New York bagels!), but also makes me appreciate  the good and unique aspects of where I am. For instance, Switzerland  has some terrific modern design and architecture, and of course the natural beauty is out of this world.

...continued: Interview: Maki Itoh from i was just really very hungry

One thing’s for sure: New York cabbies know what’s good to eat. If you’re driving through the boroughs in the wee hours and see cabs stacked three-deep in front of some dive joint, you know you need to stop and check out what they’re dishing up. If you’re not so culinarily adventurous — or you’re not in New York — take a ride with Famous Fat Dave, The Hungry Cabbie, as he chows his way through Gotham. Or is that got ham?

Health food is so overrated. Sometimes the only thing that satisfies is a full-on fast-food grease bomb. Clearly, Peter at Grease Freak is in complete agreement with this philosophy. His visual compilation of all manner of great Chicago-style fast food, from Italian beefs to burgers to gyros and more, is a mighty shrine to all things greasy and good. Go ahead — pop in for a nibble. You know you want to.

Summer’s not quite over yet, so there’s still time to squeeze in a last few titles into your beach reading list. Most of us tend towards the mindless and fluffy, but those of us whose hearts, minds and stomachs are forever and irrevocably linked, the best romance stories involve a deep and everlasting love of food. Adam at The Amateur Gourmet reminds us to revisit arguably our all-time favorite author, the late, great MFK Fisher and her master oeuvre, The Gastronomical Me. Fisher’s pithy, evocative prose is ostensibly about food, but subtextually about the human condition. We love books that nourish the mind, and we’re so ready to tuck into a little of Fisher’s fine words.

At Out ‘n About, camping afficionado Mike blogs about the tips and tools to make any wilderness adventure safe and fun. One recent recommendation:

“On your last day of camp, use your leftover meats and vegetables to make omelets for breakfast. You can use almost any ingredient in omelets. Then you don’t have to take the leftovers home with you.”

Mike borrows that suggestion from Love the Outdoors, a site whose “Camping 101 & Beyond” resource guide covers everything from living the RV life to getting involved in conservation efforts to practicing smart first aid.

At The WildeBeat (an “audio journal about getting into the wilderness”), you can download weekly podcasts created to “help you explore the Earth’s remaining wild places.” In a recent podcast, National Outdoor Leadership School nutritional advisor Mary Howley Ryan talks about planning food for her wilderness trip. Among her recommendations: Yvonne’s Prater’s cookbook Beyond GORP: Favorite Foods From Outdoor Experts. Featuring 133 recipes (and the stories behind their evolution), Beyond GORP includes dishes like Lead Bread (“a brick-like loaf that will keep indefinitely and survive even an air drop”), Cashew-Ginger Chicken and Rice, Trail Tiramisu, and Cooked Stinging Nettles.

What to chow down on during a six-day backpacking adventure? So as not to have to deal with lugging a jar of marinara on the trails, Jason at Ahoyhoy.org is experimenting with dehydrated sauce for his famous Fish & Spaghetti (check his post for recipe details). Another option, as Jason notes, is Mountain House’s backpacking foods. Pre-packaged and freeze-dried, the product line includes entrees like Oriental-Style Spicy Chicken, Beef Teriyaki, Turkey Tetrazzini, and Pasta Primavera.

Right now we’re wondering if it would be too pushy to ask triathlete blogger KLN at !! Tri-als Of The Day !! to give us the recipe for the homemade lime/garlic/hot sauce chicken soup she so casually and teasingly references in a recent random-thought post. The jury’s still out on that, so in the meantime we’ll have to make do with the Lara Bars she name-checks in the same post. Like KLN, we love Lara Bars for their lack of added sugar and think the taste is terrific. So nice to have an energy bar with such wholesome ingredients and no mysterious mush that you’re left to try to worrisomely identify.

ThisNext loves bloggers who think outside the box - or the frozen pea bag. Like Matt at the awesomely Beatles-referencing Igotblistersonmyblisters (the “the story of a guy going from 0 to 50 miles in less than one year”): Moving beyond the frozen-pea-bag-as-ice-pack trick, Matt’s brainstormed a few other ways to get icy comfort from frozen foods:

“The frozen steak – A plastic t-bone steak filled with gel for those barroom scrapes resulting in black-eyes. Or, for you vegetarians out there – The frozen tofu pup. Ah, the money should be pouring in any day now. I could get Tony Little, the pumped up midget with a ponytail that hawks his exercise products on late-night infomercials. Or, even better, Ron Pareil of the Ronco Food Dehydrator fame; or, the guy with the bad dye-job that pushes OxyClean.”

Now that most of the nationwide heat waves have subsided, here’s a little hint to remember next time the temperature rises: FREEZE YOUR GRAPES. For reals: Anne at Run DMZ (best blog name ever) swears by the power of frozen grapes in helping runners beat the heat and get back to working out. Some races are even doling frozen grapes out in lieu of water, according to Anne’s commenter Jeanne (who, by the way, dubs frozen grapes “better than sex”).