food museum blog

Food-Themed Flick Wins Oscar

Dueling falafel joints on the West Bank, a concept that seized me by the tastebuds.  A short documentary by Ari Sandel titled West Bank  Story , (cute,) won an Oscar Sunday night in the Best Short Documentary category. Of course I'm dying to see it--falafel is a stellar vegetarian food, right, and, extra points, this film is a musical.

Here's what oscar.com says: "A musical comedy set in the fast-paced, fast-food world of competing falafel stands on the West Bank."

Now I did see The Queen and don't recall QEII eating anything....maybe the corgis chowed down. And The Departed did feature a scene in a greasy spoon but the characters were so riven with violence I don't recall much eating. Loved Little Miss Sunshine a film wherein the Mom plops pizza and a bag of salad on the table, right?

But for real food, I think WBS is the foodie winner! Now how in hell can I get to see it????

Action Figures Don't Eat

  Finally, at maybe the 1 hour 30 minute mark in the new flick, Casino Royale, James Bond declares he's hungry---mind you, we have watched him run full tilt for at least 20 minutes, scaling walls, mechanical cranes, leaping through buildings, and then playing poker, quite sedately.  But soon he's off again,  nailing people hand to hand in a stairwell , and more and more--well finally, he's hungry, but all I saw heading into his mouth was some caviar on a cracker.

Go figure.

Incidentally, it's a terrific Bond film, reinvented and reinvigorated, and the humor is sly. But don't expect any foodie moments.

Spud Heads Soar!

No Couch Potato he, Mr. P.H. was retrofitted last year as a fit and healthy runner, and in his balloon incarnation again will fly in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade this week. In addition, the United States Potato Board has opened a Potato Head-quarters in New York's Chelsea Market that will be offering recipes and family spud fun through Friday.

Not appearing in the parade is an actor some in the business apparently once dubbed "Mr. Potato Head,"  Daniel Craig, the new Bond, James Bond. Frankly, we don't see the resemblance....

More Than Gay Guys with Coffee--"Brokeback"

Recently we inherited a Charles Marion Russell  repro bronze of two cow guys hunkered down by a campfire having coffee, with a horse hanging around above them. We had always enjoyed the piece at our friend's house-- coffee pot front and center, probably one of those deep blue speckled enamel jobs, two hardworking guys facing each other, talking, taking a break. The horse is still saddled up, blandly looking into the middle distance, maybe wondering when the oat bag will be strapped on.  ( Russell first worked as a cowhand at age 18 in Montana in 1882.)

After the film "Brokeback Mountain" came out we began flippantly referring to the statue as "The Gay Guys Having Coffee."  Having seen the remarkably fine flick,  we can report that the guys were heavily yet reluctantly into beans, as well as coffee, and improved their larder immensely when they dried meat from an elk(?) one of them shot.

In truth BBM is not a foodie movie, and we are now respectfully calling the statue: "A Coffeepot, Two Guys and a Horse."

Meatrix II--They're BAAACK!

So many people have emailed Foodie the latest re Meatrix that she succumbed and clicked on Play Movie 2, hoping her antique Windows 98 system would bring it forth. ( Movie 1, keyed off the film The Matrix, was perfectly timed.)

It worked---Meatrix II ( still keyed to the now passe Matrix films,) is a short punchy on-line animation about the horrors of factory farming, in particular, dairy farming.

"The Meatrix is a product of the first-ever Free Range Flash Activism Grant. In February 2003, Free Range Graphics, a cutting-edge design company, invited hundreds of non-profit organizations to apply for a grant that included production of a free Flash movie. After carefully reviewing more than 50 applications, the grant was awarded to GRACE’s Sustainable Table program. "

And the Meatrix project is derived from : "Sustainable Table ,  a consumer campaign developed by the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE). It was launched to help fill in the gaps in the sustainable food movement, and to help direct consumers to the leading organizations who are working on the issue. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by all the problems surrounding our food supply, Sustainable Table celebrates the joy of food and eating."

One of the best aspects of Sustainable Table's on-line presence is its Eat Well Guide to places in the US and Canada where you can buy  and eat sustainably raised food. The Guide was first developed by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy as a search engine for consumers looking for meat raised without antibiotics. The IATP supports "resilient family farms."

And Sustainable Table is an offshoot of:  "GRACE,  a nonprofit organization that works with research, policy and grassroots communities to raise public awareness and promote solutions to preserve the planet for future generations."

All intertwined, these organizations are chipping away at the mountain that is public and private apathy about food sources, eating, environmental issues, child obesity et al.

Movie Makes Merlot Plummet, Pinot Noir Rise?

"Sideways," the buddy flick for oenophiles,  seems to have singlehandedly boosted the sales of Pinot Noir in the U.S.  Sales jumped 16 percent from Oct 2004 to January 15, 2005, and 135 percent in  California's Central Coast  supermarkets  in a one year period ending Jan. 15.
The movie's lead character, an English teacher with a passion for Pinot Noir, detests Merlot and is adamant he will not even sit down to dinner if his companions order the stuff.

( Be sure to see this film,  if only for the lovely explanation Miles ( Paul Giamatti ) gives as to why he pursues Pinot Noir.)

So has Merlot sunk? Not according to Progressive Grocer.  Merlot still leads Cabernet Sauvignon as the country's "largest" red varietal.

Stars Peckish for Puckish Treats--and--Your Pick of Top Food Scenes of 2004

Super chef Wolfgang Puck has been pictured on several websites holding a tray of Oscar-shaped smoked salmon on toast hors d'oeuvres that evidently have already been scarfed down by the glitterati at events leading up to tonight's Oscars. 

As in past years, Puck is overseeing a banquet for 1600  in Hollywood just after the show and his signature offering there will be chocolate Oscar-shaped delectations.

As for top Oscar-rated foodie scenes of 2004, we can only attest that "Ray" features the blind performer cooking up fried chicken in the dark, and wine-tasting is central to the film "Sideways."  Waitressing evidently gets some play, both in "Sideways" and "Million Dollar Baby," where Hillary Swank takes home a partially eaten steak for dinner. "Vanity Fair" had a few dining room moments but what did anyone actually seem to be eating? " Only "Vera Drake" comes to mind as a movie where people sit down to eat together. Of course there's the documentary "SuperSize Me," a flick about a fellow eating McD offerings for 30 days that put me off eating altogether for days.

Any other foodie scenes from 2004 films, anyone?

Grand Guignol foodie film....

The blurb on the DVD case tossed together the words "food," two women, thriller and so on....a Korean film named "301/302," by Chul-Soo Park. We perused the blurb, noted the grim faces of the stars, and decided that this could well be a foodie thriller, and therefore worth having a look at.
Well. The moody shots of high tech, high end Korean apartment interiors were elegant, the flashbacks a bit daunting but acceptable, and when ringing phones ignored by one main character began to feature, hey--is this a French film? All it needed was a car scene in the rain with a tight and very lengthy shot of the windshield wipers.
But no,back to the food--it was gorgeously Korean--brightly colored, made from squeakingly fresh ingredients--the "loach" or what looked like eels, had just emerged from the water until our heroine, the crazed cook, tosses them into a bowl and adds a handful of salt.  The other main character is her neighbor, across the hall, an anorexic with a painful past.
Suffice it to say that the crazed cook, newly divorced and struggling with her weight, attempts to entice her standoffish loach-thin neighbor with dishes. Big trouble ensues.
A detective comes around when the anorexic disappears......
Look for long shot of dead canines in a market.......( duh... foreshadowing) Adorable Fluffy the dog plays a pivotal role in the film.
Remember the musical, "Sweeny Todd?"
Yes, this is a foodie thriller indeed. Bon appetit.

Tell us about any other foodie films you know of in this category, please.