Vegetable Fanfare

After such enthusiastic response to the Tornado Potato post, I wanted to feature another fun food design. Yesterday I made bibim bap, a Korean dish featuring a hodge-podge of cooked vegetables mixed with rice and topped with a fried egg. While bibim bap is categorized under the "tasty comfort food" file for me, it has the benefit of being very healthy too. You have to organize the vegetables in the bowl like this, so that the bright colors are distributed for a pretty presentation:

Here's a quick description of what's in the bowl starting from the top and working clock-wise:
1. Zucchini sauteed with garlic and sesame seeds
2. Sauteed crimini mushrooms with minced onion
3. Toraji namul (bellflower root) that I soaked overnight, then marinated in a home-made red pepper vinaigrette
4. Sauteed baby spinach with garlic
5. Julienned broccoli stems steamed and marinated with soy sauce, sesame oil and sriricha
6. Lean ground beef marinated in the style of typical Korean BBQ
7. Steamed shredded carrots marinated with soy sauce, lemon juice and red pepper flakes

In the center of the bowl is gochu jang, a spicy and slightly sweet red pepper paste. I added flax seed to it for an extra health kick. This condiment makes the dish nice and spicy when you mix it up with the vegetables, hot steamed rice, sunny-side up frid egg (runny yolk is good) and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Making bibim bap is a great way to use up all your vegetables before they go bad. It's also a great way to get your vegetables when you're tired of making salads. Try it today!

Jet Set Dinner

Deciding between Paris, London, Tokyo, or New York City for dinner? You can visit all four with Seletti's placemats. This set of 50 paper placemats features maps of each city so you and your guests can transport yourselves to a cosmopolitan destination during dinner.

Place your knife over the Eiffel Tower or your wine glass on top of Union Square! These placemats will spark fond memories and great conversation. Don't forget to recycle them after eating! These would be a welcome addition to any craft project or compost pile. Visit Lekker Home to pick up these placemats and other clever Seletti designs for the tabletop.

Play with Legos

Doesn't this popsicle mold in the shape of Lego Men just make you smile? Pair them with Lego ice cube blocks and relive your childhood this summer. You can order these online at the Lego Shop and continue walking down memory lane. I have been checking out popsicle recipes lately and this watermelon recipe on Epicurious caught my eye. It's easy and the ingredients are in season!

Picnic in Stilettos

Attention fashionistas! The Heath Ceramics Picnic Set is the perfect accessory for a romantic summer picnic. Forget your Goyard tote or Louis Vuitton speedy bag, this set is utilitarian and chic! The canvas and suede bag comes with a hand-crafted set of ceramic bowls, plates and cups. And a padded canvas bag and dish protectors accompany the wares to protect them en route to your picnic. Also, there are special pockets to fit a bottle of wine and other culinary accoutrements.

Heath also offers the picnic set in olive green with yellow accents. I really like this persimmon set, though. You can buy them online here, but you better hurry! This is a seasonal item and will not be offered past October 1st.

Tornado Potato

Belgian frites out, tornado potatoes in! This cleverly-named, spiral-cut potato is a popular street vendor offering in Seoul that drew national, or rather international attention on Sunday by being featured in The New York Times. Why didn't I think of this? Just run a potato through an apple-corer or commercial spiral cutter, skewer it, then deep-fry! Roll in ketchup or aioli, then you're in heaven. To be fair, the tornado potato has taken off in South Africa as well, where they've taken it one step further by making a chip dog, a hot dog and spiraled potato on a stick!

Okay, so why am I featuring the tornado potato, a favorite food blog topic this year (just see how many hits "tornado potato" gets on Google) on my blog? Because it's a sculptural masterpiece in design in addition to being a new member of the cholesterol on a stick team. It's an ode to pasta rotini and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City at once. The simple spiral design appeals to the visual senses, and in turn increases one's appetite and enthusiasm for the potato. Food stylists and industrial designers, feel free to marvel...

Fancy Fire

Imagine hosting a little barbeque on the beach with the Eva Solo Table Grill. It's small, so leave the porterhouse at home. The bowl is made of porcelain, lending some warmth to the steel handle and grill. This is a charcoal grill, but Eva Solo makes a large standing grill in both gas and charcoal. Check out the different versions here. In general, this cool Danish design company creates some amazing pieces for the home. My favorites include the garlic press and the apple corer.

Jewel Box Kitchen

Check out this clever kitchen in London, customized for a couple who love to entertain but live in a small space. See more photos and learn about this kitchen design on the Kitchn blog.

The pull-out wall with spice rack provides extra counter space for preparing food and closes shut to provide more space in the living room when not being used. What I really like are the doors that can completely hide the kitchen. This is great when you've got a pile of dirty dishes and have unexpected guests pop by!