Just over two years ago, The Urban Grocer went live. Since then, the team has grown and bold achievements have been reached as we’ve worked to cultivate a new space for young urban foodies and for all things trending in the world of food and food pop-culture, globally.

This website has been an exciting platform for experimentation. But there is more to The Urban Grocer. There exists a plethora of ideas, visions, and creativity; of a new food media company that will digitize and revolutionize the way we talk and think about food discoveries and culinary culture around the world.

Now it’s time to achieve our full vision and to launch the next generation of The Urban Grocer as a multimedia platform where cutting-edge trends meets food discovery; where mobile apps and city guides and community spaces abound. We have done amazing things on this site. We cannot wait to do more on the next one.

While we’re renovating, this site will take a slight sabbatical for the next 2-3 months. Each week we’ll be publishing a themed-article that links back to some of our favorite posts in years past. Stay involved in our growing community through Facebook and Twitter, which will remain active as usual. Become a follower, be our friend. We’ll also be asking you, our dear reader, for some feedback on what YOU want to see on The Urban Grocer as we create a bigger, badder brand.

The re-launching of The Urban Grocer promises to be an exciting time full of new revelations and grand ideas. We are thrilled to have you be a part of it and we’re grateful to have had your support, which has propelled us to this place today. Stay tuned for more. This was only the amuse bouche.

Happy New Year! And hello 2012, nice to meet you!

I know what you’re thinking – how is it possibly 2012?! How is 2011 already last year? We couldn’t agree more. It seems like just yesterday we were posting about all the trends that were to be forthcoming in food in 2011. We had some hits – bacon, farm-to-table, artisanal ice pops – and some misses too (no one really became obsessed with breakfast sandwiches, did they?). What will 2012 bring? Word on the street is all about hyper-local cuisine (think Noma), more (and more) butchery classes, and pop-ups that go global. Oh red velvet and cupcakes, how 2010 you seem….

But the New Year isn’t just about predicting trends or an excuse to drink copious amounts of champagne (guilty!). It’s also about – wait for it – New Year’s Resolutions!! Whether it’s eating healthier or just making it more exciting (say, adding more bacon + chocolate to your diet….), resolutions love the first week of January – and the first week of January only it seems….

For us at The Urban Grocer, the start of the year is special for another reason: around the new year two years ago, I launched this website with huge excitement and unidentified expectations. What has followed has literally changed the course of my life and as we begin 2012, the now blossoming team is set to launch a whole new host of fabulous changes and renovations. Come back next week for more on that….

For now, we’re still getting back into the swing of work and waking up on time, as I’m sure you are too. While we’re stretching, we want to know: Where did you celebrate the holidays and do you have any food-related resolutions?

Red and white striped candy canes. Holiday cookies. A roast, or maybe a Christmas barbeque. Champagne. Oysters, caviar. Whatever holiday eats grace your table from now through to the new year, one thing is unequivocal—this a time for cooking and baking, sharing and giving, and reflecting back on another year together with friends and family.

And the same is true for us at The Urban Grocer. Now is when we power down blackberry’s and iphones, laptops and tablets, and sit back to reflect on the year past and the year ahead. For us, 2011 was an incredible time full of amazing achievements. We brought on Michael and Darshan, 2 brilliant co-founders in addition to an incredibly talented Managing Editor, Paige. We aired a television show on the Cooking Channel, launched The Urban Grocer Supper Club events, and covered some pretty spectacular foodstuffs along the way. And 2012 promises to be even more fantastic as we look to rollout a new, jaw-dropping The Urban Grocer and formalize heaps of other exciting developments.

For now though, it’s time to say thanks for all of your support, following, and love. We are so looking forward to the year ahead and we cannot wait to share with you all that’s forthcoming. But ‘tis the season to close the laptop and head into the kitchen…See you next year.

We’ll be back online as of 2 January 2012. Happy Holidays!

Wine and food. A classic combination. Music and food? Well, while you may love to rev up your favorite beats while in your kitchen, it’s not often that we pair music and food and drinks thoughtfully, harmoniously – pun intended. But then came Drinkify and Turntable Kitchen, two websites that have both taken this marriage to a whole new, creative and wildly imaginative level.

So, we at The Urban Grocer went to both sites and did a little research. In the awesome infographic above (thanks to our co-founders at The House London), we did a non-scientific test to see which genres of music pair with what drinks most of the time. And then for good measure, we added in some food at the end because, well, that’s how we roll.

Thanks to Drinkify.org and Turntable Kitchen for the musical pairings and recipes. All data is theirs. All design is theirs. And all inspiration is yours.

There’s a plethora of unique, drool-inducing gifts out there just waiting for a happy home with a loving foodie. Whether it’s butchering classes or chocolate moustaches, we’re here to help you find the perfect present for the foodie in your life – even if that’s you….

Chocoholics

Two words: Chocolate moustaches. From Spain’s famed Chocolate Factory come six different mustachioed styles – from Hulk Hogan to Pancho Villa – in seven tantalizing flavors like chocolate caramel and chocolate covered strawberry. Perfect for awakening the Tom Selleck in your foodie friend.

Scrub a Dub Dub

Forget the generic vanilla scented shower gel and frilly bath puffs. A real foodie bathes in bacon – or beer. Happily, both come in a soap.

Kitchen Gadgets

For the well-stocked cook in the kitchen, a touch of inspired pop-culture goes a long way. Ditch the stainless steel and opt for Russian matryoshkas-styled measuring cups or this Sergeant Pepper Mill instead.

Cheesy

No, we’re not talking about another boy band Christmas cover. We’re talking about oozing camembert, moldy stilton, and farmey cheddar. If you’re in Oz, check out Farmgate Cheese where fromagers fill cheeses, chutneys, and wines into inspired hampers delivered overnight. In London? Give Neal’s Yard Dairy a whirl for their tutored cheese tasting vouchers.

Ready to Wear

When it comes to the fashion-forward foodie we’re digging these neon-colored doughnut charm necklaces. But if your girl’s more meat than dough you can’t go wrong with encouraging her to show a little buti. These sausage-splashed tees, dedicated to the butifarra of Catalan, come in three graphic prints: Mr. Big, Hercules and Dr. Love.

Book Worm

Food lovers are bound to eat up this collection of historic, food-related books. In the Great Food Series, Penguin serves up the finest food writing from the last 400 years. Of course, if that all sounds a little too wordy, you can always opt for the Hungover Cookbook …

Granola Cruncher

When organic, sustainable, artisanal, and farm-fresh seem to be on the lips of your foodie, then a subscription to the blissmobox it is. Each month organic, eco-friendly treats will land on his or her doorstep chock full of kaia foods and cliff bars. Top it off with an unforgettable meal from Outstanding in the Field where they’ll likely pluck herbs for dinner straight from their chair. Eating green never tasted so good.

Butcher It

If you think there’s nothing sexier than breaking down a 90-pound pig for dinner, treat your loved one to a butchering class near you. Here’s our pick of the some best boutique butchers around.

Our resident stylist extraordinaire, Jess Zaino, mashes-up the wonderful world of food and fashion every few weeks for us on The Urban Grocer. Inspired by her passion for culinary couture, this week’s Friday Five is all about the often bizarre but always intriguing marriage of food and fashion.

5. Food-inspired wedding gowns. Wearing white to your wedding is so passé. Spaghetti and meatballs is where it’s at.

4. Couture cut. Even the most hardcore vegetarian can rock this couture cut. Forget the sectioned pigs on your arm, how about as your dress?

3. Beef jerky Chanel. A knockoff is a knockoff is a knockoff – unless it’s made 100% of beef jerky. Then it’s also a tasty snack on the go.

2. Hunger pains. Lady Gaga would be proud. Artichoke gowns, brioche shoulder pads, pasta onesies, and waffle pants from Ted Sabarese. Yup, waffle pants.

1. A matter of taste. A broccoli bag, a kiwi watch, eggplant espadrilles, a raspberry clutch. Italian photographer Fulvio Bonavia taught us how to get glam with gastro-fashion.

Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles is a haven for glossy celebrities. It’s the kind of place where the freshly botoxed and blow-dried go to see and be seen. But deep in the kitchen, Executive Chef Carolynn Spence rocks an edgier look, sporting some intense kitchen ink – from an artichoke to a kikuichi knife to half-inch portion marks on her hand.

She’s not alone. Sectioned cows and pigs, forks and knives, eggs and bacon, kitchen equipment, pastries, pomegranates, leeks – whatever you can think of in and around food – is branded on some chef or butcher or front of house staff in cities around the world.

“I had my hands done by my friend Kim Durham, who is also a talented butcher and sailor. I took photographs of the knives I learned on during my apprenticeship and had her draw directly from them,” recalls butcher Erika Nakamura of Lindy & Grundy fame about her own tattoo styling. “[My] meat /lard tattoo was just a total must!”

Chefs are rock stars. Butchers are punks. And tattoos are their badge of honor. It’s a form of extremism, a symbol of living on the fringe of society. Or so they say. But we’re not convinced. Inked chefs, butchers, sommeliers, food stylists and writers share something much more powerful: they are part of a new wave of cooking, a new culture and lifestyle around food. Kitchen ink is symbolic of a fresh breed of young players in the food industry who keep the music loud, the menu unconventional, and, yes, tattoos peaking out from under their whites. It’s about connecting with an emerging movement of wildly creative food forces from Melbourne to Los Angeles to London.

This new generation is carving out a lifestyle around food where gastronomy, art, design, fashion, and music are all stirred together in the same pot. A pop-up dinner on the rags to riches life of Biggie Smalls in Sydney; a Brooklyn gallery event where food is the artistic medium; a graffiti-covered barbecue loft in Uruguay; Shepard Fairey-painted walls in a Miami eatery. The list of food and art and music mash-ups goes on and on. Why? Because it’s not just about wearing whites and the old-school military order. It is about creating something new and daring and pushing the boundaries of how we cook, talk, write, and think about food.

In the heart of graffiti-covered Buenos Aires, I met with Chef Adrian Francolini of Il Ballo del Mattone – a collection of Italian restaurants that dot hip neighborhoods around the city, run by local artists and saturated in street art. As Chef Francolini put it, the connection is simple: just as an artist expresses creativity on the walls or a canvas, a chef does the same on a plate – and by extension, on his or her arm, or back, or ankle. Gone are the days of haute cuisine – at least temporarily – as the inspired, off-the-wall kids in the kitchen (and manning the trucks) are crowned as the latest in food royalty.

If you’re tempted to get in on the action you too can ink your latest meal in gold, silver, and hot pink. You can down tattooed energy drinks and show off vodka bottles decked out with skulls, vixen-ish mermaids, and windblown ships fit for the sleeve of an old sea dog. And you can even get your own temporary food tattoo thanks to Brooklyn artist Julie Rothman who has designed food-inspired tats, like cheese graters and whisks, for the short-lived food obsessions.

What won’t be short-lived, we’re sure, is this new culture of cuisine that connects inspired foodies around the world and transforms gastronomy into a higher art form with sometimes avant-garde proportions. Whatever the portion, we’re ready – and happy – to dig in.

Wanna see more? Check out our video slideshow here.

Tell us! What are some of the coolest food tattoos you’ve seen?

[Second photo via LaTur on Flickr; Artichoke tattoo photo by Kevin Scanlon for LA Weekly; Kitchen aid mixer tattoo photo by Bennett Edwards on Flickr]

Ramen. That’s what I had one Thanksgiving after I first moved from New York to Europe. It was so depressing I vowed to never do it again. From then on, a new, better tradition took over: celebrating the holiday no matter where I was in the world. In Costa Rica we feasted on tuna, in Mexico we had tostados to start, and here in Switzerland, it’s the traditional Thanksgiving feast. Sure, the turkey barely fits in my oven. And yes, cranberries and sweet potatoes aren’t the easiest to hunt down, not to mention brown sugar. But at the end of the night, when I’m at home with a dozen friends – Americans and otherwise – celebrating all that we’re grateful for, I could not be happier to be enjoying the holiday and giving thanks, together.

In this vein, I reached out to some other American expats abroad to see what they were doing in their part of the world. Below, a snapshot:

Name: Paige
Living in: Freetown, Sierra Leone (that’s in West Africa, by the way)
Occupation: Freelance journalist and Managing Editor, The Urban Grocer
Thanksgiving plans: Working like usual… but then eating a big dinner at the home of some friends who work at the US embassy here in Sierra Leone.
Thanksgiving menu: Not sure yet! I’ll be making a pumpkin pie, though – or maybe cassava pie. We’ll see what I can find at the market…

Name: Lauren
Living in: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Occupation: Health coordinator for European Disaster Volunteers (EDV)
Thanksgiving plans: Myself and about 50 others will be getting together to have a delicious dinner that we will make at the house. Guests will include nearby organizations in the neighborhood we have worked with, local EDV beneficiaries, and our family of volunteers. We will be discussing that which we are grateful for and reflect back on the past year of disaster recovery work here in Haiti.
Thanksgiving menu: We will be getting a fresh pig which will be cooked over the fire. There will be beans, rice, plantain, and of course lots of wine!

Name: Michael
Living in: Toronto, Canada
Occupation: Artist, artist assistant, creative copywriter, ghost blogger, and social media director
Thanksgiving plans: Preparing a big dinner to celebrate the 2nd Thanksgiving of the year!
Thanksgiving menu: The usual: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes (with onion and chive cream cheese) , gravy, green beans, maple syrup and brown sugar glazed carrots, corn, and a ridiculous amount of pies inspired by my grandmother’s recipes.

Name: Caitlin
Living in: Geneva, Switzerland
Occupation: Co-Founder, The Urban Grocer
Thanksgiving plans: Dinner with friends from the US, Uganda, Italy, Switzerland, and New Zealand.
Thanksgiving menu: The traditional menu with loads of wine and cranberry infused champagne – oh and a proper Swiss cheese board to start, of course!

What are you doing to celebrate the holiday in your part of the world?

Creative minds converge for this event with food being the principle medium. Through Something I Ate various artists share their true perception of food and sustenance in everyday life. Wanna learn more? See here.

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a new rock star in the culinary world: the butcher. For years this trend has been on the rise as increasingly demanding foodies pass on the pre-boxed supermarket pork chops and look towards sustainable offal and locally-raised meats where they can indulge on everything from nose-to-tail. What’s more, many curious carnivores are now heading behind the butcher block, learning how to break down a 90-pound pig while sipping on cocktails. In this week’s Friday Five, we’re all about showcasing some of the trendiest boutique stops where the butchers have swagger and the meats are divine.

5. Lindy & Grundy, LA With a sustainable philosophy and high-quality meats, this wife-and-wife team is practicing true nose-to-tail butchery serving up everything from fresh pancetta to kick-ass Mexican chorizo.

4. Portland Meat Collective, Portland Not only does PMC help patrons procure whole animals from small, sustainable Oregon farms, but they also provide butchery classes so you can have a clue about what to do with said whole animal. Amongst other bloody classes, ravenous carnivores line-up to get schooled in “basic goat slaughter” or how to split sides of pork.

3. Marlow & Daughters, NY You can’t really talk about boutique butchery without mentioning this Williamsburg legend where butchering demi-god Tom Myland has made a name for himself and the butchery trend. At this renowned Brooklyn stop, Myland specializes in locally sourced grass-fed meats, homemade sausages, and a variety of lesser known breeds and species.

2. De Vegetarische Slager, The Hague Translating literally to mean “the vegetarian butcher” this shop is devoted to meatlessness that rivals the enthusiasm of any flesh fiend. Their hemp and spelt pasta, Asian black rice, and lupin char siu and teriyaki promise to appeal to even the most devoted meat eaters.

1. Victor Churchill, Sydney Victor Churchill is not a newcomer on the Sydney raw meat food scene. Originally opened in 1876, this renowned butcher rocks a haute-couture boutique feel from the illuminated window dressings to the multi-layered, intricate butcher blocks, to its floor-to-ceiling Himalayan rock salt brick wall. But it’s not all about the looks; Victor Churchill continues to supply some of Oz’s best restaurants with high-quality meats as it has done since its first days.

[Last photo via Pat Castaldo.]