Singapore-based The Salad Shop is a funky, fresh hub for busy city workers to grab a quick bite of ‘fresh food fast’ over lunch. While the smorgasbord of greens and salad toppings are enticing, it is the atmosphere that really draws you in. Designed by the same clever team that brought us the Chocolate Research Facility, the interior is sleek, chic and eclectic all at the same time. Dazzling white tables line the room with wooden chairs and colourful patterned stools, while industrial ceilings above meet wood paneled walls below. Best of all however, are the immense spoons and forks cut out from solid backdrops that function as the restaurants windows. The whole place is then sweetly finished off with a row of perfectly attractive lamps printed with various pastoral landscapes.

The Salad Shop advertises as being a place for ‘herbivores, carnivores and everything else in-between’, but what is really is, is a place for people who strive to enjoy the dining experience, even when schedules are tight. Who said fast food had to be generic and unappetizing?

The Salad Shop
80 Raffles Place, #01-20
UOB Plaza 2
048624 Singapore
+65 6536 3686

Victor Churchill is not a newcomer on the Sydney raw meat food scene. Not even close; in fact, it’s a legend. Originally opened in 1876, this renowned butcher is a must-visit spot for Sydneysiders and visitors alike. Situated discreetly on a plush tree-lined street, this old-school butcher is living it up in a new space, where it 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, this is definitely a contender for the world’s coolest butcher. And if that weren’t enough, their supreme quality meats fill the kitchen of the best restaurants in Australia and abroad, daily. Between it solid produce and supreme design, it’s real easy to see how Victor Churchill has been named the Prada of meats.

Maite Gomez-Rejón is a one-time private chef who has cooked for the likes of Aerosmith and KISS. On that same resume, she’s also boasted years of experience in museum education working for other big names like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Villa. In fact, it was at the Met in 2003 that this Texas native gained heaps of accolades for designing a cooking course where fine art and culinary art merged via a telling of the history of food through the museum’s collection. Now cut to the present. Today, Gomez-Rejón is the founder and head of ArtBites: a school where art, culinary history, and hands-on cooking classes become one. Hungry to learn more about her innovative work, The Urban Grocer recently caught up with Gomez-Rejón.

TUG: If you could create a food experience reflecting the art and food culture of our time, what would it include?

Maite Gomez-Rejón: That’s a tough one. There are so many interesting and different things going on in both art and food these days. What initially comes to mind is the mad scientist approach a lot of chefs have with molecular gastronomy. I would love to teach a class on Surrealism and have participants create a sculptural meal using the ingredients as an artistic medium.

TUG: How did you realize that art, history, and cooking could all be fused into a relevant and coherent study?

MGR: I was in culinary school and working in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s education department – food and art were constantly on my mind. Upon completing school I wasn’t sure what direction to take. I wanted to continue working in the arts but didn’t want to stop cooking. It was then that I became interested in food history, and it began to inform my art history research. I found that each gave the other a life and context that hadn’t occurred to me before. It became impossible for me to look at a work of art without wondering what food and drink was being consumed at the time. I eventually added the hands-on cooking component to my classes and, because of their fun and social nature, history was made relevant and accessible, and ArtBites was formed!

TUG: If you could take a bite out of any historic food-related painting, what would it be?

MGR: Cheese, bread and butter in any seventeenth century Dutch still life.

TUG: What is your favorite urban grocery or farmers market?

MGR: The Santa Monica Farmers Market – the colors, textures, flavors and scents are intoxicating! The added perk is that the beach is only a few blocks away.

[Authors note: Thanks to Colleen Fraser who formulated the questions in this interview.]

Political awareness is not exactly your standard ice cream topping, but it’s what you’ll find when you line up at New York’s new Guerrilla Ice Cream street cart. This pioneering mobile project has paired gourmet frozen custards to political movements around the globe in an effort to temper the trendy with a little social responsibility. Flavours correspond uniquely to their chosen uprising and include such combos as the Velvet Revolution from the Czech Republic, a lemon poppy seed ice cream topped with spiced cookie crumbs and lemon zest. Or, there is the Red Corridor from India, made of a chai masala blend sprinkled with sliced almonds and candied fennel. To really bring the message home, all profits are channeled into supporting marginalized communities in NYC and abroad. With flavours so enticing and business plans so noble, who wouldn’t want to knock back some conflict study with their afternoon cone?

[Photo via gsz on Flickr.]

If there was any doubt that beer is the new wine, it can now be put to rest with the introduction of this new wine packaging: wine in a beer bottle. That’s right, we’re talking about a Swartland Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend out of South Africa cheekily disguised within a kitschy brown beer bottle with an equally cheeky title, Bob’s Your Uncle.

The concept comes from South Africa’s unique Boer & Brit winery and is the product of design team Fanakalo. Their goal is to see wine enter the realm of the after-work brewski where people can kickback with it around the campfire and drink it straight from the bottle. The old-school gold and brown colour scheme and amusing iconography of the packaging hint at humour, encouraging drinkers to take it all a little less seriously.

And don’t worry about the unconventional stopper – the beer top seal is touted to be more effective than the cork and screw caps. So to enjoy wine without all the pretence, grab a bowl of pretzels, crack one of these bottles, and Bob’s your uncle.

With the end of summer and the start of fresh, crisp autumn days, there’s no better time to enjoy hot popovers straight out of the oven, airy and light, with a solid pat of melting butter. Whether paired with a soup for cooler nights, or with some fresh strawberry jam in the morning, there is an always excuse to enjoy these old-school eggy treats.

Though not noted on the film, the recipe above is from the New York Times Cookbook (and is hence not in metric measurements). If you want to make the tasty treats yourself, mix together 1 cup flour | ½ teaspoon salt | 2 eggs | 1 cup milk | 1 tablespoon oil. Pour batter into a popover or muffin tin, then let rise in a preheated 425-degree (Fahrenheit) oven. Exercise patience and don’t dare to open the oven door until the popovers are golden brown and standing tall – normally about 35 minutes. Tear open as the steam leaps out and douse lovingly in butter, cream, or jam. Perfect.

We’re a sucker for packaging. But it’s the lack of it at Unpackaged in London that has us in deep swoon. Almost none of the organic market’s products, from the extensive range of bulk grains, oils and dried fruit and nuts, to the baked goods, fresh products, or cheeses, are individually wrapped. Unpackaged, instead, opts for simple displays, including custom ball jar framed bulk bins from design firm Multistorey and invites you to bring your own containers (even water bottles!) and fill up on your desired item. What a wonderful place, where you can save the environment one Unpackage at a time.

So you think you’re all cupcaked- out? Had enough of the trend, eh? Well get ready for more because at American Cupcake, their red velvet is all the rage – on fried chicken, that is. Yup, at this San Francisco-based eatery, chicken is marinated in red velvet cupcake batter (um, YUM), dredged in red velvet cupcake crumbs, and then deep fried. (We understand if you need to re-read that sentence.) But wait, there’s more! Given that red velvet cupcakes are traditionally smothered in that luscious tangy yet sweet cream cheese icing, American Cupcake thought it apropos to pair their crimson fried chicken with some cream cheese garlic mashed potatoes. Though we can’t attest to how tasty – or not – this savory sweet sensation is, word on the street is that on its first day on the menu, it sold out within an hour – and you thought cupcakes were over.

American Cupcake
919 Union Street
San Francisco, CA 94123-4204, United States
+1.415.896.4217

[Photo via Anthony Mylott]

So maybe you’re a sucker for design and you just can’t get over the aesthetic flaw of wine in plastic bottles, or perhaps you adhere to the school of thought that believes plastic tampers with a wine’s quality? But did you ever consider the carbon emissions involved in carting around such heavy cargo as glass bottles full of wine? The winemakers at Yealands have which is why they now offer a carbon-saving wine series known as Full Circle bottled in lightweight eco-friendly recycled plastic. The range generates over 50 percent less greenhouse gas emissions and almost 20 percent less energy, which is complemented by Yealands’ other sustainable practices as a solar and wind powered winery. The first wine launched in the series is a 2009 Sauvignon Blanc that has already garnered two awards thus putting to rest any reservations about its quality. Full Circle actually implements a special technology that keeps oxygen out of the wine and so insures it stays fresh and pure. And while it may not have the sleek appeal of a thick glass bottle, it is ecologically attractive, not to mention it makes for easy toting for your own personal wine escapades.

If you have an affinity for all things pickled – and you’re not alone – then Brooklyn Brine is an absolute must-have. Based out of, well, Brooklyn, this budding company owned by vegetarian 20-somethings enthusiastically leapt onto the independent food scene just over a year ago to heaps of rave reviews.

Brooklyn Brine is a labor of love with a simple mission: Damn fine pickles. Indeed. Mouth-watering seasonal delights are created with the aid of local, organic produce, carefully chosen spices, and spot on recipes. Take for instance, their Hot Heirloom Cucumbers, made from a variety of diverse cucumbers mingled with seasonings like dill and chili peppers. There is also a Curried Squash, Minted Eggplant, and the necessary, NYC Deli Style Cucumbers, to name of a few.

With Brooklyn Brine now on the scene, you can safely stow away whatever notion of soggy, mass-produced tasteless pickles you had and go for something worth biting into.