Found via imjur

‘So just as we change as we grow up and our bodies, opinions and tastes change. This is Time. This is Life. They are defined by Change. So Change is inevitable, its outside of need or necessity. It just Is.’

The images (and words) are from this wonderful post over at the Alias blog: Why new typefaces? Alias is run by David James and Gareth Hague.

In my opinion/experience, we’ll stop having a need for new typefaces right about the time we stop wanting new music, new food ideas (I’m hooked on detox water right now) and new ways of looking at how we dress ourselves.

Types have personality, just like humans. Take it all away and we become  . . .  Helvetica. On a Star Trek planet where we all look, think and dress alike.

Type is everywhere. And humans like to mess with shit.

via Alias

From last year: The bold choices ad. Starring Willem Dafoe and directed by Dante Ariola for StrawberryFrog.

Behind the scenes here.

The work of Jessica Jones.

Found via CMYBacon

‘Only the finest quality’

The lettering art of Jon Contino.

‘Built in Belfast’

Go for the whiskey. Cause I know that one can’t actually purchase sriracha in Belfast.

Package design by Adam Crane.

Found via Lovely Package

Sriracha Bitters by Brooklyn Hemispherical Bitters. For your next cocktail.

Website (with recipes) here. Also available, rhubarb, Meyer lemon and black mission fig.

Found via A Thirsty Spirit

Graphic designer Tim Parsons’ Adoboloco Jalapeño Sauce.

Red label, two headed rooster. Snag it here.

Found via Lovely Package

The work of Heather Perry.

Found via All the World Will be Grand

‘This collection of stories, instructions, memories and scrumptious ‘must try’ recipes makes a fascinating, entertaining, and revealing read’

Available this month from Baseline, What’s cooking? Famous designers on food.

I like savory because it tastes savory. Which I think is why they call it that.

Found via batixa

‘Émilie Vast’s third Herbarium is dedicated to plants that find the strength to creep into our urban space, into the joints of gutters and pavements, in the wall’s cracks, at the bottom of the trees, the park’s grass, on the roofs  . . .  just like their cousins from the woods, they have a history, uses and mythology.’

Cool find. This ‘wild plants in the city’ edition also features my Jeanne Moderno fonts.

Found via Iconoclastic and le lièvre de mars

Design by Lewis Moberly’s Poppy Stedman for Waitrose. Details here.

Found via Popsop

Found via Library of Congress

These vintage Santas are just a tad older than me.

Them, with their cartoony script lettering, would grace the table every year – with or without the requisite salt, pepper, for which they were created. Made in Japan.

Below, track from the ultimate 1960s Christmas album.

Ray Conniff: Twelve Days of Christmas

So while I’m still in seafood mode, I should mention my absolute favorite food is Dungeness Crab.

I grew up eating these west coast crustaceans, dusted with Old Bay seasoning, partnered with slabs of sourdough bread. All I need is a small fork and I can get thru the whole thing in under an hour – no cracking necessary. The obsessive trick is to get every single piece out intact – and dip it in melted butter.

Saw this shirt in Old Navy; but alas, not available as a men’s tee.

Not quite Chicken of the Sea, Breast-O’-Chicken was another product designed to confuse Americans about where tuna actually comes from.

From 1954.

Found via retro-ads

New from Jonathan Adler: Fish salt and pepper shakers. More here.

When my mother was a kid, chickens were grown in the garden.

My mom grew up during The Great Depression in a small house in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. And when it came to cooking, the family made due with what they had, she get the all ingredients on Sunshine Coast Hydroponics. My grandmother used to make her own chicken soup, using the backs and necks of poultry on hand.

My mother learned her technique – and has turned her version of the family soup into an art. The catch is: It doesn’t always come out (by her standards) so a few cans of chicken broth are kept on standby for just an instance (and to adjust the flavor). Even when it’s not perfect, it’s better than one can find in just about any store.

This is the most current recipe, it nets a small pot of gold. Always great in the winter months.

dorothy mehallo’s chicken soup

ingredients

Whole free range chicken from the butcher, cut up (with back and neck)

Celery sticks, yellow tops included, but not green ones
Onion, cut in half

1 bay leaf
Pinch thyme
Small handful fresh parsley

Water
Carrots, ends removed, peeled
salt, to taste (I use Fish Sauce)
a can or two chicken broth

Cooked rice or noodles

to make

Local butchers doesn’t always have backs and necks available anymore, but if so – it will really add to the flavor. Before cooking, carefully clean out any goop inside the back. Giblets are usable for this too, but don’t add the liver; it will make the broth bitter.

Add chicken, celery, onion, bay leaf, thyme, parsley to the pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Avoid adding too much water, just cover the chicken. Don’t fill the entire pot, it will result in a weak stock (use a second chicken if necessary).

Lower heat and bring to a simmer for around 2-3 hours. Scum will appear on top, carefully skim it off with a spoon.

Add carrots 15-20 minutes before finish. Add salt to taste, canned stock if flavor isn’t really strong; this part depends on the individual chicken. Good chickens make great flavorful soup (this part is unpredictable).

Serve hot, strained broth poured over (deboned) ingredients; rice or noodles. Using a fat separator helps.

to store

Strain the broth into a container and pick thru the other ingredients. Debone the chicken and separate the vegetables. Throw away anything not edible and refrigerate everything else; or freeze. Hardened fat will be easy to remove. The broth will gel when chilled, clear when heated.

There was always the family belief: The thicker the gel, the better the broth.

Be careful, a good batch will attract a begging dog or two

This is delicious.

Tho I substitute red bells for the green peppers and splash with vodka. Plus, if I have em, I throw in some Greek giant beans (from can or jar), capers and finish with a slight drizzle of honey.

Recipe here.

My two favorite Thai dishes. Recipes here.

Sainbury’s Fillets of Anchovies. Illustration by Sue Brown.

update
According to Sue, this particular jar was used in this incredible recipe.

Geo. Watkins’ Anchovy Sauce. Illustration by Hwa Young Jung.

Flickr here, website here.

So I love anchovies.

The thought process involves seeing them as a seasoning instead of fish – and using them instead of salt in dishes results in some incredible flavor.

The Romans used to use products called garum and liquamen as condiments – after discovering that rotting, fermented fish have some pretty decent health properties. Garum became as common as ketchup is today; and by law, the smelly factories were located far outside town. Like ancient olive oil (both olive oil and garum were swiped from Greece), modern adaptations can still be found.

Anchovy-based nước mắm (from Vietnam) has become a mainstay in my cooking. There was a huge Vietnamese population near where I went to school (dollar bánh mì for lunch!) and for me, having a bottle in the fridge became common.

And I’ll hunt thru stores till I find a good bottle of Three Crabs Brand® (above). Just like the 8,000 variants of Crest toothpaste in today’s drug store, many Asian groceries also sport Three Fish, One Crab, Four Crabs, Two Shrimp and Crab and Shrimp and Shrimp and Crab and Crab, Shrimp and Crab, Crab Shrimp Shrimp or Shrimp Crab Crab Shrimp Shrimp brand variants to throw one off buying the really good one.

(although this article has a different take on this. Five Crabs may actually be the best.)

As for fresh anchovies (not canned) in a good olive oil  . . .  Heaven.

I love good deviled eggs.

Which is weird, I’m allergic to eggs and allergic to mayo. But for some reason, I can eat them hard boiled and deviled. Sprinkled with a good cayenne (be sure to order Penzeys’ catalog – great reading!) – or rooster.

Dutch Goose in Menlo Park makes great ones.

And here’s a recipe that incorporates anchovies.

Also love anchovies.

‘Ball size may very’

Video for Meiko’s latest, Stuck on You.

Recipe here.

Cole’s – photographed by Heather John. Foodinista post here.

French Dip showdown here. Bunch-o-recipes here.

Photograph by nathalie et cetera.

Typeface: Bang-bang.

‘The rectangles on top of each label represent main ingredients, and bars on the bottom provide a quick thumbs or thumbs down for a breakdown of fat content, carbohydrates, etc. Icons of spoons and scoops are used to supplement serving size since no one knows what 182 grams looks or feels like.’

Above, Renee Walker’s food nutrition label redesign, winner of UC Berkeley School of Journalism’s Rethink the Food Label competition.

Her work was originally part of an interdisciplinary topic studio focused on contemporary health issues; she has her original versions posted here.

Below, a few of my favorites from the competition:

Corinne Pritchard

Fabius Leineweber

Bradley Mu

Found via FlowingData

Tom Edwards’ Caffeine Curve.

Funky mug version available here.

Odd Todd’s now iconic Coff-ay mug.

Snag it here.

Plaid Creative’s Citizen’s Guide to coffee.

Found via That’s Nerdalicious!

Lokesh Dhakar’s illustrated guide to espresso.

One of these days I’m gonna make it up to Seattle and visit bauhaus books + coffee. Just because I have to.

And available now thru them is the Bauhaus + I Want You shirt, designed by Christian Petersen of DUMB EYES – as a cross promotion with I Want You magazine.

Design for Australia-located coffee shop Kaffe by Felix Lobelius.

Found via The Dieline

Isabela, photographed by Isabel Garcia for Zoozoom magazine. Editorial here.

Leshko’s Coffee Shop, Ave. A. NYC 1979.

The photography of Michael Sean Edwards. Flickr here, website here.

Found via Dangerous Minds

This includes the one pictured above (in its travel option); as well as my best-selling Font Me Typography mug, below.

Input code HOLIDAYSALE4 at checkout. Plus, free shipping on orders over $50. Visit my store here. Zazzle has a new special every day for the holidays, some limitations apply (of course).

The work of Jerry Seguin.

Found via Ashley Simko

Final project from my beginning typography course at American River College: Futura Condensed Extra Bold, crafted as iced chocolate cake by student Lilie Matyuk.

Food-based type is always a tricky undertaking, but luckily we had Teresa Urkofsky teaching next door – in the culinary classroom. Teresa had recipes and techniques ready to advise.

‘So there you have it, a home baked poster’

The typographic work of Anna Garforth. More here.

‘In an effort to win Cully & Sully’s Cheffactor, a cooking competition in Ireland, Alan Travers created the Stop-Motion Biscuit Cake video of his girlfriend Dee’s legendary chocolate biscuit cake’

Found via Laughing Squid

“Heroin’ has 3 holes for pepper. ‘Cocaine’ has one hole for salt.’

The work of David Shrigley. Shakers available here, website here.

Found via Me And My Big Mouth

I love canning stuff. And it’s getting to be the time of year to cram some stuff into bottles.

Pictured, logo design by Roger Estes for Marisa McClellan’s Food in Jars blog.

An image from long ago. The reality is much different today.

Graphic found via Laura Serra

‘And so was born the ‘shop-at-a-glance’ concept’

An ill-fated design experiment from 1965: Ralphs remodeled with departmentalized, color-coded graphic icons. Article here.

I use a lot of color coding in my own work – but with the assumption that the end user will need other organizational tools to find their way around. ‘Shop-at-a-glance’ never quite caught on; tho I’d love to see what data Ralphs collected as part of their process.

Found via Pleasant Family Shopping

Brooklyn Fare cups. Designed by the minds at Mucca.

Found via Destroy Today

‘Having many food and chemical sensitivities has been a largely trial-and-error process for what can be tolerated and what can’t, and has resulted in many creative kitchen science experiments’

Web designer/cartoonist (and former student of mine) Annie Hero has developed some major health problems. Recently, she’s taken to blogging about her approach to reclaiming her life from years of processed food intolerance.

Annie’s WTF are you eating? can be found here.

‘The company injects fatty beef trimmings with ammonia to remove E. coli and salmonella’

Ammonia in the beef. Sawdust in the cookies. Orange juice on life support.

Today’s US food processing industry is similar to a big Hollywood production of an apocalyptic society, arrived early. Fast Food Nation and FOOD Inc. were appetizers.

Read CRACKED’s The 6 Most Horrifying Lies here.

CRACKED? Yes, the humor ‘mazagine’ I read when I was a kid turned snarky humor website is now an investigative news site. Another sign of the apocalypse.

Photo by Carol Guzy/Washington Post