When my boyfriend was offered a short-term job in Australia and asked if I wanted to come along, I knew the opportunity was in the 'once in a lifetime' category. So I sold my car, scrimped and saved, and braved the epically long flight from Boston down to Sydney.

I've been working in food for the last eight years and was incredibly excited about discovering the food scene in Oz, but nailing down the definition of Australian cuisine turned out to be a task almost as enormous as the country itself. I've been eating like an Aussie down in Sydney for about five months now, and I still can't tell you in a word. Australian cuisine is truly an intersection of influences, drawing from indigenous, European, and Asian flavors.

Here's a look at the different kinds of ingredients, dishes, and drinks you might find on a typical day in the Lucky Country.

To start: coffee. One of the most pleasant surprises I found when I first arrived was how great the quality of brew is down here. I could be in the heart of the city or a small town in the bush, and finding good espresso is (almost) easy as finding the nearest cafe.

[Photographs: Rebecca Morris]

Two coffee drinks that I can't get enough of are the long black and the flat white. The long black can be called the distant cousin of the Americano, but it's no weak sauce. The defining feature of the long black is the perfectly preserved crema on top. In terms of flavor, the few ounces of hot water that is added tempers the harshness, but doesn't dilute the taste. What I love the most about a long black is its staying power: it has almost the same amount of richness and intensity as an espresso, but I get to draw it out over a dozen or so sips.

The flat white is more sophisticated and harder to get right than the cafe au lait, and I recommend it for those that can't decide between intense coffee and creamy dairy, because this has a bit of both.

Wattlseed

Australia is home to the oldest living culture on earth, the Aboriginal Australians. Being around for 50,000 years (give or take), you could say they know a thing or two about living off the land, which is why it would be a disgrace to not mention bush tucker. Any food that is native to Australia is considered bush tucker, and now more than ever you can find chefs adding their spin on these indigenous plants, seeds, and berries.

Take wattleseed, for instance. Wattleseed comes from the Acacia species of plant, and while it can be eaten raw, it is mostly purchased already ground and roasted. I tasted it in pancakes at The Gardeners Lodge, a cafe in Sydney that specializes in bush tucker fusion cuisine. The seed tastes like a combination of cocoa nibs, coffee beans, and hazelnuts, and it imparted a complexity to the pancakes that only something like toasted nut flour could rival.

You say banh mi, Aussies say pork roll.

We have the Australian burger covered, so I won't go into too much detail on that front, but I will discuss another sandwich that the Australians have embraced as their own: banh mis, or, as they're known to locals, the Pork Roll.

The pork roll is just one of many examples of the heavy Asian influence in Australian cuisine. It's gone through so many channels of interpretation that some cafes have no idea what I'm talking about when I order a "banh mi." Sydney has pork rolls both low and high, including a coconut-braised pork rendition topped with watercress and toasted pepitas at Great Aunty Three, and pig-skin stuffed version at the appropriately-named Mr. Crackles.

Another hand-held meal worth a mention is the meat pie. I look at the meat pie like Australia's answer to the English pastie and the American pot pie, but I am sure that purists will say it got its start in England, as did many old-school Australian dishes. Inside the flaky, tender crust is a saucy stew that fills the belly of many hard working Australians during break time. Beef Burgundy and chicken and mushroom are the two most popular pies on offer, but my favorite so far has been kangaroo and stout pie.

Kangaroo meat is a byproduct of population control; the 'roo are culled in the wild by skilled hunters, so they don't come with the kind of environmental consequences that feedlot animals do. Australians don't typically eat a lot of kangaroo, probably because they prefer fattier meats like beef and pork, though 'roo consumption does vary regionally. When I was in the Outback, I saw a lot more 'roo on the menu than I did in Sydney, where I had to seek it out at the more touristy areas of the city.

Half kangaroo and half emu, it's a (morbid) take on the official Australian coat of arms.

Speaking of touristy, here's the 'Coat of Arms' pizza with kangaroo and emu, basically in this post to show that Australian's will put pretty much anything on a pie. While I can't name another country that consumes both of the animals that appear on their coat of arms, I can tell you that emu is incredibly high in protein and has virtually no fat, so it is considered a healthy alternative. I prefer it in a sausage, because you get to reap all of the benefits of game meat (berries, grassiness) with some added fat to balance out the more potent flavors of 'eau de emu.' And no, it doesn't taste like chicken, it's more like really lean beef.

To wash all this pie and pizza down, I skip the Fosters and order up some of Australia's craft beers, an industry that is starting to thrive in Australia. My go-to is the pale ale from Little Creatures, a brewery based in Western Australia.

The darling of Modern Australian cuisine (with a nod towards Asia) is salt and pepper squid. In terms of coating, salt and pepper squid is practically naked when compared to the heavily breaded and deep fried calamari I was used to getting in the States. The squid comes to the table after being lightly coated in flour and then wok-fried. The result is salty squid with crispy edges and a satisfying chew. At a Vietnamese restaurant, the dish can come adorned with hot chilis and sweet chili sauce on the side. But at a modern Australian cafe, salt and pepper squid can could be served with a lemon myrtle aioli for dipping, and a simple arugula salad on the side.

Barramundi and Balmain bug

Now that we're on the subject, Aussies happen to love their seafood, including native fish like barramundi. Barramundi is an aboriginal word for 'large scaled river fish', and it has a mild taste and flaky texture. This fish has gotten so popular in Australia that fisheries are struggling to keep up with demand, and are turning to Asia to help bear some of the load. The Balmain bug is a species of slippery lobster. It has a strong flavor and firm texture, like a more concentrated lobster. The first time I saw one I wasn't sure what I was looking at, since their heads resemble tails.

A nice finish to a meal (and an article) is something sweet. I'm not crazy about processed foods, but I know I'll get skewered by my Australian friends if I don't give their favorite cookie a mention, the Tim Tam. I gave it a try and I can see why they stock the shelves with the lot. It has every (good) texture you could want in a candy bar: flaky, creamy, and crunchy, without tasting too sweet, either.

I won't pretend I've covered everything in this one article; from Anzac biscuits to quondong, there is still so much food to be discovered and enjoyed. But with my time in Sydney nearly over, I am already wistful for the flat whites, endless barbecues, and the Aussie lifestyle that makes everyone who lives down here so darn lucky.

About the author: Rebecca Morris left her job as a test cook at America's Test Kitchen in order to lay on the warm beaches of Sydney, Australia for a few months. She got bored after about an hour, so she has been eating, travelling, and writing her way through most of Australia instead. You can follow her on her blog or tweet her @thehungryram.

Watch This Blind Guy Draw Various Objects

Tommy Edison is by far the coolest blind guy on YouTube. He does movie reviews and lets his viewers know what it is like, for him, to be blind.

He also answers a lot of common questions. In his most recent video, he decided to draw from his experiences (PUN) and attempted to sketch a few things from his perspective.

The post Watch This Blind Guy Draw Various Objects appeared first on HelloGiggles.

In an elaborate journey through the films of Pixar, Jon Negroni strongly suspects (and attempts to prove) that all their universes are actually connected. Starting with Brave and ending with Monster's University, his theory has Toy Story's humans being wiped out by pollution and coporations (see: Wall-E's Buy-n-Large popping up all over the place) then post-apocalyptic storylines (A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc.) involving other species rising up to take our places. It gets complicated.

Read the entire theory here.

Read more posts by Lindsey Weber

Filed Under: pixar ,the pixar theory ,jon negroni ,movies

Entertainment Weekly reports that Kristen Bell has signed on to guest-star on an episode of Parks and Recreation next season. She’ll play a snobby city councilwoman from Eagleton. Showrunner Mike Schur said, “She’s Leslie’s equivalent, but richer and better dressed.” So it will be like Zod and Superman, but way shorter.

Read more posts by Jesse David Fox

Filed Under: parks and recreaton ,kristen bell ,tv ,guest stars

What were you almost named?

Like many people, I’ve been following news about the crash landing in San Francisco. It’s a frightening reminder of the risks that come with air travel, but an uplifting one thanks to the small number of casualties. The Mayor of San Francisco was quoted saying: “We’re lucky we have this many survivors.” And the Chief of the San Francisco Fire Department said that it was “nothing short of a miracle…” At CNN, after mentioning the two confirmed fatalities, the reporter writes, “Somehow, 305 others survived.” Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, wrote that it was a “serious moment to give thanks.” But to who?

There’s a kind of person who is trained to maximize survival in the case of a plane crash: the flight attendant. Airlines don’t advertise the intense training their flight attendants receive because it reminds potential passengers that air travel is risky. As a result, most people seriously underestimate the skills flight attendants bring on board and the dedication they have to the safety of their passengers.

Flight attendants have to learn hundreds of regulations and know the safety features of all of the aircraft in their airline’s fleet. They must know how to evacuate the plane on land or sea within 90 seconds; fight fires 35,000 feet in the air; keep a heart attack or stroke victim alive; calm an anxious, aggressive, or mentally ill passenger; respond to hijackings and terrorist attacks; and ensure group survival in the jungle, sea, desert, or arctic.

It isn’t just book learning; they train in “live fire pits” and “ditching pools.”As one flight attendant once said:

I don’t think of myself as a sex symbol or a servant. I think of myself as somebody who knows how to open the door of a 747 in the dark, upside down and in the water (source).

This is why I’m surprised to see almost no discussion of the flight attendants’ role in this “miracle.” Consider the top five news stories on Google at the time I’m writing: CNN, Fox, CBS, the Chicago Tribune, and USA Today. These articles use passive language to describe the evacuation: ”slides had deployed”; all passengers “managed to get off.” When the cabin crew are mentioned, they appear alongside and equivalent to the passengers: the crash forced “dozens of frightened passengers and crew to scamper from the heavily damaged aircraft”; ”passengers and crew were being treated” at local hospitals.

Only one of these five stories, at Fox, acknowledges that the 16 cabin crew members worked through the crash and its aftermath. The story mentions that, while passengers who could were fleeing the plane, crew remained behind to help people who were trapped, slashing seat belts with knives supplied by police officers on the ground. The plane was going up in flames; they risked their lives to save others.

I don’t know what the flight attendants on this plane did or didn’t do to minimize injuries or save lives, but I would like to know. Instead, they are invisible in these news stories as workers, allowing readers and future passengers to remain ignorant of the skills and dedication they bring to their work.

This piece originally appeared on Sociological Images. Republished with permission. You can follow Lisa Wade on Twitter.

Image via Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

It's been a difficult year for the sport of cycling: the news about Lance Armstrong's doping scandal was nearly unavoidable for months. A lengthy investigation, a weepy appearance on Oprah, an admission that his multiple Tour de France victories were all tainted by doping. But the 100th Tour de France cycling race began Saturday June 29th, 2013 and all the bad press about Lance doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for the Tour one bit.

The days of rampant doping are long past, for one thing. Today's top cyclists ride clean and ride hard, and our family will be watching and cheering every day. The Tour offers an entire month of shared television pleasure in our household, and you don't have to be an expert to enjoy it. Here's why we love the Tour, and why I think you and your kids should watch it too:

From a purely visual perspective, there is so much to appreciate about the Tour. I love the scenery and the landscape: the fields of lavender in Provence, the centuries old chateaus, the winding, narrow streets and the way the residents of tiny towns make elaborate pictures of bicycles out of hay bales for the aerial cameras.

The athleticism is unparalleled. Watching the cyclists race up steep switchbacks in the Pyrenees mountains, or summit the almost lunar landscape of the Col de Tourmalet will, simply put, blow your mind. And they ride in unbelievable circumstances: heat, cold, rain, injury. Last year, one of the riders crashed, finished the race, went to the hospital to get checked out, and discovered he had broken his tibia. That's right: he broke his leg and just kept riding. Two years ago, a group of riders got hit from behind by a car, catapulted into a barbed wire fence, and got up to finish the race with blood pouring from their wounds. X Games got nothing on that.

Every day offers a fascinating mix of fresh drama, unexpected outcomes, and century-old traditions. There are crashes and breakaways and sprints. Crazy fans dress up in ridiculous costumes and stand directly in the path of the cyclists. Every day, all the riders slow down enough to eat a sandwich—and in old photos you'll see the riders drinking cans of Coke while they ride. My daughters love the stuffed animals and polka dot dresses at the presentation of the jerseys every day. My husband and I love the way the British announcers yell "IT'S THE MANX MISSILE, THE MAN FROM THE ISLE OF MAN!!!!" when Mark Cavendish crosses the finish line. (And with Cavendish being touted as a potential Tour winner this year, I suspect we'll be hearing a lot of this.) The Tour de France, as far as I can tell, is the best possible combination of dangerous athleticism, odd tradition, ridiculous fans, and gorgeous scenery.

The first year my oldest daughter, Dorothy, was old enough to be cognizant of tv was the summer I was pregnant with my middle daughter Lucy. D was about 15 months, just barely walking, and she would stand in front of the tv, transfixed, shouting CYCLE! CYCLE! CYCLE! Last summer, Dorothy and Lucy sat with me to watch the cyclists cross the finish line, and I explained how the lead out train works to launch the sprinters, and our third baby, Margeaux, stood in front of the tv shouting BIKE! BIKE! GO! WHEEEEEEE!

But perhaps you and your kids haven't been watching the Tour since they were babies. What are some things you can help them watch for to build their interest?

The uniforms are brightly colored and distinct. The official Tour website offers a guide to the teams, including pictures of their jerseys and lists of their riders. But even without knowing the particulars, you can easily distinguish the different teams, and after watching a few stages, you begin to get a sense of which teams are most competitive in the mountains and in the sprints. Look for the different teams, and the way they ride together to protect their best riders. The lead outs for the sprints are fun to watch, and easy for a kid to understand: the team rides single file, with the front rider going as fast and hard as he can, then dropping off to let the next guy take over, until they launch the sprinter toward the finish line. It's also a cool lesson in teamwork: they can't all try to win. They have to work together. And when the lead sprinter crosses the finish line, you'll see his teammates cheering in the background before they've even crossed the line themselves.

Watch for the King of the Mountains. He wears a polka dot jersey, and sometimes also sports a polka dot helmet and a polka dot bike, because why not? When you're king, you can be a little flashy. We also taught our kids to look for the yellow leader's jersey and the green sprint jersey, and to recognize some of our favorite riders. This keeps them interested, but it also provides the hilarious bonus of hearing your three-year-old say, "Is that Ryder Hesjadel? Go Ryder go!"

The riders really do eat sandwiches. What kid hasn't imagined being so awesome on their bike that they could ride really fast, no hands, while eating a snack? Also, sometimes the whole peloton pulls over to pee, and the announcers refer to this as a "nature break."

Watch the crashes. After a crash, the injured riders hold onto a moving car at the back of the peloton while being bandaged, and then the medic leans out the window and gives the rider a big shove to launch him back into the race. Other reasons to hold onto a moving car while riding: you need a bottle of water, or you need a new shoe (my girls made me rewind to watch a rider change his shoe while holding onto a moving vehicle over and over last summer). My girls are fascinated by the danger that is obviously inherent in riding so close to cars, and by the fact that the riders get to break all the rules they associate with riding their bikes.

Most days, there is a breakaway (a small group of riders who ride fast and hard a couple minutes ahead of the peloton). Sometimes one of these guys wins the stage. But usually, the peloton overtakes them, and you get to watch one or two or three guys get swept up by a sea of hundreds of riders. It's incredibly visually dramatic, especially when they show the view from street level from just ahead of the breakaway, so you see the peloton looming behind and then swallowing the breakaway riders.

The Tour began Saturday June 29th, and finishes July 21, 2013, in Paris on the Champs-Elysees, but you don't have to watch every day: the beauty and athleticism are present in each stage. We watch our share of kids TV and I've learned to love The Fresh Beat Band and to tolerate Dora. But spending the morning watching the Tour with my girls? Way better than watching Diego save a cheerful sloth or an anxious tapir or whatever strange creature he's in cahoots with today. The Tour offers genuine shared pleasure and excitement, expressed in our best fake British accents. What could be better?

Recent Comments

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In the New York Times Magazine this week, John Buntin (who wrote about the LAPD's crooked history in LA Noir) tells a heart-wrenching story about the LAPD finally learning to work with the people of Watts on reducing Crips/Bloods violence in the neighborhood. Watts has been struggling for decades--it was declining economically in the 1960s when the Watts Riots broke out, and since then it's a long, sad tale of drugs, violence, and war with the police. In the late '80s, the LAPD instituted Operation Hammer: "For months, hundreds of officers swept through black neighborhoods on weekends. Every law was enforced. Every infraction became a cause for arrest. … The approach was as desperate as it was alienating." (One historian called it "anti-insurgency run amok.") But finally, in the mid-aughts, the LAPD tried something new: after yet another series of back-and-forth shooting, Captain Pat Gannon sat down with "30 hard-core gang guys" and listened to what they had to say and asked for help. He says "That day it stopped … Not slowed down; it stopped."

A group called the Watts Gang Task Force now meets every week with top LAPD commanders to talk about "who's feuding with whom, where criminal investigations stand, which are the issues residents are worried about." Many members are deeply involved with the gang world--they're former members or the parents or grandparents of members. This is all backed up academic research that shows that "people care more about how they are treated than about actual legal outcomes" and that they respond to being treated with fairness, having rules and statues clearly explained, and to being given alternatives. And a 2009 study also shows that "just 14 percent of African-Americans had a great deal of confidence in the proposition that their local police officers treated blacks and whites equally, compared with 38 percent of whites who thought so." Besides working with neighborhood representatives, the LAPD has also put 30 more officers in Watts's projects and implemented programs like Summer Night Lights (in which parks stay open late so kids have somewhere to go).

In the last two years, violent crime in the Watts projects has dropped off more than 60 percent and drive-bys "have almost completely disappeared." Violent crime is down about 30 percent in Watts overall.
· What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods From Killing Each Other? [NYT]

The Sun has gotten their hands on a photo of a strawberry that looks like a penis. Happy hump day, folks.

[Photograph published with permission by Richard Austin]

This is the cutest picture I have ever seen and probably ever will. It's taken by the award-winning British photographer Richard Austin.

Think that's cute? Take a look at his other amazing cute animal photos on his website here, including, oh, a pig and a pint, or ducklings in a cup, or how about this super wide-eyed otter with a teddy bear?

I am surprised that his site has not broken the internet yet.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

The dentist chair*, the DMV, Whole Foods at 2pm on Fourth of July. That's a list of places I'd rather be than at that funhouse hell hole known as Disneyland.

I know, I know, lots of well-adjusted adults enjoy Disneyland to an unnatural extent — I'm friends with some of those weirdos cool people! — but I don't think I even remotely understood the sick fascination until watching this video. Disneyland seems downright magical through the lens of the 1950s, and maybe it's that I'm just tricked by vintage video, but LET'S GO.

Also, MINIATURE HORSE CORRAL?? Let's go NOW.

*I'm talking the Steve Martin in Little Shop of Horrors dentist.

This was in the Old Testament, right? And Sarah leaned down to pet a goat. And the goat rose up and nuzzled her head. And an actual buttload of goats came upon Sarah and bore down on her in a mass of snuggles, and someone was there to film it and put it on the Internet, and it was good.

[via Tastefully Offensive]

ABC Family has torn down the Bunheads sets. The network’s new dramas The Fosters and Twisted are currently outperforming the numbers that Amy Sherman-Palladino’s ballet series was pulling in. There’s been no word yet on a second season, and it was not submitted for Emmy consideration, even though six other eligible ABC Family series were: Baby Daddy, The Lying Game, Melissa & Joey, Pretty Little Liars, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Switched at Birth. Altogether, these signs do not bode well at all for Bunheads being renewed. But — and it’s a big but — the show hasn’t been canceled either, a hopeful sign considering the last original episode aired in February: If the network wanted to be done with it, they’d be done with it. So let’s indulge in some optimism, shall we, and focus on the reasons why it might come back.

By the end of its first season, Bunheads was enjoying the kind of passion and acclaim usually reserved for shows on HBO, AMC, and other networks that traffic in highbrow, water-cooler programming. Following the season finale, HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall wrote, “All I know is that I want this messy, funny, emotional, idiosyncratic, fabulous little show to continue.” Soon after, Time’ James Poniewozik wrote an essay on the importance of Bunheads. The importance! And while the show lingers in limbo, The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum, Salon’s Willa Paskin, and BuzzFeed’s Kate Aurthur, among others, continue to declare they want more.

The show has also grown into its home on the teen network. At first, the story revolved almost singularly around Michelle (Sutton Foster), a 35-year-old dancer past her prime whose life is turned upside down when on a whim she marries an adorably obsessive fan (Alan Ruck) and relocates from Vegas to his mom’s house in the quirky coastal town of Paradise. After he dies suddenly and tragically in a car accident, Michelle begins to reluctantly and slowly warm to his mom (Kelly Bishop) and her ballet students. But by the end of the first season, the four student ballerinas — Boo, Ginny, Sasha, and Melanie — had come into sharper focus. (Boo and Carl, take me away! Sasha, let it all out!) They don’t solve murders like the glam squad on Pretty Little Liars, ABC Family’s most watched show, or apologize as much as the kids do on the earnest Switched at Birth, but they do chat. A lot. About nothing and everything and at Sorkin-esque speeds! They also dance. And not just the kind of dancing that looks super cool but ballets that comment on crazy stuff like recycling and express hard stuff like sex and repressed rage and even being let down by your parents.

It’s not the kind of OMG TV that breaks Twitter on a weekly basis, but patience was previously rewarded on another Sherman-Palladino series, Gilmore Girls, which survived for seven years on the WB, gaining an audience as it went along and hitting ratings highs in its third season. New viewers right now could be getting to know Bunheads, currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus. When ABC Family executives bought the show, they knew all about Sherman-Palladino’s special brand of low-key drama, building character-driven stories at a less frenzied pace and often without emphasis on plot. The network’s head of programming, Kate Juergens, had worked on Gilmore back when she was an executive at the WB, and ABC Family had been living off the great ratings of Gilmore reruns for years before it gained traction with original shows. Bunheads might grow its audience yet!

And that brings us to the subject of the show’s ratings, which weren’t great, but not a disaster either. (If they were untenable, ABC Family would have called curtains on Bunheads as fast as they did The Nine Lives of Chloe King and Jane by Design.) The series finished the first half of its season last summer slightly ahead of its Secret Life lead-in (averaging 1.38 million viewers vs. 1.36 million for premiere episodes). It slipped a bit when the second half of the first season returned in January, albeit opposite stiffer competition from the broadcast networks. First-run episodes for The Fosters and Twisted, meanwhile, are currently averaging 1.57 million viewers and 1.45 million, respectively — not yet a statistically significant victory.

ABC Family will likely make a decision on whether or not to renew Bunheads this month, after the cumulative numbers for their new shows come in. One possible complicating matter will be The Lying Game, a show also awaiting a renewal albeit without as much ink devoted to its fate. But let us hold out hope and not look for doomsday signs. Instead, let us relive “Istanbul,” the ballet boys’ impressions of Tommy Lee Jones in Hope Springs, and that last conversation between Michelle and Ginny about her banana, Frankie (sniff). Sure, the Bunheads sets are in storage, but it’s not uncommon for shows to strike sets between seasons. Melissa & Joey, for example, has switched soundstages every single season — and, thanks to ABC Family, that show got an early green light for season four and an Emmy bid. 

Read more posts by Denise Martin

Filed Under: bunheads ,bunheads watch ,renewals ,abc family ,tv ,amy sherman-palladino

[Images via Emily Shur]

There are few things sillier about the modern landscape than cell phone towers disguised as trees. Every now and then you see one by the side of the highway that's vaguely plausible at 70 miles an hour, but most of the time they're pretty hopeless. Now Photographer Emily Shur has cataloged some of the finer Southern California specimens as part of a project called "Nature Calls." She told the Atlantic Cities that the neighborhoods where she finds most of the tree towers "have largely been either industrial or pretty generic residential," but even a seasoned fake-tree-spotter like her gets fooled sometimes. "The worst is when we've driven great lengths to see if one was fake only to find out it's a real tree," she says. Judging by her totally excellent collection, the fake palm tree is the favored style in these parts, though the fake pine manufacturers needn't despair. Check out the rest at Shur's site.
· The Many Disguises of California's Cell Phone Towers [Atlantic Cities]

On Sunday, Tom Stocky, a manager at Facebook, wrote a post on his um, Facebook about his experience taking paternity leave at a company that actually allows its employees to take a paternity leave. The result is a totally unsurprising look at the ways that men are discouraged by those around them from taking time off to care for their children, even though the emotions they experience are strikingly similar to those of women raising their kids.

Facebook has a very generous parental leave policy, one that allows mothers and fathers to take four months paid leave, plus gives them $4,000 for every child. Despite wanting to take advantage of his leave time, a glance at the mixed responses Stocky received from those around him indicate that for many, it's difficult to grapple with a man who wants to spend time with his children and doesn't worry that more time with them is a poor career move.

Stocky describes going through waves of emotions that sound pretty gender-neutral: at first, he felt exhausted and wanted to return to his old job. But after two months "a switch flipped...when I could more easily imagine myself being happy doing this full time." That didn't mean, however, that he felt like he was accepted amongst female-dominated support communities:

"I didn't like being the only dad at the playground, getting cautiously eyed as moms pulled their kids a bit closer. It probably didn't help that I tried to lighten the mood the first time by saying, 'Don't worry, I'm not going to nab your kid, I already got this one.' I felt awkward at the mid-day baby music class, like I was impinging on an established mom circle, so I switched to the 5pm one that had more dads."

Stocky acknowledges that it makes sense that many child-care groups and activities are largely full of mothers because women are usually the primary caregiver, but his experience is definitely not rare. What he had a bigger issue with was what he calls "the double-standard for fathers when it comes to childcare":

" I experienced it predominantly in three forms: (1) low expectations for fathers, (2) negative perceptions of working mothers, and (3) negative perceptions of "non-working" fathers."

Stocky had outsiders shower him praise for doing basic tasks that parents, regardless of gender, do to care for their kids so they don't die and stuff. These same individuals would also comment on how great it was that he was able to "pick up the slack" for his wife who was working. And there were the people who would assume that he was the back-up parent:

"I remember one unusually direct comment from a women who told me, 'It's too bad you can't earn as much as your wife so she can be the one to stay home.' I don't mind the assumption about earning potential, but I do mind the one about my wife being the preferred at-home parent."

The entirety of Stocky's letter is worth a read; as he concludes, the only things that will drastically change the inequality between the genders when it comes to parenting are if a. more dad's start choosing to take advantage of their paternity leave (one study indicated that new dad's often take less than a week off when a child is born) and b. if more companies start offering the option in the first place.

Stocky's words seemed to hit home with many other mothers and fathers (after getting positive feedback, he switched the letter to public visibility), including a new dad co-worker at Facebook, who wrote in a comment, "Seeing you embrace leave so whole heartedly over the last four months and setting that expectation before you left made it so much more comfortable for me to plan for my own leave." That dad also wrote:

"I also read Lean In while on this first parental stint (thanks Sheryl!) and found it really valuable for being a better co-parent and hopefully for being a better manager."

TL;DR everyone should be strive to be like Facebook.

Image via Melissa Mosely/What to Expect with You're Expecting

Meet Christina Stephens, an occupational therapist, amputee, and the coolest person you've ever or never met. Now, let's watch her build herself a prosthetic leg totally out of LEGO. Fucking awesome.

Now, someone just needs to design some cool looking socks, or a pattern to match her other leg. She could have one in every color. Or little LEGO people scaling up the side of her leg — the possibilites are endless!

[via Cheezburger]

It's time for another round of The Food Lab. Got a suggestion for an upcoming topic? Email Kenji here, and he'll do his best to answer your queries in a future post. Become a fan of The Food Lab on Facebook or follow it on Twitter for play-by-plays on future kitchen tests and recipe experiments.

Let's start this post with the most basic of statements: Flipping your steak often during grilling or pan-searing will result in the best, most evenly cooked meat. Okay, it's probably not a big spoiler to anyone around here anymore. But it's the why that really make the statement interesting.

We multi-flippers are a sad, often-marginalized lot. Mocked at backyard cookouts. Disparaged on internet forums. Made fun of to our faces when we express our belief that nervously flipping your meat as often as every 30 seconds will not only NOT ruin it, but will actually improve it. Well folks, science will prevail, and I've vowed not to rest until every backyard chef in the country has come over to the light side (or, at the very least, is allowing us to practice our multi-flippant grillery in peace).

I can hear you regular Food Lab readers groaning already. Another post about flipping steak? Hasn't this dead horse been beaten enough times yet? And to each of you, I deeply apologize. But I'm nothing if not thorough, and it turns out that I've never actually written a post that goes into detail about flipping (or not flipping) steaks on the grill or in a skillet?

Sure, I've covered flipping burgers, and I've mentioned the technique multiple times in basic steak cookery guides, but I get enough emails requesting it that a blow-by-blow proof seemed in order.

The Theory

Let's start with the premise. Anybody who's ever grilled in their backyard with an overbearing uncle can tell you that if there's one rule about steaks that gets bandied about more than others, it's to not play with your meat once it's placed on the grill. That is, once steak hits heat, you should at most flip it just once, perhaps rotating it 90 degrees on each side in order to get yourself some nice cross-hatched grill marks.

The idea sort of makes sense at first glance: flipping it only once will give your steak plenty of chance to brown and char properly on each side. But the reality is that flipping a steak repeatedly during cooking—as often as every 30 seconds or so—will produce a crust that is just as good (provided you start with meat with a good, dry surface, as you always should), give you a more evenly cooked interior, and cook in about 30% less time to boot!

Need proof? Here we go.

Special thanks to our friends over at the Double-R Ranch who provided the Manhattan-cut New York strips for this testing.

First off, browning. Also known as the Maillard reaction (named after the French scientist who first studied them), it's similar to caramelization in that the process begins with a set of relatively simple organic precursors that get treated with heat to induce a cascade of chemical reactions that produce hundreds (or thousands) of end products. In the case of caramelization, these precursors are sugars; with Maillard browning, it's a combination of proteins, their amino acid building blocks, and sugars.

It's this reaction, along with a controlled amount of actual charring, that produces the deep flavors that are desirable in a well-cooked steak, and they require plenty of heat to create.

Some folks claim that by flipping a steak repeatedly, you end up reducing the amount of browning that occurs, thus reducing flavor. And this can be true, but only in certain, very easily avoidable cases. The main culprit of reduced browning is a lack of heat and an overabundance of moisture—that is, the surface moisture on a steak needs to evaporate before it can begin browning in earnest.

When you flip a steak multiple times, the surface being cooked will cool every time it faces upwards, inhibiting browning. This effect is mitigated by the fact that repeated flipping allows for a more efficient evaporation of surface moisture. Dryness alone is not sufficient to counter the effect of a cooling surface, so when cooking relatively thin steaks with not-very-dry surfaces in not-too-hot skillets or grills, it's possible that your steak will begin to overcook in the center before they've browned sufficiently on their surfaces.

There's a simple solution to this problem: Just don't cook thin, wet steaks on low-powered grills or skillets. Provided you cook over the highest heat possible, your steak is at least an inch thick (the minimum thickness for any self-respecting steak-eater), and the surface of the meat has been dried effectively,* you'll find that your steak will brown faster than you likely want it to, requiring you to reduce the heat to prevent them over-browning.**

*You can dry steaks by wrapping them in paper towels and giving them a few hard presses. But it's even better to salt them at least 40 minutes in advance and let them sit on a rack until the salt gets re-absorbed into their surfaces (more on that here). Your very best option is to salt them and let them air-dry overnight (or longer) on a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet in the fridge. You'll be amazed at how efficiently they brown the next day.

**Or better yet, bring them up to temp before you start searing them, either by starting them on the cool side of a grill, or by using a sous-vide setup, like our beer cooler hack.

In the image above, the steak on the left was cooked with a single flip, while the steak on the right was flipped every thirty seconds. Do you see much difference in browning? I sure don't.

And here they are below, after browning on all surfaces. Again, the steak on the left was flipped just once, while the steak on the right was flipped multiple times. And again, pretty much indistinguishable browning levels.

So that's all well and good—all we've proven is that you can brown a steak well whether you flip it multiple times or not. We've still yet to answer the question of why you'd want to flip it multiple times. I mean, isn't it easier to just let it sit?

Well, to be honest, yes. It is a bit easier (unless you, like me, are the fidgety type who likes poking and prodding at all times), and if you are manning a grill station at a busy restaurant, or perhaps cooking a dozen steaks at a time on the backyard grill, then you won't do too much harm by only flipping once.

But provided you have the inclination and opportunity, multiple flips offer two distinct advantages:

Advantage #1: Faster Cooking

As food scientist and writer Harold McGee has pointed out, flipping steak repeatedly during cooking can result in a cooking time about 30% faster than flipping only once. The idea is that with repeated flips, each surface of the meat is exposed to heat relatively evenly, with very little time for it to cool down as it faces upwards. The faster you flip, the closer your setup comes to approximating a cooking device that would sear the meat from both sides simultaneously.

Two-sided cooking = faster cooking = less time to wait before your steak hits the table.

Advantage #2: More Even Cooking

And herein lies the true advantage to the mutiple-flip technique: your meat comes out more evenly cooked from edge to edge. Take a quick peep at this picture. Again, the steak on the left was cooked with a single flip, while the steak on the right was flipped multiple times. Both steaks were cooked to an internal temperature of 130°F (medium rare):

Notice how the steak on the left has a very distinct band of gray meat that circles around the rosy pink center? That gray meat is well-done, dry, overcooked steak and ought to be minimized.* The steak on the right, on the other hand, shows a relatively even pinkness from edge to edge. It's not quite at a sous-vide level of evenness, but it's pretty even nonetheless, especially considering that it took about 30% less time to cook than the standard single-flip steak on the left.

*There are those who would disagree and claim that they like this gray band. To you I offer my sympathies, but will not attempt to restrict your rights to practice whatever sort of grilling techniques you like, so long as they don't infringe on my rights to practice my own.

Why does this happen? By allowing each side to cool for a few moments after being heated for a few moments, the intense temperature gradient that can build up near the surface of the steak has time to dissipate. Some of that heat energy is released back into the air, while some of it dissipates into the steak. In either case, it rescues the outer layers from cooking more than they absolutely need to.

Of course, the proof with any theory is in the eating, not in the photos, and to be completely honest, the difference between the two steaks in terms of eating qualities is not huge. Small enough that when placed side by side in the island kitchen at Serious Eats World Headquarters, both plates were picked clean at about the same rate, with no questions asked and no preference stated by tasters, which means that the technique is really more about faster cooking than the advantages evenness gets you.

That said, what it does provide is something no less crucial. Because the next time one of those backyard backseat grillers starts to give you strife about flipping your steak repeatedly, you can calmly point them towards this article (preferably while menacingly brandishing a hot, beef fat-coated spatula), and ask them to reconsider their lives.

A Note on Grill Marks

The question of grill marks comes up often in this flipping debate. It's a fact: unless you are very careful about the orientation of your steaks when flipping them, flipping multiple times will not produce the picture-perfect cross-hatched grill marks you can get out of a single flip. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, I've heard it very effectively argued that grill marks are overrated and that better, more even browning should be your final goal. Check out this great post on Amazing Ribs for arguments in favor of no grill marks.

Personally, I still haven't come down on one side or the other. Certainly browning yields more flavor, but grill marks—if done properly—can provide distinct areas of char, not just browning, and one should not underestimate the importance of cosmetics when it comes to food. Good-looking food tastes better, period. Whether we can overcome our mental image of the "ideal" steak as having hatch marks is the more interesting question for me, because only then can we recommend a flavor-only approach to better grilling.

Don't you wish all of life's mysteries could be solved one steak at a time?

Further Reading

• The Burger Lab: How Often Should You Flip a Burger?
• The Food Lab: How to Grill a Steak, a Complete Guide
• How To Cook A Steak In A Beer Cooler (Video)
• The Food Lab's Guide to Inexpensive Steak for the Grill: 5 Cuts You Should Know
• The Food Lab: How to Pan Sear a Steak, a Complete Guide
• The Food Lab's Complete Guide to Dry-Aging Beef at Home
• The Food Lab: More Tips For Perfect Steaks
• The Food Lab: How To Grill a Gigantic Rib-Eye Steak

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

Recipes!

• Butter-Basted Pan-Seared Thick-Cut Steaks
• The Food Lab's Perfect Grilled Ribeye Steaks

Weddings are such complicated business. Entitled people want cash, not gifts! Or, as this terrible Facebook message from a bride/horrible mean person demonstrates, sometimes people (perplexingly) do not want cash. Or at least, they do not want a paltry amount of cash. Like $100. $100 is not enough for some people.

The guest involved, Tanya, had just attended the wedding of an acquaintance. Tanya is a recent college graduate with student loan debt and only a part-time job, so she and her boyfriend generously gave the bride and groom a hundred bucks. Then, a week later, the bride sent this via Facebook message:

Hi Tanya, how are you? I just want to know is there any reason or dissatisfaction of Mike's and I wedding that both you and Phil gave 50$ each? In terms of the amount we got from you both was very unexpected as a result we were very much short on paying off the reception because just for the cocktail + reception alone the plate per person is 200$ (as per a normal wedding range with open bar is about) and Mike and I both have already paid for everything else including decor, photography, attire etc and didn't expect we had to cover that huge amount for reception as well. As I know you both live together and work, so I did not see any reason for that amount, when it comes to your wedding hopefully you'll know what I mean. I hope for the best as from what we receive is what we will give back. Anyways, good luck on everything.

Two things:

1. [SIC] [SIC] [SIC] to all of that. Jesus God, am I alone in feeling that anyone who expresses his or herself so poorly in written language probably doesn't deserve a wedding present? "Is there any reason or dissatisfaction of Mike's and I wedding"? "In terms of the amount we got from you both was very unexpected"? The bride's purchase on standard English grammar and usage is perhaps even shakier than her grasp of manners. I'm actually impressed this woman managed to turn on her computer and spell Facebook correctly.

2. Much more importantly, when did people become this rude? Here is a list of the circumstances under which it is appropriate to criticize a gift given you by a well-meaning guest: Never, never, and the second Tuesday after never. That is all.

Wedding Gift Amount Deemed Insufficient By Bad-Mannered Bride [HuffPo]

Photo via Shutterstock/Sai Yeung Chan

Frankly, it is an embarrassment that we, the Colin Firth–as–Mr. Darcy–loving public, have waited almost twenty years for this momentous occasion. But yes, finally, the dream has been made real: Colin Firth's famous Pride and Prejudice lake moment — the one where his wet eighteenth-century undershirt clings to him just so — has been made into a giant statue. It is twelve feet tall, and it is sitting in the middle of London's Serpentine lake. Sorry, can't finish this post, we have to fly to London now.

Read more posts by Amanda Dobbins

Filed Under: mr. darcy ,colin firth ,pride and prejudice ,art

These guys. Two pals having pal time! What were they going to do, NOT take a selfie together? It’s Wimbeldon! What do you think they did with this picture? MySpace? Did anyone get a push notification this weekend that Bradley Cooper had changed his profile picture? Did anyone check Gerard Butler’s Instagram for a #latergram?! No matter what they did with this photo, you can be sure that it is something glamorous. They’re celebs! Everything they do is so fancy, clearly. Just two incredibly sophisticated, beautiful people right here, sharing this big bold world together and cherishing those memories forever. Hash tag winning. (Via Vulture.)

This is a weird one: a veteran American Airlines flight attendant accused by her colleagues of smuggling a pet rat onto an international flight in her underwear has filed a lawsuit against the airline, claiming the accusations have resulted increased customs screenings and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Two American Airlines employees made the rat-smuggling allegations against Louann Giambattista, 55, in 2012. According to the lawsuit, one of the accusers, a pilot, told airline officials “he saw a bulge in [her] pocket” that looked like a “live pet” as he helped her exit a van during a layover. A flight attendant on another flight “believed [Giambattista] fed her pet rats” during at least one flight.

Giambattista denied both allegations, saying that the flight attendant saw her “eating a dinner roll out of a cup,” not feeding her pet rat, reportedly named “Willard.”

Regardless, the accusatory flight attendant notified immigration authorities of the possible rat sighting after the flight landing in Florida. Immigration officers then searched Giambattista's bags. Despite not finding any rats, Giambattista said the officials flagged her passport, which forced her to undergo stops and searches each time she passed through customs. She was also threatened with strip searches, according to the lawsuit.

“There was no reason for it,” Giambattista said of why she was targeted. “People say, ‘There must have been a reason,’ but there is none.”

Giambattista's attorney admits his client is an animal lover who owns dogs, gerbils, hamsters, and, at one time, a pet rat.

“Everybody has pets — she has her pets at home, not at work,” attorney Stephen Morelli told the New York Post. “She’s not a nut. They’re making her out to be a nut.”

“She’s got a lot of different pets,” he added. “She had the rat — it died.”

Giambattista is seeking unspecified damages from American Airlines, who told the Post they would respond to the claims in court.

[via Daily Intelligencer/New York Post/Image via Shutterstock]

To contact the author of this post, email taylor@gawker.com

When it snows, it snows kitten snowflakes from heaven.

Pure delight.

[via Cheezburger]

There's this awful website run by an idiot/swarm of idiots that lists people who used to be vegan and aren't now and is all "look at these ex-vegan sellouts!" in hopes of shaming those people into, uh, becoming vegan again? Because nothing says "we welcome you back with open arms!" like "you're a fucking asshole and we hope you get punched in the tits!"

As a vegan, I'm embarrassed and enraged. First, the site design is tacky as hell. Second, it plays into the stereotype of vegans as preachy, judgmental dickwads. And third, I don't need to deal with 15 people sending me a link to the site and being all, "OMG WHO DO YOU THINK WROTE THIS??!!1 p.s. vegans are crazy!"

Okay, well let's run down by top list of suspects:

1. Meat eaters or the meat industry. Something to do with meat.
Why? The website is easy and lazy — so much so that I question whether a vegan is really behind it. I wouldn't be surprised if the site was run by Americans for Beef or Patriots for Pork in an attempt make vegans look scary, cruel, and downright Un-American. This is just speculation on my part, but I wouldn't put it past the same people who exploit humans and animals to overproduce government subsidized hormone- and antibiotic-filled garbage food to use whatever power they have to scare people away from thinking about where their food comes from.

What do vegans have to lose by making a crazy site that makes vegans look crazy? Judging by Eater's reaction — a lot. What does the meat industry have to gain? Even more.

2. Really angry vegan in a basement with no friends and a lot of sadness who needs a hug and probably some Lithium.
The vegans that run the site, if they exist, are not your average vegan. Most of us knit booties for the disabled turkeys rescued by farm sanctuaries and bake vegan cupcakes for every function possible. Hell, I just baked a batch for a kid who just successfully took her first crap in a toilet. That's what most vegans do. We talk about how cute animals are and we eat tempeh. It's our thing.

If it's vegans behind this site, I have a note for them: Shut the fuck up or get the fuck out. We don't need this shit. Signed, Laura and all other vegans except maybe your mom if your mom is vegan? But also probably your mom, too.

3. Regina George.
96-percent chance it's Regina.

[Ex-Vegans, Eater]

I'm pretty sure that we as a society have just officially beat our own record of "youngest age to expose a child to daft and absurd gender policing." We've done it, guys. We have all contributed to a world in which something like "the baby wig" can exist.

Baby Bangs!, as the infernal creations are called, are "made just for little girls," according to the product's website. What is the function of a pair of Baby Bangs!? To let your infant daughter tell the world, "I'm not a boy!", duh. They're billed as "a very comfortable, extremely natural-looking, fun and fashionable hair accessory/alternative for mothers with baby girls who have very little or no hair." Because god knows how much damage being bald could do to a newborn's self-esteem.

Here's some more insight into the company's philosophy:

At Baby Bangs! we believe in the beauty of childhood. Our unique designs are sprinkled with MAGIC! ~inspiring a world of whimsical wonder and mystical magical memorable moments for you and your baby girl to cherish Forever! For she is, and always will be,
Your LiTTLe PRINCESS!

So the princess dogma is starting at such a young age that a newborn's natural (downy-headed) state is somehow undesirable? Is the window of time during which a woman's physical appearance isn't subjected to constant scrutiny and held up to strict standards going to narrow so much that all fetuses will need beautiful virtual makeovers (if so, I'm really adept at them so you can email me on my work account for the hook-up)? And just what is so horrifying about having your sweet little lump of newborn human mistaken for the opposite gender? Babies all look the same; that's kind of their thing. It's not only unnecessary, but also pretty much insane, to start forcing cosmetic enhancements on a child too young to even have hair on her head.

(H/t The Kraken Wakes)

From A Hamburger Today

In-N-Out's secret menu accounts for over 20 variations on their menu of burgers, fries, and milkshakes. You can ask for extra-toasted buns, unmelted cheese instead of melted, a bun-less cheeseburger, and more. But one thing they won't do for you is top your burger with fries—not plain fries and especially not Animal Style fries topped with cheese, spread, and grilled onions.

Last week, blogger Elie Ayrouth of Foodbeast posted a video where he attempts to order Animal Style fries-topped burgers—dubbed Monkey Style burgers—at an In-N-Out after supposedly reading about them on Twitter. He does end up getting Monkey Style burgers, but as The Atlantic points out, it doesn't look like they were constructed by In-N-Out. Still, lots of people tried to order it. Yesterday, In-N-Out confirmed that the burger doesn't exist on their menu.

Of course, if you don't mind putting in a bit of effort, you can just order Animal Style fries and a burger and make a Monkey Style burger yourself, as Grub Crawl did.

If any AHT'ers try it, let us know how it is.

About the author: Robyn Lee is the editor of A Hamburger Today and takes many of the photos for Serious Eats. She'll also doodle cute stuff when necessary. Read more from Robyn at her personal food blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Love hamburgers? Then you'll Like AHT on Facebook! And go follow us on Twitter and Pinterest while you're at it!

A Missouri man had just been found guilty of sodomizing a 14 year old girl who had testified against him during the trial. The man had been sentenced to 7 years in jail which seems way too light of a sentence for someone who could do that to a young girl. After the sentence had been issued, the 48 year old man swallowed a cyanide pill and killed himself in front of everyone in the courtroom. The man had ordered the poison last week and had it shipped to himself. You can have cyanide shipped to yourself? Seriously? Police believe the man already had the pill in his mouth when he entered the courthouse. Unlike the similar suicide last year, this one was not caught on video.