Salon.com > Ted Anthony

The Olympics: World’s Fairs of the 21st century?

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 04:10:56 +0000

LONDON (AP) — It rose in England's capital with the promise of showcasing humanity's best: supreme accomplishments, fresh technologies, people from far-flung lands and their cultural traditions. It was both trumpeted as a global achievement and dismissed as overly commercialized "trumpery."

It was not the Olympics.

Just a few miles up the road from the teeming venues of today's Summer Games, Victorian London famously convened a gathering called "The Great Exhibition." It was 1851's version of a global event, and it was designed to tell mankind's story — albeit from the vantage point of a potent colonial power.

It came to be called a "World's Fair," and it inaugurated an era of them. Paris and St. Louis, Rome and Vienna, Osaka and dozens more, each with epic storylines: "Festival of Empire." ''Century of Progress." And "The World of Tomorrow," the 1939 World's Fair in New York, where, for the first time, television entered the popular consciousness.

Once, World's Fairs were the primary chroniclers of human progress. Not so much anymore. But to wander the grounds of the 2012 London Olympics this past fortnight is to see that in the 21st century, the value and relevance of such events still endures.

Regular Joe creates a spicy burger with Chinese twist

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:01:00 +0000

Unlike the other pushers of AP's 20 Burgers of Summer, I'm no celebrity. I'm just a guy who happens to work with AP's food editor, and who has spent much of the past decade pushing carnivorousness upon Said Food Editor and taking unfair credit for his rejection of vegetarianism.

In short: In this crowd of gastronomic hauties, I'm the token vox populi. I'm the man on the street they always interview after someone important comes to town, only with hamburgers.

That said, I've also had the good fortune to both grow up in what Said Food Editor calls "mayonnaise America" and spend chunks of my life, including part of my childhood, in China, appreciating the tapestry of food there and missing it desperately when I'm home.

Then one day, Said Food Editor came to me and barked, "Make me a burger. Make me remember it." And it dawned on me: Why not take the best peppery, pungent, garlicky tastes of the street stalls of Sichuan (that's how we obnoxious China hands spell "Szechwan," the province where blunt-force cooking reigns) and transplant them into the American backyard burger?

Spicy Chinese burger recipe

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:01:00 +0000

These burgers pack punch. You'll need a moderately high tolerance of heat to appreciate them. It's also a good idea to cook them outside on the grill (as the recipe directs); the fumes from the peppercorns and chilies can be intense. If you mix the meat and seasonings by hand, consider wearing rubber gloves. The spicy ingredients can leave your hands tingling.

Servings: 12

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork
2 pounds ground chuck, 80 percent lean
5 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
15 to 20 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
3 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns, coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle
5 tablespoons of chive-infused oil, or 4 tablespoons of peanut oil
5 ounces Sichuan black-bean chili paste
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
6 to 8 fresh chilies (such as serrano, cayenne or Thai), finely chopped
2 packages 7-grain Pepperidge Farm Deli Flats (16 flatbreads total)
3 ounces bok choy or Napa cabbage, shredded
2 leeks, white parts only, sliced into thin rounds
Sriracha sauce, to taste