Culture

Weekend Reading: Cornflake Portraits, Hot Dog Atheletes, and More

What we’re reading, cooking, and clicking this week.

Some people knit. Some people paint. Sarah Rosado makes musician portraits out of cornflakes. Each piece takes her somewhere near five hours to complete—she crushes individual flakes into different sizes, then paintsakingly arranges them over a sketch—and she's done the likenesses of everyone from Michael Jackson to Amy Winehouse. [BuzzFeed] —Zoe Schaeffer, assistant digital editor, @zschaef

The lemony, bright scent of kaffir lime leaves is a beautiful thing. Less beautiful is the story behind the name, which in many parts of Africa is a racial slur. There's a campaign afoot to raise awareness of the offensiveness of the "k-word," and to use the Thai name, makrut, for the fruit and the aromatic leaves instead. The Vancouver SunKaren Shimizu, senior editor, @karemizu

Trolling​ the internet​ for summer side dish inspiration this week, ​I discovered Southern home​-​cook Linda Weiss's​ latest post about cornbread salad. Panzanella ain't got nothin' on ​this​ mash-up of cornbread, fresh tomatoes, green onions and mayonnaise. No wonder ​the headnote includes her "cornbread salad prayer": '"Oh Lord have mercy and help me please not to embarrass myself because I am about to become a glutton'"._Southern Cooking at Home —_Felicia Campbell, associate editor, @hungryfi

I shy away from the term "the next big thing." Unfortunately, there's no other way to describe Nashville and its hyper-burgeoning restaurant scene right now. From Chef Tandy Wilson's exceptional City House to Sean Brock's newest Husk location to the old school hot chicken joints that have been bringing pleasure and pain to Music City epicures for years, Nashville's the real deal. Now one of my favorite New Orleans chefs, Donald Link, is throwing his Cajun-style cuisine into the ring with a second incarnation of his famed Warehouse District eatery, Butcher. [The Times-Picayune] —Keith Pandolfi, senior editor, @keithpandolfi

There are plenty of besprinkled rainbow cakes to be found on the internet in the shape of flowers, purses, gift boxes and the like, but it's always seemed to me that there's a serious dearth of spooky, tongue-in-cheek creations. The "gothic bake queen" to the rescue: Christine McConnell, a stylist and photographer, makes grotesque-yet-beautiful edible treats and posts them to her Instagram, like tarantula cookies and a shortbread version of the facehugger from Alien. [Stylist.co.uk] —Laura Sant, assistant digital editor, @mizsant

In honor of Nathan's annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, the Atlantic claims that competitive eater Joey Chestnut is the most dominant athlete in a century. [The Atlantic] —Mari Uyehara, senior editor, @mariuyehara

It's entirely possible that Gawker's restaurant review column—The Best Restaurant in New York, a magnificently harmonic duet between writers Caity Weaver and Rich Juzwiak—is my favorite part of the internet right now. The latest iteration, in which they mostly don't eat (but boy, do they drink!) at the restaurant inside Manhattan's Tommy Bahama store, had me snorting with laughter at my desk. [Gawker] —Helen Rosner, executive digital editor, @hels

Immigration restrictions and increasing wealth in countries south of us, like Mexico, have caused a farm worker shortage. What to do to get our food crops into and out of the ground? Turns out the U.S. government spent $4.5 million on research into farm robots last year, according to this great multimedia story by Vox. Although I think the cow-herding robot is kind of cute, I'd just like to know why the heck we can't just take that $4.5 million and help pay a living wage and decent benefits for farm work so that it is actually a sustainable job option for people. [Vox] —Betsy Andrews, executive editor, @betsyandrews

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