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    Blue Ribbon Hunter

    Blue Ribbon Hunter

  • Tips for Growing and Cooking Tomatoes

    Blue Ribbon Hunter traveled to Pittston, PA for the Pittston Tomato Festival where thousands of people came out to sample delicious foods made with fresh tomatoes. One of the highlights of the festival is the tomato fight, where 250 people enter an arena and throw overripe or rotten tomatoes at each other for five minutes. Contestants must wear protective goggles that they can purchase for five dollars a piece and all of the proceeds go to food charities in the area. But they don't just throw tomatoes at the festival; they make some really delicious foods with them. ...

  • Where Do Fortune Cookies Come From?

    Opening up a fortune cookie after enjoying Chinese food is always a lot of fun, but have you ever wondered where your fortune comes from? We traveled to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco, California to find out more about this cookie and learn how they're made.Fortune cookies are associated with Asian cuisine, but did you know you won't find a single fortune cookie in Asia? They originated in San Francisco, California in the 1950s and were intended to be served with tea at Japanese restaurants. ...

  • Award-Winning Halupki Recipe

    Blue Ribbon Hunter traveled to Whiting, Indiana for their annual Pierogi Festival, where over 200,000 people came out to party Polish style. We sampled classic and unique pierogies, danced the polka, and learned a lot about polish food and culture. One of the foods we learned about is called "halupki". This traditional Polish dish is beef and/or pork mixed with rice and onion, wrapped in steamed cabbage, and topped with tomato sauce. ...

  • Staggering Facts Behind Cruise Ship Cuisine

    Every year 20 million people choose to take a cruise for their vacation. Many people are drawn to cruise ships for their luxurious amenities and endless food. We hopped aboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2, one of the largest cruise ships in the world, to meet up with executive chef Nicholas Oldroyd to learn how he feeds so many people and still maintains the high standards that people expect. Some Surprising Stats The cruise ship kitchens feed 2,600 guests and 1,200 crew every day. The kitchen staff represents 55 different nationalities. ...

  • Onion Parmesan Cracker Bread Recipe

    Blue Ribbon Hunter traveled to Manhattan, Kansas for the National Festival of Breads, where eight finalists from all over the country competed live to see who makes the best bread in America. The judging criteria of course included taste, but nutrition and ease of preparation also played big roles in determining the winner. In the end, one person rose to the top. Congratulations to Rosemary Leicht from Bethel, OH for her award-winning Onion Parmesan Cracker Bread. ...

  • Eating Cicadas

    Every seventeen years, cicadas emerge in certain parts of North America. While most people do their best to avoid these odd-looking insects, others seek them out. We met up with James Beard nominated chef Bun Lai of Miya's Sushi in New Haven, Connecticut, who cooks and eats cicadas, to learn more about them and try them for ourselves. Is it crazy to eat cicadas? Not at all. In fact, people all over the world have been eating cicadas for years. North America is the only continent where the cicadas only appear every seventeen years. ...

  • Paul Qui's Award-Winning Recipe

    Blue Ribbon Hunter traveled to Venice, Italy for the San Pellegrino Cooking Cup where ten chefs from ten different countries battled it out to see who is the best young chef in the world. After two days of competitive cooking, including a challenge where the chefs had to cook a dish on a racing boat, one chef rose to the top: Chef Paul Qui from the United States!

  • Award-Winning Pigs in a Blanket

    Pigs in a Blanket are a classic and beloved party hors d'oeuvre, but there is one company that makes them better than anyone else - well, according to Oprah at least. We traveled to Smorgasburg in Brooklyn, New York to meet up with Missy Koo, the co-founder of Brooklyn Piggies, to find out what makes her pigs in a blanket so special. Just a few weeks after launching their artisan pigs in a blanket stand at Smorgasburg in Brooklyn, New York, members from Oprah's team discovered Brooklyn Piggies and knew that they were something that Oprah would love. ...

  • America's Best Lobster Roll

    We traveled to The Tasting Table's Lobster Roll Rumble in New York City where restaurants from all over the country battled it out to see who makes the best lobster roll. There were all types of lobster rolls, from the traditional New England style with mayonnaise, to classic Connecticut style with butter, to out-of-the-box rolls like the lobster mac and cheese hotdog. In the end, the glory of first place went to a simple, yet delicious, butter drenched lobster roll from The Clam Shack in Kennebunkport, Maine. ...

  • Memphis' Oldest Restaurant

    Memphis, Tennessee is known for it's lively music scene, rich history, and of course it's barbecue, which is why it may come as a surprise that the oldest and longest running restaurant in Memphis is actually a diner. Speros Zepatos, an immigrant from Greece, established Arcade Restaurant in 1919. It began as a small one-room restaurant and eventually evolved into a popular diner. For the majority of Arcade's life, it was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week serving classic country food. In the 50's and 60's Arcade was so popular that it attracted celebrities such as Elvis Presley. ...

  • Korean Fried Chicken and Donuts

    When you think of coffee and donuts, does Korean-style fried chicken come to mind as well? If not, then you probably haven't been to Federal Donuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to co-owner and chef, Mike Solomonov, Federal Donuts is "a donut and coffee shop that sells fried chicken". Customers can come in and order just donuts, just fried chicken, or their famous combo of the two. The donuts at Federal Donuts are not your average donuts. ...

  • Steakhouse Secrets

    New York City is home to some of the most famous steakhouses in the country. We traveled to Keens Steakhouse in Manhattan, one of the oldest steakhouses in New York, where we met up with Chef Bill Rodgers to learn what it takes to make a perfect steak. Look for "Starry-Night" Marbling When picking out a good cut of meat, look for a steak with a lot of little flecks of fat rather than a super lean cut, or one with many thick strips of fat. Chef Rodgers refers to this type of fat marbling as "Starry-Night" marbling. Steaks with this type of marbling are likely to be very tender and juicy. ...

  • The World's Largest Bake Sale

    Sandra Lee hosted the World's Largest Bake Sale at Grand Central Station in New York City on Wednesday, May 1st. Popular bakeries, celebrities, and chefs came out to donate baked goods to the bake sale, which benefitted the Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry Campaign, and the Food Bank for New York City. There were over 50,000 baked goods for sale at five dollars a piece in classic bake sale style. Some notable guests were Ty Pennington, Mario Batali, Wendy Williams, Buddy Valastro, and Dylan Lauren. ...

  • Tips for Making Great Grilled Cheese from The Grilled Cheese Invitational

    The Grilled Cheese Invitational in Los Angeles, California is a yearly festival that brings both amateur and professional chefs together to compete to see who makes the best grilled cheese.

  • The Original Philly Cheesesteak

    Every native Philadelphian has their favorite place to get Philly Cheesesteaks, but there is only one original: Pat’s King of Steaks.

  • America’s Best Coffeehouse

    What makes a great cup of coffee? Blue Ribbon Hunter traveled to New York’s Coffee Fest 2013 to find out.

  • Cheese Balls: How They Are Made

    In celebration of National Cheese Ball Day, April 17th, we headed to Hanover, PA to the Utz factory to see how they are made.

  • Aspen SoupSkol

    The only thing better than a day at the slopes in Aspen, Colorado is a hot soup waiting for you when you get back -- especially when it is -8 degrees Fahrenheit! We stayed at the beautiful Hotel Aspen which was just a short walk from all of the festivities of Aspen's annual winter festival: Winterskol. We witnessed snow carving contests, snowboarding rail shows, and of course attended the annual soup competition. We tried some really amazing soups from New England clam chowder, to loaded baked potato soup, to a spicy shrimp bisque, but the winner was a very unique type of gumbo!

  • Forbes Island

    If you look out from the pier at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, CA, you can see what appears to be a small island right off shore. But if you watch this island carefully, you will see that it bobs ever so slightly in the water. That's because this is Forbes Island, and it's really no island at all, it's a houseboat-turned-restaurant!

  • The Perfect Bite Recipe

    The "perfect bite" is like the holy grail of the food world and that's why it makes the perfect challenge for the 14 competitors at the Food Experiments World Championship at the Brooklyn Brewery in New York City. People came from all over the United States (and Sweden!) to battle it out to see who could master the right combination of flavors and textures to make the perfect bite. And the winner is: