Okay, I'll admit it: I watch the Academy Awards for the outfits. And for the possibility of crazy behavior on the podium, as the sudden release of mind-bending pressure makes these over-coddled thoroughbreds behave like the hundred pounds of crazy they really are. But really, will anything this year top Bjork's swan? Or the pre-MILF Angelina Jolie smooching her brother?
The tyranny of tastefulness, in both dress and behavior, has taken much of the fun out of these silly shows (along with the huge, indigestible blocks of commercials crammed in every six minutes). Still, though, here in the Bay Area we love our Oscar parties, and if you're going to fill the couch in front of the big screen, you've got to provide the munchies to match.
There are many amusing options at #oscarmenu, from District 9 Prawn Kebabs to Avatunatartare, with a side of pink candy cigarettes to puff like Julianne Moore in A Single Man. And don't forget The Blind Side Salad, washed down with a glass of The Hurt Lager, followed (for you art-house fans) with The Peaches of Agnes.
2010 Oscar Nominee/Food Mashups by David Gartner
As Karen Wilson points out in Bon Appetit, there's a lot of cute (fake) food in Fantastic Mr. Fox. Roald Dahl was a man with a keen palate, as his essay on the Dutch Arnhemse Meisjes (which he called, quite simply, the best biscuits in the world) would prove. Director Anderson makes the edibles in his film come brightly and sweetly to life, from the vividly lit grocery-store shelves to the lavishly set table of the animals' dinner party. And then, of course, are the equally alluring (and equally fake) baguettes and buns rising through the roof in the latest Wallace and Gromit animated short, A Matter of Loaf and Death.
