Brian Cook Presents

Shopping is typically a hardship assignment for me. Still, there are a few notable exceptions; books, beer and wine are things I rather enjoy perusing, especially if the shop is somehow rustic or eclectic. Since I’ve discovered Whole Foods, you can go ahead and add groceries to shopping trips that I like.

The yuppie/snobbish/blueblood/stuff white people […]

There’s a large package store near my apartment by the name of Manchester Wine & Liquors. You can usually find me there once every week or two, walking along the two huge walls that feature beer from most countries on the planet. Every time I visit, I nearly always try something new. One result is […]

After seeing numerous end-of-year lists around the web, I thought it fitting to sum up my Top 5 in each category of The Cookblog. And so, without further ado, here they are:

Art
These are the best web sites and artists that I discovered during the past year.

Edward Gorey - I’ve posted about him before, but the […]

There’s a reason it’s taken me three days to lay down a record of my trip up to Boston last Sunday: it was a day packed so full of fun and memories that I hadn’t even recovered until now. So let’s begin at the beginning.

In my line of work, I am rarely but occasionally given […]

Happy Birthday John, you magnificent bastard.

John Mayer - Kid A (Radiohead cover)
John Hartford - Indian War Whoop
Paul McCartney - Dance Tonight

My friends know that I enjoy a White Russian as much as the next man, and they also know I enjoy The Big Lebowski. This past weekend’s union of Christy and Tyler Driscoll gave me a chance to combine both enjoyments into a single cathartic moment: “Another Caucasian, Gary.” Props to Dan for thinking up […]

I didn’t finish my first beer until my sophomore year of college. That success followed a few aborted attempts, and I still remember how distasteful it was to me at that time. This image, courtesy of The Onion, pretty well sums up what happened next:

My appreciation for beer has followed a predictable trajectory. First, it […]

As I tucked into my delicious Chicken Tikka Masala at last night’s game session, I once again thanked my lucky stars for my gorgeous, half-Indian girlfriend. Despite going to high school in Singapore, with its dizzying array of paneers, masalas and kormas, I lacked the requisite courage and palate to appreciate the tastegasm that is […]

I may only have had In-N-Out burger once, when I went with my girlfriend and her mother before a flight back to the East coast, but rest assured I’ll be stopping by on my next trip to California. And this time, I’ll be armed with the secret menu. Which is what, you ask? Which is […]

I enjoy transforming things into wine racks. This first started when I discovered several closet doors in a dumpster in Onset, MA. They were perfectly fine, and as I looked at them, I realized that a few notches in the slats would cradle a wine bottle very nicely.
Those fancy wine racks from Create & Barrel […]