​Just what you want with your breakfast -- a hot dog!

Starting in the German city of Frankfurt am Main, hot dogs have certainly wormed their way all over the globe, but who would've guessed they'd become so popular in Hong Kong?

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Looks like Dagobah, tastes like Heaven.

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Suppose you have too much time on your hands, and tend spend it feeding your inner fat kid instead of doing yoga (or another awful physical activity).

Now Fork in the Road does not want to advocate unhealthy lifestyle choices -- you should totally go jump rope and run up stairs listening to "Eye of the Tiger" instead of relaxing over a steak dinner and glass of Malbec -- but the bloggers here can certainly point you in the right direction if you simply insist on indulging and imbibing.

And the blog's most recent culinary experiment will do just that.

An idea was recently born among the Voice's expert, gourmet culinary team: What happens if you make pork meatballs with pork rinds, pork cracklings, and pork liverwurst blended into the ground meat?

Awesome happens, that's what.

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​Here's about $4 worth of the mushroom called "Snow Shrimp" on the blackboard, but whose real name is "Aborted Entolomas," according to a commenter.

Last week Fork in the Road covered the wild mushrooms being newly offered at the New Amsterdam Market. What an array it was, including many that had never been seen at retail in the city before, 14 varieties all told. I bought three types, and here's the first installment of what I did with them.

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quietfish.com

Remember, only use clean snow!

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Now that New York City has had its first snowfall, no matter how pitiful of a flurry it was, it's time to think about maple taffy, that glorious confection invented by our friends up north who can't ever drive to the grocery store because there's far too much snow on the ground.

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Give this man some goat

​Welcome to Recipe Improv, in which Fork in the Road throws three disparate ingredients at a chef to see what he or she can come up with. (Check out the full series here.)

This week's contestant is Lauren Hirschberg, chef de cuisine at Craftbar. Hirschberg has worked his way up under Tom Colicchio--as a culinary student he worked a stage at Craft, where, two years later, he was promoted to sous chef. In 2008, he moved on over to Craftbar.

The ingredients: Goat, prunes, and smoked paprika

The recipe: Goat Ravioli, Prune, Pine Nut, and Smoked Paprika Butter

Click through for the full recipe.

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In order to avoid high-fructose corn syrup and other preservatives found in soda, some people stalk purveyors of cane sugar-sweetened Mexican Coke. Others make their own. This video from Make magazine demonstrates how to create carbonated drinks at home without the use of expensive soda-making machines.

[via TreeHugger]

Our Three-dollar Throwdown is well underway. Vote for your favorite in an email to Sarah DiGregorio or submit your own recipe to stiffen up the competition. You'd be surprised what you can do with 3 bucks.

View our own entries here and here and here.

In case you missed it, we here at Fork in the Road have been amusing ourselves with the challenge to end all challenges, the ultimate cheap-off, a friendly contest to devise the best $3 meal: The Three-dollar Throwdown. This is my entry.

But first, a bit of background. Sarah is a trained cook; Robert is a veteran food critic, which places me squarely in the role of underdog. I live on the verge of Chinatown--a block I've seen referred to as Little Chitaly--so I did my shopping close to home. And, while I can assure you that it is possible to buy three mini baby bok choy and a handful of dried shrimp, it may earn you a few grunts of disapproval.

Shrimp & Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry

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Today, we're playing recipe improv with German-born chef Martin Brock. Brock launched his New York career under Gray Kunz at Café Grey, and he is now the executive chef at Atria, the recently opened re-invention of Grayz.

The improv ingredients: Chicken liver, smoked paprika, kale

Using our improv ingredients, Brock came up with a hearty, warming appetizer--Chicken Livers with Smoked Paprika-Peppercorn Sauce and Kale. The dish is relatively cheap to make, and simple to prepare.

Get Brock's recipe, after the jump.  


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Give this man some turkey skin

Today, we're playing Recipe Improv with chef John Fraser of Dovetail (103 West 77th Street). Before opening Dovetail last December, Fraser worked stints at the French Laundry, at Taillevent in Paris, and Compass in New York.

Since our great day of national gluttony is approaching, I threw some Thanksgiving-themed ingredients at Fraser. He responded with a recipe that would be perfect for using up the Thanksgiving leftovers without resorting to the dreaded never-ending turkey sandwiches.

The surprise ingredients:
Fried turkey skin (turkey chicharrones)
Cranberries
Marjoram

The recipe:

Day-After Thanksgiving Bread Salad
Yield: 6 servings

The bread used here can be pumpernickel, sourdough, or any other good bread, perhaps left over from your stuffing.

6 cups cubed bread
1 celery stalk, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 pound brussels sprouts, quartered
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 cup cashews, toasted
3/4 cup chopped marjoram
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 red onion, sliced and grilled or broiled
1 cup cranberry sauce
1/2 cup to 1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup crispy crumbled turkey skin (crisped in oil if necessary)
fresh cranberries, for garnish

Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 300 degrees. On a sheet pan, spread out the bread. Toast bread in oven, stirring occasionally, until pale golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil, and blanch the celery, carrot and brussels sprouts, until just tender. Remove vegetables from the pot, and briefly place them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking, and drain. Set aside.

In a bowl, whisk together the red wine vinegar, honey and olive oil, and season to taste with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, combine the bread, vegetables, cashews, herbs and red onion. Toss in the vinaigrette, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a blender, combine the cranberry sauce and 1/2 cup orange juice. Blend, adding more orange juice if necessary, until the mixture is the consistency of a spreadable puree.

Spread the cranberry puree in a thin layer onto 6 serving plates. Top the puree with a serving of bread salad. Sprinkle turkey skin on top of each plate, and garnish with fresh cranberries.