Images: Courtesy of 'Mouthfeel 'magazine
You'd imagine that a punky, queer food magazine would be a tough sell. As a concept it's rather esoteric and somewhat niche-focused. Turns out it's also one that's successful.
Mouthfeel, a food magazine which juxtaposes vintage gay skin-mag fodder with recipes and chef profiles, has already sold out of its first issue online and it just went live yesterday.
Edited by Mac Malikowski, who got his culinary cred as a dishwasher and an expeditor at some of New York's hottest boites, the magazine "is not a gay men's Good Housekeeping," according to Malikowski. "I wanted to bring together the culture I live in: a combo of food, coffee, humor, hardcore, and some hot guys here and there to keep it interesting. My favorite media always carries the torch of counter-culture. And counter-culture to me has always generated the best in food, art, music and my favorite types of guys. It's a natural equation to me."
Mac Malikowski
So with all the eating that must go on, what is Malikowski's favorite meal? OutTraveler caught up with him earlier this spring and asked that very question:
"There is a small Turkish place in Berlin called Doyum. It's right off the Kottbusser station U-Bahn, a highly intersectional area and great neighborhood for alt gay nights out. At Doyum, they serve one of my all time favorite dishes: Iskender Kebap, which is this lean lamb meat served over chopped flat bread that is slathered with boiling tomato sauce, butter and yogurt. Talk about mouthfeel. This dish is a rollercoaster of textures and sparks. The flatbread is pillow-soft on the inside and perfectly crispy everywhere else. The meat is salty and has this glazing affect on your tongue. The yogurt is tangy and rich and fights the tomato sauce for temperature dominance. I'm literally salivating at my computer."
While D.I.Y queer publications pop up all the time, Mouthfeel is the first one in a while that seems to have some staying power. Everything from film to music to fine art has been observed, dissected, and refocused through a queer lens. It's about time that food and the culinary arts got the same treatment. Sexy, tongue-in-chick, and delightfully kitschy, Mouthfeel has whetted our appetites and has us craving issue No. 2 -- which is supposed to be out this September.
