amateur stylist turns fast food into fancy food (link)
09.06.09 - the detroit free press - by michael hill, a.p.

man, the internet is pretty much the sweetest way to get attention these days. i'm not just talking about porn, although that's a pretty substantial way to get noticed, make some money, get a reliable coke hookup & meet interesting people who will have sex with you. i'm talking about getting your kid all drugged up, videotaping him & putting it on youtube. i'm talking about putting your band's new emo rocker up on myspace. i'm talking about coming up with some random niche idea, starting a crazy website about it & watching the press roll in.

back in may, brooklyn's erik trinidad started up a crazy site, fancyfastfood.com, which is devoted to reworking fast food items into fancy looking dishes. ever since posting his first creation--the mcsteak & potatoes (a reworking of a big mac value meal)--he's got a TON of attention from news outlets & blogs. yesterday, the detroit free press (freep!) decided to give him more attention by picking up an associated press article from a few weeks back. i guess he deserves the attention. the site's unique & pretty well done. i'm just sick of hearing about it.

trinidad's "a freelance interactive designer and writer with no formal culinary training." besides his work with the mcdonalds' big mac, he's made masterpieces out of meals from popeye's (spicy chicken sushi), taco bell (tacobellini), domino's (dao mi noh chow mein), dunkin' donuts (boston kreme brulee) & nathan's (faux foie gras). he posts a new creation about once a week, but he's always "wracking his brain for new dishes." now that he's got attention, a twitter account & a facebook page, "the pressure's on." luckily, there's enough crappy fast food in this world to keep him busy for decades.