It is official. It is now impossible for us to care any less about the Super Bowl (or, as some are calling it, “The Pot Bowl”) than we do now.
But we still have this week’s TMQ to get through after the jump…
Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
TMQ Watch: January 21, 2014.
Friday, January 24th, 2014Crossing the streams again.
Friday, January 17th, 2014You know what I want?
A 3D printed chocolate gun that shoots.
(Yeah, I know: Hershey’s chocolate probably won’t be able to withstand the chamber pressure of even a .22LR round. But if a man can’t dream, what’s Heaven for?)
Bread blogging: experiment #1
Tuesday, January 14th, 2014This requires some background.
One of my Christmas presents was a box of smoked meat from Goode Company Barbecue in Houston. The meat itself has been very good so far. But included with the meat was a loaf of Goode Company’s Jalepeno Cheddar bread.
I was warned in advance: “This stuff is addictive. You’ll find yourself eating the whole loaf in one sitting.” Well, I wasn’t quite that bad (it took two sittings to finish the loaf), but it is very very good bread. I wouldn’t put it at the “crack cocaine” level; that’s reserved for Caramel deLites (or Samoas, depending on which part of the country you’re in). It is even better if you toast it and spread some of Trader Joe’s Pub Cheese on the toast, but that’s a digression.
(And by the way, Girl Scout cookie season is upon us again.)
Anyway, after I finished the loaf, I found myself saying the following: “Hey! I have a bread machine! How hard could it be to replicate their bread?”
New year, new list.
Friday, January 3rd, 2014I wasn’t all that wild about what the NYT did with this year’s “The Lives They Led” obituary roundup.
But this, this is a swell article:
One aspect of this that fascinates me: the Coast Guard’s use of computers in search and rescue.
Behold!
Tuesday, December 24th, 2013Nobody knows…
Monday, December 23rd, 2013You don’t often see $300 items at the supermarket. Especially in the produce section, as opposed to behind a locked cabinet in the wine department. (I’m not sure, but I don’t think even the highest-end champagne HEB stocks hits the $300 mark.)
Better Red than…
Thursday, December 19th, 2013More:
The last time I went to Red Lobster, it was kind of a disappointment. And the last two times I’ve gone to Olive Garden, I’ve walked out before even getting a drink. Maybe this is what Red Lobster needs.
Obligatory: the all-you-can-eat crab legs story.
Obligatory 2: make your own cheddar biscuits at home.
Random notes: December 11, 2013.
Wednesday, December 11th, 2013The NYT has awarded four stars to Sushi Nakazawa.
Why do I care? Why should you care?
- Four stars is as high as the NYT rating scale goes. The paper of record does not hand out that rating like candy, so this is kind of a big deal in the dining scene.
- Sushi Nakazawa is run by Daisuke Nakazawa. If you’ve seen “Jiro Dreams of Sushi“, Mr. Nakazawa is the apprentice sushi chef to Jiro Ono who spends much of the documentary struggling to perfect his tamago. See? Hard work sometimes does pay off.
I haven’t watched a single episode of “Breaking Bad” (it is on my list, though), but I have to admit: I like this hat. It may be a little pricy at $149, but you know, man walks down the street in that hat, people know he’s not afraid of anything.
Cheer up!
Tuesday, December 10th, 2013After all those depressing stories of law enforcement misconduct, how about some stupid criminal stories?
Guy walks into a taqueria in San Antonio, orders six tacos, and when he’s asked to pay, demands them for free. When the staff says “No”, he threatens them with a sword.
I actually have a mugshot of the subject:
Sorry. Wrong taco lover.
Meanwhile, in Houston, David Nathan Gathright has been sentenced to six months in prison for “receiving, possessing, and concealing stolen retail merchandise”. Specifically, body wash and cologne.
More:
On Nov. 6, a witness at another Walgreens location in the 12600 block of S. Gessner told police he saw Gathright boosting five gift sets of cologne from a display, with a cumulative price tag of $120.
Gathright also stole a variety of cologne sets at the Walgreens at 8400 Stella Link on Nov. 15, with that heist reportedly seeing Gathright leave with $300 worth of cologne.
And:
I have to ask: if Gathright was a known figure at the South Gessner Walgreens, and had “repeatedly made attempts to steal even more body wash and cologne”, why did they even let him in the store?
There’s no mugshot of Gathright, but I picture him looking something like this:
In any case, it seems probable that Gathright will be the best smelling prisoner in state prison. (There’s an implication in the article that he had an accomplice, or at least a driver, who remains at large.)
Ja, das ist ein Wienerschnitzel.
Wednesday, December 4th, 2013The latest entry into the pantheon of architectural and historic landmarks?
The very first location of Der Wienerschnitzel.
Now I’m kind of hungry.
Random notes: November 28, 2013.
Thursday, November 28th, 2013Some thoughtful posts on the FDA and 23andMe: Derek Lowe. Popehat. Overlawyered.
This is how I want Lawrence‘s tax dollars to be spent: safety tips on turkey frying from the Round Rock Fire Department.
All the Vermeers on the Eastern Seaboard.
(There was a period of time when I was going to see a lot of movies at the Dobie Theater here in Austin; this was before the Alamo Drafthouse, and Dobie was the “art” film theater. Anyway, it seemed like every movie I went to see had the trailer for “All the Vermeers in New York” in front of it. Drove me absolutely bugf–k nuts. The trailer was so annoying, it killed any desire I might have had to see the movie.)
Photographer Saul Leiter passed away on Tuesday. I had not heard of Saul Leiter until I started listening to the “On Taking Pictures” podcast (which is my new favorite podcast in the world): Saul Leiter is an obsession of theirs, to the point where he made it into the OTP drinking game.
To be serious, I wish I had found Leiter’s work much earlier. There’s some good stuff over at the NYT Lens blog about him as well.
Journalism on fire!
Thursday, November 14th, 2013Will history blame the Internet, or the bees?
That quote makes it sound like the SFChron no longer produces their own honey. Do I have any readers in the area who can confirm this? Or, alternatively, send me a jar of SFChron honey in return for…something negotiable. Drop me a line. Address is on the contact page.
(Hattip.)
Obit watch: November 6, 2013.
Wednesday, November 6th, 2013Charlie Trotter, “celebrity” chef and PBS cooking show host.
NYT. Chicago Tribune. Sun-Times.
I never ate at a Trotter restaurant, though I did watch some of “The Kitchen Sessions” on PBS. I think you can make an argument that Trotter was among the first, if not the very first, in the new wave of “celebrity chefs”. My perception is that he was in the public consciousness earlier than Thomas Keller or Grant Achatz, for example. Certainly I was aware of Trotter before I’d heard of Anthony Bourdain (who I’d argue isn’t really a “celebrity chef”, but that’s a digression).
But it also seems that he struggled in the new environment. I remember this NYT profile from 2011 that claimed “Mr. Trotter hardly seems to figure in the national food conversation anymore.” And last year, he closed his restaurant, stating that he wanted to pursue graduate degrees in
“philosophy and political theory”.
He was 54 years old, which seems awfully young to me. I don’t have any evidence to support this theory, but I wonder if he knew his time was short and wanted to wind things down gracefully.
Edited to add: tribute from Jonathan Gold in the LAT:
SDC update.
Thursday, October 17th, 2013I’ve been running way behind on these (life has gotten in the way) and am hoping to fix that soon.
In the meantime, I do have a post up about my experience last night at The Goodnight. The categories on this post might give you a hint as to how things went…
Stop! You’re doing it WRONG!
Tuesday, October 8th, 2013I had the day off yesterday, so I spent some time with my mother helping her run errands. (One of the disadvantages of those Dyson vacuum cleaners
We decided to check out the new Trader Joe’s and the new Wheatsville co-op, because, you know, reasons. (New! Shiny!) I note that neither store had any sort of “No guns allowed” signage, much less a legally compliant 30.06 sign. But I digress. Again.
I found this at Wheatsville. Click to embiggen.
In case you can’t read it, that’s “Primal Strips” “meatless vegan jerky” in “Texas BBQ”, “Teriyaki”, and “Thai Peanut” flavors.
“meatless vegan jerky”. Couldn’t make this up if I tried. What is it with vegans/vegetarians and the emulation of meat products?
In a related vein:
They held signs featuring photos of animals in pairs: a kitten with a fluffy yellow chick, a puppy with a piglet.
“Why love one but eat the other? Choose Vegetarian,” the signs said.
“Why love one but eat the other?” Oh, I don’t know, Bob: maybe because chickens and pigs taste good, while dogs and cats don’t. (I can’t say for sure: I’ve never eaten dog.)
Or maybe it has something to do with charisma; dogs and cats have it. I’m dubious that pigs and chickens do, though there was the great pot-bellied pig boom of a few years back…