Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

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Barbecue watch.

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

Grandy at Popehat observed a week or so ago, in response to an observation of mine about Southern Living‘s “Top Ten Pitmasters” piece, “Because people like BBQ.” 

In that vein, I wanted to point out the lengthy Statesman profile of John Mueller, grandson of the legendary Louie Mueller. This is pretty much your standard “scion leaves the family business, strikes out on his own, struggles for a while, and starts making a comeback” story. Also, a considerable amount of this story was already covered in Texas Monthly’s “Of Meat and Men” (which also covers the story of Aaron Franklin of Franklin’s Barbecue), but I think both articles are worth reading. Ideally, with about a pound of good brisket and maybe some sausage and beef ribs.

(I checked BugMeNot: the “tx@bugmenot.com”, “texas” user ID/password combo works fine.)

Posted in Beef, Clippings, Food | Comments Closed

FSBO.

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

Wanna buy a boat?

No?

Wanna buy a duck?

Of course it quacks, it’s a duck!

Okay. Last offer. Want to buy the Righthaven trademark? Act fast! Supplies are limited!

Posted in Clippings, Food, Geek | Comments Closed

SDC updates.

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

Updating the SDC logs has, frankly, become a pain in the fundament.

All of that stuff is hard-coded in raw HTML using text editors. It has always been time consuming to do the updates.

Worse yet, both of the SDC log hosts are going away sooner or later; Apple is phasing out mac.com hosting, and I’m not sure what Commsite’s plans are (except they’re getting rid of the bga.com domain).

Lawrence and I have discussed this and made some preliminary plans to convert the SDC logs to a joint blog (where we both have admin/posting rights). I’ve taken some steps in that direction, and as soon as I hear back from Bluehost support I’ll be able to start taking more steps. Once I get things set up the way I want them, I’ll start moving older entries over.

Posted in Admin, Food | 4 Comments »

TMQ watch: April 24, 2012.

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

TMQ is back temporarily, for the first of his two yearly draft columns. We were actually kind of wondering about this; ESPN dropped “Page 2” a couple of weeks ago, and we were unsure if TMQ would stay or go.

Anyway, we are glad to see Easterbrook back, and, after the jump, we will mock his mockery…

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, Food, NFL, Schadenfreude, Sports, TMQ watch, TV | Comments Closed

Crab cakes? Crab cakes! CRAB CAKES?!

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

From time to time, when I am out having breakfast (or brunch) with other people, I have jokingly threatened to order the Eggs Benedict Arnold. (This is one of the many reasons why you can’t take me anywhere.)

I have never actually done so. At least, not until today.

No kidding. Those are Eggs Benedict Arnold, an actual dish at Café Blue in Bee Cave. They were quite good. And, even better, they did not try to surrender my stomach to the British an hour later.

Thanks, Mom!

(And thanks to Lawrence and Borepatch for their kind wishes, too. By the way, Lawrence isn’t kidding about that “since God was a corporal” comment.)

Posted in Food | Comments Closed

Random notes: April 18, 2012.

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Invasive species are good eating.

Frankly, yeah, I can see eating tiger shrimp. The Asian Carp…well, it makes me think of the old joke about how to prepare carp. (Nail it to a board, prop it in front of a fire until one side turns black, turn the board over and wait until the other side turns black, then throw the fish away and eat the board.) I’m not a big chili fan, but nutria bourguignon could be interesting. And as for feral hogs, let me just say two words: feral bacon.

This one goes out to Andrew: how to replace a bridge in a weekend, instead of months.

Oh, look! Greg “Three Cups of Tea” Mortenson is being sued for fraud!

The lawsuit is asking a judge to order that everybody who bought the books be refunded. Whatever money is left over would go to a humanitarian organization selected by the plaintiffs’ attorneys and approved by the court.

Would it shock you to learn that one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs was also involved in the James Frey lawsuit?

Posted in Books, Bridges, Clippings, Food, Law, Roads | Comments Closed

I’d like to say something positive about the TSA for once.

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Jars of mayonnaise are also banned from carry-on luggage in the U.S.

Thank God for the TSA, protecting us all from the threat of mayonnaise, the vile emulsion.

Posted in Clippings, Food | Comments Closed

Random notes: March 30, 2012.

Friday, March 30th, 2012

I don’t mind eels

Except as meals.

And the way they feels.

—Ogden Nash

(One of our local restaurants has a poster of that poem hanging in the men’s room, which I’ve always found kind of odd. Personally, I’m very fond of eel sushi, and would be very happy to try elvers.)

Obit watch: Harry Crews. (NYT. A/V Club.) I haven’t read any of his work, though I had heard of him. With descriptions like “the unofficial poet laureate of bare-knuckled, white-trash culture” and “a world of hard-drinking, punch-throwing, snake-oil-selling characters whose physical, mental, social and sexual deviations render them somehow entirely normal and eminently sympathetic”, I may have to give the man a try. He almost sounds like a mainstream version of Charles Willeford.

The HouChron has apparently fired society writer Sarah Tressler for the grievous crime of…being a stripper in her spare time.

“The idea of somebody outing me, seemed like it would be like such a mean thing to do that I never thought anybody would do it.”

You know, I’m kind of in agreement with that. Really, what was the point, Houston Press? Page views for your dying alt-weekly?

Setting that to one side for the moment, the HouChron hasn’t had good luck with society writers recently; Douglas Britt, who covered both society and art for the paper, left after he basically went crazy (or was driven crazy by the Art Guys).

Question for the huddled masses: what is the point of having a “society” reporter any longer? I know it sounds kind of class-warfare-ish, but it seems to me that “society” is basically code for “an in-group of rich people who get together and admire each other, and occasionally raise money for their favored charities”. What is the point of continuing to give news coverage to these people? If an event is newsworthy, such as an art opening, let the writers on that beat (art, music, etc.) cover it. Why assign a writer to basically stroke the egos of the “beautiful” people?

Final note: the gun blogger who went by “Newbius” passed away suddenly this week. He wasn’t somebody I knew at all; our paths never crossed (I wish they had), though I did hear him a few times on Vicious Circle. By all accounts, he was a good man, and shall be missed. Jay G. is posting tributes here.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Food, Media, Obits | Comments Closed

…and a pussy’s good for maybe six or seven at the most…

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Outlining Britain’s annual budget last week, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne added previously tax-free treats such as pasties, sausage rolls and meat pies to the list of hot take-away food and meals bought from hamburger outlets and restaurants that are subject to the 20% value added tax imposed on most retail products and services.

Taxing meat pies? Oh, the humanity!

(Subject line hattip here.)

Posted in Clippings, Food | Comments Closed

Cahiers du cinéma: Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

This should be fairly short, since I’m not sure I have much to say other than this:

If “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” plays anywhere near you, I recommend that you go see it. If you have teenage children, I would seriously consider taking them along.

This is a movie about more than a world-class (as in, three Michelin stars) sushi chef. It is also a movie about finding work that you love, trying to be as good as you can at it, and working hard every day at it. In some ways, I think this is a movie about virtues we as a country have lost, and virtues that may be passing away in Japan as well.

Setting that aside, there’s also a lot of wonderful shots of Jiro’s sushi, the Tsukiji fish market, and raw tuna being prepared. It is a beautifully shot movie, worth seeing on a large screen.

(Jiro talking about his routine reminded me, of all things, of a quote from Don Winslow’s The Winter of Frankie Machine: “If you have a routine, you can always deviate from it if something comes up. But if you don’t have a routine, then everything is stuff that comes up.”)

Posted in Food, Movies | Comments Closed

Stray thoughts.

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

The NYT would like to explain Wickard v. Filburn to you. If you would like to read the court’s decision for yourself, rather than trusting the NYT, you can find it here.

By way of Jimbo: Wednesday’s Denver Post has a review of a restaurant called “Roam”. “So what?” you say. “I don’t live in Denver, and neither do you.” Yes, but it isn’t very often that a newspaper runs a review of a restaurant that closed before the review ran. The section containing the review was printed Monday night; the restaurant closed on Tuesday, and, according to press reports, the closing was nearly as chaotic as the rest of the restaurant’s history.

(Holy cow, there’s a winery called “The Infinite Monkey Theorem“? I want to at least try their wine.)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Law | 1 Comment »

Things you may have wondered about. (#3 in a series)

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

What do deep-fried Fruity Pebbles look like?

The HouChron has the answer, in yet another go around of the rodeo food (warning! Slideshow!) slideshow (warning! Slideshow!). The Fruity Pebbles photos are at the very start.

You may also have wondered what kind of person comes up with these ideas. The HouChron also has the answer at that same link, in the form of an interview with Ken Hoffman.

Not answered: how do they taste?

Posted in Clippings, Food, On a stick, Wondering | Comments Closed

Happy Pi Day!

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

I’m getting a slightly late start, due to work-related issues (which I haven’t decided whether I’m going to discuss or not), but the Pi Day celebration proceeds.


Courtesy of my great and good friend Commvault Bryan.

The lineup of pies for Pi Day 2012. We went a little over the top this year (thanks to generous co-sponsorships from my great and good friends Chris and Barry). Not pictured; the chocolate cream pie, which vanished before I got any. (But we had key lime, lemon meringue, a Kahlua cream pie, apple, cherry, no sugar added “razzleberry”, banana cream, coconut cream, and pecan. No shortage of pie here in the bunker.)

My great and good friend Nate brought in a paelo pie.  The crust is ground walnuts and organic, grass-fed butter. The filling is pumpkin, sweetened with natural maple syrup. If there’s general interest, I might try to pry the recipe out of him; it is a really good pie.

Edited to add: This is absolutely not a bookmark for the LAT‘s list of recipes for Pi Day.  (Crawfish spinach? Yum!)

Posted in Food, Geek | Comments Closed

Paging Mark Clifton. Mark Clifton to the white courtesy phone, please.

Monday, March 12th, 2012

Eating red meat — any amount and any type — appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death, according to a long-range study that examined the eating habits and health of more than 110,000 adults for more than 20 years.

I’m sure this study is going to be extensively analyzed, refuted, the refutations refuted, and the refutations of the refutations themselves refuted. I don’t expect any clarity on this before I die in a supermodel’s bed at the age of 115.

However, as soon as I read that headline, the first thing I was reminded of was “The Dread Tomato Addiction”, the essay that taught me “Correlation does not equal causality” before I could even pronounce “correlation” or “causality”. (Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. But I still commend the essay to your attention. Please note the original publication date.)

(For more about Mark Clifton, you could start with this Wikipedia article. You might also, if you ask Glen real nicely, get him to weigh in on They’d Rather Be Right, “perhaps the most contentious novel ever to win the [Hugo] award.” He’s the only person I know of who has actually made the effort to find a copy and read it; I’m not sure Lawrence has done that, but he can correct me in the comments if I’m wrong Edited: see comments.)

Posted in Beef, Clippings, Food | 2 Comments »

“N” is for New Yorker.

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Hey, remember A.G. Sulzberger? We wrote about him, and his struggle to find vegetarian food in Kansas City, back in January.

Well, according to Jimbo (actually, Jimbo is linking to a report on another website that I have a policy of not linking to), he’s leaving Kansas City and going back to New York “to work on the Metro desk”.

Boy, that was quick.

Posted in Clippings, Food | Comments Closed

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