Randy Gross, co-owner of the County Line restaurants.
(Hattip: Mom. Oddly, I’m not finding anything about this in the Statesman.)
Edited to add: Statesman coverage, which doesn’t add anything new.
Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
Obit watch.
Friday, February 5th, 2010Random notes: January 25, 2010.
Monday, January 25th, 2010Our long national nightmare is over. Or just starting. US to lift 21-year ban on haggis. And just in time for Burns Night, too. (Hattip: Overlawyered.)
Philip K. Dick in Orange County. I don’t think there’s much new here for the serious Dick fan, but I do like the Tim Powers story that starts off the piece.
Covered elsewhere, but still worth linking: ESPN Ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer on the network and Mike Leach.
There’s an interesting story at the WP site about Rabbi Menachem Youlus, who specializes in rescuing Torahs lost in Europe during the Holocaust. But the Post article suggests that the stories Youlus tells may be somewhat exaggerated.
Nets watch: current winning percentage 0.070 (3-40). That projects out to 5.74 wins for the 82 game season.
Saturday Dining Conspiracy updates.
Monday, December 28th, 2009- Added November and October of 2009.
Did you stand by me? No way.
Thursday, December 10th, 2009CapMet awarded “emergency” contracts to two other contractors to run the system “over the next five-plus years”. But don’t worry, this won’t delay the startup of the rail system any longer; CapMet says we’re still on target for startup “sometime before March 31, about two years later than originally scheduled”.
Two interesting food-related articles in the NYT: one about the upcoming Tavern on the Green auction, which gives a good overview of the restaurant’s decline and fall. The other article is really more of a rewritten press release on Chex and their promotion of new recipes for Chex Party Mix. Even though it has that whole rewritten PR quality to it, I feel compelled to note the later article; Chex Party Mix is a traditional food of my people.
As a side note, sometime later this evening, I’m going to add a list of BugMeNot links for the NYT, LAT, Statesman, HouChron, and WP to the sidebar. I already have cookies on my machines for most of these, so I don’t think about logins (and all of these sites are somewhat flaky about requiring logins), but Lawrence mentioned this problem to me the other day. (I can’t do it now because, believe it or not, BugMeNot is blocked at the office.)
(Edited to add: Speaking of Lawrence, I haven’t been able to listen to Ms. Aguilera yet; blocked at work. But the Bob Dylan YouTube video isn’t. I’d heard Mr. Zimmerman’s Christmas album was pretty awful; but am I a bad, evil, taste-lacking person for kind of liking “Must Be Santa”?)
Random notes: December 2nd, 2009.
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009(I had originally considered calling this post “Rum, S—-y, and the Lash” but I couldn’t find any good articles about whipping. Plus, I don’t want to get filtered.)
Did you know the NYT had a “Winter Drinks Issue” in the Dining section? Neither did I. Articles include one about the rise of rum, and an excellent article by Harold McGee
By way of Jimbo, here’s a good article on Richard Loeb (of Leopold and Loeb
Just in case you were wondering what Roseanne Barr is doing, you now have your answer.
Edited to add: I knew I forgot something. I won’t be watching this tonight. (I don’t, and won’t, have cable; I’ve asked someone if they’d be willing to record it for me.) That won’t stop me from linking to Alan Sepinwall’s review:
…with his new reality show “Steven Seagal: Lawman,” Seagal has cemented his position as an accidental comedy savant. It’s easily the funniest thing he’s done since the climactic speech from “On Deadly Ground” (his infamous directorial debut about evil oil companies polluting the Alaskan wilderness), and one of the more entertaining additions to the Has-Beens On Parade reality sub-genre.
Random notes: November 25, 2009.
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009Shocked, shocked I am to learn that The Biggest Loser may indulge in questionable practices. I am equally shocked to learn that a charity collecting money for the homeless may be a scam.
I am delighted to find out that the CIA Family Advisory Board has published a second cookbook, More Spies, Black Ties, and Mango Pies. I own a copy of the original 1997 cookbook
I did not know Julie “Julie and Julia
Edited to add: On the “Art, damn it, art!” front: “Train” in vain.
(Since I got the song stuck in your head, here’s a live Clash video. And here’s a live Annie Lennox version. And here’s a not bad Manic Street Preachers cover.)
Food and the decline of newspapers.
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009The Statesman has an article about grocery price wars in Austin. Our city is currently dominated by H.E.B. and Randalls (owned by Safeway) with some additional competition from Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, and the warehouse stores.
And if she thinks that something is too high at Randalls, she’ll go elsewhere.
“If it’s something I’m not willing to pay for, I’ll check and see if H-E-B’s got it cheaper,” Scott said.
Brilliant strategy there, ma’am.
Signs of the new Randalls initiative were all over the 35th Street store recently.
A case of 24 bottles of Ozarka water was selling for $3.99, down from $5.49. Boneless chicken breasts were $1.99 per pound (with a Randalls Remarkable Card), down from $3.99. Bottles of Gatorade were 10 for $10 (also with the loyalty card), down from $1.69 each.
You know, a real newspaper would have provided size information, and compared those prices head-to-head against H.E.B. A newspaper that wanted to be worth what the Statesman charges might even do something daring. For example, they could put together a standard grocery cart (or even several of them in a rotation), send interns out once a week to do actual comparison shopping at H.E.B., Randalls, Wal-Mart, and even Whole Foods, and then publish the results. (They could even donate the purchased groceries to the local food bank.)
But this is the Statesman.
The case of 24 .5 liter bottles of Ozarka water I found at my local H.E.B. was $3.94. (The H.E.B. only had one case on the shelf, and that case was a “bonus pack” with 28 bottles instead of 24. All the other Ozarka water was in packages of less than 24 bottles.)
H.E.B. boneless chicken breasts were $6.99/pound for “all natural, no preservatives or antibiotics” etc. breasts, $3.99/pound for Sanderson Farms breasts, and $2.99/pound for the Hill Country Fair (house brand) breasts which were also promoted as “natural”/preservative/additive free.
Gatorade was $6 for an eight-pack of 20 ounce bottles, $9.82 for a 15-pack in the same size, and 2 for $2 in the 32 ounce size.
H.E.B. does not have a “loyalty card”.
Edited to add: As long as I’m talking about the Statesman, let me point out their latest series of bizarre TV commercials. The one with food writers Addie Broyles and Mike Sutter is just misguided and dumb. But I don’t know what to make of the John Kelso commerical.
Edited to add 2: And hattip to the Scalz for inspiring my grocery blogging.
Change.
Sunday, November 8th, 2009Part two of Bruce Buschel’s “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do” is up at the NYT website. Oddly, FARK linked to part one on Saturday. My earlier comment stands; the only problem with this list is that the people who need it the most won’t read it, or if they do, won’t pay attention. (The comments confirm this.)
I do want to call out one item in particular; this is a pet peeve of many people I know, including some members of my family, and I was wondering if Mr. Buschel would include it:
88. Do not ask if a guest needs change. Just bring the change.
Happy Halloween.
Saturday, October 31st, 2009I am not sure why this story is in the Statesman rather than the HouChron. However, the Statesman has decided to acknowledge the 35th anniversary of Ronald Clark O’Bryan’s murder of his son.
This happened shortly after my family moved to Texas. I remember reading about it in the Chron at the time, and the story still makes me angry.
“This guy had never had anything but a parking ticket in his life,” he said. “So how did the evidence support that he wasn’t capable of rehabilitation?”
Well, gee, Clyde, I don’t know. Maybe because the evidence shows he killed his own kid for the insurance money – and, by the way, also tried to kill four other kids to cover his tracks?
I’ve mentioned this at least once before, but, for the record, here’s one of my favorite Halloween stories.
Edited to add: I’m going to throw this in, for the benefit of Andrew and other folks who don’t read SlashDot; a pretty good explanation of what’s going on with the Bay Bridge, complete with photos and diagrams.
Edited to add 2: When I clicked through to this article on the NYT website, the Times decided to display an ad …for Brighton Beach Memoirs. And as a libertarian who eats out a lot, I don’t see a damn thing wrong with this list, except maybe that the people who need it the most are also the least likely to read it.
Random notes: October 22, 2009.
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009Today’s NYT continues covering the Sedona sweat lodge incident:
Dr. Bunn, who had signed up for the $9,695 “spiritual warrior” experience
It must be nice to have more money than sense.
A psychic in Waynesville, N.C., Page Bryant, who was among the first to claim in the 1980s that Sedona had several “vortexes” of high energy — the initial lure for the legions of seekers — said that she became fed up and left nearly two decades ago “because of the craziness I saw going on in the New Age community.”
Wow. When the crazy people think you’re too crazy, maybe that’s a sign.
…the comments of a self-described “channeler” who visited Angel Valley after the retreat. Claiming to have communicated with the dead, the channeler said they had left their bodies in the sweat lodge and chosen not to come back because “they were having so much fun.”
Also in the NYT, the latest “trend” story: the return of the restaurant matchbook.
On the “Art, damn it, art!” front, here’s the LAT on the art in front of the new LAPD headquarters building. I’m thinking #4 in the slide show looks a lot like someone with their head buried in the sand.
In local news, some folks in the neighborhood are trying to get TABC to pull the liquor and operating licenses for the Nutty Brown Cafe. I drive past the Nut on a fairly regular basis; it isn’t like there’s a whole lot out there. Additionally, my great and good friends Andrew and the actor we’ve hired to play Karl play live music at the Nut from time to time, and I do kind of like the food there (we had a dining conspiracy there recently, and I have to say my opinion was a minority one) so I’m not exactly sympathetic to these complaints.
Random notes: October 13, 2009.
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009Things I did not expect to hear last night:
“Damn, Dwight, you clean up well.”
(Thank you, Katie.)
The NYT on the wing crisis; the price of chicken wings has increased to the point where boneless skinless chicken breast is actually cheaper. Thus the popularity of “boneless wings”. (Edited to add: yes, this is on FARK, but those who know me know of my fondness for wings, and understand why I couldn’t pass this up.)
Speaking of the NYT, does this story about the West Memphis Three seem somewhat incomplete? Literally, it feels like there’s an entire second page missing.
It seems even more so when compared to this story about Carly Simon and her lawsuit against Starbucks, which is frankly loaded with too much information. (I don’t need to know about her ringtones or her photo album, thankyouverymuch.)
Random notes: October 5, 2009.
Monday, October 5th, 2009I stumbled across this article at ESPN totally by accident, and it brings back fond memories. Not as much of UT football, but of the Houston Oilers of the late 70’s. (“Can you hear the blocking, the rambling and the roar? As he glides along the sidelines, by the hashmarks in the score…” Yes, I remember the lyrics somewhat differently.) But even if you were not an Oiler or UT fan, you have to admit Earl Campbell put a heck of a hit on Michael Downs.
This has been well covered elsewhere, but I’m sad to see Gourmet is closing. They’ve had a long tradition of highly literary food writing; check out the Endless Feasts
The problem is, I don’t think there’s a market any more for literary food writing. Cooks Illustrated is a better cooking magazine (though that tweedy little bow-tied jackass gets on my nerves), but sometimes I want a deeper consideration of food, along the lines of Wallace (even though I disagee with much of that essay) or Laura Shapiro.
And as other people pointed out; they killed Gourmet, and kept Your Prom?
(Edited to add: the TLB-TJ comments in the NYT.)
In which I prove myself to be a Philistine.
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009This Statesman story about food-related tattoos is not the dumbest thing I’ve ever read in the Statesman.
It is, however, easily in the Top Ten. Maybe even Top Five.
Burger update.
Saturday, September 19th, 2009After one previous failed attempt, we were finally able to hit Cover 3 last night, and I had a chance to try the Chop House Burger.
Reaction:
- It was an okay burger. I did get bacon, but I skipped the cheese, and regret that.
- I thought my burger was slightly undercooked.
- The fries were good. I didn’t try any of the slaw.
- The other menu items I sampled (nachos, onion soup, fried shrimp and oysters, mac and cheese) were just average. I probably would not order any of them again.
- I was impressed with the level of service provided, especially since one of my fellow diners had some issues with his meal. (He didn’t care for the Reuben; they graciously replaced that with a Hickory Burger. However, he also felt his burger was undercooked.)
- It was loud, but not as much as I expected, and not the loudest restaurant I’ve ever been to.
Overall, it just wasn’t an impressive experience. I could go back (and, if I did, I’d probably get the Chop House Burger with bacon and cheese, fries, and nothing else) but I’m not excited at the prospect.
Hooray beer!
Saturday, September 12th, 2009The good folks at Dogfish Head decided they wanted to brew a batch of chicha, the traditional corn beer of some parts of Latin and South America.
Now, if you’ve read Tim Cahill, you probably know that part of the chicha fermentation process is for the village women to chew up the corn and spit it into the vessels the chicha ferments in. (If you haven’t read Tim Cahill
Being dedicated craft brewers, the good folks at Dogfish Head wanted to follow the process exactly. There’s just one small problem with that; you have to chew up a heck of a lot of corn to brew a reasonably sized batch of chicha.
“The 20 pounds that we were hoping for was going to go into a five-barrel batch,” Mr. Calagione said. “If we went to production, the smallest tank would be 200 barrels.” He did the math. “We’d need 40 times this much. We would have to chew 800 pounds of this.”