Me Want Coffee!!!
And then I realized that the tanker truck was full of fuel, not that bitter caffeine laden ambrosia without which civilization would impossible.
I Was Seized By an Urge to Hijack This Truck
Category: Food
Seen on Facebook
This explains a lot:
Only In America
There’s a deli near where I work, the Charwood Deli.
It’s a little shop located in an industrial park.
It has the full range of deli sandwiches, along with hot sandwiches like cheese steaks, and their fries are very nice.
The proprietors are Korean, and they have about a dozen Korean and Korean inspired items which are quite good.
Well today, I got a Gyro, the Greek lamb based wrap.
Greek ethnic food cooked up for me, and done quite well, by Korean immigrants.
This is a microcosm of the immigrant experience in the United States, and something to be admired.
Just Desserts
You know, generally, I’m not in favor or murder.
That being said, when I heard about this Chinese Tycoon’s poisoning, and I looked at the recipe, I thought, well, he had it coming:
Poisonous Herb Spices Cat Stew in Felonious Pot
By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI — There was one very disagreeable ingredient in the steaming hot pot of stew that may have killed a Chinese tycoon. And it was not the cat meat.
The police have detained a local township official on suspicion that he murdered the tycoon, a business associate who may have caught the official cheating, by dropping a poisonous herb into a cat-meat hot pot, a shared stew that is a local delicacy, China’s state-run news media reported Wednesday.
(emphasis mine)
I understand that they have different customs and dietary habits, but cat?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Well, What Do You Know, the FDA Supports Antibiotic Resistant Microbes
They have given up on attempting to regulate the massive overuse of antibiotics in livestock:
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pulled a Scrooge move just before Christmas. The agency published an entry in the Federal Register declaring that it will end its attempt at mandatory restrictions on the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. The agency isn’t advertising the shift, though: This news would have remained a secret if not for Maryn McKenna’s Superbug blog over at Wired. McKenna, who specializes in writing about antibiotics and their link to pathogens, caught the Federal Register notice.
This is a sorry end to a process that began in 1977 (!), but McKenna created an excellent timeline that traces the history of the issue back to the 1950s. In 2009, the Obama administration breathed new life into a moribund process because the top two Obama appointees at the FDA, Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and her then-deputy Joshua Sharfstein, strongly supported restricting antibiotic use in agriculture.
But despite Hamburg and Sharfstein’s many supportive statements, the FDA has only produced a draft set of “voluntary” guidelines. And, with this latest announcement, it looks like that’s as far as they’re willing to go.
The depressing thing, in addition to the fact that this practice creates “superbugs” that kill people, is that we know how much this would cost the consumer, based on the Danish experience, and it’s less than 10¢ a pound.
By way of putting this into perspective, antibiotics used at sub-therapeutic levels in feed accounts for 80% of all antibiotic use in the US.
Our feedlots are a petri dish for MRSA, antibiotic resistant E. Coli, etc.
The Weirdest Sh*$ Out of Iowa
A Santorum Salad, Really?!?!
Actually, the weirdest Santorum in Iowa.
Seriously, a restauranteur in Boone has christened their chicken salad a Santorum Salad.
I’m not sure whether or not this guy is aware of the neologism (first link) or not, but that chicken salad does look a lot like I imagine Santorum would look.
Yes, despite my complaints, I’m going to have to post about Iowa today, but this little taste of the surreal makes it feel a little bit better.
It’s Christmas, So…
Filmed in Baltimore County
As is the custom of my people, we went out for Chinese food, and then caused a movie.
A review of the movie will follow.
Religion, You Gotta Love It
I Just Tried a First in the Kitchen
I’ve never cooked fried chicken before, but I did so last night.
Natalie wanted some fried chicken, and, seeing as how it’s Chanukah, when fried food is traditional, I figured, “what the heck”
I used a gluten free recipe, to accommodate Sharon’s* sensitivity to wheat. (Corn flake breading was out as well, because she and the kids have problems with that)
It turned out OK. The breading did not stick as well as I would have hoped, but it turned out moist.
One note, I used the beaten egg for the dredge, as opposed to the buttermilk presented as an alternative, kashrus, don’t you know.
It did involve a gawd awful amount of oil, I had to fill up the skillet about an inch deep to fry the chicken.
(on edit)
I didn’t brine, and I used the egg wash, not the buttermilk.
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
The Best Fortune Cookie Fortune Ever!
I had to explain it to my My post MS-DOS son though.
OK, Epic Meal Time Has Humped* Jumped the Shark
I don’t mean to complain, but it seems that they have run out of ideas.
It was always about the whimsey of excess, but I think that they have lost the whimsey, so now they are just relying on excess, to the tune of 802,42 Calories.
It’s kind of sad, really.
*It was a typo, and then I realized that they didn’t just jump the shark, they f%$#ed the shark.
Happy Thanksgiving from William Shatner
Deja Vu
Congress is looking at declaring pizza a vegetable:
The Obama administration’s push to limit the starchy vegetables and tomato paste served to millions of children at school each day was derailed by lawmakers this week, in effect enabling school cafeterias to continue offering pizza and french fries.
………
The proposal also would have nixed the favorable treatment granted to tomato paste. Currently, an eighth of a cup of tomato paste is credited with as much nutritional value as half a cup of vegetables and thus counts as one vegetable serving. That enables food makers to better market their pizzas to schools.
………
Ordinarily, these type of issues would be hashed out as the USDA gathers comments from the public while finalizing the proposal. But several lawmakers made an end run around the process. They added amendments to block the two changes, on starchy vegetables and tomato paste, to agriculture spending bills moving through the Senate and House.
Late Monday, Senate and House negotiators reconciled the differences between their two spending bills and unveiled the final version, which included language to halt the potato and tomato paste changes.
Just like Ronald Reagan declaring ketchup, but the tomato(e)* is a fruit.
I’m expecting to see a Mr. Fusion powered DeLorean back on the big screen.
*It’s an homage to J. Danforth Quayle, who has more brains and common sense than any of the current ‘Phant hopefuls.
Deep Thought
From my hairy brother on facebook.
I saw this a few years back.
Yom Kippur has Ended
And with something like one third of my metabolism turning back on to process a bowl of pad thai after 2f hours with neither food of fluids, there is no blood going to my brain.
But Vegemite Is a Weapon of Mass Destruction
It appears that Australia’s Foreign Minister Paul Rudd was rather put off when homeland security wanted to prevent him from taking the brown food like substance on a commercial flight:
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had to talk himself out of trouble after airport officials flagged up a suspicious liquid in his cabin baggage – a jar of Vegemite.
Mr Rudd was heading to New York from Mexico City when he attracted the authorities’ attention.
He explained that the dark brown paste was his breakfast and, with help from local diplomats, was allowed through.
Vegemite, a savoury paste made from yeast extract, is popular in Australia.
It is similar to Marmite, which is widely eaten in the UK, but is hard to buy in many countries.
“Only problem travelling to NY is that they tried to confiscate our Vegemite at the airport. Needed Foreign Ministerial intervention,” Mr Rudd tweeted.
“Airport staff were surprised when I said it is good for you and I ate it for breakfast. They then waved me through,” he said.
One bit of meta here, if you object to my using the the tag “Food” on this post, I understand completely.
It was a tough call for me.
Feeling Fracking Awful
I’ve been caffeine free for the past month or so, and felt a lot better.
Unfortunately, last night I was Jonesing for some Coca-Cola, and last night I had a couple of cups.
I have felt out of sorts and awful all day.
Back to decaf tomorrow.
This is Wicked Cool…
These are nice little cameos, but what makes them truly special is the medium.
They are done in Oreo Cookies.
Here’s a Bit of Etiquette for All You Pie Flingers
If you are going to fling a pie at some rich pig as a way of publicly taking them down a peg, the preferred, and traditional, pie is a cream pie, but you should include both a crust and a filling, even if the latter is just whipped cream (kind of lame).
That being said, I do not approve of the actions of comedian and political activist Jonathan “Jonnie Marbles” May-Bowles, who flung a pie tin full of shaving cream at Rupert Murdoch when he was testifying before Parliament. (His wife deflected the projectile, that’s love … and good reflexes)
Mr. May-Bowles, if you are to fling a pie at Rupert Murdoch, make it a real pie.
It’s a Memorial Day Tradition
Cookout time.
Pretty standard fare, I did steaks for Sharon, Natalie, and Me, and knockwurst for Charlie.
A twist on all this was that I grilled some fruit, mangoes, pineapple, cantaloupe, and bananas, which turned out nicely.
Next time though, I’ll not bring the fire down as much before grilling the fruit. I think that the higher temperatures will help caramelize the sugars.