#160 - the terrible twos.

guess who turned two today! that's right...it's eat!drink!snack! that's actually twenty in blog years, but who's counting? oh wait...apparently i am. for the last twenty-four months, i've been bringing y'all rants & raves about the biggest & best from the world of snack & drink. how time flies! when i first started eat!drink!snack! way back in 2008, george w bush was president & as a nation, between the ongoing wars & the faltering economy, we were basically fucked. now it's two years later, obama's the man in the white house, the wars are over & the economy's doing better than ever.

actually...don't believe what i just said. nothing's really changed on the military & economic fronts & we're still fucked, but during the past year, there's been a ton of awesome change as far as eat!drink!snack! is concerned. back in october, we celebrated pumpkin beer & horror films with the first ever pumpktoberfest. at the beginning of 2010, i discontinued my nosh nook snack news column in favor of the snackdown, a weekly column devoted to snack news. i've since put it on hiatus, but it'll eventually return in some form. a few months back, due to the fact that a good percentage of my readers are in the nyc area, i brought a little local flavor to the blog with the introduction of two new new york-based columns--only in ny & flea at laff. that's change you can believe in!

the past year hasn't been without its challenges though. most blogs don't last longer than a few months & as eat!drink!snack! reaches the two year mark, i'm fully aware of why so many blogs go by the wayside. writing on a consistent basis is often just one big pain in the ass, especially when there's TV to be watched & internet to be perused. around the end of 2009, after a few months of daily or twice-daily posts, i really burnt myself out. to be honest, on some level, i'm still trying to recover from that. on top of burning myself out, every time i eat something i now feel compelled to pose it & photograph it. while it might seem like both a great way to hone my photography chops and a way to stop & consider what i'm putting in my mouth, most of the time it's just annoying. i know...it's a heavy cross to bear.

regardless, i'm looking forward to the future. along with the constant loop of "true colors" that's floating around in this head of mine, i have a ton of ideas up there, from on-the-road pieces to events to new columns. if it all works out as planned, there's a lot in store for the next twelve months & if it doesn't work out as planned, i can cut my losses, give up on this blog & start a tumblr devoted to cat tomfoolery. people love that sort of crap.

snack: pg onion garlic roasted macadamia nuts
drink: mcneill's champ ale

last night, i celebrated eat!drink!snack!'s birthday early with a bunch of pg onion garlic roasted macadamia nuts. i'm not sure what the story is behind the company that makes deez nuts, but i do know that when my sister was in hawaii last month, she bought them from some chain smoking lady at the aloha stadium swap meet. even though they say right on the bag that they were packaged in honolulu, i have a sneaking suspicion that they actually came from kenya. after all, kenya does produce a lot of nuts. so yeah...until i see some sort of actual, irrefutable proof, i refuse to believe that they actually came from hawaii.

my mom's dad is a huge fan of the macadamia, but over the years, i haven't really consumed that many of them. they've got an interesting flavor & are highly nutritious, but unlike peanuts, almonds & cashews, they're just not one of those nuts that you see around all the time. as for these ones, the front of the bag has a sticker that reads "hot" & for good reason. they're flavored with onion powder, garlic powder, butter flavor, spices, parsley & sliced green onions and the result is pretty damn spicy. bonus! they're also fortified with MSG! mmm...MSG. MSG aside, they have a nice flavor & i'm no wuss, so the spiciness is cool with me. if you are a wuss though, you might want to reconsider traveling to hawaii/kenya & purchasing a bag.

since i'm the self-declared champion of snacking & drinking, i cracked open a bottle of mcneill's champ ale to have with my nuts. the champ ale is brewed by mcneill's brewery, a brewpub in brattleboro, VT that's been around since 1992 and has been bottling their beers since back in 2008. the champ ale is named for champy, the TOTALLY REAL monster who lives in vermont's lake champlain & brings joy to the good people of the burlington area. according to the label, their beers have taken home "13 national & international awards." that's an awesomely unlucky amount of awards! along with the champ, i've tried mcneill's firehouse amber & warlord i.p.a. & have definitely enjoyed them all.

in fact, after trying it a couple times over the past few months, the champ ale has staked its claim as one of my favorite beers. it's a quality, bottle-conditioned beer "made from a select blend of malt and hops from america, england and germany." it pours nicely, with a slight, silky head & both the flavor & scent are smooth & slightly citrusy. there are a few other hints of flavor in there & overall, it's just a tasty beer with a high drinkability. on top of being tasty, i've purchased many a 22 oz bottle for under $5. that's totally affordable. if you're cool with top-notch, lake monster-themed craft beer, you should definitely pick up a bottle...or two...or three.