nosh nook #45 - friday, may 15, 2009

vancouver mayor pays up after lost hockey bet to chicago counterpart (link)
05.14.09 - vancouver sun - by gerry bellett

yesterday was a sad day for my hometown boston bruins, as they exited the playoffs after losing to the carolina hurricanes in game 7, in overtime, with the winning goal scored by the same guy who had sucker punched a bruins player just two games earlier, possibly breaking a bone in his face. on monday night, the vancouver canucks suffered a similar fate, as they were bounced from the playoffs by the chicago blackhawks, 7-5.

as gerry bellett reports, yesterday, his hometown mayor--gregor robertson--made good on a bet he had with chicago mayor richard m. daley, where the mayor of the losing city had to send a package of local food & drink to the mayor of the winning city. robertson shipped daley "cases of beer from molson’s, granville island brewery and storm brewing; musqueam first nations smoked salmon; dried morel mushrooms from pacific rim mushrooms; chocolates from bad girl and purdy’s; que pasa hand-cut organic tortilla chips; vegetarian blueberry sauce from thai princess and a couple of cartons of the mayor’s own happy planet fruit juices." HOLY CRAP. you can leave that molson's junk up in canada, but i would eat the hell out of everything else in that gift bag. daley's sending robertson a consolation prize--chicago beer & sausages.  sorry chicago, but i'd much rather have the vancouver stuff.

it makes me chuckle a little bit. to an outsider like myself, robertson & daley seem to be from two completely different planets. robertson presides over the most marijuana friendly city in canada, gets to oversee the city during the 2010 olympic games & is the co-founder of happy planet, an organic food & drink company. daley is chicago irish & the son of the notorious richard daley. he's also a year-and-a-half away from beating his father out of the title of longest-serving mayor in chicago history. he's trying to get the 2016 olympic games, may be the most powerful mayor in the country & is definitely no stranger to controversy...a totally different planet--the daley planet.

#86 - shawny shawn's day off.

to keep my sanity intact, every once in a while, especially during the non-holiday months, i take a friday off, relax, get some random errands/adult obligations done, etc. it's like ferris bueller's day off, but with less adventure & not in chicago. this friday was one of those days. i slept in for a few extra hours, waking up around 11am after a night where, with no work ahead of me, i had stayed out past my bedtime seeing the debut performance of the W.U.T.S. (who need to get some music on their page) at vox pop, a recently-saved community-owned bar/cafe/performance space/book store/publishing assistance place here in brooklyn...since i'll be back there, more to come on that awesome place at some point.

...so i woke up at 11 & started my day with an iced coffee & the paying off of some outstanding nj taxes. they were from two months from when i moved back to new york over two years ago, so it was sort of like a closing of that "coming back to ny" period, which i suppose is a good thing...sanity & all.

i also used the power of the internet to purchase a three-day pass to the mid-july pitchfork music festival out in chicago. very excited about that. i've never been to the festival & haven't been to chicago since a 2002ish trip, when i was there for a convention of college cable tv systems. all i remember of the city was a few hour journey into the city to meet a friend at a bar somewhat near where dillinger was shot. that's it though.

...so i finally left the apartment in the early afternoon for my usually bi-monthly supercuts haircut up in downtown brooklyn. usually i get the short, frumpy east-european looking woman or the slightly older, talkative woman who's been there forever, but this time, i got a cute, young girl with glasses & a pseudo-afro who fixed my hair. most satisfying haircut of the 09 thus far. you can smell it...spring is in the air.

after my haircut & a few errands, i came home & picked up my mail. to my surprise, there was a cd-shaped package for me in the mailbox, which contained a cd from allison, who you may remember from such places as snack away! #3 & wrestling entropy. in honor of my now-impending trip to chicago, it's a mix of songs about chicago or by chicago bands (including chicago) & it single-handedly made my weekend & got a solid listen over the last few days, especially with the subway waits due to copious mta construction. so yeah...spring is definitely in the air.

#86 - shawny shawn's day off.
snack: pretzel pete spicy-hot! sour cream & habanero pretzel nuggets
drink: rogue morimoto hazelnut signature ale


my friday evening plans consisted of the long-awaited return of the missing teens (the band i'm doing some managing for) as a full band, complete with guitarist & keyboardist, but it was 4pm & i had a few hours to kill, so i picked up a beer & some pretzels to munch on during my few hour-killing. the pretzels i went with are straight outta landsdale (pa)--the pretzel pete spicy-hot! sour cream & habanero pretzel nuggets. look at that pretzel pete! he's such a pretzel-hording lil scamp!

the pretzels come in a gold bag, which is totally classy. as the diagram on the back of the box points out, a lot of thought has gone into making these nuggets as tasty as can be. a wide split in the nugget & things like flakes of parsley make it all possible. they're good...no less dry than any other pretzel, but they're buttery & peppery/spicy, which is tasty. well done, lil pete.

luckily, i had picked up the rogue morimoto hazelnut signature ale to combat cotton mouth. rogue has recently rebranded their hazelnut brown nectar (featuring a communist-looking figure on the front) to the morimoto brand, featuring some sort of samurai. it's a well-done brown ale that's much more flavorful & not as harsh as a newcastle...not really something i see a communist drinking, to be honest, so i support the switch to the composed, asian stylee.

by the time i was done with its 22 oz & had a bit of pretzel pete coursing through my veins, i was good & ready for a full on rock & roll show. james call & erotic photo hunt (the missing teens mastermind's solo project) opened up, followed by full-on rock from psycho rainbow, who i had seen before but absolutely loved for the first time on friday night (check out "penny penny" & this rockin' live action & this stripped-down live action if you're so inclined). then the missing teens returned with a seriously awesome show & (i think) i got my video camera to work & (hopefully) taped the whole thing. i'm so happy they ditched the singer + ipod + couple of instruments approach in favor of a full band sound. it sounds so damn alive it's not even funny.  tons of people came out & rocked their faces off & peeps made some money! friday night melted into saturday morning with beers & conversation & this awesomeness.

part deux of weekend amazingness coming tomorrow! my life is so inspiring exciting! interesting neat full of events!

snack away! #3 - juicy!

they say the only certainties in life are death and taxes, but I'd note that, in chicago, you might want to add winter weight gain to that list. The weather gets incredibly shitty in this town for long spans of time, sometimes stretching from november to may, and everyone who lives here is pretty much eastern european, irish, or black, which is to say, buried deep in our genetic code, our bodies are ready for famines and grossly inhumane treatment at the drop of a hat, so a predisposition to save some extra meat on our bones while we're, in essence, hibernating isn't a undesirable trait to have. but, add to that our historical reputation as hog butcher to the world, and, well, that's a recipe for a bunch of people opening their eyes come springtime, looking in the mirror, and saying, "holy shit, i got fat."

in an effort to stave off that uniquely disheartening realization this year when it's time to pull out the short skirts and tank tops, i've decided to embark on 30 days of what is known among raw foodists and other health conscious folks as a juice feast. basically, it means I won't eat any solid food for a month, subsisting solely on a gallon of fresh fruit and vegetable juices that i make at home each day. it's both less and more arduous than it sounds.

i did my first juice feast from mid-june to mid-july 2008, and it was an absolutely transformative experience. i lost about 13 pounds, my skin cleared up like i'd never seen it before, i gained a deeper awareness of my issues around "emotional eating," and i had the satisfaction of knowing i'd achieved a really slightly insane goal. it's obviously not a task to be undertaken lightly, or frequently for that matter, but nine months later i finally felt ready to give it another go and do some internal spring cleaning, as it were. today is day 17.

all of which is my way of explaining why this guest entry isn't going to look like the standard eat!drink!snack! posting that you've come to know and love--no booze, nothing purchased from a bodega, and, um, not much of a snack.

snack away! #3 - juicy!
guest blogger: allison felus, chicago, illinois

snack: 1 tablespoon of y.s. organic bee farms bee pollen
drink: 1 quart of celery/cucumber/spinach/apple juice + 1 tablespoon of spirulina

as i write this, i'm drinking a quart of freshly prepared celery/cucumber/spinach/apple juice. i would have absolutely balked at the idea of drinking something like this, and in such great quantities, just a few years ago, but now it's one of my favorite concoctions. other greens (like kale or dandelion) can have a strong, sharp taste that can be unpleasant to choke down in fresh vegetable juice, but spinach is light and almost sweet. the celery adds much needed organic sodium, the cucumber is light and hydrating, and the apple adds a happy little punch of natural sugar.

the tablespoon of spirulina is an optional add-in, but i've been craving it like mad lately. it turns whatever it touches a soft, wet shade of dark green and has a quickly addictive flavor that's kind of warm and buttery. (depending on how you're consuming it, it can be almost reminiscent of the oaty yet sugary dust found at the bottom of a box of cereal.) it's also one of the highest sources of complete protein found in nature, which is especially important for vegans (which i guess i kind of am--please don't hold it against me).

bee pollen is one of the few things that you're legitimately allowed to chew on during a juice feast, and, as such, i've come to really love my daily dose--as a break in the monotony of all that liquid, if nothing else. but it's also one of those trendy superfoods that everyone's always cooing about. each spoonful is packed with amino acids, enzymes, B12, and other scientifically proven microscopic yummies that our bodies need to keep humming along optimally but are so often absent in the nutritionally devalued food of the standard american diet. the taste varies from bottle to bottle--sometimes it's sharp and crunchy, sometimes soft and earthy. my current batch has a nice mild midrange, with a little bit of chalkiness to it, but an overall essence of, yes, honey that goes a long way toward quelling my usually insatiable sweet tooth.

see you in the sunshine, kittens!

allison felus blogs at wrestling entropy. she loves you just the way you are, except for when you're kind of being a jackass.