snackdown! - 3.12.10

this week, the entire food world was fixated on news out of nyc that klee's daniel angerer was making cheese out of his wife's breast milk. it's something that the village voice reported on almost ten days ago, but this week the story really picked up steam, getting national attention & a warning-of-sorts from the board of health. while it's made in a fashion that's similar to most other cheeses, the critics who sampled it thought it was "softer" & "more slippery" than regular cheese. regardless of what the critics thought, there's something about it that gives me the willies. on a related note, klee will be unveiling their spring cheese menu next thursday. breast milk cheese will not be on the menu. for that matter, it never has been, but it sure has created a lot of buzz for klee. luckily, the rest of the week's news wasn't quite so nasty.

• late last week, the FDA announced a recall of a ton of products containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein, a common flavor enhancer. this week, that list of products extended to include two meat-inspired pringles flavors--restaurant cravers cheeseburger & family faves taco night. while i've never tried the cheeseburger flavor, i polished off a tube of the taco night flavor a few weeks back & am happy to report that i didn't die as a result. i'm also happy to report that taco night pringles are strange but amazingly good. after all, they're inspired by tacos. (christian science monitor)


• on another taco-related note, austin's SXSW got under way this week & for attendees, they can rest easy knowing that when they wake up with the worst indie rock & tequila-inspired hangover known to man, they can nurse it with an austin delicacy--the breakfast taco. the ny times notes that "when it comes to breakfast tacos...austin trumps all other american cities." the breakfast taco, which is "inspired by mexico, but not mexican," is basically a tortilla filled with standard breakfast fare such as scrambled eggs, bacon & sausage. some places like torchy's tacos get creative & serve items like "migas tacos, made with a scramble of eggs and strips of fried corn tortillas, pocked with green chilies, capped with avocado slices, enveloped by flour tortillas." the best part? they're not just for breakfast. (ny times)


• with st patrick's day only five days away, it's time to start getting wasted & downing copious amounts of corned beef & cabbage, right? well, not entirely. you should still get wasted but it turns out that corned beef & cabbage, which has become shorthand for "irish food," isn't really an irish dish. in fact, most of the "irish food" you find in america, stuff like irish nachos & reuben egg rolls, has nothing to do with traditional irish fare. the reality is that a lot of traditional irish cuisine is rather bland & the stuff you typically find in irish pubs here in the u.s.--"burgers, chicken wings and pizza"--is often similar to what you'll find in pubs in ireland. there really is no "irish cuisine" to speak of. it's cool with me though. corned beef & cabbage sucks. (chicago sun-times)


• in a week where the producers of the academy award winning documentary the cove busted a restaurant in l.a. for serving endangered whale sushi, serious eats took a look at a more legal (& likely tasty) form of sushi--the sushi pizza. as they reported, a japanese tv show that profiles "wacky 'japanese' food" served at japanese restaurants in america" visited hyde park's edo sushi to try out their sushi pizza. to their surprise, they actually enjoyed the dish, which is made up of "a lightly toasted rice patty" topped with spicy mayo, chopped maguro, green onion & tobiko. sure it's not technically pizza, but it still sounds awesome. (serious eats)


• over the past year or so, nyc's become known for their vibrant food truck scene, but in the midst of all the food truck hype, not enough attention has been paid to another portable food trend that's on the rise--the pop-up restaurant. they're locales where chefs set up shop for a day or evening & hock their creations. since they're hip & trendy & only temporary, there are four lessons that the la times thinks are key to the pop-up experience: don't expect to stumble on a pop-up, expect to wait, stay current on twitter & go at opening time. if you keep those four things in mind, you'll be just fine. if not, they'll be gone before you know it. (la times)

nosh nook #168 - wednesday, november 4, 2009

irish minister's raw garlic habit (link)
11.3.09 - bbc news

i have to be straight with y'all. i enjoy some nefarious tasting snacks. i've downed my fair share of crab chips, have been known to down mass quantities of hostess sno balls & am totally cool with anchovies. you'd think it'd have a negative impact on my breath, but other than occasional cigarette breath, i feel that i'm generally pretty make out worthy & that's not even taking my skillz into account! take that odd, smelly snacks. you are no match for the power of breath enhancing technology!

apparently, i'm not the only irish guy who enjoys weird snacks though. according to bbc news, brian lenihan jr (the irish finance minister) has a predilection for tasty tasty garlic. dude snacks on the stuff like he's popping m&m's. in 2008, david mcwilliams (an economist/tv personality) met lenihan & after the minister "pulled a bulb of garlic out of his pocket and started to peel it," he explained to mcwilliams "that the garlic gave him strength and kept him healthy and alert." the minister of state confirmed that lenihan "constantly chews garlic." then he made a comment about wanting to suck the reporters blood. actually, i made that last part up, so let's just pretend that it was "off the record."

i guess lenihan's read up on the benefits of garlic. the bbc explains that garlic contains a number of vitamins & good junk, but before they get to that they go into a bunch of historical reasons why it's all cool if lenihan's munching on garlic 24/7. first off, we know he's not a vampire. second, roman soldiers, greek athletes & the schlubs building the pyramids loved the bulb. those dudes got shit done ancient style! then there's the vitamin stuff. it strikes me as an odd half-hearted attempt to show that lenihan's not completely bonkers, but i'm going to let it slide this time. as long as lenihan doesn't try to make out with me, i say let him be.

the musical fruit: movement #21.

the musical fruit: movement #21.
song: "zombie," the cranberries
fruit: cranberries

a lot of irish music makes me want to smash a fiddle, but ireland's produced its fair share of musicians over the years. u2 is definitely the biggest of them all, but there are a handful of other notable ones out there, from indie acts like my bloody valentine, ash or the divine comedy to older acts like thin lizzy & the pogues. people seem to enjoy snow patrol quite a bit. back in the 90s, there was the pope pic tearing shenanigans of sinead o'connor & there was the cranberries, who rose to prominence on the back of their 1993 single "linger," off their debut album, everybody else is doing it, so why can't we? it came out when i was a senior in high school & believe me, i got a lot of comedy mileage out of reworking the lyrics so it became a song about farts.

their follow up album, no need to argue, features the only song by the cranberries that i can actually stand--"zombie." it's a protest song & whereas most of their songs are totally wussy & the only thing cool about them is lead singer dolores o'riordan's accent, "zombie" is a total rocker. it starts off all slow like but builds into a rocking chorus where she's saying "zom-bay" over & over again & heavy guitars chug along. the video has a bunch of dirty kids in it, which is sort of cool. it all added up to the song reaching #1 on the billboard modern rock charts, which, for comparison, is a title currently held by muse. after a few more albums, o'riordan went solo, but come november 12th, the cranberries are back together & heading out on the road for their first full tour since 2002. they're in nyc the day after my bday, but it's totally sold out. looks like a lot of people still like the taste of the cranberries.

as a fruit, cranberries are pretty cool, but you usually have to do something to them before you eat them like mash them into a sauce or put them in a juice or dry them out or something. i found this box of dried cranberries on the wall next to me whilst waiting in line at the times sq walgreens, so i decided to go the dried route & wait until thanksgiving for the sauced kind. $1? hellz yeah. i can swing that. i'm not sure what's up with the box looking all trapezoid warped in the photo though. in real life, that box has a lot more right angles to it. when i opened the box, it sort of looked like i had a box full of red beetles, but they're moist & sweetened & actually pretty tasty, especially considering that they're the walgreens store brand.

i don't want to get bogged down in the details, but there are a lot of reasons to like cranberries. for starters, cranberry sauce rules. then there's the cool way that they're harvested. rather than just picking them off the vines, cranberry growers flood the cranberry beds & scoop up the fruit. in juice form, cranberries go well with pretty much any other fruit. they have antioxidants & whatnot, so if you're looking to beat a drug test, cranberry juice is your best friend. they're a huge thing in massachusetts, especially on cape cod, where the cape cod cranberry growers' association oversees over 300 cranberry growers. good stuff. in closing, this thanksgiving, i urge you to get totally sauced in honor of the cranberry.