sailing the seas of sauce.

(view on flickr)

last night i met up with a bunch of friends at montero's, a dive bar that's been around for decades & is the last business on atlantic ave before it finally comes to an end at the east river. friday night's usually karaoke night there but last night the person who generally runs karaoke was AWOL & the bartender had no clue as to whether or not somebody else was showing up to run karaoke. eventually, after a couple beers we left & went down the street to the roebling inn for a few more drinks because montero's was packed with people hoping to do karaoke but there was no karaoke & therefore, no real reason to be at montero's.

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nosh nook #53 - wednesday, may 27, 2009

confessions of a snack addict (link)
05.26.09 - winnipeg sun - by ian gillespie

...so it turns out that i'm not the only one with an excessive, irrational need for snacking, a desire to be as funny as possible as often as possible & a love of making up outlandish stories in the name of humor. last night, while perusing the intrawebz for a captivating news story for today's nosh nook, i came across this commentary from ian gillespie--"confessions of a snack addict." he appears to be on my side and writes columns that appear in newspapers all across canada.

gillespie's (by all accounts fictional) story is one of a personal struggle with late-night snacking, a story that he's finally able to tell due to the (by all accounts fictional) "publication of his new book, fridge raid: the story of a lifelong snack-addict." he was being controlled by his late-night snacking. he was attempting to hide his habit. he was stealing his daughter's easter chocolate & leaving behind meaty remnants of late-night binges...he had it bad.

that's when he found the (by all accounts fictional) support group, late-night snackers anonymous & realized that there are millions of others like him, folks possessed by their midnight nibblings. it's helped him come to a few (by all accounts fictional) realizations.  "a late-night snack can't buy you love." "a peanut butter sandwich is not my friend."  i'm not sure if i'd go that far, but if it works for him, more power to him.  at least he's trying to come to terms with his addiction.  like with any addict, he realizes that a cure won't come easy (if it all), so he just "take(s) it one day at a time."  good luck, ian...conquer those tasty demons.

nosh nook #5 - friday, march 20, 2009

'grocer' offers late-night snacks (link)
03.19.09 - daily pennsylvanian - by travis winkler

u. penn students have always had it pretty sweet. back in 04, they were the recipients of the first cereality cafe, a cereal restaurant chain. it's since closed, but there are several other locations across the country. as of a few months ago, they now have "the lazy grocer," the online brainchild of two u. penn students, offering late night snack delivery to lazy members of the u. penn campus.

according to travis winkler, in his article for the u. penn newspaper, the business students originally developed the service for a class. then they decided to actually make it a reality & rolled out the service last november. so far the top selling item is dunkaroos. according to one of the founders, "it's probably the top selling food because it's the best snack you haven't had since elementary school." wow. has it been that long? man, i need to get me some dunkaroos prawn-toe.

the article goes on to say that the founders hope to extend the service to other penn colleges and eventually create "penn smokes," a delivery service for "cigarettes, cigars, tobacco and hookah supplies." it sounds like a good idea in theory, but i assume there are already a few people on campus who sell late-night "hookah supplies," if you know what i mean...& they might be a little peeved about you muscling in on their territory...& they're not stupid enough to advertise it on the internet. anyway, good luck & godspeed, boys.

#24 - beantown.

seriously, boston. sometimes i just don't give you the love you deserve, especially when it comes to your music scene. i was born in 74', which means that i was in high/school college when the notable boston/mass bands included the pixies, sebadoh, belly, morphine, the lemonheads, juliana hatfield, buffalo tom, the mighty mighty bosstones.

until much later, i didn't listen to any of them, save a buffalo tom song on the no alternative compilation. a recent girlfriend was shocked dumbfounded surprised that i had never listened to the pixies. luckily this was a few years prior to their reunion tour, so i was hip to that when it came round.

during my high school/college years, i was giving compton & seattle & york, pa a lot of my love, but my boston area bands were letters to cleo & dinosaur jr, a testament to my preference for pigtails & guitar soloing weirdos.

& then i moved to nyc (save five months in 06') and to me, the boston music scene became as familiar to me as the akron, oh music scene.

#24 - beantown.

snack: ghirardelli intense dark citrus sunset 60% cacao
drink: blueberry cobbler flavor new england coffee

seriously, that's how you spell that company's name? ghirardelli? c'mon? really? the letter combos make me afraid to even run that one through the spell check.

so tonight i was walking to pathmark to pick up a few things, including a snack for the evening and on my walk there, was listening to the new amanda palmer album (the videos are the best part!)...boston music...a boston artist who has been around since the beginning of the decade as half of the dresden dolls but who has flown under my radar until recently. it is officially my favorite album right now, with that okkervil river album coming in at second. alphabetically, it is the first album on my ipod, which means that if i just keep pressing the play button on my ipod all monkeylike, without really even paying attention, it goes to that album by default. the first note is loud & hurts my ears sometimes when i do that though. anyhow, maybe you should give it a quick listen or maybe you shouldn't.

...so i walked to the store listening to amanda palmer & anticipating a boston creme pie to snack on in celebration of boston. when i got to the store & went to the freezer section, i thought differently. boston creme pies are friggin' $8. f that. ain't nobody's birthday up in my apartment tonight.

so instead, i went the gourmet chocolate route with the ghirardelli (thank you cut & paste function) citrus sunset...cacao beans for beantown.

i needed to re-up on the coffee as well & to my delight, the bags of fresh ground new england coffee were on sale for as much as the run-of-the-mill pathmark brand, so i went for the blueberry cobbler flavor. new england represent. fruit represent.

the results...the chocolate is really good. it's dark chocolate with bits of orange and caramel crunch, all things i love. the coffee is also really good. so good that the two cups i've consumed should have me up into the morning with caffeinated bloodstreams. usually the caffeine doesn't have extreme effects, but right now, i'm amp'd, folks. oh, wait...

AMP'D.

...and a side beantown note...this is blog entry #24...the number worn by my favorite baseball player growing up & the owner of the one of the top moustaches in red sox history.

#23 - running on empty.

enough is enough. i will never again watch an episode of saturday night live. it is horribly acted, both by the guest hosts & the stable of actors. nobody cares enough, it seems. season premiere, folks. michael phelps, thanks for trying. couldn't we occupy this valuable time slot with something a bit less stale? lorne, are you steinbrenneresque in your vanity?

i'm sure michael showalter could come up with something. i hear judd apatow is hot.

#23 - running on empty.
snack: none
drink: water

if i was to eat anything right now, i would puke it up. that is how bad saturday night live is. it has killed my desire for snacking.

...i might as well have some water to calm my stomach. i don't feel that i can fully speak for chris farley, but i have to believe he is rolling over in his grave.

i rushed home from the bar for this. ick.

r.i.p.
s.n.l.