#165 - something's fishy.

something smells fishy around here. at first, i figured it was just the foul-smelling scent of city garbage marinating in the hot summer sun, but that smells more like cheese than fish. then i thought that maybe i'd forgotten to put on deodorant this morn. after a couple of sniffs of the pits, i ruled that out as well. was it actually fish? it couldn't be that. i hardly ever eat fish outside of a sushi joint. you know what? it's probably just a dead possum caught in the floorboards. oh, wait. i live on the basement level. i don't even have floorboards. i bet it's just a case of something that's metaphorically fishy, like the rod blagojevich trial or a perp's story on CSI or a BP solution, which, come to think of it, is both metaphorically & tragically fishy.

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snackdown! - 1.22.10

during a week where the entire country was going apeshit over the special election in massachusetts for the late ted kennedy's former senate seat, there were a number of food-related stories that provided a bit of a distraction from the bombardment of political coverage. whether it was the demise of the deep dish or the death of a taco magnate, anything was a welcome relief from the constant "coakley is totally going to blow it" cycle of news.

• story numero uno...mamma mia! there's a trouble down at the pizzeria! on wednesday, boston-based restaurant chain pizzeria uno announced that, in an attempt to save the company, they were filing for bankruptcy. it's been rough going for them recently, what with the poor economy & rising cost of ingredients & whatnot, but i think we all know what the real reason behind their downfall is though...deep dish pizza is lame. (boston globe)


• on sunday, the world was saddened to learn of the passing of taco bell founder glen bell. at the same time, they were surprised to learn that taco bell was named after its founder. mr bell, who founded the chain back in 1962, saw the need to bring mexican food of sketchy origins to the american public. over the years, he achieved that dream & in the process, made a great impact on american cuisine. without him, we may have never known what the hell a "gordita" is...& that would just be sad. (npr)


• with this weekend's afc championship game between the ny jets & the indianapolis colts only two days away, the ny daily news' matthew lysiak has already headed out to indy for the big game. while out there, he's worked himself into a tizzy because he can't find authentic ny style food such as bagels & pizzas & egg creams. to this i offer a hearty "duh." you're in indianapolis, dude. you don't go to brazil in search of sushi. (ny daily news)


• since i'm a glutton, i shove food into my mouth all day long, pretty much right up until the point where i fall asleep. apparently i shouldn't be doing that though. according to lar rune foleide, some science guy who studies dreams, if you wolf down a couple of slabs of roast beef or a bucket of deviled eggs just before heading to bed, there's a good chance that you're going to have some messed up dreams. i guess that explains my "wall street banker/astronaut dog with the head of cuba gooding jr" dream from a few nights ago. (tahlequah daily press)


• monday may have been MLK day, but it wasn't the only important holiday this week, as tuesday was national popcorn day. the holiday, which celebrates the wonders of the air-popped corn kernel snack, is a rather mysterious one, as the national popcorn board doesn't even know how it got started. they do know that the average american eats a quart of popcorn a week though, so if you haven't had any yet this week, you've got a lot of catching up to do. (phoenix new times)

nosh nook #114 - thursday, august 20, 2009

popcorn a hidden source of antioxidants, study says (link)
08.19.09 - abc news - by joseph brownstein

apparently smartfood has been on to something for quite some time now. for almost twenty-five years now (twenty of them as a frito lay company), they've been churning out a white-cheddar popcorn that's both tasty & relatively healthy (free of trans fats, gluten, msg). as such, folks often tend to think of it as a "healthy snack alternative." popcorn's obviously better for you than a bag of cool ranch doritos or barbecue pork rinds, but it turns out that it's even healthier than we thought.

as abc news reports, this tuesday, researchers released a study that found that popcorn has "more of the dietary fiber and antioxidants than any other snack food." take that fictional pomegranate-blueberry-acai barley buckwheat blasted snack bars! joe vinson, a university of scranton chemistry professor who was the study's lead author, breaks it down. "in the case of popcorn, the antioxidants are protected from the sun in the drying process, and the corn loses only a little bit of them when it is popped. additionally, through the whole process, the fiber provided by the whole grain is not removed."

dr. david katz, from yale university's school of medicine, brings up a good point though. "the real issue with popcorn is what gets added to it, and frankly that's often an issue with foods in the modern food supply. if you add a lot of butter and salt to popcorn, it merely becomes the delivery vehicle for a lot of bad stuff." he also notes that "one of the nice things about popcorn is that it's a 'fun food,'" which essentially means that it's both "enjoyable" & "provide(s) nutrition." too bad that popcorn sans salt or butter or caramel is also sans fun. unless someone comes up with a plain popcorn that actually tastes good, i'm going to keep pouring on the butter because as the study shows, even popcorn coated in a pound of butter is popcorn high in antioxidants & fiber...& i can poop better knowing that.

nosh nook #102 - tuesday, august 4, 2009

five snacks that are shaped like the universe (link)
08.03.09 - new scientist - by michael marshall

science! is there anything it can't do? if you say there is, then you're just a hater & there's only room for one hater on this blog & that's me. kindly step aside & act passive while i explain the universe to the good people. first off, the universe is big. second off, it's full of junk. third off, it was created by god as part of a revenue-sharing deal with disney. while scientists have spoke of the universe as being sphere-shaped in the past, there are now a bunch of alternative shapes that they're considering...tasty snacklike shapes.

i'm not really as up on crazy universe science as i initially led on, so i'm going to let new scientist take over from here. as they explain, since physicists don't know for sure exactly what shape the universe is, they've proposed five alternative, non-sphere shapes--a ring doughnut, a pringle, a peanut, a bugle & an apple. the pringle is obviously the tastiest option there & because of some science stuff, if the universe is pringle-shaped, "it could explain why time only moves forwards (sic), and possibly why the universe is expanding so fast." i'm going to take their word for that.

as for the other shape options, the peanut option sounds boring. the ring doughnut shape is a popular choice & some even suggest "that the doughnut has a single twist – like a möbius strip that has been inflated." the bugle shape somehow helps explain "some puzzling observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation: the relic radiation left over from the big bang." the apple shape somehow helps explain string theory. obviously. personally, i prefer to think that the universe is shaped like a combo.

nosh nook #76 - monday, june 29, 2009

'bliss' foods devised to create snack junkies (link)
06.29.09 - the australian - by jonathan leake

are you a junkie? do you run out to the corner at every opportunity & grab yourself some smack? how about some snack? if you're like me and millions of americans, you're a total junkie, always fiending for some snack. who says we're junkies? former FDA chairman david kessler, the guy who got standardized nutrition facts on labels & took on big tobacco, that's who...& he said it in an actual book (the end of overeating) from an actual publisher (rodale), so you know it's true.

last night, i came across an article about kessler's book in today's edition of the australian, since australia's from the future & all. in it, there's an article about the findings in kessler's book, findings that say that "manufacturers have discovered optimum levels of fat, sugar and salt that make [foods] highly addictive." heinz & starbucks are just two of the companies "seeking to trigger a 'bliss point'" in eaters, a point where more neurons fire in the brain & the eaters become snack junkies.

not having read kessler's book, here's my judgment (of the snap variety) about his findings: he says "it is time to stop blaming individuals for being overweight or obese." um, no it's not. even if manufacturers have some devious plan to create foods that turn people into snack junkies, just like with any junkie, individuals aren't entirely blameless. we get addicted to shit, but last i checked, we humans have free will & aren't entirely puppets.

having read this article by the australian, here's my judgment (of the non-snap variety) about it: um, this book came out two months ago. peeps have already covered it. i guess you just got the press release the other day or something & figured, "you know what? junk food hatred is a hot topic down under these days. let's let jonathan run with it." your article might be from the future & the book might be from the past, but your topic is SO NOW!