the musical fruit: movement #26.

the musical fruit: movement #26.
song: "comatose," pearl jam
fruit: avocado

holy crap i used to love pearl jam. after a high school existence filled with gangsta rap, i headed to college & was ready for something different. n.w.a. had already broken up, so it was time to move on & i, based on exposure to smashing pumpkins, alice in chains & sonic youth via my younger brother, started focusing my musical obsessions towards guitar rock, mostly of the grunge variety. i bought everything that alice in chains & screaming trees & nirvana put out. i had the singles soundtrack. i even owned candlebox's self-titled debut. after years growing up in nh, i was definitely excited that flannel shirts had finally become en vogue.

pearl jam was the pinnacle though. i had a ten poster on my wall. i bought two copies of vs at newbury comics on midnight on the day it came out, since the early editions came without an album title printed on them. in fact, i still have an unwrapped copy that i hope will one day put my kids through college. i lost my shit when eddie showed up on snl playing a guitar. to this day, "jeremy" is one of my staple karaoke songs, but at some point after vitalogy, i stopped thinking they were so vital & moved on. between the whole ticketmaster battle, the fact that i wasn't yet ready for stark politics in my music & the oft-cheesy songs they started to write, i got bored with them.

recently, i decided to give their self-titled 2006 album a chance & was glad to hear that it's not as lame as their last few albums. at the time it came out, they hadn't put out an album since 2002's riot act (their longest span between albums) & they came back with a mostly-rocking album that's often been described as closer to their early stuff. my favorite song off the album is the third song in--"comatose"--which, other than a minute reprise near the end of the record, is the shortest song on the album. it reminds me of their earlier stuff like "spin the black circle" & "animal" & "porch," songs that make me feel young again. it's as close to punk as pearl jam gets. so yeah, if you have two minutes to rock out, it's the best song they've put out in some time.

holy crap i used to love avocados. i still adore them & eat them often but for a while i was eating an avocado a day, putting them in bagel sandwiches with turkey bacon & tomatoes and chopping them up into grilled chicken salads & guacamoles on the reg. with its unique, multi-colored texture & its nutty, slightly buttery taste, it's a damn delectable fruit & i figure that, since they're essentially healthy & they've been shown to have positive effects on cholesterol levels, by eating them, i'm getting both fruit yumminess & some portion of my nutritional requirements at the same time. plus, most of the ones i eat are from cali, so i figure i'm helping some undocumented avocado worker get money back to his family in mexico...anything i can do fruitwise to help strengthen the global economy is alright by me.

the avocado pictured above is of the haas variety & once i got rid of those nasty brown spoiled parts on the bottom, it ended up being part of a pretty tasty guacamole. i was at a birthday/holiday gathering a few weeks back & there was guacamole on hand & for a brief moment, the conversation turned to guac prep. james call (of missing teens fame) had a hand in the guac prep & he noted that his style was to scoop the avocado right out of the shell, whereas the cute female specimen in the conversation believed in chopping the avocado into slices first before mashing it up. i'm usually a chopper & i usually like to agree with cute female specimens, but after hearing mr call's comments about guac prep, i decided to mix it up with this avocado, so i scooped & mashed it before mixing it in some with some red & green onions, cilantro & lime & going to town with some black bean chips. i polished off a whole bowl of guac by myself in one sitting & in the end, i was left...food comatose.

nosh nook #182 - tuesday, november 24, 2009

5-month-old seattle food cart crowned best in the country (link)
11.23.09 - seattle post-intelligencer - by monica guzman

make no mistake about it--2009 has been the year of mobile food here in america, with food carts & trucks offering diverse cuisine springing up in cities all across the country. nyc could be seen as the capital of the food cart revolution, but portland, OR definitely vies for that title, with over 500 food carts scattered throughout the city. the carts & trucks have become such a big deal that every news outlet imaginable has done some sort of coverage on them, which has only helped fuel their popularity. personally, i'm sick of hearing about them, but do see that they've become an important alternative to the more costly, less mobile brick-and-mortar restaurants.

on sunday, good morning america jumped into the fray, announcing that seattle's marination mobile was the best food cart in the country. as the seattle post-intelligencer reports, the seattle-based truck, which is only five months old & serves korean-hawaiian cuisine, was, in typical food truck fashion, voted in by a strong customer base who got out the vote via social networking sites. in fact, marination mobile, which won on the strength of their spicy pork taco, is so beloved that "about 30 people came out to the cart at 4 a.m. sunday morning to support the business during a live feed on 'good morning america.'" mmm. 4am tacos.

marination mobile took home the best food cart title by defeating three other finalists from around the country. the first, nyc's street sweets truck, was the only dessert truck among the finalists, entering with the "marcarella," "a thin coconut macaroon filled with the hazelnut-chocolate spread, nutella." portland, OR's garden state food cart, with "sicily meets new jersey" style cuisine, is known for their handmade sandwiches, including their entry, a chickpea sandwich. the third finalist, local 647, which serves up american fare including a tasty hamburger (their entry in the competition) showed that you don't need to be in the big city to be recognized as one of the best, as they operate out of rural delaplane, VA. still, as marination mobile proved, if you want to have good morning america recognize you, you have to "have a really broad network of people who support [you]." the big city's always better for that.

nosh nook #89 - thursday, july 16, 2009

giving the people what they want (link)
07.14.09 - the stranger - by david schmader

anybody who properly embraces the exclamation point is all good in my book & that's why, without even having been then there, seattle's snacks! is pretty much the best convenience store ever created ever. there's nothing subtle about the recently opened store's name. it's no yawningly unoriginal "number one food mart" or "park slope deli." it's just balls-to-the wall snacks! while it's still a work-in-progress, it already sounds like the ultimate stomping grounds for the seattle snacker.

located in the ballard neighborhood in northwest seattle, snacks! is the brainchild of dante rivera, who also created some seattle institution called "dante's inferno dogs." according to the stranger's david schmader, snacks! will soon be the "ass-saving bodega of choice" for folks in the neighborhood, as snacks! goers can pick up "convenience-store standards," "higher-end local products" & items from dante's dogs, including "the chiily dog, a visionary concoction involving a lightly toasted hot-dog bun covered with a layer of smooth peanut butter and filled with soft-serve ice cream." for those infused with the munchies, that sounds like the snacking equivalent of crack.

if there's anyone properly sanctioned to do a proper review of a convenience store, it's the stranger. what other publication would refer to the "two-by-four-foot wish list hanging near the door that invites customers to share their dreams for snacks! inventory" as "the greatest poem about america since 'leaves of grass?'" surely not the ny times. schmader has even created a perfect slogan for snacks!--"snacks!: uniting tipsy birthday girls, lagging zombies, and needy stoners since 2009." from what i gather, snacks! is basically a little slice of tasty heaven on puget sound...definitely my kind of place.