#145 - port traits - hey jerky!

in the first part of our four-part series on portland, oregon, i spoke to a bunch of reasons why i envision it as such a dreamy city, but i'm not kidding myself. i know just like with every other city in the world, it's no utopia. last year, business week rated it "america's unhappiest city." in fact, there’s a whole blog devoted to things about portland that suck..."wannabe suicide girls," street kids with pets/the people in pioneer square, panda express. according to the blog that is apparently the authority on all things sucky in portland, these are all things that suck about portland.

in addition, in portland's 150 years of existence it's definitely been home to a handful of jerks, folks who deserve a good caning or something. the most infamous resident from the last few decades is america's favorite kneecap-breaking figure skater, tonya harding, who was born there. same for nike's phil knight, whose company is the king of the sneaker industry & the king of labor abuses. rocker hag courtney love is a one-time oregonian & portland resident too, but don't even get me started on her.

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#144 - port traits: intro.

oh portland, oregon. why must you tempt me so? for years now, i've been hearing about how awesome you are from friends who live there, reading about your bounty of food carts, dreaming of the benefits of your progressive transit system. at one point a few years back, i was even set on moving to you. you're really far from the east coast though, so i never made the plunge & still have yet to, but i'm still young, so you're still on my short list of "places to eventually settle down." sit tight.

as i mentioned a few weeks back, one of my childhood friends (mr chris dorin) came to visit me from portland & when he came, he brought a viking's load of portland-area vegan snacks along for me to sample. in honor of these snacks & my faraway outsider obsession with portland, over the next week or so i'll be bringing you a four-part series devoted to the snacks & "the city of roses." in it, i'll be peppering you with all sorts of knowledge about the city, mostly based on stuff i've heard & things i've discovered via the power of the google & partially based on stuff i made up. it'll be like a mini, slightly-fictional travel guide from someone who has only visited the city for a few hours in the early part of last decade. TOTALLY professional.

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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)

#143 - you blue it!

seriously...what the heckarooney is going on with the democratic party these days? ever since obama took office back in january with democratic majorities in both houses, they've been an absolute mess, pussyfooting around when it comes to pushing through all the awesome legislation that the president promised during the campaign. at the same time, the republicans have been constantly on the attack, refusing to work with the democrats on many issues, determined to derail them at every turn. it's as if both sides of the aisle are concerned with nothing more than bickering back & forth, which is SHOCKING to see happening in our nation's capital. as a result, the democrats are getting next to nothing done these days. also TOTALLY SHOCKING.

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snackdown! - 1.15.10

as part of the ongoing changes here at eat!drink!snack!, this week, i'm introducing a new friday column...the snackdown! every friday, i'll be providing you with a rundown of my favorite snack/food/drink related stories from the week past. this week, we've got a contest for snacking genius, a ban on pork rinds, free cookies, salt chugging & predictions for 2010. enjoy!

• on tuesday, brooklyn's ici hosted "the next big small brand contest for culinary genius," where bklyn batch craft jerky took home the people's choice prize for their "orange-ginger strips of smoke-cured, grass-fed beef" jerky & kombucha brooklyn won the judge's prize for their "pleasantly mild iteration of [their] fermented tea." personally, i'd vote for orange-ginger beef jerky over fermented tea any day of the week. (ny times)


• lovers of authentic mexican pork rinds had their hearts broken this week when the u.s.d.a. announced that starting this thursday, pork rinds not accompanied by an official government certificate will be seized at the border. drug, gun & human traffickers who have always dreamed of getting into the food business rejoiced. (abc news)


• since travel basically sucks these days, companies like doubletree hotels & midwest airlines are trying to ease the pain of travel by baking cookies & dispensing them to their customers. they've both been doing so for around a quarter of a century, but if there was ever a time in history that called for free cookies, it's now. (ny times)


• yesterday, to protest nyc mayor michael bloomberg's latest health crusade--salt--awesome-hatted radio host curtis sliwa decided that it'd be a good idea to call bloomberg "the health care nazi" & then chug a bunch of morton's salt. the results...sodiumtastic hilarity! the "salt crackdown" segment starts just after the nine-minute mark. (ny1)


• it's a new year & with that comes new food trends. "out with the cupcake in with the new," i like to say. the detroit free press looked at some possible trends for 2010, specifically the rise of "umami," the fifth taste. too bad that they misspelled it "unami" in the headline. i'm pretty sure nobody's going to reintroduce an extinct native american dialect in an effort to spice up the food world. (detroit free press)