nosh nook #203 - wednesday, december 23, 2009

microwave mug cakes make tasty snack in less than 10 minutes (link)
12.23.09 - the grand rapids press - by kathy carrier

as we near the end of 2009, i thought i'd take a brief moment to reflect on the absolute awesomeness of technology. i figure that since we've become utterly dependent on smartphones & car navigation systems & lasers & whatnot, the least i could do was stop & thank our robotic overlords for continuing to bless us with new & exciting technological gifts this year. it is because of you that we're able to do more in less time & multi-task within an inch of our lives. it is because of you that we can sit in ohio & kill terrorists thousands of miles across the world. thanks, robotic overlords. we are forever in debt to you & your life-changing ways.

snackwise, microwave technology has changed the life of stacey j miller. according to kathy carrier of the grand rapids press, ms miller became "intrigued by a recipe for a microwave chocolate cake," tried out a mug cake version of it & thought "it came out terrific." from that point on, she started experimenting with other types of mug cake using "ingredients from her pantry--lemon pudding, lemon yogurt and poppy seeds, peanut butter and jelly, dried cranberries and, of course, chocolate." she basically fell in love with mug cakes & eventually, her obsession led to her new cookbook, "101 recipes for microwave mug cakes," which features recipes for such gems as pumpkin pie microwave mug cake & peanut butter & jelly microwave mug cake. amazinglicious!

if you're like me & have a killer lazy streak, the microwavable nature of mug cakes is right up your alley. it seems like a pretty simple snack to make. once you've made up the batter, all you have to do is fill up a mug with it, pop the mug in the microwave for 3-4 minutes & let it cool for a few minutes. minutes later, you gently separate the cake form the mug & you've got yourself a mug cake, maynard. you don't even have to do a particularly fancy job since, as the grand rapids press notes, "the beauty of the mini snack cakes is their imperfection--even when they come out lopsided or fall apart." with standards like that & its easy preparation, the mug cake's a snack that even joe lieberman a moron could make.

nosh nook #202 - tuesday, december 22, 2009

the chocolate wars (link)
12.21.09 - the ny times

largely thanks to the existence of this here blog, chocolate's become a pretty regular part of my diet over the past year. most of the time, there's some sort of gourmet dark chocolate hanging out in my cabinets & i've recently sampled chocolates made with chiles & fruits & mushrooms & bacon & wasabi. it's basically got to the point where i've become a chocolate snob & tend to avoid the boring hershey's & cadbury types. just last night, i was out at this bar in the village & the bartender had a bucket of hershey's kisses that he kept dumping onto the bar. i was slightly tipsy so i partook in the kisses, but still, since 95% of my chocolate this year has been gourmet dark chocolate, i was done after only a couple.

the ny times points out that in 2009, we witnessed two major developments in the chocolate industry, both which speak to the importance of the quality of chocolate. the largest was the continuing battle for cadbury. ever since kraft launched a bid for control of the british company's luscious creme eggs back in september, there have been many other suitors for the world's second-largest confectioner. the most notable has been hershey, "who already has a license to sell an americanized version of the british chocolate in the united states," but as of now, nobody's been able to sufficiently woo cadbury into the fold.

if cadbury does eventually get taken over, it'll likely be an american company, a fact that appalls some brits. the times mentions how earlier this month, boris johnson (london's mayor) took to the telegraph to declare that they "face an appalling choice of succumbing either to kraft, makers of the plastic flaps of orange cheese, or to hershey, whose hershey bars have been likened in flavor--by independent experts--to a mixture of soap powder and baby vomit." wow. i mean, just...wow. he's pissed.

the other development is that the industry has seen change in the type of chocolates consumers are opting for. it's been a long time coming since godiva started selling gourmet chocolates "on fifth avenue in 1972," but folks have really embraced gourmet chocolates as of late. "shelves at places like whole foods are crowded with chocolate from smaller producers and specific countries, reflecting a growing desire for food that is less processed, less packaged and more authentic." high end chocolate's also seen a rise in popularity. for instance, "higher-end chocolate sold well at (sic) valentine's day as people traded down on big-ticket luxury items and traded up on affordable ones." it's like "sorry, honey. i didn't get you those earrings you've been hoping for. i bought you bon bons instead." keep that in mind this holiday season...girls love bon bons.

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 #201 - monday, december 21, 2009

theater chain puts a luxe twist on dinner and a movie (link)
12.21.09 - l.a. times - by richard verrier & jessica gelt

i've never visited l.a., but over the years i've definitely formed an opinion about the city from 3,000 miles away. basically, l.a. is a sprawling, autocentric megalopolis filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic, hollywood celebrities, gangsta gangstas, boob jobs/porn stars, a huge spanish-speaking population, corrupt cops, zen spirituality & the dodgers. it's a classy blend of excitement filling almost 500 square miles of southern california. that's A LOT of classiness. i mean, head down to skid row some time. i hear that area literally REEKS of luxury.

since l.a.'s a city that's largely driven by hollywood, much of its luxuriousness revolves around films. for instance, there's the moviegoing experience. the l.a. times reports that "australian theater operator village roadshow ltd" recently opened their first gold class cinemas "luxury movie theater" in pasadena & ooh la la is it luxurious(ish). thus far, they've opened three locations in the us.--two in the chicago suburbs & one in redmond, wa--& they have "plans to open as many as 30 luxury theaters nationwide over the next five years."

here's what it's like. once you've plopped down $29 for your ticket, you're ushered into a pre-film lounge by a concierge & when the movie's ready to start, you're seated in a 24-40 seat theater with "giant suede recliners, each with an oval table and glowing buttons that summon a server to take an order for a chilled martini, a plate of charcuterie or a chicken piccata sandwich." whilst watching the film, you can get items like "a $49 bottle of schramsberg wine," "a $14 plate of fried calamari" or "a $19 new york strip steak sandwich." that's tasty, tasty luxury, folks.

the times notes that luxury theaters that serve food & drink are nothing new. alamo drafthouse (in austin), mega-chain AMC entertainment, arclight cinemas (hollywood & sherman oaks), the bridge cinema de lux (near LAX) & muvico theaters (thousand oaks) already "offer many of the same amenities." i'm not sure if luxury theaters are exactly what he had in mind, but i had a college professor who felt that if we raised the price of movie tickets to make them comparable to a sporting event, play, or concert, people would have a greater respect for films & be more careful in choosing which ones they saw. i think it'd just make people go to the movies less, since movies are already a ridiculously expensive experience, but the opportunity to consume beef & get drunk whilst watching sherlock holmes does offer some appeal. too bad none of that appeal will likely come from the film.

nosh nook #200 - friday, december 18, 2009

snack bar sells gold-covered schnitzel for €150 (link)
12.17.09 - the local

hey schnitzel truck! yeah, i'm talking to you. i've never eaten your schnitzel, but i've been hearing a lot about you ever since you started dispensing schnitzel to the good people of nyc back in july. from what i note from your twitter feed, you camp out in dumbo on fridays. too bad i don't work there any more & you don't tend to be all that close to where i work these days or i'd have checked you out by now. i like cutlets. i like the kraut & the brat. schwarzenegger & hitler have sort of turned me off from austrians, but from what i've read, you're much cooler than those two, since you're all about the yummy, truck-dispensed food & not about the misguided governance or psycho nationalization. people tend to like you.

still, you probably need to step up your game unless you want to be shown up by the germans. the local, a german newspaper, reports that the berger straße restaurant in düsseldorf sells the "golden kaiser schnitzel," "a veal filet coated with gold leaf and truffles." unnecessary gold adornment! just like goldschlager! totally classy. other than its german origins, it's the sort of golden dish that glenn beck [PUNCH] could get behind, maybe even film a set of sincere commercials for whilst wearing his pathetic christmas sweater. that's where our future is, my fellow americans. it lies in the four G's: god, gold, guns & gilded schnitzel.

...so the schnitzel goes for €150 & is "swathed in 24-carat gold," but what makes it so expensive is the truffles. truffle prices are no joke, son. the ones used in the golden kaiser go for €5,000 per kilo. that's over seven G's! it's like you can buy a kilo of truffles or feed ten guatemalan families for a year. you couldn't pay a-rod to take one swing or field a ground ball though. despite its outlandish decadence, since adding the dish to the menu three years ago, they've sold about 100 of them. now they're starting to promote the gold-covered schnitzel, so hopefully it'll take off. i'd suggest going international, taking out an ad in time out abu dahbi. i hear those abu-dahbi fat cats love eating gold.