nosh nook #85 - friday, july 10, 2009

VA man has father's old snack bar restored (link)
07.09.09 - the free lance-star - by donnie johnston

in northern virginia, about an hour & a half southwest of d.c., there's a town called culpeper. it's a town of almost 15,000 people that's home to baby jim's snack bar, which was started by collis c. "baby jim" jenkins back in 1942 in a small aluminum trailer. baby jim's now 80 years old & the snack bar has since moved out of the trailer, but the trailer remained, useless & sitting in the woods...until now.

as donnie johnston reports for the free lance-star, three weeks ago, with baby jim's 80th birthday fast approaching, his wife & son decided to surprise him by restoring the original baby jim's trailer & unveiling it to him during culpeper's fourth of july parade. getting it ready in time was no easy task though, so they turned to mark hayes, owner of the sign shop, another culpeper business. the trailer was in such bad shape that much of it had to be replaced, but after 100 man hours, "the refurbished snack bar now has a new sink, a new counter and new electrical fixtures. the frame and the roof, however, are original."

with the trailer restored, the next thing for baby jim's wife & son to do was figure out a way to keep the surprise intact & get him to the 4th of july parade. as his wife noted, "he doesn't like crowds, so we weren't sure if we're going to get him there." you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you can trick an old dog...& that's what they did. they got one of his friends to take him to the parade & from his front-row seat, they unveiled the trailer as part of a float that "not only featured the refurbished snack bar but also picnic tables with a number of baby jim's past and present employees sitting on them." apparently baby jim loved that shizz & now, the original baby jim's snack bar is looking good again, which means it has a promising future sitting in a parking lot or yard, on display for all to see.

#109 - five to remember/five forgotten.

make no mistake. i've said it before & i'll say it again. i like the indie rock. i read pitchfork.com at least four times a day & am heading out to chicago for their annual festival a week from today (booyah). i trip over myself getting to friends' indie recommendations. i gush over npr's all songs considered, especially this week's edition, entitled "do record labels matter?" rather than being a study into the fading importance of large record labels, it dealt which indie labels they liked the most. much in the same way that i'm drawn to specific film directors (i.e.--jim jarmusch, hal hartley, wes anderson), i tend to prefer specific indie labels (i.e.--merge, jagjaguwar, kill rock stars) when i'm looking for new music, because i usually know what sort of quality or style i'm getting.

thus far this year, my five favorite albums are all from indie labels. each one's held serious lockdown on my daily playlists & i'm pretty sure the dude i share an office with can faithfully sing the words to at least a handful of songs from these albums by now. anyway, you should check these five out if you haven't...get ready for the gushing. here they are:

	passion pit, manners (frenchkiss) - i didn't start off as a fan of passion pit. they're from cambridge & all, so i gave their EP from last year more than a few shots, but wasn't feeling it, partially because my roommate is a DJ/electronic musician who worked on a remix of "sleepyhead" for two weeks straight & partially because lead singer michael angelakos' high-pitched voice bugged me at times. regardless, when manners (their first full-length) came out in may, i decided to give it a shot. it's head bopping dancy & revelatory & spacy & solid all the way through. i'm much more into it & it's perfect walking around the city during the summer feeling awesome music.
	white rabbits, it’s frightening (TBD records) - for a couple weeks there, this album, white rabbit's second, was my favorite. other than a few songs, i didn't really connect with the first album, but they have a sound akin to the walkmen, who i enjoy & this one's produced by britt daniel from spoon, whose music i love. the opening song, "percussion gun," is by far still my favorite album opening song of the year & the video's pretty damn good too. next step is to catch these guys live. too bad the only local date scheduled is at all points west. f all points west.
	dirty projectors, bitte orca (domino records) - as i mentioned about a month back, i HATED the dirty projectors' last album, rise above, but i'm into this new album a ton. whereas the last album was too up & down for me, this album's songs are a lot more structured & catchier. the first three songs--"cannibal resource," "temecula sunrise" & "the bride"--make up an impressive twelve minute start to the album. they're playing a show here in brooklyn next sunday, but i'll be taking in indie rock in other time zones when they do (booyah), so new york readers...go! it's free & part of the new incarnation of the annual williamsburg summer "pool parties," so if you go, you'll be instantly hip...& speaking of these "pool parties," have you seen this year's schedule? absolutely sick.
	japandroids, post nothing (unfamiliar records) - i exchange fairly frequent emails with my two high school era indie rock-loving friends, mr todd martin, who you may remember from his dealings with spotted dick & chris leduc, who you remember from his adventures with figs. one day, there was a simple email from martin that read, "i like these guys. admittedly sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom (AKA low-fi?)." that's a ringing endorsement if i've ever heard one, so i checked it out & today, still rock out to it a few times a week. i have a ticket to see these dudes at tiny pianos on saturday & am pretty much ready to got the venue now. it'll be a rare paid show for me. i used to go to concerts every week or so, but these days, my concert going's generally limited to events i don't have to pay for, so it'll be a friggin treat...& maybe i can catch them again next week out in chicago (booyah).
	st. vincent, actor (4AD) - for some reason, i ignored st. vincent's first album, marry me, which came out almost two years to the day. it got rave reviews & all, but two years ago, i guess i wasn't enchanted with the type of woman & musician that lead singer annie clark seems to represent. she's basic & unassuming on the covers of her albums, but makes music that absolutely blows me away. sometimes it's all fuzzy & rocking out. sometimes it's angelic but she's singing sad lines like, "all of my old friends aren't so friendly. all of my old haunts are now all haunting me" also, she's short/cute/artsy.  that's like the shawn trifecta. it's a lovely album. i went back & checked out the first album as well...just as good.

#109 - five to remember/five forgotten.

...time to break down the fourth wall. even this blog has outtakes. a lot of the time, i find myself taking pics of snack/drink pairs before i eat them, just in case the mood strikes me. sometimes the pair ends up working its way into a column but occasionally, i get too bored/blocked/tired/drunk/A.D.D. to produce something & after a few days, i find i've moved on. these are five pairs that have been left behind:

	snack: goldfish chocolate graham crackers drink: coors banquet i got these one night while hanging out with the infamous mike weber before a trip to the 5th ave bars. by the time i got home from later that night, my old man ass quickly passed the hell out & i never got around to documenting the evening. i kept the photo around though, figuring there was a good chance i'd partake in the same combo again soon, but a few weeks later, i ended up writing about a night hanging with mike weber anyhow, so i ditched the coors/goldfish idea altogether. it's probably for the best. if i had written about the combo, it would've been like shooting a banquet of fish in a barrel.
	snack: onyums louisiana hot sauce flavor drink: hornsby's crisp apple hard cider how could i possibly resist a snack called "onyums" that's flavored with louisiana hot sauce? i couldn't. that's the answer. they were basically the same thing as the infamous funyuns, but every time i ate one, my taste buds were all "that's hot! i gare-on-tee!" then they were flattened by a hurricane & abandoned by the government for a few days. in memory of them, i abandoned this snack/drink combo. as for the cider...um, it was a cider. it had a rhino on the front of the bottle. that was pretty cool.
	snack: grandma's homestyle fudge chocolate chip cookies drink: crayons tickled pink lemonade i picked up this combo a few days after writing meditation #91, which dealt with my artistic endeavors & began with a story about time spent my grandma's house. it was too soon after though, so i put off writing about it & eventually resigned it to the digital waste bin. the pink lemonade's all natural & made by dads, so that's cool. as for the cookie, grandma makes a pretty good cookie. i think about how excited i was when they released soft batch cookies back in the day & compare it to grandma's cookies & feel like i was being played for a sucker by those feisty keebler elves.
	snack: doritos atomic chile limon flavor shots drink: redhook copperhook do you think you can make doritos better than frito lay can? if so, you're in luck. they've come out with a line of chips--doritos flavor shots--that come with a flavor packet, so once you open the bag, you get to take out the enclosed flavor packet, sprinkle it all over the chips, seal the bag up & shake it around. the results? a ton of flavor powder stuff on the chips, but nothing that a machine can't do. the difference? the satisfaction of participatory snacking. the redhook copperhook is your basic ale, with a color reminiscent of stripping a house to support a meth habit. i'm pretty sure i enjoyed these on a night where i followed the internet down a rabbit hole.
	snack: boulder canyon malt vinegar & sea salt chips drink: atwater block brewery cherry stout i picked up this combo late one night after a trip to the bars, but once i got them home, although i enjoyed them, i was more in the mood for episodes of fringe than i was for writing. a few days later, i married fringe to another atwater beer, so i let this combo fade away. the cherry stout had beer & cherries, so win win there. salt & vinegar is a chip flavor combo that i just can't refuse & since that vinegar was of the malt variety, it felt slightly british & slightly sophisticated...sort of like salman rushdie, but with less danger & less ability to cut ties with hot women who love food.

nosh nook #84 - thursday, july 9, 2009

snack attack: when a pretzel and a potato chip get together (link)
07.08.09 - national post - by karen hawthorne

it's official. after years of living in fear of prejudice & hiding their taboo relationship from the world, pretzel & potato chip have decided to ignore those who would make it difficult for them by finally making it known to the world--they've gotten together...& rather than taking potato chip's last name, they've decided to merge their two names into one snackeriffic one--pretzel crisps.

according to the national post, pretzel crisps have just arrived in canada & are the offspring of a "husband and wife team, warren and sara wilson, who owns the snack factory in princeton, NJ." they're the same folks who developed new york style bagel chips, which are pretty good, so i have confidence that things will work out for potato chip & pretzel as they begin their essentially healthy life together as one snack.

it hasn't been easy for pretzel & potato chip though. people make fun of them for their looks, but as the post's karen hawthorne says, "you just need to get past the appearance. they do look like the spawn of a saltine and a pretzel, almost as if the pretzel was bleached and then flattened so it's (sic) jaunty plump curves are slim and toned." once you're past that, it's snack city for you & as hawthorne notes, the garlic flavor is so good that "you could eat an entire $4 170-gram bag in one sitting, no doubt, if you were up to your old tricks." old tricks? shit. that whole bag eating trick is so still in my repertoire.

nosh nook #83 - wednesday, july 8, 2009

USDA to oversee school snack food: senate ag chair (link)
07.07.09 - reuters - by roberta rampton/walter bagley

this just in: there's no need to worry. the government cares about you. they want to make sure that you're safe & healthy and if that requires a whole bunch of regulation, so be it. this is especially true when it comes to food & your diet. it's a good thing, because we all know that we can't be trusted to eat healthy. a few weeks back, california became the first state to require restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus, following regulation established here in nyc a few years back. every day, it seems like there's another politician with another brilliant legislative plan that'll save our nation's children from the obesity epidemic.

the government will begin dealing with school lunch legislation as early as summer's end & as reuters reports, iowa's tom harkin, the new chairman of the USDA, is a politician, so he has an obesity-combatting plan too--regulate school vending machines. brilliant! the USDA already "oversees the contents of school lunches and bars the sale of foods with minimal nutritional value," but their reach doesn't cover vending machines, so back in april, harkin introduced a bill that would extend regulation to include the evil snack dispenseries.

kevin concannon, obama's nominee for head of the USDA's food & nutrition programs, wants to work with harkin to change americans' deplorable eating habits. he's run "food stamp and public nutrition programs in iowa, maine and oregon during his career," so he should know what's best for the other forty-seven states. still, as much as he wants to regulate & improve our children's eating habits, "he's seen 'pushback' from schools that count on revenue from vending machines to pay for student activities." that's why we need vending machine legislation. without it, schools won't know what's good for them & if schools don't know what's good for them & the government is helpless to do anything about it, MeMe roth will only get louder...& we don't want that. won't someone please think of the children?

nosh nook #82 - tuesday, july 7, 2009

the criterion collection of junk food: 19 snacks and sodas we wish were still on the market (link)
07.06.09 - the onion a.v. club - by claire zulkey, donna bowman, keith phipps, kyle ryan, leonard pierce, noel murray, sean oneal & tasha robinson

it amazes me that these days, if you're looking for some of the more truthful news coverage around, you can often find it in two of our country's fake news outlets--comedy central & the onion.  ever since i moved to the city earlier this decade & first encountered the onion's print edition, they've provided me with insight into world events, whether it's coverage of frito's new healthy line of snacks or a story on christ's return to the n.b.a.  parody or not, the onion usually provides more insight into a news story than most non-fake news outlets do.

as a snacker, one of my biggest pet peeves is when a snack manufacturer releases a treat that grabs me by the heartstrings & then yanks it from the shelves never to be seen again. this week, the onion a.v. club (who often deals in nostalgia) pays tribute to these departed gems with a piece on the "19 snacks & sodas we wish were still on the market."  i can't believe that OK soda isn't on this list, but regardless, a lot of the greats are here, including gatorgum, hershey's cookie & mint bar and ice cream cones cereal. in addition, the piece served me up a heapin' helpin' of knowledge, with mentions of a few snacks i'd never heard of but am sorry i missed, snacks like seven up bars & chicago's sweet baby jays.

of the 19 snacks & sodas they mention, my favorite is the magic middles cookies.  those cookies ruled.  they were like any other cookie, but the keebler elves worked their black magic on them & injected a healthy gob of chocolate into the center, offering you an experience akin to chewing freshen up gum, with its flavor explosion liquid center.  lord knows why they discontinued them, since they were obviously a superior cookie, but i'm going to assume it was a direct result of the elf labor cutbacks of '95.  a lot of tiny bakers lost their jobs that summer...& we lost a great cookie.