snack away! #2 - ol' dirty hippies.

as an under-the-radar american city, portland has quietly become the leader in a couple of important arenas. this quiet leadership will bring portland to the forefront of the coming economic recovery. you just watch. just don’t stare. like how watched water never boils, a stared-at city never booms. here is my evidence.

#1 we are green central - the democratic nominee for congress last year won on the platform (against a long-seated GOP incumbent) that he will bring the green revolution to washington and position oregon to be the leader in green technologies. just as the bay area blew up with the dot.com era, look for the pacific NW to be the next magnet for the young, educated, and socially conscious working class. portland is the anti-detroit and anything that’s made “greener” in the next decade (like…everything) will be based on technology created here. seems like “being green” somehow finally made it into the cliché pop culture lexicon in 2007/08 – well it’s been going on here since the hippies in the 60’s.

#2 we are hippie central - ...and some of them finally stopped dosing themselves long enough to develop some business sense. this has, in my mind, also put portland on the verge of becoming the nation’s leader in snacktacular deliciousness. that can only be good for economic stimulus and snack-related blogging, both of which we need more of.

exhibit A - is called cozmic charlie’s espresso, on the corner of 82nd & foster in SE portland. this entrepreneur has cleverly mixed his love for the grateful dead, his desire to make money, and portlanders' need for a 24/7 IV drip of coffee or the next best thing – a drive through espresso. cozmic charlie has recently turned a good idea into a cash cow by offering voodoo doughnuts at his coffee stand.

exhibit B - voodoo doughnuts is a portland legend for its proximity to popular downtown concert venues, "keep portland weird" attitude and crazy good (and some just crazy!) doughnut creations. “the magic is in the hole” the sign proudly boasts. who am i to argue? some of their offerings include the giant doobie-shaped portland trailblazer, cap’n crunch or cocoa puff crusted glazed doughnuts & the infamous bacon-maple log, which is just what it sounds like – a maple log topped with 2 strips of delicious crispy bacon.

once an obscure, late-night only hole-in-the-wall, voodoo was recently featured on anthony bourdain’s "no reservations" show on the travel channel and have expanded their open hours and started distributing doughnuts daily across the city. talk about economic stimulus! i visited cozmic charlie’s for coffee once in the last year or so since I first noticed it BVD (before voodoo). i’ve been there three times in the past two weeks PVD (post voodoo)!

it is only a matter of time before this concept of “save the planet, eat more snacks, and drink lots of beer” takes hold of our modern world and takes it to the next level. i think it’s the basis for the mysterious end-of-time upheaval in 2012 prophesied by the ancient mayans. just remember that the end of time is also the beginning of a new collective consciousness, an awareness of how our love for the environment, equality & proliferation of both sweet & salty snacks and ancient love for beer can create a blissful balance in our lives and continue to power our economy past this recession and into the next generation. portland will be the epicenter of it all.

snack away! #2 - ol' dirty hippies.
guest blogger: tom elkins, portland, oregon

snack: “old dirty bastard” voodoo doughnut
drink: “24 oz hell in a bucket” from cozmic charlie’s espresso

the old dirty bastard is a chocolate glazed doughnut rolled in oreo crumbles and drizzled with peanut butter. i guarantee that you will be rich if you can duplicate it in your hometown. you’ll at least impress your friends. the doughnut itself was average for a glazed doughnut - certainly no krispy kreme. however, crumbled oreos and PB drizzle take this doughnut to a place on the snack meter rarely attained by mortal junk food. the magic is indeed in the hole.

hell in a bucket is charlie’s clever grateful dead-inspired specialty at his drive through coffee shack. it’s 20 oz of coffee with 4 oz of espresso. he topped it off with organic half-and-half and three packets of raw sugar. if red bull gives you wings, hell in a bucket shoots you out of a cannon into a giant net in front hundreds of adoring fans. hooray for cozmic charlie. he’s dropped his antiestablishmentarianism and has found a delicious way to make a buck. i’ll keep coming back.

thanks for virtually visiting snacktown with me. i didn’t even get into the beer this time – reason #3 that portland is ready to R-O-C-K in the U-S-A! until next time…keep snacking!

tom elkins is an admitted snackaholic and lives in portland, OR with his pie-loving wife jennie and their two-year old marquez, who can’t get enough of blow-pops or sour gummy worms.

nosh nook #18 - wednesday, april 8, 2009

kids who lack self-control more prone to obesity later (link)
04.07.09 - time magazine - by alice park

it's no secret that we americans aren't exactly known for our self-control.  we love hummer H2s & cocaine addictions & MST3K marathons & ten-digit spending projects.  we love overdoing it, and as a result of our lack of self-control, we now have a hole in the ozone layer & a super-high national debt & a rate of obesity somewhere around 30%.  it turns out that these gluttonous habits develop at an early age.

as time magazine's alice park reports, this week's archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine contains two papers that show a corollation between self-restraint & obesity.  the first study, done at penn st, followed 1000 kids.  in it, they performed tests where a three-year old was left alone in a room with a totally awesome toy but told not to touch it.  if that kid made it 75 seconds without touching it, they were labeled as having high-self-control.  they performed a similar test on the kids at age five.  they left each one alone in a room with a large pile & a small pile of snacks & told them that they could eat from the small pile at any time, but if they waited until the experimenter returned, they could eat from the big pile.  if a kid could wait long enough & not eat from the small pile, they were again labeled as having high self-control.  by age 12, the ones who scored low on both tests were 30% heavier.  the 2nd study, done at the university of michigan, proved the same corollation with a similar, food-inclusive study--47% of kids scored low & these kids were 30% more likely to be overweight down the road.

based on what's reported in the time magazine article, i've determined that there's another, untapped angle to this study.  kids who have self-restraint mentally or physically beaten into them often snap once they reach adulthood.  these are the amish who don't join the fold post-rumspringa.  they're the people you knew in college who are away from home for the first time & therefore, must get wasted at every opportunity.  they're the people ultimately unconcerned with consequences...in the end, the restraint is often self-imposed & unnatural & it might just be human nature to want pleasurable things & want them right now.  too bad that when that comes to snacks, obesity's the tradeoff.

#81 - for openers...

sports sports sports sports! sports sports sports sports! i sure do love sports recently. after a monday postponement, today was opening day at fenway park for the boston red sox, as they took on a team who knocked the sox out of the playoffs last year & has turned out to be their most formidable opponent as of late--the scrappy, young tampa bay devil rays.

as i work in times sq & don't have cable, especially the kind that gets red sox games, i decided to make my way over to the closest place carrying the game...the time sq espn zone. since moving to nyc in 01, i've only been in here twice, both for red sox games. one time, the sox game was starting just as a knicks playoff game was finishing up, which meant copious meatheads abounded for the first couple innings & the other time, the bartender abandoned me for a good 20-25 minutes just as i was finishing up my beer & getting ready to head out. let's just say that she got left an "estimated amount."

today, i got out of work early & made it over there by about 4:30, just in time to catch the tail end of the 2nd inning. i headed up to the bar, grabbed myself a $10.02 25oz sam adams boston ale & took a seat at a table on the ground floor level, which was basically empty save for a couple of people watching the sox & a couple watching some futbol. being able to chillax by myself in the middle of crazy ass times sq, drink a sam & watch the sox was much needed sanity-wise.

& they had wireless there, which meant i could play with my stupid ipod while watching the game!...& ted kennedy threw out the first pitch to former red sox outfielder/hall of famer jim rice and pedroia & varitek homered, beckett pitched well & the sox won 5-3, so it's a good start to the baseball season.

#81 - for openers...
snack: calbee hot & spicy chips
drink: paldo aloe vera drink

by the time i got home after the sox' victorious win, i was in the mood for some snacking, so i broke into my recent chinatown haul & went with the bag of calbee hot & spicy chips. when i cracked the bag open, an odd but savory odor escaped & wafted up into my nostrils. basically, they taste like a less-appealing mesquite barbecue chip. that ain't spicy, calbee. i know you are from hong kong, but that doesn't mean that you can't be spicy. it's ok. go nuts next time.

ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. [pause] ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. this paldo aloe vera drink is all glllllllllggggggg & slither in my mouth because it has floating chunks of aloe & gel pieces & pulp in it. it is like flies have landed & since drowned/gone into diabetic shock in my tasty, fruity beverage & i haven't been paying attention & next thing i know, they're [barf] all chilling & wriggling round in the back regions of my throat, urging me to drink more aloe drink to wash them down. but then there are more flies & i puke in my mind! that is what it is like.

so...i've got some bad news. i grossed myself out to the point that i went to the kitchen with the goal of straining out the flies. that didn't turn out so well. basically, i just washed my kitchen counter with aloe. that's good for it though, right? softens it up? soothes burns?...looks like i'll just have to settle for a tall cool glass of apple & eve natural style apple juice instead. no flies in that. maybe a worm or something, but if there is, it's so liquefied that i'll never know. go sox!

nosh nook #17 - tuesday, april 7, 2009

strange snacks of the world--chakli (link)
04.06.09 - the village voice - by sarah digregorio

there aren't a lot of things that i actually go to the village voice for any more, especially when it comes to their print edition, which i used to read religiously, cover-to-cover, every week whilst riding the subways. they're the alternative newspaper, but in recent times, they've tried too hard (the era of the kajillion gw bush covers) & let good writers go (see robert christgau) whilst continuing to let whiny-ass, one-tracked writers (see nat hentoff) continue to write.  thanks, new times/village voice media...doing great.

one thing i do stil enjoy about the voice is their "fork in the road" blog, which has a "strange snacks of the world" column. past columns have included avocado fries, pudding made with pig's blood & prawn cheese spread.  this monday's edition features the "chakli," which, as sarah digregorio describes, is a heavily-spiced, spiral-shaped cracker.  it sounds fairly tame snackwise, but probably tasty nonetheless.

in conclusion, it is my hope that by ridiculing the village voice but praising them for the one thing that is relevant to me becoming a food superstar, there will be a message from "fork in the road" sitting in my inbox within the next 24-48 hours, asking me to please come write about snacks.  i'll eat some weird shizz, village voice.  all youz gots ta do iz ax.

nosh nook #16 - monday, april 6, 2009

a culinary adventure on beijing’s snack street (link)
04.05.09 - the jakarta post - by lia lenggogeni

in beijing, there's one of those must-see tourists spots known as wangfujing snack street. it's an outdoor market where they shut down a stretch of the road for four hours every night so that rows of street vendors can hawk their various foods & snacks & dishes. visitors to snack street can expect to find an assortment of delicacies & weird-ass foods.

lia lenggogeni visited there & reported her findings back to the jarkata times. she opens with a story about being accosted by a pushy vendor offering dog meat on a stick. EW.  NO.  NO DOG MEAT ON A STICK. she agreed with me & made the right choice by turning him down.  as she traveled snack street, she noted that while it doesn't necessarily "represent the rich and diverse chinese cuisine," there are foods from various regions & cultures throughout china.  uighur grilled lamb kebobs!  wee grr!

things i would try if i ever made it to beijing's snack street...the starfish, the flatbread, the snake, the caramelized fruit kebabs...maybe the scorpion, although the story in the article that uses the words "rancid" & "centipede" sort of reduces my sense of adventure regarding insect eating.  it's a moot point though, since it's going to soon be demolished to make way for skyscrapers anyhow.  yay chinese progress!  just like here in brooklyn!