#80b - final four (in two parts).

ncaa final four game #2 features the villanova wildcats (ranked #11 by the ap during the season) vs the unc tar heels (ranked #2 during the season). it's one of those classic matchups where one team (villanova) has a really good defense and the other team has a badass offense, so something's got to give somewhere or the world will collapse in on itself. here's what sort of matchup we're looking at...

the villanova wildcats are a team with a storied ncaa tourney history. back in 1985 (a time when i actually still cared about ncaa basketball), led by coach rollie massimino, they became the lowest seeded team to win the championship when they defeated big east opponent georgetown, who was led by patrick ewing.  this year, they're one of two big east conference teams (along with uconn) in the final four, led by senior forward dante cunningham & guard scottie reynolds.  jay wright (their coach) has only been coaching the team since 2005 & this year, he's the only final four coach who's never been to the final four before, so good for him...he can check that off his list.

the unc tar heels are led by all-everything senior forward tyler hansbrough, who besides holding the ncaa record for free throws made, has won every award ever, done well in the classroom & helped out in the community more than you did.  overall, the team averages 90 pts per game & has five players who average in double digits.  after losing to kansas (the eventual champions) in the tourney last year, they were ranked #1 at the beginning of the season and #2 at the end & as the announcers announced during the game, they're "on a mission."

basically, unc whooped ass from the get-go.  villanova cut it to nine by end of first half, but by the time the game came back for the second half, i had sort of stopped giving the game my undivided attention.  here's what i do recall...villanova never had a chance & the game was never close.  if i was michigan st, i'd be scared right now.

my top player picks: reggie redding, villanova - funny name, didn't die / tyler hansbrough, unc - 18 pts, 11 rebs, upheld humanity

#80b - final four (in two parts).
snack: humbles olive oil, lemon & feta baked hummus chips
drink: weyerbacher old heathen imperial stout

as in part a of my final four coverage, i'm treating myself to a snack & a drink from the home states of this game's two participants--pennsylvania & north carolina. i know, i'm clever. i'm also lucky enough to have been able to find snacks & drinks to fit my theme. for a snack, during this game, i'm munching from a bag of humbles olive oil, lemon & feta baked hummus chips. they're made by good health natural foods, a boringly-named company out of greensboro, nc. you can reach them on the internet at www.goodhealthnaturalproducts.com. i believe you can also find them online at www.wehaveaverylongwebaddress.com.

ain't no potatoes in these badboys! they're baked & made from hummus/chickpeas & bear a slight resemblance texturewise to the popchips i tried just the other day.  if they weren't $3 a bag, i might just eat them all the time.  for the aforementioned reasons, they're healthier than your average chip & the olive oil, lemon feta flavor is both subtle & pleasant.

if you drive just about an hour or so north of the villanova/philly area, just past the non-jesus affiliated bethlehem, you'll reach easton, pa, where my second beer of the night, the weyerbacher old heathen imperial stout, is brewed. weyerbacher has been around since 1995 (& once had a brewpub in downtown easton) & brew a bunch of crazy-named beers--the blithering idiot, the imperial pumpkin ale, the slam dunkel.

in the spirit of the wraith-like figure on its front label, the old heathen is quite the dark beer.  since i'm a heathen myself, i enjoyed it, but since i'm a heathen, i didn't embrace it. it wasn't all that special anyhow...stouty enough, i suppose.

that's it!  til monday night & the championship battle!

#80a - final four (in two parts).

the first of tonight's two final four games pitted the michigan st spartans (ranked #8 by the ap in the regular season) vs the uconn huskies (ranked #5). this year's final four festivities are taking place in front of 72K people (a final four attendance record) at detroit's ford field, so it's all historical & junk. let's take a look at the two teams...

the michigan st spartans are the hometown squad, coming from an hour and a half west up route 96, in east lansing. they're lucky, since home court advantage is HUGE sportswise & they're the first team in the last 15 years to play a final four game in their home state. also, magic johnson went to school at msu, so he was in the audience, which might have been inspirational where it not for him wearing some sort of wack-looking warmup jersey (not very gq, magic). overall, it's a big michigan lovefest, with nine of the spartan players originally from the ol mitt-shaped state or whatever the heck they call it.

the uconn huskies are always good for some good basketball playing. they were the men's NCAA champs in 1999 & 2004 and their women's squad is pretty much the best women's basketball team ever. seriously. this year's team...they're like amazonian cyborgs. the men's team features 7'3" hasheem thabeet, who is from tanzania, which makes me think of this npr story i recently heard about basketball in sudan & another about a movie about baseball & the dominican republic.  so uconn only plays seven guys, which means the same guys are on the floor most of the time & as a result, they have four 1000 point players on same squad for first time in their history.

as for the game, it was one of those neck & neck, back & forth engagements. there was a little scrum & pushing at end of first half which was rather exciting...& then two minutes later came the longest halftime ever, with all sorts of presentations & awards & junk.  the first half back & forth continued for most of the rest of the game, with lots of serious hustle.  at one point, cbs used lcd soundsystem's "daft punk is playing at my house" as a lead-in to commercial, which was totally hip.  anyway, by the end, msu pulled away & uconn tried to come back, but the hometown msu squad prevailed & are now going onto the championship game.  go spartans.

my top player picks: kalin lucas, msu - 21 pts, lots of being fast & stuff / stanley robinson, uconn - 15 pts, 13 rebs, a bunch of loud, awesome dunks

#80a - final four (in two parts).
snack: pepperidge farm chocolate raspberry milano cookies
drink: arcadia ales starboard stout

in honor of our two teams, i'm having a snack & drink pairing from their home states. for the snack, i'm trying to hold myself back from eating, right here & right now, an entire bag of pepperidge farm chocolate raspberry milano cookies. they're crafted by god, via a series of miracles, on the magical pepperidge farm, located in norwalk, ct, which is almost two hours south of uconn, just down 95. the original magical farm was in the next town over from norwalk--fairfield.

the pepperidge farm has been overseen by the campbell soup co. since 1961, when they bought pepperidge & their amazing milano cookies. anyway, pretty much every milano cookie flavor is awesome & if you don't agree with me, you might consider consulting a physician regarding your mental state. they are the only good thing that has ever come out of that god-forsaken, armpit-of-new england state & should be commended as such for overcoming the shortcomings of their environment to create tasty, simple cookies.

the arcadia ales starboard stout is brewed in battle creek, mi, the place most famously known as the home of the kellogg co.  the starboard stout's an oat malt stout with a dark complexion & a tan head & a toasty flavor that mixes quite well with the chocolate flavor in the cookies.  it gets some quantity of thumbs up.  unconfirmed rumor: there's a little bit of tony the tiger in every bottle.

bring on the next game!

nosh nook #15 - friday, april 3, 2009

say no to pistachios: recall widens, includes frito-lay (link)
04.02.09 - st. petersburg times - via the a.p.

roaches, feces found at l.i. plant tied to salmonella (link)
04.02.09 - newsday - by delthia ricks

dean foods not impacted by pistachio scare (link)
04.02.09 - dallas business journal

let the non-stupid jam band widespread panic begin! now that we've got that peanut thing out of the way, it's time to move on to something else nutty that we can all come together as a nation to freak out over...pistachios! yep, that's right. your favorite nut that doesn't require much effort to get the shell open is just like michael jackson. d-a-n-g-dangerous. apparently they can both also carry salmonella & in many cases, need to be recalled. luckily, nobody will put michael jackson in their mouth.

the a.p. lays out the facts about the pistachio recall. a bunch of companies have already started. dallas/plano-based frito lay has pulled its 1.75 oz packages. the second biggest pistachio producer in the country, setton farms, has recalled its entire crop. even whole foods is recalling some & they're all healthy & godly and stuff, which makes me think things might be bad for the pistachio.

oh! another thing that is bad for the pistachio? having rodent feces & cockroaches in the plant where you process said nuts. as newsday reports, a setton foods plant here in new york (strong island represent!) was found to have both of those present, although, to be fair, there were only two cockroaches & various rodent droppings, which, in all likelihood, came from a single, poopy mouse...must have been all them pistachios!

luckily, dean foods is ok. thank you dallas business journal & whomever the p.r. person is for dean foods...i can sleep easy tonight. sure frito-lay is in the same greater metropolitan area, but you too can rest assured knowing that the salmonella did not run down from plano to the dean foods plant. if you enjoy dean foods' pistachios, enjoy away!  it's the weekend, people!

#79 - pop.

i don't even know what's considered pop music any more. back in the eighties, it was clear. everything was pop music (for the most part). these days, every year they're all "& the grammy award for best pop album goes to...duffy! (2009) or steely dan! (2001) or joni mitchell! (1996) and i'm all "wait, didn't taylor swift/N*SYNC/hootie sell the most albums last year? they're all pop, right? why didn't they win? clearly they had the best pop album of the year."  joni mitchell's considered pop?

(please note that lil wayne actually had the best-selling album of last year, but he's cool in my book & taylor swift scares me, so she gets held up as last year's pop example.  she seems too "perfect" to really be perfect & she's not even disney, so that frightens me...some anti-christ shizz or something going on there).

so what exactly is considered pop music?  there's u.k. indie pop like belle & sebastian or blur or the divine comedy & u.s. indie pop like death cab for cutie or vampire weekend or the magnetic fields.  there's the more mainstream u.s. rock stuff like fall out boy or the foo fighters or green day.  then there's the more blatantly pop stuff like the jonas brothers or justin timberlake or kelly clarkson.  all of them could be considered pop, even though they're all quite different. 

basically, someone needs to clear this up for me ASAP, before my genre-programmed brain explodes all over my keyboard.

#79 - pop.
snack: sea salt & vinegar popchips
drink: jones fufu berry pure cane soda

tonight, i'm rocking out to some "pop music"--a little weezer & a little kanye west--and having a bag of sea salt & vinegar popchips.  they're one of five flavors made by a company out of san francisco that has recently expanded distribution to the eastern part of the u.s.  these popchips are supposed to be awesome because they've taken chip healthiness to the next level.  they don't fry their potatoes.  they don't even bake them.  they pop those puppies, making them through heat & pressure.

the resulting chip has a not-unpleasant light fluffy texture somewhere between a rice cake & a ritz cracker.  without the grease you'd get from a regular ol fried chip, the flavor definitely stands out better.  in this case, it's salt & vinegar, which you could sprinkle on pretty much anything non-living & i'd probably still eat it.   on the popchips, you get a good dose of salt & vinegar, but without the choking kick-back that you get when a salt & vinegar chip is too damn powerful...i'm looking in your direction, lays.

since i'm going all healthy & natural with my snacks today, i'm having a jones fufu berry pure cane soda along with the popchips. for you midwesterners...POP!  i call it "soda," my boston-based grandmother calls it "tonic," others call it "coke," you call it "pop."  to each his own, but "pop" is just silly sounding.

all the jones sodas are made without the usual soda corn syrup tastiness (they use cane sugar), which gives their beverages a slightly unsettling taste.  i've tried their blue bubble gum and strawberry & lime flavors and essentially, they all taste like derivations of the same berry flavor that's in the fufu berry flavor.  berries?  yawn.  they're nothing spectacular.

i think i need to get away from their berryesque flavors & try out the new orange cola flavor or sample one of their holiday packs before completely pooh-poohing their pricey, natural sodas away.  last year's halloween pack had a candy corn flavor!  that rules!  what doesn't rule is their past thanksgiving packs, which have included turkey & gravy, green bean casserole and mashed potato & butter flavors.  that's just gross & disturbing & makes me want to pop the one who thought that making those flavors was a good idea square in the kisser.  POP!

nosh nook #14 - thursday, april 2, 2009

fool-you foods: added nutrients give processed snacks unexpected perks (link)
04.01.09 - lawrence journal (ks) - by sarah henning

mmm.  processed foods.  we americans love em.  give us a candy bar fortified with all the nutrients we're not getting in our regular diet & we'll swear off fruits & vegetables & breads forever.  screw nature's gift.  since the human race is now super awesome at science, we love adding & taking things out of our foods in an effort to make them healthier.  science ho!

as sarah henning describes in her article, back in the nineties, companies started altering their food products, taking things out in an attempt to make everything low or no fat.  nowadays, the craze is fortifying foods with nutrients & ingredients such as fiber & calcium & omega-3s.  as examples, she notes that kids can now enjoy trix, which are chemically modified with calcium, or dora the explorer yogurt, which has omega-3 additives.

interestingly enough, she doesn't once address the fact that choosing chemically-altered foods in favor of natural ones might not be the right path for consumers.   during that lo fat/no fat time back in the nineties, i was living with a guy who had a degree in botany (meaning he bested me in science knowledge).  as he explained to me, the no fat chips made with olestra are sooooo not good for you.  it had something to do with some process where some science in the chip latches onto some science in your body & although i never quite understood what he was talking about i did understand this...olestra = anal leakage.  i'll take gaining a few pounds or having to search out a healthier, natural snack to eat over processed food-induced anal leakage any day of the week.