nosh nook #206 - tuesday, april 17, 2012

photo via amra energy snx website

caffeinated potato chips aim to boost snack time (link)
04.17.12 - cbs news - by michelle castillo

one day, when our great civilization has reached the nadir of absolute awesomeness, each & every snack on god's green earth will be injected with a hearty dose of caffeine. just think about it! when the time finally comes, we'll never again have to worry about "can i stay up long enough to catch tonight's exciting episode of last call with carson daly?" the answer will always be "yes," as you'll have milligrams upon milligrams of caffeine coursing through your veins. you won't EVER be able to sleep & you sure as hell won't be missing any more carson daly. all of your dreams will finally come true & by "dreams" i mean metaphorical dreams. you'll never again have REM dreams. no sirree.

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nosh nook #205 - monday, december 28, 2009

thinking of bringing leftover cookies to the office? don't. (link)
12.28.09 - globe and mail - by wency leung

for coming up on two weeks now, i've been lucky enough to have a nice vacation away from work but come next year, i'm going to have to eventually go back to reality & back to work. it's cool with me though. it's been a fairly eventful & relaxing holiday season & all but this cold weather & time off makes me go a bit semi-salinger after a while & i don't need that. a lot of people are already back at work this week anyhow & in my case, i work in the music industry, so it's not like it's a completely painful job to have to go back to. plus, when i return, there's a good chance that at least one of my remaining co-workers will bring in some sort of holiday treat for me to munch on & ease the pain.

according to the globe and mail's wency leung, if you've been thinking of bringing your leftover holiday snacks back to work with you upon your return, you probably shouldn't or you should at least read her article for tips or think about it first or something. what the article boils down to is that this time of year is a time when a lot of people are looking back on the past year, thinking about their ballooning ass/belly size & making plans for an totally healthy 2010 diet. when you start bringing in your "unwanted boxes of chocolates, unfinished tins of fudge and containers of excess butter tarts" for co-workers, you're "sabotag(ing) their nutrition plans." they hate it when you do that crap. also, please stop changing their computer desktop to a photo of fabio. it's just not topical any more.

wendy leung spoke with "karen brar, who works at a non-profit organization in surrey, b.c." ms brar used to get excited about all the holiday snackery. now she can't stand it & mentioned that "after a little while, you're eating the chocolate for the sake of eating it...and it loses its lustre. by the end of it, it's just like, 'ugh.'" still, if you want to avoid getting fat on your holiday sweets & choose to ignore the guilt of making people fat, leung also spoke with "jacqueline mackinnon, an addiction counsellor in kamloops, b.c.," who provided a few tips on how to unload your sweets. to guarantee that they move, you should put them out in the morning & make sure you do so with the lid off in a high-profile locale. people are suckers for that crap & as long as you can lay off the sweets they're bringing in, you'll actually keep your annual plan for a hot bod intact this year. good luck with that.

nosh nook #204 - friday, december 25, 2009

roadie food goes rock star (link)
12.24.09 - chicago tribune - by christopher borrelli

oh the foodie. although i despise the term & prefer to not refer to myself as one, since i love food & have a blog that largely focuses on snackable food & drink, i suppose i can't deny that i'm a foodie. that doesn't mean that you can call me that without painful repercussions though. over the past decade, we foodies have been largely responsible for changing the way many folks think about food. because of our fascinations with tacos & burgers & cupcakes & whatnot, normal everyday food has become more than a simple means of sustenance. it's become something to reflect & obsess upon, something to praise, something to spread the word about. 

thanks to foodies, over the last decade, the chicago food scene's gone through a transformation. as the chicago tribune's christopher borrelli explains, "the decade in casual dining in chicago was the story of casual dining this decade" & "food snobbery became democratic," as foodies helped turn unpretentious food into a "respectable, grown-up pursuit." in chicago, there's hot doug's, which turned the hot dog into haute cuisine & great lake, which just last month was called "the best pizza 'i have ever eaten in my entire life'" by peter meehan of the new york times. places like these & foodies' worship of them made it so that you could comfortably write about comfort food.

borrelli notes that because of the rise of foodies in chicago, "big, gushy, not-subtle deep-dish pizza began to lose its hold on chicago's imagination, replaced by thinner, artisan crusts from follia and spacca napoli and others, with seasonal toppings and chefs obsessed with flour." also, "a bar with cherry-wood ambience and an ambitious menu was now a 'gastropub.'" while gourmet magazine went out of business, lthforum.com became a major hub for chicago-area foodies. as we head on into 2010, i can only assume that changes like these will continue to come. after all, the economy's still in shambles & until that changes, glorifying five-star restaurants just won't have the same appeal as pointing out where the best tacos are. as a "foodie," that's just fine with me.

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.