#185 - viva le revolution.

you know how i know what's newsworthy these days? i navigate my non-microsoft web browser (y'know, cause i'm edgy) over to cnn.com & i peruse the page to see if they've devoted a special section of their headlines to an event or a news phenomenon or whatnot. for a little while, gabrielle giffords got her own special section. then the egyptian revolution got its own special section. somewhere in between there, the tunisian revolution may have got its own special section but honestly, i wasn't paying attention at the time, so i can't confirm or deny the matter.

Click to read more ...

#180 - i call bullshit.

sometimes i want to thwack the food writing community in their collective nads. as i've mentioned in the past, during the course of the day i read a ton of food blogs & news & whatnot. most of the time, reading about food trends & restaurant openings and looking at pictures of burgers & pizzas & fast food concoctions brings me joy. lately though, the constant reverb of motifs has been getting real old real fast. it's like i'm in a friggin echo chamber. case in point: over the months leading up to the new year & in the weeks since then, folks have been repeatedly referring to 2011 as "the year of the pie." blog after blog after blah blah blah is all "suck it, cupcakes. your day is over. bring on the pie." i'm no proponent of cupcakes or anything but i'm not yet ready to dub this the "year of the pie," no matter how many times food bloggers regurgitate the phrase.

Click to read more ...

#163 - middling tradition.

wow. we're already more than halfway through 2010. how time flies when you're having a so-so time! last year around this time, i took a look at my fave five albums of the year & five snack/drink pairings that i'd planned on writing about but never got around to. this year, i've decided to do the same thing, officially creating a tradition of sorts here at eat!drink!snack!

thus far, it's been a relatively solid year for indie rock (which is about 80% of what i deal in) & there's still a lot to come, with albums from favorites such as no age, superchunk, black mountain, blonde redhead, les savy fav, the walkmen, !!!, interpol, the thermals, menomena & the arcade fire scheduled to come out over the next few months. it's safe to say that i'm EXTREMELY stoked about all that new music. that's right. i said "stoked."

without further ado, let's get to it...my indietastic mid-year top five!

Click to read more ...

snackdown! - 4.2.10

after a few weeks off, this week the snackdown! returns & since it's CHOCOLATE WEEK here on eat!drink!snack!, that means that it's time for a very special treat--an ALL-CHOCOLATE SNACKDOWN! you might be thinking "is there really that much chocolate news out there?" yes, my friend. yes there is...especially since we're smack-dab in the middle of easter week, one of the happiest times of the year for the multi-billion dollar a year chocolate industry. let's get to it...the ALL-CHOCOLATE SNACKDOWN!

• scientific fact: chocolate is totally sexy. because of the pleasure derived from eating it, people often think of it as an aphrodisiac. personally, i've never included chocolate as part of sex, but that doesn't mean i haven't considered it. now babeland, a female-friendly sex shop with locations in nyc & seattle, has come up with the perfect way to derive sexual pleasure from chocolate--the vibrating chocolate bunny, a vibrator that also doubles as a chocolate treat. while it may sound slightly unsanitary, the chocolate's wrapped in gold foil, so you basically do your business, unwrap the foil & have yourself a tasty treat. once you've used it though, i'm not sure you'll give a shit about the chocolate inside. (ny press)


• in south africa last saturday, celebrities & underprivileged kids got together for the unveiling of the world's largest chocolate bunny. for a week leading up to the event, four sculptors took three tons of chocolate & carved it into a 12.5 foot tall bunny that was eventually verified as the new record holder for "world's largest chocolate structure." once it was verified, the kids got to go to town on it but unfortunately, for some of those kids, that chocolate bunny might be the only thing they got to eat all day long. at least they got to eat chocolate. (cnn)


• this weekend in queensland, australia they're celebrating this weekend's bunny & jesus-themed holiday with an easter fashion show. for the event, designer richard de chazal has created the tastiest dress ever--one made entirely of chocolate, with a skirt "adorned with ferrero rocher chocolates." de chazal, who made the dress out of 44 pounds of chocolate, called it "one of his most challenging projects." luckily, based on many models' nonexistent eating habits, it's in no danger of being eaten before it hits the runway. (herald sun)


• if we learned anything from last year's breakout comedy hit the hangover, it's that out in vegas, pretty much anything goes. it's a place where the impossible becomes possible & in that spirit, caesar's palace has installed a three-acre swimming pool entirely filled with chocolate. the pool, which is fed by a 30-foot tall waterfall, is apparently "the first swimming pool comprised entirely of chocolate." it sounds like a neat idea, but i'm not sure how practical it is. it's one thing to be swimming & get water in your eyes, but it's a whole other thing when you get chocolate in your eyes. that can't be fun. (lasvegasvegas.com)


• for those who practice judaism, passover began on wednesday with the passover seder, a traditional ritual feast that marks the beginning of the holiday. not all seders are traditional though. these days, hundreds of synagogues across the country hold chocolate seders, rituals that don't replace the actual seder but do make it more fun for the young folk. how? instead of bitter herbs & an egg, the chocolate seder offers foodstuffs such as "chocolate-enrobed green apples" & cadbury mini eggs. i'd take those over bitter herbs & an egg any day of the week. (san jose mercury news)

#147 - port traits: between the bars.

ever since i turned 21, i've dreamed that one day i'd have a bar that i could call my own, a neighborhood place where i could stop in any day of the week at any time of the day & the bartender, a cute girl who i've established a flirty customer-proprietor relationship with would look at me as i grabbed a stool at the bar & say to me "the usual?" i'd nod & she'd pour me a cold pint of my favoritest snooty beer. it'd be some real cliche shizz & totally not pathetic. every once in a while, she & i & a handful of regulars would order food from the restaurant next door. it'd be like a second home, third if you count my childhood home, which i probably should. to this day, largely due to my propensity towards home drinking, i've yet to find that magical third home...still searching though.

for part three of my portland, oregon investigative series, i've decided to take a look at the portland bar scene & see what it has to offer as far as third homes. i've yet to witness the portland scene firsthand but it's one that i've heard, read & dreamed a lot about & i have a handful of portland friends & acquaintances, so i was able to tap their alcohol-tainted brains & get a ROUGH idea of what's in store for me if i ever go out drinking in bridgetown. that's right...bridgetown. the city has a river running right through the middle of it, so they've got bridges. bridgetown. i'm not sure if anyone actually calls it that, but if they don't, they should. as a nickname, "city of roses" is just stupid. other suggestion: "beavertown."

Click to read more ...