6/30/08
Not fud, just appalling
We in the streets in February 2003 were so naive to think it was all about the oil.
6/28/08
Williams-Sonoma sees this
Mme Sarkozy
is just as easy as you've read. Funny, I've thought Italian cooking is getting more French and have almost reconsidered an old rant.
Host Twinkie
No one ever invite her to a Santeria ceremony -- God save the chickens in a "religious smorgasbord."
At least there's one thing
Washington gets right: food on stamps. These are much nicer than the Squanto series.
Not fud, just the price of beer
And he doesn't even get into the many mansions the old Straight Talker has to choose among for his weekends away.
6/27/08
Not so sure about organic
but he's right about arctic char. Get ready for prices to go up as demand does, especially once people realize it doesn't aromatize the house the way farmed salmon does. Plus it sounds so much nicer than trout.
Not fud, just funny
Walking to the farmers' market this morning, I spotted a van with the perfect name for the last seven years of the Bush-Cheney Co.: Freedom Demolition.
The hole
big enough to drive a semi through: What the hell do they taste like? (And what might "cheddar asiago" be? But I kinda like the sophistication of "Burgundian pinot noir.")
(Plus I just checked the link, and it's pretty embarrassing when the perpetrator's name is misspelled on its own handout.)
6/26/08
Not fud, just thank you, Panchito
Compassionate conservatism, indeed. Enlarge the image at your own risk, and I don't even like dogs.
Slow food day
but wine? Nice.
Subway lunch and dinner for a month, though, are not going to nourish future fossils to fuel future cars. . .
Not fud, just "The Lives of Others"
I can see them confiscating cheese in their arrogant stupidity. Laptops and cameras?
(Filched from Trex)
6/25/08
Beyond food porn
Let the backlash begin. I wish the bass's eye did not look as if he/she/it had been on a bender, though.
Not fud, just sobering
Can you imagine a(nother) president who has never shopped amazon, let alone been inundated by lame email jokes? Even the Hanoi Hilton must have WiFi now. Do we want his finger on the Kindle?
Not fud, just spot-on
and not as filthy as usual, although you will want to cuss mightily on seeing so many smirks in one place.
Not fud, just good
"Smiley faces of a corporate state." Not sure Nader is the correct response, though.
Encore
for a great technique. Fava beans are in the Greenmarket right now, and eating them this way is like shelling peanuts. Rather than oiling them last night, I just soaked them, and that works even better.
6/24/08
Big chicken in cowhide boots
No 99-cent burgers wanted in South Korea. No tinhorn dictators, either.
Not fud, just "The Lives of Others"
Operators are standing by to hear your protests against letting the most reviled president in history get his way on spying on Americans. New York's senators in particular need a nudge.
Give me
the proverbial fucking break. It's not Franco. It's Terri Schiavo. Allah help us if it goes on to be the Man from Nantucket.
Second life
Interesting development in the life of the marketing genius who taught me one sure thing: There is no such thing as bad publicity. All anyone remembers is the reference, not the context.
Not fud, just appalling
If they'd denied him a visa, Martha-style, 40,000 people would not have been screwed. But at least no one died for him.
6/23/08
I should be cooking
with four friends and a consort due at the table in a little over two hours, but I just walked in with a bagful of paper and cat products and thought again of how happy it makes me to see this in our thoroughly urban foyer, a memento of the year of magical rethinking.
Not fud, just jaw-dropping
If only Americans would put down that bottle of Bud they wanted to drink with the Chimp and pay attention to the banana-ing of the republic.
Groans
are the worst medicine. And this on a Sunday when Single and Looking (nee Out of the Gene Pool) bought the big one. Anyone wonder why printed newspapers are in trouble?
Not fud, just prescient
If only everyone had listened way back when -- he does connect Dick to Colin in inimitable fashion.
How ostentatious was the cake
at the second "low-key" event? Six hundred close friends partying at the White House while the Midwest is drowning. And a cash bar afterward? Skanky is as skanky does.
(Gleaned from the indispensable Dan Froomkin)
Connecting the dots
The only mystery is why our dictator has not suggested raising giant rabbits that eat more than they yield. I would call this an exceptional read, but everything at Tomdispatch qualifies.
6/21/08
As John Prine would say
pretty good, not bad. But it must have been those feisty-fearing editors who would not let her say Virgin Mary. A margarita cannot get its hymen back. You would be drinking lime juice only, maybe with salt.
Maybe it's because
the Times magazine has not landed on our doorstep yet, but this was the first laugh of the day. Silly, but it has its moments.
(Filched from metafilter)
Not really fud, just depressing
Before this is all over, the Big O is going to be eating at Applebee's to prove he's one of them.
6/20/08
Stick a California roll in him
I hate it when I get sucked into the drool of Panchito -- the Italian expert who mistook a sociopathic dry drunk for a good ol' boy and now apparently has not noticed all the sushi in his faux homeland -- but the staycation aspect redeems it. No Tuscany for me this year.
The ultimate get-rich-never scheme
To paraphrase Jay Leno, the approval rating is so low that if the sucker has dinner with his wife and daughters, he's the only one at the table who thinks he's doing a good job. And somehow I doubt those mugs are going to escalate in value in the time it takes history to transform shit into Shinola.
Brave new food
Funny, I was reading this and thinking all the contortions sounded sort of like what we went through at the CIA years ago when I took the "nutritional cuisine" course for a story for Health magazine. They had all these tricks for cutting the fat in vinaigrette etc., but inevitably, you just wanted to get out your handkerchief.
Tin chefs indeed
Defensive, are they? If Rachael uses her pots and saute pan every day, I'll eat Puck's $99.90 set of 11(!) pieces.
Not fud, just "The Lives of Others"
It can happen here. If you don't pick up the phone and call these losers to protest. It takes minutes; surprisingly receptive representatives are standing by.
6/19/08
Remembering
the good old days of Wordstar when "Galapagos" was inevitably suggested whenever I typed "jalapenos."
Even better are the misspellings on food forums; I particularly liked one complaining about "all this carp."
(Filched from Grub Street, which itself found it through a past-its-sell-by blog.)
Not fud, just smart
Rumors must be reported. Since the lapdogs were trained to repeat lies for war, there's no stopping them.
Not fud, just appalling
Just thinking about the Barney song will set you on edge. Somehow, I don't think they hate us for our freedoms.
6/18/08
Not fud, just sharp
Surely a good ol' Texas boy won't object to the uglification of the Maine coast.
"If geeks talked about cookbooks"
Apparently there are people crazier than some forums I could mention. . .
She wasn't stealing
She was marketing. Would anyone have gone to the site if not for the purloined recipe? The best part of this, which is an alternative to the WSJ's piece, is the breakdown of candy consumers. I think I qualify as a Detached Occasionalist.
Smarter than calling Dad
Using the effen Google. Salient detail is right there, no thrashing needed. I bailed in pain, but what about asking a guy who would know? Strunk & White would be weeping. . .
6/17/08
Nothin' personal
but I had a similar backwash of annoyance on reading this bizarreness. The orange flower water is as essential as Angostura bitters are to a proper rum punch. And agave? Get outta here.
Not fud, just compelling
I am a hard ass about kids, but this works. Since I no longer give cash, I will give a plug.
My outrage meter
has hit the WTF level so many times it must be broken. The Big Dick's old company has done so much evil while taking billions to "support" the troops you would think it can't get any worse. But you'd be wrong. I can't get into our NYTimes account to link the full story, but I give them credit for tucking the Names of the Dead into the story, under the food shot, in the dead-trees edition: 4,093 identified. Go Fuck Yourself must really believe there are shopping malls in hell.
Veg and non-veg
Beggars can be choosers in Mumbai. Fascinating story, but of course I have to quibble. Why is food inevitably described so imprecisely? None of my cookbooks have a recipe for "yellow curried gruel." And can gruel be carnivorous fare?
My favorite party trick
has been both disseminated and demystified. It always amazes me how amazed people are when they see how fast you can chill a bottle of Champagne in an emergency (learned it from a sommelier friend eons ago who always stayed after our New Year's open house to make pasta when the glogg was gone and the warm gift bottles were lined up on the counter).
M. Night,
eat your heart out. (So to speak.) A happening in a milk bar is real entertainment, especially for someone in major procrastination mode.
(Filched from metafilter)
(Filched from metafilter)
Everyone's doing it
Stealing recipes, that is. Maybe it's time to abandon the charade that any of these millionaire fools has homey tastes, let alone ever bakes.
6/16/08
In an ideal world
Americans would elect their leaders on the basis of which one might possibly-perhaps-maybe be able to extricate them from a bankrupting war and provide health insurance and public transit instead. But no. We have to dick around in the cookie jar. I know why she steals. I cannot understand why the lapdogs run with the nonsense, election after election. We are ruled by the top of the food chain in a rotting banana republic. Why do we pretend Evita baked alfajores?
I hate it
when someone both smarter and quicker on the cursor says all that needs to be said about something end-of-days ridiculous. Gettin' harder and harder to keep the base camp's fires burning . . .
File under "tangled web"
Shrimp never strikes me as a luxury food anymore; it would be a whole other story if the Man From Nantucket were serving foie gras with his apparently unfermented grape juice. And at least it wasn't arugula, and nobody got $400 haircuts. Did they? What's a million among journalists?
Also, this takes its semisweet time getting to the point, but skim down to the last third and you will be feeling very optimistic. Or maybe not. There are CrackBerries in the afterlife?
Also, this takes its semisweet time getting to the point, but skim down to the last third and you will be feeling very optimistic. Or maybe not. There are CrackBerries in the afterlife?
For all my skepticism
about the frenzy over tainted tomatoes, I have to admit I did just wash the sublime champagne mango I just bought at Gourmet Garage (still no bag reward). Crap on the skin goes straight into the flesh when you slice into fruit. And in a world where the preponderance of farmworkers and food handlers have no clean place to void, let alone wash up afterward, it's amazing the rich all over the planet are not brought to their knees before the porcelain throne every night. Shit doesn't just happen.
Calling Ralph
on the big white telephone. I think the state might have bigger things to worry about than people getting trashed on ice cream. That is rent-a-binge material. And so far bulimia is not a crime at any age.
Huge kudos to Gothamists for being able to read verbiage like "splendid and scrumptious new agrigoodies" and "agrilicious" without gagging themselves.
Huge kudos to Gothamists for being able to read verbiage like "splendid and scrumptious new agrigoodies" and "agrilicious" without gagging themselves.
Not fud, but entertaining
Who needs Jell-O wrestling? I am so ready for Death Match of the Fixed: The painkiller queen vs the tiara princess.
Why waiters should believe
diners when they say the wine is corked. Tasting it is not always smart.
(Filched from the indomitable Lisa Casey)
(Filched from the indomitable Lisa Casey)
Forget the MRSA in the pork
Foie gras will always be the target. Luckily, there is one smart purveyor.
6/14/08
Be careful what (truth) you say
The Boy Wonder should probably get out his shit shield. Some years ago I pointed out that the chef's new apron was invisible, and a shilling underling unleashed a horde of feces-flinging comment monkeys.
While Mo-Do still dreams
of riding in the first car in the homecoming parade, serious stuff is being debated. Although I do wish Home Ec could go back to teaching the cash-strapped that beans and cornbread (or beans and tortillas) make a much more nutritious dinner than cereal and toast.
Then again,
political comments can be dangerous. Follow one linking to a "favorite headline of all time," and the next thing you know you're deep in the paper's food section with jaw dropping over the ripped-off-the-wire hollow "features." And the awful realization that they use "Kentuckiana" down Louisville way. I still remember the slot who hated it so much he preferred "Indi-ucky."
The best food commentary
is on the political blogs. Here, the post is adequate, the feedback exceptional. And it reminded me of my trip to Satur Farms a couple of years ago with a bunch of chefs, all of whom were most anxious to see the white asparagus growing and had to be tactfully informed that the absence of chlorophyll is what makes it white. It's buried in dirt.
The anti-locavore
Figures lie and liars figure, but the assertion about food miles accrued on supermarket runs is intriguing.
Menage a trois
All politics is food.
He also links to the ultimate commentary on the Village losing one of its people.
But The Editors have a pretty sad observation as well: "He wasn’t alone, dying today, although the others passed without the benefit of A-list eulogies."
He also links to the ultimate commentary on the Village losing one of its people.
But The Editors have a pretty sad observation as well: "He wasn’t alone, dying today, although the others passed without the benefit of A-list eulogies."
6/13/08
Someone is working too hard
I myself get exhausted reading his exhaustive output in multiple outlets every week, but he's clearly fried. ("Delicious," by the way, is no help at all to the thinking drinker in the Chilean aisle.) As an intervention, might I suggest what a very smart friend wondered of me: "What is your brain like on battery?"
(Filched from Josh)
(Filched from Josh)
Why do all the tomatoes
illustrating the scare stories look exactly like the greenhouse babies that are safe to eat?
6/12/08
Fountains of pain
For all the horrors of my childhood, I did grow up drinking artesian well water. Two years ago I met a hydrogeologist from out my way who said the water coming out of the ground around Tucson was hot to the touch because the wells had to be drilled so deep. And now it's even worse: "Arizona is out: It now imports all of its drinking water." How about a few more golf courses, or swimming pools, in a region where swamp coolers always outperformed air conditioners?
Not fud, just funny
To think people once believed they could traverse the country in houses on wheels with no consequences. As much as I fear reincarnation, coming back as an archaeologist could be a laugh a minute.
Wait long enough
and a cartoonist will always say it best. For years I've been railing that American drivers are dinosaurs: Little tiny brains in ridiculously outsized bodies. And even the weightists can't take offense here -- I'm not even going to talk about "Cadillac bodies on VW frames."
Which came first?
The salmonella in the egg or in the chicken? So far, this cuts through the FDA tomato crap best.
Don't eat the tomatoes -- have the beef!
Interesting revelation on who got the cellphones to pop the popcorn. I was gullible because my dad died from brain cancer and I suspect the worst. Which is why every time I see someone's head pulsing blue, I get queasy.
The real "Top Chef"
I don't feel so bad
about the crappy waitress at Roberto Passon Sunday night. We almost ate here, for about the 12th time. (Just to clarify: I will go back another 12 times; the food's seriously good, especially when a woman is manning the brick oven.)
I always thought
A hot dog in Rome
Not even electing Obama is going to clean up this mess. But at least the Italians are not going to let his vileness go unremarked. And neither should we.
6/11/08
Slyest dig ever at the Rachael ruckus
Ms. Malkin, I'm afraid they know where your parents were born.
Dining with jock itch
Figures. I go and say something nice about the interactive Pinch Paper and it turns out the whole story is not so savory.
Not fud, just wondering
If Dick had a dick, would his motorcades sound less like Hell's Castratos? And people rag on Bill for acting wacky after bypass surgery. . . .
"Food safety is never an issue"
Ultimate wine for dummies
Got Evian?
They've come a long way
from banning "feisty" because the slot was convinced it meant "small farting dog."
6/10/08
Not fud, just compelling
He wants a place in the history books? Index him under Impeachment, Worst President Ever.
If you're not losing it
you're not paying attention. And yes, there's a food angle: The Chimp's crew bent over for free meals.
The only distillers
the world should need: cartoonists. Am I the last sitting idiot who didn't realize how/why Truman was vindicated by history? (In my defense: No one said anything in school about Japanese internment camps in Arizona, but my dad drove us past an abandoned one one summer to educate us. And people wrote him off as nuts.)
Filched from another daily addiction: Dan Froomkin.
Filched from another daily addiction: Dan Froomkin.
Worse than I realized
Don't know that I can recall a front page like this during any of the many, many E. coli beef recalls in which people actually did die. Talk about sacred steers.
Get out the duct tape
Not fud, just inspiring
Drive-by messaging.
(Filched from Jesus' General, where only the strong of stomach should watch virtual McLame doing his interpretive dance.)
And here I thought
the silliest part was that anyone might be sitting at home following the live flogging. . .
6/9/08
Last to link
but this is actually quite good, and not just because a friend was involved in its creation. The writing was also missing that weird twee aspect so many manly men down there adopt when addressing a subject once relegated to the women's pages.
Just a couple of millionaires
sitting around cooking. When will the silly charades end? (Turmeric and basil in chili? He must be an arugula eater.)
All silliness is local
As usual, nobody sez it better about the "abbatoir" at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. But could someone please explain the newsworthiness of a drunk getting trapped in a bar? I feel like I'm back in Glenwood, Iowa, where a front-page story in the Opinion-Tribune would be about a guy building a condo for purple martins. (No link, either, because I don't want to encourage them.)
6/7/08
Only cake, but stomach-turning
As bad as it looked at the time, what we didn't know was even worse. The whole excerpt is even more sickening. Can turds blossom in hell?
No fud, just incisive
Cliffsnotes on a scandal: We can't "let these people back into polite society."
6/6/08
The smartest guy in the virtual newsroom
Never forget: He was right about the Chimp from Day One.
Today's column is the short version of the 1996 brilliance. (And somehow it's applicable to fud & dying fud sections.)
When tax dollars went for more than endless war
And when kitchens were meant for cooking, not showing off. Thirteen minutes short but brilliant. I think we need a new WPA for creative types. . . .
6/5/08
One that got away
The danger of linking wildly after four cups of tea in the morning is that you can't get 'em all. I'll have more to say at the base camp on Sunday, but this take on the new French, in every sense of the term, was rather insightful.
But I'm not going to feel guilty
drinking $7.97 Veramonte sauvignon blanc from Chile. I hear the wolf out on the horizon. . .
(And I don't think nonsubscribers can read these online, but the WSJournal today has two accidental-life-during-wartime stories: people planting vegetables instead of flowers for their own Victory Gardens, and women giving up pantyhose. This time, though, no one has to draw a seam up the back of her calves.)
(And I don't think nonsubscribers can read these online, but the WSJournal today has two accidental-life-during-wartime stories: people planting vegetables instead of flowers for their own Victory Gardens, and women giving up pantyhose. This time, though, no one has to draw a seam up the back of her calves.)
6/4/08
I hope the hot sauce is better
than the blog. Looks like a classic case of a web designer ordering up all the elements in vogue at the time. But if the Boy Wonder says the closing of the store is a DC tragedy, I believe him.
They are France, and you can't, too
I abandoned a certain section when I slogged through seven columns of reviews apparently written with one eye on the computer screen, the other on the mirror (you could almost hear the grunts and "You go, girl!"s) and saw: On the web: 20 more. And so I missed a gem. I would give a hat tip to the certain someone who tipped me off, but it is a very small world. . . .
Let alone arugula
And these are the guys paid to analyze why Hillary lost but never mention America really hates the Chimp's illegal war*? Speaking for the common man after $40 entrees?
*Amazing how quickly the lapdogs bury the evidence. Click now and the three American soldiers slaughtered are so far below the lede they might as well be disguised as cargo.
She lost me at pig's blood
Was it really a yearning for the good old days when cilantro had to be omitted because those great unwashed hordes of Middle Americans might not be able to find it at the Kroger?
Nobody sez it better.
Nobody sez it better.
Well, there's always a sequel
In my first copy-editing job, at the Louisville Times, we always had to insert this sentence into stories about lawyer-enriching tiffs: "Claims made in the filing of a lawsuit represent only one side of the case." But it sounds as if women are not the only troublemakers here.
6/3/08
Thinking out of the bottle
Why do I think something this intelligent would take five years to plan in Manhattan and one week in Albany to shoot down? Then again, are there even 12 working water fountains in this borough anymore? We can't even get these. (Filched from Tengrain.)
The pink, surrendered
I deleted this over at the base camp because I realized it really had nothing to do with food, but my standards here are obviously lower. And so it's back by demand, in mildly sanitized form:
This was a bad week for anyone who fancies herself living in a sophisticated city. The streets were overrun with the female equivalent of Fleet Week sailors: strange visitors in look-at-me uniform. (Yes, I know there are girls in the Navy, but the boys are the UPS guys of the military.) I have never seen so many Botero-esque women in skimpier costumes in the sidewalk cafes on Columbus; I can’t even imagine what a Technicolor freak show the Village was. It was as ostentatiously ridiculous as kayaking around Venice. (If I had a driver’s license for any reason but national ID, I would propose a story to La Repubblica on “seeing Manhattan by RV.”) Earth to America: “Sex and the City” was fiction. Teevee. Not even a reality show. The worst thing is this Halloween-in-May parade made me remember a creepy incident on Bleecker Street one night when a guy walked out of Amy’s Bread ahead of me and started harassing two women who did not appear to be from around here: “You think you look sexy? You look like tramps! ‘Buy me drinks and you can [redacted] in my [redacted].’” I don’t think it was Mr. Cindy, either. I guess things could be more unsettling, though. Imagine the streets overrun with Indiana Joneses with enlarged prostates.
This was a bad week for anyone who fancies herself living in a sophisticated city. The streets were overrun with the female equivalent of Fleet Week sailors: strange visitors in look-at-me uniform. (Yes, I know there are girls in the Navy, but the boys are the UPS guys of the military.) I have never seen so many Botero-esque women in skimpier costumes in the sidewalk cafes on Columbus; I can’t even imagine what a Technicolor freak show the Village was. It was as ostentatiously ridiculous as kayaking around Venice. (If I had a driver’s license for any reason but national ID, I would propose a story to La Repubblica on “seeing Manhattan by RV.”) Earth to America: “Sex and the City” was fiction. Teevee. Not even a reality show. The worst thing is this Halloween-in-May parade made me remember a creepy incident on Bleecker Street one night when a guy walked out of Amy’s Bread ahead of me and started harassing two women who did not appear to be from around here: “You think you look sexy? You look like tramps! ‘Buy me drinks and you can [redacted] in my [redacted].’” I don’t think it was Mr. Cindy, either. I guess things could be more unsettling, though. Imagine the streets overrun with Indiana Joneses with enlarged prostates.
"In Spain, water is a new battleground"
Sounds grim, no?
But in America, doing something about it is "politically risky."
Who told this country it could have its cars and its future, too? While North Africa moves ever northward:
"The changes on the Almarcha family farm in Albanilla over the past three decades are a testament to that hotter, drier climate here. Until two decades ago, the farm grew wheat and barley, watered only by rain. As rainfall dropped, Carlo Almarcha, 51, switched to growing almonds.
But in America, doing something about it is "politically risky."
Who told this country it could have its cars and its future, too? While North Africa moves ever northward:
"The changes on the Almarcha family farm in Albanilla over the past three decades are a testament to that hotter, drier climate here. Until two decades ago, the farm grew wheat and barley, watered only by rain. As rainfall dropped, Carlo Almarcha, 51, switched to growing almonds.
"About 10 years ago, he quit almonds and changed to organic peaches and pears, 'since they need less water,' he explained. Recently he took up olives and figs, 'which resist drought and are less sensitive to weather'.''
Bunker fare
Search string of the day over at the base camp: Do people in Regina eat horse?
Yeah, those barbaric furriners.
Yeah, those barbaric furriners.
6/2/08
And that mythical 3-cent discount
at Gourmet Garage won't do a thing about the Everests of plastic bags.
(Forgot the HT: ristocrats.blogspot.com.)
Don't think he's talking arugula
Keep your eye on the scarf
The wonder boy turns up the real reason Dunkin is evil: By not providing health insurance for workers but paying them so little that they qualify for Medicaid, the chain pushes the cost onto the taxpayers. It's the Wal-Mart scamola, forcing Big Government to subsidize Big Business while clinging to the conservative antipathy toward universal health care. There should be a VAT on every cup of that bitch's brew. And I don't mean Rachael.
The future looks fat
That's a lot of 99-cent meals. And to forestall any complaints about headline insensitivity, I have to note that both USA Weekend and Time had the same advice this weekend. The sidebar in what's becoming Survivalist Weekly (first the economy, now true disaster) is not online, so I am poaching: "Get in shape! The cruel reality of physics is that overweight people move more slowly and need more space, so they have more trouble fleeing. On 9/11, people with low physical abilities were three times as likely to be hurt while evacuating the Towers." That said, I'm not heartless. I know from experience it is far, far harder to lose it than it is to keep it off. Actually, the reverse is true, too. Which means little kids living on clown calories are getting screwed.
Not fud, just funny
Atta J. Turk sits through it so you don't have to.
(I almost never delete posts over at the base camp but just did because I realized that one really didn't have anything to do with food.)
(I almost never delete posts over at the base camp but just did because I realized that one really didn't have anything to do with food.)