I am entering into high birthday season. Not only my own, but about half of the people I know. We’re Summer babies– the product of cold-weather snuggling and perhaps a little too much Holiday Cheer. I suspect that my own conception had something to do with Nixon’s 1968 presidential victory. I shudder, yet I am [...]
Entries from July 2008
July 24, 2008
Arizmendi: there is fancy bread.
The voice of Gene Wilder has been inhabiting my head for the past several days. There is no good reason behind it, really. Just an endless, mildly obsessive audio loop, but it got me thinking…
Yes, where exactly is fancy bread? In the heart or in the head? After much [...]
July 18, 2008
Sayonara, Mr. Aoki.
Forget for a moment that the late Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki was a heavy-drinking playboy who once boasted of impregnating three different women at the same time. Forget that his Benihana empire turned his family into some Japanese-American version of Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. And try, too, to forget that trademark jheri-curled head of his.
Rocky Aoki [...]
July 10, 2008
The Pretzel– Tying knots.
Pretzels are a snack food to which I have never given much thought. They’re crunchy and salty, or soft and chewy. Great with beer, great with mustard. Plain, dipped in chocolate or yogurt, they satisfy the basic urge to nosh mindlessly. They work well with myriad accompanying flavors, except possibly huckleberry, which I tried last [...]
July 4, 2008
Yelp: (No) thanks for sharing.
In celebration of our most patriotic holiday, I am declaring my own independence from what I consider one of the most irritating sites on the internet– Yelp.com. Even the name causes me to chafe.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “yelp” means:
1. Noun: a sharp shrill bark or cry (as of a tog or turkey); [...]
July 2, 2008
Posh Nosh Revisited
Cooking shows have sprung up like so much unpleasant fungus in the past decade. Thank you, Food Network. Some are truly instructive, even mildly entertaining, but few are actually really interesting. A recipe here, a perky, annoying host there. Thirty minutes and several jarring jump cuts later, you’ve got two to three dishes presented [...]
