Hezbollah Tofu, as announced on Serious Eats:
Me: It would be really funny to veganize Anthony Bourdain's recipes.
Another person: We should make and sell a zine, then donate the proceeds to a vegan charity.
So many things are wonderful about this, perhaps most wonderful is the emergence of Serious Eats as a place for culture hackers to announce their work.
omg giant soup dumpling
Originally uploaded by yi.
Here in the miraculous roiling currents of the Mudhole, 17 miles southeast of Manhattan, and further out at hotspots like the Dip, off Montauk, tuna hunt squid and speed at 30 miles per hour alongside whales, porpoises and sea turtles. It is the wildest display of unbridled nature a New York sport fisherman like myself can ever hope to see.
But for those of us who think tuna fishing is an undeniable rite of fall, things are looking deniable.
Robyn's Guide to Gelato in Bologna. That's good blog!
1608 words on Gelato and not one use of the adjective "tangy." "Tangy" is the "tastes like chicken" of food blogging. Food bloggers say something is tangy when they're already thinking about the next meal, or are simply out of adjectives.
Ed Levine: Are Healthy and Delicious Mutually Exclusive?.
Bad french fries are wasted calories. Half an order of great french fries aren't.
Everyone has menus, all over the world, so why is menupages exclusive to New York?
Great question, anonymous reader. There's no good answer.
Megnut says Keep Recipes Free!
Do we really need to get lawyers involved in what we eat? What restaurateur needs a line item for recipe licensing fees in his already tight budget?
Do I hear Wire season 6?
I kid because I love. This is outrageous, and I am glad Meg and others are making a strong case. I can see this issue pushing the public awareness of US copyright law's shortcomings past the tipping point.
According to Michael Ruhlman, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain is stuck in Lebanon, where he's enjoying the mojitos but still scared. Ruhlman also takes this opportunity to ruminate on the term "celebrity chef:"
Why do we have to use celebrity chef? We don’t call Wynton Marsalis the celebrity musician. We don’t refer to Annika Sorenstam as the celebrity golfer, we don’t say celebrity actor and we don’t say celebrity celebrity, though surely there are those, someone who’s famous only for being famous. As far as chefs go, are we calling them celebrity chefs to indicate they don’t cook anymore? We should consider this.
I am clearing out my Marsedit "draft" posts. Incoherence follows. As Chris says:
Away from my keyboard, I "write" exemplary posts to my mind's blog. It occurs to me that a shunt for the mentally unpublished would be nicer software for me to help build.
Hey Six Apart, get on that!
"Superman" doesn't have enough conviction or courage to be solidly square and dumb; it keeps pushing smarmy big emotions at us, but half-heartedly. It has a sour, scared undertone. And you can't help being aware that this is the sort of movie that increases the cynicism and sense of futility among actors. In order to sell the film as star-studded, a great many famous performers were signed up and then stuck in among the plastic bric-a-brac of Krypton; performers who get solo screen credits, with the full blast of trumpets and timpani, turn out to have walk-ons. Susannah York is up there as the infant Superman's mother, but, though Krypton is very advanced, this mother seems to have no part in the decision to send her baby to Earth. York has no part of any kind; she stares at the camera and moves her mouth as if she'd got a bit of food stuck in a back tooth. Of all the actors gathered here—all acting in different styles—she, maybe, by her placid distaste, communicates with us most directly.
Pauline Kael's review of Superman could have been written about nearly any blockbuster between then and now, and indeed she wrote this message into her reviews and reviews over and over. Today Kael looks like a literary giant next to the numbskulls currently reviewing films for the The New Yorker, but here she is simply dead wrong. The original Superman is a masterpiece. (Via kottke.)
Neither your friend nor your boss will be impressed when you quote [Oscar] Wilde. Yet he has yet another one-liner to describe this process: “Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.” Asking students to draw the line was my lesson plan.
From a nice post by my Mom about a presentation she gave to other English teachers this month.
Nicolas Nova's essay "Guy Debord and how IT renews the urban experience" is an uneven but worthy read.
Rebecca has been compiling summer reading lists. They're all worthy, but the Interaction Design summer reading list caught my attention.
KRS One has a myspace page.
Bill "Spaceman" Lee, on when he hurt his elbow once and was given drugs by the Red Sox:
They're going, 'Here, take this, take this, take this.' Afterwards, I've got sterazolidin, butazolidin, Clenerol, Indicin. I've got everything in me. I can pitch in the American League, but I couldn't run in the Kentucky Derby. Holy cow, I'm glowing in the dark. Now all of a sudden (current players) are doing it on their own and now it's a crime?!
That's a quote from the Baseball Prospectus' 5000th article, a landmark worthy of note from the best sports site on the Internet. Bill Lee also said:
The other day they asked me about mandatory drug testing. I said I believed in drug testing a long time ago. All through the sixties I tested everything.
This should give you an idea of how dramatically the discussion around drugs in Baseball has shifted.
Finally, ramps pizza at Otto's.
Taza de café
Originally uploaded by Lady Macabea.
For my readers, a Monday morning coffee. Please don't drink it early!
The front page of my my reblog is currently "fantastic". Today you'll find that the army is lifeblogging, how to judge asparagus, a rocketboom interview with Negativland, the craziest (best) use of bluetooth I've ever seen, and Star Wars bookends.
Here are the Star Wars Bookends, because it is really important that you see them:
I also finally dropped that garish layout. It's better now.
Living in New York City is all about embracing constraints and making them work for you. For better or for worse, New Yorkers surround themselves with rules.
For instance, at the Shake Shack today I noticed that they've instituded a 6 burger per person limit. In the loading dock one block down, they ask that you please "go" outside and advise that you avoid "stickley" garbage.
Meg's been following the growing movement against Foie Gras and yesterday noted PETA's heavy handed tactics in getting the legislation passed. I'm a strong advocate of animal rights, but I'm definitely no fan of PETA. Often people hate PETA so much they lose the ability to think critically about animal rights. PETA is the far right of the left. I love Meg's idea about creating laws to encourgae the humane treatment of animals modeled after organic certification.
I'm suspicious of Foie Gras' current status as a cause celebré. It reminds me of recycling's role in the environmental movement - it makes people feel active and progressive, but only in rare cases does the act of recycling encourage conservation and smart reuse. We're just doing free labor for waste management companies.
updates:
Earlier this month Mr. Sun gave me a top compliment: "I read a bunch of [hello, typepad] posts and I know a lot of things he likes and not much about what he hates. That's nice." Thank you, Mr. Sun. When the giver of life (and lyric) compliments you for being positive, you run with it.
I've been reblogging quite a bit (last Tuesday was a highlight), but it doesn't take the place of regular old blogging, so I'm going to try and pick up the pace again. This last week was full of drama (Sudama - was it the stars?) but I was struck by the good, rather than the bad, behavior of folks on the Internet.
Rogers Cadenhead stepped into a snake pit of xml pedantry and nearly a decade of failed ideas and nasty politics, in hopes of making software better. Some people in the tech community grouse about the "back channel" and then send private email messages around trying to intimidate people out of their ideas. These same people call for the end of venture capital as we know it, and then lean on friendly investors to lay out even more dire threats. Rogers' responses have been measured and reasonable. I trust him and the rest of the RSS advisory board to make software better.
In a similar vein, my friend Judith lost her camera in Hawaii. When Canadian tourists stumbled upon it, they did the right thing by alerting the park ranger, but then did the wrong thing by telling Judith they were not going to return it. Judith knows their name, phone number and address, but has refused to release that information even to the press. She could have their names dragged through the mud - honestly, she could probably have their house burned to the ground in twenty minutes - but instead she is patiently plodding through legal channels hoping the family decides to do the right thing. If you have something that's not yours you return it, right?
And finally, my friend Jason Kottke ended his year long micropatronage experiment. Jason's design and content is the gold standard of weblogs, and has been for years.
At some point last year I was sitting near Jason at Eyebeam, and he offered to show me some ideas he was working on for kottke.org. He opened up a photoshop document, and proceeded to zoom through 15-20 different styles and color schemes. The layouts were all top notch, obviously, but I was most struck by the thoroughness and level of detail in his own mockups. The layers were all logically named and grouped, so he could fly through ideas almost as fast as he could talk about them. If you know photoshop well, you know what I'm talking about.
It was really at that moment I realized how seriously Jason took his work - here was a document that less than five or ten people would even see or know existed, but it was of a higher quality than 95% of the work that professional web designers hand over to their clients. Jason took an enormous pay cut last year in hopes of making his blog better, a great gift to his readers. I think he succeeded, albeit maybe not at to the lofty levels he set for himself. I am sure kottke.org will continue to be outstanding, and I'm looking forward to reading it.
People like Rogers, Judith and Jason that make the Internet great.
tabla_spices
Originally uploaded by Alaina B..
True friend Meg tagged me with four things. Kenyatta almost did, but apparently he was worried about a self induced overdose of vitamin M(eme). Nonsense!
The trouble with Whole Foods: "I know I'm fast and focused and aggressive. That's one of the reasons I *like* living in NYC, I feel like I'm surrounded my people -- except when I go to the Union Square Whole Foods!"
I'm fast and focused and aggressive too. But when I go to Whole Foods a spell comes over me. Look at all those salsas! Can we buy a sampler pack? They have seven or eight different kinds of wasabi. Who knew? And the aisles are just not wide enough for two carts - so while you think you are not blocking people, you definitely are.
I'll try and get better, I promise.
happy new year
Originally uploaded by david.
Silence Of The Blogs (Forbes):
"'The only people you get mad at are the people you care about,' he [Anil Dash] says. 'It's the holiday season, it's the time for fighting with family.'"
Exactly. People wonder why I love Anil (do they?) That's why, at any rate. I also love the headline: "Silence of the Blogs." Many, many dimensions of double entendres there. A sudoku of entendres, if you will. (I understand if you won't.)
Spooky Cafeteria!
Originally uploaded by Stewart.
Surely it's hufu. Now that's interesting!
Fifty years after Brooklyn won the World Series, Jackie Robinson's son David Robinson is shopping the fruits of Sweet Unity Farms Coffee around the country. Younger Robinson co-founded the collective with a group of coffee farmers in 1994, and in addition to growing coffee they've also explored development projects like using solar energy to power their farm. Robinson is pitching MLB to serve the coffee in all ballpark's next year, here's hoping they do.
I'm Mobile, that is, on this Monday. And I'm still thinking about mobile apps and ideas even though I'm blogging less and my blog is still broken. (Note to future readers - my blog WAS broken at the time of writing).
I've been enjoying Henry Abott's True Hoop basketball weblog, mostly because he's a Blazers fan and a stats head both. Before I read True Hoop I was stuck trolling around the abysmal oregon"live" web site for Blazers news.
I've also been enjoying Susan's nutrition weblog. Susan is a vegan dietitian (two ts!) in New York City who gets twice her daily recommended dosage of protein. She is taking nutrition questions from friends and enemies. I've got one!
Susan mentions that it's important to eat carbs within a half hour of finishing strenuous exercise. I've heard this about carbs and proteins both. On True Hoop, Abbott wrote a series of posts investigating the nutritional value of gatorade as a recovery drink. Also, how to clean it up.
So my question for Susan is: what is the best food or drink to have after a run or workout? I personally love Gatorade, but I'm ready to be convinced otherwise.
The written word will be returning soon. Happy Father's Day!
Breakfast
My friend Eli just launched "Fortune Cookie Surveyor". (Surveyor?) It's exactly what you think it is:
Most of the time when you open one of those cookies, you get something other than a fortune, a prediction of something that will happen in your future. Instead, you most often get either praise, advice, an aphorism, or even advertising or an insult. Take a minute to answer the survey. We'd like to know how many you got that were actually fortunes (if any). There's also a few other questions which you don't have to answer but the answers to which I and a few other people will find interesting.
I get deja vu with nearly every fortune cookie I open. I used to keep all of the fortunes I got in an envelope, and as the ink faded I imagined the fortunes were coming true. I wonder they will lose some of the magic as they cross into elirosenblatt.org:80.
Suggestions for future enhancements:
BUN SETS ON HOT DOG KING SAY it ain't so, Takeru! Fans of competitive eating are going to find it hard to swallow the news, but the greatest gobbler of all time, Takeru Kobayashi, is pondering his retirement. The man who ate a record 531/2 Nathan's hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes this year told The Post's own Homer of hot dog lore, Gersh Kuntzman, that the bun is setting on his career: "Lately, I have been thinking of retiring," said Kobayashi, who has won the annual Coney Island frank fest four years in a row. "I want to retire before I disappoint my fans. It is not the competition that I fear. It is a decline in my own abilities. I must go out on top." International Federation of Competitive Eating chairman George Shea found a way to put a positive spin on the news. "Look, the kid is a true champion who wants to go out on top," Shea said. "He will always be the greatest. Women want him, men want to be him and all forms of beef and beef by-products fear him."
From Page Six... this link will disappear.
Did you ever wake up one morning and declare that from this point forward your life would be radically different? Did you then commit your scheme to paper, structuring your ideal day into constituent ideal parts all aimed at the goal of improving mind, body, and spirit? Did you make strong decisions, vow to give up coffee, alcohol, meat, and your little job, too? If this sounds familiar, then I have an old book for you. It is called "Living the Good Life," and it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
My friend Paul's article "The Really Simple Life" was in the Boston Globe today. It's a fiftieth anniversary survey and celebration of sorts of Helen and Scott Nearing's seminal "back to the land" book Living The Good Life. Here's one of my favorite passages:
In Vermont the Nearings lived without electricity, indoor plumbing, or any source of heat beyond hand-split firewood. They ate most of their food raw out of wooden bowls with chopsticks. They foreswore alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco. They divided their days into three units: four hours for "bread labor;" four hours for music, writing, and other avocations; and four hours for social interaction. They avoided cash as much as possible. What money they did handle came as a result of a maple sugaring operation they used to create specialty candy and syrup. Scott's exacting practices amazed even Helen. "I bet you fold your toilet paper neat and square," she once chided him. He acknowledged that he did.
I have lots of friends who fold TP like this.
The Door and the Orange Guy
Originally uploaded by david.
We're pretty sure we know what this is, but we're not 100% sure. And so I've created a new tag on flickR "Name This Plant." Hopefully it catches on.
I had just finished reading Eric Schlosser's recent article about the struggles of union organizers at a Tyson meatpacking plant in Washington, when I read about the shooting death in Kansas of five at a ConAgra meatpacking plant. Hopefully this tragedy will help turn national attention to the crisis of the meatpacking industry in this country.
Tyson's Moral Anchor by Eric Schlosser
One of America's finest union leaders and her supporters are now under assault by one of the nation's meanest, toughest corporations. For years Maria Martinez, head of Teamsters Local 556 in Walla Walla, Washington, has been battling IBP, the meatpacking giant now owned by Tyson Foods. In 1999 Martinez helped launch a wildcat strike at IBP's beef slaughterhouse in Wallula, Washington, protesting safety hazards and excessive line speeds. In 2001 she helped workers there win a lawsuit against IBP for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, gaining as much as $7.3 million in back wages that the company still refuses to pay. She has fought not only for higher wages and better working conditions but also for food safety and animal welfare. With support from Teamsters for a Democratic Union (the progressive, reform-minded wing of the Teamsters), Martinez energized Local 556, reaching out to immigrant workers and linking them with college students, consumer activists and animal rights groups. In response, Tyson Foods has worked hard to get her kicked out of the plant, at one point prohibiting her from even setting foot on the premises. The type of immigrant/activist coalition that Martinez has built is crucial to the future success of the US labor movement--and that is one of the reasons Tyson is so eager to crush it.... To read the full article, click here.
After reading this article, if you'd like to contribute to the workers of Local 556, you can send a tax-deductible donation to "Safe Work/Safe Food," c/o Teamsters Local 556, 1750 Portland Avenue, Walla Walla, WA 99362. Every dollar counts and lets them know that people across the country support their courageous work.
Take a look at Drive-Thru Barbie...
Woke up this morning to this little piece of news: In the fuzzy-logic land of the USDA, French fries are now considered fresh vegetables. Read on... who even knew that there was a Frozen Potato Products Institute?
"The Frozen Potato Products Institute appealed to the USDA in 2000 to change its definition of fresh produce... to include batter-coated, frozen french fries, arguing that rolling potato slices in a starch coating, frying them and freezing them is the equivalent of waxing a cucumber or sweetening a strawberry. The USDA agreed and, on June 2, 2003, the agency amended its [Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act] rules to include what is described in court documents as the "Batter-Coating Rule."
From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
So for the chapter I'm working on I just trolled through some USDA figures and learned that last year we exported 2.5 billion pounds of beef (officially it's: "beef and veal, measured in carcass weight"), which is about 10 percent of our total production. But get this, we also imported 3 billion pounds of beef the same year. Just a little fact from an international food system that spends more money moving things around than paying farmers and farm workers fair wages. A food system in which you can find yourself in Wisconsin near some of the best dairy farms in the country but not find any local cheese, or live in New York City near some of the best apple orchards and only find Fujis from New Zealand. Now, post-espresso, post-post, I'm back to work.
Just got this news alert from the folks at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: Turns out USDA is partnering with Nabisco, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and other companies in their fight against obesity. Call me crazy, but aren't those the guys who are making us fat in the first place?
Here's a little piece from the PCRM's latest action alert - trying to get USDA to end its partnership with Nabisco: "the USDA is currently partnering with Nabisco to push kids to eat more Oreos and Chips Ahoy cookies and to drink more milk. The recently completed “Dunk and Win” cookie contest, which awarded $1 million to the holder of a “special Oreo cookie” that, when dunked, turned milk blue, was touted by the dairy industry as “the most successful retail milk promotion ever conducted under the check-off program.”
Apparently this program was so successful, the USDA plans to launch another: "Spell M-I-L-K with specially marked Oreo cookies and win $100,000. A third milk-and-cookies sweepstakes—this one aimed at school children—is set to kick off in August." You can ask the USDA to get real here.
After many weeks of silence, McDonald's is fighting back. The fast-food company will this week embark on a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to counter the documentary film Super Size Me.
"Val Morgan is asking exhibitors whether they'd be prepared for a one-off fee of AUS$200 ($137) to allow McDonald's to distribute apples to patrons exiting the film as part of the campaign." "I believe McDonald's has spent about AUS$2 million (US$1.4 million) on this national television advertising campaign, which is appreciated," Macki added. "It brings attention to the film from an audience that would probably otherwise never have heard of it."
Posting from Switzerland on his blog, Morgan Spurlock links to the Australian coverage of the McCampaign and talks about his interview with The McDonald's Australia CEO:
"When I was on a radio interview with him in Australia (I think it was B 105 in Brisbane) - he said, and I'm paraphrasing, that Super Size Me is great because it has started a dialogue that needs to be happening. Funny that he's now going to start attacking the movie. ALSO - be sure to track down the Australian copy of Newsweek that features the interview with Guy Russo in it where he says he thinks that "McDonald's and society contributed to obesity." Something you won't hear any CEOs in America saying ..."
It would be cool to track down an audio recording of that interview. Here's the Guy Russo Newsweek interview, and check out the redesign McDonald's Australia home page. The power of documentary film — Morgan Spurlock forced Mickey D's Australian operation to reprogram their entire web site to respond to his film. I wonder if a Guy Russo blog wouldn't be a more efficient way to communicate with customers.
Salt and Pepper on top of the sandwich. Please Comment.
That is a pretty amazing picture.
Over at Alaina's NYC Eats, I've posted a summary of some of my favorite lunch spots.
Lia and Anil beat me to blogging my moblog of Leonardo DiCaprio ordering carrot cake with a homemade oreo cookie at Westville last night. Alaina wrote a nice review of the restaraunt over at NYC Eats, although she generously neglected to mention the service (or lack thereof).
The cake was delicious, and after a couple of bites an anonymouse "vegan" source concurred. Our friends Jason and Silas were kicking themselves for not looking the other direction, where Gisele was patiently waiting for her oreo, which Jason proclaimed "just like a regular oreo." Always the good sport, Westville hostess Sabah assured us Gisele was "not all that." Right.
Later, we saw Golden Girls Live, a performance of two classic GG episodes. Much later, Lia and I played billiards with Jude and Devon.
Update: Leo returned the next day and ordered two turkey sandwiches. They took about 15 minutes to prepare, and Leo took this opportunity to hob knob with staff and Westville patrons. Gisele was again outside with their bicycles, smoking a cigarette this time. Leo asked that they set aside some desert for him and G, which he returned for later.
The hungry tiger on wine snobbery:
And of course I am as fatuous a snob as the next snot-nosed fellow, and any day of the week you can hear me be a big, unfair, self-satisfied asshole on any number of topics. Any number. Lots. Let there be no confusion on this point. I'm a jerk and superior and horrible. But still, har-har rib-jabbing antics devoted to wine just depress me, somehow. Why does this brand of elitism get so particularly up my nose? Got me. But just lookit!
I could not be more in agreement. Last night I was browsing the "cheap and tasty" section of our local wine shop (which, luckily, is also the cheapest in the Slope), and the salesman dutifully extolled the "peppery," "fruity," and "rich" virtues of said "cheap and tasty" bottles. But looking into his eyes, I could read his thoughts: "What do I have to tell this little shit to get him out of my store? He's wearing SHORTS. He better not buy the $5.99 bottle after all this. What buzzwords does he like to hear?" Of course that may be my insecurity talking, since in the end he did recommend a fine bottle, but I'll be sticking with the old favorites in the future.
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