nosh nook #37 - tuesday, may 5, 2009

exposed: baby snacks that may be worse than junk food (link)
05.05.09 - belfast telegraph - by lesley-anne henry

these days, in our fast paced world of sport drinks & power bars, even babies need to eat healthy.  you can't just feed them tin cans & galoshes like you would with a scruffy bill goat (often with hilarious results, i might add).  just like with other types of humans, babies need vitamins & nutrients & all those essential things that everyone else needs to live.  as a result, in northern ireland, folks are taking steps to ensure that their babies remember to eat right.

as lesley-anne henry describes in the article, belfast's parents' advice center is telling parents to take note when buying food for their baby, as some baby foods have turned out to be less nutritious than initially assumed.  two of the more notable unhealthy baby food dispensers--heinz and cow & gate.  one heinz product--toddler's own mini cheese biscuits--"contain more saturated fat that a mcdonalds quarter pounder with cheese."  although it's a scientific fact that babies love mcdonalds, they're too young to be eating quarter pounders.

i, for one, was shocked to hear that our beloved american heinz corp. was responsible for feeding babies unhealthy food, as their most famous product, ketchup, only contains two types of corn syrup, only one of which is high fructose.  as for cow & gate, i'm not familiar with them, but am sad to hear that they're "withdrawing (their) bear, berry bear & animal friends biscuits" due to high levels of hydrogenated fat.  from what i hear, berry bear's a swell guy & i can only imagine how tough it's going to be for him to find work in this harsh economic climate.

nosh nook #36 - monday, may 4, 2009

machine dispenses snacks while bbc talks doom and gloom about the economy (link)
05.03.09 - slipperybrick.com - by conner flynn

how would you like it if every time you got bad news, you got a snack as well? swine flu has shuttered your country? here's a bag of doritos for you. your fiance is a murderer? crack open a cool, crisp nestea. eighty civilians died today in a bombing in your village market? have a clark bar. it's pretty obvious that if we had vending machines that took the edge off bad news with a free snack, life would be a lot sweeter. at the plymouth college of art, in the u.k., such a vending machine exists. in this case, it's just an art project, but that's technically still reality.

as flynn notes in the article, bbc headlines come up on a monitor attached to the vending machine. every time a headline speaks to bad economic news, the vending machine dispenses a packet of walker's crisps, which you can take. glasgow based ellie harrison, the current artist in residence at plymouth college of art, developed the piece, which speaks to both generosity & "a time in the future when our access to food may literally be determined by wider political or environmental events. we may not be able to access what we want, when we want, at the touch of a button."

vending machine from ellie harrison on vimeo.

i like it.  good concept.  good snacks.  good art.

#89 - sweet romance.

last night, i was doing the internet chat with a certain friend in germany & she was looking for a romantic comedy to watch. eventually, she settled on marley & me, starring jennifer aniston, owen wilson & a naughty dog. personally, the closest i get to watching romantic comedies are films with michael cera or seth rogen. today, to avoid the rain falling outside, i checked out nick & norah's infinite playlist, starring cera & the sometimes hot kat dennings & an infinite playlist. ellen page was nowhere to be found.

as a supporter of all things indie rock & skewly arrested development-related, going in, the film could've had michael cera sitting around in his apartment with any cute girl listening to british sea power for ninety minutes & it would have been fine with me. over the past few years, i've been a big believer in indie rock as a great catalyst for bringing people together, so i'm a fan of the film's "dorky love through indie rock" approach. the indie rockness starts right up in the opening shot, which features a merge records (happy 20th anniversary!) sticker & a poster for a show at nyc's bowery ballroom. during the night, they visit all the indie joints--bowery, arlene's grocery, union pool (or "brooklyn pool" in the film). the opening credits play over a devendra banhart song...& then later devendra has one line as a customer in a deli, where he assures norah that she'd know if she'd had an orgasm. creepy.

the film weaves two plots together. the first revolves around a group of high school seniors, including nick (cera) & norah (dennings), trying to find the locale of a secret show by the fictional band where's fluffy?  this plot provides the backdrop for the main plot--nick & norah shedding their exes & falling in love over the course of a single evening. they argue a bit & say nerdy things to each other & get excited about bands & he has a handiwipe handy for her & she calls him "her musical soul mate except for all the cure" and they fall in love. that's the best kind of love! anyway, i enjoyed the film. you should too.

a few items of note...

near the beginning of the film, nick's band, "the jerk offs" are playing a show in the l.e.s. opening for bishop allen. since this gig is at arlene's grocery, we can assume that nobody got paid.

there are a few random cameos--seth meyers (as half of a horny couple who mistakes nick's yugo for a cab), andy samberg (as a scary homeless dude) & kevin corrigan (as a guy at port authority with a turkey sandwich).

favorite line i can identify with #1: "...nicky is definitely worth the underwire. he just needs a little push is all."

favorite line i can identify with #2: "look, other bands, they want to make it about sex or pain, but you know, the beatles, they had it all figured out, okay? "i want to hold your hand." the first single. it's effing brilliant, right?... that's what everybody wants, nicky. they don't want a twenty-four-hour hump sesh, they don't want to be married to you for a hundred years. they just want to hold your hand."

#89 - sweet romance.
snack: ike & sam's kickin' cayenne kettlecorn
drink: grown up soda dry cola


since nothing goes better with a movie than popcorn & a soda, i cracked open a bag of ike & sam's kickin' cayenne kettlecorn to munch on. it is hands down the best popcorn i've had this millennium. the individual pieces are fully popped & fluffy at times and at other times crunchy & sweet & salty all at once. the cayenne flavor's not too crazy, but it's there enough to give the popcorn a slight peppery taste, which goes well with the other prevailing taste, which is like a subtle, sweet caramel...not unlike every single character michael cera has ever played.

the popcorn's made by a company located down by avenue i here in brooklyn, which means i'm a selective locavore, right? it's trans fat & cholesterol free and made with only five ingredients--popcorn, corn oil, sugar, salt & cayenne pepper--which is an amazing feat given the wonderful taste. it's a good thing that it tastes as godlike as it does & that, as a result, i finished off the bag today, because it apparently expires on cinco de mayo.

tonight's beverage of choice is a grown up soda dry cola, made by a company based here in the city. even though i assume they don't have a bottling plant on 57th st, we'll call them local as well, especially since they've donated to both 826NYC & the madison square park conservancy. their cola's made with cola nut extract & like all their beverages is 100% natural, kosher & no-caffeine. no high fructose corn syrup in this bad boy...cane sugar all the way. i prefer the cane sugar sodas over the HFCS ones. it gives them a feel similar to that of fountain soda, even though it's bottled.

...so it turned out that my snack & drink choices tied in nicely with the film & just like with the film, they were both subtly sweet & not too "in my face."  when i was done with them, i felt satisfied & hopeful and the best part?  it was all done in a way that felt neither icky nor manufactured...how sickly perfect is that?

#88 - (rice dream).

they love me like I was a brother. they protect me, listen to me. they dug me my very own garden, gave me sunshine, made me happy. rice dream. rice dream. rice dream.   - radiohead

growing up in new hampshire, i followed all four major sports religiously (go statistics!) and my favorite teams were the hometown celts (basketball), bruins (hockey) and red sox (baseball) & the san fran 49ers (football)...nobody liked the patriots back then. they were awful...although...mosi tatupu! two of my favorite athletes growing up were hall of fame red sox outfielder jim rice (second only to dewey) & 49er wide receiver jerry rice, quite possibly the greatest receiver in nfl history...and classy. jim rice was sort of an ass to reporters, but compared to nowadays, it reminds me of a quaint time when professional athletes didn't kill people & have tragic breakdowns.

when i moved to nyc back in 01, within a few months, i randomly ran into a high school friend who i had dated for two weeks back in high school before i knew a damn thing about girls. we decided to meet up soon after at rice restaurant for dinner, but in the end, ended up somewhere else. then we hung out a few times after that, randomly ran into each other again at penn station taking the LIRR in from brooklyn during the 2005 MTA strike...

flash forward to 2007...i'd never managed to make it to any of the rice locales in the city, but i started working in d.u.m.b.o. and there's a rice restaurant there, so i finally tried it out. although it's a bit pricey for the portion, the veggie meatballs with black rice are friggin amazing. if i ever go crazy & become a serial killer & end up on death row, that might be my last meal...as long as i can get two orders worth.

present day...the rice name holds faded sway in american society. there's condoleezza "double z" rice, who after becoming the first black secretary of state, presided under the 2nd half of one of the worst periods of foreign relations in american history. there's anne rice, who after becoming a huge favorite with her vampire chronicles, decided to only write for jesus & left the ravaged new orleans that had been her home & inspiration for many years. then there's damien rice. he's always been pretty lame, but has some sway in ireland & some other countries.

#88 - (rice dream).
snack: riceworks wasabi gourmet brown rice crisps
drink: beer lao lager


in honor of rice, i picked up a bag of riceworks wasabi gourmet brown rice crisps.  on the front, they promise "a mouth journey." who doesn't want a mouth journey?  they're all vegan/celiac/gluten-friendly & made with brown rice, which makes them all thick & crunchy. since i'm the type of guy who fills his soy sauce with wasabi & sucks down wasabi peas like they're made up of the meaning of life, i found the flavor to be quite awesome.  it stands out nicely, but there's a prominent brown rice flavor as well, which is solid.

also, if you have some free time, you should check out the totally un-catholic guilt-o-meter on their website.  holy crap it is hilariously good fun.  it's amazing what you can do with the internet.  plus, who doesn't love a little guilt?  fun?  guilty as charged!

since the wasabi chips are spicetastic, i decided to crack open the can of beer lao lager to ease the pain. unfortunately, the can had other plans. when i pulled at the tab, it bent limply without piercing the can. i tried twisting it a bit & eventually, it just snapped off, leaving me with the smiley face pictured below. mr smiley & i had a nice joint chuckle over the scenario in the echo of my empty kitchen. then i grabbed a butter knife, stabbed at that can with authority & drained its foaminess into a glass, pseudo-shotgun style.


it's a beer from laos brewed with jasmine rice & basically, it's a light beer, more like a pilsner than a lager. it reminds me of singha, which is basically a slightly better budweiser, which is basically a slightly better water. it comes from a brewery started by the french & is apparently the national beer of laos.  there's this npr story about their brewmaster, sivilay lasachack, who wants to make it global...just like budweiser. they're now owned by carlsberg (whose website puts the words "probably the best website in the world" in your title bar), so the chances of that happening have significantly increased. good luck, sivilay!  keep reaching for that dollar!

nosh nook #35 - friday, may 1, 2009

snacks gain consumer clout (link)
04.30.09 - adweek - by convenience store news staff

what a time to be a snack!  snacks are totally popular!  i mean, they went from totally geek...to totally chic!  of course, people have always loved a little nosh & nibble here & there, but these days, people demand more from their snacks & in return, their snacks have not let them down.  in an effort to cater to our increasingly divergent needs, they've become healthier & fancier & definitely more EXTREME.

as adweek explains, a recent study by the center for culinary development (ccd) & packaged facts (convenience store news) showed that the importance of snacks has increased along with the go-go pace of the american lifestyle.  with less time to prepare foods & more need for sustenance to keep us go-go-going, snacks often step in to fill the between-meal void.  the study also found that while there's recently been an explosion of healthy snacks flooding the market, members of generation y go for "highly nutritious seaweed snacks," while their parents go for the less exotic whole grain snacks.

i definitely utilize snacks as a part of my a diet, as i prefer a bunch of snacks & small meals throughout the day rather than a couple huge meals that make me want to explode.  living in nyc, it's often hard or impossible to make it home & prepare a meal at "normal" meal hours, so rather than blow all my money eating out, i use snacks as a way to delay my meals until i can get home...the healthier, the better.  so yeah, i don't play by the rules, but i guess a lot of other people don't either.  usda recommended three balanced meals & food pyramid be damned!