#86 - shawny shawn's day off.

to keep my sanity intact, every once in a while, especially during the non-holiday months, i take a friday off, relax, get some random errands/adult obligations done, etc. it's like ferris bueller's day off, but with less adventure & not in chicago. this friday was one of those days. i slept in for a few extra hours, waking up around 11am after a night where, with no work ahead of me, i had stayed out past my bedtime seeing the debut performance of the W.U.T.S. (who need to get some music on their page) at vox pop, a recently-saved community-owned bar/cafe/performance space/book store/publishing assistance place here in brooklyn...since i'll be back there, more to come on that awesome place at some point.

...so i woke up at 11 & started my day with an iced coffee & the paying off of some outstanding nj taxes. they were from two months from when i moved back to new york over two years ago, so it was sort of like a closing of that "coming back to ny" period, which i suppose is a good thing...sanity & all.

i also used the power of the internet to purchase a three-day pass to the mid-july pitchfork music festival out in chicago. very excited about that. i've never been to the festival & haven't been to chicago since a 2002ish trip, when i was there for a convention of college cable tv systems. all i remember of the city was a few hour journey into the city to meet a friend at a bar somewhat near where dillinger was shot. that's it though.

...so i finally left the apartment in the early afternoon for my usually bi-monthly supercuts haircut up in downtown brooklyn. usually i get the short, frumpy east-european looking woman or the slightly older, talkative woman who's been there forever, but this time, i got a cute, young girl with glasses & a pseudo-afro who fixed my hair. most satisfying haircut of the 09 thus far. you can smell it...spring is in the air.

after my haircut & a few errands, i came home & picked up my mail. to my surprise, there was a cd-shaped package for me in the mailbox, which contained a cd from allison, who you may remember from such places as snack away! #3 & wrestling entropy. in honor of my now-impending trip to chicago, it's a mix of songs about chicago or by chicago bands (including chicago) & it single-handedly made my weekend & got a solid listen over the last few days, especially with the subway waits due to copious mta construction. so yeah...spring is definitely in the air.

#86 - shawny shawn's day off.
snack: pretzel pete spicy-hot! sour cream & habanero pretzel nuggets
drink: rogue morimoto hazelnut signature ale


my friday evening plans consisted of the long-awaited return of the missing teens (the band i'm doing some managing for) as a full band, complete with guitarist & keyboardist, but it was 4pm & i had a few hours to kill, so i picked up a beer & some pretzels to munch on during my few hour-killing. the pretzels i went with are straight outta landsdale (pa)--the pretzel pete spicy-hot! sour cream & habanero pretzel nuggets. look at that pretzel pete! he's such a pretzel-hording lil scamp!

the pretzels come in a gold bag, which is totally classy. as the diagram on the back of the box points out, a lot of thought has gone into making these nuggets as tasty as can be. a wide split in the nugget & things like flakes of parsley make it all possible. they're good...no less dry than any other pretzel, but they're buttery & peppery/spicy, which is tasty. well done, lil pete.

luckily, i had picked up the rogue morimoto hazelnut signature ale to combat cotton mouth. rogue has recently rebranded their hazelnut brown nectar (featuring a communist-looking figure on the front) to the morimoto brand, featuring some sort of samurai. it's a well-done brown ale that's much more flavorful & not as harsh as a newcastle...not really something i see a communist drinking, to be honest, so i support the switch to the composed, asian stylee.

by the time i was done with its 22 oz & had a bit of pretzel pete coursing through my veins, i was good & ready for a full on rock & roll show. james call & erotic photo hunt (the missing teens mastermind's solo project) opened up, followed by full-on rock from psycho rainbow, who i had seen before but absolutely loved for the first time on friday night (check out "penny penny" & this rockin' live action & this stripped-down live action if you're so inclined). then the missing teens returned with a seriously awesome show & (i think) i got my video camera to work & (hopefully) taped the whole thing. i'm so happy they ditched the singer + ipod + couple of instruments approach in favor of a full band sound. it sounds so damn alive it's not even funny.  tons of people came out & rocked their faces off & peeps made some money! friday night melted into saturday morning with beers & conversation & this awesomeness.

part deux of weekend amazingness coming tomorrow! my life is so inspiring exciting! interesting neat full of events!

nosh nook #31 - monday, april 27, 2009

grade schoolers sample 'snack squad' treats (link)
04.26.09 - the williamston enterprise - by brad ritter

theme song (sung to the tune of ghostbusters)...when you've got the munchies...and you need a fix...who you gonna call? the snack squad! when you need a muffin...well don't get pissed...you should just call...the snack squad! actually, the snack squad is made up of fourth & fifth graders from a school in the lansing, michigan area, so there's likely little that they can do for you & you probably shouldn't be calling them...but they could teach you a thing or two about healthy snacks!

according to brad ritter, months back, 130 students from explorer and discovery elementary schools (in williamston, a town of 4K just outside of lansing) decided to form a "snack squad" & learn a thing or two about healthy eating. ritter spoke with spoke with 4th-grade teacher steve forrest, who said that "...the students were asked if they wanted to do a music presentation or the snack squad. they met 10 weeks and learned about cooking, nutrition and fitness."  once again, food trumps music.

every week, the students got to serve the snacks--a sampling of things like fruit cups, homemade salsa & the aforementioned muffins--to fellow classmates.  in addition, the kids made a healthy cookbook, so if you're attending the may 14th ice cream social, make sure to pick up a copy.  according to the april 09 explorer informer, all proceeds will go to the make-a-wish foundation & the school's "fit for life" program, so you can be sure that by buying one of the cookbooks, you're not supporting gun runners in sudan.  that's spending (and snacking) with a conscience.

nosh nook #30 - friday, april 24, 2009

day of pigs (link)
04.23.09 - examiner.com - by liza zimmerman

hot dogs are sweet. tiny hot dogs are even sweeter. wrap them up in a puff pastry & you've got "the bomb." if you feel like i do, you're in luck, because today is national pigs in a blanket day. i would have had no idea were it not for the heads up from lisa zimmerman, who got the heads up from her editors & then decided to reminisce about her personal pig in a blanket dealings...cute headline, ms. lisa.

as a kid, they were her favorite thing about dinner parties. as an adult, she once worked for "a high-brow publishing house in new york, where the publisher's favorite food was pigs in blankets." nuff said there. pigs in a blanket are obviously adored by both young & old.

i have to be honest though. her recommendations for drink pairings--a number of different red wines--strike me as odd. i know that the pig in a blanket is most famously a snack for cocktail parties, where folks are often drinking wine, but essentially she's saying "this wine goes great with a hot dog." there's just something about the mixture of typical low-brow (hot dog) with typical high-brow (wine) that cracks me up...although i suppose that once you've miniaturized that hot dog & wrapped it in a puff pastry instead of a bun, you've, at some point, crossed the border into high brow.  it just seems weird is all.  day of pigs!

nosh nook #29 - thursday, april 23, 2009

cambodian spiders under threat (link)
04.22.09 - voice of america - by rory byrne

it turns out that i've lived a sheltered life. here i am, months away from the midpoint of my thirties & i still haven't tried spider. it doesn't end there. i've never tried truffles or waterboarding or snake meat either, meaning that i still have a full life to live, things to do, arachnids to taste...miles of spider-filled tastiness to go before i sleep.

as rory byrne reports, in cambodia, giant spiders are all the rage as snacks. back in the 70s, a time when pol pot & the khmer rouge were running around screwing up the country by killing millions of citizens & forcing millions to flee, giant spiders (along with geckos & scorpions) became a source of food for refugees. currently, people looking to munch on some garlic & herb giant spider travel to the town of skun, where "every day thousands are sold in the town's big spider market" for around 50¢.

byrne spoke with locals to gauge the current market for giant spiders. while a local spider catcher sang the praises of spider meat & a local farmer spoke of the health benefits of spider wine, a local seller noted that farmers have been destroying spider nests. this, in combination with overhunting, threatens the giant spider's existence.  unless something changes, future cambodians may never get to experience the pleasure of a tasty giant spider. we humans are experts at doing that. we take the tastiest of god's creatures & do our best to try to eat them until they're threatened with extinction...delicious, delicious extinction.

snack away! #4 - all the dick in d.c...

throughout high school and college, i worked at a supermarket in nh as a stock clerk so i certainly know my way around the aisles. i knew where everything in grocery was; i probably still do for my high school store. stuffing? aisle 2: veg. kleenex? aisle 14: bulk paper. beef bullion? aisle 3: spag. hell, i even knew the tricky stuff. capers? nice try. aisle 8: glass. i was also familiar with the really weird things that people rarely bought and i'd only stock a case of once a year... potted meat product, nutella, mrs. dash? who buys this crap? (ed note: hell yeah, nutella!)

a few weeks back it was under somewhat peckish circumstances that i found myself behind the cart at my local fashionable-sweatpants-yuppie-supermarket in suburban washington d.c. i had picked up my normal assorted veggies and meats and breads and was banking a hard right into aisle 5: ethnic/imported foods...might as well grab some kind of funky sauce to douse the chicken with one evening. while i examined a jar of curry to make sure it would make me sorry i bought it the next day, a can i hadn't stumbled on before caught my eye.


spotted dick indeed. if you're going to stump me on a grocery item, it better be ethnic and it better be something i'd never eat. bonus points if there is an intercontinental sexual slang innuendo. after some examination and research, it is apparently some sort of british canned pudding priced at a decidedly ambitious $5.99 per can. american. now mind you, i wouldn't characterize myself as a fan of dick by american definition, so it never crossed my mind that i might buy this version, but two weeks and one guest blog invitation later, here i am in the kitchen with a can opener ready to crack open this little tin of love from the venerable heinz corporation. somehow i don't think this qualifies as one of the 57 original heinz varieties.

snack away! #4 - all the dick in d.c...
guest blogger: todd martin, washington, d.c.

snack: heinz spotted dick sponge pudding
drink: twinings english breakfast tea

so it's about 4:00 and i'm thinking a british snack would hit the spot, so i'm breaking out the heinz spotted dick sponge pudding. the directions instruct me to open the top of the can, run a knife around the perimeter, turn upside down, and open the other side to push the product out. i would soon find that the last two steps are not necessary as a brick of dick immediately smashed onto my counter as soon as i turned the can over. not encouraging.

it smells decent enough - more like a canned cake-like confection with raisins as opposed to a pudding. bill cosby would seemingly not approve. i did not realize there was cooking involved and am ill-prepared for this event. according to the directions, i now have the option to steam or microwave this thing. in the interest of time, i go with the latter and also toss in a mug of water with the hope that the spotted dick aroma doesn't turn it into something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. i'm not exactly sure what made me go all cheeky with the beverage as well, but what the heck.


hey, you know what? not bad! it's cakey and warm and wholesome. really sweet. i would guess the spices include molasses and cinnamon, maybe even pumpkin. i never thought i would like it at first glance but it just goes to show you never judge a dick by its cans. the twinings english breakfast tea complimented it well, perhaps a bit over-steeped but good nonetheless. i have some dick saved for the girlfriend on thursday and you might even find this on my grocery list in the near future.

todd martin is a struggling architectural designer in washington d.c. you should totally have him redo your kitchen.