food museum blog

Eat Crap, Win Voters' Hearts and Minds? Part Two: The Booze Factor

"Mocked for not finishing his waffles, he (  Obama) has made a joke about his newfound willingness to drink beer in blue-collar bars and sop up the gravy at working-class diners. After he lost the Pennsylvania primary to a beer-swilling, whisky-downing Hillary, Obama mordantly announced to his staff, "OK, now I'll eat anything."  This week's Newsweek cover story is about Senator Obama and his team.

So many silly issues, dumb attacks about nothing--I wonder how many of those who voted for G.W. Bush because they thought he was the kind of guy they'd like to have a beer with have actually had a beer with him during the past eight years. Please contact me, wherever you are.

Meanwhile, if you haven't had a politically incorrect laugh lately, take a gander through That Hillary Show, my new personal favorite web offering. The most recent video is up top, wherein Hillary urges Bill to keep drinking with the denizens of a bar in West Virginia. The creation of the clever and focused Rosemary Watson, it features a dogged, yet addled Hillary fighting on, and on, and on. The show has finally had some play at the NYTimes and The Atlantic--wish I had blogged the link earlier because I have been enjoying these for some time.
( This YouTube  pic of Rosemary at left is lousy, but all I could find at the mo'.)

Homage to Hot Dogs Everywhere

  Just had to share. Pass the pickle relish!

 

( This foodishly captivating canine pic captioned "Why Dogs Kill Their Owners" found at www.tailsofjoy.net/.)

Fogies, Start Your Sniffers!

A new study reported in Discovery News indicates that if you can't identify the aromas of 12 different smells, you may be headed down the rickety road to Alzheimer's. Among the featured smells are many from the food world, including lemon, chocolate, onion, black pepper, pineapple, banana and cinnamon. But wait--what about rotting potatoes, burned toast, cat tuna breath,  and  canned Dinty Moore's beef stew? ( The latter a horrific childhood camping memory...)

Apparently if  your olfactory department stays on track, you continue to exercise even from your chair, and you keep your mind  crackling by daily inventing new email addresses, you'll wobble off into the Great Beyond with all your marbles clicking away  neatly in your noggin.

I fear for many, however--for those who plug aromatherapy lamps into their sockets, spray the cat with Febreze,  layer wet clothes with sheets of Bounce, hang "new car" smellies from the rear view mirrors of their aging Volvos---surely all this artificial odeur is bound to skew the ability of the aging schnozz to pick up on the actual aromas of lemon and banana?

Food News From All Over

Tired of all the U.S. presidential candidates already? Then consider Mr. Breakfast for President.  It's a campaign launched by the wacky entrepreneur behind Mr. Breakfast.com, Eddy Chavey, a fellow who has seized on his matutinal subject and won't let it go. ( Apparently he does good works, too.)

Tired of abused cows providing your milk? ( Tired of all those commercials that start with a dumb question? )Anyway--fellow Blogger Kathy F, based on the cusp of London over thar, sent us this link to something called Cows Unite!  It's an entertaining, time-consuming, clever website but I am still fuzzy as to what they are or what they do--but then, I am sure you fervent websters can find out.

  And finally,  this all sushi all-the-time-website, Sushi 4 Me, tumbled down our rabbit hole recently--it's sassy, and full of info, including glimpses of sushi culture, funny videos, the whole California roll. Go here.

I Like You, Too, Amy Sedaris

Confession: Once again, I, Foodie, have a pile of food books stacked up next to my desk, all sent by perfectly nice folks for me to review. The latest is Jane Butel's tome, Real Women Love Chiles. I have met Jane, she's a southwest cooking guruette who lives here in NM, obviously, as she spells "chiles" correctly...And I will get to her book. ( Among others.)

But right now, I am blogging about a LIBRARY BOOK. ( Gawd, the guilt.)

Yesterday, the sirens called to me from the "new non fiction" rack. Actually, it was Amy Sedaris' wacky , colorful book on hospitality called I Like You--Hospitality Under the Influence ( Warner Books, 2006.) Born in 1961, Amy apparently would have preferred being an adult in the rickrack and jello salad-infested 1950's, stylistically and recipe-wise. ( Druggily speaking, no.)  Her Lil' Smoky Cheese Ball ! Her Meatloaf Wreath!  Her Band-Aid Cake!

Amy, an actor, writer, performer, etc., etc,, is Martha Stewart high, with a sense of humor, Martha nurturing and unleashing her inner tackiness.  The recipes are real, though this might be hard to believe, given their surroundings. So are the pix of Amy's fake food collection scattered throughout .

( Incidentally, while leafing through a half shredded copy of an entertainment mag while biking at the gym, I read a blurb about Meryl Streep--she said that in order to prepare to play the Devil in The Devil Wears Prada she gave up drinking wine with dinner and lost a few pounds--but more crucially, she lost her sense of humor, an absolute prerequisite for playing the silver-haired glam-0-harridan....)

(OK, that was extraordinarily "incidental.")

Feeling dull? Take a look at this book---the photospread detailing how Amy puts on pantyhose will  remind you why you gave them up eons ago but also whet your appetite for leaving the crafts section of the book, and trying out some of her (genuine) Greek-American recipes.

I know--this book isn't even "new." ( Sigh.)

Pulled Over for Food Gawking

I kid you not. Foodie Spouse just phoned in from an Illinois  state trooper's car. Apparently he was pulled over for driving too slowly, as he was looking for the correct exit for The World's Largest Catsup Bottle.

Also--Foodie S. was peering out the window in search of horseradish fields, as this area of Illinois apparently is full of them.

Spud Heads Soar!

No Couch Potato he, Mr. P.H. was retrofitted last year as a fit and healthy runner, and in his balloon incarnation again will fly in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade this week. In addition, the United States Potato Board has opened a Potato Head-quarters in New York's Chelsea Market that will be offering recipes and family spud fun through Friday.

Not appearing in the parade is an actor some in the business apparently once dubbed "Mr. Potato Head,"  Daniel Craig, the new Bond, James Bond. Frankly, we don't see the resemblance....

Punkin Pizazz from All Over

"Ric Griffith is crazy about pumpkins. He has 2,400 in his yard, with 600 still to be delivered, " according to a brief note in The Washington Post. The neighbors look forward to the  Kenova, West Virginia punkin pasha's work every year, and probably partake of the pumpkin "meat" that results.

For all things pumpkin from The FOOD Museum, click here.

( Left)  Don't try this at home--the "cannibal pumpkin" from extremepumpkins.com

Best Ever Pumpkin Pie? Try this recipe from The Spice House. And for our vegan friends, this one.

Worst P.Pie ever? According to one blogger it's this one from epicurious.com, normally not the recipe source from hell.

And finally...According to consumeraffairs.com, Target stores is recalling $5 kits of Mr. Potato Head-type ( I assume these are not real licensed Mr. PH items)  stick-in ears, noses, eyes, etc., for use with PUMPKINS, a sacrilege right there, with the usual concerns about small children ingesting the parts.  Take the kits back to Target while your kids stay busy ingesting raw pumpkin seeds and wielding sharp knives.

Compelling Questions Answered Re: Breaking Spaghetti; Dung Beetles; Quirky Culinary Interests of the Female Malaria Mosquito

Just stumbled across this year's winners of the 16th annual Ig Nobel Prizes, organized by the journal Annals of Improbable Research and co-sponsored by Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students and the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association.

"The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology."

Here are the winners in PHYSICS: Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris, for their insights into why, when you bend dry spaghetti, it often breaks into more than two pieces.
REFERENCE: "Fragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks: Why Spaghetti Does Not Break in Half," Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch, Physical Review Letters, vol. 95, no. 9, August 26, 2005, pp. 95505-1 to 95505-1.
REFERENCE: video and other details at <http://www.lmm.jussieu.fr/spaghetti/index.html>

NUTRITION: Wasmia Al-Houty of Kuwait University and Faten Al-Mussalam of the Kuwait Environment Public Authority, for showing that dung beetles are finicky eaters.
REFERENCE: "Dung Preference of the Dung Beetle Scarabaeus cristatus Fab (Coleoptera-Scarabaeidae) from Kuwait," Wasmia Al-Houty and Faten Al-Musalam, Journal of Arid Environments, vol. 35, no. 3, 1997, pp. 511-6.

BIOLOGY: Bart Knols (of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical Research, in Ifakara Centre, Tanzania, and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna Austria) and Ruurd de Jong (of Wageningen Agricultural University and of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy) for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.
REFERENCE: "On Human Odour, Malaria Mosquitoes, and Limburger Cheese," Bart. G.J. Knols, The Lancet, vol. 348 , November 9, 1996, p. 1322.

Apparently actual Nobel Prize Winners often attend this event and help hand out the awards. ( Certain scientists are waaay cool, let's face it. )

( Dung beetle at work, courtesy e-gnu.com)

Eclectic Yet Utterly Useful Food News

Foie gras banned in Chicago. Human fat melted away via infrared laser. Tottenham Spurs football club felled by food poisoning incurred at a buffet right before they played West Ham United.

Food news is becoming eclectic indeed. Malaysians from the state of Terengganu have taken and eaten so many giant leatherback turtle eggs in recent years the turtle is almost extinct. This has prompted officials to change the symbol of the state from the delicious turtle to the no-way-we can-eat-Nemo clown fish.

The volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini or Theta that buried Crete's Minoan culture apparently has been accurately dated to between 1627 and 1600 BC thanks to the radiocarbon dating of a "gnarled olive stump," that was alive and then buried under the lava.

Celebrate during May!

National Asparagus Month                                             
National Barbecue Month
National Egg Month                                                            
National Hamburger Month
National Salad Month
National Salsa Month
National Strawberry Month
National Herb Month
National Chocolate Custard Month

Finally, to kick off the week with an amuse bouche:

"I once talked to an old cannibal," the famed anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski once recalled, "who, hearing of the Great War raging in Europe, was most curious to know how we Europeans managed to eat so such huge quantities of human flesh. When I told him the Europeans did not eat their slain foes he looked at me with shocked horror and asked what sort of barbarians we were, to kill without any real object."

( Photo by Eric Limon, www.blacklightphoto.com/)