Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Pringles White Chocolate Peppermint

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

“I understand what all those word mean individually, but together in the same sentence they don’t make any sense!”

Sometimes you buy something just so that later you can prove to people it exists.

This is one of those times.

Feast your eyes on this:

I thought they might be white chocolate covered Pringles. But no, they’re regular Pringles with a hint of…white chocolate peppermint. It’s actually pretty subtle. But I’m not sure I want my mass produced pressed potato chips to be “subtle.”

If you want to try them, you should probably pick them up, as I doubt you’ll see them again after this Christmas.

By the way, did you know that Gene Wolfe helped engineer the machine that makes Pringles? Absolutely true. He designed the part that cooks the chips.

Ridiculously Awesome Bacon Sculptures

Tuesday, August 21st, 2012

From The Austin Post, a venue of which I was previously unaware, comes ridiculously awesome bacon sculptures. Come for the full mech suit and the AK-47, stay for Patrick Bateman’s business card.

Austin Dining Review: Chagos

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

(Note: This is a restaurant review that will eventually end up on The Logbook of the Saturday Dining Conspiracy, but since: A.) We’ve pretty much sucked at keep that up to date, and B.) We both have blogs, and, hey, content!, I thought I’d start putting my reviews up in transit to the main SDC pages.)

Chagos Caribbean Cuisine
7301 N Lamar Blvd.
Austin, Texas 78752
(512) 275-6013
http://www.chagos.biz/

Dining Date: March 24, 2012

This is a nice, cheap, hole-in-the-wall restaurant on a stretch (north Lamar between Airport and 183) that has traditionally been hostile to any restaurant not named “Kim Phung.” Although the plantano and yucca chips didn’t grab me, the chicken appetizer was sort of interesting, the salad wasn’t bad, and my Bistec Encebollado was reasonably tasty.

My Tres Leches cake was quite deliciously sweet but undersized. Service was attentive and personal, but they weren’t particularly busy.

If you live nearby, and are in the mood for something both cheap and not bland TexMex, Chagos is worth a try.

New Frontiers in Garlic Peeling

Friday, March 16th, 2012

So I saw this video on Fark on how to peel garlic in ten seconds by shaking the cloves between two steel bowls a while back:

I make fresh salsa from time to (and have won some honorable mentions at a local hot sauce competition for same), and one of the biggest pains in the ass is peeling 4-5 whole bulbs of fresh garlic (the jar stuff just doesn’t work as well). So I thought I would give it a try.

What do you know? It works. Not 10 seconds, or quite as well peeled as in the video, but my two steel bowls are smaller than this guy’s. Even so, this easily cut about 80% of my garlic peeling time, which adds up to over an hour in the course of a year.

This may be an old tip for many of you, but I thought I would share it for those who regularly have to peel garlic…

A Frozen Pizza Home Run

Monday, November 7th, 2011

I don’t tend to buy frozen pizza (for a lot of reasons), but I did recently pick up a Home Run Inn Meat Lovers Pizza at Central Market when I went there for salsa fixing. Though it does cost more than average (about $7.50), it turned out to be significantly better than your average DiGiorno’s/Red Baron/Tombstone “premium” meat pizza, with both better meat and a better crust. Anyway, if you’re near a Central Market and have a hankering for pizza, you could do worse…

Best Potato Chips Ever

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

By serendipitous chance, I have stumbled across the most delicious potato chips I’ve ever tasted.

You’re probably thinking “Oh, they’re probably truffle-flavored French potato chips you found at Central Market, and they’re $20 a bag.”

No. I found them at a convenience store in a combination Chevron/ McDonald’s in Cedar Creek on Highway 71 between Bastrop and Austin, they’re roasted garlic flavor, and they’re 79ยข a bag. And they’re made, of all places, in Detroit.

Behold Uncle Ray’s Roasted Garlic Potato Chips:

They taste like a really good slice of garlic bread, except saltier and crisper.

I don’t often eat potato chips (for all the obvious reasons), but if Central Market did have these, I’d definitely stock up for my next party…

Dear Renaissance Austin Hotel: Please Make Up Your Freaking Mind

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

A while back there was an announcement that “Blue Ribbon Restaurant opened in the Renaissance Austin Hotel, 9721 Arboretum Blvd.” Indeed, the corporate mothership mentioned the Austin version yesterday while crowing that the same menu will be trotted out to different Renaissance hotels around the country.

Fine. Dandy. Except for the fact that Renaissance Austin Hotel doesn’t seem to have ever heard of it, and it isn’t found on their list of restaurants. Calling the Renaissance and asking for the restaurant gets you Banderas-A Texas Bistrot, which I’ve eaten at before, and which I found most notable for its glacial serving pace. And when I called the Renaissance to ask if they had a Blue Ribbon Restaurant, the girl answering the phone said no.

Anyway, Blue Ribbon Restaurant sounds like the sort of place I would like to try, especially since Armadillocon will be in the Renaissance again this year. But only if it, you know, actually exists.

Richard Cory Went Home Last Night and Put a Bullet Through His Head

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

This has to be one of the saddest and most inexplicable local stories of recent memory: Yoli and Michael Amr, founders of Gumbo’s, Yoli’s Jambalaya and Mama Roux, are now dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

This is a profound shame, as in each of their incarnations, they had the best Cajun food I ever tasted (and this is from someone who’s eaten at K-Paul’s in New Orleans).

I have trouble believing it was money troubles, since Mama Roux was always packed when we went there. Maybe there were health issues.

I’m at a loss. Sometimes people, even successful and apparently happy people, do inexplicable things.

New World’s Hottest Pepper: The Naga Viper

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

Or so they claim. It comes in at a hefty 1,359,000 Scoville units, or about 7 times hotter than the average Habanero.

I am something of a chilihead, and am renowned near and fa-, well, actually, only near, for making a very hot salsa. (It earned Honorable Mention in the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest a couple of years.) However, having tasted Melinda’s Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce, made from the previous hottest pepper (also known as the “ghost pepper”), I’m not sure I’m up to the task. It’s not that my taste buds aren’t up to it; rather the problem lies at, ah, the other end. My body has let me know in no uncertain terms that if I want to eat something that hot, it’s going to pass it through my gastrointestinal tract as fast as it possibly can. This, needless to say, has its downside.

Still, I’d be willing to try this. Once.

(Hat tip: Fark.)

Funny Looking Food

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Or rather, a website devoted to same.