Funny Flavors

Monday, August 17, 2020
The owners of Char Kol, a "Korean Barbecue" in Philadelphia, are being accused of cultural appropriation for their new restaurant, white entrepreneurs disrespecting Korean cuisine by using the culture for personal gain.  https://www.inquirer.com/food/char-kol-korean-michael-schulson-protest-barbecue-20200813.html

Since respecting the manners and mores of other populations seems to be the right thing to do, there is a need for a new role: Ethnicity Authenticator.  Let's get rid of those Dominicans behind the counter at bagel joints, Greeks at pizza ovens, Chinese run taquerias, and while we're at it, what's with those Koreans owning French dry cleaners?

We need to keep people, culture and cuisines in their place; we need to build MikePenceWorld.
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Speaking of good eats, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, let us regard what might be on a Buddhist menu.
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3097180/buddhist-food-how-healthy-vegetarian-dishes-full-seasonal

This article visits several restaurants that adhere to strict Buddhist dietary rules, "no killing of living things, and no use of animal products."  Accordingly, they "use plants, funguses and other ingredients to imitate meat-based food."  This approach is also found among Jews who want to keep Kosher, separating dairy and meat cuisines, as well as barring some foods all together, such as shellfish and pork. 

While this still gives the Kosher cook a myriad of meats, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruits, pasta, eggs, pasta and grains to deal with within the rule book, the lure of the forbidden fruit has remained.  After all, it ain't easy resisting the smell of bacon frying.  

"As a general rule, even if the Torah forbids a certain food, one is still permitted to eat kosher food that has been artificially flavored to taste like that food."   https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3907949/jewish/Are-Imitation-Crab-Pork-and-Cheeseburgers-Kosher.htm

The result is mock meat, mock pork, mock shellfish imitating the real thing.  See "facon" for instance.  https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Facon

While these products are Kosher at the technical level, from allowable sources, free of forbidden ingredients, are they really Kosher?  Should thousands of years of tradition, admittedly irrational in places, be outwitted in a laboratory?  Should the Gentiles rise in opposition to our appropriation of their culinary cultural heritage?
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In case your mouth is watering at the thought of bacon or facon, you can  try and feed your hunger virtually at this list of Chinatown restaurants.  While there is room to quibble, including Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, and Jing Fong, 20 Elizabeth Street among the top choices immunizes the overall selections to a great degree.
https://www.thrillist.com/eat/new-york/chinatown/best-chinatown-restaurants-nyc?utm_campaign=20200817
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If you miss the murderous internecine ideological battles of the Spanish Civil War, take heart.  Some of our young "progressives" are apparently busy erecting barricades on the left side of the political spectrum.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/us/adolph-reed-controversy.html

My response to the article is this unpublished letter to the editor:

Until the Democratic Socialists of America demonstrate a broader view of inclusiveness to a fellow leftist, I urge them to read George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, recounting how the left engaged in active warfare during the Spanish Civil War, thereby aiding the success of Fascism.

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Stony Brook Steve and I felt the need for a little exercise today, so we walked up Amsterdam Avenue until we felt the need for a little lunch.  We chose Spice, 435 Amsterdam Avenue, one of a local chain of Thai restaurants.  It had tables and chairs outside, a requirement for any New York City restaurant at present.  It was also on the shady side of the street, a personal requirement for us. 

Spice has a very appealing lunch menu, offering a complimentary appetizer with any main dish.  I started with shrimp fritters, 4 deep-fried dumplings filled with chopped shrimp accompanied by sweet chili sauce.  My main course was drunken noodles, a very generous portion of broad noodles, sliced beef, yellow onions, green peppers, red peppers, eggs, cilantro, basil and a touch of anise.  A fine lunch at $10.50.
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My reaction to this list of the supposed "30 Best Mystery Books of All Time" is similar to the list of best Chinatown restaurants above. 
https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/best-mystery-books 

I am familiar with most of them, but there's room for improvement.  More so than the list of restaurants, however, this group has some enormous gaps.  Maybe 30 is too small a number, but I insist that these authors (and their primary sleuth) get on your mystery/detective/crime novel reading list:

Ross Macdonald -- Lew Archer

Rex Stout -- Nero Wolfe

Michael Connelly -- Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch

Ruth Rendell -- Reginald Wexford

Reginald Hill -- Andy Dalziel

. . .

I never knew that so many flavors of M&M's are available until I read this taste test.    https://www.insider.com/i-ate-all-of-the-m-and-m-flavors-review-ranking

I didn't realize that the candy that melts in your mouth not in your hand was being formulated in so many varieties, some without rhyme or reason.  Here's another look at the possibilities.  https://www.listchallenges.com/mandms-flavors

Unlike mystery novels and Chinatown restaurants, I believe that less would definitely be more in the M&M world.  I fear that some MBAs, who were denied the opportunity to overburden sound businesses with debt, were instead turned loose in the M&M marketing department, with the mandate of ruining a good thing.

White Strawberry Shortcake M&M's, really?

Wednesday, August 19, 2020
"New York City is dead forever" proclaims a Murdoch media headline, with no intimation of regret.  I'm not a nice guy, so I will wish the same for all Murdoch media
. . .

My devotion to lists is evident, along with my appreciation of effective graphic illustration of information.  The New York Times has done a very good job with "Virus Alters Where People Open Their Wallets, Hinting at a Halting Recovery."    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/18/business/economy/coronavirus-economic-recovery-states.html 

"[A]nalysis of foot traffic data from the smartphones of more than 15 million people" shows that "[s]hopping behavior has varied widely by the type of business in question, how prevalent the outbreak is nearby and even voting patterns in the region."  I'm not surprised that "people were less likely to visit businesses if they lived in a state with a significant Covid-19 outbreak, major urban population centers or a higher percentage of Democratic voters. New York and Massachusetts, which match those descriptions, have seen some of the lowest foot traffic throughout the pandemic."  There is so much good detail here, that you can get lost in it.  Better pack some M&M's before you get started in case you get hungry. 

Thursday, August 20, 2020

M&M's are not the only place where there has been an explosion of flavors.  While Howard Johnson's featured 28 flavors of ice cream  and Baskin-Robbins offered 31 flavors by the mid-20th Century, the wild assortment of flavors on sale today really traces back to Steve, who opened an ice cream parlor in Somerville, MA in 1973.  It wasn't the premium ice cream that made his fortune and changed the industry, but his "mix-ins," the candies, cookies, nuts, fruit that you chose originally at 10¢ each to be mixed in on a marble slab behind the counter.  There was no longer a list of flavors, but a list of mix-ins that produced a different flavor each time.  

 

Steve's Ice Cream was a sensation, with long lines out the door, breeding competitors, such as Cold Stone Creamery, but, like a good revolution, it eventually ate its children and disappeared.  However, Ben and Jerry picked up the concept and, without waiting for you to pick your mix-ins, starting throwing a myriad of presumably digestible items into their pint containers.  Consider Berry Sweet Mascarpone -- "Blackberry & Mascarpone Ice Creams with Shortbread Cookies & Fudge-Covered Almonds" -- or Chubby Hubby -- "Vanilla Malt Ice Cream with Peanutty Fudge-Covered Pretzels with Fudge & Peanut Buttery Swirls."  I count 58 flavors on the Ben & Jerry's home page.   https://www.benjerry.com/flavors/ice-cream-pints

All of which brings me to my disappointment of the week, maybe even the month.  Häagen-Dazs has a set of pint packages (14 oz. really) called Crispy Trio Layers.  I chose Ruby Cacao Crackle, an intriguing name, with little hint as to what was inside.  The container says it is "pistachio and sweet cream ice cream complement[ing] sheets of crispy ruby cacao layers."  Even with that information, I'll tell you to skip it.  It doesn't taste good.  Mind you, I'm not rejecting Häagen-Dazs outright as long as they still churn out chocolate peanut butter ice cream and a non-dairy version for your fleishigs meals. 
. . .

My friend Arthur has had his request to teach his class at Hofstra University remotely, because of a heart condition, refused.  While the class finished the Spring semester virtually, the administration insists that freshpeople (the level of Arthur's course) sit in a classroom.  I predict that on-campus classes will last no longer than this cockamamie baseball season.