Concept Concert: BYO headphones

This article at Wired has a great example of technology enabled isolation from people despite being right next to them. I feel like this kind of quasi-antisocial behavior is bound to actually bring together people who normally wouldn't have even left the house. I think it'd be really interesting if there were areas with different line filters to where you plugged in would give you a different listening experience.

Wingtastic

So on my recent road trip to the land of my birth I made a stop in Buffalo. I had a mission, to find and consume buffalo wings. After consulting my buffalo food expert Gyppo Lou my companions and I spent 25 minutes getting from the buffalo airport to Gabriel's Gate home of the best wings in all of Buffalo. With the Gabriel's Gate Brown Ale and the "Hot" strength wings( more like medium at most Buffalo establishments) it was instantly clear that these wings were the source of the city's woes, afterall with such wings and beer we'd be obese and unemployed as well, the wings were juicy, crispy, and delicious and the ale was like a less sweet Newcastle. The food was great and the atmosphere great in a dive bar-ish way, but the really puzzling thing about the restaurant was its engrish menu with such gems as "For the men and women of business its location is unequalled"

No Meathooks?

So I just saw a link on u's blog to the NIN video for "Only". I'm inclined to agree with her; the video is awesome, but it kind of comes off as an apple commercial in the beginning ( if the commercial was filmed in the executive desk display area of a sharper image in the late 80s). I gotta say it's a hell of a departure from the creepy NIN videos of yore.

British police really fucked up

According to The Daily Telegraph, He walked to the train, sat down and was shot. I Don't know how accurate this news piece is but it makes me a little freaked out about my impending 3 month stay in London. Being slightly brown, and someone who could easily look out of place I'm thinking that tube rides might not be the best idea. Well, it looks like LA isn't the only place where innocent people have to worry about multiple point blank headshots from overzealous frightened cops.

gizmag Article: The LifeStraw – the invention of the century?

This little straw is brilliant, and it has the potential to improve the quality of life for millions of people around the world. I love it when you see things like this sprout up.

Food Meme Post

So I was tagged by Sal to toss out 5 childhood food memories. This was no easy task because my life has, from a very early age, revolved around food. So the 5 listed are all from around age 6 or earlier. It was extremely difficult to keep this list down to 5 and I think I got the key ones, but a lot of things are being left off the list.

In no particular order:

• Beef and bacon roulades/involtini/meat-rolls ( just doesn't sound as tasty in English) with polenta- As long as I can remember eating solid food, this has been one of my favorite meals. My mom doesn't make it very often because of the health implications, but since I'm not around often I can usually convince her to make 'em when I'm in town. The dish consists of thin slices of beef rolled with bacon with a heavy sauce made from celery carrots tomato and ground pork, served on top of polenta. This dish is such a part of my life that I can't remember the first time I ate it, but it makes me salivate just to think about it.
• Japanese omlettes with nori and green beans- Because of my sister and my prediliction towards picnics, and the sorry state of Rochester weather, occasionally we would have indoor picnics in the winter. Of course, this called for finger food. One of the more common indoor picnic meals was simple but still really sticks with me today. My mom would make a simple omlette with soysauce, salt and sugar and we would eat it wrapped in seaweed with rice and green beans sitting on a blanket in the livingroom with the bitter rochester cold outside
  
• Smoked oysters- Before first grade( when I would still get out of school before lunch time), when the weather was good my mom and I would meet my dad at the U of R for a picnic lunch. We would go down to the Gennesee river and eat snacky picnic food which would often include smoked oysters on toast with onions. I liked them so much that during first grade I would occasionally insist that I take smoked oyster sandwiches to school for lunch. The smell of smoked oysters and onions made me extremely popular with my squeamish classmates and confused the hell out of my teachers
• Donut holes and hot apple cider- One of the classic upstate newyork fall snacks, no haloween party or autumn gathering was complete without sugar or cinnamon dusted donut and hot unfiltered unpasturized apple cider. From the post pumpkin patch snack, to the fall birthday at school these were unavoidable between september and the end of november.
• Keema( spiced ground beef with spinach and potatoes), rice, dal( lentils), and raita( yogurt sauce with cucumbers and fried mustard seeds)- This was a staple meal at our house and I would put everything in a bowl and mix it together. This is my basic "I'm home" comfort food. It's homestyle Indian food, and it just hit's the spot and gives me that warm fuzzy feeling inside ( though that could be all the starch).

Others that almost made the list were: mom's tandoori chicken, mom's arribiata and rosemary chicken, barbeque pork/roast duck over rice, grandpa's koftas, katsudon, orange quarters after soccer games, friendly's watermellon shaped icecream deserts, bomb pops from the icecream truck, white-hots, gyro's from princess cafe or aladdin's, opera tortes from creme de la creme, greasy bbq chicken on butter covered soft rolls from swiss chalet, mussels in white wine, smoked eel, hollandse garnalen on soft white bread with onions, frenchfries with "saus andalus", etc.

Montreal Food post ( meme post to come)

Hi all,
So I know I have a blog homework assignment from fellow blogger Sal, but the other post is slow coming and my astounding gastronomic experiences cannot be left undescribed. Last night I ate food so good that I have started looking into the feasibility of starting a Quebecois gastro-pub in NYC.



Yesterday for lunch I ate a Montreal style smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's deli on Saint-Laurent. To put the greatness of this sandwich into perspective I'd like to add that on Thursday I ate lunch at katz's in the lower east side of Manhattan, and this sandwich was better. The bread was as good, the mustard the same, but the price ( quantity considered ) was half, and the quality was equal if not better. The juicy greasy meat on two small pieces of rye with mustard was a little slice of happiness, and the reasonable quantity ( about half that of Katz's pastrami sandwich for a quarter the price) made this a perfect lunch choice.



The Montreal trip would not have been complete without a trip for some poutine ( traditional Quebecois dish of fries with cheese curds and gravy). Being men of both audacity and daring, instead of going for the standard, we decided to go big. At "Au Pied du Cochon" we reveled in gluttony and ate a tomato tartlet, marinated deer tongue, a fois gras pate, and the incomparable poutine finale... poutine de fois gras. At this restaurant they raised the dish to a higher level, the seared fois gras over the poutine was absurdly good ( and rich enough to bury any average predator). Of course the fries, cheese curds and gravy themselves were significantly better than the average, the addition of fois gras was a master stroke. Granted it has probably made my heart slow as glacial movement and my arteries hard as steel, but I can safely say that it was worth loosing those few years off my life.



Because of these two meals and other miscellaneous Montreal snacking, Tommy "Sh'Oaks"(my partner in crime) and I have decided that the only thing to do is to open a themed bar in NYC's west village with snooty French speaking waiters, Montreal style smoked meat sandwiches, a variety of poutines, and of course: an vast selection of Canadian beers( esp those imitating Belgian beers). That's right folks if we get this off the ground you too will be able to enjoy these delectable treats from the safety of the good ole' U S of A, completely free of all the Canadian cooties.

Python for kids

At this blog entry:davidbau.com: Haaarg, world! you can see how a father begins teaching his son to use a programming language for the first time. I think this is fantastic and it reminds me of when my dad first helped me get started on the commodore64 with a basic program.