Posted by Anita on 04.19.07 6:53 AM

Um, right here? In the BART station??
(seen on the concourse level at Glen Park…)
Edited to add: The Paramount Farms “Everybody’s Nuts” site is pretty amusing, too. Not as funny as the billboard, but obviously their ad agency is …nuts. In a good way. The little nut mascot is named Stach, and he even has a fanclub. (Could I make this stuff up? I think not.)
levity
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Posted by Cameron on 01.18.07 5:36 PM
No embarrassing orthodontia tales here, although I certainly have them. And I suppose that this counts as more than six things for one blog, but:
Despite my savoir-faire with working kitchen jargon, I have only held one food-related job: at a bakery/bistro where I mostly sold pastries and made sandwiches. My signature move was to smear two spoonfuls of unprepared, clear-quill horseradish on a sandwich when the customer asked for said condiment…until someone complained. The owner asked me if I had ever actually tasted horseradish. I hadn’t.
I used to drink Karo corn syrup straight from the bottle. Hey, it was just a nip of courage now and again. I could have stopped anytime I wanted to.
I have an incredible capacity to eat exactly the same thing for breakfast every day for weeks at a time. Lunch, too.
I like Jager Bombs. I’m pretty sure that this and the Karo thing are somehow related.
By the age of 12, I had taken part in the following activities: butchering pigs and cows for family consumption, collecting maple sap (drinking my fair share) and boiling it down, milking cows, collecting fresh eggs (never killed a chicken, though), churning butter, making sausage, and pulling perfectly good baby vegetable plants out of the ground while claiming to have mistaken them for “weeds.”
levity, other blogs
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Posted by Anita on 01.17.07 11:55 AM
Sandi at The WhistleStop Cafe (of Fried Green Tomatoes fame) has tagged us to share “six weird things” about ourselves with our readers. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am guessing you don’t care that I drive a 1966 Volvo, or that I had braces as an adult, or that I’m the oldest of ten grandchildren on my mother’s side… so let’s keep this food related, eh?
- Cameron and I share a surprising number of food dislikes. Neither of us cares much for eggplant, squash, or sweet potatoes.
- We have been known to drive an hour — and to plan our airport flight-arrival times — to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
- I’d rather have citrus or caramel desserts than chocolate, any day. I realize this makes me a traitor to my gender. (I don’t dislike chocolate, but I don’t crave it.)
- One of my favorite things to do on vacation is visiting the local supermarket. Sure, farmers markets are great, but the grocery store is where you see what everyday middle-class food looks like.
- My early food-related jobs included: breakfast waitress, bakery manager, drugstore soda fountain jerk (at the place shown in the photo above), pizza-delivery girl, and sundae-scooper. Waiting tables was undeniably the hardest work I have ever done, for the least amount of money. Jose Feliciano was one of my regulars, and he used to say corny stuff like “Sanka very much” when I would bring him refills of decaf.
- We’ve never been to New Orleans. It was on the short-short list when Katrina hit…
levity, other blogs
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Posted by Anita on 10.20.06 10:57 PM
Krispy Kreme’s got a pumpkin spice cake doughnut on offer for the holidays, plus — so cute it’s almost scary — pumpkin-shaped raised glazed with ‘ittle Jack-o-Lantern faces (pictured at right) through the end of the month. Awww!
Hot on the heels of their “$6,000 combo meal” TV spot, the fast-food hucksters at KCE/Hardee’s (that’s Carl’s Jr. to us West Coasters) released a list of suggested wine pairings for their speciality sandwiches. Perhaps monsieur would care for a bottle of Peachy Canyon Incredible Red with his Jalapeño Thickburger?
Or perhaps a bottle of bubbly? Perrier’s launching a new campaign aimed at the younger set, going for that edgy thing in an attempt to ditch its Miami Vice-era aura.
I’m still reeling from their purchase of Sharffen Berger, so please forgive me if I don’t seem happy about Hershey’s buying up Oregon’s Dagoba Organic Chocolate.
News of the wierd: Until last week, the world’s largest curry house was located in West Yorkshire, of all places. Hard to imagine that it’s gone out of business, innit?
Another shocker: The Amish don’t want your flippin’ food stamps!
other stuff, breakfast, drinks, levity, shopping, news, wine & bubbly
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Posted by Cameron on 10.13.06 10:22 AM
Valentyn Shtefano may be the toast of Uzhhorod, Ukraine, but upstaging a bride on her wedding day is bad form. After seeing this photograph, we wonder if Mr. Shtefano might one day wish he’d chosen a different venue for his food/fashion debut.
Click on the pic to see Viktoriya’s dress made out of cream puffs by her husband Valentyn, take a close look at her expression, and then come back and give us your best photo caption.
dessert, levity
4 Comments »

Posted by Anita on 10.02.06 6:04 PM
The Los Angeles Times — a serious newspaper, by all accounts — ran a story recently, profiling Charlie Boghosian, a purveyor of deep-fried everything. The wrapper of the story is a recap of all the fried goodies (and I use that term loosely) available for sale at the Los Angeles County Fair, including “deep-fried Twinkies, deep-fried Oreos, deep-fried avocados, deep-fried pickles, deep-fried olives … deep-fried macaroni and cheese, deep-fried spaghetti and deep-fried cosmopolitans…”
But Mr. Boghosian — a Christmas tree wholesaler when he’s not hardening arteries in the summertime — has a heart-stopping item that’s the real star of the piece.
This year, Boghosian’s new item is the Krispy Kreme Chicken and Swiss sandwich with a side of honey. Imagine a jelly doughnut hollowed out, cut in half and garnished with a fried chicken patty and slice of gooey Swiss cheese.
Boghosian says he came up with the idea one night while buying a dozen doughnuts for his staff at a Krispy Kreme with his manager, Jerald Smith, who said he had a hankering for a chicken sandwich instead.
“And then a light went on,” Smith said.
The reaction has exceeded Boghosian’s expectations. He sold nearly 1,000 of them his first weekend at the L.A. County Fair at $5.95 apiece.
The even scarier part? They tot up the calories on this puppy, and it’s about the same as a Big Mac, and about 200 below the Jumbo Jack with cheese.
levity, SoCal
1 Comment »

Posted by Anita on 09.19.06 7:56 AM
Matey, don’ tell me ye din’t knows today were Talk Like a Pirate Day?? Avast!
In honor of this fair occasion, Drink o’ the Week be moving to Tuesday. We raise ye a fyne tipple from Sir Rrrrobert of Hess.
Jolly Roger
2 ounces dark rum
1 ounce orange juice
1/4 ounce Falernum (or simple syrup)
dash of bitters
Shake with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
drinks, holidays & occasions, levity, recipes, Drink of the Week
5 Comments »

Posted by Anita on 09.11.06 2:17 PM
This just in from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer… Starbucks’ original logo causes an uproar:
A Kent elementary school principal, according to a local TV station, asked teachers last week that if they were bringing their daily joe to school that they make sure they get a sleeve to cover the image of a topless mermaid on Starbucks cups.
The Seattle-based coffee giant, as part of its 35th anniversary, this month put its original logo with the bare-breasted mermaid on its cups in stores in Washington and Oregon.
Not that Kent is the most progressive of Northwest communities, but do they really think that elementary-school kids have never seen boobies before?
levity, Seattle, coffee & tea
1 Comment »

Posted by Anita on 09.06.06 9:54 AM
…melons.
(apologies to Depeche Mode)
C’mon, it’s Vegas… you didn’t expect a melon joke?
levity, shopping, Vegas
2 Comments »

Posted by Anita on 08.09.06 5:02 PM
From our normally sane friends at CUESA, the organization behind the beloved Ferry Plaza Farmers Market:
Special sightings of Gourmet Editor-in-Chief Ruth Reichl lunching at Boulettes Larder and shopping at The Gardener delighted shoppers & store keepers alike. Ms. Reichl intimated to someone at The Gardener that the food at Boulettes Larder was “sooo good”. Martha Stewart visited again – and showed off the Marketplace to friends – making a point to wave at her favorite mushroom man - Ian Garrone of Far West Fungi.
I had no idea Page Six was writing food stuff now…
Update: Mea maxima culpa… the email wasn’t from CUESA but from the Ferry Building Marketplace management. I should have realized this when they were talking about indoor shops, not farm vendors.
levity, shopping, farmers markets
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