Food & Drink 62 | ***Dave Does the Blog

It’s not about doing without

Here’s what scares folks off from changing their diet. I love sweets! I love cookies and cakes and I love food in general, and if I go on a diet,…

Here’s what scares folks off from changing their diet.

I love sweets! I love cookies and cakes and I love food in general, and if I go on a diet, I’ll have to drink non-fat milk and eat artificial ersatz sweetened imitation cookie-flavored rice crackers. I’ll never be able to go into a Starbucks or a Baskin-Robbins or a McDonald’s ever again!

Which simply is only true if that’s the way you choose to “lose weight.” And it’s pretty much a guarantee that you won’t keep it off, or, if you do, you’ll be unhappy and bitter and one of those folks who scolds others about what they eat and therefore don’t get invited to parties.

First off, going back to my original theme, it’s all about awareness, not deprivation. How many calories are you taking in over what you need. The delta is going to be fat. You don’t like fat. Fat isn’t going to go away if you aren’t aware of what you are eating (and what you’re not exercising away). Knowledge is power. Awareness creates its own incentive to eat wisely.

Secondly, eating wisely is not becoming a monk who only nibbles on three grains of brown rice and washes it down with distilled water. Nor does it mean you have to sell your soul to the Diet Food Manufacturing Industry, or resign yourself to never eating ice cream again.

Eating wisely is about moderation. About enjoying what you eat, but knowing that you won’t enjoy twice as many brownies twice as much. In fact, I suspect the curve on enjoyment flattens out pretty damned quickly.

So, I was appalled over the weekend to see the calorie count on a venti toffee latte at Starbucks. Ye Gods. You could feed a small nation on one of those things.

I was resigned to never tasting it again.

Bosh. Yesterday, after picking up Katherine from pre-school and going into the comic book store, we did our usual visit to Starbucks. And instead of ordering a venti, I ordered a tall. Which, in normal English, is a small.

And y’know what? It was still good. I still enjoyed it. I don’t know that I enjoyed it any less than a venti. It was a bit of sweet, and milkfat, and caffeine, and tastiness. I didn’t feel deprived. I felt happy.

I’ll be damned.

And last night, Margie mentioned the brownies on the counter in the kitchen from Monday night. And when I went back downstairs … I ate one. And it was delicious. Fabulous. A wonderful, wonderful brownie.

And I only ate one. Not two, or three, or five, or half of what was left, standing there reading a book and shoveling it in.

I was aware. And I knew I really only wanted one.

And after the profligacy of both a toffee latte and a brownie, and a couple of other small treats I’d snacked on — I was still below my target for the day.

This thing may actually work.

And I promise I’ll stop nattering about this Real Soon Now.

The Java Jive

A nice little chart of the Caffeine Content of Foods and Drugs — from NoDoz to Coffee to Soda to Ice Cream to Chocolates. Interesting. (More jittery caffeine news previously…

A nice little chart of the Caffeine Content of Foods and Drugs — from NoDoz to Coffee to Soda to Ice Cream to Chocolates. Interesting.

(More jittery caffeine news previously reported on here.)

(via Doyce)

Bitter crates … and coffee grounds

A rather screedy but refreshing essay on how IKEA and Starbucks aren’t the root of all cultural evil. Nice. You know what? I’m done with it. If your life is…

A rather screedy but refreshing essay on how IKEA and Starbucks aren’t the root of all cultural evil. Nice.

You know what? I’m done with it. If your life is mediocre, I promise you, Ingvar Kamprad didn’t make it that way. You did. And if you’re so desperate for your own soixante-huit moment that you can sit there with a straight face and tell me that you’re being oppressed by flat-packable pine furniture with goofy pseudo-Scandinavian names, I’d advise you to spend a few days working with child slaves in the Sudan, or something.

(via BoingBoing)

Now it can be told!

The secret project that has been referred to on various occasions here is finally ready for the spotlight. Introducing: MARGIE’S KITCHEN This is a place where Margie can post recipes…

The secret project that has been referred to on various occasions here is finally ready for the spotlight.

Introducing: MARGIE’S KITCHEN

This is a place where Margie can post recipes and other food-related stuff. Well, actually, she can post about whatever she wants, but her main interest is in stuff she cooks that she wants to share. I’m really proud of her for being willing to put this together, and I look forward to much yumminess reaching the Net because of it.

I’ll have it linked in the “Us” blogroll off in the sidebar, so you can see when it updates. Much gustatory delight is promised.

Now you, too, can experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the expanding waistline to … Margie’s Kitchen!

Simple java

The advantage to drinking my coffee black — aside from avoiding the calories a few teaspoons of sugar and glugs of half-n-half with each cup — is simplicity. BEFORE Walk…

The advantage to drinking my coffee black — aside from avoiding the calories a few teaspoons of sugar and glugs of half-n-half with each cup — is simplicity.

BEFORE

Walk into coffee room.
Pour sugar in.
Pour coffee in.
Take spoon, stir coffee to finish getting sugar mixed.
Go to fridge, get out half-n-half.
Pour in half-n-half.
Return half-n-half to fridge.
Stir half-n-half into coffee.
Clean spoon.
Leave.

NOW

Walk into coffee room.
Pour coffee in.
Leave.

Oh, and my cup stays a lot cleaner, too.

Now, if only coffee tasted as good black as cream-and-sugared.

I can quit anyzzzzzzzzzzzzz …

So I decided this week to try switching from coffee back to tea. If nothing else, I thought, foregoing the mound of sugar and glugs of half-n-half that I festoon…

So I decided this week to try switching from coffee back to tea. If nothing else, I thought, foregoing the mound of sugar and glugs of half-n-half that I festoon each of my several cups a day with should help the old waistline, right?

Maybe I should have just had someone strap big sandbags to my arms, legs, and eyelids, because, yeesh, I would have worked off as many calories and felt about as dragged down as I do right now, but would have at least been alert enough to enjoy it.

Java jive

Y’know, if I were to come to work and find that nobody in our break room had yet made any coffee, I wouldn’t even consider wandering around to other break…

Y’know, if I were to come to work and find that nobody in our break room had yet made any coffee, I wouldn’t even consider wandering around to other break rooms trying to find one that had coffee made in it. I’d make some coffee, instead.

Oh, wait — that’s what I do do. Which is why, I suspect, I end up making so much coffee.

Rrg.

Java jive

A group studying coffee have learned a couple of things: If you want a pick-me-up, hit Starbucks, not Dunkin’ Donuts. A regular at the former clocked in at 259mg of…

A group studying coffee have learned a couple of things:

If you want a pick-me-up, hit Starbucks, not Dunkin’ Donuts. A regular at the former clocked in at 259mg of caffeine, at the latter 143mg.
But that’s hit or miss. While 259 was the minimum, testing at the same shop on several consecutive days had counts all the way up to 564mg — close to three No-Doz-worth.
Even decaf has some — amounts up to a (relatively piddling) 18mg.
Moderate caffeine consumption is considered to be 250mg/day.

And now you know.

(via PR Bop)

Drugs and fertility

Coffee pot good, smoking pot bad. (via GeekPress)…

Coffee pot good, smoking pot bad.

(via GeekPress)

Too good to be true

Arrr, can it be that thar be a magical pill that removes fatigue without makin’ ye jittery or addicted? Modafinil—better known as Provigil—is fast becoming America’s newest “go pill.” Made…

Arrr, can it be that thar be a magical pill that removes fatigue without makin’ ye jittery or addicted?

Modafinil—better known as Provigil—is fast becoming America’s newest “go pill.” Made by Cephalon, a small publicly traded biotech firm in West Chester, Pa., Provigil is a central-nervous-system drug that promotes hyper-focus and alertness. Patients using Provigil in clinical tests functioned normally—for example, completing tedious computer tasks—after up to 54 hours without sleep.
In 1998 the FDA approved Provigil to treat narcolepsy, but doctors prescribe it “off label” as a fatigue fighter for airline pilots, long-haul truckers, and medical residents. Users say the drug doesn’t make them jittery the way caffeine does. One 200-milligram pill restores focus and alertness as effectively as three tall lattes and costs $5. And all the clinical data show that the drug has none of the addictive qualities of amphetamines like Dexedrine. Because Provigil has fewer side effects than Ritalin, it’s even being prescribed to some children with attention-deficit disorder.

Too tempting by half, sez I.

(via BoingBoing)

I love the Java Jive and it loves me

I would sell all my stock in No-Doz. Fast. For the person who can’t afford to make or pick up a cup of coffee to get perked up, we now…

I would sell all my stock in No-Doz. Fast.

For the person who can’t afford to make or pick up a cup of coffee to get perked up, we now present caffeinated tongue strips.

Imagine being able to get that rush of energy you need without having to down a hot cup of coffee or an energy drink, or what if there isn’t a coffee shop around? With the introduction of Barista Sips, Caffeinated Coffee Slips, available in both Coffee and Mocha Mocha flavors to date, there is no longer a need to merely imagine. Lickety Slips has harnessed the energy boosting power of caffeine and placed it in the convenient and portable form of edible film slips. In fact, with each slip containing 16 mg. of caffeine, or the equivalent of a half shot of espresso, Barista Sips are the most convenient and effective form of energy enhancement on the market today. Along with the energy boost, consumers can also enjoy the full flavor of their favorite coffee drink.

Well, except without the actual coffee drink part.

I am both appalled … and strangely intrigued …

(via Blather)

Thursday!

Time for the usual raft of Thursday Q&As, starting with The Thursday Thumb-Twiddler:…

Time for the usual raft of Thursday Q&As, starting with The Thursday Thumb-Twiddler:

Continue reading “Thursday!”

Java jive

How many types of coffee do we need at work? The question is not just rhetorical. We recently have gone from four different types to five, and not only are…

Praise to thee, O Coffee! How many types of coffee do we need at work?

The question is not just rhetorical. We recently have gone from four different types to five, and not only are we running out of drawers to store it, it’s taking up a whomping amount of counter space?

Costa Rican. Vanilla Nut (that’s me). French Roast (use 1.5 bags). Euro Blend. Euro Blend Decaf.

(I’ve never quite understood drinking decaf coffee. I mean, nobody actually enjoys the taste of coffee, right? It’s just a caffeine vector, a socially more acceptible way of perking up than slamming back a couple of No-Doz first thing in the a.m. The best you can hope for from coffee is that it doesn’t taste bad. So … what’s up with decaf?)

Are coffee tastes so varies that, Starbucks-like, we need four types of caffeinated coffee? I mean, there are a lot of places where folks have two types — leaded and non- (and the taste of each makes the nomenclature not all that much of a joke). I can see, if you want to get extravagant, having a light roast and a dark roast (though sufficient use of sugar and cream can resolve that, too, in a pinch).

It’s just an odd extravagance in a company that is notoriously ~~tight-assed~~ thrifty about overhead expenditures.

Heck, we get half-n-half in the fridge, rather than being subjected to the indignities of Ersatz Oil-Based Coffee “Creamer” Substitutes.

Not complaining about that one.

On a couple of occasions in the past, I visited our Dublin office. Where they have … the Tea Lady.

Veddy European. You can have tea … but when we say so. And you can impose on someone else to make it for you. And we can employ an extra person that way.

On the other hand, it taught me that communal stirring spoons, rather than little plastic stir sticks, are the way to go.

No point here, mind you. Just ruminations on what gets me through the day.

Blessed coffee

The Pope has beatified the friar respnosible for cappucino. That that’s not (ostensibly) why he was beatified. Time for another cup. (via Volokh)…

The Pope has beatified the friar respnosible for cappucino. That that’s not (ostensibly) why he was beatified.

Time for another cup.

(via Volokh)

Multimeme

It’s been a long week ……

It’s been a long week …

Continue reading “Multimeme”

The real wrap-up

Not much more to report on from WDW. We managed to fill in some of the gift gaps at Epcot World Showcase, which also let us see the big fireworks…

Not much more to report on from WDW. We managed to fill in some of the gift gaps at Epcot World Showcase, which also let us see the big fireworks ‘n’ light show at the park closure. Kitten was a bit daunted by the light and noise at first, but eventually got seriously into it.

We got up too early yesterday, everything being pretty much packed the night before (and Margie working her normal magic to compress mass, if not weight, into far smaller suit cases than the local space-time fabric can normally support).

The flight was uneventful, save for my sending us off to the wrong concourse at Orlando (once, almost twice). We all three slept at various times on the plane, and woke up to the land of green-wet-sticky having turned to sere-dry-cool.

It was great to be home.

Well, we knew that sometime in the afternoon was going to be the official Gaming Group Gift Exchange. And that Sunday eveningish we’d be doing some Living Jungle stuff. Margie called Jackie from the baggage line, to discover that the two events had been conflated, for various reasons — but that nobody had actually let us know that.

Which was okay, actually, and it turned out to be a bigger confab than I’d expected — the Testerfolks, the Herreras, Stan, Dave & Lori, and, natch, us. Gifts were exchanged to adults (Dave G. had pulled my name, and made effective use of my Amazon Gift List, Margie got a fine new book from Randy) and to Katherine, Tristin and Justin.

Jackie had arranged for the food duties to be shared, so Margie only had to put together stuffing, whilst others brought over turkey, ham, potatoes, and more pies than you could shake a stick at.

It ended up being an honest-to-gosh holiday celebration at the house, tearing open gifts in the living room, eating a big turkey dinner in the dining room on the Christmas dishes … it was really neat.

And then we did the Living Jungle game, and had fun showing off the dinosaur-related items we’d picked up at Animal Kingdom.

A late night, not helped by a certain Kitten getting up at 5 a.m., but overall, not a bad way to come back to town.

Night Out

We had our date night before last. After fobbing off the Kitten, we took a romantic boat trip down to Downtown Disney. We strolled along, wandered onto Pleasure Island, and…

We had our date night before last. After fobbing off the Kitten, we took a romantic boat trip down to Downtown Disney. We strolled along, wandered onto Pleasure Island, and became introduced to …

… the Adventurers Club.

Too much fun to be had for anyone. Imagine a combination of the Enchanted Tiki Room with improv theater with the era of Indiana Jones with the Magic Castle with too much alcohol, and you begin to get an inkling of the evening’s delights. Designed as a club for adventurers in 1937 (yes, the Pulp era), you are ushered from room to room for different shows, the walls all covered with the fine mementos and swag from trips to exotic places, some of which bears closer examination than the initial cursory look. The snooty butler, the saucy maid, the ditzy club president, the vain and dashing hero, the envious and boasting club treasurer, these and more all await your visit to the the Adventurers Club.

As I said, too much fun.

After about three hours, we realized we couldn’t, alas, just keep sitting there, drinking and laughing. Eating was needed, too. So we sauntered over at 10:30 to the place where we’d had reservations at 8, the Portabello Yacht Club, for some fine dinner (and a bit of wine, too).

Then another relaxing boat ride back, where I cleaned up while Margie took the sitters back to their hotel room, and then the arms of Morpheus.

Pretty fine entertainment. KUNGALOOSH!

Pizza

Lileks has a fine semi-screed on pizzas. Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait. I am told (and vaguely remember, though I’m uncertain whether they are manufactured memories to match…

Lileks has a fine semi-screed on pizzas. Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait.

I am told (and vaguely remember, though I’m uncertain whether they are manufactured memories to match what I’ve been told) that there was a time as a child when I didn’t care for pizza. I hold that memory to me as evidence of How Things Change whenever Kitten seems particularly intransigent about something we take for granted, like getting her hair washed.

I love pizza. Pizza is great. It tastes good. It’s hot. It’s easy. And someone else makes it for you. Indeed, the only disadvantage of pizza is that, no matter what the DiGiorno ads tell you, there is no such thing as a great home-cooked pizza. There is good home-cooked pizza, but not great. Home ovens are just not hot enough to crisp things the way they need crisping. All the home-made pizza dough and home made pizza sauce and home-grown pepperonis and home-pressed cheese will make up for a wimpy home oven.

So in order to enjoy pizza, one must order pizza. It’s sort of like a zen koan. Home-cooked pizza is a snack, an ever-hopeful experiment. Delivered pizza rocks.

When my first wife and I visited our friend Chris in Chicago, a few geological ages ago, we went on a quest for the best pizza in town. We were there for four or five days, and went out to the top-rated pizza places each night. We had some fabulous pizza — stuffed, deep-dish pizza is to the ordinary Domino’s delivery what a loaf of asiago cheese bread is to poker chips. I don’t recall what my favorite was, but Cheryl and Chris voted for Gino’s East. Since I’ve since gotten divorced, you can see how seriously I take my pizza.

Which brings up another greatly attractive feature of pizza: nearly everyone likes it (my own childhood predilictions aside), and you can order multiple ones, and do up the halves differently, and get something that nearly everyone will eat. Unless they’re off of bread products. For myself, pepperoni and mushrooms are the standard; I’ll accept sausage as a substitute, but prefer not. Breakfast bacon, onions, and peppers are good add-ons. Olives are okay, as are ham, canadian bacon, etc. Pineapple is right out, and anchovies belong on Caesar salads, and that’s it.

If there is a weak link in the pizza chain, it is that ordering process. Ordering a pizza on the phone is like giving dictation — you nearly have to have everything written out ahead of time in order to get the order straight, given the wide array of options, and the pizza folks don’t make things any easier by their blizzard of coupon offers (“Half-priced medium two toppings with any jumbo one-topping thin-crust except if it’s dark on Tuesdays!”). Then there’s the Delivery Area conundrum, figuring out which cross-streets will be most informative, and, naturally, whether your coupons are still good.

The smarter pizza chains are spending some bucks to do on-line ordering systems — pull up the web page, select the sizes, drag the ingredients over, plug in your address and phone and all, and your order is on its way. This is such a nice way to order pizza, it astounds me that anyone still survives who doesn’t do it this way — except that it’s still in the minority, since it does require an investment, and makes the most sense for pizza chains.

Even mediocre pizza is good pizza (along the lines of ice cream, frankly). My own local favorite is the Pudge Brothers chain. Their crust is extra-bland, but they make up for it with a very nicely spicy sauce. (A word of advice, though, guys: simply scanning your menus and putting them online does not constitute a meaningful web presence.)

There is one area of the world of pizza which I do not understand — folks being willing to eat cold pizza the next day. But, then, I don’t get pasta salads or escargot, either, so don’t listen to me when I talk about how unnatural such a practice is. The charm of pizza is in the confluence of hot tomato sauce, hot grease, and hot bread; serving it up cold is like — well, it’s like cold pizza fergoshsakes. I mean, if the delivery guy brought it to the house cold and coagulated, you’d be righteously torqued, right? What makes it any more palatable the next morning, pulled from the fridge?

Sadly, Margie partakes in this ghastly ritual. Fortunately for her, I don’t take my pizza aesthetics that seriously, and it is a good excuse to buy an extra-large instead of a large — since, after all, I know someone will take care of the left-overs.

See! It’s not just us!

When I took Margie to Le Central last Thursday, we noticed their “Romantic Dinner” fixed menu for this week looked particularly scrumptuous, so Margie offered to find a sitter this…

When I took Margie to Le Central last Thursday, we noticed their “Romantic Dinner” fixed menu for this week looked particularly scrumptuous, so Margie offered to find a sitter this week so we could run off to it.

Cut to Randy’s game on Sunday, where Margie gets on the phone off the play room to call for sitters. Doyce, rolling around on the floor with Katherine, hears what she’s doing and says, in an outraged voice. “HEY! I’M RIGHT HERE, YOU KNOW!”

So Doyce, the big, lovable lug, gets to sit for Katherine tonight. We tip-toe out as she’s sitting on his lap, raptly watching The Jungle Book.

Now read the rest of the story.

(Dinner, btw, was faboo.)

And the chain will set you free

Indepedent coffee houses often tremble and protest when Starbucks, like the Star Wars Empire, moves into town. But, remarkably enough, Starbucks may actually be increasing the business for independent coffee…

Indepedent coffee houses often tremble and protest when Starbucks, like the Star Wars Empire, moves into town.

But, remarkably enough, Starbucks may actually be increasing the business for independent coffee houses. While Starbucks’ revenue continues to grow, so do indies in aggregate, and indies often find that their business continues or increases when Starbucks moves in.

A third of Americans who drink coffee away from home order gourmet coffee from a specialty shop, according to Mintel. Many people believe that Starbucks increases the overall market, attracting new customers to the product who then patronize the independent provider next door. “When a Starbucks opens, it educates the market, expanding it for everyone,” says Bruce Milletto, president of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup Inc., a Eugene, Ore., company that provides consulting services to independent coffeehouses.
The coffeehouse may be that rare thing in retailing — a concept that doesn’t heavily favor chains. Never mind that critics of Starbucks routinely compare it with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Starbucks simply doesn’t enjoy the advantages that have made Wal-Mart the bane of countless Main Street retailers — lower prices, longer hours, wider selection. The Starbucks offering isn’t less expensive or more extensive than the independent’s, and the chain’s hours often are shorter.
This may be why, contrary to popular perception, independents still dominate the industry. Independents and small chains boast a 61% share of the industry, says Mintel. In fast food, by contrast, independents and small chains hold only a 27% share, according to Technomic Inc., a Chicago food-consulting firm. Indeed, the coffeehouse industry boasts only one big chain — Starbucks, with 3,167 company stores in the U.S. Of the countless others that have tried mimicking it, not one has matched its success. The nation’s second-largest chain, Diedrich Coffee Inc., of Irvine, Calif., boasts only 237 U.S. stores.

Frankly, I like Starbucks. And the one by our Safeway is convenient enough that we often grab a (pricy) bite to eat and caffeine to quaff when we go shopping. But I’ve patronized the indies, too, and am glad they’re there. I’ll never be the type to hang out at the coffee shop and blog, or chat with the other regulars. But when I look for someplace convenient, I’m not married to any one brand or logo. If the coffee (or coffee drinks) are good, I’m there.