#it's pretty good nice and vinegary

[sword-and-nightingale]

Just made a 12 am sandwich that, now that I have eaten and enjoyed it, I am wondering what the hell is wrong with me for having put that between two innocent slices of bread.

[snowmuttgetsweird]

07/31/24, morning

Actually slept okay. I would really have preferred to get, like, at least one more hour, but for once I didn't wake up at like, 5 AM randomly so I'll take it. I've actually heard that sleeping worse is a common side effect of being at a caloric deficit, so maybe that's actually a good sign...? I haven't been counting my calories really- just my protein, though even that I know I've been undercutting quite a bit. I'm probably getting about 100g on average, when I should really be shooting for at least 130-150g, but it's just really hard to convince my stomach AND my wallet to consume that much food in one day. This might be a "you just need to incorporate protein powder into more meals/snacks throughout the day" situation. I'll do some research, but honestly, this early into my "fitness journey," I don't think my body is going to do a lot with that much protein anyway.

Decided the overnight oats need to be eaten pretty quickly. While distracted by another activity like drawing or posting art or something, I tend to eat and drink very slowly, so yesterday it probably took me an hour to eat my oats, and they got pretty gloopy and unpleasant after a while. Good to know.

Red Beans and Rice were a great success. Best pot I've made so far. Added a red bellpepper to the usual trinity, diced everything up MUCH finer than I usually would, threw in a good scoop of bacon fat after browning my andouille to sautee my veggies in, cut a few seasonings in favor of a couple big tbsp of Tony Chachere's, threw in a few dashes of a nice vinegary hot sauce, and simmered the whole mess WAY longer than I normally do- like twice as long. Blown away by the result. I was worried the Tony Chachere's being mostly salt would keep the beans from softening, but cooking them down longer made up the difference just fine, and now I've got a vat of rich, delicious red beans and rice that'll feed me for like a week! Think the only thing I regret is not having some cornbread and collard greens to go with it all. Next time I wanna source a ham hock to throw in too.

Still keeping up my morning exercises. I decided what I'd originally committed to was too much too early, so I've mostly been doing 3x10 knee push-ups, 3x20 crunches, and 3x20 glute bridges the last few days, but I think I'm gonna be ready to tack the bicycle crunches back on soon, and I'm just about ready to graduate to full push-ups. I can see myself trimming up a little bit, and my shoulders starting to fill out just a little, but I think it's mostly just that I've been shedding water weight. I haven't been using my scale the last week or so- the battery died and I keep forgetting to grab a replacement, so I don't know how much I'm actually losing, but again I'm pretty confident it's mostly just a combination of water loss and eating less overall, and fewer things that would make me bloated or gassy shrinking my tummy.

I'm very used to starting a new exercise routine, and then quitting out through shear distraction about a week later, but I'm really doing my best and this is the longest I've kept it up in a while. That said, I haven't had much DOMS since I first started besides a little achiness in my thighs the day after squats here and there, and it's making me nervous. I hope I'm not sabotaging myself by not lifting heavy enough or something, but even my shoulders didn't get achy despite really struggling on even just 10lb dumbbells for my side lateral raises. I couldn't even quite finish a 3x10 that way- I think I got to, like, 3x8 and had to tap cause I couldn't even really do a decent partial rep by that point. I was really expecting that I'd be sore after but my shoulders are absolutely fine. Well, yesterday was my "rest day." I didn't even hop on the treadmill, though I wanted to, but being that I hadn't walked much yesterday anyway since I was just drawing all day, I wasn't exactly prepared to spend 100 minutes on a treadmill to hit my 10k steps for that day anyway. Today I'm back on weights though. I think I've got a good idea of what I should be lifting for each exercise, but I think I might still need to up my squat weight more. We'll see tonight.

Think that's about it... Uh, final thoughts: Furikake and sriracha are great, they make like 50% of all my meals right now way way better. My shift at the day job today is short enough that I won't really wanna bring a lunch, but I think I'm gonna hardboil an egg to snack on anyway to try to cram a little more protein.

Think that's it. Think I'm gonna try to relax and conserve some energy before work- maybe read my book and clean up around the apartment just a bit. I need to hit up my friends and try to get them to play pickleball with me or something.

Tchuss.

[bluetooththepirate]

Most of those are pretty good. Asiago is really firm. It's associated with bagels and bread, so it's a pretty good pizza cheese but as an accent. Same kind of thing with parmesan. Both of those add flavor but don't really add stretch and coverage like mozzarella does.

Feta is a pickled cheese that is like little vinegary cubes of salty goodness, you usually see it on salads but because the pizza places need to have it for Greek salads, they go ahead and put it on the pizza too. It's kind of nice you want to have it with olives. It does not melt. It stays solid even when it's warm and it's a little bit grainy and funky.

Gorgonzola's an Italian blue cheese, I do not know that I would like it on pizza even though I'm generally a fan. Very funky. Very salty.

Due to being an uncultured swine, I am unfamiliar with cheeses outside of mozzarella and cheddar.

I've been going to a local pizza place called MOD Pizza and they have all these cheese options and I've been wanting to try them out. So far I've done mozzarella (obviously) and ricotta (made the pizza taste like lasagna which was interesting).

I'm familiar with parmesan, but like... the kind in a green tube that you have to shake super hard to get it to come out.

So, which cheese should I try next?

Usually, I get mozzarella as a base and then add the fancy cheese on top. Not sure if that is a good idea for all of these options.

[radio-charlie]

You are a really cool dude and I wish I knew you better. May your food taste really good today!

i wasn’t much expecting to get nice anons this time so this was really nice to see. i was very out of it so i got delivery from a japanese place, it was pretty good. might have a really vinegary salad with red peppers later. thanks for the sweet message...

[jomiddlemarch]

Anna

“I know it’s box wine but it’s good. Well, it’s actually really good if you consider how cheap it is and there was a 2-for-1 special, so you should try it, you really should, Kristoff,” Anna said, so emphatic the red wine she’d poured into a freebie plastic cup from a random ball game (Phillies? Who knew?) nearly sloshed out and over his hand. Her two braids swung wildly under the blue paisley bandana she’d tied over her head like the cutest babushka in the world, ostensibly to keep her clean during their move-in. She had smudges on her cheek from scrubbing the windows and the knees of her denim overalls had turned black, but at least her hair hadn’t gotten dusty. For a small studio apartment, it had a truly impressive amount of dirt—the windows had been filthy, the oven was streaked with grease, and the fridge had nearly made him faint—and he was going to vet school, no stranger to strange manure. They’d done their best and it was looking much less disgusting but they’d earned a round of drinks and it seemed like what they had was box wine. He took the plastic cup and gently tapped her smiley-face mug, then took a gulp. It wasn’t bad and the second swallow was pretty nice.

“Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to work so hard to convince me. I’m not your fancy-pants sister, I don’t need a vintage and a bouquet,” Kristoff said. He drank again, more like a polite adult human being and less like a parched animal at a trough. Was it rich and oaky? It didn’t taste like cardboard and it wasn’t too sweet or too vinegary. “It’ll go good with the pizza—meat lovers and veggie. And yeah, I got extra peppers, no mushroom for you.”

“Two pizzas? Just for us?” Anna asked. Kristoff’s friend Sven had loaned them his pick-up, but he hadn’t had time to help load it or bring the furniture and boxes up the three flights. Kristoff figured paying for the gas and the first round of beers the next time they got together would be an adequate thank-you.

“We didn’t hire movers and the leftovers will be breakfast. And we have to celebrate—moving in to our first place, survivingmoving in and that couch of yours—is it made of lead under all that corduroy? Anyway, we can get back to your budget tomorrow,” Kristoff said.

“You make a fair point,” Anna said. She was maybe a little tipsy, definitely flushed, and she needed a few slices in her before she had anymore box wine. She twirled around as if she were wearing a ballgown and laughed delightedly. “I can’t believe it’s all ours! I feel like a queen in a palace!”

Kristoff was about to say Babe, look around or Cool your jets because the studio apartment was just this side of a dump and he was going to be squeezing his over 6 foot frame in a double bed because that’s all that would fit in the so-called “sleeping alcove” and trying to cook a double batch of chili on a two burner stove, but Anna was so excited and happy and it was their first place, just theirs, within their measly budget with enough left-over for 2 pizzas and box wine. Anna’s sister Elsa might turn up her nose at it, accustomed to the gingerbready Victorian out in the country she and Anna had inherited from their parents, but he and Anna wanted to be together, in the city, close to his vet program and her new job at the newspaper and they’d pulled it off.

“A dancing queen?” he asked, tapping his phone. ABBA filled the air and Anna’s bright smile got sweeter as she started to shimmy. Kristoff leaned back against the small Formica countertop and watched, memorizing the moment. Memorizing Anna.

[foodbytesback]

I Try One of Everything at Salt City Market (Part 1)

I often rag on my hometown of Syracuse for not having a particularly creative restaurant scene.  A city with largely Italian and Irish populations has, surprisingly, yielded a lot of forgettable Italian family restaurants and Irish pubs that all kind of blur together.  Admittedly, I’m also a bit of a shut-in (especially with the pandemic), so I won’t claim to know all the ins-and-outs of some of the more “underground” restaurants.  So when I first heard about the Salt City Market, a collective of vendors selling foods from a wide variety of ethnicities, I was excited to hear about something new coming to that seeming-abandoned lot downtown.  They’ve had plenty of setbacks (most, obviously, pandemic-related), but now they’re finally open for our dining pleasure.      

This project has been almost a year in the making, so it’s no surprise that, on the day of the grand opening, people were so excited that everyone ended up running out of food.  Being the fool that I am, I assumed that going at 4:00 on the second day would be less busy.  We ended up waiting in line for about 10 minutes, as they were being very diligent about enforcing occupancy limits and getting people in and out as safely as possible.  Even though it was about 15°F out, I would say the overall experience was well worth the wait.  

I honestly was too busy trying to figure out what to get and also staying 6 feet away from everyone else that I didn’t pay much mind to the decor within the space. I didn’t even notice music was playing until one of my friends pointed out they were playing a song she liked (I know I’ve heard this song dozens of times, I could have sworn it was Animal Collective but after scouring their discography I guess it isn’t).  It had that kind of hip, start-up-y vibe that, when juxtaposed with the run-down apartment building across the street, would have raised questions about gentrification if it weren’t for the sheer number of POC chefs and entrepreneurs involved.  

So, without further ado, let’s talk about the food.  When I say I’m trying “one of everything,” I guess I actually mean “one thing from each vendor (or, rather, for this week, half of them),” which may be a little misleading, but let’s be real, I can’t afford one of everything.  (I briefly considered emailing them to see if I could get some sort of “Media Pass,” but I figured even if they did things like that it would require me to actually have readers lmao) Also, some places had also started to run out of things again, but I will do my best to review what they were able to give me without a sense of “ugh, this isn’t what I wanted.”  And obviously, since we got takeout and drove like 20 minutes to get the food back home, I’m not going to be judging the food in terms of things like “it was cold,” or “the breading got soggy from the condensing steam in the package.”

BIG IN BURMA- Samosas- $5

2 disclaimers- 1.) Of all the ethnicities represented at the market, I have the least knowledge and/or exposure to Burmese cuisine.  Judging by the menu and my basic understanding of geography, I’d say the simplest (and thus probably not super accurate) way to describe it is a cross between Indian and Thai food. 2.) I used to work with the dad of the owner, so I felt like trying Big In Burma first was a priority.  

While I initially wanted to try the Nan Gyi Thoke, they were out of noodles so I eventually settled on an order of samosas.  I say “settled,” but really, is there really anything better than a dumpling?

The dough was flaky and crisp, almost like phyllo dough.  The potato and onion filling was simple (and in my opinion could have used a little more of the curry spice blend they used), but tasty. The sauce that accompanied them isn’t described anywhere on their menu, but tastes a lot like Frank’s Red Hot but with a little more of a vinegary tang to it.  All in all, a great little snack that, despite being a fried dumpling, didn’t get too heavy, which was good because I had a lot more food to eat.

FIRECRACKER THAI KITCHEN- Spicy Basil Chicken- $13.50

My first thought upon tasting the chicken by itself was “Hey, that’s way too much fish sauce, I’m probably not gonna eat this whole thing.”  However, once you mix the chicken and the rice together, the flavors become much more well balanced, and I did end up eating the whole thing, thank you very much.  My biggest gripe, however, was that this “Spicy Basil” Chicken didn’t deliver very strongly on the “Spicy” or the “Basil,” two things I love in Thai food but found myself wanting more of.  The fried egg was good, though.  I’m always a sucker for a fried egg.

It might also be worth mentioning that one of my friends got the “Street Style Eggs Over Rice,” which, despite the menu description including other things, was just a fried egg over a pile of rice and a cup of sauce.

MISS PRISSY’S- Fried Chicken Wings- $12.50

(I hope I’m remembering that price right, the online version of their menu seems incomplete.)

Miss Prissy’s seems to be one of the busier stands, given they were probably the hardest hit of the ones I went to when it came to shortages.  They were out of the braised oxtail and pepper steak that were my first and second choices, so I “settled” on the wings.  Once again, that’s not a bad thing.  

The breading on the wings was just the right thickness, and was somehow still crispy after traveling.  They were also a very good size, too. The only negative thing I could say about the wings was that it seemed like they were seasoned after cooking, instead of seasoning the breading, which lead to some pieces being more well seasoned than others.  (I’m noticing a trend of me thinking everything was underseasoned… did I catch the ‘rona without noticing or something…) 

The mac & cheese may look like my mom’s sad, dry mac at first glance, but it is NOT.  It was much creamier and cheesier than it looks.  The green beans, however, were pretty much just as sad and probably-canned as they look.  I look forward to getting the collards some day, once they stop running out.

(Also, this is really neither here nor there, but the leftover samosa sauce goes really well with these wings.)

PIE’S THE LIMIT- Oat and Berry Slice- $3.50

While they do have an interesting selection of savory pies, I decided to get something more dessert-y to round out my night of hedonism- uhh I mean supporting local business.

The crust was surprisingly tender and flaky for a vegan dough (ie no butter/lard/etc).  The berry filling was a pretty much perfect blend of tart and sweet that you would want from a pie filling.  The oat topping clearly uses some kind of steel cut oat- or at least something other than the instant oats I’m accustomed to in streusel toppings like this- because it has a more toothsome chew to it, which I thought added a nice contrast in texture.        

All-in-all, everything was very good, with most of the shortcomings easily being excused as these businesses try to keep up with how busy they’ve been.   I’m much as it kills me to have to wait, I’m probably going to have to wait a week or two for part 2 for the crowds to die down a little.

[its-sixxers]

45 to 50 for the courier asks!!!

45. what do they do after hoover dam?

Carmen’s DLC adventures take place after the Dam in my canon - after giving the Dam to the NCR she’s pretty overwrought with guilt when the consequences of her decision make themselves clear. The Sierra Madre’s siren call draws her in - a woman who very desperately wishes she could begin again.

After a few months of going through hell and the Divide, she heads east alone chasing the horizon - desperate to get as far away from the home of her sins as possible and unable to bear the sight of her influence.

46. how do they die? how is their death received, by the mojave and by their companions?

Going to try to address this without spoilers for future fic haha. Carmen dies two deaths - a death of the legacy, and her actually kicking the bucket.

The first comes with her departure from the Mojave. Boone ends up using a two-year Legion cleanup tour as an excuse to look for her and discovers the last anyone saw of her she was heading into territory that no one returned from. Boone takes it upon himself to spread the news to the companions he can track down - Cass, Veronica, and Arcade.

Cass is angrier at Boone than anything, used to the two watching each others’ backs and believing Boone to have abandoned the Courier. She clocked him in the jaw for it. Arcade disapproved of Carmen’s choices, but felt sadness at news of her death anyways - potential snuffed out and another tragedy of the Wastes. Veronica’s no stranger to losing people close to her, and turns her sadness into productivity.

After that, Courier Six is dead and gone as far as the people of the Mojave are concerned.

Carmen does end up returning to the Mojave after about a decade. When she dies, it’s a book-end. She was born on a ranch among people who cared about her, and she dies on a ranch in company of people she cares about. To her, death is a welcome and late friend.

47. what are their vices? are they an alcoholic, a thief, a hoarder?

Carmen has an episode of alcohol abuse shortly after arriving in the Commonwealth and after the Institute’s fall. Her consistent vice is smoking - there’s always a pack or two of cigarettes in her pack.

48. can they cook, and if so, what do they cook? what are their favorite & least favorite foods?

In general, her cooking is utilitarian. In the Mojave she has an extensive knowledge of local edible vegetation and fauna, and knows what tastes good together. While taste depends on the spices she has at hand (few, generally) her food is guaranteed to be filling. Her cooked meals are varieties of stews and skillets - proteins and vegetation all together. Carmen doesn’t particularly appreciate cooking and is happy to let someone else with passion for it take the wheel.

She’s actually a big fan of salads. Carmen likes the raw crunch and sharper flavor that comes with mixed greens, even more so if a vinegary dressing is at hand. She won’t turn down a brahmin steak. When it comes to food she hates - anything that makes use of insectoid meat. She just can’t get over the texture.

49 answered here!

50. what’s their happiest memory?

Benny’s bullet stole the lion’s share of Carmen’s happy memories from her - but she’s lucky enough to have one really nice one afterward.

That being an impromptu party at the Lucky 38 prompted by Cass after Veronica was gifted her dress, to give her an excuse to dress up and wear it. For one night, everyone was some degree of happy - even Boone - and their merry brand of outcasts could pretend they were just ordinary citizens for a night in their lives.

Courier Asks

[pbandjesse]

I wish today wasnt over. It was a really nice day off but I am not emotionally ready to go back to work. We might have all of next week off though and that makes me more nervous?? I dont know how to feel about anything really. 

I slept really well last night. I really like our bed in the new spot. It reminds me of the lofted bed we stayed in at the barn. I felt safe and cozy. The ac was a little cold on my face but I am very pleased. 

Though I felt good when I woke up I was also very sore. James didnt wake me up because I didnt ask him too. But I still only slept until 930. I got up and James was finishing making cornbread. I washed my face and got dressed. I felt very cute today. 

And I had a good time just being with James. He cut me a peach and gave me some of the corn bread. SweetP kept trying to take my corn bread even though we gave him his own!! But it was a nice morning. 

We laid in bed and enjoyed the sunshine that we get there now. Watched videos. But as it got closer to lunch time I think we were both antsy. 

So I started getting ready to go out and he got ready to go for a bike ride. He is going to ride for charity next month and I am very proud of him!! He has already raised some money for it and it is just so cool. 

I drove up to savers and was a little distressed to find how busy it was. Like very busy. When I got inside the check out line was all the way through the store to the kids section. It was wild. They only had 4 registers of their 10 open. 

But I still had a nice time. I found some fabric. And a mug that says "Welcome Welcome". A linen dress with weird plastic details. A very cool vase that looks like a wound extension cord. I might paint that. And best of all this very rectangular sheep plushie. 

I was pretty much done looking but the line was still long. So I was like. Ill keep looking. Found some more neat things. Put things back. Picked things up. And the line just got longer! So I was like. Whatever Ill just get in line. I people watched. I listened to music. And I was in line for almost 40 minutes!! That is crazy!! It was kind of the sunk cost fallacy. I wasnt gonna get out of line. I had already wasted the time. But yeah it was long. 

I was never out of my good mood though. I even had time to find a 20% coupon online. And soon enough I was out of there. My arm hurt, and still hurts, from holding the stuff I bought for almost an hour. But I was out of there!

I went over to the next shopping center to get new sewing needles for the machine at work. And yelled outloud when I saw the halloween store was open!! I went to Joanns first. Got the needles. Got the more expensive ones because I had a coupon. And then over to the halloween store. 

I didnt buy anything. But I enjoyed looking around. I liked pushing the buttons to make the decorations go. Though the store itself was a little bare. I like decorations though so that was fun. 

I left there and headed over to towson. I went to michaels to get face soap and a brush. Then to target to get those quesadillas I like. And I also got a strawberry kombucha because I keep seeing them and Im always like. I want that but I dont ever get them and so I got it and it was great. Not as vinegary as they used to be, but sparkly and nice.  

I got home close to 4. I was glad to be back here. I put things away and chilled for a while. I heated up leftovers for a late lunch. And the I decided to organize our camp stuff a little more. Because it is to early to pack for camping or the beach. But I want too!!! Next weekend. That will be a more appropriate time to pack. 

I did work on some art. I am trying surface beading a little since I am having trouble working on my bracelet. Mostly because I am bad to finishing those. But this was so fun!! I beaded a line across the top of one of the black masks we just got and Im really excited. I want to find more things to bead. 

Once I was done that I took a bath. I used my new face wash and it feels so nice. And now I am just chilling and waiting for James to get home. 

Tomorrow is my new camp schedule. Im in charge of all the theme projects and art. So I have some time to get those set up but also its like.  A little stressful. But it will be okay. Im excited. 

I hope I sleep good tonight and I hope you all do as well. Goodnight everyone!!

[dionysins]

get to know me: every even numbered question

what the fuck?

this is so long. i’m putting this under a read more.

edit: i tried to put this under a read more but tumblr sucks. sorry everyone

2. what would you name your future kids?

im korean. we pay other people to name our kids. 

4. what are you looking forward to?

triggering so i won’t get into details but june 18th (final court date) 

6. is it hard for you to get over someone?

uhh no. last time i broke up with someone i cried for about a week? then i was completely fine.

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?

do you mean: every time i cry

10. are you good at hiding your feelings?

yes. i’ve had many people ask me if i was a robot.

12. what is something you want right now?

dominic fike’s [redacted] in my [redacted] 

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?

yesterday!!!!!!!

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t?

answered!!

18. do you miss how things were a year ago?

NO

20. what is your favourite song at the moment?

peach - kevin abstract. everyone go listen to it. dominic fike is in it and he is PERFECT and wonderful and kevin is really really good.

22. description of crush.

i have a boyfriend. he’s really good to me and good for me. he used to dance which i was like hell yeah but he works for his dad’s company now and really likes buying me things. which is just an added bonus and i’ve told him to stop.

24. height

mine? 5′1 and three quarters. 

26. idol(s)

uh. i don’t really think i have anyone i idolize. that’s a really strong word for me for some reason and i’m not like. wow i wanna be like anyone. 

28. i’ll love you if…

you talk to me enough to actually break down my walls and get me to share stuff!! but also i will love you if you bring me coffee in the morning.

30. favourite tv show(s)

oh this i can do. breaking bad and better call saul. doesn’t get much better than that.

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?

guys

34. most embarrassing moment

eek (racism tw) probably when this white dude who i thought i was friends with called me an asian b*tch in front of all his other friends. like that’s not on me but i was young and it was embarrassing at the time.

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?

feature on a song, hold my own art show, get a house.

38. favourite comedian(s)

right NOW it’s probably hasan minhaj. i really like trevor noah too

40. favourite memory

my first girl crush. we went to high school together and this one time i was playing a beat with my backpack straps and i got really into it and then we locked eyes and we both started laughing. she’s one of my best friends and it really sucked for awhile but she’s happily married and i love her a lot!! platonically. that moment was just so nice and pure and funny

42. favourite book(s)

hard to answer so i’ll just switch it to favorite author and it’s edgar allen poe. i’m not being edgy i just really like this style of horror

44. age you get mistaken for

if i don’t have makeup on, like 16. if i have makeup on then 23 ish

46. what my last text message says

”sorry koreaboos it’s not a perfect country :(” 

48. turn offs

there’s a lot. bad haircut, tacky tattoos, being racist/homophobic/transphobic,,,you get it. not respecting other people. being a rude person in general. talking too much. not having any hobbies!!!!!!

50. favourite picture of your idol

don’t have one!

52. something i’m talented at

i mean. i can listen to any song and play it in a matter of seconds so that’s always cool not really for myself but for other people? like i just love seeing people’s reactions to that. i’m also a pretty decent painter! i am also talented at producing sound arguments which is strange to say but it’s served me well on this website.

54. something thats worrying me at the moment

triggering so i won’t go into it! u can look through my posts tagged personal.

56. favourite food(s)

nengmyun which is a korean noodle soup with a vinegary broth base! i also like this fish stew called bokgook my dad recently got me into it. i also like pasta.

58. description of my best friend

he’s 6′6 and ginger and reliable as fuck. best person i know hands down. terrible taste in women.

60. ask me anything you want

why did you make me do this. do you hate me

[marsupials-of-mars]

Night Terrors

Part three of my Dreams/Nightmares series (Dreams came first, then Nightmares, now this much later), because once Remus was revealed it was clear he should have totally been nightmares instead of Virgil but I worked him in anyway!

Contrary to Roman and Virgils nights with Thomas, Remus generally didn't talk much. Suprising really, considering his personality, but the videos they watched together had some auditory stimulus that he didn't dare interrupt. So he just enjoyed himself, lending his presence. He loved his Thomas nights, a full night to be good and nasty and Remus it up, loosen up after a long day, for Thomas to tire himself out for a good nights rest. A night all to himself and Thomas, what could be more fun?

But as all good things must come to an end, so too did his contributions. Thomas was tired, and that meant off went the explicit content, onto it's charger, and under the pillow. Remus whined. Sleep. What was it good for anyway? Just to waste time. He sank back into Thomas's subconscious and sulked over to the basement door. He yanked it open and practically oozed down the staircase. He didn't want to sleep that night. Sleep was boring, he wasn't even tired! He wasn't...

His eyes lit up at the realization. When a side wasn't tired it meant... Remus scrambled back up the stairs on all fours, bursting out the stairwell and into the hallway. And now that he was facing the right direction, it was clear as day. A black and hot pink door. Remus squealed.

Aint no rest for the wicked.

He skipped down the hall, overwhelmed with excitement. He didn't care much for the guy really, but he sure loved the work. He popped his knuckles, dagger-like claws bursting from his fingertips. He would have toyed with his coworker a bit but he didn't feel like wasting any time that night. He gouged his claws into the wood of the door, dragging them down its length with a terrible, grating noise.

"UP AND AT EM BEAUTYSLEEP, WAKEY WAKEY!" He pressed his ear to the door. Silence... but he could smell the fear.

"Okay, rude, I was willing to be polite but here goes." He sent his tentacles about the doorframe, their boneless, mucus-soaked nature letting them slip through the cracks and around the door in its entirety, effortlessly ripping it off its hinges. "See!? See what I gotta do when you bully me?" He waved the door around above his head before chucking it aside and retracting his slimy extremities back into his person. He locked eyes with a face of absolute horror and disgust, apparent even through the sunglasses. "Well I won't hold it too much against you Remy... after all, we're still NAME TWINS!" He finished in a singsong voice and fell into his host's arms.

"EW!" Remy gasped. He dropped him and quickly retreated backward until he was pressed against a wall. "Bitch, you will not TOUCH me, you will not SPEAK to me! WHY do I still not get some warning when one of you are coming?!" He hovered his contaminated arms far away from the rest of his body.

"Hey, I warned you! Warned you not to piss me off!" Remus giggled from his spot on the floor. "Cmon, you love me!"

"I don't! I really don't, I'd appreciate if you jumped in a lake! It'd at least be some sort of bath, you heathen." He sneered and whipped out a portable hand sanitizer. He started slathering his forearms extremely thoroughly.

"Aww, 'heathen'? You flatter me..." Remus brought his hands to his face as he blushed a warm shade of puke green.

"Whatever. WHATEVER. Get the job done and get OUT." Remy massaged his temples. He seemed to be going out of his way not to look in Remus's direction. It filled Remus's stomach with delighted butterflies. Maybe moths... mosquitoes? Mosquitoes sounded right.

"But REM!" Remus whined. "Last time Virgil was in here he left all pretty with face paint and claws-"

"Makeup and acrylics. Because we had a bonding moment. Acrylics are EARNED." He took a sip of his coffee. With a second thought he mumbled around the straw: "And don't call me Rem."

"Pleeease? Please with something hairy on top? I'll make it worth your while..." He bit his lip and winked. Remy nearly spit up his coffee.

"You need to CHILL."

"But I CAN'T! The only thing that could ever quell my madness is claws and facepaint! But alas..." Remus sighed dramatically and brought the back of his hand to his forehead. "You couldn't possibly provide such things..." He opened one eye and grinned when Remy groaned.

"Fine. FINE. But we're watching what I want." He grudgingly dragged his feet over to a cabinet by the TV and pulled out a makeup bag and a bin of nail supplies. "Wasting my best stuff on you..." He mumbled to himself at a volume that made it difficult for Remus to believe that he wasn't supposed to hear. Remus squealed and leapt onto the couch, giddy to be included, even more giddy that it was a grudging inclusion.

He was suddenly hit in the face with a container of wet wipes.

"I'm not touching your hands until you get that grime off, I'm not catching any diseases tonight." Remy pulled out a binder from a bin under the coffee table. The wipes quickly turned various shades of brown as Remus scrubbed his hands, but his attention was elsewhere, peering over Remy's shoulder.

"Whatcha got?"

Remy placed the binder gingerly on his lap. "Ideas."

As soon as Remus got a good look at it, he recognized his brother's calligraphy. He scrunched his nose. "So you and the Quest for Camel-snot are real besties aren'tcha?"

He knew that Roman had work with Remy too, but in the moment it kinda stung. He got the lights, did he really need the extras too? But Remus didn't really want Sleep, not his type. So it was fine, right?

"My closest girlfriend, bitch numero uno. He's a genius, really. Full binders of inspiration for every one of you." He flipped through the binder, double tabs color coordinated to each side, nails and makeup. Profiles and front views of each side's face in Roman's swoopy, perfect art style, graphite with oil pastel for color. Remus craned his neck to see.

"You're at the back. He has a lot of ideas for you, he talks about them a lot. Never gets around to drawing them up though, pretty sure it's personal. Gets uncomfortable drawing your face."

Remus ignored that last piece of commentary.

"Don't care, show me what he DID put in there! Probably awful, I could do better..."

Remy flipped to the green-tabbed page. There were three pages in the Remus section, contrasted against the five or more for every other side. But Remus wasn't focused on that. He was focused on the drawing: The palette was dark but bold, dark greens, black, metalics and greys. The look was extremely busy with intense, full mascara, black lipstick dusted with metallic green, tentacles curling from the eye flaring in the direction of the lashes and writhing down the side of the face. He was even crazy enough to scatter black rhinestones and silver glitter about, seemingly at random but somehow in just the right places. Remus stared at the drawing in awe. It entirely fit his aesthetic, minus the grime. The drawing still didn't quite look like him, though, and it broke Remus out of his trance to laugh out loud as he realized why. Roman had deliberately refused to draw in the mustache.

"What?" Remy squinted at him.

"He's so petty!" Remus conjured a pencil and scratched on some glorious facial hair in some frustratingly wobbly lines compared to Roman's. "There! There's my guy!" Remy grabbed the binder and clapped it shut.

"Ugh, you ruined it!" He opened the page back up and pouted.

"It's better now! Whatever, just fuck me up!" He sat up and closed his eyes, ready for beautification. He felt a wet wipe instead, though it wasn't like he was caught of gaurd by a sudden cold dampness to the face. "What are you doing?"

"You're so oily, if I tried to apply anything it'd roll right off like water on duck feathers. You owe an apology to your pores hun... and a shower."

"Nah I'd rather you keep with the wiping. Feels nice and sensual." He felt the scrubbing grow more hesitant and heard a quiet but exasperated sigh.

"Tell you what, if you can keep your feral little mouth shut for the next ten minutes I'll let you at the expired wine. It's real vinegary."

"Ooh!" Remus mimed zipping his lips and flicking away the key. Remy seemed suprised that his deal worked.

They sat in relative silence for a while, save for Remy's instructions for Remus to tilt his head one way or another, and the scrapes and clinks of makeup containers on the coffee table.

"Aaand...done!" Remy sat back and surveyed his work. Remus blinked.

"Wait I can't... I can't see..." His eyes rolled back in his head as he tried to look at his own face. Remy rolled his eyes.

"Cut it out, I've got a mirro-" Before he could reach under the coffee table, Remus had already plunged his fingers into his own eye sockets and torn his eyes from their nerves.

"HOLY SHIT-" Remy threw up in his mouth but managed to hold it back. Remus turned his eyes to look back at his face.

"Ooo well done! Though the eyes are a little smudged."

"Because you just mutilated your mascara with your fat knuckles you ANIMAL!" Remy grabbed Remus's wrist and pushed it back toward his face. "Back! Back in!"

Remus groaned and popped his eyes back in. He blinked rapidly as they resituated their orientation in his skull.

"I didn't even bleed, cmon, I'm being respectful of your work."

"Whatever, just sit still..." Remy pinned his shoulder to the couch and kept his legs down with a knee. He blended out some smudged eye shadow and reapplied the mascara. "There." He fell back onto the couch and massaged his eyes. "Now grab us some wine so I can make it through the rest of the night. Right of the fridge, top shelf."

Remus hopped up from the couch and twirled over to the cabinet. He found the bottle that had clearly been re-corked among the vast array and popped it open with his teeth. He waved it under his nose. Vinegar. He called over his shoulder; "You said I could have all the expired stuff?!"

"What else would I do with it? Grab me something."

Remus re-corked the bottle. He grabbed another bottle of red and a single wine glass and ran back to the couch. He cannonballed into the cushions with enough force to make Remy yelp and send out his arms to stabilize himself.

"Claws now!" He clapped his hands. Remy held up a finger.

"Just a sec, hon." He opened the fresh bottle and filled his glass. And kept filling. And kept filling. He tipped the bottle back just as he reached the brim. He took the glass gracefully and downed it in a single tilt. He let out a sigh of relief. "Mkay. Claws."

The next two hours were occupied with messy, drunk acrylic construction, trash reality TV, and half coherent conversations about either the meaning of life or over which two patent moms would get in a fistfight first based on their initial introductions. Remus could half remember Remy crying at some point over how bad the nails looked and how he was losing his gift, and another point where he ranted about how the other nail techs of the world better "step the fuck up or drop dead" at his sheer talent.

Remus began to come to, though barely. He pawed at Remy's shoulder. "Rem, Remmington, up up up! Got night terrors to make!"

Remy rolled over. His lips were smudged with black and metallic green. Remus didn't say anything, though silently cursed himself for having blacked out through that part.

"Hm? Nah bitch, you're on your own. Scary shit, not my cup of tea."

"You've got the assets!" Remus snorted at the word. "Yknow, the characters and stuff."

Remy groaned for a long time. "Fiiine." He rolled off the couch and followed Remus to the recording room. Remus attempted a cartwheel but fell over halfway through. He made it into the room at least. Remy snorted.

"GIRL! You're WORTHLESS!" He pulled a giggling Remus to his feet.

"Yeah..." Remus bounced from foot to foot. "Gimme!"

"Hold on a sec!" Remy yanked open a file cabinet and pulled out a handful of folders. "First choice..." He hiccuped. "Classic spiders."

"Cmon Rem, what kind of creativity would I be to keep using spiders every time?"

Remy thought. "A bad one?"

"Correct!" He reached into the folder and pulled out a spider. With a tap of his fingers he multiplied them into the thousands. "Next!"

Remy pulled out the next. "Sharks."

"Nah, that's just a sharp fish. Something GROSS, something WEIRD. Next!"

"Ummm...Thomas saw a dead mouse the other day. Part of it's belly smushed open."

"ZOMBIE! RATS!" Remus grabbed the mouse and threw it on the ground, instantly multiplying it into a writhing pile of the living dead, which quickly dispersed through the blackness, some eating spiders and the others being eaten by spiders. It was quite the beautiful display of the circle of life, but Remus wasn't thinking about that as much as he was thinking about how awesomely disgusting it was.

"MORE! Characters!"

"Mom! Fitness trainer! Mark from Rent! Moana!" Remy read off folder titles.

"All of them! To be CONSUMED BY THE ZOMBIE RATS!!!" He dumped the folders into the swarm of arachnid and gorey fur. Remy began to squint and avert his eyes. No matter how drunk, there was only so much he could take. "Last part! Setting!"

"We've got... woods behind our old elementary school, the underworld from the first Percy Jackson movie, and the church basement!"

"When presented with some form of hell, hell it is!" Remus grabbed the underworld folder and opened it to surround them with sweet sweet fire and the wails of the damned.

"Okay! Let's go!" He grabbed Remy's shoulder. He rewound the terror and hit play from the beginning before pulling Remy out the door. He slammed it behind them. Remy, who was just coming to, winced.

"You know you could have made the whole thing while it was paused?"

"What's the fun in that?"

Remy huffed. "Well, we're done. You can finally get out of my room.

"Do you really WANT me to though...?" Remus wiggled his eyebrows and nudged Remy with his elbow.

"Yeah. I REALLY want you to."

Remus gasped in offense. "Fine. Be that way. I had fun."

Remy rolled his eyes. "Well once I got drunk you weren't as bad. Take that as you will."

"I'll internalize that as a confession of your deep sexual attraction to me."

"Please don't."

"Too late!"

Remy grabbed Remus's shoulder and spun him towards the door.

"Just get out."

Remus snorted and made his way to the door. He stopped and turned back. "You might want to get your door fixed by the way. I don't want to alarm you," He put his hand to the side of his mouth and whispered. "But I think some idiot broke it."

Remy gestured for him to shoo. "Yeah. I'll look into it."

Remus grinned. He looked down at his acrylics for nearly the first time. They were wobbly and awful and sharp, like twisted daggers. Not what the sketchbook recommended, but better than Roman could have come up with anyway. He looked back up at Remy.

"Great. Bye name twin!"

"Good riddance."

[roaringup]

I lifted an empty mooncakes box from someone’s recycling bin recently—Robin has been wanting something to put sewing supplies in, and this was a decent-sized pretty nice metal box with a lid, the kind that people give out to friends/family for Chinese New Year. It’s shiny and gold-colored on the inside and I guess still smells faintly of wheat flour, because Nutmeg is fascinated by it. (It also says it’s from 2017 and had a bunch of National Geographic article clippings in it, so, hmm. Maybe just the ghosts of mooncakes past.)

Anyway, a good find—the best trash find I’ve gotten in a while since a little glass bottle engraved with leafy vines.

I had this vague enticing thought about a summer salad of small popping bites (pearl couscous with salmon roe and grilled corn, maybe a little fresh dill) and another about bay scallops over pappardelle in a saffron cream sauce, and yet the vast majority of my actual cooking and eating these days is like, ehhhhhh, more fuel I guess.

I DID have lunch with my mom today and got a strange pizza that I enjoyed. It was essentially a sandwich-type mix of ingredients turned into a pizza—chorizo, pickles, caramelized onions, Swiss cheese, mustard cream, and parsley. The pizza place has been advertising this special on their sandwich board outside for a while and that ... worked on me, apparently. It sounds bizarre but you could tell someone sat around and planned out all the flavors: some heat, some onion sweetness, some vinegary and mustardy tang, and then cheese and herbs that worked with that.

[frompantomouth]

Hot Head Fried Chicken - Milwaukee, WI

Overall: B+

3 Piece Fried Chicken, Nashville Hot

Mac and Cheese

As a disclaimer before I get into this at all, I’ve never had Nashville hot chicken before, so I don’t have a lot of context in which to evaluate this. That being said, if this is any indication, I may need to book a trip to Nashville in the immediate future. This stuff was fantastic. The chicken came perched atop a thick piece of white bread (Texas toast? can they call it that if it’s not toasted?) and was adorned with some pretty generic dill pickles that I pretty quickly discarded. Upon reaching for the first piece, I was greeted by a somewhat weird sensation of the breading separating from the chicken and the chicken simultaneously separating from the bone. I think that this was a side effect of the chicken being incredibly tender to the point that nothing could really cling to it. The breading was on the thick side and had a great crunch while also easily cracking when bit or pulled (even just picking up a piece of the chicken, as described earlier). There was no sensation of greasiness. The Nashville hot seasoning was almost one of those super sauces that I could see being amazing in almost any application. It was super rich, had a definite sweetness, and was spicy but without any burn to interfere with my ability to taste it. It also had a perfect consistency that sort of soaked into the breading, preventing the sauce-on-fingers sensation of eating buffalo wings, while also being viscous enough that when i dipped an post-bite, unbreaded piece of chicken in it, it clung well (also as opposed to a thinner, vinegary buffalo sauce). I took much pleasure in using the bread to mop up the leftover pieces of breading and any leftover sauce once the chicken had been disposed of. 

The mac and cheese was not on the same level as the chicken but was decently good. The cheese sauce was cheddar based and had a definite cheese flavor, though I’m not sure if it was quite what I’m looking for in mac and cheese - wasn’t what I would consider a classic cheddar profile. It had a really nice consistency that was thin enough to really flow through the noodles yet thick enough to stick to every nook and cranny both inside and outside of the cavatappi noodles (again, not actually macaroni despite the name) and almost had a stringy quality to it as pure, melted cheese would. Portion size was more generous that I was expecting. 

Overall, I expected Hot Head to be more of a tend-based/hipstery restaurant than someone who was taking a serious look at what they were making, but I was proven wrong. Despite only being January 5, there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll end 2018 with this being the best fried chicken that I had the opportunity to eat.

[chinacatsunfloweralexandria]

crazy couple of months update

wow, so last time I updated I was distraught over strange ass stomach issues. thank GOD that went away after about 3 weeks. I started drinking alkaline water pretty religiously and not eating anything too spicy or vinegary. wine still upsets my stomach so I basically just stay away from it. 

I’ve been SO busy with grad school. it’s been nice yet stressful. we decided to book a little getaway because we havent been anywhere in so long. overall, it was an okay getaway. something different and a change of scenery was much needed but really could have used some nice warm weather during my spring break. the first night of vaca is always the most fun, the second and subsequent nights my health anxiety started acting up. i have weird irrational fears that i have to deal w constantly. overall, i enjoyed myself though. we had great sex first 2 days. third day we sizzled out lol. overall it was a good trip,��

slightly riddled with unexplainable anxiety right now. this seems to happen when i’m not working, which is EXACTLY why ill be working this summer! i do the best when i’m busy. i actually kind of miss work tbh. what a change from last year. all so bizarre! trying to just set myself up to do grad school work all night and try to sleep. i tend to sleep horribly when my body isnt tired from working daily. 

[wineanddinosaur]

VinePair Podcast: What Does Hard Seltzer’s Rise Mean for Cheap Beer?

This October, VinePair is celebrating our second annual American Beer Month. From beer style basics to unexpected trends (pickle beer, anyone?), to historical deep dives and new developments in package design, expect an exploration of all that’s happening in breweries and taprooms across the United States all month long.

Inspired by one of VinePair’s latest pieces, Dave Infante’s Is Hard Seltzer Killing the Classic College Kegger?, co-hosts Adam Teeter, Joanna Sciarrino, and Zach Geballe take the time to break down hard seltzer’s impact on college life. On this episode of the “VinePair Podcast,” the hosts explore emerging college drinking habits, the allure of cheap beer versus that of hard seltzer, and how light beer consumers have reacted to the hard seltzer boom.

Tune in to learn more about the trends Teeter, Sciarrino, and Geballe are seeing in cheap beer and hard seltzer consumption, and whether they think one category will overpower the other in the near future.

LISTEN ONLINE

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

OR CHECK OUT THE CONVERSATION HERE

Adam Teeter: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, I’m Adam Teeter.

Joanna Sciarrino: I’m Joanna Sciarrino.

Zach Geballe: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: This is the “VinePair Podcast.” We’re in the VinePair studio.

Z: No more phone booths!

A: No more phone booths. The studio got completed. It was supposed to be completed pre-Covid. It’s now done. We’re in a studio built by two amazing VinePair employees, Katie Brown and Keith Beavers, who is right now engineering the session.

Z: I believe we say on the ones and twos,

A: It’s pretty crazy back here. I’m really loving it. Zach, how’s the basement?

Z: It’s still good. Still full of wine, thankfully. Haven’t drank it all yet. You guys have to post some pictures in the studio. I want to see what it looks like.

A: We will. It’s not totally complete. It still needs one wall soundproofed, but it’s feeling pretty good in here. What are you both up to? Joanna, how was your weekend? What did you get into? What did you drink?

J: My weekend was OK. I can’t really remember it, to be honest with you. I went to dinner with a few friends the other night and had a mezcal cocktail with some sriracha.

A: That is weird.

J: It kind of burned my throat. I didn’t love it, I have to say. We did get a bottle of some Bonny Doon Picpoul, and I was very excited. I told my friends, “Guys, we have to get this.” It was really great.

A: Where were you?

J: We were at a restaurant called The Tyger in Chinatown. It was very good.

A: That’s where you also had the sriracha cocktail?

J: Yeah.

A: You know, I’m not a spicy cocktail person.

J: No, me neither. That was on me. I think people would have liked it.

Z: The thing about spicy cocktails to me — it was interesting when I interviewed the founder of Scrappy’s Bitters because he talked a little bit about this — is that there’s no good way to do it, for the most part, without putting hot sauce in, like sriracha. To me, the problem there is not so much the spice. It’s the texture. The cocktail can get really grainy or very vinegary if you use Tabasco. It’s just not a thing that I want in my cocktail. I don’t mind a little spice. I think that can be an interesting cocktail ingredient. Unless you’re having a Bloody Mary, where you’re already getting all that tomato juice, I don’t really want hot sauce in my drink.

J: Yeah. I think that was part of it.

A: It also just blows your palate out. I’m not into it. But I’m glad that you had Bonny Doon. It’s delicious. Zach, how’s the waiting going?

Z: Still waiting. We’re in this period of time now where we’re waiting for the baby, and my wife is totally off work. On Tuesday, we were actually able to go wine tasting, which is kind of cool. We haven’t done that in a while because our son is in preschool.

A: You mean you went wine tasting?

Z: No. We both went wine tasting. The wineries had the same confusion, but my wife is very comfortable having a little bit of wine while she’s pregnant. She has been the whole time and certainly is at this point. We went to a couple of wineries outside of Seattle, in Woodinville. We went to DeLille Cellars and Januik Novelty Hill, which are two sibling wineries. It was really nice. It was a nice-ish day. We were able to sit outside for a little bit, sip some wine, and do a thing that we haven’t done together since before the pandemic. We haven’t gone wine tasting anywhere. I’ve gone a few times for some work stuff, but even then, not very much. It was really lovely and a nice reminder that like this is a thing we can do.

A: Yeah, totally. it’s a thing that exists. It’s actually a great thing to take a newborn to because they just sleep anyhow. We will probably do it again later in October when our son’s at school and we can just pop off for a Tuesday or Wednesday little getaway. I’m looking forward to it.

A: Nice, man.

Z: What about you, Adam?

A: I had my in-laws in town this past weekend, so we had some adventures. I first went to a restaurant and had a really interesting experience. This will basically be a piggyback to our conversation last Tuesday about hybrids and things like that. I had a wine at dinner at this restaurant in Fort Greene.

Z: I know we’re going already. I like it.

A: It was super natural.

J: It was otherworldly.

A: Yes. I got a little bit bothered because, whenever we go out with family, I know they’re going to try to pay, but then they still give me the wine list. I don’t ever want to order bottles that Naomi or I would order. Even though I still think that they’re totally reasonable, my parents are from Auburn, Ala. Her parents are from Lancaster, Pa. They think a $75 to $85 bottle of wine is expensive, which is fair. Totally fair. They also live in a market where those are expensive bottles. This restaurant only had two bottles under $70, and everything else was over $100. What was really weird is that it was a very casual restaurant. I was kind of shocked that was the deal. I found this one wine. It was a wine from California and the blend was Zinfandel, Carignan, and Chenin Blanc. For that blend, it was only 12.5 percent alcohol. I remember sending Keith a picture of the bottle and he said “That blend should never be that low in alcohol. It just shouldn’t.”

Z: Not unless it’s 90 percent Chenin Blanc.

A: It was 10 percent Chenin Blanc. It was 70 percent Zinfandel.

Z: Wow.

A: It was all funk. It was just kombucha, basically. It was kind of disappointing because I could tell my in-laws didn’t like it, but that was the wine on the list that was the price I knew they’d be OK with. They were totally nice about it. They said, “Oh, this is interesting.”

J: That’s the word.

A: I knew they really didn’t like it. It was one of those things that made me think this is exactly what we talked about. I’m actually surprised they put the blend on it. It seemed like the makers thought, “We have some grapes. We made kombucha.”

J: Were you there for the food?

A: Yeah. The food is great. It goes to show that this is what’s happened in a lot of these places. This is just what the list is supposed to be now. We did get redeemed because the next night. I took them to Gage & Tollner, and we had an incredible experience. We had great cocktails and amazing wine. It was a bummer, though, because I really wanted to have a good time with them and have them enjoy the wine. I just could tell that wasn’t happening. I kept thinking to myself “Man, we just should’ve gotten cocktails.”

Z: This made me think about the way that restaurant goers can feel so held hostage by the wine list, especially if they don’t do a good job of giving you a lot of options at various price points. Having two wines under $100 is pretty bad. I get that New York City is a little bit of a different animal than most places. If the wines are going to be that “interesting,” that’s a lot to put on people. Why would you create that situation? Why do you want people to walk away from that and think, “Man, we had a great meal, but I really wish I could have had a wine I liked.” That’s such a bummer to me. I don’t think anyone, including the producers of those wines, want people to drink them while gritting their teeth and thinking this was the only option that they had. That’s how you turn people off wine.

A: It was totally a bummer. Otherwise, it was a great visit. Today, we’re going to talk about another topic we’ve talked about a little bit on the podcast, but always just in the intro section. This is based off of an article we ran this week on VinePair by Dave Infante, all about whether or not hard seltzer is killing the college kegger. We thought we’d expand that into the question of, do we think hard seltzers are ultimately going to kill light beer or cheap beer? I feel like, probably?

J: I don’t think so.

A: You don’t think so. Why? Hot take.

J: Dave talks about this in the article and talks to a number of college aged people, but it’s expensive.

A: Hard seltzer, you mean?

J: Hard seltzer’s expensive. If you’re going to buy a case of beer or, in this instance, a keg, it’s going to be a lot cheaper than going and buying a case of hard seltzer for much more money.

Z: What I wonder is, is that pricing difference necessary? Are the raw inputs, the costs of producing a hard seltzer, meaningfully more expensive than producing cheap beer?

A: No.

Z: No. I think you’re going to see what happens when someone undercuts the current pricing. The thing about cheap beer that resonates is the cheap part. The beer part is kind of optional. A lot of college students, including in Dave’s piece, quoted this. I think this is not just true for college students, but for a lot of people who drink light beer or cheap beer. The things they want are inexpensive alcohol delivery service and inoffensive flavor. Seltzer might be able to deliver that better than cheap beer. With cheap beer, not everyone likes the taste. Plus, you add in the gluten intolerance thing, and there’s a lot of people that want something cheap that is palatable to them, and cheap beer ain’t it.

A: Based on what you just said, I kind of think I’m now going to agree with Joanna.

Z: Fair enough.

A: I actually think that when you are looking for something refreshing, I don’t know if I need to get pamplemoose, blood orange, and mango all up in my taste buds. Maybe I just basically want water. That is what a lot of cheap beer is. It’s a very refreshing, cold, light, somewhat malty beverage. At the end of the day, it’s completely inoffensive. I do think that when seltzers get really cheap, the flavors also get really nasty. I think they get even more artificial than they already taste, having tasted some of the very cheap hard seltzers. The other thing I think that we forget about with cheap beer is that there’s a culture around pitchers that you just will never have with hard seltzer. Maybe that’s going to be what we see. We’re just going to see buckets of Claws everywhere. There is, again, a nice thing about getting a pitcher of draft beer and hanging out. There is an appeal of the taste of draft. I’ve never heard people say that draft hard seltzer tastes better. It just happens to be that seltzer is being pushed through a draft because it’s helpful for the margins of Buffalo Wild Wings. Draft beer does have this nice carbonation that you don’t get in the can. You get that when you get it by the pitcher. Maybe that will also cause it to continue.

Z: Yeah. I want to be clear. I don’t think White Claw or whatever is coming for craft beer or anything like that. I would say it’s more of an unknown at this point. Just because there’s been a culture of a thing doesn’t mean that culture can’t change. One of the things that’s also very cleverly pointed out in Dave’s piece is that, especially in regards to things like the college kegger, this prolonged Covid period is scrambling a lot of what people’s behaviors were. There aren’t as many 5,000-person gatherings as there used to be on college campuses. There are, presumably, still some. A new freshman class enters every year. Hard seltzer’s still a very new category. Those people may have grown up — we know you shouldn’t drink under age and it’s illegal, but people do it — drinking hard seltzer in high school because it’s more palatable than cheap beer. Even if it’s a little more expensive, that may not be such a big obstacle for some of them. With the use case for cheap beer, I don’t believe that hard seltzer can’t do almost all of that if it figures it out, other than maybe that convivial thing Adam mentioned with the pitchers and all that. Maybe there’s still a place for both. I think you look at like some of the beer producers, though, and I don’t know if we have hard data on this, but Anheuser-Busch is clearly recognizing that their future might be producing Bud Light Seltzer more than Bud Light.

J: I think it’s very smart and strategic for them to have it, of course, because it’s capturing a part of the market. I don’t think that they’ll ever get rid of it or it will ever beat out their light beer.

A: If you start to really look at where seltzer is stealing share, one of the biggest places it’s stealing share is wine. We’re not talking high-end wine. We’re talking cheap wine, under $10 bottles. There are bottles that often get brought to parties like the kind we’re talking about. That drinker was never drinking the beer. They brought wine. We’ve had employees tell us that in college, they played beer pong with wine, because they just didn’t like beer. Some people that Dave talks to say that. They like seltzer because they’ve never liked beer. Now, it’s the thing that they can drink at these parties. That also still remains to be seen. I think Joanna is 100 percent on point here. It’s just very smart of Bud Light. It’s a great brand extension. Are they going to lose some Bud Light drinkers to Bud Light Seltzer? For sure. I think they’re also going to gain people who were not Bud Light drinkers into the brand of Bud Light who are interested in seltzer. Maybe that’s the one thing that’s on offer at their college campus or the sports bar. I will say, having walked around the neighborhood recently and looking into sports bars, I definitely see a mix of both. I see a lot of people drinking pitchers of beer. I also do see a lot of buckets of hard seltzer. The other thing I think is interesting about hard seltzer is that it’s usually one of two brands. You’ve got to like those brands to totally get in. The brands do not include Bud Light Seltzer, to be clear. It’s Truly and White Claw. If you don’t like either of those two, you’re probably going to stick to beer if you were already a beer drinker.

Z: I don’t think my point was that existing beer drinkers are going to en masse flee the beer category for seltzer. Some have. Some might. It’s more about who I guess you’d call “rising drinkers” are going to want.

A: Right. So your argument is that, is it so pervasive now that people whose first drink might have been a cheap beer is going to be a seltzer instead?

Z: Yeah. There’s someone quoted in Dave’s story who said, “I didn’t really even drink beer until I graduated college.” That is sort of unfathomable to me. I went to college with people who didn’t drink and I went to college with people who didn’t drink beer at all. The thought that someone would get through four years of college and had never tried beer because seltzer is so pervasive is crazy. I think we talked about this early on in the rise of seltzer — because our podcast is as old as the seltzer boom — is how one of the big selling points for seltzer and a big thing that’s commendable about it is that, unlike beer, it does not come gendered nearly as much. Drinking culture in college, because of a lot of things, has often been bifurcated by gender to some extent. The expectation is maybe that people want different things. Seltzer seems to be, to this point, a place where everyone can drink the same thing. That may not be a pitcher of beer that’s shared, but there’s that ability to have the same drink in everyone’s hands and the only distinction is what flavor you prefer, but no one’s looking down at you because you like to drink hard seltzer. I think that’s going to be a really powerful thing. I think it would be a mistake for producers of light beer to not see that the universality of the product is appealing to young drinkers who are just dipping their toes in it. So much of it in that age frame, too, is that you want to fit in. You want to blend in. You don’t want to be the person who causes a scene. You don’t want to be the person who has hard-to-satisfy taste or is drinking something different than everyone else. While a decade or two ago, that might have been circling up around the keg, now that’s opening a White Claw.

J: Yeah, I agree with that. I think that you’re absolutely right for this younger generation. What I think is really interesting is the older generation of light beer drinkers and what it’s been like for them to experience hard seltzer if they’re switching over or not. I was wondering if either of you had any thoughts on that.

A: If people that we know, who are older, are switching over?

J: Yeah. I don’t know that my parents would ever try a hard seltzer.

A: I was just sitting here wondering, do you get as bloated from seltzer as you used to get from beer? I remember, when we would drink a lot of beer, I’d get so bloated.

Z: No, I don’t think so.

A: But, why? Isn’t it just carbonated? Wouldn’t you? I can’t drink a lot of Pellegrino.

J: This is actually very interesting, because my partner Evan, who loves hard seltzer, was talking a lot about, “I can’t drink a lot of beer anymore. It makes me too full.” But he can crush White Claws, trust me.

A: Is it because it’s just water and sugar fermented as opposed to grain?

Z: Yes, I think so.

A: It’s basically not a bucket of liquid bread.

Z: Yeah. No one has ever called seltzer a hard seltzer liquid bread.

A: That’s so interesting. Huh.

Z: You were saying, Adam, about wanting something flavorless that’s kind of just alcoholic water to drink when it’s hot out. I actually think seltzer can do an even better job of that than beer. Or it can, at least. We’re still in this very early stage of the category where we’ve seen this incredible mushrooming of all these different brands. Someone is going to position themselves as — maybe not literally this branding — but the low-flavor, barely detectable because then it’s not offensive, cheap, crushable seltzer. There’s going to be a brand or brands that go down that route in the same way that we’ve seen some brands lean into higher alcohol. As the category grows, it’s going to diversify and separate out. To the question that Joanna posed about people turning away from beer for seltzer, including her partner, I don’t think that a person who’s a craft beer devotee might drink seltzer. Given a choice, though, they’re not going to give up IPAs, stouts, or sours for seltzer. Those people weren’t drinking a lot of cheap beer in the first place. It was striking to me to see one of these places where cheap beer has dominated — baseball games — and then going to a baseball game and seeing so many people walking around with Trulys. It was like the same person who would have had, three years ago, a Bud Light or a Coors Light.

A: At the games, what you normally see is not just a Bud Light, but a huge tall boy. Were they huge tall boys of Trulys?

Z: Oh yeah.

A: That’s so crazy.

J: I experienced that in September 2019 at a Giants game. I was shocked. All these people were drinking giant cans of hard seltzer.

A: It’s crazy. Thinking about it more, I do have friends who have switched over for sure. I think they would normally be light beer drinkers. That includes someone I’m related to — it may or may not be my brother-in-law — who enjoys, on the weekends when having family day or whatever, dumping Truly into his water bottle and hanging out in the backyard with the kids, drinking some Trulys. Hey, it’s Saturday, but like, I realized you couldn’t do that with beer. The whole point of a cheap light beer is that it’s good when it’s very cold. The second it starts to get warm, things change. There’s a reason that Coors Light says, “Taste the Rockies,” and to make sure you chill the can down as much as possible. It’s got to be blue. The second that Truly warms up, I would assume it starts to taste like warm, lemon- flavored Pellegrino or Perrier. You can put it in your water bottle and hang out with the kids. He’s having a drink on a Saturday, but he doesn’t need his toddler kids to see him drinking.

Z: You’re not supposed to let your toddler see your drink? Uh oh.

A: I don’t know.

J: The old Don Draper, get me another beer.

A: Yeah, exactly. I’ll never forget when my niece was really young, around 3 years old. She’s very precocious. We recorded a video of her where my sister-in-law was asking her what was on the table and she said, “Wine. Mommy’s wine.” Her mom was like, “Oh, really?” Then she said, “Here mommy. Have wine, mommy.”

Z: My son gets very confused when we’re not having wine with dinner. We don’t drink wine every night. We drink wine a fair number of nights. He says, “Why aren’t you drinking wine?” We say, “You know, we don’t want to tonight. He’s like, “Well, you should drink some wine.”

J: It’s so funny.

A: It’s really funny. My other nephew likes to take beers out of the fridge and give them to us and say “beer, beer.”

Z: That’s a well-trained child. I have one last thought I want to add to this. If hard seltzer does, in fact, largely replace cheap beer, I don’t know that I’d be sad about that.

A: That’s a bold statement.

Z: I don’t have warm fuzzies about Bud Light.

A: PBR? Miller High Life?

Z: I have certainly drank all those beers. I don’t have anything against them. I don’t root for them to stop existing. But to me, whenever I drink those beers, I would kind of rather be drinking something else. Maybe not a hard seltzer, but that’s rarely what I want.

A: We’ll do an in memoriam of all the great light beer brands that are gone, thanks to Zach. I don’t know, man. I think that there’s a place for both of them. I think, obviously, one will ultimately have higher sales than the other. I still think it remains to be seen. The writing on the wall right now is that it probably will be seltzer in the near future. I do think that there’s still going to be a place for cheap beer. I can’t see chefs at the end of their shifts being like, “Hey, let’s get a bucket of Trulys.”

Z: They already do, man. They already do.

A: No, they don’t.

Z: It was happening when I was still working in restaurants, man. People would get off work and they’d want seltzers. Not everyone. Some people would drink beers. There’s golf courses and all those places.

A: That, I see. The golf course makes sense.

Z: I’m just saying it was all starting to change. There are certainly people who are married to their identity as a beer drinker. I think a lot of people thought beer was the best fit for their need, until seltzer came along. Seltzer may do some of the things that beer did better than beer does at this point.

A: OK. Fair point. All right. Well, I guess it remains to be seen. If you are someone who listens to the podcast and you have become a hard seltzer drinker and used to be a cheap beer drinker, let us know. If you disagree with Zach, definitely let us know. Joanna, Zach, I’ll talk to you Friday.

J: See ya.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show.

Now for the credits. VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and Seattle, Washington, by myself and Zach Geballe, who does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all of this possible, and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director, who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team, who are instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: What Does Hard Seltzer’s Rise Mean for Cheap Beer? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/podcast-hard-seltzers-cheap-beer/

[vanfoodies]

Where have you booked for Dine Out this year? If you are still deciding, I’m going to start sharing my experiences, whether it’s an invited dinner or out of my own pocket. I was invited as a media to preview the menu at PiDGiN. Their food is a fusion of Asian and French cuisines, and they decorate the interior by rotating artworks by local artists.

They have designed their $45 DOVF menu to be as close to their regular prix fixe menu as possible, which is a 6-course menu shared family style for a minimum of 2 people. You have the option of a omnivore menu, or a vegetarian one. You can also order drink pairing for an additional $40-50 per person. The Dine Out website didn’t include the vegetarian menu, so I suggest you to visit PiDGiN’s website for the menus, and I’m posting them here as well. Note that the following plates are all meant to be shared by 2 people – they will adjust the portion based on party size.

Food

In addition to the 6-course menu, you can also order snacks a la carte. The Beef Tendon Chicharron was addictive. It’s crispy, and it wasn’t greasy. There was just enough seasoning, and the gochugaru citrus spice reminded me of sour plum flavour, with the tiniest hint of heat.

They use different vegetables to make their Daily Pickles. On this day, it was cucumber, ume-infused daikon and shitake mushrooms. They were just slightly pickled, so they weren’t overly briny or vinegary.

Before we started with the first course, we also cheered each other with an Oyster Shot. I liked the addition of celery lime granité, which not only brought flavours, but also a refreshing note. This was a cleaner, lighter version than the typical tomato-based oyster shot.

Moving into the six courses. First, I could smell the delicious scent of Brussel Sprouts as soon as I stepped foot into the restaurant. You can never miss the smell of fried brussel sprouts. I was worried that the miso would be too strong and salty, but it was just right. The pickled turnips, to my surprise, was more sweet than sour. Having a little bit of everything to form the “perfect bite”, it was a good balance of sweet and savoury.

This was paired with the Masseria Li Veli, Fiano 2018. It’s quite aromatic, citrusy and easy drinking. It helps cut through the grease in the brussel sprouts.

The next course is different between omnivore and vegetarian. The Tuna Tartare was my favourite of the two. It’s more complex in flavour and texture, with the additional pickled napa cabbage that wasn’t on the beet tartare. There seemed to be more going on in the tuna tartare than the beet one.

I’m a big fan of beets, so I was quite looking forward to the Beet Tartare. By looks, it was on point. It looked like a beef tartare. However I thought it’s a bit one note in flavour and texture. The marinade of the beet was a bit too strong for my liking, so it’s taking away the delicate flavour of the beet. Both tartares were served with crispy lotus chips, and they were so good. Great complement to the tartare.

The tartare course is paired with one of PiDGiN’s pre-batched cocktails, Park Meadows. It has gin, juniper syrup, yuzu and sage. It’s fruity yet herbaceous, with lots of citrusy note. I’m usually not a fan of gin but I would order this again. It comes in a little bottle and a key as bottle opener. Each bottle’s label showcases a different artwork by artists whom have been featured inside the restaurant. This little bottle serves two.

Next, the Cultivated Mushrooms use baby king oyster mushrooms and oyster mushrooms. The highlight for me was the ramen egg – the yolk was in just the right consistency, and the marinade was a perfect sweet-soy combination. While the baby king oyster mushrooms were tasty, the oyster mushrooms were too salty. The truffle celeriac puree was creamy and fragrant, exactly what you would expect from a truffle puree.

PiDGiN is known for its extensive list of sake on the menu. For the mushroom course, they pair it with the Tengumai Yamahai. Interestingly, it has an earthy, mushroomy note on the nose. At first sip, there’s actually a savoury flavour to it. It’s not my favourite sake, but it certainly went well with the dish.

The fourth course also serves up different dishes for omnivore and vegetarian. For omnivore, it’s the Seafood Dashi with sablefish (the website says halibut but it’s sablefish) and side stripe prawns. The sablefish was so good; silky, buttery, flavourful. We had to share the plate among 4 people and I don’t think I had enough. The side stripe prawns were also cooked well – you can still taste the sweetness in the prawns. Another positive in this dish was the mashed potato. It was rich and creamy; and it thickened the broth just a little.

The Vegetable Oden was also very good. There was an abundance of tofu, cabbage, squash, enoki, wakame, potato and daikon. It’s a hearty bowl of vegetables and felt very much like comfort food. The shoyu-based (soy sauce) dashi broth in both dishes were very good. Given we just had our first snow, it’s perfect for this weather.

This course was also paired with a sake. The Taiheizan Kimoto. It’s more floral, smoother and sweeter on the palate. I don’t know much about sake, but personally I prefer this one.

The last savoury course also brought two different dishes. I was quite excited about the Magret Duck Breast. It was tender and cooked perfectly — well seared on the outside and still pink inside. The use of five spice and hoisin glaze added asian flare, so did the Chinese radish cake on the side. My mom makes some great Chinese radish cake for Chinese New Year, with lots of Chinese sausage and daikon prominently in every bite, so I do have pretty high standard for radish cakes. Unfortunately, our piece here was just a bit too salty.

Being red meat, the duck breast is paired with the Origine small-batch Cab Sauv/Merlot/Cab Franc 2017. It’s fruity, well rounded, full body, but doesn’t have a lot of tannin. I quite enjoyed this wine with the duck.

The Carnaroli Risotto demonstrated the precision in the PiDGiN’s kitchen. How they’re going to manage a perfect risotto on every plate would be the ultimate test for them. The rice was cooked well, it was creamy. It’s nice to see sunchokes prepared two ways here. My mother-in-law grows a lot of sunchokes in her garden, so I really enjoyed its earthy flavour, and it paired well with the risotto. The sunchoke chips also added crunchy texture. I especially liked the spruce tip oil, which added some freshness and herbaceous note to the otherwise heavy dish.

On the contrary, and thankfully, this isn’t paired with the same red wine as the duck breast. This goes with the Nk’mip Chardonnay 2017.

Lastly, the dessert course. The Yuzu Crème Brulee was a great ending to our meal. Lots of citrusy flavour from the yuzu and just the right amount of sweetness. I loved the creamy texture, and the brulee gave the perfect crack on the spoon. Castelvetrano olive is Mr.’s favourite olive, but I’m not sure about its place in desserts. While I like the idea of sweet and savoury together, the candied olive pieces were a bit too briny for my taste.

With the dessert course, the Toffee Coffee should be a dessert on its own. It is a miso salted caramel espresso martini. It’s delicious, creamy and rich, and the salt level was just right. A good night cap.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think PiDGiN’s menu is solid and of great value for $45 per person. Some are hit and miss, but they are minor things that can be adjusted easily. Given that the menu stays true to their regular offering, Dine Out does serve as a good opportunity for you to experience what PiDGiN has to offer. Being a meat eater, I can see myself enjoy the vegetarian menu just as much.

PiDGiN 350 Carrall Street, Vancouver 604-620-9400 pidginyvr.com

[Dine Out Vancouver 2020] PiDGiN: 6-course menu shared family style #DOVF Where have you booked for Dine Out this year? If you are still deciding, I'm going to start sharing my experiences, whether it's an invited dinner or out of my own pocket.

[fritesandfries]

Dinner at Bar Brigade

It was so nice to finally catch up with one of my closest friends tonight at Bar Brigade in St. Paul, Minnesota. We pretty much determined that we prefer old people time (5 pm) at restaurants from now on if we want to be able to have a conversation, and have great service. I’m just too old for scream-talking. Well, we’re both over it. No more trendy restaurants with strong drinks to compensate for bad food.

Just quiet dinners.

At delicious places.

Remember in my last restaurant post I was like, I need to eat more vegetable side dishes from Twin Cities restaurants? Well, I did. And the dishes we ordered at Bar Brigade were just dreamy.

Despite the fact that I had McDonald’s hash browns for breakfast (yeah, it’s true), their terrifically made vegetables made me feel like I was finally doing something good for my body. Artichokes with the bright and peppery romesco. Potatoes with a great vinegary and creamy contrast. It was so good and refreshing. 

Oh, and the lamb was deliciously juicy too. It’s nice but I’m all about the side dishes now...