Fnord.

Thanks to Charles Bacon at Argonne for this one; he had to fly to Amsterdam on a half-days’ notice to repair a cluster that had been dropped by UPS. He came back with some entertaining stories and a stash of black, diamond-shaped salt licorice marked ‘Salino.’ It was unlike any I had had before, with an intense anise flavor and odd bite. Here’s a picture I found on the web:

(Picture borrowed from this page.)

(As an aside, the bite comes from Ammonium chloride.)

These are really, really hard to find in the US. Lisa Childers, bless her soul, finally got ‘er done. Head over to Hollandsedrop.com and hit ‘Special order Laura.’ Quite expensive, almost $75 shipped, but it is 3 kilos of the good stuff.

Another, even more intense, is ‘DZ’ or double salt:

(Image borrowed from Slashfood.)

Definitely an acquired taste, also available from Hollandsedrop. For a nice hater review, check out this page on Bad candy.

Anyway, I’ve been out for months and put in an order today; this page is just so I can find the order info next time.

Shoulda sold it on ebay.

(Click for full-size)
Somewhere in central Illinois, on the way to Ron’s. Damn, I miss Ron’s. And Ron himself.

Sigh. Killer Cajun in the middle of nowhere, Illinois. Who woulda thought?

Oh yeah, the plane - Beechcraft, provenance unknown. Dedication sign in lower left corner.

Really! I got this for Chris’s birthday last year, and it’s worked out pretty well. A bit pricy, but rather cool and some of the bacon is marvelous.

Probably not worth doing twice, but it did make for a pretty unusual gift.

An entire website about it. It’s a Japan thing.

A sometimes profane but quite thoughtful essay on vegetarians, with some interesting conclusions:

Vegetarianism is the new Puritanism. This is my belief. It is also one of my arguments against vegetarianism, and although it may at first seem a flippant argument, I believe that it is very powerful. Vegetarianism is miserable. It attacks one of life’s greatest and surest pleasures - enjoying good food. Anything which makes people less happy is bad.

The essay is here in cached form; the original was censored and the author basically fired. Another indicator of a cult/religon, or something like that.

The classic beginner’s mistake in Argentina is to neglect the first steak of the day. You will be tempted to just peck at it or even skip it altogether, rationalizing that you need to save yourself for the much larger steak later that night. But this is a false economy, like refusing to drink water in the early parts of a marathon. That first steak has to get you through the afternoon and half the night, until the restaurants begin to open at ten; the first steak is what primes your system to digest large quantities of animal protein, and it’s the first steak that buffers the sudden sugar rush of your afternoon ice cream cone. The midnight second steak might be more the glamorous one, standing as it does a good three inches off the plate, but all it has to do is get you up and out of the restaurant and into bed (for the love of God, don’t forget to drink water).

Go read it. The entire essay is that good. Real food porn, with a liberal dose of humor and E.A. Poe.

I can’t stop salivating, and called Diego to thank him for sending this link, and ask when the next trip to BA is.

A nice story on LA Times about Oxo, their design process, and lots of tidbits about food, cooking and utensils. Interesting design/revision/improvement process.