The quintessential New York street food is a slice of pizza. While pizza-shaped objects appear in other cities, travelers and ex-New Yorkers have long considered the cheesy wedges of neighborhood slice joints throughout the Five Boroughs the ne plus ultra, exemplar and cornerstone of the city’s unique curbside cuisine.
Pandemic-related supplychain snags and inflation have now hit New Yorkers where they eat. The average cost for a cheese slice in the Big Apple is now 3 dollars.
More:
“Mapping the Death of NYC’s Cheap Slice,” Sarah Holder, Bloomberg
So the CSPS is studying the matter. Nobody is talking about a gas stove ban, and safety measures are as simple as turning on the exhaust fan when you cook, but that didn’t stop Fox fearmongers and their outraged audience. Gas-happy MAGAheads will continue to stoke stove-ban outrage until they cook up their next spurious rage-and-resentment recipe.
More:
“Republicans turn up the heat on a new culture war target: gas stoves,” Alaina Demopoulos, The Guardian
“How the humble gas stove became the latest flash point in the culture wars,” Maxine Joselow, Washington Post
“Republicans Mocked Over Outraged Claims Government ‘Coming for’ Gas Stoves,”Aila Slisco, Newsweek
“5 myths about gas stoves, the latest culture war clash,” Rebecca Leber, Vox
Related:
“How the Fossil Fuel Industry Convinced Americans to Love Gas Stoves,” Rebecca Leber, Mother Jones
Photo (Toy stove with pots and pans, left on the sidewalk for young aspiring chefs) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht,NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Today’s recipe: Jello Shots. You don’t have to be a frat bro to appreciate them. Basically, it takes 2 cups of water to make one package of Jello; just make it with 1 cup, then add a half-cup of booze and a half-cup of cold water to the thick hot goo, pour into small cups, and put them in the refrigerator overnight.
You can read about Jello Shot chemistry here, or watch a quick video. If you’re too genteel for gellified booze shooters, make some Port Wine Jelly.
More:
“The Science of Jello Shots,” Kevin Liu, Serious Eats
Image (“Jello Shooter Night at The Bar of the Folies Bergère, after Edouard Manet”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Japan’s national culinary treasure, sushi, was automated in 1958, when Yoshiaki Shiraishi, the Henry Ford of sushi, opened the first kaiten sushi (回転寿司 “revolving-sushi”) restaurant in Osaka. Today, the $5.1 billion business of conveyer belt sushi is dominated by four giant chains: Sushiro, Kura Sushi, Hama Sushi, and Kappa Sushi.
Competition between the big 4 firms is keen as a sashimi bōchō knife, and led to some bluefin-tuna-sized scandals this year. Last month, Tokyo police smelled something fishy, and arrested the president of Kappa Sushi for stealing corporate secrets from rival Hama Sushi. He later resigned. And in June, Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency reprimanded Sushiro for promoting a sea urchin sushi 90 percent of their outlets didn’t actually carry.
Maybe there are supply chain problems with the sandwich’s many non-pork components, like: ammonium sulfate, polysorbate 80, sodium benzoate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oils, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, soy flour, sodium stearoyl lactylate, ascorbic acid, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, calcium peroxide, calcium propionate,high fructose corn syrup, xanthan gum, and sodium benzoate. And let’s not forget azodicarbonamide, used to make yoga mats.
Nota Bene: The farewell tour kicks off on Halloween, so it may be more “trick” than “treat.” The McRib may rise from the dead like the zombie meat it is in years to come.
More:
“McDonald’s McRib coming back for a ‘farewell tour,'” Kelly Tyko, Axios
We know, you’re thinking “Great, yet another pizza-making robot.” But the inventors of RoDyMan (RObotic DYnamic MANipulation) digitized the actions of noted pizzaioloEnzo Coccia, who wore a motion-capture suit while making traditional pies. Result: a robot going through the motions of making pizzas while producing soulless, pizza-like objects.
More:
“$2.9 Million Pizza-Making Robot Still Can’t Make Pizza,” Joel Hruska, ExtremeTech
US Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh was eating at Morton’s steakhouse in DC on July 6th when womens’ rights activists found out, and protested in front of the pricey eatery. Mr. Kavanaugh had to sneak out the back without dessert. Sad, but there’s always Grubhub.
Morton’s angrily responded that “Politics … should not trample the freedom … of the right to … eat dinner.” Protesters reponded by flooding Morton’s with fake reservations by phone and on Open Table.
There were other reactions. “Sounds like he just wanted some privacy to make his own dining decisions,” Chasten Buttigieg tweeted, alluding to Kavanaugh’s vote to overturnRoe v. Wade, the decision that guaranteed abortion access on the basis of Americans’ right to privacy. And after Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked if “These justices … have no right to privacy?”, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted “Pretty sure they overturned that right 2 weeks ago Doocy.”
More:
“Brett Kavanaugh is the latest target of protests at D.C. restaurants,” Emily Heil and Tim Carman, Washington Post
“‘Let him eat cake’: AOC reacts to Kavanaugh being forced out of restaurant by abortion rights protesters,” Axios
“Sorry, but the Constitution contains no right to eat dinner,” Washington Post
“Group offers up to $250 for SCOTUS justices sightings after Kavanaugh protest,” Axios
“Protests of Public Officials in Restaurants Aren’t Going Away,” Jessica Sidman, Washingtonian
It’s Swedish. It’s squeezable. It’s food in tubes. The convenient containers of comestables are also popular in Norway, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands, but Swedish supermarkets have vast arrays of tube food. You can even get tubes of cod roe paste from Ikea in the US. Some Americans get their tomato paste, pesto, or anchovies from tubes, but squeeze food is much more popular in Sweden.
More:
“Food in Tubes: A very Swedish way to package food,” Äteriet
“The Über Efficient Food Tubes That Are Beloved in Sweden,” Rose Heichelbech, 12 Tomatoes
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