Category Archives: whimsical and strange
Pre-Leftovers
What do you call leftovers that you anticipate and preemptively use? “Right-unders” has the proper symmetry, but it sounds too much like Australian slang. It’s probably some derogatory term for New Zealanders. For lack of a better alternative, I will … Continue reading
Filed under beans, whimsical and strange
Assisting the Curious
For some reason, bloggers often feel compelled to post about the unusual Google search terms that lead readers to their blogs. This has always struck me as a self-indulgent exercise. No one really cares about your Google queries; if they … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized, whimsical and strange
Ugly food
This blog has been dead for a long time. Lying in a grave is not generally recommended as a beauty regimen, except at certain Californian spas; even the most aesthetically pleasing among us will look a little worse for the … Continue reading
Filed under noodles, whimsical and strange
Cachapas
One good thing about California is the food, something you don’t really notice until you order California-style food in other states. On a recent trip to Nebraska with my family, my mother and I ordered California-style sandwiches, I because I … Continue reading
Filed under corn, dessert, Uncategorized, whimsical and strange
Ice Cream Lasagna
If necessity is the mother of invention, then the lack of basic necessities is its father. (On second thought, in that context, “necessity” can mean “lack of basic necessities,” so I guess you’d have to say that necessity is the … Continue reading
Filed under dessert, whimsical and strange
Culinary Miscegenation
It is perhaps something about the nebulousness of American identity that leads to our obsession with tracing national origins. It doesn’t matter whether or not these designated origins have any relation to actual history. Witness French fries, which are actually … Continue reading
Filed under mexican-ish food, pizza, whimsical and strange
Not a Victory Garden, Part II
If gardening enthusiasts are to be believed, home-grown vegetables are not only more virtuous than the store-bought variety, but also better tasting, more attractive, richer in vitamins, and capable of scoring higher on the SAT. Sometimes this is the case: … Continue reading
Filed under whimsical and strange
The Inimitable Shrimp Ball*
Despite what yuppies would have you believe, processed foods are found all over the world, not merely in the poorer and therefore less virtuous parts of America. Where the West has spam, bologna, and hot dogs, the East has fish … Continue reading
Filed under chinese-ish food, shrimp, whimsical and strange
Introducing The Exploited
As you probably noticed, the title of this blog is a play on “conspicuous consumption,” Thorstein Veblen’s theory of the birth of the yuppie. I mean, his theory of the middle and upper classes’ gratuitous displays of wealth. My (significant) … Continue reading
Filed under chinese-ish food, introduction, noodles, whimsical and strange
