But something had gone quite wrong

I've written about some truly awesome/scary food concoctions on this blog in the past (e.g. the uber Super Bowl snack; the White Castle & Bacon Bake; and who can forget the Turbaconducken?), but we may have a new champion in the food insanity sweepstakes. The beauty of this new contestant is the simplicity of its genius. The other offerings referenced above were all very high (cholesterol) concept but this one cuts right down to the bare essentials.

From The Economist:

On A fine afternoon at the Texas State Fair, a ringmaster encouraged a gaggle of children to flap their arms like butterfly wings. “What could possibly go wrong on a day as beautiful as today?” he asked. But a hundred yards away, something had gone quite wrong. People were queuing for an unusual delicacy: balls of butter, dipped in dough and cooked in a vat of boiling oil. Fried butter, in other words. The balls were dusted with a thin coat of powdered sugar. When bitten, they collapsed with an unctuous squelch.

Fairs are known for their decadent snack offerings. Most are unhealthy, and some push the conceptual boundaries of food into new territory. The Los Angeles County Fair, which ended on October 4th, featured a Meat Lovers’ Ice Cream Cone (don’t ask). The Minnesota State Fair is known for its foods-on-a-stick. The Texas fair bills itself as the fried food capital of the state.

Click here for the full article.

Today's something or other #36

The Martini - Why Everything You Know Is Wrong (source: Interesting Thing of the Day)

As a San Francisco resident, I like to brag that my city is where Important Things were invented. The television. The jukebox. Bay windows. Denim jeans. The slot machine. Cable cars. The fortune cookie. Chop Suey. And yes, Rice-a-Roni. It’s also reputedly the birthplace of quite a few alcoholic beverages, including Irish Coffee, the Mimosa, the Mai Tai, and the Martini.

Although the martini is apparently less than 150 years old, records of its invention are sketchy at best, and several other municipalities would like to take credit for it. A great many widely divergent stories about the drink’s origin are in circulation, each one as plausible as the next. But since this is a question that cannot be answered definitively, I choose to believe the story I like best. That story says that in the mid-1800s, a miner about to board a ferry in San Francisco for the trip across the bay to his home town of Martinez asked a bartender to whip up an interesting drink for him. The resulting mixture was named after the traveler’s destination, and years later, when the drink had become more popular, the name was shortened to “martini.” This story, I hasten to admit, may be entirely apocryphal, but it does at least seem likely that the name “martini” is in fact derived in some fashion from “Martinez.”

Mixed Messages
In addition to the drink’s uncertain provenance, no reliable documentation of its original recipe exists. Among the ingredient lists I found claiming to be the original are these:
4 parts sweet vermouth, 1 part gin, dash of bitters, two dashes of Maraschino, slice of lemon
3 parts gin, 1 part sweet vermouth, 1 part dry vermouth, dash of orange bitters, slice of lemon
3 parts gin, 1 part dry vermouth
2 parts gin, 1 part sweet vermouth, (sometimes) dash of orange bitters
1 part gin, 1 part dry vermouth

(In addition to the ingredients listed, every martini is mixed with ice to chill it; the ice is strained out before serving.)

You will notice, of course, that all these recipes contain gin—not vodka—and vermouth (a type of wine flavored with herbs and spices). Vodka martinis are a more recent invention (and, according to some, an egregious misuse of the very term “martini,” since vodka is all but tasteless). The same is true of the ubiquitous olive garnish, which is suspiciously absent from early ingredient lists. But the uncertainty of the recipe is precisely what’s at issue here. Since there is no canonical reference as to what the “one true” martini should contain, anyone who gets uptight over the fact that a certain martini recipe is “wrong” is arguing from a position of ignorance. (More on this in a moment.)

How Dry Am I?

In any event, it is clear that over the last century, the commonly expected ratio of gin to vermouth has steadily increased to the point that some martini aficionados consider even an extra-dry 8-to-1 ratio too “sweet.” If you want to be extremely hip, you can buy spray bottles designed expressly for “misting” a few microdroplets of dry vermouth onto cold gin to give your hyper-desiccated martini the mere suggestion of a hint of vaguely vermouthish essence.

This change is apparently no accident. Some sources claim that the gin commonly available a century ago was much more bitter than what we have today, that the purpose of the vermouth was to mask this bitterness, and that the decreasing proportion of vermouth has thus been nothing more than a natural adjustment to expose more of the gin’s flavor.

Shaken, Not Stirred?

But the biggest (and silliest) martini controversy is, of course, whether they should be shaken or stirred. Everyone knows James Bond’s choice, and I’ve read countless criticisms that Bond orders his martini the “wrong” way—that a sophisticated international spy ought to know better. One could perhaps justifiably criticize Bond (or, to be more accurate, Ian Fleming) for preferring a vodka martini, since the one thing we can say with certainty about the traditional recipe is that it uses gin. But surely the manner of combining the alcohols is of little consequence? Well, you’d be surprised.

Putting the ingredients (including ice) in a covered container and shaking will result in a colder beverage—ordinarily considered a benefit. But purists never seem to tire of saying that shaking a martini bruises the gin, as though this were a self-evidently ridiculous thing to do. You cannot bruise gin. You can bruise yourself or even a piece of fruit, but you simply cannot damage gin in any way merely by shaking it.

OK, say the critics, maybe “bruise” was a poor choice of words, but by shaking gin with ice you do change it—you aerate it (a tiny little bit) and you probably melt a little more of the ice, diluting it a smidgen more than you would by stirring. The presence of air bubbles (and perhaps a few ice fragments) can in fact make the martini slightly cloudy, but this appearance dissipates quickly. The real question is whether you can taste the difference between a shaken martini and a stirred one, and let’s just say that innumerable blind taste tests have yielded inconclusive results but a lot of bruised feelings.

Even if a shaken martini does taste different from a stirred martini, who’s to say the difference is objectionable? Some people like carbonated water better than still water. Some people like Pepsi better than Coke. Some people like their orange juice without pulp. These are all merely preferences, not matters of right and wrong. And so what if Bond, for whatever fictional reason, preferred his martini shaken? The point is that he knew stirred martinis were the norm—otherwise, there’d have been no point in ordering his specially. So he’s not betraying ignorance, but rather expressing a preference.

Or maybe he was doing it for his health. As crazy as it sounds, the British Medical Journal published a study showing that shaken martinis have measurably higher antioxidant properties than stirred martinis. Higher enough to make any real difference? Probably not. But at least when your know-it-all friends give you a dressing down for being clueless about proper martini preparation, you’ve got a great comeback.

10 new details on the iTablet

Hard to bet against Apple these days. It will be interesting to see their pricing strategy and how they position the Tablet in the marketplace.

Today's something or other #35

Marijuana brownies mistakenly eaten for Thanksgiving

KINGSTON, Ont. -- A Kingston man faces drug-dealing charges after a family member munching on drug-laced brownies ended up in an ambulance.

Police officers were called to a home late Monday afternoon to help paramedics.

A man told the emergency personnel that his family member passed out after eating brownies baked with marijuana. Police saw two large plastic pails full of pot and several large plants.
A 39-year-old man is charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

Source: Sun Media

eHarmony for Conservatives

That's a nice little bit of walking around money

Just in case you missed this little tidbit in the October Report On Business Magazine.

Total revenue Japanese game publisher Taito has earned from Space Invaders since it appeared in arcades (and caused a nationwide coin shortage-in 1978): $500,000,000.

Stupid people on airplanes

Air Canada plane diverted after man steals beer

KELOWNA, B.C. - Police took a man off an Air Canada Jazz flight in Kelowna, B.C., on Tuesday after a disturbance on the flight from Vancouver to Fort McMurray, Alberta forced the pilot to make an unscheduled stop.

Police say the man stole some beer from the beverage cart on the plane and tried to hide the evidence by flushing the empty can down the toilet.

Airport Communications Officer Jenelle Turpin says the pilot made the decision to land in Kelowna and call in the Mounties.

When the plane landed the RCMP took one man away in handcuffs, while questioning two others before releasing them.

The plane then continued on its flight.

Source: Sun Media

An innovative, new anti-smoking campaign

New Anti-Smoking Ads Warn Teens 'It's Gay To Smoke'

The Onion shows no love to Michael Vick

And who can blame them, really?

From The Onion - Michael Vick Fails To Inspire Team With 'Great' Dogfighting Story.

Wow. I mean... wow.

Raccoons - lovable cartoon characters or remorseless killing machines?

Raccoons surround, maul 74-year-old woman

Tried to chase them from her yard

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAKELAND, Fla. — Animal control officers hope to trap a pack of raccoons that mauled a 74-year-old woman who tried to chase them from her yard.

The sheriff in Polk County, east of Tampa, says Gretchen Whitted fell when five raccoons surrounded and attacked her Sunday. She was taken to a hospital with extensive cuts from her neck to her legs.

“We’re not talking about a lot of little bites here,” Sheriff Grady Judd said. “She was filleted.”

A neighbour called for help after hearing the woman’s cries and seeing her covered in blood.

Whitted was treated for rabies, though officials doubt the animals were infected.

Fire crews flooded nearby drains to drive the animals out, but none appeared. Animal control officers hope to catch them using cat food and sardines as bait.