Triscuits. In this staple of American snacking life, what does the "Tri" stand for? One assumes, perhaps, that it refers to there being three layers, ingredients or some other triple quality of the snack itself. Sage Boggs emailed Nabisco, and amazingly Nabisco itself no longer remembers — it acquired Triscuit's manufacturer in 1928 and the records are long gone — but it does assert that the Tri is not a reference to "triple" or other three-related terms.
Boggs sleuthed it out based on the 1903 ad embedded above; read his Twitter thread for the spoiler.
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Portland, Oregon, home of a fantastic bookstore and some awesome people.
The Oregonian:
The home delivery service, in which a pair of scantily clad strippers will deliver hot food to your door, started as a joke Boulden posted on social media. When people began seriously inquiring about orders, Boulden saw potential.
So, while the rest of Portland was hoarding toilet paper and pasta, he bought out one local store’s stock of pasties.
From 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., Boober Eats is offering the full menu from the Lucky Devil Lounge at the same prices. Delivery rates are generally $30, but vary depending on distance from the lounge.
...
Popular orders include chicken fingers, steak bites and mini corndogs.
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Laura Gao was born in Wuhan before moving to the US at the age of 3. An experienced graphic designer who now works for Twitter, Gao has been — understandably — frustrated with the virulant racism that's accompanied the worldwide outbreak of the novel coronavirus, and Trump's continued insistence on blaming China for the virus.
But Wuhan isn't as well-known as other cities in China, even though it has a larger population than London or New York. So instead of letting her hometown continue to be associated with a pandemic, Gao wrote and illustrated a new webcomic to help people get to know the city where she was born, beyond those gross racist implications.
It's a short read, but it will remind you that Wuhan is indeed a place of humans, culture, and history, all of which deserve appreciation and respect.
The Wuhan I Know [Laura Gao]
Image: Creativity City in Wuhan by Majorantarktis / Wikimedia Commons (CC 4.0) Read the rest
Kaci the Homicidal Homemaker made this deliciously sinister cake inspired by the carpet at the Overlook Hotel. [via Marshall Julius]
Also, Hellraiser brownies:
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Fat from black soldier fly larvae is a "sustainable and healthy alternative to butter," according to scientists at Ghent University in Belgium. According their research though, you can't go with more than half bug butter before it starts to taste suspect or downright foul. From Ghent University:
“The ecological footprint of an insect is much smaller compared to animal-based food sources” said researcher Daylan Tzompa-Sosa (Ghent University). “Besides, we can grow insects in large quantities in Europe, which also reduces the footprint of transport. After all, palm fat is often imported from outside of Europe..."
“Insect fat is a different type of fat than butter” researcher Tzompa-Sosa explains. “Insect fat contains lauric acid, which provides positive nutritional attributes since it is more digestible than butter. Moreover, lauric acid has an antibacterial, antimicrobial and antimycotic effect. This means that it is able, for example, to eliminate harmless various viruses, bacteria or even fungi in the body, allowing it to have a positive effect on health.”
"Consumers’ perception of bakery products with insect fat as partial butter replacement" (Food Quality and Preference)
"Scientists make cake with butter from bugs instead of cows" (Thomson Reuters/CBC)
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A South Korean street food treat.
I could watch this 'making of' video on loop forever. Read the rest
What's the world's best cheese? A gruyere from Switzerland, selected from a record-breaking number of entries from 26 countries in the 2020 World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin. Read the rest
• Coronavirus fears can't stop the fromage
In Wisconsin today, the world's largest technical cheese, butter and yogurt competition kicked off with a record 3,667 entries from 26 nations. Read the rest
Behold the chipsteak, here presented in an extremist British incarnation but also popular in the United States until about that time. Perhaps it's time for a chipsteak renaissance? Meet Major Stuart Benest (1915-2002), proprietor of the Benest supermarket in Millbrook, Jersey. in the late 1970s, who offers a very convincing argument. He's a Monty Python character brought to life and quite wonderful.
From 1977, here's a very special Benest's of Millbrook advert.
What makes it special and different to the rest? Well, the owner of arguably the most famous Channel Island voice ever, makes an in-vision appearance.
So spend the next minute in the company of Major Benest and his dulcet tones, as he gleefully showcases the type of grub you could have enjoyed on a Channel Island table in 1977. All made under relentless supervision...
If you enjoyed this ad, you're in luck: there's an entire mini-documentary about the supermarket and its incredible booming-voiced advertisements.
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While the fellow above has impressive technique, we must recognize the great Buster Keaton who blazed the trail for all of us 100 years ago. From The Cook (1918):
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Researchers discover a potential new way in which diet influences aging-related diseases.
Police on the Big Island of Hawaii are looking for fruit bandits who made off with about $1,000 in exotic fruit, including 18 or so durian -- the spiky fruit with a mega stinky smell and a taste some people crave. Read the rest
This video shows the preparation of kkwabaegi (twisted donuts) at a small bakery in Korea. There are things both similar and different to the experiences of bakers here in the west (let alone large-scale production). It's one of those "relaxing" or "satisfying" videos too, at least for the viewer, until one imagines doing it forty hours or more a week. Did you know we used to call donuts "oily cakes" until the marketers came along? Read the rest
I grew up in Virginia, and we used Old Bay Seasoning like folks around the country use salt and pepper. We really did put it on and in everything -- definitely stuff like crab cakes, fried fish, chicken, steaks, and of course, boiled crab ("crab bawl!"). Read the rest
If you dined at Gibson's Gourmet Burgers and Ribs every Saturday night, it would take four years (minus one weekend) to try every milkshake flavor on the menu. So it's for obvious reasons that this burger and milkshake joint in Cape Town, South Africa, that offers 207 different milkshakes, earned the Guinness World Record for "Most Varieties of Milkshakes Commercially Available." Read the rest
Reporter Natalie Allison, who covers state politics for The Tennessean in Nashville, tweeted a photo Monday (the photo was shot by photojournalist George Walker IV) of TN state Rep. Kent Calfee drinking from a Hershey’s chocolate syrup bottle. Read the rest
Restaurant chain Chipotle was fined $1.3m by the state of Massachussets for 13,253 child labor law violations at 50 sites. Time reports that minors working past midnight, for more than 48 hours a week, and without work papers were among the problems found by investigators.
The settlement total is closer to $2 million, including penalties for earned sick time violations in which managers granted employees paid time off only for certain illnesses. The violations also include failure to keep accurate records and pay timely wages. Lastly, the company was ordered a voluntary $500,000 payout to a state youth worker fund dedicated to education, enforcement and training.
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