The Star Trek Short Takes episode "The Trouble With Edward" focuses on H. Jon Benjamin as the mad scientist who sets Tribbles on the path to becoming an official enemy of the Klingon Empire

He talked to SyFy about the part:

"We didn’t do a ton of backstory before shooting it," Benjamin explains. "But I talked to the writer [Graham Wanger] and there was a conversation about how he got there. Was it like nepotism? Is he like barely a scientist? Or is he just of dubious ethics? Or an outsider and nobody liked him? I think we landed on the latter. Like, I think he might have some basis in real science and maybe some real credentials. But, he’s a bit of a lunatic."

In one scene, right before Larkin injects the tribbles with whatever genetic cocktail he's cooked up to modify them, he seems to be briefly sporting an ominous black vest and one of the all-black Starfleet badges usually worn by members of the clandestine organization Section 31. In essence, for one moment, it's like Larkin raided the closet of Captain Leland from Star Trek: Discovery. Later in Trek canon, the tribbles end up being a huge problem for the Klingons. (In DS9, Worf said tribbles were declared an enemy of the Empire at some point.) So, did someone in Section 31 plant Larkin with the hopes that he would act crazy and create new alien pest species?

Benjamin isn't ruling it out. If someone were pulling Larkin's strings, it would certainly explain how he got on the ship.

Kewpie Mayonnaise, made in Japan, has extra egg yolk and MSG in it, making it far superior to any other commercially-made mayonnaise. My family loves the Kewpie. To make it easier to squeeze out of the bottle, I 3D printed a thing you can attach to the cap so you can invert the bottle and let the mayo settle near the spout. Now we don't have to shake the bottle to get the mayo out.

If you want to print one of your own, here's the STL file. If you don't have a printer but love Kewpie and need one of these, email me (mark@boingboing.net) and I'll print one out and send it to you for the price of the postage.

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Longtime Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema participated in a live interview at the Washington Post food lab. Within minutes, his fake mustache was falling off.

Questions answered included which restaurant didn't deserve the stars awarded by Michelin (Plume at the Jefferson Hotel), how to get credit cards under a fake name (avoid too many questions by paying promptly), and how he got his job (the food critic at the time hired him, and Bob Woodward did not).

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For years a friend has been telling my diet was hurting my general demeanor. Read the rest

Last night I made honey whole wheat sourdough pizza crust. It was quite good.

As a kid, there was a pizza place in my hometown that made a deep-dish pizza with a whole wheat crust. It was great, I tried and I couldn't replicate it. Then I substituted honey instead of sugar.

This simple crust is good.

Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough Pizza Dough

1 cup bread flour 1 cup whole wheat flour ½ cup sourdough starter 1 ½ tsp salt 3 tbs honey 1 ½ tbs olive oil ½ cup water

First: Mix ½ cup water, ½ cup starter, oil and the honey. Let sit while you measure out the dry goods and combine them all. Depending on your flour, and your starter, you may need to add a little flour to the mix to get a good consistency. Stop when it feels like the dough that you want to roll out.

Second: Leave it alone, probably covered, for 45-60 minutes. Refrigerate to store or use right away.

Bake at 475F or higher for 20 min, deep-dish. Probably the same for thin crust.

I have been using this dough for the crust of my deep-dish pizza, but you can easily roll it out for super-thin, Neapolitan stuff too.

Unless you do roll it super thin, I doubt this crust is going to get super cracker crisp, as it is sourdough and will retain more chew the longer you let it rise. Read the rest

In Ecuador. Read the rest

Because washing your hands after you scarf a bag of Cheetos is such a hassle:

"For Chips, Popcorn, Pizza, Party food, Finger food, Appetizers and anything else that makes your fingers Cheesy, Greasy or Sticky. Designed to go on and off with ease, our unique shape fits comfortably on any size fingertip. Food-Grade Silicone is easy to clean, Dishwasher safe, and can be placed in boiling water to Disinfect. Use as a Finger Food Utensil or for Kitchen Prep.?

They're available in a variety of colors for $9 from Amazon: Finger Covers for Cheesy, Greasy, Sticky Fingers Read the rest

This clip is from 2007. I have yet to prepare Christopher Walken's upright chicken with pears but I have enjoyed this video several times.

(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

I stared at this a while in Target and a staff member eventually asked if I needed help and I slowly turned to them and whispered "kratom ranch."

Kranch Saucy Sauce [Amazon] Read the rest

How do you turn a cheap, tough, fibrous, lean piece of beef into a well-marbled, tender Wagyu steak? The short answer is, you don't, but that didn't stop this chef from trying. He started by injecting fat into a $1 cut, then seasoning it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. He then grilled it, side-by-side with a Wagyu steak, over charcoal. When he and his partner taste tested it, they agreed the Wagyu was much more tender than the cheap steak, but the cheap steak was better than expected.

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I've been accused of being partial to Kewpie Mayonnaise because of its retro packaging, but that's only partially true. This is the best mayo I've ever had. Chalk it up to extra egg yolks and the MSG. It's made in Japan,  but you can buy a 3-pack on Amazon for just . If you are making okonomiyaki (crepes with noodles, cabbage, pork, and egg), it's essential. Read the rest

PETA installed an old-fashioned protest billboard adjacent to the Ohio Renaissance Festival that opened this weekend in Waynesville. The animal rights activists consider the classic Renaissance faire fare of an oversized turkey leg to be distasteful, to say the least. From WLWT5:

The billboard -- placed near the fairgrounds and showing a turkey's face -- reads "Ye Can Live Without Yon Turkey Leg. I Cannot. Go Vegan Forthwith!"

Officials with PETA said they're urging festival-goers to switch from a turkey leg to a falafel, hummus or corn on the cob...

"PETA erects billboard protesting turkey legs at Ohio Renaissance Fest" (WLWT5, thanks Charles Pescovitz!) Read the rest

One of the major contributors to greenhouse gases is the methane that cows belch up as they break down cellulose, but five years ago, research from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found that adding small amounts of a pink seaweed called Asparagopsis to cows' diets eliminated the gut microbes responsible for methane production and "completely knocks out" cows' methane emissions. Read the rest

The City of Santa Monica is looking to displace a year old homeless feeding program because it is too successful.

ABC7:

Steve Petramale has been feeding at least 100 homeless people every week at Reed Park for more than a year.

Santa Monica officials told Petramale the park is not a good location for his food program. They had threatened to issue a citation if he served meals this Sunday.

Petramale says he's willing to work with the city to find a new location, but he wants to make sure the meals continue.

"I'm more than willing to make this work so everyone is happy and especially that these people eat," he said. "That's my main concern."

Some neighborhood residents have complained.

"Neighbors are concerned about the amount of people, the lack of play space," said Alisa Orduna, an advisor on homelessness with the city of Santa Monica. "The lack of space to be able to stretch out and have their activities."

Petramale says he's sympathetic.

"I understand your concern and why you're upset but I really do feel, regardless, everyone needs to eat," he said.

You may donate to Petramale's organization FamilyFood.us via Venmo. Read the rest

Seamus Blackley, "father of the Xbox," worked with Egyptologist Serena Love and microbiologist Richard Bowman to extract yeast from 4,500-year-old Egyptian bread-making and beer-making potter held in the collection of Harvard's Peabody Museum; though nearly all of the samples are being cultured for analysis and addition to a microorganism library, Blackley cultured one sample to use in a dough-starter for a baking project. Read the rest

Get a load of this delicious video of a beekeeper slicing that honeycomb down, from which to extract this year's honey harvest. Read the rest

Great Big Story went to Tokyo to visit five small restaurants that make different kinds of popular street foods: takoyaki (pieces of octopus in griddle-cooked balls of dough, yakisoba (fried noodles, meat, and vegetables), gyoza (Chinese dumplings), okonomiyaki (crepes with noodles, cabbage, pork, and egg), and taiyaki (fish-shaped pancakes with sweet fillings). My mouth was watering as I watched this.

Image: Great Big Story/YouTube Read the rest