INKSTAND

I can’t believe it took me so long to do this one. Bacon Salt is great, I love it! I’ve been puting it in my scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, on steak, popcorn, and vegetables. It’s the best, it really is. When trying to imagine what it tastes like, one should think “Bacos-salt” because, well, it tastes a lot like bacon-substitute topping, Bacos, mixed with salt. It doesn’t taste exactly like bacon but enough to make you get your bacon fix. That does not deter this delightful condiment from taking it’s place among the awesome things of this world. You shouldn’t have trouble finding Bacon Salt, because it’s been popping up everywhere. If you can’t find it, their website lists retailers who carry it. I have only tried the original flavor as of yet, but I will soon sample the other two flavors, hickory and peppered. They make a natural kind, who’s list of ingredients is dramaticaly shorter, but I won’t try that because I don’t really care what I’m puting into my body.
A special thanks to Mike and Janice for turning me on to this life-affirming product.

Every once in a while when I’m looking for a refreshing beverage I see root beer and think “That would be great, if only it had caffeine.” I know Barqs has caffeine, but I haven’t had it in years. I know Jeremy and Matthew have recently tried it for it’s caffeine content but were unimpressed with it’s flavor. I was looking for a boost today at work and remembered that we had just gotten this drink in and it was the natural choice to go with. Bawls energy drink is pretty good by me so I thought a highly caffinated root beer would be a winner. My attention was also drawn to the gimick of not only using the word “geek” in their name, but using the “33″ to replace the “ee”, a nod to leet speak, or 1337 speak, or whatever the hell. It is also nice to see a decline in the usage of limit-pushing, poorly-spelled adjectives like “xtreme” or “maxxed”.

It tasted all right. It was crisp and sweet, but as far as root beers go it was a little lack luster. While it had a tiny bit of that energy-drink flavor to it, it wasn’t strong enough to make you think you were drinking yet another flavor of Monster. As for it’s energy-boosting abilities, the web site says it’s about as strong as a cup of coffee, and I will agree. I drank it at about 8 pm to push through the last couple hours of work and I made it, although I felt fatigued after 10. It’s about 11:20 right now and off of work so, as usual, I’m not alert but not ready ofr bed either. I’ll probably play Warcraft, which is the kind of thing this drink was designed for.

I’ll probably buy it again at some point. Put it into my stable of energy drinks. But at over $2 per 10 oz bottle, I sure won’t be drinking it all the time.

NOS, Fruit Punch flavor
This drink isn’t any better than any other energy drink. In fact I found that the flavor had a dusty quality to it. I think I was taken in by the bright colors, which reminded me of Iron Man. I should go see that.

Amp, “Revive” Orange flavor by Mountain Dew
The first time I had this it really kicked me in the butt. I was all jittery and unfocused at work. I’m easily distracted as it is and this made it worse, plus I was hyper. It tasted ok, though. The orange Mountin Dew flavor seems to be being pushed by the company. It’s gone in Code Orange, Game Fuel, Livewire, and this. It’s ok but I liked Code Red better. A better orange flavor would be…

Rumba
I really love this one. It’s not carbonated and tastes a lot more like what one would think of when they think “energy juice” than anything that Rockstar or Monster have put out. And by that I mean it tastes like there’s juice in it. There’s a blurb on the can that says something like “It’s about how it makes you feel!” Any buzz I’ve gotten from Rumba has been a rather pleasant, upbeat one. I don’t think it’s too hard to get, but I usually can’t find it when I’m in the market for an afternoon boost. When I’m away from Ken’s, that is. I sample other energy drinks a lot, but this one is my favorite.

I know, the immediate reaction is “ewww, gas station food!” but really, this 7-11 isn’t so bad. It’s tucked away near this christian college I live by and it’s really clean and they sell some decent food, like apples and bagel sanwiches they make themselves.

Nonetheless, their eggs suck.

I love hard boiled eggs in all forms. Egg salad, Deviled eggs, um…what else? I dunno, but I’m sure I’d like them. In all my years of peeling the shell off of a hard boiled egg, I cannot for the life of me figure out why these particular shells are so difficult. After cracking the shell, the first thing that happens is that the egg inside splits in two. See, the shell is so strongly adhered to the egg that attempting to peel it off pulls the egg with it. With evey crack more and more egg peices become independent of the whole shell, each attatched to the egg inside with equal strength. The delicacy involved in prying off eich piece of shell is simply ridiculous, and usually the piece comes off with a layer of the egg white attatched to it. Still, I buy one ocassionally thinking “Oh, maybe this time will be different and I won’t have to throw half the thing away.” Maybe someday.

Jeremy took me to lunch at Earth and Ocean so we could try their American Kobe Beef Burger. Here’s the menu description:

american kobe burger
onion jam, fontina or beecher’s peppercorn cheese, french fries

This picture is not the actual burger, but it is representative of the juiciness of the burger. We ordered them medium rare but they were brown throughout, no pink ribbon. Also, for whatever reason, the fryer was down and we couldn’t have fries so we had sala instead. Despite these thing, this was hands down the best damn burger I’ve had in this city. It is way worth the $14, but that’s because it’s not an everyday meal. Special burger occasions only.
Oh, my god, it was so fucking good.
Thanks, baby. And by the way next time we go out, it’s on me.

Jeremy finally made the gnocchi he’s been talking about. I video recorded most of the making of it but of course when the final steps happened and dinner was being prepared, I made the bone head move of taking a shower rather than getting the finished result on video. Boo me.
While I love getting my hands dirty in the kitchen and experimenting with different things, Jeremy is without question the better cook out of the two of us. Everything he makes turns out delicious and of course he’s always worried that it won’t. He’s treated me and others to spicy crab cakes, chicken cordon bleu, and three different kinds of meatloaf, two of which included bacon!
The gnocchi turned out wonderful. Each piece was the perfect size and consistency. There were a couple of lumps but hey, this was the first-time use of a potato ricer. Jeremy also added a secret ingredient that I promised not to divulge. The texture of the surface wasn’t the standard for this dish. It usually has more of a ridge to it to hold the sauce better, but ours was more of a fold. It was easier that way and I think it held the sauce just fine. The gnocchi was served with a vodka sauce that I think was a perfect choice. This dish wasn’t good for a first try, it was good for maybe a fifth attempt. The man has a talent for the culinary.

This stuff is weird and kinda gross. I know Im not supposed to expect ice cream, and I didn’t, but I did not like what I got. The mist disappointing thing was that the cookie pieces were puffy balls of tasteless nothing. The all-natural, non-dairy dessert tasted more like pumpkin pie than vanilla or ginger. I’m thinking that came from the spices and flavorings they used to try to emulate a gingersnap flavor. The flavor that was delivered was unappealing and vague.
I was also disturbed by it’s consistency. It was fine right out of the freezer, but I left it out for a long time and it didn’t even have the decency to melt. It was still solid, if only a little crumbly.
Stick to dairy. And Jake says: “Soy Dream ain’t so bad.”

Ever wonder what the bastardized cousin of Spam tastes like? Me neither, until I saw this product at Walgreens. It was cheaper then Spam so I said “What the hell?”
I fried some up and put it in a grilled cheese sandwich. It actually tastes a lot like Spam, only it’s missing something. The flavor is there, the consistency is there, but it still lacks that certain jai ne sais quoi. I really don’t know what it could be since there are a lot more ingredients in Treet than there are in Spam. Treet supposedly has a virgina baked ham flavor to it. I can’t honestly say I know what that means.
If ever faced with a choice between Spam and Treet, I’m going with Spam unless, of course, I am severiously strapped for cash.

This gum is made in Australia and comes in little boxes of about twenty pieces. A box costs less than two bucks, but i forget exactly how much. It tastes like licorice when you first chew it but the flavor quickly makes the transition to pepperminty-gum flavor. I like the narrow little box. It’s unobtrusive, stays intact, holds the gum, and is not made of metal like a lot of mint/candy packaging these days. I’m no Violet Beauregard, gum is usually just gum to me, and I won’t go out of my way to get this gum, but I do preffer it to, say, Eclipse or Orbit in an oh-so-subtle way.

These cookies are yummy. They are made of the same basic elements as Pocky and Yan Yan, that is a bready-cookie substance and a creamy flavored dip like chocolate or, in this case, strawberry. The difference between Hello Panda cookies and the aforementioned dipped-sticks is that the cookies are small, round, and have the yummy frosting in the middle. They also have cartoons of pandas playing sports on them.

I like all of these japanese snacks. They are sweet, light, and not very filling. Great for a snack. This box was only $1.09 and I’m pretty sure the Yan Yan (my real favorite) is that much or less, plus with the Yan Yan you get to dip your sticks inthe frosting yourself.