Ew-mint.

Season after season on The Biggest Loser, we have witnessed the weight loss powers of fancy gum. Without fail, almost every episode has one of those awkward ignore-that-this-is-a-commercial meetings between contestant and coach. They discuss the merits of fat free turkey or oatmeal or ziplocs. There has also been more than one non-commercial about Dessert Delights gum. This is low calorie gum that tastes like dessert: apple pie, strawberry shortcake, etc. The contestants go ga-ga for it because you can have the taste of dessert without the calories. Yay! 


I thought I would give the world of fancy gum a try, partially for its potential assistance in weight loss and partially to just give it a go. I like trying new things! This morning at Walgreens while stocking up on my usual snack of Fiji water and almonds, I also grabbed a pack of Trident Layers gum in the mint/melon flavor. As a savory-over-sweet person, I thought this would be a much less offensive flavor than pineapple or strawberry (and definitely not as bad as the Dessert Delights). 


After a team status call and my two cups of coffee, I tried stick #1 (and - spoiler alert - probably stick # last) of Trident Layers. Honestly, the first 3-5 minutes were pretty good. A nice blend of minty and fruity. It almost reminded me of Strawberry flavored Chapstick. That stuff is like an extra special treat when you find a stick of it on sale, or hanging around in a long-lost coat pocket. But similar to the Trident Layers, it loses its oomph after a really short time (WTF is this overly-sweet-strawberry stuff doing on my lips?!). All of a sudden, the gum was not only sweet, but sickeningly sweet for my taste. Even worse, the texture of the gum was mushy and slimey, as if I'd been chewing it for hours. Promptly spat it out. To make matters worse, the awful taste hung around all. Even after more coffee, more water and lunch, this horrible metallic taste still permeated my mouth. 


While I cannot vouch for the other flavors, do not try Trident Layers mint melon gum! Has anyone tried the other flavors with good results? Has anyone tried the Dessert Delights gum? Possibly my new business venture could be no-calorie gum for people with savory preferences. Gum that tastes like chips, cheese or fried chicken?! Sign me up! Sounds like a job for Willy Wonka (in cahoots with Rebloga). 

alinea.

In the ongoing celebration of my mom's "big" birthday, the four of us went to Alinea last week. For those of you who don't know, Alinea is only one of two restaurants to receive a 3-star rating from the Michelin Guide and was voted 6th best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine this year. Currently, it is a 20-course affair (it took us approximately 4.5 hours for the entire meal), and each course is artistic, inventive, interactive and playful. 

Since each course is so unusual and intricate, I brought a notebook (and of course, a camera), to document the full meal. My notes are below, and then you can see some pictures by clicking on the link to my Picasa album (at the bottom). I tried to detail each ingredient, what we really enjoyed and the smells/sounds/tastes of each dish.Enjoy! 

* Aperitif: Champagne, Apple liquor, potable bitters

1.    Under the pumpkin table display, savory pumpkin cake on a metal guitar pick.

·         Curry

·         Coconut

·         Crème fraîche

2.    Seaweed on wood plank with four bites: 

·         Garlic leaf in a shallot

·         Snapper on a corn husk

·         Unagi on cabbage leaf (soy sauce – this one we liked best)

·         Cod on a leek

3.    Lightly Fried Yuba (aka “Witch Finger”), byproduct of tofu

·         Avocado

·         Green onions

·         Toasted sesame seeds

·         Miso emulsion

·         [Crunchy, yummy]

4.    Bowl of Fish Stuff

·         Trout

·         Bourbon maple syrup jelly balls

·         Rice with smoked gel

·         [Sweet, fishy, crunchy, earthy]

5.    Toasted Oak Leaves with Lightly Fried Cheese

·         Cheese

·         Shallots

·         Apple

·         [Aromatic, Autumnal]

6.    Family Style Course

·         Whole sea bream with mint pesto

·         Caponata with vegetables and chocolate

·         Crunchy crackers

* Brought out four red cabbage leaves on sticks. Set them on our table but we didn’t eat them yet. Looked like flags.

7.    Hands-Free Bite (on an antennae)

·         Papaya

·         Dehydrated orange

·         Raw fennel

·         Cucumber

·         [Soft, crunchy, gummy]

8.    Big Pillow with Mushrooms

·         Pillow with pine aroma

·         Plate had mushrooms, thyme foam, pine cream

·         [Earthy, foresty]

9.    Little Wax Soup Bowl (pin through bowl; pull pin to dump stuff into soup)

·         Truffle

·         Parmesan

·         Potato

·         Chive

·         [Hot and cold, time sensitive]

10.  Interactive Red Cabbage Wrap (wood with glass plate on top; take glass plate off; construct metal stand from two pieces that interlock)

·         Tomato

·         Potato

·         Bell Pepper

·         Onion

·         Mustard

·         Paprika potato

·         Hamachi with huckleberry

11.  Fork bite (handed us round bottom bowl with fork balancing; eat fork first, then sip soup)

·         Fork: eggplant and sea bass

·         Soup: sweet vidalia onion soup and pepper foam

*Sprayed black tea oil on our table

12.  Miro Painting (9 forks and spoons each laid out on the table in front of us; after each bite, deposit utensil into metal vase with lavender salt)

·         Lavender noodle

·         Beet jello

·         Olive

·         Pickled cherries

·         Fig

·         Apple

·         Fish

·         Olive oil

13.  Liquid black truffle ravioli (on spoon in bottomless bowl)

·         One bite

·         Explosion!

14.  Yuzu Snow (palate cleanser)

·         Metal cone

·         Frozen with liquid nitrogen

15.  Cubist fruit and cheese plate

·         Cheese with nuts

·         Flat crunchy paper

·         Applesauce

16.  Test tube (“It could get messy”)

·         Lemongrass gelatin

·         Cucumber

*Mom got chocolate cake ball with cream for her birthday

17.  Silicon table cloth

·         4 little bowls of stuff: lingonberry syrup, butternut squash syrup, goose island stout beer syrup, citrus marigold flowers

·         Brought out two brown bowls which were put in the middle of the table and two cups of dry ice

·         Grant Aschatz and helper come out!

·         Start decorating table with 3 syrups and flowers

·         Then then smash the brown bowls on the table – dark chocolate piñatas, with cotton candy, French toast pieces, lingonberry taffy, pumpkin pie filling… 

Alinea

i need this beet right now.

so, i am new to the land of iPhones. but in general, i am pretty obsessed with keeping my stuff, especially electronic stuff, safe and happy. even the screen on my slr camera has a little protector. so, i've always been really impressed with these fantastic sushi iPhone covers:

it protects my stuff, but also looks awesome. this designer on etsy has other amazing cases like the above - my personal favorite is the one that looks like a cassette tape. but then gizmodo showed me another source of cell phone cover amazement today:

that's right. dress your little blackberry or iPhone up in a cute, jean overall situation! hopefully this post comes just in time to help someone out with their last-minute holiday shopping.

and, now im hungry.

z found an ice cream bench! im not sure if i want to sit on it or eat it. though i bet velvet is not tasty.

also -

Michael: Hey, hey, everybody, Ice-cream sandwiches! Aaaahh! Here you go. Take one, take one. It's all good. Phyllis, think fast. Oh, oh, I see Angela. Angela? Right? Waaaaah! Oh, hey temp. Why don't you take two? Because you don't get health care. And uh, faster metabolism.

party genius.

during our lastest funco! meeting (i.e., the party planning committee, i.e., the committee to plan parties) we came upon the topic of finger food, and how it's always a problem of not having enough hands to eat and drink. apparently, a few products have attempted to tackle this age-old issue.

first, the fingerfood plate:

wear it like a ring, hold your drink in the same hand and voila! you've got a fingerplate. and its perfectly sized - small enough for your bagel-bites or tater-tots.


second we have the cookie dunk mug.

this way, your cookies are never too far from your milk. or coffee. or scotch. not sure how holiday-party specific this is, but i guess you can always use the shelf for cheese.... and your mug for wine! yay!

finally found the best candy at work.

it's chocolate. it's peppermint. it's delicious!

for real....?

so we ordered in last night (too much to talk about with all the excitement going on - mazal tov L & A!!!). here was the receipt that came with our food (personal info concealed to protect precious roommates):

notice anything odd? i'm not sure if they were messing with us, someone got lazy, or this is unfortunately someone's real name (i really hope not).

it's october...

and that means candy bowl at my desk!!!

breakfast is important.

i stopped by my trusty DR this morning to get some cereal. it wasn't until when i got to work that i realized why it was such a super-duper fantastic idea that i had chosen to purchase cereal:

now, when i was a kid, i really hated breakfast (i still do, mostly). even if i had liked it, i would never have been allowed to get sugary cereals that also give you prizes. of course, i smashed my hand down into the box to find that bobbly pencil topper toy (?) immediately! but they must hide that toy way at the bottom so kids like me cant find it the first day. i guess i have to wait (and eat a lot of cereal). but i am definitely spending the afternoon cutting out that dino mask to scare my coworkers.

lost is yummy!

since we've been lost-deprived this week due to the no-pisode (i.e. - clipshow), i'd like to share some delicious lost news! next week's episode the variable is the 100th episode of lost! ahhhh! in celebration of this, the folks at ace of cakes made a cake for the lost cast. it features a beach, old timey computer, dharma beer cans and mini-cake characters. check out hilarious pictures of the lost cast with their cake - i especially enjoy the picture of daniel dae kim (jin) taking a picture of his own mini-cake character on his iPhone.

and while we're on the variable... people are saying that this episode is a bookend to last season's the constant. considering that that episode was one of lost's most romantic (and freaking-awesome) episodes, doom and gloom seems possible for our favorite losties.

i'm weird. apparently.

earlier this week, i received an email from my dearest l. the subject line read: "you know how you like weird things?" the rest of the email went on to say "I found this online, and I thought you might like it." she was right.... sometimes it's scary how well my friends know me. good work, l. i'm mostly likely now going to run away to london to make architectural models out of jello with sam and harry.

food glorious food...

after a weekend jam-packed with food - pizza and cupcakes and chicken oh my! - (thanks to l's simply awesome familia...), here are some more food-related items.


during our heated discussion about kashurt at dinner:

l: lobsters are just giant sea cockroaches.


also - this is a site that you really should keep tabs on, despite its supreme treif-ity.

um... toilet restaurant?

yea, i kid you not. apparently, there is a new toilet restaurant in taiwan. it seems sort of novelty and cutesy (in an INSANE sort of way), but when you start naming dishes "bloody poop" and "green dysentery".... i am just not going to visit. thanks, time magazine, for your hard-hitting reporting.

treif alert!

According to my sources, the Superbowl is this weekend (or as my mom referred to it today, the "Stupidbowl"). As you may be able to tell, I don't care too much about football, but what I do care about is food. This loveliness was brought to my attention today by Z. It is highly treif, but of course there were already ideas on how to make it potentially less treif. Either way, I dare you to think this is not the most awesome thing ever:

For step-by-step pictures and instructions, please visit the site, and bask in the football food glory. Happy Stupidbowl!

obama connection alert.

i had heard rumors about this in my family, but today i found confirmation of my family's connection to obama!

so, my grandpa started a meatpacking company in 1939 - city foods. sorry kids, it's not kosher. he sells his brand of brisket and corned beef - bea's best, named after my grandma - to, among other places, manny's deli in chicago. again, i wouldn't really know about it due to the non-kosher factor, but apparently it's a big deal in chicago. and the word on the street is that obama loves to get corned beef sandwiches from them! hoorah for bea's best! pretty cool that the president loves my family's corned beef.

top of the muffin to ya!!!!!

text from a: "SAW MUFFIN TOPS AT THE GROCERY STORE!!!"

wow. didn't know that michigan area grocery stores are getting their ideas from seinfeld.

two thursday tidbits.

first off, it looks like caylee anthony is really dead. i don't know if you've also been following the case, but this kind of thing is another one of the various things i'm interested in. so, caylee anthony is 3 years old, and has been missing since june. her mom, 22 year old casey anthony, was recently charged with murder, and is being held in the orange county jail. not only did searches for cloroform come up on the mom's computer, but a neighbor told police she had asked to borrow a shovel, and police dogs smelled human decomposition in the trunk of her car. sounds guilty to me...
also, i think i found the perfect job for me: Secretary of Food. no, not because i like to eat. but because i'm really interested in agriculture reform (in addition to energy technology and climate change). so, vote for me. or tell obama to pick me. either one.

the cookie knows all.

fortune cookie from last night's dinner with L: "through greater effort and hard work a precious dream comes true."
... i'm wondering if the fortune cookie people are watching me?

two mid-monday tidbits.

numero uno - i am equal parts giddy and shocked at the following nytimes article: 12-Year-Old's a Food Critic, and the Chef Loves It. first off, the kid's name is David Fishman. jewish much? if you weren't convinced, he lives on the Upper West Side. the article goes on to explain how his parent's left him alone (wtf?!) and instead of get his usual "hummus take-out dinner" he decided to try out this new, swanky restaurant that he had noticed. i partially want to hang out with him because he seems like a super cool, mature kid. but on the other hand - what kind of kid thinks it's normal to eat by himself at a brand new, hip UWS restaurant?! weirdo. you'll have to read the whole article for the full story, but it's pretty much out of control.

dos: for those of you who don't know, i will be a bridesmaid in a certain person's (ok, two people are getting married. and i think they are both equally superb) wedding next year. instead of the usual tradition of making bridesmaid dresses, we decided to check out what the internet had to offer us. what we found is something you all should see, whether you are in the market for bridesmaid dresses, or just general hilarity. can't wait to wear my mormon dress to a very relig jewish wedding!