This is so good. He paints everyday foods.
Receive an email each time I publish this blog by clicking here
Category: Food
Tutti a Tavola a Mangiare!
Last week I was in Eataly at Madison Square and who do I almost bump into – Lidia Bastianich, the restaurant owner and tv chef. She was walking toward me and I was walking toward her and the place is always so crowded, we sort of touched.
I looked her right in the face and almost said, “Tutti a Tavola a Mangiare!” but she looked down and obviously didn’t want to be recognized, so I just walked by. She was with a couple of friends and they were taking and shopping.
I did want to ask her about my 10 With Tom column. I tried reaching out to her and I know a couple of her PR people opened the email asking her to participate, but I didn’t receive a response.
I watched her make zeppole on tv the other day – with some sort of cream filling, which I’ve never seen with a zeppole before. They looked like this image, with the cream and cherries on top.
I’m use to this type, which usually comes three or more served warm or hot in a paper bag.
I was at an Italian street fair, a Feist, in Brooklyn last week, I had some there (without the whipped cream).
Receive an email each time I publish this blog by clicking here
Burger in a bag
I got the idea for this cartoon from a guy talking on tv. He was the CEO or some bigshot with a restaurant chain like Applebee’s or TGI Fridays, one of those type places. They were talking about the $5.00 burger and chicken meals that all of a sudden popped up all over the place at the fast food places. Where were they all this time? Out of the blue these businesses are able to manage a decent price for food.
Anyway, this guy said, “We’re a sit down restaurant, we’re not one of these burger in a bag places.” And that stuck in my head, it made me laugh. That might be a term used in the restaurant world, but I thought it would be funny to have a fast food place named, “Burger in a a Bag.”
Some years back, not too long ago, there was a place in Hell’s Kitchen in NYC called Burgers and Cupcakes. It’s closed now, but I stopped in once as I was walking by, just to see what it was all about. It was all about burgers and cupcakes. It sort sort of fits in with the Burger in a bag theme, don’t you think?
Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here
Blast from the past
I found these in Publix.
The Cracker Jacks aren’t really the original, even though it says it on the bag. They don’t taste the same and there were barely any peanuts in the bag, which are my favorite part. I dumped them in a bowl and there were literally two peanuts in the whole package. Shrinkflation I guess. The box is more fun anway.
The prize inside the Cracker Jacks was some sort of small piece of paper. I don’t even know what it was, I threw it out. They didn’t taste like the original to me, but what do I know, the last time I had Cracker Jacks was when I was maybe 12-years-old.
The Devil Dogs seem to be regular size. If the shrank after all these years, it’s hard to tell. So many of the Drakes and other brands have shrunk the items. Like Yankee Doodles cupcakes are the size of cookies now. Unless I was so small at the time I’m remembering them being larger, but I don’t think so.
You know what I would love to find? These Nabisco chocolate cookies. I remember when I was very young we always had boxes of these in the house. We would get a box each to eat. I remember mashing them up in milk and eating them, which seems a bit disgusting now.
We only had the chocolate, I don’t remember every having the vanilla ones. But just looking at the box brings back the smell and taste instantly.
Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here
This takes the cake
This Dinette Set cartoon really hit home with me when I saw it the other day. This actually happened with my friends some years back.
I was going to a BBQ with my friends Audrey and Bill. As we were getting ready to leave, Audrey went to the fridge to take a chocolate cake out, which we were bringing and there was a slice missing. Bill had eaten it!
Audrey was very upset and started yelling at Bill, who saw nothing wrong with that. Bill was very laid back, he blew up my Compugraphic typesetting machine once while trying to fix it, but that’s another story.
Anyway, we headed to the BBQ with that cake. I guess I was young and nothing bothered me back then so I just went along with the partially eaten cake. But if it was today, I would have insisted we stop and get another cake somewhere. I think I drove us to the party, so it would have been easy to just pull into a supermarket or bakery and get another cake.
By the way, the very talented Judy Larson, the Dinette Set cartoonist, passed away a couple of years ago. I read that recently in The Daily Cartoonist. I’ve always enjoyed her cartoon.
Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here
It’s all about the farro
It’s interesting when you have one idea in mind when you create a cartoon and then people see other ideas and meanings to the cartoon.
This one in particular came easy to me. I am eating more farro these days. Farro is an ancient grain, eaten by the Egyptians, Romans and others and it came back into fashion in the past few years.
It seems that you can’t just say, “Farro,” you have to say, “Farro, the ancient grain.” And that’s where the cartoon idea came from.
So what if it’s an ancient grain? Was it a magic grain that was mighty and powerful? Did it extend life expectancies? I don’t think so. The mom is feeding the baby Farro, so he could live to a ripe old age, which was 30-years-old back then. I was thinking that when I hear, “It’s an ancient grain!”
Some read the cartoon as meaning the boy was King Tut and he wouldn’t live past 19-years-old anyway. He was just a random boy, but if they want to think that is Tut. That’s fine.
Others felt that if that was King Tut, he was King, so Farro was good for him. But he was only king from ages 9 to 19, so Farro didn’t keep him alive. It’s thought he died from either malaria and/or a bone disease. Both things not prevented from all that farro he may have eaten.
Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here
Eating American
I’ve been seeing these reels on Facebook. I don’t know how to link them here, or I would.
I don’t follow them, they just sort of pop up. It’s a bunch of young British boys trying American food, which they seem to love. I’ve never been to England, but if these common everyday things are something new and exciting for these English guys, I shudder to think what they eat in England.
They love and freak out over Popeyes, Twinkies, pizza, cheeseburgers, root beer, lobster rolls, corn dogs, hot dogs (yes, hot dogs), pumpkin pie, a Thanksgiving dinner, hot wings, an everything bagel and bagels with lox, just to name a few. And iced tea. They don’t have iced tea in England?
All this food is what they are not eating in Britain. What are they eating in England that makes these common American foods so intriguing to them? I know they eat Pasties in England, a British pie thing that looks like an empanada.
Some years back, a neighbor exported peanut butter to France. I believe it was France. He would buy hundreds if not thousands of jars and send them by container to France, where apparently they don’t have peanut butter.
Things that make you go hmmm.
Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here
Supermarket phone calls
The last year or so I noticed this strange phenomena in Whole Foods. People are on their phones, usually on Facetime, showing someone what they are buying and asking their advice.
I thought it might be the Amazon delivery service people, I know at times when I used Instacart they would text me, asking me questions about something I had ordered or telling me they needed to substitute something, but I don’t think this is that.
The people shopping for the service usually have carts with lots of brown bags on them and they are shopping for multiple people at once, it seems. They are easy to notice. These people I see on the facetime calls are usually without a shopping cart and usually at the hot bar. They are asking people on the phone what they want to eat or what they should buy to eat. And it’s usually Latin people, because the people talking are speaking in Spanish.
I’ve seen more than once a person go through all the items at the hot bar and salad bar, explaining to the person on the phone what’s what. It almost seems as if they are speaking to another country and showing off what an American supermarket looks like.
It’s annoying and rude and almost as annoying as those jerks with dogs on a leash in the store. Even though they have signs around that say, “No dogs allowed,” people have dogs in the supermarket, around the food.
Publix seems to be strict about the no dogs policy, I never see dogs there anymore and I also don’t see the Instacart people there anymore. They must pick up the food at a different location and not directly from the actual stores. Not too long ago, the aisles were crawling with these Instacart people who would push anyone out of their way to get to what they needed. They were crazy and pushy in their quest for the freshest loaf of bread or whatever.
Some aisles had quite a few at once and it was difficult to shop. I haven’t seen that in a long time, which is good.
I have a friend that says I’m always at the supermarkets, which I am. He says I like it. Which I don’t. I go because I need food and I prefer to go in person rather than use a service. I’m in and out, since I know where things are, so it’s not a chore. I just do my routine and I’m quick.
Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here
Wendy’s
Yesterday I went to Wendy’s about 4 pm. I went to the drive thru and I got ready to place my order. The girl says her spiel through the speaker, which I never understand, and I say, “I just want a taco salad, please.” No reply.
I call out, “Hello?” No answer. The speaker went dead.
So I drive up to the second window, the first one was closed, and I wait a couple of minutes for the car in front of me to leave. I get to the window and I say to the lady, “I’m not sure if my order went through.” And she says, “Yes, sorry about that, we had a shift change.”
So in the middle of me placing my order, it just all stops and goes dead? Not even a, “One moment please.” Nothing. They just cut me off in mid-sentence for a shift change?
I was going to say something, but I want to go back, so I kept my mouth shut, because no matter what I said, even in a joking manner, I would look like a complaining Karen. And it would be them against me, and as my mother always told me, “You don’t argue with people who are handling your food.”
At this same Wendy’s a few years back, this lazy girl at the window hands me my change, but it blows away. I think it was $5.oo. I couldn’t open the car door because it was against the wall so I said to the girl, “My change blew away, it’s under the car, can you give me another $5.00 and then come out and get the one that was under the car?” She tells me no.
I guess I said, “Stupid bitch,” it was one of those things where I thought I was thinking it, but I said it out loud, or at least under my breath. So she heard it. When I got to the second window to pick up my food, there she was going crazy, literally trying to jump out of the window to grab me! She was halfway out of the window! A couple of her co-workers had to hold her back. They threw the bag of food at me so I could make a speedy getaway. I didn’t go back for a a long time after that, hoping that when I did finally return, she would be gone, which ended up being the case.
I like the taco salad, so I keep going back.
Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here
Spring time is Mister Softee time
This Ollie And Jacomo cartoon which was published this week shows my love of Mister Softee, the ice cream truck which is all over the Northeast. It’s a sure sign of spring when they start showing up around town. They are usually all tucked away for the fall and winter seasons.
I believe there are over 2000 franchises/trucks up north, so they are quite ubiquitous.
My first stop when I get to NYC in the summer is Union Square where I can always find Mister Softee. I’ve seen as many as seven of them at one time! Union Square runs from 14th Street up to 17th Street and crosses a couple of Avenues, so there can be one on each corner at times.
A few years back, I was at Governors Island with one of my cousins and it was boiling out. It was so hot. We turned a corner and there was Mister Softee, on the island! I ran over to get an ice cream cone. I usually get a plain chocolate cone, but the guy in front of me got a big chocolate shake and that looked so good. The last time I had one of those I was probably a kid, maybe 12-years-old. So I got one.
Since it was extremely hot out that day, it just hit the spot. I got a few more chocolate shakes that summer, even in the Hamptons, where there were a few Mister Softees to be found.
When I went back to the city in October, I was hoping to see a Mister Softee. Depending on the climate/weather there might be a few still out in the fall. I was thinking of those chocolate shakes from the summer, as I flew down.
As soon as I arrived in New York, I went right down to Union Square, and there was a Mister Softee truck. I went right over and ordered a shake. I told the guy manning the truck that I had been thinking of this the whole time on the plane on my flight down. He just looked at me like I was crazy. I guess when you’re surrounded by Mister Softee all day, every day, it isn’t that special to you.
Some years back, there were many imitations around the city. One had the same exact markings on the truck but it was called “Master Softee.” The ice cream was not the creamy stuff we are used to. It was very icy and crystalized. My aunt mentioned that the Mister Softee she went to in Queens had changed the recipe or something, she didn’t like it. I told her that was “Master Softee,” not Mister Softee. The change in taste is very noticeable.
Master Softee was sued and they were soon banned from the city and only the real thing exists now.
Receive an email each time I publish a blog post by clicking here