Chow.

A meander around the world of my life (edible, mostly).

Saturday, October 15, 2005

College Myths Revealed

From an article in the New York Times - "As Young Adults Drink to Win, Businesses Get In on the Game" - 16 October 2005

"Beer pong seems to be the drinking game du jour. Legend has it that the game, also known for some reason as Beirut, started years ago at a Dartmouth College fraternity party. Now bars hold matches every week, often working with beer distributors who help advertise the events and supply the prizes."

"... Bud Pong was not intended for underage drinkers because promotions were held in bars, not on campuses. And it does not promote binge drinking ... because official rules call for water to be used, not beer. The hope is that those on the sidelines enjoy a Bud.

On the ground, though, it may be a different story. At the Esso Club near Clemson University, Jessica Twilley, a bartender, said she had worked at several Bud Pong events and had "never seen anyone playing with water."

"It's always beer," Ms. Twilley said. "It's just like any other beer pong."

When told about the Esso Club, Ms. Katz responded that her information was that the club used water, and that distributors were instructed to "conduct retail promotions responsibly."
...
Henry Wechsler, director of the College Alcohol Study at the Harvard School of Public Health, said he was "aghast that companies who posture themselves as promoting responsible drinking promote drinking games, which by their nature involve heavy drinking."

As for the Bud Pong water defense, Dr. Wechsler said: "Why would alcohol companies promote games that involve drinking water? It's preposterous.""

(silly Harvard people talking in Harvard-speak)

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Wednesday, September 14, 2005

The Million Dollar Sandwich


So. Remember that time in your life when you went to a really good deli and had a really good sandwich and just couldn't stop thinking about how frickin' good that sandwich was? Day after day? Month after month? Year after... year?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Million Dollar Sandwich. (note: the kit wasn't really a million dollars, but it sure as hell felt like it).


And there you go.

It all began when I started working in June, when I mentioned Zingerman's to my co-worker John. And then his face lit up, and said "my brother went to Michigan! I've eaten at the deli in person!" And so began the 10 week long journey towards pastrami freedom. It started off as a joke: haha, who's ever going to pay a hundred dollars for a mail-order sandwich...

Well, we did.

And we had great fun in the process. Check out the pictures: the entire process from box opening to finished product.

That gives you an idea of what we went through: nearly 2 hours slaving away with one toaster oven, a loaf of pumpernickel rye, one and a half pounds of Niman Ranch pastrami, 8 ounces of Emmentaler cheese, some russian dressing, and coleslaw. Oh yeah, and the Magic Brownies for dessert. Yummmmmy.

A pound of pastrami a day protects the people from pudding,
Aron

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Monday, September 12, 2005

Social Eating

For all of you regular readers out there (I know there's at least one of you, that one of you being me, Aron), I would like you all to know that I'm not ignoring you. Really, I'm not. I'm simply busy at home, living the life of a crazy kid who spends too much time perfecting the Cappuccino and eating pastrami sandwiches at Zingerman's deli.

In any case, I hope to have new pictures and tidbits uploaded soon. I am also on a mission to overthrow Chowhound with a great new piece of software. Can it be done? Of course. That site is the worst thing ever to navigate. Worst. Navigation. Ever. Will it be done by me? Possibly. In the next few months? Only time will tell. I wonder what I should call this radical new site... suggestions anyone?

Envision a place where food is the context of a new social network. Everyone knows the Facebook and Flickr revolutionized social networking for college students and photos, so why can't restaurants be the same way? Obviously, people love them. That's where we meet, where we eat, and where we greet.

So start a combo of a restaurant review site like Yelp or Zagat or jatbar (for those of you in the bay area), mix in a little Flickr, some Chowhound, and some good old-fashioned honest American foodie passion, and you have a new breed. Although, maybe I'm overcreating this thing. All I wanted in the beginning was a better Chowhound anyway.

My gelato brings all the girls to the yard,
Aron

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Friday, August 26, 2005

Invading Italians


Tonight I went with Noor and her Italian friends Matteo and Lucca to Mad Dog in the Fog, an English pub. We went with Ara, Vaman, Jimi, and Iris... and then all left to go across the street to eat at Mystic Pizza. Not the best pizza place, but I was starving and happy to eat. At the left you can see Ara the Swan searching for Pizza Pebbles. Apparently Swans like Ara eat Pizza Pebbles.

Oh yeah, and the pizza was called the Haight. We had a lot of fun calling people out when they spilled pizza on another. "Hey, why you gotta Haight on me?"

After that, Noor and I and the Italians all went to the Marina to Bar None, where, apparently, more Italian speaking people were hiding. I ran into a friend who went to Florence last spring (I keep seeing this girl in the randomest of places), and then, we met these kids from Chico who studied in Torino for 9 months. So, lots of Italians went around, and a few Hefeweizens.

As Vaman says, "everyone is united in my stomach." I like that thought. He says you can eat Pakistani and Indian food at the same time and feel happy.

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Thursday, August 25, 2005

Italian Nights, Thai Dinners

Tonight I went out to eat at a Thai restaurant somewhere in Lower Pac Heights. I can't remember the name of it, which probably doesn't matter too much since it wasn't too exciting. A good neighborhood restaurant.

However, I went with two Italian friends of a friend, which was quite enjoyable. Tomorrow we're all going out somewhere with another 5 people, and hopefully I'll bring my camera to that place. Which reminds me, I better make sure that camera's charged...

Here's a photo for fun, from last fall (2004). It's my favorite local Gastronomia in Florence... where I would go sometimes for lunch while at the Stanford center there. Those were the days...


Ciao,
Aron

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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

I'm Tired

And so I'm going to bed. And I will try not to post every single event. This blog will try to lean towards food-side, and hopefully (one day) I'll be posting most everything I eat. That should be interesting.

Until then, ta ta,

Aron

A tantalizing start: To the left we see Vaman about to dig in to a dinner at Pakwan, on Monday 22 August 2005.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Hey kids!

This is my first ever blog post. It sounds odd, because I should have had one over 5 years ago. Oh well.

Toodles,
Aron

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