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What I ate last week. Ranked #182 in food podcasts in Mexico according to an email I just got.
NEWS & UPDATES
Crumb cake: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLDc1n7t/
Pie sound bite: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAWLUyd/
Crispin craspin https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLf1cruW/
3 customers suffer chemical burns after drinking margaritas at Chili's in North Carolina. Cleaning chemical rim.
I don’t have any more brandy glanville body horror updates; those headlines were really flying right at me last week so I hope things have quieted down for her; and I do apologise for even though they were food related. Just imagine if I had your phone number. You would be receiving insane headlines all day. Brandy’s head fell off. Brandy’s arms fell off her head was cut off her arms were cut off. Her legs were cut off.
Food memory: sparkling white grape jello; they’re letting us eat this??
Food memory: my parents taking me to Dairy Queen if I was sad or upset which was probably just a good excuse to go get ice cream. Maria Bamford’s dad does this on her show. Peanut buster parfait.
Dessert I’ve never heard of: https://www.southernliving.com/bushwacker-pie-8657201
SCENTS
On Monday night at 8:45pm Daddy, my cat, smelled like a grandparents’ house.
On Friday around noon my front yard smelled like boiled spaghetti
Scent Review: Calvin Klein Obsession for Women (the one from ebay covered in cat hair; did not arrive with any cat hair on it)
Official description:
My review: Smarties, bug spray, wet dog, my dad’s aftershave, Speed stick deodorant, cabbage patch kid, getting changed in a locker room after swim practice, vanilla, a white paper coffee cup with lipstick stains, the bleach blonde older woman who used to sit next to us at Whalers hockey games because we both had season tickets next to each other and my dad referred to her as the smoker, I can’t believe this is for women; there is no way that mainstream American women want to smell like this. It does not smell like Neutrogena rainbath. Seek medical help if you were one of the many people on Reddit who compared this scent to Rainbath.
Really taking me back to the time I was at the hockey arena it was so chaotic and crowded that I went up to a police officer and said I can’t find my dad and he was probably like great; the only thing I could say about him was that he had black hair. I did end up finding my dad.
After wearing it all day I realized that there’s no way that the smoker didn’t wear this perfume. She was must have been so doused in it i am shocked she didn’t explode when she lit her cigarettes. My whole life I thought that this scent occurred spontaneously and naturally from drinking a lot of coffee and smoking. Thank you CK for bringing back the memory of the smoker.
INTERNET
TV
RHOP: Stacy from QVC goes to a restaurant and orders something called a crab martini and then someone comes to the table with a dog and places it in Stacy’s arms. Call the health department. This isn’t Spain.
90 Day:
Starting to feel bad for my former coworker Andy Jane despite the fact that she refers to herself as a honky Tonk cabaret artist, WHATEVER THAT MEANS. Andy is still in Australia chasing after twirly mustache man who at this point is clearly into another girl that he refers to as his part time lover.
There’s a person named Niles who moves from Alabama to Ghana to be with his wife, Matilda. He has a stand-in father figure named Mr. Arc in Ghana who is a local elder with a prosthetic arm that is so unnecessarily long. It appears to be longer than his whole body. When he hangs his arm by his side the hand goes down past his knee. No disrespect to people with limited access to prosthetics but why is this happening. Somebody help him. Mr Arc demanded that Niles bring over two bottles of schnapps and a bottle of champagne
I was like why does this guy like Schnapps so much which lead me down a rabbit hole of learning a lot about the cultural and spiritual significance of Schnapps in Ghana. https://merakichannels.com/the-story-of-j-h-henkes-schnapps/
TIKTOK
Corey Larkin continues to come up on my algorithm even though I unfollowed her and I’m seeing a lot of comments on her videos claiming that she’s MAGA. This would not surprise me. She does live in Newport Beach California. And there was something about her that felt slightly terrifying or disingenuous enough to the point that I unfollowed her. Every recipe that she makes is the simply the best thing she has ever tasted, which is simply impossible. There is never a truthful moment on her feed. Everything is simply the best. I do not like the face that she makes when she tries her own food. Apparently somebody found her husband’s profile and he follows many questionable people. I’m not sure what other evidence we have other than she claimed that an Italian potato recipe that she was making was 2500 years old which is impossible since potatoes are from the Americas. People were roasting her in the comments about that. To be fair the recipe is an ancient roman recipe that has been modernized to use potatoes but she does not clarify that
Milk and yogurt everywhere https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLA32VM6/
Now this scared me. Cheesesteak life. Merch looks like it was designed on Microsoft word. Dallas sucks and hot dogs. Mannequin wearing printed out photo of Jennifer Aniston’s face on its face is in almost every video. Sometimes they call her a bitch.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAcKvLm/
https://www.tiktok.com/@the.cheesesteak.l?_r=1&_t=ZP-9AtQIQigeJr
“Someone got stabbed at Jersey mikes”. When we had a friend visiting and we told Brian’s parents we were taking them into down to get Italian sandwiches at Ideal’s and Brian’s dad asked why don’t we just take them to Jersey Mike’s https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLycsGd9/
Ranch seasoning perpetual soup https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLA3KNeK/
Chicken toast https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLATMyAQ/
Is it owned by PE; except it was made using Grok so feel hesitant to share this https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAEMV3m/
Scattone https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAoWkLJ/
Have you ever wanted to drink a toe? Toe drink https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLDL8Som/
Spooky ranch costume (is it over?)https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLPuGLq6/
October 26, 2026 (Monday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9:30am: Three sunny eggs with Texas Pete garlic hot sauce over butter toasted Mt. Athos Fire sourdough, made at home.
11am: A pour of Healthade ginger lemon kombucha.
12:30pm: A slice of tiramisu and a handful of saltines.
4:30pm: A treat size bag of Haribo Twin Snakes.
6pm: Bertagni Asiago, porcini, and chanterelle girasoli soup with arugula, garlic, and black lentils, made at home, and Boulted Bread ciabatta.
I’m turning into my mother, who always needed a sweet midday drink. It was Snapple for a while. Sometimes Root Beer. Now she likes Natalie’s juice. She says her cherry limeade is better than Sonic’s. It’s not carbonated so I’m sceptical.
I’m craving more of a dry drink. A dry kombucha, or a diet tonic water, or some sort of diet Canada Dry product. The goal is to feel thirstier after having drank something.
I love a cracka. The saltines dried me right out.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAvm18p/
October 27, 2026 (Tuesday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: Burrata over leftover lentils and a pour of Healthade ginger lemon kombucha.
1:30pm: A slice of tiramisu.
6pm: Arugula caesar pasta salad with chicken, made at home.
6:30pm: A chocolate chip cookie, made at home.
Kale Caesar Pasta Salad (a heavy-handed recipe for NYT Cooking, IMO)
Sauce:
1 cup Duke’s mayonnaise
1 tablespoon anchovies (1 tsp = 2 filets, so 6 filets or half the NYT amount)
Juice and zest of two lemons (I have a big bag of organic lemons that I got on sale; I went ahead and used two like the recipe calls because otherwise they’ll probably go bad)
4 teaspoons Edmond Fallot moutarde en grains
4 grated garlic cloves
½ cup pecorino romano (NYT calls for 1 cup plus an additional ⅓ cup for garnish; I’m trying not to have a scarcity mindset by purchasing expensive, high quality cheese but balancing that with some reality by using less of it over all)
Splash of vinegar
Ok so maybe the anchovies do make a difference; I am enjoying the lemon zest in the sauce itself rather than just in the breadcrumbs
Pasta: Rummo fusilotti
Add-ins: Arugula, chili flake crusted chicken breast
Breadcrumbs: Leftovers from the last round
Jacque Torres 72 hour Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe (half batch)
128 g cake flour
128 g bread flour
Heaping ½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter (142 g)
142 g brown sugar
113 g granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
283g chocolate (Guittard Super Cookie Chips)
Made on Saturday; scooped dough onto a quarter sheet tray to set up for at least 72 hours per internet recommendations. The NYT Cooking recipe says 24-36. Dough was slightly crumbly as I scooped it with a size 24 scoop so was feeling good about the dough not spreading too much. Yielded 17 cookies.
Full recipe says it yields 1.5 dozen or 18 five-inch cookies. Each scoop should be the size of a “generous golf ball” or 3.5 ounces. This was confusing because my cookies were definitely larger than golf balls but I did a half batch and still got 17 cookies. I used a size 24 scoop which is supposed to yield a 1.5 ounce dough ball, or about half of the size, so this actually makes sense. I halved the recipe so I made the same amount of cookies that are half the size. The confusing thing is the term golf ball.
Topped with Maldon. Baked 6 cookies off and froze the rest. 350 for 15 minutes. Original recipe said 18-20 mins but my cookies were smaller. Everyone in the comments says 15 mins is the spot. The cookies are way too dark in the NYT photos. They look broasted.
Baking powder puffed cookies up and seemed to prevent spread. I was hoping they would sink after baking but they didn’t.
Best of both worlds: soft and crunchy. Toasty and underdone. Love.
“I’m not a cookie guy but these are the best cookies I’ve ever had”
Also my mom told me that she used to drive past the house of the woman who invented toll house cookie recipe, Ruth Graves Wakefield, on her way to work outside of Boston and I asked if she ever saw her and she said no she was dead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Graves_Wakefield
Known for: inventing the chocolate chip cookie
Precious restaurants: Toll House Inn, Whitman Massachusetts, burned down 1984
October 28, 2026 (Wednesday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: Leftover pasta salad and two cups of coffee with half & half at the office.
4pm: A pour of Peroni, Tuscan kale salad, suppli al telefono, ricotta dumplings, spicy lamb meatball pizza, an espresso, and half of a cannoli at Pizzeria Toro in Durham, North Carolina.
7pm: A small pour of Narragansett and Haribo gummies.
This was the perfect time to go (Wednesday around 3pm; otherwise it’s impossible to get in and so loud inside. There is a small bench where people can sit and wait for a table and one of the managers wheeled out a giant pumpkin on a cart from the back and placed it in the middle of the bench for decoration except now half as many people can sit while they wait for a table)
Tuscan kale salad: pine nuts, calabrian chili, parmesan
Suppli al telefono: saffron risotto and shitake mushrooms around a ball of fior di latte, breaded with panko and deep fried. (suppli are oblong and use a tomato rice)
Ricotta dumplings: pecans, maple, parmesan, brown butter, fried sage
Lamb meatball pizza: kale, fresh garlic, rustico red pepper Cheese and san marzano sauce
Cannoli was whatever. I don’t like them I think. I was laughing about something Brian said as I was eating one and our server thought I was reacting to the cannoli itself and exclaimed “Oh, you like it so much”. Wrong. When I went to the bathroom brian ate mine which I was grateful for.
Espresso was served with a clear rock candy swizzle stick. In kindergarten in first grade they would make us do that rock candy science experiment where you dip the string in a sugar mixture and mine never grew crystals so I thought from a young age that I was bad at science. Could have been a woman in stem. Believe women in stem.
Pizzeria Toro lists their hours on their IG as Sunday - Saturday, 11am - 11pm.
Giovanni bosco cardamaro tastes like a flat can of Sparks / Redbull
Right side of my head had a fever
October 29, 2026 (Thursday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: A leftover slice of pizza.
11:30am: Leftover pasta salad and a pour of Healthade ginger lemon kombucha.
1pm: A chocolate chip cookie.
5:30pm: Spaghetti in red sauce with hot Italian sausage and Locatelli pecorino romano, made at home, and a small pour of Narragansett.
7pm: Haribo gummies.
Cookie was still good two days later. Overall I think maybe my dough was slightly too dry. After a couple of days it had the texture of something that you leave out on the counter while staying in a beach house and it’s kind of stale and wet but also dry.
October 30, 2026 (Friday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: Leftover pasta salad.
2:30pm: A hot dog with chili, coleslaw, and onions, cheese curds, and a cajun chicken wrap from Cook Out in Creedmoor, North Carolina.
5pm: A slice of Tiramisu.
7pm: A spoonful of Blue Bell Homemade in the Shade ice cream.
Went to a Food Lion I had never been to before that doesn’t need to exist because it’s a five minute drive from another Food Lion.
Many Blue Bell ice cream flavor options
Siggi yogurt; quality yogurt at Food Lion is rare in these parts
Food Lion made Texas Toast was 50% off but I knew I would eat it all myself so I didn’t buy it
Cream cheese was on sale which was perfect for testing basque cheesecake recipe
Also got a bar of Food Lion brand American Neufchâtel mostly out of curiosity. The internet consensus is that it’s just a grainer version of cream cheese. Sandy, low fat cream cheese. “I know this thread is from 14 years ago but I actually like neufchatel more than cream cheese” / “I accidentally bought neufchate this week. I thought something was wrong with my cream cheese on my bagel because it was a sandy texture.”
Every time I eat a hot dog I think about that study that essentially said that every hot dog you eat is a step closer towards getting brain cancer and it really adds depth to the flavor
Brian was gone on a work trip and he sent me a video of his hotel room which had two tvs right next to each other on the same wall and he was watching different shows on both on full volume.
October 31, 2026 (Saturday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: A Siggi’s strawberry yogurt.
12pm: A pour of Healthade ginger lemon kombucha.
1pm: Delicious Fresh Pierogi Inc. potato and cheese pierogi with butter, onions, and Kalona sour cream, and a can of Narragansett.
3pm: Haribo gummies.
5pm: Tiramisu.
Drank a nice big swig of the residue at the bottom of the giant bottle of kombucha I bought. Looks like Yoohoo. What’s the best Yoohoo format? I like glass bottle because that’s what was in the random vending machine in the empty basement of my college dorm. Stays fizzy which is why I’ve avoided it. Scarred by plastic bottles of soda.
The cheese in the pierogi was undetectable
Brian texted at 3pm to inform me that he had the worst lunch at the conference. At least he had lunch. He went all day without food the previous day until 6pm at which point he ate a meal and was confused as to whether or not he needed to eat more for the rest of the night.
Taqueria Luciano’s: no tortillas, steak cut was totally wrong for asada, burnt pot flavored rice, old onions
Fancy burger fancy burger
Salt and sage, nosh and grind
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6D9JPfHKFzsB1mqy5?g_st=ic
November 1, 2026 (Sunday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: Leftover pierogi.
12pm: A packet of Shin Ramyun Gold.
2pm: Haribo gummies.
4pm: A small slice of pumpkin basque cheesecake.
6:30pm: Egg salad and chives over a slice of butter toasted Boulted Bread sesame pan loaf, made at home.
Made egg salad but the eggs were soft boiled so it was weird but yet again mayonnaise is eggs so it was kind of just like more mayonnaise. I think my eggs undercooked when I boil them in a small old Belgian Descoware enamel cast-iron pot. I don’t know what that is versus my small metal pot which seems to cook the eggs better.
Eggs, diced yellow onion, diced pickled pepperoncini, Duke’s mayonnaise, Edward Fallot grainy mustard, apple cider vinegar, chives
Was going to eat it over iceberg lettuce on toast so it would be more like a dressing but then the lettuce was bad so I just ate liquidy egg salad on toast. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Brian said it was better than any sandwich that Boulted Bread has attempted to make. Their bread is just too intense for sandwiches.
Basque Cheesecake
I remember working a closing shift before Thanksgiving at Milk Bar and I went back to the kitchen to clean up and Zoe, who worked there at the time, but now does Elbow in Manhattan, was making 2 to 3 cheesecakes for Thanksgiving. Cheesecake is pie so cheesecake it makes sense and is appropriate for Thanksgiving although it didn’t really occur to me before that. Always felt like an Easter dessert. Cheesecake for thanksgiving feels like the last pie you’d consider making and bringing to Thanksgiving but would probably be the one people were most excited about. Pumpkin basque cheesecake? My uncle would always make a pumpkin chiffon pie with ginger snap crust but now that my mom is gluten free a pumpkin basque cheesecake would be the perfect dessert.
Pancake Princess (paywalled but Google’s AI returned me this info):
1st Place — Molly Baz: Features a towering, silky, and cloud-like texture with added vanilla, extra salt, slightly less cream cheese and sugar, and a touch more egg and cream for a full, American-palate-friendly flavor.
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/basque-burnt-cheesecake?srsltid=AYCX9vJ17-brYWVmzr5IZL2sIiVwUIt8XNs_saVnpSrGUYgGsS8-L0X3
Ingredients:
2lb. cream cheese, room temperature
1½ cups (300 g) sugar
6 large eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
⅓ cup (42 g) all-purpose flour
Sherry (for serving; optional)
Instructions:
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 400°. Brush 10” springform pan with unsalted butter, then line with 2 overlapping 16x12" sheets of parchment paper, making sure parchment comes at least 2" above top of pan on all sides. Because the parchment needs to be pleated and creased in some areas to fit in pan, you won’t end up with a clean, smooth outer edge to the cake; that’s okay! Place pan on a rimmed baking sheet.
Beat 2 lb. cream cheese and 1½ cups (300 g) sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-low speed, scraping down sides of the bowl, until very smooth, no lumps remain, and sugar has dissolved, about 2 minutes.
Increase speed to medium and add 6 large eggs, one egg at a time, beating until each egg is incorporated, about 15 seconds, before adding the next. Scrape down sides of bowl, then reduce mixer speed to medium-low. Add 2 cups heavy cream, 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, and 1 tsp. vanilla extract and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
Turn off mixer and sift ⅓ cup (42 g) all-purpose flour evenly over cream cheese mixture using a fine-mesh sieve. Beat on low speed until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Scrape down sides of the bowl (yet again) and continue to beat until batter is very smooth, homogenous, and silky, about 10 seconds.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cheesecake until deeply golden brown on top and still very jiggly in the center, 60–65 minutes.
Let cool slightly (cake will collapse drastically as it cools), then unmold. Let cool completely. Carefully peel away parchment from sides of cheesecake. Slice into wedges and serve at room temperature, preferably with a glass of sherry alongside.
Do Ahead: Basque cheesecake can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Let cheesecake sit at room temperature for several hours to remove chill before serving.
2nd Place — King Arthur: Praised for its light, creamy, and almost custardy texture, though it has a higher sugar ratio that leans sweeter and less cheese-forward. Read details on The Pancake Princess.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/basque-cheesecake-tarta-de-queso-recipe
GLUTEN FREE!
Pumpkin variation: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pumpkin-basque-cheesecake-recipe
3rd Place — Serious Eats: Noted for offering the best overall combination of a creamy and cakey feel with ideal salt balance and a well-caramelized top. See the breakdown on The Pancake Princess
I made the KA pumpkin version. All of the ingredients JUST fit in a Vitamix blender. I fear that I may have mixed too much air into it and produced too many air bubbles.
Pumpkin Pie spice substitute: 1 1/2 teaspoons Indonesian Cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon cloves, if desired. I subbed some five spice and allspice powder for the cloves. I also misread the 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon and thought it said half a teaspoon, which I doubled to 1 teaspoon, but then added five spice which had some cinnamon in it. A lot of commenters said to double the spices all together.
500 for about 37 minutes or until registered 185 degrees 1” from the edge, 1” deep. Rotated the pan but one side was definitely hotter than the other and reading closer to 195-200. Did not brown well on the top, maybe because my parchment was a bit tall on the sides.
Someone in the comments who used a Vitamix also said theirs took a long time to cook, maybe because of the extra depth / height. Same commenter says to remove from spring form pan before storing in the fridge.
This was pretty good. Didn’t love it as much as everyone in the comments who said they immediately ran to the stores to purchase a 14 cup capacity food processor so they can make it every day. I threw away everything in my fridge and bought four more fridges so I could fill them with cheesecake. Ate it slightly warm and the center was just slightly runny per the basque style. Will try when it cools. Many commenters say it’s great chilled and better the next day. I don’t know if I have ever eaten warm cheesecake. I’m an idiot for thinking this would be a New York cheese cake experience. I prefer the richness and the dense texture of NY cheesecake.
Took it out of the fridge to taste after chilling and it was better but not as good as classic cheesecake. “Effort to output ratio” isn’t worth it. I’d rather make a regular cheesecake even if it’s more effort.
Then I dropped it. Landed face down on my crisper drawers. Saved what I could to taste test the next day.
Reminds me of the time I was upstairs and my mom was down stairs in the kitchen and we all heard her yell shit and my dad ran downstairs because she thought she dropped the baby (who is now my sister) but she just dropped a pie.
Honorable mentions
Toll house cookie recipe
HOLIDAY MODE
Egg whites: lofthouse cookie serious eats
Gale’s cheese casserole which she always brings and it always tastes like bananas
Turkey pot pie https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAn76NS/
Brian said this was not an acceptable thanksgiving food which is insane of him to argue because this is his favorite food
Turkey tetrazzini
Ideal’s menu which unfortunately includes canva cursive despite being a business owned by two straight men
https://www.instagram.com/p/De7VA2HBx71/?cplk=aGdkbjAzMm01aWx1
Milk Punch Milk Punch
Scalloped potato / dauphinoise research
Immediately thought of Corey Larkin because all she cooks is potatoes with cream and she recently made a dauphinoide video in which her sauce splits and she looks at it and says wow it’s perfect so I immediately went to the comments and thank God the top comment was from someone named fat man who said that her sauce was split and that to prevent this, she should cook the potatoes in a water bath in the oven. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAXcMQb/
Sorry to immediately pivot to a recipe made by cheffy men but this fallow chefs recipe looks so much better https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLAXvhvr/
Dauphinoise Ingredients
1.5kg potatoes
100 g Whole Milk
1 L Double Cream
3 Garlic Cloves, Grated
75 g Gruyère
Butter
Thyme
Nutmeg
Salt & Pepper
Chives to garnish
Dauphinoise Instructions
Preheat oven to 250
Combine milk double cream/thyme, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Heat it up just before it comes to the boil.
Peel and cut the potatoes 2-3 mm thick
Rub an oven safe dish with butter, then evenly arrange the potato slices in the dish. In between each layer add the cream mixture and some picked thyme. In the middle layer, add a layer of gruyere cheese. Ensure to press the potato slices down to fully cover in cream
Bake in a Bain Marie in the oven for 2-3 hours until the potato is tender and the top is browned at 250F