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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
ACV update: threw it away because there were a bunch of flies in it. I’ve decided to move on with my life.
My mom wants me to do ham research for christmas. I told Brian my mom wants ham for Christmas and he yelled HAM? So happy that someone wants ham. She also wants beef.
Alison Roman ham party
Snake River Farm, Heritage Foods and Porter Road. Home Place Pastures is also wonderful
App idea (cousin generator) Taste Profile: Thoughts on taste and restaurant reviews and strangers writing recipes on the internet. How do you trust anyone’s reviews without knowing their motives, who is paying them, and what their frame of reference is for how things should taste? It’s kind of pointless. Someone could tell you that something is delicious who goes home and sucks on lemons for all we know. There was a girl who randomly materialized in my elementary school in 5th grade who brought a cut up lemon in a sandwich sized ziplock bag to school everyday for snack time. There needs to be a survey that people who review things fill out and post on their profile so you can get a quick rundown of what they like so you know if you can trust their taste.
Do you like coffee and if so what do you order?
What flavor of pie would you order? Apple? Key lime? Chocolate?
Do you like bananas?
What flavor of jelly do you go for?
Order the Starburst flavors from best to worst
Do you think Cool Whip tastes good
Would you eat licorice
Would you eat Peeps
Do you get sprinkles on your ice cream cone
Do you enjoy eating frozen candy bars
Do you like to peel and eat and orange
Cake/frosting combo
Do you enjoy things that taste smokey
Cyclospora update: https://people.com/parsley-and-cilantro-linked-to-cyclospora-outbreak-by-north-carolina-officials-12025809
Cool Whip update: Uncle freezing cool whip. Couldn’t wait to be an adult.
Grocery store spending has fallen https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/16/us-grocery-spending-slows-in-hit-to-food-companies.html
Coconut milk update: native forest organic is good
Yellow sour curry update: Brian said it got even spicer the next day for lunch. I forgot to mention that I usually do the regular sour curry paste for a rice noodle dish but I haven’t made it in a while. It’s spicy and sour but not as much as the yellow sour curry paste. I bet it would be good with coconut milk even if it’s not traditional. Did I mention that I made Brian’s with big fat scallops?
Unfortunately Taylor farms is all lettuce: @Vanessa Empire: Earthbound, 365 Whole Foods, Simple Truth at Kroger, O-Organics at Safeway, Greenwise at Publix, Simply Nature at Aldi, Marketside at Walmart, Good & Gather from Target, HEB Storebrand, Trader Joe’s store brand Store Brand; went to Whole Foods and taylor farms was 50%. I can’t believe they’re still selling it.
One of Brian’s student workers was glad that their sister broke up with her boyfriend who quit his job to be a daytrader but mostly because “all they did was go to Chili’s or Applebees”.
SCENTS
Trudon 45 degrees
Official description: https://trudon.com/us_en/45-degrees-perfume-100ml.html
My blind review: 90s Bath and Body Works sparkle spray, Limited Too, vanilla, 90s coffee shop, rubber bands, 90s Goody sparkly elastic hairbands with the metal piece, elastic waist pants, standing on top of a hill, car trip, berry pie, elementary school pencil box, Nordstroms, the soles of LL Bean slippers, trees swaying in the wind, getting cotton candy at a hockey game, playing with Barbies
INTERNET
90 Day
Jambalaya https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tj3xaA/
Google Maps
https://lilorbits.com/donut-making-equipment/mini-donut-machines-donut-machines
TIKTOK
72% of NC food lions have a Chinese restaurant next door https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tx4XR6/
Harris teeter bar https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8txUKCs/
Crumbl employees doing hair behind the counter; in case you needed another reason to not go there. also Why are cookies huge and round now https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tDDV15/
More Nc: Popcorn ceiling collapse https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8t698uc/
Woman on the floor who is definitely not hurt by dry wall falling on her
Also the Frito lay plant near me is shutting down. Sorry to the 70 folks who will lose their jobs
This is the reminder I needed to not feel bad about doing that Italian food tour, or not traveling in Europe in general even though I really need to visit my friend in Germany and want to go to Prague for some reason https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tyYNPd/
Cake mix is better than a doctored up cake mix https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tDCfVh/
In the spirit of wurstsalat, ham jello; i know people have busy lives but it kills me when i see people using styrofoam plates and bowls all the time https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8t6NmNm/
Resident evil food but he just talks about meg Ryan; what part of the chicken is that? Looks like the spine https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tUNHke/
Anadama bagel https://maps.app.goo.gl/gLXBv8aFzYYRpL328?g_st=ic
Looks good and I want their shirt but I’ve never had it.
Whipped jelly: frosted animal cookie https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tSrxC6/
9 layer Cake https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tSMvqA/
Peach mango Canada Dry https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tSPpMU/
Baking nails and bringing eggs to room tempt with warm water https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tUN8t4/
McDonald’s Diet Coke
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8t6uogu/
@helpingaccount: here are the reasons..
1. mcdonalds stores their coke syrup in steel tanks. 2. mcdonalds has a better water filtration system than other quick service restaurants. 3. coca cola techs are more on top of the upkeep of mcdonalds beverage equipment than other partners. 4. the water temp is colder. therefore making a stronger carbonation
July 20, 2026 (Monday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: Korean potato salad and a slice of Whole Foods heritage grain sourdough with Danish butter, made at home.
12:30pm: Fresh mozzarella with salt and saltine crackers.
6:30pm: Greek moussaka with potatoes and zucchini, made at home.
7pm: A small scoop of Jeni’s Boston cream pie ice cream and an Arco strawberry filled hard candy.
Korean cold potato salad banchan; looked around online and none were quite like the super soft, falling apart potato banchan with thinly sliced carrots served at Ajumma. Almost vinegary so I added some vinegar. This was ok but not as good as or similar to what was served at the restaurant. Restaurant version was super vinegary with subtle soy background and very overcooked.
2TB onion-flavored oil
6 medium potatoes, diced
Half a white onion
4 cloves of garlic
4TB soy sauce
2TB corn syrup, 1 TB sugar
3TB apple cider vinegar
Sesame oil to finish
Greek Moussaka
Sauce: Olive oil, 1lb ground pork, 1.5 white onions, 4 cloves garlic, 1 cup chicken stock, 13.6oz carton of crushed tomatoes, 1 cup of basil, 1TB harissa paste, 1tsp beef shawarma spice mix (all spice, coriander, cumin, garlic, red pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, paprika, black pepper, turmeric)
Bechamel: 4TB butter, 4TB flour, 3 cups milk, 2 tempered eggs, 4-6oz fresh mozz, salt, black pepper, garlic powder;
3 medium potatoes and 2 zucchini, peeled, sliced, and roasted with olive oil and salt until tender. Zucchini sliced the long way.
Added a little bit of parm in the middle; should have used the pecorino romano to imitate the kefalotyri. I liked this better than the Romanian version. Lamb would have been ideal.
July 21, 2026 (Tuesday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: Two eggs fried in butter over an olive oil toasted slice of heritage grain sourdough, made at home.
12:30pm: Saltines with crunchy peanut butter and a glass of iced tea.
2pm: Tony’s white chocolate.
5pm: An Arco orange filled hard candy.
6:30pm: Fried Sanmaruko curry croquettes and fried rice, made at home.
Orange tootsie pop. A lot of things have been smelling like tootsie pops lately and this is one of them. Scrambled eggs, onion, garlic, carrots, peas, dry seasoning mix (chicken bouillon, garlic powder, sugar, salt)
These curry croquettes are DIVINE. Even better than I remember. How do I get an entire freezer worth.
Bachan’s BBQ sauce is disgustingly and dry and grainy and too sesame. Also expired this month. Brian loved it.
Eat pray love
July 22, 2026 (Wednesday)
7:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: Leftover moussaka.
1pm: A slice of butter toasted heritage grain sourdough with cream cheese.
6:30pm: Shirakiku udon noodles in chicken broth with jammy eggs and fish cakes with burdock, made at home.
8pm: Jeni’s coffee ice cream.
Stayed home so I could take my cat to the vet
Uncreative with the cream cheese that I got on sale; too dense to bake with unless I want to make a cheesecake or something; all of the cream cheese coffee cake recipes that I saw were like polish versions with a layer of cream cheese
Japanese soup: 1qt chicken stock, 1 packet S&B Japanese Seasoning & Soup Mix, soy sauce, garlic powder, thinly sliced onion, fish cake with burdock, shirakiku udon noodles
Remember when every recipe had a jammy egg in it like 4 years ago? Kill me
Seasoning mix uses on the box include udon and fried rice, which is a great idea actually
Wish I had some greens to go with this besides arugula
Thin tasting so I added a pat of butter
https://www.freshgogo.com/pc/goodsDescribe?id=27409&language=en
Jeni’s coffee ice cream tastes kinda watery
Next Gen BA Test Kitchen aka food influencer lab posted a TikTok video reviewing coffee ice cream the same day I tasted Jeni’s coffee ice cream which was decent. Looked like it had coffee grounds in it. Trader Joe’s and Jeni’s won, plus a decaf version from Straus. They didn’t taste Hagen https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tBCDy8/
July 23, 2026 (Thursday)
8:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: Saltine crackers and cream cheese with sriracha and garlic powder.
12:30pm: Bellatoria frozen garlic chicken alfredo pizza and raspberry jello.
5pm: Ricotta polpette in tomato sauce with orecchiette, parmesan, and La Tourangelle olive oil, made at home.
6pm: Raspberry jello and Arco hard candy.
Absolute desperation food kind of day of consuming terrible, pale wheat-based products with cheese. Snapped out of it midway through the frozen pizza and threw it away because it started to taste awful. It wasn’t so much as i snapped out of it and gained consciousness halfway through because I knew what I was doing going into it. It’s more like I got the ick and it started to taste like something. I need wheat-based items to be well done.
Ricotta polpette: saw a video by Pina and Roe about sicilians making these with ricotta when they didn’t have meat, which is also my story because I didn’t go to the grocery store this week because I didn’t want to leave my cat in a hot car
1lb ricotta, 2 eggs, 1.5c panko, 1/4c grated pecorino romano, 2 grated garlic cloves, salt and pepper; left in the fridge for about 6 hours to set up and let the breadcrumbs absorb moisture; shaped into quenelles; made a really fine-crumbed texture that held together and sliced beautifully.
Originally, a quenelle is a traditional French dish made from a mixture of creamed fish (commonly pike) or meat, breadcrumbs, and an egg binding
Should have added the cream cheese because idk how to use all of it
This filling was perfect for a basic stuffed squash blossom recipe so I harvested four open male flours from the insane vines growing out of my compost; there’s a pumpkin growing too; but then I realized I didn’t have seltzer for the batter
Brian said these were better than meatballs
Sauce: olive oil, half a white onion, a red long of Florence onion, 5 cloves of garlic, bianco di napoli, basil, milk, butter; wasn’t tasting great so I added some milk at the end like a bechamel and some butter because it just tasted so straight from the can even after a few hours of cooking it out and down
I asked Brian if he wanted any raspberry jello and he said “that’s random”
Simply Desserts sugar free raspberry jello smells like the bubble liquid that came with the magic wishing well playset from 1993 https://www.ghostofthedoll.co.uk/mymagickissingdragon-playsets.php
Once the boiling water was added it smelled more like a melted popsicle or the pink bottle of Mr bubble bubble bath
I remember making Jell-O for my whole class and first grade with my mom and we did fall leaf colors and then used fall leaf cookie cutters to make fall leaf shapes out of the Jell-O and I passed them out to all my classmates and then I passed them out to all the administrators in the school and I forgot to give one to my teacher and when I realize this I was shattered this is why I still remember this because she was my favorite teacher anyway I’m made a whole new batch of Jell-O with my mom the next day and we brought her a huge leaf of Jell-O.
July 24, 2026 (Friday)
10am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: Leftover ricotta polpette with orecchiette.
1pm: Jeni’s coffee ice cream.
3pm: Raspberry jello.
6pm: Orzo with arugula, butter, and parmesan, made at home.
8pm: Tony’s white chocolate.
Yellow cake: Divas can cook cake paired with KA chocolate buttercream; Pancake admits that the box mix has the lightest and fluffiest cake, but when you compare the taste to a homemade version it falls short and you realize how synthetic it tastes
https://www.thepancakeprincess.com/best-yellow-cake-bake-off/
https://divascancook.com/moist-yellow-cake-recipe-old-fashioned/
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-birthday-cake-recipe
Made a half batch of Divas Can Cook; I wish I had watched her video first because she used the whisk attachment for her cake it looked nuts, like marshmallow; I didn’t do that so my batter was a lot thicker and seemed drier; they looked the same after baking. I only baked for 27 minutes for the cake to register at 205 in the center. Loved that she used buttermilk because that’s what I have now that Brian needs to drink a gallon a day even though they don’t even sell it in gallon quantities.
Made a slightly less than half batch of the king arthur buttercream; 8:20 ratio based on TB of butter. So a ⅖ ratio or 40%. Ended up throwing everything away. The buttercream had bitter specks of cocoa throughout that I couldn’t get rid of no matter how much I whipped it. Tried everything until it split so badly that I ended up throwing it away. The cake was dense and too sweet. Every time I try to find a recipe that isn’t the depression cake I get disappointed and frustrated.
This reddit thread on why boxed yellow cake is better than homemade is interesting. Most people agree, even when making Sally’s Baking Addiction and boxed cake and comparing side by side; homemade is too dense and buttery. Should I just give up on making vanilla cake at home? I feel like I’ve made good cake growing up.
And brian’s beard smelled like Sprite
July 25, 2026 (Saturday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9:30am: Two hard boiled eggs, made at home.
12pm: Indian food and chai at Naga’s South Indian Cuisine in Morrisville, North Carolina.
4:30pm: Black and white cookies from the Whole Foods cookie bar.
7pm: Popcorn with Banner roasted garlic, basil, and parsley butter, made at home.
Nagas buffet
Everything was lukewarm
Pedialite welcome drink
I would go back for dinner but not the buffet. Paneer and butter chicken were good.
https://share.google/wakNBFNUH59ktE9Cp
Black and white cookies at north Raleigh Whole Foods. Snappy icing which I love. I think they’re the same as the ones in the clamshell container but I had to check.
July 26, 2026 (Sunday)
9am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: Two sunny eggs over fried masquerade potatoes with chili, chives, and garlic powder, made at home.
2pm: Vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla buttercream, made at home.
5pm: Panang curry with pork, tofu, potatoes, Thai basil, and red bell peppers over basmati rice, made at home.
Brian ate one of the plumcots that I bought because of citrus influencer on TikTok so I took a bite. Tastes like a plum but with a firm texture of an apricot.
Panang curry
Mae Ploy panang curry paste, ground pork (pork is most traditional), Chaokoh coconut milk, chicken stock, kefir lime leaves, sugar
Vegetables are not traditional but added tofu, small potatoes, and a red bell pepper
Vanilla cake research
I’m chasing the high of the mcdonald’s birthday cake I had in third grade. I want a Walmart / grocery store cake – super sugary, glossy and soft buttercream and perfectly soft cake. I’m not sure why I feel the need to try to create this at home but maybe because eating grocery store cake makes me feel bad. I feel like a recipe like this will come from a blog rather than a recipe book from anyone respectable.
Pancake Princess https://www.thepancakeprincess.com/best-vanilla-cake-bake-off/
Preppy kitchen https://preppykitchen.com/1448-2/
Iambaker-tested cupcake project https://www.cupcakeproject.com/ultimate-vanilla-cake-recipe/
Reddit recommendations: I know I talked shit about butternut bakery last week; a big part of this podcast is me being a bitch but ultimately learning and growing; but when I did a search for vanilla cake videos on Tiktok her video came up and her cake looked so soft and spongy.
https://butternutbakeryblog.com/best-vanilla-cake/
Reverse creaming method
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/1272-what-s-the-difference-between-creaming-and-reverse-creaming
Both mixing methods produce equally tender results. Their differences boil down to the crumb’s rise and structure. For everyday baking, fluffy, slightly domed creamed cakes are fine.
Use creaming method for recipes such as pound cake, Gâteau Bretons, or chocolate bundt cake.
For fancy cakes with multiple layers, the flat top and plush crumb of a reversed-creamed cake can be more desirable.
Use reverse creaming method for recipes such as lemon layer cake, New York-Style Crumb Cake, or coffee cake.
HALF BATCH https://accentgolden.com/small-batch-funfetti-cake/
Broma bakery https://bromabakery.com/how-to-make-the-best-vanilla-cake/
Oil and butter; recommended via Reddit
Kathleen Meisenger has called her out on her practices and lack of knowledge; also her beauty photoshoots on her website creeps me out; feels mormon. Anyway, this was perfect. Tastes like a boxed funfetti cake but better. I could have cooked it to 210 instead of 200 because it was just the slightest bit under but so soft and spongy and pillowy and fluffy. Frosting was perfect but I upped the salt. Brian had three slices which is insane for him. Sort of reminded me of a fluffy buttermilk pancake.
¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup (53g) vegetable oil
¾ cup (156g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1½ cups (180g) cake flour
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅔ cup (160g) buttermilk, room temperature
Baked at 325 for about 37 minutes or until 200 degrees and the cake was no longer making crackling sounds
Buttercream (scaled down Preppy Kitchen)
¼ cup (½ stick / 57g) unsalted butter, softened
Small pinch of salt (or omit if using salted butter)
⅚ cup (100g) powdered sugar (about ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon sifted, if measuring by volume)
2 teaspoons heavy cream or whole milk, plus a little more if needed
⅓ teaspoon vanilla extract
Honorable mentions
King Arthur Blueberry Buckle; why is the word buckle so bad? My sister and I are too embarrassed to say it. She had a great blueberry crumb cake at a party one year that nobody could stop eating and she thinks it was this recipe.
NYT black & white cookies
NYT coffee cake
Chocolate wacky cake but with mayo
Soft pretzels https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tPm4xY/
Chocolate mousse https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tx5LpD/
Chocolate Mousse (No Gelatin)
Ingredients
- 250 g milk
- 80 g egg yolks
- 40 g sugar
- 250 g dark chocolate (64-70%)
- 450 g heavy cream 35% fat
Method
Make a crème anglaise with the milk, egg yolks and sugar (82-84 °C). Pour over the chopped chocolate and mix. Let cool to 35-38 °C, then gently fold in the softly whipped cream.