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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
Buzzard update: My former supervisor’s son visited for the weekend and she asked me for recommendations for things to do in Hillsborough and of course I recommended the vulture house mostly as a joke, but they ended up going to the vulture house twice and it was the highlight of their trip. I sent them the address as a joke but they were really into the vultures.
Annotated 70s mennonite cook book with prune whip recipe that was her mother’s favorite; looking at the recipe didn’t make her want to eat it; pureed and set with gelatin; we didn't rush out and start making prune whip
SCENTS
My trash can smelled like Warheads this week because of fermenting Good Pop wrappers.
Tonka smells like bug spray and sneaking into your friend’s older brother’s bed room to look at his posters. Pencil shavings. Fades into the scent profile that I like from neutrongena rainbath and Mugler A*men.
“Calvin Klein women’s fragrance in obsession is the exact same scent as the amber coloured rainbath! It’s incredible!” - Reddit poster, also “Alkemia Hex”
Musky and spicy lavender / clove / allspice / cinnamon / anise notes
Aldehydic
Put on Le Labo Eucalyptus to do some work on Saturday morning. Maybe I’m biased by the brand name but there’s something so simple and straightforward about Le Labo scents, while also being mystical and deep at the same time. They don’t over do it like Ffern. Pencil shavings, gasoline, rubber, greenhouse.
Le Labo Coriandre 39
Official description: Mexico City exclusive. Cilantro: the most controversial of all herbs? Some of us can wax poetic about those lacy leaves. And some of us fervently disagree. Need we say more? Yes, actually. We’re pretty sure CORIANDRE 39 will surprise you. With the first spritz, a zing of spicy lime and aldehydic cilantro leaves (coriandre in French) set the stage for quieter crisp watery notes to peek through. Fresh, green florals enter, then stick around for an intoxicating musky dry down. It’s a sensory experience that teeters between tranquil and vibrant. Think forest bathing in El Bosque de Chapultepec – a peace enriched by call-and-repeat birdsong – or sipping mezcal in the shade at a humming café in La Condesa.
My semi-blind review (couldn’t be totally blind because it was the last one and I was anticipating it, but I described it before reading the description): pruning a tropical plant or walking through a peppery botanical conservatory, water, eating a peppermint patty, licking a leather shoe, pith, using a bathroom after someone else who left toothpaste residue stuck to the side of the sink. My #1 listener recommended this scent to me. I love the peppery aspect; I’ve been looking for a scent highlighting that, but I don’t like the pepperminty aspect. Fades into Prada D’iris.
I keep getting tricked by LYS because it’s so bright and beachy and Neroli and fresh when you put it on, but then it fades to a very old woman Flower white flower sent. Peace, Lilly.
INTERNET
I’m finally uploading all my Google Maps screenshots to TikTok and making videos and someone commented that I should do central Pennsylvania next and so I’ve been finding restaurants in Central Pennsylvania to screenshot and share on TikTok and I keep finding square cut pizza places in Central Pennsylvania that only have one slice of pepperoni each and I can’t find an answer to why this is happening.
90 Day
Mido, who is a famous actor in Egypt even though nobody can find a movie that he’s been in, wears a Buc-ee’s shirt with the Buc-ee’s logo and the editors blurred it like 1%. Like why bother.
TikTok
Why does everyone say “Welcome in”?
Why is making pizza for men?
Cooking eggs in stainless steel https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8sKU1vs/
Crowded kitchen nutter butters https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8sEsWGN/
Square pound cakes; use powdered sugar for best texture https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8sEthVG/
Cake mix + soda; you don’t need egg or oil https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8so8G1s/
IG
Hot dog pasta salad https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaD6__HSEUw/?igsh=NzBoaXRmMnN6NzUz
Arthur Schwartz
In last week’s podcast episode he says all Limoncello is terrible and you should just make your own and it’s easy so maybe I will; makes me feel better after I did research and thought I purchased a semi-decent bottle and still tasted terrible
June 22, 2026 (Monday)
8:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10:30am: Fried leftover rigatoni and cheese with sriracha.
1pm: A pour of Heath-Ade cayenne cleanse kombucha, a soft boiled egg, and a Loacker Tortina.
5:30pm: Fried green tomatoes with Kunzler bacon, cheddar cheese, burnt jalapeno cream cheese, and Mt. Athos Fire sourdough toasted in bacon fat, made at home.
6:30pm: Rum cake with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, made at home.
https://www.food.com/recipe/bacardi-rum-cake-14499
Finally made Brian’s favorite cake. He said he needs to find a new favorite cake. Rum cake aka rum ham. Not sure about this. Made a half recipe for my 1 liter capacity bundt pan. Cooked 325 for about 45 or until a thermometer registered 205. The crust with the pecans was nice but the glaze was so strong. Sickening. Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black Rum. Pudding mix made it dense which I don’t love. I’m glad I tried one of these cake mix with pudding mix combos because I’ve been curious about them after reading all of these church community cook books. I think I was hoping for something super spongey and light.
What is this bacon? Crumpled up prepackaged bacon?
“Let’s continue the quest because I’m not sure if this is my favorite cake. It’s amazing to have a rum cake. I love the shape of it. It’s incredible. If I went to a restaurant and paid $30 for it I wouldn’t be disappointed” - Brian, being nice. He needs to find a new favorite cake.
June 23, 2026 (Tuesday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: A soft boiled egg.
12:30pm: Two over easy eggs over leftover fried rice and garlic sauce, made at home, and a pour of Health-Ade cayenne cleanse kombucha.
4pm: Macaroni salad, made at home.
6:30pm: Chicken breasts with lemon, basmati rice, and gigante beans, made at home.
7:30pm: Rum cake with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream.
Eating a bunch of eggs like a lizard.
Hawaiian mac salad
Shredded carrots, shredded white onion, diced jalapenos, elbow macaroni
Duke’s mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, sugar, garlic powder, salt, pepper
Used a recipe from the cake room: Chicken Breasts with Lemon
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/4117-chicken-breasts-with-lemon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Franey
Sylvaner white wine and meyer lemon
June 24, 2026 (Wednesday)
7am: Leftover coffee with half & half.
10am: A soft boiled egg, macaroni salad, and a cup of coffee with half & half at the office.
Cake room: NYT Page-a-Day calendar recipes for Goat Cheese and Dill Dutch Baby, Italian Beef Sandwiches, and Japanese Potato Salad With Mantaiko.
3:30pm: A slice of mushroom and caramelized onion pizza with red pepper flakes from Whole Foods and a bottle of Brew Dr mango passionfruit kombucha.
6pm: Ponzu chicken and cabbage over basmati rice, made at home.
8pm: Nerds gummy clusters.
Wore a white shirt today thinking that it would be perfectly safe and was immediately jumped on by dogs when taking a stroll through campus. Leash your dogs in public. I can’t stand people who won’t leash their dogs and consider others people or other dogs that may hurt their own dog.
WF pizza was beautiful today. An adult man with some sort of accent that made me think he came from a pizza-making country was working.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8sEmMEn/
Ate some night sugar after doing some yard work because my body confuses thirst with wanting sugar even though I’m conscious of what is happening
June 25, 2026 (Thursday)
8am: Leftover coffee with half & half.
10am: Leftover ponzu chicken and cabbage over basmati rice.
1pm: Late July tortilla chips with Tacodeli salsa dona and a bottle of Brew Dr mountain ginger kombucha.
3:30pm: A scoop of Jenni’s darkest chocolate ice cream.
5:30pm: Roasted cauliflower and romanesco with Neiman Ranch bratwurst, made at home.
7pm: A scoop of Blue Bell Cookie Two Step ice cream.
8pm: An Arcor cherry filled hard candy.
Salsa Dona had mold; ate it anyway; Late July chips nice big bubbles and salty
Both on sale
Mountain ginger kombucha was ok; not very carbonated. Turmeric tastes like dust to me.
Jennie’s darkest chocolate ice cream was pretty good. Still not as good as the chocolate gelato that I had once on a hot afternoon in Milan. That is the benchmark for me and I’ve never had as good as a chocolate ice cream or gelato experience than that. This ice cream had more air in it as ice cream does have more air in it than gelato, but it did have that deep chocolate flavor that I was looking for. Plus it’s 50% off so worth the risk of buying it and melt on the way home. Was it really that good, or was I just young and experiencing gelato for the third or fourth time? So much of the food experience comes from the atmosphere and place and experience.
Assorted bag of the strawberry filled candy; cherry tastes a bit medicinal; I did not know that Arcor is based in Argentina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Arcor
June 26, 2026 (Friday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half and a hard boiled egg, made at home.
Cake room: A NYT Page-a-day calendar recipe for Citrusy Roasted Salmon and Potatoes.
1pm: A cajun chicken sandwich, cheese curds, and hush puppies from Cook Out in Oxford, North Carolina.
3pm: A handful of Milton’s salt and pepper crackers.
5pm: Shrimp lettuce wraps, half of a pork egg roll, half of a vegetable spring roll, red curry, Penang Chow Kueh Teow, and drunken noodles from Ni Asian Kitchen in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and a pour of Harp Lager.
6:30pm: A small scoop of passionfruit tiramisu, made at home.
I was deciding between Taco Bell and cookout today. Ended up getting cookout because I wanted that Coke zero. I don’t want Pepsi products. Plus I Taco Bell I never know whether or not to get two or three items. I feel like two isn’t enough, but Three is too many. The Cajun chicken sandwich was bogus. The chicken was decent quality but slid all over the place and I ended up basically with a full bun left over. Puppies were dry, but I really wanted a doughnut so that’s what I got and the cheese bites were amazing.
Brian is obsessed with Ni. “Busier than target”. I’ve tasted some of his leftovers before and wasn’t impressed. He gets this when I go out of town. He says it’s the closest place to us where we can get take out and have it be fresh but better quality than what is around us, plus it’s on the way home from work for him. It’s like food Lion Chinese strip mall Chinese but southeast Asian. Everything is mushy and tastes the same. Brian thinks it’s amazing which worries me. Curry is one of the worst I’ve ever had.
I’m spoiled from having so many amazing Thai places in new york
Harp lager: as I was drinking this I wondered of Guiness hired a german to make this beer and according to their wikipedia, they did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harp_Lager
3 layer passionfruit tiramisu
Soak: Hamilton Jamaican pot still black rum, Trappist raspberry jam, 10x, water
Filling: Whipped cream, whipped crave brothers chocolate mascarpone, 10x, pinch of salt
Middle layer: jar of Tiptree passionfruit curd
I referred to this at Wilkin & Sons as the brand name when I used the lemon curd; I guess it’s called Tiptree but I couldn’t read the cursive so I ignored it
This smelled like feet; not a strong passionfruit flavor
Topping: cocoa powder
Pretty good; the curd kind of tasted like feet. Brian said he didn’t want any. Gave him a taste and he started yelling for me to load up a bowl for him. I think I like classic tiramisu.
Went to walmart to buy corn syrup and could only find corn syrup with vanilla flavoring. Brian said his family used it as pancake syrup growing up which was insane to me as someone who grew up in maple syrup country. Apparently it’s always had vanilla in it. Brian’s grandfather would pour Karo over anything. Spaghetti and sop it up with a biscuit.
June 27, 2026 (Saturday)
6:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: Leftover macaroni salad.
3:30pm: Late July tortilla chips with Tacodeli salsa dona and a bottle of Health-Ade berry lemonade kombucha.
5pm: Passionfruit tiramisu.
7:30pm: A pour of Harp lager.
June 28, 2026 (Sunday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: Buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup and Danish butter, Kunzler bacon, and cherries, made at home.
2:30pm: Melted mozzarella and gouda cheese over Late July tortilla chips with Texas Pete garlic hot sauce, made at home.
5pm: Spaghetti with pork ragu and Locatelli pecorino romano, made at home.
6:30pm: Passionfruit tiramisu.
Bacon tasted like salami
Alison Roman buttermilk pancakes were looser - probably because I used fresh buttermilk and the 1 cup of flour measurement can really vary. Let it set up in the fridge and it got super bubbly and thicker but not thick enough. Still good and usable.
Olive oil, ground pork, onion, garlic, fresh oregano and basil, tomato paste, tomatoes, garlic powder, milk
Watching Bored to death which I haven’t watched since it came out and Ted Danson’s character meets up with his daughter and he asks her how she met her new boyfriend and she says they met at a seance trying to contact the original designer of fiestaware.
Brian spent the evening on a website about something called The Carolina Oyster trail which probably ends at the hospital