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What I ate last week
EPISODE 51
NEWS/UPDATES
Forgot to mention that I saw a purple cyber truck in Franklinton across from Tap That Ash; I didn’t know that cyber trucks could get any worse. Reminds me of when I went to a Harbor Freight with Brian and all the products were named things like “ASSAULT” or “HOSTAGE CRISIS” and then there was a big sign announcing that this metal tool chest was now available in purple.
I’m still getting nightly emails with updates from the Olive Garden Reddit. I need it to stop. It’s mostly people who are trying to get jobs at Olive Garden asking about the job application process. It reminds me of this period when Brian had email notification sounds on and his phone would go off in the depths of the night because Autozone needed to get in touch with him with a discount code at 2am. Now it’s just a nighttime lullaby tone that goes off after he’s already asleep and wakes him up but he won’t turn it off.
Blood Orange rebrand https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8xRQ5Fr/
Dog named Cindy who ate rocks and died
Charlie eating razor blades and fish hooks
Is fried chicken for soup a fair trade?
Barn that is also a Subway restaurant is for sale across from Chengdu 7
News outlets are reporting that armchair detectives are destroying the Nancy Guthrie case. I think I know what happened to Nancy Guthrie
SCENT
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP89EwWo9/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37554295/
Imagination by Louis Vuitton
Official description: Key notes are amber, black tea, bergamot
“Imagination. The key to the audacity, success and drive of the creatives who make the wildest dreams a reality. An immaterial energy that is nurtured by travel and experiences that forge a new state of mind. A creative impulse that has always guided Jacques Cavallier Belletrud.
With an over-generous dose of Ambrox — perfumery’s white gold — the Master Perfumer reinvents the ambery accord to express a sensual and contemporary masculine elegance. Its contrasts appear upon contact with noble citrus and black tea extracted with CO₂, a magical ingredient that carries within it the soul of travel. With Imagination, the spirit rises, escapes and conquers new paths of freedom.”
My review: Walking into an air conditioned department store on a hot summer day, orange juice, soap, iris; fades to wood. We don’t need this. The world didn’t need another scent like this. She looks like every other bitch.
Creed J’ardin d’Amalfi - $640 for 75ML
Official description: Zesty citrus notes blend with rich florals and a seductive musk and vetiver base, reminiscent of a late summer travelling the iconic Italian coastline.
My review: smells like a powdery, vanilla Orangina or fizzy citrus beverage like a San Pellegrino. I would NEVER pay $640 for 75ML of this. Crack open an Orangina and call it a day.
Floris Neroli Voyage
Official description: “This vibrant fragrance opens with a citrus burst of neroli and lemon, complemented by the marine notes for an added sea breeze freshness; The dominant neroli accord weaves into the heart where it is wrapped in intimate jasmine flower and enlivened by spicy notes of ginger and aromatic fennel seed. Depth and complexity come from the base evoking the scent of the maquis shrubland oak wood and is supported by warm, sensual notes of musk and amber. Extracted from the blossom of the bitter orange tree, neroli is intensified in this fragrance by a spike of lemon and ginger.”
My review: Definite orange juice zing but much deeper and darker; spicy almost; smells like an “ocean” scented candle I had in the early 2000s and kept next to my bed. Nouveau yankee candle; step above; my mom wasn’t buying her 11 year old $400 candles so this scent smells cheap to me
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue
Official description:
TOP NOTES: The fresh and juicy nuances of Sicilian Lemon evoke the characteristic scents of the Mediterranean maquis.
HEART NOTES: A delicate hint of Granny Smith Apple accompanies the fruity heart of the fragrance.
BASE NOTES: The seductive base of Cedarwood gives the bouquet a particularly long-lasting trail.
My review: took a spritz from Brian’s Dad’s bottle while we were dog sitting at their house. Smells like squeezing the oils out of fresh Orange rind. Used to do this for cocktails with a lit match.
Daddy smells like going to the shoe section of a Sports Authority in the 90s to buy a new pair of Sambas for school
INTERNET
Before the 90 Days (90 Days a week)
There’s a girl named Emma whose personality is probably the result of being locked in a room her whole life with a television that only played the Kardashians being her only exposure to socialization. She goes to Morocco to meet this guy who keeps setting up elaborate dinner dates for them but every single dinner is chicken tagine. The show cuts to six different dinners in a row of chicken tagine. Reminds me of when I would go to Paraguay in high school on service trips and the host families would only make us chicken and rice because they thought that’s what we wanted.
Matty Matheson’s Just A Dash is on Netflix now. Is Netflix just harvesting podcast and internet content now and putting it behind a paywall? Someone took Nirvana the band’s stuff down from the web to stream it because they have a movie coming out now. Anyway I haven’t watched Matty’s show and it’s basically a show about a guy making his wife mad because he’s inviting way too many people over and not cleaning up after. I think Matty can be funny but this show feels contrived.
John and momma water pot pie https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8xRPjwg/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8xNfNj6/
North Carolina Food Content
Quagliata Brothers Italian Deli in Myrtle Beach https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP89EbkHm/ https://share.google/lfS7Ml1FIVH8C6ccI
Hillbilly Hide-A-Way https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP89EK5Em/ https://share.google/3g8QSEcbKeqzVjj0g
Nor’east Treats and Eats https://maps.app.goo.gl/VPrED1qQcsr1Pdrr6?g_st=ic
Pie crust update https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8x8N9KY/
Toasted peppercorns https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8xRoowD/
This makes sense I always try to get my pepper toasted like other spices I’m cooking
Dry brine, wet cure: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8xdJNg6/
Leland Eating and Drinking house https://share.google/KSLriDztRNqwR7GJj
February 16, 2026 (Monday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10:30am: A bowl of bran flakes with milk.
12:30pm: Tacodeli creamy jalapeno salsa aka “Salsa Doña” and Whole Foods restaurant style tortilla chips and a pour of GT’s ginger kombucha.
4pm: Two Shane’s Confectionary coconut buttercreams.
5:30pm: Leftover chicken meatball soup.
7pm: Blue Bell oatmeal cream pie ice cream.
Didn’t read the Tacodeli salsa container before realizing that I was about to eat the salsa doña that I accidentally poured all over my food in Austin. I saw that it was labeled “hot”, though. It’s pretty hot. But this is pretty much the heat of all of the salsas available in any grocery store in Pilsen and Little Village in Chicago, which I consumed on a weekly basis. My old coworker Stephen at Numero Group and I would split a container of the orange peanut salsa, which was even hotter than this. We would eat a few chips at a time. The flavor was great but the heat would build up so much that you had to ration it. It has a flavor profile that is similar to the green sauce at La Chaparritta in Little Village, Chicago, where I ate at least a few times a week with my Numero coworkers.
February 17, 2026 (Tuesday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home, and a bowl of bran flakes with milk.
11am: Tacodeli creamy jalapeno salsa aka “Salsa Doña” and Whole Foods restaurant style tortilla chips and a pour of GT’s ginger kombucha.
4:30pm: A passionfruit elderflower chocolate and a cardamom dulce de leche chocolate from Escazu.
6:30pm: Fried spring rolls with chicken, carrots, savoy cabbage, and nuoc cham, made at home.
7:30pm: Blue Bell oatmeal cream pie ice cream.
Dulce de Leche was great, not an overwhelming cardamom flavor to the ganache
So February 17 was Lunar New Year, Mardis Gras, and Ramadan, National Cabbage Day, and Paczki [poonchkey] Day (which I sadly never took advantage of when I was living in Polish neighborhoods); I want a fastnacht https://share.google/H8fn8RdkizJmpO2tE
Spring rolls https://www.seriouseats.com/vietnamese-imperial-rolls-recipe-7970014
Ground chicken: grated ginger and garlic, garlic powder, soy sauce, splash of neutral oil, a Sapporo Ichiban soup seasoning packet from a package of ramen
Nuoc cham: 1TB sugar, 1/4 c water, 1TB Areca pineapple-made vegetarian fish sauce with unfortunate symbol on bottle, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, splash of Mitsuya cider, dash of garlic powder
Rice paper, Mitsuya cider (tastes like an apple flavored ginger ale plus Sprite; can is sort of Christmas or wintery and has a spout; Asahi product)
I don’t know if I would fry spring rolls again. They felt difficult to fry and were very oily. Got too dark too quickly even though I was only frying at 325-350. Using a sugary, carbonated beverage helps with browning, but maybe too much. I also think that the soy sauce evacuated from the ground chicken and created black areas which looked horrifying.
I also accidentally ate a little bit of soap
February 18, 2026 (Wednesday)
7am: Leftover coffee with half & half and a bowl of bran flakes with milk.
Cake room: NYT Cooking Page-a-Day calendar recipe for Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
10:30am: A cappuccino from Meantime Cafe in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
11:30am: Two leftover fried spring rolls.
4pm: A sample of white pizza from Whole Foods.
5pm: A small bag of Cool Ranch Doritos.
6:30pm: Italian sausage with chickpeas, savoy cabbage, and harissa and Frankie’s 457 Sicilian olive oil toasted La Farm sourdough, made at home.
7:30pm: Blue Bell cookie dough and coffee ice creams.
I listened to the most recent Arthur Schwartz podcast episode on my drive home and it inspired my dinner. He talked about a vegetarian dish with chickpeas and greens. I made a sausage / lablabi version:
2TB olive oil
4 Breton mild Italian sausage, cases removed
1 and a half onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 TB harissa paste
1 tsp chinese chili flakes
1 and a half cups leftover rosé (this will be great to cook with)
¼ savoy cabbage, sliced
1 can chickpeas, most of the liquid drained off, contrary to Arthur’s advisement
2 TB butter
Splash of apple cider vinegar
Serve with crusty or toasted bread
February 19, 2026 (Thursday)
7:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
8:30am: Tacodeli creamy jalapeno salsa aka “Salsa Doña” and Whole Foods restaurant style tortilla chips.
10am: A small bag of queso flavored Ruffles potato chips.
2:30pm: A bowl of crisped rice cereal with milk.
6pm: Roasted cauliflower gratin with tomatoes and goat cheese, made at home.
7pm: Blue Bell cookie dough ice cream.
Whole Foods crisped rice cereal feels like I'm a horse with a feedbag around my face
Roasted Cauliflower Gratin With Tomatoes and Goat Cheese by Martha Rose Shulman
I used
28oz can of tomatoes (so double)
Added chiltepin peppers
No coriander seeds or chives
Added some cream to help get the (3) eggs and cheese smooth
Added romano cheese
Added panko breadcrumbs
Next time
Reduce tomato sauce more or just use 14oz can
Roast cauliflower longer (I did almost 30 mins) as florets instead of slices
Up the eggs (couldn’t detect them at all)
This reminds me of a gratin I would make in the summer with cauliflower from work and cherry tomatoes, which I think would have been better than full blown tomato sauce
February 20, 2026 (Friday)
7am: Leftover coffee with half & half.
9:30am: A strawberry grain bar at the office.
11:30am: Leftover cauliflower gratin.
Cake room: Empty wide-mouth Ball jar with plastic blue lid.
3:30pm: A slice of cheese pizza with parmesan and red pepper flakes from Whole Foods.
6:30pm: Genoa salami, mixed olives, cornichones, black pepper croccantini, Klare Melk truffle gouda, Quattro Portoni quadrello di bufala, Kaasaggio Robusto gouda, Artikaas baby swiss, Cypress Grove Lamb Chopper, Chapel Hill Creamery Calvander, and Jean Perrin Morbier de Scey.
8pm: Blue Bell cookie dough ice cream.
Coffee tasted like almond milk because it was in an old oil jar which smelled clean but must have had some residue
https://www.quattroportoni.com/cheese/quadrello-29
https://data.attribytes.com/products/sell_sheet/by_distributor_and_sku/gourmet-foods-international/33093.pdf
https://www.chapelhillcreamery.com/product-page/calvander
https://stewartsmarket.com/cheese/cheese-of-the-week-jean-perrinmorbier-de-scey/
February 21, 2026 (Saturday)
8:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: Chilaquiles with scrambled eggs, romano cheese, onions, Tacodeli Salsa Doña, and Cloud23 habanero hot sauce, made at home.
5pm: A dirty vodka martini, shrimp cocktail, a chilled salad bar plate with iceberg lettuce, italian dressing, black olives, bacon, fried onions, croutons, bread and butter pickles, and pickled jalapenos, part of a Porterhouse, grilled white bread with butter, crinkle cut french fries with ketchup, part of a Paper Plane, and half of a key lime pie at The Peddler Steakhouse in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Susan Feniger’s Chilaquiles https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8xNXU6K/
Real nancy silverton vibes
Too Hot Tamales
Romano is a good substitute for cotija
https://www.c23.com/
This was on clearance or “last chance” at Whole Foods
Shocked to discover that this was Brooklyn Beckham’s hot sauce
You’d think it would have done better with all the publicity but also seems like everyone turned against him
I want to go to a supper club style steak house that has soft floors not only because they are carpeted but also because the building is so old the floors are caving in. Peddlers is in a strip mall that feels very 70s-80s Midwest superclub, which is why we wanted to go there. We pulled up before they opened at 4:30 and there was a long line of older people waiting to get in. 20 minute wait. Bar area was so dark that there was a conga line of older folks holding onto each other so that they could navigate the darkness. Almost as dark as Punch House where old folks who were lined up to see Psychedelic Furs were desperately trying to order sausage sets by candlelight. Waited for fresh batch of Chilled glass salad bar plates and so much curly kale. Brass band music so low that you thought you were imagining it. Brian was like wow is so nice that there isn’t music. Didn’t hear it until it cleared out. Brian said the bathroom smelled like there was active surgery happening. Men with problems who didn’t need to go to a steakhouse. Everyone there was over 70 and pretty much in active survey. Paper plane tasted like it was made with cranberry juice and nail polish remover; no lemon juice, aperol, or amaro detected. Steak was basically rare. No ventilation so you could smell the insides of everyone’s mouth at the end of the meal. Wisconsin supper clubs have more attention to detail, prepared items for the salad bar and bread baskets in comparison.
Key lime pie https://maps.app.goo.gl/ruVgf8GbBzxdvs5C7?g_st=ic