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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
Pet peeve of the week: when someone says that something has been a real treat when in reference to something that is not edible; for me the ultimate treat is something sweet and anything else is a let down
Food memory: I talked about foods tasting too adult in reference to Ina Garten’s black and white cookie butter ganache chocolate glaze last episode and it reminded me of the time when I was about seven years old and I went to a first communion party at a large house that had little crystal dishes of candy set out in the sitting rooms and I unwrapped an ate a chocolate covered cherry but did not realize that it was filled with some sort of liqueur and it was a bold, bitter shock. That’s what I mean when food tastes too adult. You’re expecting something sweet and light and get something dark, bold, and bitter instead.
Food memory: watching Katie foster eat an eclair before watching her play snood in the compote
Neese’s sausage update: apparently it’s not the same and people are mad https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ceawhH/
JT update: I asked Brian if he still had the JT CD that his mom gave him when he was 28 and Brian said he immediately threw it away
The new gourmet magazine changed their name to Buffet and they’re already making Jimmy Buffet jokes, rest in peace sir. They ought to do a piece on Margaritaville.
I don’t mean to make light of this but unfortunately someone drowned in a lake that is dangerously close to the all you can eat sushi place that I’ve had to ban myself from. I’m not saying he necessarily ate there but next to a body of water is a probably the worst place to open an all you can eat restaurant and is probably how I will go.
SCENTS
INTERNET
IG
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc1NZI9PfS5/?stkn=d2V6eXF3aDEyeDg1
TIKTOK
Why are people on TikTok who are recording recipe videos, measuring ingredients out onto the paper plates? If you have time to record and make content for TikTok, you probably have time to load your dishwasher and you probably have a dishwasher. I don’t even have a dishwasher and I don’t use paper plates I hate to see people use disposable products needlessly. Prep the ingredients into the bowls you’re eating out of. Raw onion in your bowl isn’t the end of the world.
You can mail loose potatoes https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8caRCTH/
Lettuce sandwich origin story https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cy5LYk/
Caroline’s cakes review by same person who reviewed the cake slices they sell in jail and Walmart https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cqyJMo/
Choc chip cookies https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8c5Tg3A/
Pancake soup https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cd5gQa/
Basil sugar https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cb5gdb/
Why don’t more pie crust recipes suggest laminating your pie dough like Bravetart https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ceTqxq/
Big parsley ham https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cDk3Sc/
August 31, 2026 (Monday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: Leftover Japanese curry over rice.
1pm: A bowl of cornflakes with milk.
6pm: Porcini tortellini soup with yellow eyed beans and cabbage, and a slice of focaccia, made at home.
7pm: Blue Bell chocolate lava cake ice cream.
By focaccia I mean “Shovel pizza” which is a TikTok translation https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8vbnmkv/
1000g type 0 flour (12.5% protein)
750g water
3g yeast
25g salt
20g EVOO
Mix flour and 75% of the water for a few minutes; rest 30
Slowly add water and yeast while mixing, then salt and oil
Transfer to oiled container and rest for 30
Stretch and fold and rest for 30 more minutes before putting in fridge for 24 hours
Next day shape and let double
Dimple, season with olive oil, and cook at 500 for 7-9 minutes
525 for about 20 minutes. Mine was super fat so it took longer to cook.
Formed a big, fat, round focaccia that had a hard time browning and puffing in the center but was almost black on the bottom. Fermentation actually looked decent on the inside but was denser than the creator’s.
Watched more of the creator’s videos and it looks like she makes a 1000g dough and divides into two or 500g each and bakes it off very thinly on a preheated sheet pan. She also says that “letting the dough double” takes 5-6 hours which I definitely did not do. Long room temperature fermentation is why I was interested in Dave’s Pizza Oven recipes. I think that’s what I’m lacking. Also, I’m always doing the poke test which always fails me and leads me to bake my bread off way too soon. Mine was 500g but I didn’t stretch the dough out as much as she does. Her dough makes huge bubbles. I have such a hard time getting huge bubbles whenever I make dough and often overproof trying to get said big bubbles. Not sure if it’s because I keep my yeast in the freezer or what. Next time I would try a slightly higher hydration dough that the creator, Linda, has pinned in her profile called Roman Balls. Feels like a bad translation. Then divide into 250g loaves, proof until fat bubbles form, and bake off thinly on a steel. So thin and bubbly. Maybe I need to use warmer water.
Rita, who is not as old as you’d think, is my new favorite TikTok person. She is never not yelling in her giant kitchen. Every comment on her video is why is she yelling? Rita’s soupy pasta https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ce8YAK/
Olive oil, sliced garlic, chili flakes, canellini beans, chicken bouillon, black pepper, escarole, parmesan rinds, broken spaghetti; finish with olive oil and parmesan
Pour olive oil, garlic, and bean mixture into the boiling pasta and escarole water
My version: olive oil whole head of garlic, two slices of bacon, chili flakes, Josh wine, cabbage, yellow eyed beans, chicken stock, chicken bouillon, Bertagni porcini mushroom tortelloni (on clearance but SO GOOD), pecorino Romano
What happened to portabello mushrooms
September 1, 2026 (Tuesday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: Leftover soup.
12pm: A bowl of cornflakes with milk.
2:30pm: A slice of focaccia, made at home.
6pm: A cheddar style cajun chicken sandwich, cheese curds with Texas Pete hot sauce, french fries, and part of a vanilla malt from Cook Out in Oxford, North Carolina.
Maple Hill Creamery grassfed milk, which I got on sale, tastes like cow manure.
Roman Ball or dry pizza, or just pizza crust, or dry, free-form focaccia
Quarter recipe: 250g bread flour, 200g water, 1g yeast, 5g oil, 6g salt
Knead all the flour with 620g of water and the yeast until the glutinous mesh is created (6-7 minutes)
Start adding the rest of the water (180g) flush and a little at a time.
With the last dose of water, the salt and eventually the oil.
Place the dough in an oiled container and after 20 minutes make a fold inside the container.
Leave at room temperature for about 3 hours and then transfer to refrigerator for about 24 hours.
Divide the dough to the desired size, form the rolls closing them well and let rise again until doubled (5-6 hours at a temperature of 18 degrees).
Roll out, sprinkle with plenty of oil and cook at 260 degrees for about 7-8 min.
Started this on Monday; dough would not come together so I did do a few stretch and folds while it was sitting for 3 hours at room temperature. Started to puff up a lot.
The next day, the dough still wasn’t smooth and supple. Did a few more stretch and folds as I proved it for 5 to 6 hours on the counter and just didn’t have the smooth suppleness that I was looking for. Some medium sized bubbles, but not the huge bubbles like in the creators video.
250g dough was easier to stretch out and make thin with the space I had. Crater recommends 500 g for a full sheet Trey size or 300 g for a smaller pizza stone.
Baked 500 on stone for 16-18 minutes and finish under broiler. Better but still underproved in my opinion. My yeast did not feel active enough. This is an ongoing problem that I should find a solution to. Maybe switch from active to instant and see if anything improves. Try adding sugar. Dave’s Pizza Oven uses both sugar and instant dry yeast.
Sort of reminds me of fougasse and makes me feel like yeah, I could actually make a New York style pizza in my oven with proper fermentation.
Brian suggested we try the cake before going to cookout in case it was bad. Little Blue bakehouse next to the Alamo draft house. Asked Brian what flavor and he said Olive oil flavor. It was soooo bad. I asked if it was a weed cake. Buttercream tasted like straight butter. Crumb was incredibly dense and dry. Brian was pissed at how bad it was. That’s what happened why you buy a cake next to an Alamo draft house. Tastes like a wedding cake build for structure. Made me feel better about the bad cakes that I’ve made in the past.
Almost went to Walmart or Food lion for a sheetcake; I wonder if my MACdonalds has sheet cake. Reddit threads say that they’re usually only at locations with playplaces but you can ask a manager to order them for you but usually they don’t know what you’re talking about. Durham reddit says best grocery store sheet cakes are costco, followed by publix and wegman’s.
September 2, 2026 (Wednesday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home, and a chocolate cherry pull apart roll from Boulted Bread.
9am: A cup of coffee with half & half at the office.
Cake room: NYT Cooking Page-a-day calendar recipes for Rosé Shrimp and Slow-Cooker Hot-Honey Chicken Sandwiches.
11am: Leftover Japanese curry over rice.
5:30pm: Mezzelune soup with cannellini beans, cabbage, and pecorino romano with a slice of focaccia, made at home, and a pour of Oude Geuze De Cam.
7pm: A scoop of Blue Bell Moollenium Crunch ice cream.
Decided to get SAF instance yeast and insanely enough it was at Whole Foods with a “new” sign on it.
Soup part 2: olive oil, whole head of garlic, chili flakes, Josh wine, cabbage, cannellini beans, potatoes, chicken stock, chicken bouillon, Bertagni parmigiano reggiano & truffle mezzelune (on sale), pecorino Romano
$15 bottle of lambic – got two of them for my birthday at the german bottle shop, but slightly different versions. Only a .75 liter bottle but actually a perfect serving size for two people with dinner – two small glasses of beer. Very Brett yeast forward, which I love, because it tastes so dry to me.
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2170/5599/
September 3, 2026 (Thursday)
7:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: Leftover soup.
12pm: Milton’s salt and pepper crackers and a bottle of Brew Dr mountain ginger kombucha.
4pm: Two apricot black and white cookies.
6pm: Panang curry with chicken, broccoli, and yellow peppers over basmati rice, made at home, and half a can of Orberdorfer Festbier.
Half batch of NYT perfect black and white cookies with apricot jam
Same half batch recipe but with 100% KA cake flour and scooped using a #12 or 1/3c ice cream scoop, yielding 5 cookies instead of 6. Put in the freezer for about 10 mins. These were a mess. Spread too much and were sloppy and misshapen. My best batch was when I made columns or towers. Tossed to remake and use a slightly smaller cookie scoop (#24 or 1/6c) plus about a tablespoon on top for height. Leftover dough so made a quarter sheet with silpat to yield a total of 8 cookies. Chilled trays for about 12-15 minutes. First tray with extra glob were nearly perfect and round but did suffer from some sliding around on the sheet pan, leaving a thin tail. This sheet tray may be warped towards the center like a shower floor because they all seem to travel towards the center and into each other. My sturdy quarter sheet tray with silpat had minimal travel, perfect shape. Didn’t come off the silpat as easily or brown in the bottom at all which I didn’t love. Spread a super thin layer of Trappist apricot preserves on two cookies, one from each tray, and refrigerated.
Cookies
½ stick or 57g butter
100g sugar
1 egg
127g cake flour
½ tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp sea salt (½ tsp diamond crystal kosher)
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon lemon zest (I used a whole lemon worth)
⅛ teaspoon almond extract
⅓ c or 90g buttermilk
Icing
150g 10x
¾ tablespoons corn syrup
½ tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
Cream
8g cocoa powder
22g 70% chocolate
September 4, 2026 (Friday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9:30am: Leftover curry with rice.
12pm: A black and white cookie and a pour of Brew Dr mountain ginger kombucha.
3pm: A small pour of Oberdorfer Festbier and a quarter of a porchetta sandwich from Boulted Bread in Raleigh, North Carolina.
5pm: Two black and white cookies.
Boulted Bread now has sandwiches on Wednesdays and Thursdays; I’m guessing they want to test this out on a slower weekday. Brian stopped by on Friday for an iced coffee and they had leftover sandwich ingredients so Brian got one of each: crispy eggplant on focaccia and porchetta on a torpedo roll. Feels very Ideals. Both sandwiches were overly sweet in the same way. Crispy eggplant was not very crispy. Focaccia was nice but didn’t have nice big air bubbles like I was hoping. Torpedo roll was very good but sandwich was too sweet. Porchetta was good, also had yellow peppers, onion, arugula, some sort of aioli. Their bread is excellent but almost too good to be used for sandwiches. Too heavy, too dark and richly flavored. Best purpose would be for ham and butter and call it a day. The whole 6-7 ingredient sandwiches on such deep bread is an overworking of the product.
Roman Ball retest with instant yeast and microscale for accuracy. Performed stretch and folds while on the counter for 3 hours and did not help the dough become smooth as it should have. I think it could benefit from a hydration period before mixing. Next day the dough was still not supple and smooth. Greater air development. My flour is very expired so I think that may have something to do with it.
Quarter recipe: 250g bread flour, 200g water, 1g yeast, 5g oil, 6g salt
Knead all the flour with 155g of water and the yeast until the glutinous mesh is created (6-7 minutes)
Start adding the rest of the water (45g) flush and a little at a time.
With the last dose of water, the salt and eventually the oil.
Place the dough in an oiled container and after 20 minutes make a fold inside the container.
Leave at room temperature for about 3 hours and then transfer to refrigerator for about 24 hours.
Divide the dough to the desired size, form the rolls closing them well and let rise again until doubled (5-6 hours at a temperature of 18 degrees).
Roll out, sprinkle with plenty of oil and cook at 260 degrees for about 7-8 min.
September 5, 2026 (Saturday)
7:30am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
12pm: Milton’s salt and pepper crackers and a pour of Brew Dr mountain ginger kombucha.
4pm: An RDM lager, Durham mild ale, fried pickle chips, a rye pretzel with cheese sauce, duck fat fries, and jalapeno bull horns at Bull City Brewing in Durham, North Carolina.
5:30pm: An M lager, nigiri sampler, tuna crispy rice, seared hamachi with bean threads, yuzu, and galangal, a house special roll, and fried inari pockets at M Sushi in Durham, North Carolina.
7pm: A Rind & Dandy cocktail at Kingfisher in Durham, North Carolina.
Milton’s salt and pepper crackers taste like macaroni and cheese. Really brought out the ginger flavor in the kombucha. And a watermelon tone.
Went to Durham to get burgers and didn’t get a single one. Bull city burger, patty boy, then bar Virgile.
Bull city burger tall ass burgers. Garbage pretzel and garbage poppers. Didn’t even come with sauce. Fries were good. Beers ok.
M sushi: I didn’t take a picture of the menu because I figured it would be online except the one online isn’t updated so I can’t accurately describe what we got. No idea what was in the house special roll besides avocado and what I thought was shrimp tempura, tuna, and blue crab but I have no idea.
Kingfisher bartender asked about Brian’s crab shirt because she’s from Maryland so we asked her what we should do in Maryland and she said get crab cakes or a wide ass sub. She would get a huge 12” tuna sub and sneak it into the movies so I told her we would definitely do that the next time we were in Maryland. Cocktail was so perfect and reminded me of a sloe gin fizz which we would serve at the commodore that tasted like smarties in a good way.
Verano Soñando: rhum agricole, kumquats, green cardamom, mint, evaporated milk, dairy milk, sugar; a clarified interpretation of Morir Soñando - gras cooing, aromatic
Rind & Dandy: lemon, ginger, honey, 1000 Piers Coastal Carolina Gin, sparkling wine; a riff on a Penicillin - refreshing, effervescent, zesty
Talked about my app ideas and taste profile. Fill out a quiz and see people’s profiles where you can say what recipes or restaurants you like. I feel like everything is too subjective and relative but this is also how I talk myself out of doing anything. Cousin generator you could probably just do on chat gpt. Grin dr might require that I get a lawyer.
September 6, 2026 (Sunday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: A sunny egg over fried potatoes with Texas Pete garlic hot sauce, made at home.
2:30pm: Late July sea salt Dippers with Tacodeli queso blanco with diced jalapenos.
4pm: A small pour of Girardin Gueuze 1882.
6pm: Braised pork, eggplant, and mushrooms over basmati rice, made at home.
7pm: Half of a black and white cookie and Haribo sour bats.
Walmart
Brian’s mom is the perfect restaurant customer because she forgets about restaurants making her sick and goes back 6 months later
Rumba brand meat is food for roombas
Begged Brian to take us somewhere I could get fountain Coke Zero and then we went through the drive through and just ordered himself a burger. Not the first time he’s done this.
Queso plus chips are way too salty.
Made the mark bittman recipe again with mushrooms and it was good.
Haribo sour bats are pretty good but not sour enough. Also don’t have any sour dust on them. The bat bodies are all black currant flavored and the wings are either green apple, orange, or cherry. I mean they were a dollar and change at Walmart.
Honorable Mentions (diabetes summer)
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022458-caramelized-zucchini-pasta?unlocked_article_code=1.-1A.ujKN.YIH-_xHLk-9D&smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share
Pizza
Green goddess https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8WY8TXF/
Dave’s pizza oven 24 hour dough; yield 1x 12” pizza
117 g bread flour
50 g all-purpose flour
4.3 g salt
0.1 g instant dry yeast
103 g cold water (use crushed ice to get temperature around 45°)
3.3 g olive oil
3.3 g sugar
you are using a stand mixer, here’s my recommendation:
add water, flour, yeast and sugar
mix on low for about ten minutes, or until the dough reaches 60°
cover and rest for 30 minutes
add the salt and mix for 3 minutes on low
add half the oil and mix on medium until absorbed. Then add the other half
once all the oil is absorbed, drop the speed back down to low until the temperature is roughly 70°
cover and rest for 30 minutes.
do at least one series of stretch and folds and check the window pane test.
Store on the counter for 20 hours, or 12 hours and then chill until ready to use.
Updated version that does a 1-2 day cold ferment.
Eclair cake https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8WpJYC7/
NYT crumb cake
Wacky cake with mayonnaise
Iambaker / cupcake project vanilla cake
Chocolate chip cookies
https://www.afamilyfeast.com/copycat-entenmanns-chocolate-chip-cookies/