Yams, Thanksgiving, and Good Sociality

I don't really eat sweet potatoes. I rarely consume the normal ones, actually. I tend to go for steamed food, for the most part, so potatoes don't always make the cut.
But this Thanksgiving holiday I learned something surprising about myself. I approve of yams and sweet potatoes. Funny that! I especially like them when they're cooked just so. Which is what my friends are experts in. After the first helping, I turned to my party and said, 'I'm definitely having seconds. Maybe even thirds.' 'Thirds?' 'Heck, yeah. These are out of this world!' And that's what I did. I had seconds and then thirds.
I don't know what the combination of herbs consisted of or how they managed to be so silky smooth. What I know is I experienced my full conversion to my newly found friend, the sweet potato.

Good thing I suggested road biking as a mode of transport to the party as I anticipated some heavy work-out would be necessary afterwards.The ride entailed passing through one of my favorite trails as well as some uphill areas in the city of Upper Arlington. Ventura and I hit 25 mph at some point of the trail at which point I could revisit the taste of the beautifully cooked sweet potatoes. I don't know how the friends cooked the sweet potatoes. What I know is that it was in a way that made me miss them after I was done consuming them. And generally I'm not a foodie and I don't miss food.

So, the tip of the hat this Thanksgiving goes to culinary expertise that is just so, good friends to watch Charlie Chaplin's Gold Rush wish, and, of course, riding the trail almost free of traffic and distractions.

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New Videocast: Keane, Meat Festival, and Cleveland

In this new episode I address things like space, indie rock performances, and culinary decisions.

You may view this new episode here.

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No Kebabs in Lucca, Italy

Consider the following:

"In this deeply conservative city, where even Sicilian food is considered ethnic, there are already four kebab houses, testaments to Italy’s growing immigrant population and the fact that many Italians, especially young ones, like eating non-Italian food. Offering kebabs at $5, the restaurants are also a bargain in difficult times.

Under the new law, these four can stay, but the banning of new ethnic and fast-food restaurants within the city walls has struck many here as contrary to the rules of free-market capitalism and the notion that Italy can offer more than visions of its long-dead past.
...
Lucca allowed the kebab shops to open in the first place only because city officials did not know what they were, Filippo Candelise, a Lucca City Council member who handles economic development, said in a recent interview in the medieval palazzo that houses city government.

Mr. Candelise defended the new regulation as essential for Lucca’s future. “We absolutely reject the ‘racist’ label,” he said. “We simply want to preserve our cultural and historical identity.”

So, if you find yourself in beautiful Lucca and you might be in the mood for a kebab, stop and stock up in Rome first and then head up. I'm certain the "buccellato" will taste scrumptious then.

I don't care much about meats anyway, as I tend to roll vegetarian-ly mostly, but I do care about the, what I call, the democratization of the tongue.

What think ye?

Read it all here.

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Burger King Markets Body Spray?

Because we have had a shortage of news of the bizarre...,
"Burger King is hoping to be known as more than “The Home of the Whopper.”

This weekend, the fast food chain rolled out “Flame,” a new men’s body spray billed as “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.”

And an informal survey by the Boston Herald found that there are men out there who’d wear it - even one who seemed to be named after a meat."

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