Is cricket the devil?

On a random whim (actually because I was reading something about how there are channels on youtube for anything including random sports that you can't see on TV) I watched some cricket youtube videos. I'm not entirely sure what is happening in all of them, but I did come across this gem of bizarre hilarity (at 9:15)

Repost of the week

On the bridge to nowhere down the street from me:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/01/calatrava_bridge_just_a_cheap.php#more

Blind Beer Review

In the interest of expanding my beer horizons I decided to do a blind review of a beer from the fridge. I bought two mixed sixers the other day and don't remember all the specifics of what I got so this isn't the most blind review for that reason.

It's a good looking beer with a dark brown color that's very opaque. I got about a finger of head initially, although there's less in the picture after it faded some, and, as you can see on the right side, some nice lacing.

The aroma comes off as that of a very hoppy and sweet beer. At this point I'm definitely assuming IPA or possibly a hoppy barleywine. It resembles what I remember of Bigfoot (my knowledge of the fridge betrays me here. I'm almost positive I didn't buy any barleywines). There's a good amount of pine, sweet orange, and most prominently toffee/caramel. The taste takes mostly the same direction, with the caramel more subdued by pine and grapefruit pith flavors. This is quite a hot beer- I'm guessing the alcohol is around 8%, anything less and they didn't hide it very well. The bitterness of the hops is particularly gripping in the aftertaste giving it a quality I associate with Arrogant Bastard.

Overall this is a good beer if you're into full flavored hops and toffee. I generally like my IPAs to be more fruity and a little less full bodied, but if I consider it a barleywine it fits the bill pretty well for that- so maybe I shouldn't complain.

And the secret revealed is...

Green Flash Hop Head Red
I'm a little confused as to which beer this is exactly, but I think I recently reviewed it (BA has a Hop Head Red Ale, as well as a Hop Head Red IPA which this bottle advertises, but only has a handful of reviews. The Greenflash website on the other hand, only lists the IPA and not the ale which has a bazillion BA reivews. Anyway...)

Here's my non-blind review- it's interesting (and bad for my credibility as a beer reviewer) how different the two are (though maybe they're different beers. see above)

A- Pours brown with a lot of small carbonation bubbles- almost looks like it's a nitro beer. A full finger of head and some lacing, but not really interesting lacing.

S- This one's out of the gate with a nice strong aroma. Dank hops, caramel, malt syrup fading into brown sugar, some grass.

T- Lots of malt, like a brown nut syrup. And lots of hops, like grapefruit pith juice.

M- The bitterness is high on this one. It is definitely stronger than the taste would indicate which I'm not so high on, though it does fit my expectations of a red ale, so there's that.

O- A powerful beer that has a lot of flavors to sift through and digest, but still doesn't feel heavy or as alcoholic as it is. A nice example of the style.

Dallas Farmer's Market

Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze just published an article about the Dallas Farmers Market, and I agree with him on most of his points. Here's my response and solution:

The Dallas Farmer's Market is a giant boondoggle of crummy real estate where you can hardly get any decent local food, prepared food or crafts. From my experience in working and visiting farmer's markets I think they fit into two categories:
A- Permanent City Fixture (see Reading Terminal, Pike Place etc...) These markets are open every (or almost) every day, and attract a lot of tourist, shopping, and eating traffic rather than just people buying food. This requires more space for restaurants and crafts, as well as a commitment to advertising the market as a tourist attraction.

B- Produce Market (see Portland, Ithaca, Coppell etc...) These markets are open just one or a few days a week, and are more for locals buying food (mostly produce) to cook with. To succeed here you need to differentiate from grocery stores by focusing on local produce and community connections.

Dallas is following neither of these plans. The indoor pavilion does have a couple craft booths, but is pretty empty. Shed 1 is supposed to be local produce only, but there is still a separate sticker designation for local vendors and not all of them in 1 have it (I don't understand this...). Also the local merchants are overshadowed by the large amount of produce in the other sheds that got diverted from a grocery store and is being sold at a huge mark-up (who buys pineapple at a North American farmers market?). The restaurant options are very limited. Because the transition to a Permanent City Fixture would be so difficult, the market should instead focus on becoming a viable local produce market.

Here's the plan:
-Open the market only on the weekends and maybe one afternoon/evening a week.
-Only allow vendors to sell produce grown within a 100 miles of Dallas
-Designate shed 3 or 4 for food trucks- an easy way to increase prepared food options, and attract food truck patrons to the market (many of them don't have plans on a saturday morning anyway)
-Add cooking demonstrations. There are already cooking classes w/ area chefs organized, why not have them (or others) give a demonstration with only market products used? This will show people how to use their newly bought food and make it more of an experience to go to the market.
-Increase the scope and awareness of special market days. There are apparently already special events at the market, but I can't say I've ever heard of them...

All these things will increase the density of visitors to the market and help deal w/ the problems of the homeless walking through, as well as the market seeming like an empty blight next to the business district. Or we can just nuke it...

Matilda- An Old Beer for the New Year

This is a beer I picked up in Ohio over the summer. Bottled on 11/04/10- so with a over a year of age on it, it should be spectacular- or bad. We'll see...


It's a pretty looking brew with a cloudy orange color. The smell out of the bottle was pretty intoxicating- lots of funk and cider. When it's in the glass the smell isn't quite as potent but still really nice. There's apple cider, sweet oranges, morning dew, and strawlike funk.

The taste isn't as amazing but still good- I'm getting a lot of grass when I'd really like more of the fruit flavors from the smell. Maybe more bread dough, like an unbaked loaf of bread that you left out all day my accident.

Overall I'm really liking this beer. I'm trying to imagine if any more age will improve it and I have to go with no. I've had this beer before and I remember being blown away by both the smell and the taste and this one really only blows me away with the smell. So the extra bottle will have to be drunk soon... Cheers to whenever that is. And Happy New Year.

Insane weather

The remnants of Tropical Storm Hermaine (What a lame name. I nominate it for David's fantasy team this year) passed through DFW today which created minor havoc. Massive amounts of rain made for really bad driving- I ended up holed out in a coffee shop for a couple hours- especially when people drive without their lights on.

On my way home the radio was buzzing with tornado warnings, watches, sightings and alarms. There was in fact one tornado which touched down pretty near downtown, and was headed near our apartment (but ended up going pretty far west, on it's way to Oklahoma instead).
(not my video)

Some more culinary exploits

First an update: That lasagna with pesto and such? Freakin' amazing. Like the best lasagna I've ever had. I've been rationing the leftovers because whenever I eat one piece I consider eating the rest of it.

But on to the next thing. We got a little more adventurous and made tamales last week. It was an interesting experience. First off, the corn husks had a weird vinegar smell to them, possibly so they don't mold? Then after spending a while researching (mostly watching Good Eats) we figured out (to my surprise) that fine cornmeal and maza (with which you traditionally make tameles) are not the same thing. But we trekked on. (It turns out that 'hot tamales', an actual food, not just a candy that no one eats, are made with cornmeal, so there is some precedent).

Here's the dough, which is blue cornmeal (cool color), water, shortening (usually lard), and spices- we used oregano, and lime zest.


We made the filling with fresh corn, black beans, jack cheese, cilantro, and lime juice.


The assembly line:

Here are the pretty packages cooking:

We don't have a steamer so I put an upside-down pie plate in the bottom of the pot (I think that's an Alton Brown trick but I can't remember) and put them around and on top of that. And it's here that we ran into the slight problem. Twice the water boiled all out and burned...well a lot- the bottom of the pot, the pie pan, the ends of the tamales. Lucky for us, tamales have their own protective shell. So the results were still very tasty, although the pot is now warped. At least it didn't get a hole burned through it.
Purple and delicious: