Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The trick is to put your finger through the loop and rest the jug on the crook of your elbow as you drink.

I have always maintained that the threat of physical violence by adorable animals is the only way to really get your product out there.

In my experience of New Orleans, the greater the number of tourists, the worse the food will be, with some relief at the top end of the scale. And a big part of the problem is that the French Quarter, where the tourists congregate, is a bit of an "island." My recommendation is ask the locals but take their recommendations with a grain of salt, don't be afraid of a little grime and authenticity, and don't be afraid to walk out if you don't like what you see. Tourist pressure will always change the restaurant industry, it's just a matter of numbers. Also, by entering the city you become the personal enemy of 90% of the waiters and waitresses in New Orleans.

Interestingly, I get these from my Asian grocer as opo. They're generally shorter and fatter than the ones you've pictured, but according to the almighty google, they're the same gourd.

This coffee debate is evidence of two human impulses that I think are pretty universal: the need to dictate the tastes of others and the idea that spending a few dollars somewhere makes a multinational conglomerate your exclusive servant. First, why would you ever think that you could tell someone else what they like? Maybe they really enjoy that laundry list of requirements. They'll go to a coffeeshop where they can get just that, and that coffeeshop will serve them. The idea that "plain coffee, black, and only that with no questions or I will spend the next forty minutes discoursing on the collapse of civilization," is any less stringent a requirement than a half-caf soy whip nonfat mocha is a failure of self-critical assessment. Second, yes, you will have to wait in line at coffeeshops, and the other customers will take longer than you think they should. This is in the nature of things. Accept it, go to a different, faster coffeeshop, or make your own. The debate is worse than pointless, since it's division over irreconcilable trivialities without any objective truth.

Plants are, in a sense, feminine, since they contain compounds called phytoestrogens that mimic female hormones to varying degrees in the human body. I would imagine that testicles are fairly high in testosterone; does one feel aggressive after eating Rocky Mountain oysters?

If you put aside all of the ideas about class and income, there's still a simple truth: the way these children are being taught to eat will shorten their lifespans and reduce their quality of life. However unpalatable you may find the messenger and the message, it's true. A fried diet free of vegetables will result in unhealthy people. You don't have eat organically farmed heirloom varieties of greens, you just have to include greens in your diet: they're available fresh and frozen at reasonable prices year round. By defending their right to determine their own culinary destiny with fast food, prepackaged convenience, and cheap snack foods, all you're defending is their right to be ignorant and sick, allowing pride to keep them so. The snack food industry and fast food giants regularly fund puppets who talk about the right of Americans to make choices about food, which is all well and good, but it masks a campaign that wants them to buy highly profitable products of questionable nutritional value. But those people will make choices that hurt not only them but their children and the society at large. Food ignorance is as much a part of the poverty trap as anything else. It's not necessary to eat arugula and organic bean sprouts every day to eat better than these people are eating now. The school, the home, and their local culture have got to change or they will continue to be hurt by it. I'm not advocating an end to processed foods, fast foods or snack food, but for God's sake, these things cannot be allowed to become your entire diet. If it were only the person making that choice, fine. But it affects ALL of us; these people will have fewer opportunities, will drive up health care costs through higher insurance rates, higher taxes and higher incidental costs. Pretending that their choice doesn't affect you will not work, nor will indignation that it does. Sometimes we have to encourage other people to make the right choice, because the wrong one hurts the whole society.

The filling is often too sweet. Even when the filling is just right, it's best to have plenty of warm, flaky crust to set it off. Then again, I think the crust is the best part of a pizza, too...

Subtle, nuanced allegory.

Blot the tails dry before reintroducing them to the oil, and dust them with cornstarch or flour before frying them the second time. It cuts down on the explosive effect.

Grape soda is awesome, in a way that is totally unrelated to grapes. The flavor always seems vaguely powdery to me, probably because I remember it from those equally awesome Lik-m-aid candies. The best, though, is when you can mix the purple drank with the lemon drank and get something that is altogether more than the sum of its parts. It's very near exactly that idee fixe of hipster nostalgia, Purplesaurus Rex.

Never enjoyed the sweet fruitiness. I think there are plenty of folks who prefer their yogurt more clean and acidic, like Kefir.

I don't like the "raw" flavor of tofu, and I'd be hard-pressed to love a dish with uncooked tofu in it. And our palates, be they American or Asian, get used to lots of things that are very hard to love, while certain things are universally delicious. American palates tend to be dulled by plenty: we like lots of fatty, salty and sweet along with little else. We trade subtle flavors for the slickly rich, and strong flavors for sugary sweetness. We'd do well to be told, "You're doing it wrong," more often, just to make us think about the way we cook and eat.