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climalene's Profile

Website: http://cookinghabit.blogspot.com

Location: Columbia, SC, USA

About: I write about food and sometimes other things for the Free Times, Columbia's alt weekly paper. My mom and I write to each other about cooking at Cooking Habit.

Favorite foods:

Last bite on earth: A hunk of chewy, wheaty, big-holed bread.

The Ten Most Recent Comments By climalene

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

Fabulous list. And I have to agree that Bit O' Honey and popcorn balls were the worst. Also those small, foil-wrapped, sludgy, super-off-brand chocolate balls.

To those asking what good Halloween candy is: Milky Ways, tiny boxes of Nerds, Reese's peanut butter cups, Snickers, individual caramel cubes (if fresh), Three Musketeers, Butterfingers, Hershey's Special Darks, Crunch bars...basically all the big candy brands, heavily weighted toward things containing chocolate. Also Tootsie Pops.

From A Hamburger Today

12-Year Old McDonald's Hamburger, Still Looking Good

My favorite barbecue joint near here gives out these little white buns in baggies with every order. I have never eaten one; they accumulate in cupboards, and they do not rot. Instead they ossify. My boyfriend and I call them Foul Bun. I have a few that are several years old.

From Serious Eats

Working on Economic Bailout, Capitol Hill Disagrees on Take-Out

James Madison always liked to dip his pizza in a cooling saucer of bicameral spicy Thai dipping sauce, if I remember correctly.

Seriously, I love some Thai food, but I've gotta go with pizza on this one. Populist appeal + more grease = more fuel for late-night legislatin'.

From Serious Eats

There's Nothing Fab About Prefab, Premade Drink Mixes

I only drink mixed drinks at home, never at bars, because all those mixes are pretty horrendous. Bloody Marys that taste of corn syrup and aluminum...mojitos that taste like soda pop...$15 if you want a margarita made with decent tequila...why bother when vastly superior versions are easily achieved at home? Bars were made for beer. My kitchen was made for mixed drinks.

But to answer your actual question, I think many drinkers start out with things like Boone's Farm and sour mix and chocolate martinis because alcohol is an acquired taste. I know my 19-year-old palate wasn't prepared to appreciate a martini, but my 29-year-old palate most certainly is. As you begin to like the way actual alcohols taste, you begin to want to actually taste them.

So my theory is that the people buying these mixes don't actually really like alcohol, since these sugary, chemical-flavored mixers are meant to cover rather than enhance the taste of alcohol. These people want the effects of alcohol without the flavor.

Also, yeah, Mia Rose is right: Williams Sonoma is like the Sharper Image of cooking.

From Recipes

Grilling: Thai Beef Rolls with Sweet Chili Sauce

We made this last night. I believe my boyfriend used more mint and added a little Thai basil to the filling. The chili sauce was good...very much like a fresh homemade version of that Maggi sweet chili sauce I love so much. Thanks for the recipe!

From Serious Eats

Restaurant Shirts Are the New Concert Tee

...with his Birkenstocks. (Excuse the drama; accidentally hit "Enter".)

From Serious Eats

Restaurant Shirts Are the New Concert Tee

Another way in which restaurant tees are the new band shirts: they look really cool on the lanky 20-something kid working the merch table or dessert station, and they look considerably less cool tucked into khaki shorts on a 40-something guy with Ray Bans and a wine gut. (Not, of course, that I am implying anything about the good Mr. Brooks, whom I have never had the pleasure of meeting). I'm just saying...House of Blues, Les Halles...you know there's got to be a dude out there with both these shirts. He is extremely well-groomed and wears socks with his .

From Serious Eats

Blogwatch: Jason Perlow's Carolinas 'Cue Binge

Don't feel bad about missing Little Pigs; it's nothing special. The pig isn't smoked, and the sides are okay but not transcendent. I go there from time to time, but I wouldn't make a pilgrimage out of it. I haven't tried Palmetto Pig but now plan to do so.

Anyway, great post and great pictures. But just backing up the Cod here: as a Columbia, SC resident I can testify that racist secessionists generally pose a threat only to one's hope for humankind, not to one's person, especially if one is white. Maurice's is to be avoided on principle, not out of fakey oh-noes-I-hear-banjo-music fear.

Also, there are no potatoes in the kind of hash that's served with Southern barbecue. It's heavy on the "stuff" you mention -- liver, brains, etc.

Thanks for the post!

From Recipes

Classic Cookbooks: Elizabeth David's Ratatouille

Interesting. I enjoyed the Elizabeth David biography Writing at the Kitchen Table way more than I enjoy actually reading Elizabeth David. I've been trying to get through English Bread and Yeast Cookery for about three consecutive vacations now, and it's not for lack of sufficient nerdiness about dough. But all this makes me want to try one more time.

From Serious Eats

For Vitamin D, Drink Schlitz Beer!

Ah, Schlitz. I actually really adore Schlitz -- it's by far the best of the budget Wisconsin beers, with odd sour cream notes and a clean, bright finish. But so far it hasn't managed to replace sunlight in my own personal War Against Rickets. Maybe I need to drink even more of it.

Responses to Comments by climalene

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

I love Smarties! Dum-Dums?! They have some great flavors that can't be found wit other stick candies. Laffy Taffy is fun as well.

...and Tootsie Rolls?! Only a commie would put Tootsie Rolls on this list. C'mon, man, they are a Halloween standard. The same goes for Tootsie Pops.

I'm also n the side of those who said they enjoy the candy strawberries, and Bottle Caps as well. I also think circus peanuts are darn goo.

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

What about those horrible circus peanuts? GROSS!

Though, I was never allowed to trick or treat. Religiously fanatics as parents and all. All my Halloween experience is post moving out.

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

Wow, this article is SO wrong on Dum-Dums, Laffy Taffy, Necco Wafers (which I know I'm in the minority on), and those hard candy strawberries with the gel stuff inside. Love 'em all.

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

I grew up in an upper middle class retiree neighborhood (my parents hadn't a clue when they bought the house) so there were about 5 kids max in my neighborhood. hurray for whole candybars!!!
They'd usually always give us multiples too.
Too bad my dad always intercepted the snickers and reese's :P

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

Dang, I like quite a few things on this list! Love candy corn, Dum Dums, Smarties, and Laffy Taffy (ITA with many others - banana Laffy Taffy rules, though I love grape and green apple too). Also, I got fun-sized bars 99% of the time and had no problem with it; I thought that was part of the fun of Halloween was getting tons of little bars like that. I also loved most any kind of chocolate bars (particularly 3 Muskateers, Kit Kat, and Snickers), Nerds, Twizzlers, Bottle Caps, and Blo-Pops. I hated Mary Janes, butterscotch candies, Rolos, Milk Duds, and Sugar Babies/Sugar Daddies. The weirdest thing I ever got was a snack-size bag of baked veggie chips - yeah, 10 year-olds just love that stuff!

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

ok smile that is just NASTY! (the mustard - i liked bottle caps)

Why all the hater's on bit o honey yes my sis broke off her tooth in one but yummmmmm so good. and fun size is awesome take 'um off the list :)


luv2cook">http://luv2cooktoomuch.blogspot.com/">luv2cook

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

Okay, I have to take serious issue with your toothbrush criticism. My father is a dentist, and for years he would dress up like the tooth fairy (quite a sight, as we both are larger, bearded men) and hand out cartoon-themed toothbrushes. I was always embarrassed, until I realized my friends and neighbors always came up to me in school the next day to comment on how much they liked them! Believe me, I'd be the first to criticize, but in our town we were always a popular stop, and we always ran out.

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

I knew a girl who dipped Circus Peanuts in MUSTARD.

My older brother always said Bottle Caps were the best and always tried to trade for them... I thought they tasted like crap.

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

I agree--fun size sucks! There is nothing fun about the stomachache you get after eating 18 of those babies. This list also brought back unpleasant memories of a neighbor who gave out little bags of five pennies. Like...what!? Give us the bars, baby!

From Serious Eats

Top Ten Worst Halloween 'Candies'

For all of us who watched Charlie Brown year in and year out, a "rock" must be on the list too.