Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

What a weird commercial. Even after having lived in Japan for a year, I'm still stunned by the things they come up with.

The cheese guy is labeled as "chiizuseijin," or, "man from the planet of cheese."

Christ almighty. Imagine opening your fridge door for a midnight snack and discovering two superheroes dressed as pieces of cheese getting it on in there. That's the kind of thing which could scar a person for life!

I can read a little bit of the text. Japanese folks like to use a phonetic alphabet called "Katakana" to write foreign words, and I can puzzle it out. (I can't read real Japanese, written in Kanji.)

Onion Bulb Face Man? The Katekana text says "garlic chip", so I think he's Garlic Bulb Face Man, and he shoots garlic chips from his hands.

Tomato Face Man? It does say "tomato soup". But look closer, I think that's another woman! (She's slim, seems to have hips, and instead of "chi" she makes a girlish noise.)

White Circular Blob Face Woman? "mozzarella cheese"

In the first commercial, the closeup of his fingers reveals that he is shooting "cheddar cheese" and "Parmesan cheese".

When Mozzarella Face Woman appears, and they shoot cheese together, it says "double cheese". You can even hear the narrator saying "daburu chiizu".

@hungrychristel: I think he is making the noise of "chi chi chi". At the end of the commercial, there is a picture of the cup of noodles, and in the background there is a single Katakana character all over; this is "chi". What does it mean? Aha! I studied the commercial some more, and I realized that each of these people has a Katakana character on his/her chest, like the 'S' for Superman. The characters are the first Katakana character of their word. So:

chi -- cheddar cheese head man
ga -- garlic head man
mo -- mozzarella head girl
to -- tomato head girl

So now you know... and knowing is half the battle.

Kanoyama might be the best sushi in the neighborhood.

While Le Miu was very good, it was definitely NOT "by far the best sushi joint in this city".

I like Ushi Wakamaru for their fresh (and exotic) fish.

i was sad to see it go too! im in the process of trying a few places to find my new regular...let me know if any of you have a replacement yet

It appears to have been quietly moved by an ever watchful and benevolent admin. It was originally in the Eating Out section.

@thepictsie, if someone fails to mention the city name, I usually assume they mean NYC. For one thing, this site it just a tad NY-centric. And for another, NYers seem to think that everyone's knows their city well enough that they don't need to elaborate further.

Yay. Smitten Kitchen.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/cold-brewed-iced-coffee/

For those not wanting to invest in the Toddy maker, you can use a regular old French press. I have been making iced coffee this way for years. Just put your mixture of coffee and water into the French press before you go to bed, then when you wake up it is ready to go! The press saves you the time and money of dealing with fussy filters/systems.

@yummy: That's a really cool idea...as long as your freezer doesn't taste like ass. I'll have to try that.

I make my own ice coffee in the same manor. Double brewing(double the coffee grounds, not brewing twice), as some suggest, just doesn't work the same.

I use half and half instead of milk myself, as it seems ot make it even better.

Made this according a recipe on Splendid Table podcast. Produced copious amounts that took a team of 3 to handle the straining of the grounds. Lovely results but a big, huge mess. Glad to see more a more manageable recipe.