Extremely Difficult Trivia About "Prince of Darkness" (1987)

      I know this is a bit early, being only mid August, but I would like to take a break from writing about food and drink.  So I'm going to do another movie trivia quiz this week.  Also, I'm breaking from my tradition of only featuring very popular and successful movies for a quiz.  "Prince of Darkness" was only moderately successful at the box office, and only received middling reviews.  Clearly I think it's very good to excellent, though, so that's why I picked it.  It's the second film in John Carpenter's so called "Apocalypse Trilogy," with 1982's "The Thing" and 1994's "In the Mouth of Madness" being the others.  Usual format otherwise--questions followed by the answers, many SPOILERS ahead.

Questions.

1)    What is the name of the super secret sect that guards the evil cannister of green liquid?

2)    And what is the name of this organization's head guardian priest?

3)    What is the name of the church where most of the movie is set?

4)    What is the full name of the physics professor character that Victor Wong portrays?

5)    What school does this professor teach at?

6)    Brian briefly watches a television segment about a science topic.  What is it?

7)    How long did the head guardian priest live at the church?

8)    When was the church built?

9)    According to the priest played by Donald Pleasence, the huge book about the Cannister is written in what language, or languages?

10)   According to the head guardian priest, how long ago did the evil Sleeper awaken?

11)   What two reasons or life goals does Catherine give for getting a doctorate in physics?

12)   And what reason does Walter give for getting a doctorate in physics?

13)   What is Catherine's last name?  (She only says it once, and it's not listed in the credits.)

14)   What school did Brian transfer from?

15)   What subtype of physics is Brian a student of, and what subtype is Catherine in?

16)   One of the characters knew someone who attended the church back in the 1950's.  Name them.

17)   Walter says he had to break a date with a beautiful trial attorney.  Where was this person from?

18)   What is Calder's field of science, and what is Lomax's?

19)   What is Lisa's field of study, and specialty?

20)   Walter briefly watches a cartoon show on television.  Which one?

21)   Walter mentions that at age 12 he broke out in a strange rash due to a psychosomatic cause.  What caused this rash?

22)   Who is the first character seen being killed?  (Not counting the guardian priest, who died of natural causes, the first murder victim.)

23)   According to the carbon dating of the corrosion on the lid of the Cannister, how old is it?

24)   What is Susan's science specialty?

25)   Lisa is working in a room that had a previous function, as it's written over the door.  What was the room previously used for?

26)   One character is killed, and then possessed, and gives the remaining characters a dire verbal message.  Who is this character?

27)   And what is their message?

28)   What is Possessed Lisa typing as Calder enters the room?

29)   By what method are the future scientists sending back messages in time to the characters within the church while they're dreaming, according to the characters' best guess?

30)   What song does Possessed Calder sing as he ascends the stairs?

31)   Which Possessed character tries, unsuccessfully, to pull the Devil through the full-length mirror before Kelly awakens?

32)   What animals do we see throughout the movie?

33)   What is the symbol on Kelly's arm, according to Catherine?

34)   The priest tries to stop Possessed Kelly at the mirror twice.  Describe the results.

35)   The message seen by every character in their dreams was sent from people in the future.  From what year?

36)   What is the name of the priest played by Donald Pleasence?

37)   Who wrote this movie?

38)   How many characters enter and work in the church for the weekend, and how many survive to the end?  (At least in our dimension.)

39)   How many of these characters are possessed by Evil in the movie?

40)   Who is the only character who gets possessed by Evil, but not from ingesting some of the green liquid?

41)   Who is the only character definitely killed, but who then doesn't return in a possessed state?

42)   Who is the only character seen being killed twice?  (As in, once as a human, and once in possessed form, before the Devil's son in Kelly's body is pushed into the other dimension by Catherine.)

43)   Was Walter gay?  (Conjectural)

44)   The movie appears to be set in the real year of release, or 1987 or so.  But the message from the future people in characters' dream is from the 1990's, perhaps the late 90's (see Question #35).  Why the several year, or over a decade gap?  Why isn't the Devil leaving the church immediately after being pulled into our dimension?  (Conjectural)

45)   What is the complete history of the evil Cannister?  (As far as the characters can determine.)

46)   Was Kelly the only person who could be the Host for the Devil's son?  (Conjectural)

47)   Is it possible for Brian to pull Catherine back into his dimension using a mirror, as he's attempting to do at the film's very end?  (Conjectural)

Answers:

1)    The Brotherhood of Sleep.

2)    Father Carlton.

3)    Saint Godard's Church.

4)    Howard Birack.  

5)    The Doppler Institute of Physics, with the University of the Sciences. in Los Angeles, California.  In reality there is a real Doppler Institute, but it's in Prague, in the Czech Republic, and not Los Angeles.  Also, there is a real University of the Sciences, but that's a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based college of pharmacy.

6)   It's about a newly discovered supernova, which has expelled particles from the Precambrian Era that are just now reaching Earth.

7)    Over 30 years.  (That poor guy must have gotten SO sick of that message dream!)

8)    Back in the 1500's with the approval of the Spanish government.  (Presumably the building had been renovated some over the centuries!) (Also, in reality the Spanish didn't colonize the area that became Los Angeles until the mid to late 1700's.  Although it is a super secret group, maybe it was the only building in the area.)

9)    It's written in several, including Latin, Coptic, Greek, and some just in numbers.

10)   About a month ago.

11)   Particle beam weapons, and research grants.

12)   Becoming a millionaire when he's 40.

13)   Danforth.

14)   Kneale.  This is not a real school, it's a fake one named for an author Carpenter liked, Nigel Kneale.  See the answer for Question #37 for more info.

15)   Brian's specialty is theoretical physics, and Catherine's is applied physics.

16)   The parents of Susan's husband attended the church in the past.

17)   Century City.

18)   Calder's field is microbiology, and Lomax's is biochemistry.

19)   She's getting her doctorate in theology, specializing in the analysis of ancient manuscripts.

20)   A "Tom and Jerry" episode which has Tom descending into Hell.  (Foreshadowing?  I think so!)

21)   According to his doctor, it was from homosexual panic.

22)   Etchinson.

23)   7,000,000 years ago!  A couple of problems with this--they said they dated the corrosion on the lid, which would not have carbon, and so couldn't be dated that way.  Also, the limits of carbon dating are only about 60,000 years ago.  There are other radiometric dating methods that can date things millions of years old or even much older, though.  Apparently Carpenter just made a mistake.

24)   She's a radiologist.  And she wears glasses, as every character who describes her mentions.

25)   It was a nursery.

26)   Frank Wyndham.

27)   "Pray for death."

28)   She's been typing "I Live!" over and over for quite some time.  Then, right before she attacks Calder, she adds, "You will not be saved by the Holy Ghost.  You will not be saved by the God Plutonium.  In fact, you will not be saved!"

29)   They theorize that maybe the future scientists are using tachyons, which are theoretical particles that can go faster than the speed of light.

30)   "Amazing Grace."

31)   Calder.

32)   Ants, maggots, earthworms, beetles, and a dead, crucified pigeon.

33)   She says it's the symbol for an astrologer's staff from the Middle Ages.  Checking into it, I read that it's also the symbol for Kronos (Saturn), and is similar to a Greek symbol associated with chaos.  It was also used on the cover of the 1972 self-titled Blue Oyster Cult album.

34)   First he chops off her extended left arm with an axe, and it falls into the mirror dimension.  She quickly regrows it.  Then he cuts off her head with the axe.  She picks it up, puts it back atop her head, and seems to suffer no ill effects.  She even seems darkly amused by his attempts to thwart her.

35)   It keeps getting cut off as the message reveals the year it was sent, but we definitely hear "199--".  Then, in Brian's final dream, we hear it as "1999."  Although this is away from the church, after the Devil is thwarted, so this may be just a regular dream of Brian's, and not an official message from the scientists.  So it's clearly 1990 something, perhaps 1999.

36)   Oddly, it's never spoken, or seen anywhere in writing.  And in the credits he's just listed as "Priest."

37)   This is a trick question, since in the credits it's Martin Quatermass, but that's a joke.  John Carpenter wrote it, and used the name of a character he liked, Bernard Quatermass, who was part of several BBC television series, and created by Nigel Kneale.

38)   14 go into the church--Professor Birack, the Priest, Brian, Susan, Calder, Catherine, Lisa, Leahy, Walter, Etchinson, Kelly, Wyndham, Mullins, and Lomax.  4 survive, at least in our dimension--Birack, the Priest, Brian and Walter.  Kelly's body is presumably in the other dimension, possessed by the son of the Devil, and with him.  It's unknown whether or not Catherine is still alive in the other dimension.  Brian's dream and his final attempt at the mirror seem to postulate that he can pull her back into our world, but if he can, is she still Catherine, or would it be her body possessed by the Devil or his son?

39)   8 are seen being possessed--Susan, Calder, Lisa, Leahy, Kelly, Wyndham, Mullins, and Lomax.  As I mentioned in the previous question's answer, Catherine may be possessed, but in the other dimension, and we can't be sure.

40)   Frank Wyndham.  He's seen being killed by a homeless lady wielding some scissors, and then is seen possessed later without ever getting any green liquid inside his mouth.  Although he doesn't last very long in this state, dissolving into a pile of bugs after his short declaration.

41)   Etchinson--he's impaled on a broken tricycle by Alice Cooper's homeless guy, and killed, and we never see him again.  He's killed outside, so no possessed characters are around to spit green liquid into him, so maybe that's why.  (Although Wyndham was possessed--I don't know the reason why.  Maybe the actor only had like 2 days available to work on the movie.)  

42)   Mullins.  Possessed Susan breaks his neck, killing him, but later some of the green liquid drips into his mouth and possesses him.  Then Birack stabs him through the eye with a pencil, and this seems to "kill" his possessed state body, as he doesn't move anymore.

43)   Maybe.  There are several references to ponder.  When he mentions having to break the date with the lawyer, Brian asks what "his" name was, which seems to piss Walter off, and he doesn't answer the question.  He then tells the story about getting the weird rash allegedly caused by homosexual panic.  Both of these might have been jokes, but still.  Finally, he's trapped in a closet by the Possessed Lisa and Susan while Kelly "gestates" into the Son of the Devil, before eventually escaping, so maybe that was "subtle" symbolism.  Alternately, he hits on Lisa in an obnoxious way, which could be overcompensation, to pretend to be hetero in front of others, or it could be genuine.  Ultimately I think it was some dated attempts at humor.

44)   This doesn't make much sense to me--why would the Devil wait?  So my answer to this is the following:  In an alternate timeline, the events of the movie play out as shown, BUT Catherine and the Priest don't stop Possessed Kelly from pulling the Devil into our dimension.  Therefore, the Devil does get through.  He and his minions then kill the remaining non-possessed survivors.  He directs the homeless to unblock the front door.  Then, as the Devil emerges, someone outside of the church sees him, and presumably videotapes or films him.  The Devil rampages the Earth, killing tons of people, overthrowing human civilization, etc.  But not completely.  At least a handful of scientists remain.  Over the next 3-12 years they learn how to send messages, including video footage of the Devil coming out of the church, back through time into people's dreams within the church, perhaps using tachyons.  In at least one timeline, this helps the students and Catherine prevent the Devil' from traveling into our dimension.  I know, this is convoluted.  I'd welcome alternate explanations.

45)   Sometime before 7,000,000 years ago the Devil built the Cannister, to house his son in liquid form, as a bizarre insurance policy to get back to Earth if he was banished to another dimension.  The Devil buried the Cannister somewhere in the Middle East, and then was indeed banished.  Then, around 2,000 years ago an alien of a human-like race, Jesus, warned humans about the Devil, and his son.  (And maybe about the Cannister specifically?  It's unclear.)  Most of the people of this time thought Jesus was crazy, and was getting too powerful, so they had him killed.  But, his disciples kept the secret, and somehow recovered the Cannister and kept it hidden.  They started The Brotherhood of Sleep, which continued to do this, and decided to transport the Cannister to what would become Los Angeles as long as 400-500 years ago.  They were waiting for science to progress sufficiently until it could prove what the Cannister was and contained scientifically.  Then about a month before the Devil's son woke up and started to gain in power.  So the Priest investigated, and called in the scientists.

46)   Part of me wants this to be true, because then we're presented with the absurd image of the Devil and his son, the latter still in liquified form, flailing about helplessly.  I mean, I guess they could possess a lot of people, but the whole point was to bring the Devil over to our world.  If Kelly had to miss the weekend because she'd make vacation plans, or had a sick relative, and thus the world was saved from Evil, that would be hilarious.  But, that said, I think the more likely answer is "no," and Evil just chose her from the 14 people in the church that weekend.  Presumably, if Kelly was absent, it would have picked someone else, and they would have gotten the bulk of the green liquid inserted inside them, and thus would have become the host for the Devil's son.  Because no one was able to resist become regularly possessed when infected with a mouthful of green liquid, no matter how "good" or "bad" they were, so it stands to reason that any human would become the host for the Devil's son if they had most of the liquid put inside of them.

47)  I'm going to guess that no, he couldn't.  Because pulling someone through a mirror from another dimension appears to be something only very powerful supernatural creatures can do.  We see that Possessed Calder can't do it, for example.  So I think only the Devil's son, possessing a human body, could manage this, and maybe his opposite, i.e. the Son of God.  Since Brian isn't Jesus, or the Devil's son, or even a saint or anything, I don't think he could accomplish this.  I think his final dream was just a regular dream, not a message from the future scientists, since he's not in the church, and the Devil and his son are safely trapped in the other dimension.  Therefore, there's no important reason for the scientists to send another message.  I mean, I guess you could say God might intervene and let Brian perform a miracle to rescue Catherine, but this seems far-fetched.  Or it's the Devil tricking Brian into doing this, and managing it, so the Devil could sneak into our world by possessing Catherine's body, This also seems unrealistic.  But, in conclusion, it does make for an interesting final scene for the movie, though.  Again, I'm open to other explanations or theories.

   

   

   

 

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A German Cheese, Plus a Brief Blog Announcement

      It's back to my favorite food ever once again--lovely, wonderful cheese.  In this case, an Edelblu kind from the Bergader brand.  Will this be the first cheese I've ever disliked?  Keep reading to find out!

     Bergader is a moderately old company, having started in 1902.  Basil Weixler, German man living in the Bavarian town of Waging am See, started a small cheese dairy.  In the 1920's he developed his own cheese, one that was similar to the French Roquefort.  The major difference was that Weixler's was made using cow's milk, not sheep's milk.  Weixler didn't try to hide the similarity, as he named his cheese "Bavarian Mountain Roquefort."  Which caused some legal problems for him.  The folks who owned the rights to Roquefort brought him to court, and beat Weixler.  Therefore, he had to rename his cheese "Bergader Edelpilz" instead.  However, the attention sparked by the media's coverage of the court proceedings actually helped, and Weixler's cheeses gained in popularity.  Weixler died in 1945, but Bergader has remained in his family, with his descendants continuing to own and control the company up until the present day.  Bergader's line of products isn't that extensive.  Most are soft, blue cheese variants, including Edelblu (aka Edlepilz), several kinds of Bavarian blus, and other types of soft cheese.  And a couple of semi-hard types as well.  If you're curious about the name, "Bergader" translates directly into "mountain vein."  "Berg" is German for "mountain," and "ader" means "vein."  Usually this word refers to a vein of metallic ore, as in what fuels a mining operation.  But, Weixler picked the name because the blue mold streaks going through his cheeses reminded him of the veins of metal that can pass through a mountain or rock formation.

Bergader Edelblu cheese, gourmet variant:  This cheese was white, with bluish-black streaks of mold visible.  It had a strong, almost pungent odor.  The texture was fairly soft, although not spreadable.  The flavor was salty and sourish.  I had some plain, and it was very good.  Not my favorite blue cheese, but still very tasty.  On a potato chip was even better--the texture and taste of the chip improved the experience.  So, to answer the kind of ridiculous, click-bait-y question I posed in the opening paragraph, no, this wasn't the first cheese I disliked.  It was very respectable and tasty, and I would recommend it enthusiastically, unless you're a person who doesn't enjoy strong, blue-type cheeses.  (On a spelling note, I've been using the spellings used by Bergader throughout this post--most notably, they spell "blue" as "blu."  Which seems to be something that Bergader does on their own, as the internet claims the German word for "blue" is "blau," not "blu."  But just so you know.)

     Spooky Month, known more boringly as October, is approaching fast, and I've been working on my posts for that time.  As I always do lately, I'll include several horror movie trivia quizzes.  I am making a concerted effort to cover slightly more recent movies this time.  So two of them will be 21st century offerings.  And the one that is from the (late) 20th century is VERY famous and popular, so if you're not familiar with it, that's your mistake. 

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Puerto Rican/Dominican/Filipino/American/Irish Alcoholic Drink

      In about four decades of drinking booze, sometimes illegally, more times legally, I've had my decent share of different alcoholic drinks.  Probably all of the major types of alcohol, and probably most of the major mixed drinks.  But, I realized recently that at least one was still missing--the pina colada.  I vaguely recall having something pina colada-flavored--a candy perhaps--but I don't remember having the adult alcoholic drink type.  If I ever did, it was very long ago, and it didn't make an impression on me one way or the other.  So, I set about rectifying this.  And since some of the ingredients were foreign, I could then write about them on this blog.  For the record, my pina colada was made using Coco Lopez cream of coconut (from the Dominican Republic), Dole pineapple juice (an Irish-owned company, using pineapples grown in the Philippines), Caribaya coconut rum (from that tropical hotbed, Maine), and the drink itself was almost certainly developed in Puerto Rico.  (I realize that Puerto Rico is technically American territory, and its citizens are American citizens, but it's also a Caribbean Island, and not a state, so I'll mention it separately.)

     Coco Lopez was created by a Puerto Rican man named Ramon Lopez Irizarry, who lived from 1897-1982.  A World War I veteran, he later became a professor of agricultural sciences at the University of Puerto Rico.  In his spare time he tried to solve the issue of extracting the cream from coconut pulp.  Working in his small laboratory, he was eventually successful in 1949, using a secret blend of the cream with cane sugar.  Sensing a viable commercial idea, he left teaching to sell cream of coconut, and later other coconut-related products, with his company named Coco Lopez.  The creation of the pina colada drink in 1954 (or at least the latest, most popular form of that drink) helped the business enormously, since Coco Lopez cream of coconut was one of the libation's core ingredients.  Lopez joined with Industrias La Formosa Puerto Rico in the 1960's to expand his production.  And in 1966 he sold the brand to his partner company's owners, the Parkhursts.  Later the Parkhursts sold the brand to the American Borden family, and my can was put together in Miramar, Florida, from coconuts grown in the Dominican Republic.  Coco Lopez has very few products.  Aside from the cream of coconut, they sell coconut milk, pina colada mix, and coconut water.  Which makes sense, since "coco" means "coconut" in Spanish.

     Like a lot of drinks (and foods, really), the exact inventor of the pina colada is disputed.  The oldest, and probably most apocryphal version is that the pirate Roberto Cofresi created it for his crew, sometime before his death in 1825.  In the 1920's there were pina colada-like beverages--one type was made with sugar, lime, pineapple juice, rum, and ice, and a 1950's Cuban variant consisted of rum, pineapple juice, and coconut milk.  However, the official recipe for the drink uses cream of coconut, pineapple juice, and rum, sometimes garnished with a pineapple wedge and/or other fruit chunks like cherries.  A Spanish guy named Ricardo Garcia claimed he developed it in 1953 while working at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, which was located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  But, most folks attribute the drink to another employee at that same Caribe Hilton, a bartender named Ramon "Monchito" Marrero, who invented the pina colada in 1954.  The initial pina colada was more like a milkshake, and kid-friendly, but Marrero quickly added rum to it for adult customers.  This is by far the most accepted, "official" invention story--the governor of Puerto Rico endorsed this version while honoring the drink's (alleged) 50th anniversary in 2004.  Some folks maintain that Don Ramon Portas Mingot invented the drink while working in the Barrachina restaurant (in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico), also in 1954.  Whoever actually invented it, Puerto Rico definitely seems to be the place of origin, and in 1978 it became the island's official drink.  Over the years many folks have added a few tweaks to the pina colada.  Some add heavy cream, and others add Angostura bitters to balance it out.  Still other people mix the drink in layers with a strawberry daiquiri (called a "lava flow" or a "Miami Vice"), or layer it with Scotch (called, not very creatively, a "Scotsman Colada.").  And some drinkers add tepeche, which is an alcohol derived from the fermentation of pineapple rinds and peel.  Additionally, I missed out on an opportunity--July 10th is National Pina Colada Day in the U.S.

Pina colada, made with Dole pineapple juice, Coco Lopez cream of coconut, Caribaya coconut rum, and ice.  I followed the recipe on the Coco Lopez can as well as I could--Combine 4 ounces (about 118.3 mL) Coco Lopez cream of coconut with 4 ounces (118.3 mL) of pineapple juice, 3 ounces of rum (about 88.7 mL), and 2 cups of ice.  Then you're supposed to mix it well in a blender, and garnish it with pineapple and cherries.  I didn't have a blender on hand, and I didn't bother buying the pineapple chunks or cherries.  So instead I just mixed it up as well as I could in the glass with a spoon.  It looked milky and frothy.  I could pick out the extreme sweetness of the cream of coconut, and the tart/sweet taste of the pineapple juice.  The rum was pretty hidden, but since it was coconut flavored, it probably didn't stand out from the cream of coconut.  Overall I really enjoyed it.  I've wasted my life.  Just kidding!  That's a bit strong, but I did miss out on a tasty drink.  Unless you really hate pineapple juice or something, I think people should give this one a try--definite recommend.  I will say that the cream of coconut is ridiculously high in calories--130 for 2 tablespoons (39 grams), so it's probably not a good idea to drink a lot of these, unless you're super thin or burn calories like a champ.  It was also messy to make, to throw out a very minor complaint.

     Finally, this post has a personal record for me--5 areas of origin, as seen in the absurdly long title.  (Or 4 if you don't want to distinguish Puerto Rico from the U.S.)  I hope to break this record at some point.

 

 

 

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Couple of Portable Protein Balls

      This was yet another discovery from my Shop-Rite's nutrition/protein bar section.  This brand was at least a little different in that it was protein balls rather than the usual protein bars.  Anyway, I tried the cinnamon bun protein balls from Day Out, and their peanut butter cup ones.

     Day Out is a fairly recent brand and company, having started only in 2018.  Both its founder, and its brand name have changed from their initial versions.  Becky Pleat became Becky Dheri after getting married, and Protein Power Balls became Day Out.  The label on the ones I purchased were called "portable protein balls."  Which kind of amuses me.  Aren't all protein bars/balls and such snacks portable?  Are there any that are like 400 pounds (about 181.5 kilos), that you need a vehicle and/or a few strong friends to help carry around?  I'd like to think so, for absurdity's sake.  But back to Becky Dheri.  She's a pharmacist by trade, and got tired of the snacks that she would pick up for lunch and breaks at the local stories every day, worrying that they were unhealthy.  So she started developing some of her own, with "ingredients you could pronounce, no gums, emulsifiers, questionable oils, and artificial preservatives."    Her protein balls are plant-based, fiber-rich, protein-packed, and lack gluten, soy, dairy, GMOs, and artificial preservatives.  Her products have become decently popular.  They were featured on NBC's "Today Show" in a segment called, "Best Healthy Snacks," and were also in a Men's Health Magazine article titled, "17 Best Healthy Snacks on Amazon."  Day Out's reported marketing scheme is to focus on attracting Millennial females of ages 28-45, who are doing shopping for their families.  But, they got at least one sale to a Generation X male over 50, who was just shopping for products to talk about on his blog.  Alternate flavors of Day Out protein balls include brownie batter, cookie dough, and occasional seasonal ones like peanut butter crunch. blueberry muffin, peanut butter & jelly, peppermint bark, apple cider donut, and pecan pie.  Also, Day Out is based in Montville, NJ, so I'm representing for my home state once more.

Day Out portable protein balls, peanut butter cup flavor:  There were three balls in the bag, and they were roughly oval, being about 1.25 inches by 1 inch (or about 3 by 2 cm.) with a dark brown color.  Not much of an odor.  The texture was chewy, and a little grainy.  The taste was very peanut buttery, not shockingly, and pretty good.  Not great, but better than average

Day Out portable protein balls, cinnamon bun flavor:  These also came three balls to the pack, and were about the same size as the previous.  Although the shape was slightly different, as they were a bit rounder, with a nose-like protuberance on one end.  The color was brown, with some streaks of white.  Again, not much of a smell.  The texture was dense and chewy.  And these were...very cinnamon-y, to the snack's credit.  Nicely sweet.  I enjoyed these more than the peanut butter cup ones, surprisingly, given my love of peanut butter in general.  These were just shy of exceptional.  

     Overall I'd recommend both of these--the peanut butter cup ones slightly, and the cinnamon bun kind more enthusiastically.  I'll have to look for different flavors of Day Out as well, and if these are available I'll add to this post.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--English Baked Beans (aka "Beanz")

      I've been vaguely aware that English folks were into baked beans, but I hadn't taken the opportunity to explore them until now.  I saw some Heinz baked beans in tomato sauce in the alternate Shop-Rite, in the same aisle that had some foreign foods.  A quick look at the label confirmed that they were indeed made in England, so I bought myself a can.

      I've heard about the English loving baked beans in general, and Heinz's beans in particular, and this caused me some confusion.  Because Heinz is an American company, based out of western Pennsylvania, starting in the late 1800's.  (If you want a more detailed account of Heinz's origins, check out my post on the Dutch made salad cream dressing on June 8th, 2019.)  So what gives?  Well, all of that is true.  However, Heinz exported some canned baked beans to England starting in 1886.  For quite some time this was a niche treat, as only one store, the upmarket department store Fortnum & Mason, sold them.  Because of this store's "upmarket-ness" and because they were imported, the beans were relatively expensive.  However, in 1905 the first Heinz bean factory was opened in England, in South London.  Another followed in 1919.  Because they were now locally made, prices plummeted.  Thus, Heinz's baked beans became popular to people of all economic classes.  During World War II, they even received an "essential food" designation for wartime rationing purposes.  Therefore, baked beans, and Heinz's baked beans in particular, became an addition to the traditional "full English breakfast."  Similar versions are called the "full Scottish breakfast," or the "full Welsh breakfast,"--you get the idea, part of breakfasts for folks with United Kingdom backgrounds, such as former colonies.  If you're curious (I was), the traditional full English breakfast has some variants, but most commonly it consists of bacon, sausage, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and fried bread or toast, washed down with tea.  Other fairly common additions include the Heinz baked beans (often put on the bread or toast), black (blood) pudding, and coffee.  Aside from being part of traditional breakfasts, Heinz beans are also typical fare in cafes and pubs.  (You usually don't find them on the menus in posh, high-end restaurants, though.)  Otherwise, English baked beans differ from their American counterparts in that the latter usually are made with molasses and/or brown sugar, while the British ones aren't.  Meaning the English beans are less sweet, and more savory.  On the cultural front, Heinz baked beans have been featured in the English television program "Dr. Who."  And a popular advertising campaign in the 1960's and beyond came up with the slogan "Heinz Meanz Beanz," and even up until the present some English Heinz cans (mis)spell "beans" that way.  (Not mine, alas.)

Heinz beans with tomato sauce:  The beans were tannish-white, in a red tomato sauce.  They had a slight beany odor.  And they tasted like beans in tomato sauce.  Or decent.  Oddly, considering what I later learned about the ingredients, the sauce was a tad sweet.  (Despite the lack of molasses and/or brown sugar.)  Plain I liked these, but didn't love them.  With some hot sauce mixed in they were improved, as the spiciness helped.  I also mixed in some Vienna sausages, and this also made them more interesting.  I didn't have them on bread or toast--I didn't find out that this was one of the traditional English ways of eating them until afterwards.  All in all I would recommend these beans slightly.  They weren't spectacular or anything, but they were okay.  Maybe I'll pick up another can and try them on toast.  If I do, I'll re-edit this post and include my thoughts on that combination.

     Perhaps not surprisingly, given their cultural importance, baked beans have been the subject of at least two museum exhibits.  A man named Captain Beany (nee Barry Kirk) ran a museum dedicated to beans, including Heinz's contribution, out of his council flat (aka apartment) in Port Talbot, Wales from 2009-23.   And in 2019 there was a pop up exhibit about Heinz Beanz specifically in Covent Gardens, in London.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Two Thai Tunas

      Regular readers will probably recall that I post a fair bit about canned seafood.  So, it's not too surprising that I happened upon a new-to-me brand a while back, Genova.  When I saw that the fish included inside the can was a product of Thailand I bit, buying two cans--the yellowfin tuna in olive oil seasoned with lemon and herbs, and the albacore tuna in olive oil.

     There wasn't much online about the origins of the Genova brand, so I'll have to provide what little I could find out, which was largely indirect.  Way back in 1914, a man named Gilbert Van Camp bought up the California Tuna Company, and renamed it the Van Camp Sea Food Company.  (Although his father, Frank Van Camp, is listed as the founder.)  Van Camp's most popular product was its tuna, which it called "chicken of the sea," a slogan which eventually became a brand name.  Ralston Purina bought the company in 1963, and then in 1988 an Indonesian company named PT Mantrust briefly acquired it.  Shortly thereafter Prudential Life Insurance owned it for awhile.  Finally, in 1997 a partnership made up of three companies bought Chicken of the Sea.  These three firms were Edmund Gann's Caribbean Marine Services Company, the Singapore-based Tri-Marine International, and the Thailand-based Thai Union International.  Their partnership was called Tri-Union Seafoods, LLC.  In 2000 Gann and Tri-Marine sold their shares to Thai Union International, so it became the sole owner of Tri-Union.  So, I'm not sure if Genova started as an independent company and then was acquired by Chicken of the Sea, and then Tri-Union, or if it was a brand of Van Camp/Chicken of the Sea from the beginning, or if it was a brand of Chicken of the Sea after Tri-Union bought that company.  Moving on, Thai Union is a mammoth seafood company, which owns many brands and subsidiaries aside from Chicken of the Sea and Genova.  It has had its share of controversy, though.  In 2015 Greenpeace accused it of conducting human trafficking.  Other human rights organizations have also made this claim.  (In short, the company is said to have forced its employees to work in unfair, or unsafe, or underpaid conditions while out on the fishing boats, which may be away from land, and thus the law, for weeks or months at a time.)  Predictably, Thai Union has denied these claims, and its official company website documents their fair working conditions, and concern about fair labor practices and such.  I'd like to believe that these employees are being treated well, but, we live in the real world.  It wouldn't shock me to learn that Greenpeace and the other organizations may be right, or at least partially correct.  Sorry, this blog post about a couple of cans of tuna took a turn for the serious, I know, with it being largely about company acquisitions and mergers, and possible labor abuses.  Sometimes that's where the information takes me.  Getting back to the food, Genova does make a couple of premade tuna-based salad bowls, but most of their products consist of canned yellowfin tuna packed in various liquids, and/or different seasonings, or canned albacore tuna packed in various liquids, and/or different seasonings.

Genova yellowfin tuna packed in olive oil, with lemon and herbs:  The tuna itself was a pinkish-tan color, and it had the usual tuna-ish odor.  Plain it tasted like regular canned tuna, or okay but bland.  It was the usual chewy and soft texture.  Next I mixed up some with potatoes, squid, sauce, and ketchup, and this was improved, and pretty good.  But overall it was like most of the canned tuna I've had in my life--no better, no worse.  I don't know if I could have distinguished it from cans of Starkist or Bumblebee, etc.

Genova albacore tuna packed in olive oil:  Had the same pinkish-tan color, and typical tuna smell.  Same soft and chewy texture.  Plain it was fairly bland, and tasted like regular canned tuna.  Mixed up with mayonnaise it was quite good, a solid tuna salad.  Once again, this was like pretty much every other canned tuna I've had.  If you like canned tuna, both of these were fine.  But if they're more expensive than another common brand, I don't think I'd pay the extra price.  (I forgot to save the receipt, so I can't remember if these did cost more than the other brands of canned tuna.)

     To end this on more light-hearted note, I did find out that the human model for the Chicken of the Sea mermaid logo was Grace Lee Whitney.  Who is best known for playing Yeoman Rand in the early episodes of the original Star Trek television program (1966).  She also appeared, apparently as Rand, in many Star Trek movies, and other Star Trek television programs.  Otherwise, she was in movies such as "House of Wax" (1953), "The Naked and the Dead" (1958), and "Some Like it Hot" (1959).

 

  

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Colombian/American Hot Sauce

      I realized recently that I've been neglecting a very common edible in these posts--the condiment.  I've done a few posts about jams, marmalades, spreads, and such, but very few about savory sauces.  A post on June 8th, 2019 is a rare exception.  I'll try to rectify this, starting today with a hot sauce.  Or, more specifically, the sriracha chili pepper with garlic hot sauce from the Badia brand.

     The origins of the Badia brand, and company, date back to the 1960's.  Jose Badia, a Cuban hardware store owner, fled the country for political reasons.  Resettling in the "Little Havana" part of Miami, Florida, he switched his profession, and began selling spices, assisted by his wife, Azucena Badia.  The Badia company officially began in 1967.  By 1970, Jose had his son, Joseph, take over the day-to-day operations of the company.  The Mariel Boatlift in the early 1980's reportedly helped the company, as thousands of Cuban refugees settled in the Miami area, and bought a taste of home in the Badia products.  Also, distribution deals with the grocery behemoths Publix and Winn-Dixie helped the brand even further.  Baden Spice, Inc., sells spices, obviously, both raw and blended.  They also sell herbs, dried chili peppers, specialty salts, sauces and marinades, olive oils, and teas.  The Badia company was family owned for most of its history, with Joseph "Pepe" Badia taking over for his father.  However, in late 2024 it was sold to a group of investors, including the owners of Bia Foods and some banks.  There is one legal case involving Badia, as in November of 2018 the Gel Spice Company was required to pay Badia $564,000 for trademark infringement.

Badia chili with garlic, sriracha, picante hot sauce:  Had a spicy odor, and a reddish-brown color.  Plain it tasted spicy at first, and it built up a little with time.  A decent heat--not ridiculously overpowering, but a reasonable medium amount.  I also tried some on some Vienna sausages, and in some beans and tomato sauce, and for both it aided the experience, but adding some nice spicy "ummpth" to the dish.  Overall then, I would recommend this hot sauce, to folks like me, who don't want crazy, momentous spice hotness, but instead a manageable, spice "bite" to the proceedings.

     While covering this blog post topic, I was once again intrigued by the question of what is the official hottest pepper in the world.  I went into this category in some depth previously, along with some discussion about the methodology used to determine the winners, in my post on June 6th, 2015.  Anyway, the current champ, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is "Pepper X," created by Ed Currie of the U.S.  Currie is no stranger to the hot pepper game, since he also grew the previous champion, the Carolina Reaper.  Pepper X has a Scoville rating of 2,693,000.  So, case closed, right?  Not quite.  Some peppers growers maintain that Currie's creation is probably not the real champion, or at least its hotness is highly exaggerated.  Because reportedly Currie has not allowed his alleged champion pepper to be tested independently.  Critics point out that Pepper X is a mustard yellow pepper, and all of the other extremely hot candidates are reddish, or orange.  So, we're in a conundrum.  I'm certainly no authority about pepper hotness, but I do find it suspicious that Currie doesn't allow independent testing of his Pepper X.  If it's the real champion, what does he have to lose?  But maybe we'll get a thorough test, and a final assessment at some point.  (Part of me enjoys the drama over a food, but it also would be cool to get a final, scientific judgement on which is the hottest pepper, and what its strength is.)

 

Extremely Difficult Trivia About "Tremors" (1990)

      I think "Tremors" is, in its own way, a perfect movie.  Not the best movie ever (although it's excellent), but perfectly done.  It has characters you care about, a frightening setup, very good special effects, and a refreshing amount of humor.  It's definitely one of those rewatchable films--I've probably seen it at least 15 times, and plan to watch it many more times before I die.  Otherwise, this will be the usual format--questions followed by the answers, many SPOILERS ahead.

Questions:

1)    What's written on Valentine and Earl's truck?

2)    What are Valentine and Earl's last names?

3)    What did Valentine make for breakfast most recently, and what did Earl make?

4)    According to Earl, in the opening scenes, how much money do they currently have?

5)    What day of the week is it during the opening scenes?

6)    What five attributes does Val want the new lady grad student to possess?

7)    What two fields of study do Earl and Val think Rhonda is studying, and what is it, really?

8)    What was the name of Valentine's last girlfriend, and what does Earl think it was?

9)    According to its sign, when was the town of Perfection established?

10)   And what is Perfection's listed population?

11)   What university is Rhonda a student of?

12)   What is the name of the nearest town to Perfection?

13)   How far away is this "nearby" town, according to Burt?

14)   What state is Perfection located in?

15)   What are the names of the two state roadway workers that Val and Earl briefly speak to?

16)   Who is the first victim of the giant underground worms (graboids)?

17)   What is the name of the next victim, the sheep rancher?

18)   Burt wears a hat for a pro sports team.  Name it.

19)   What is Miguel's occupation?

20)   How much does Walter pay Val and Earl for the snake monster attached to their truck?  (It's later revealed to be just a body part of the entire creature.)

21)   According to Burt, what makes Perfection geographically isolated?

22)   When Earl and Val leave on the horses to get help, what food does Walter give them?

23)   How many snakelike tongues does a graboid have?

24)   According to Rhonda, what is the soil type of Perfection Valley?

25)   Where do the citizens of Perfection head to near the end?

26)   We briefly see a street sign when Val flees onto his truck outside of Nancy's house.  (After he rescues Mindy.)  What is the name of this street or road?

27)   What is the vanity license plate on Burt and Heather Gummer's vehicle?

28)   What bumper sticker do we also see on the Gummer's vehicle?

29)   What radio frequency does Burt ask Val and Earl to use to communicate?

30)   According to Earl, the Cat vehicle weighs over how many tons?

31)   How many miles is it to reach the safety of the mountains?

32)   Burt lists six survival attributes of the Gummer residence.  Name them.

33)   How many survivors are there at the end of the movie?

34)   How many people do the graboids kill?  (Directly and indirectly.)

35)   How do each of the four graboids die?

36)   Val and Earl play a hand game to decide who does a specific, usually unpleasant task.  Name each time, and who is the winner.

37)   We see Val and Earl doing three hired hand/handyman jobs, and they discuss two others.  Name them.

38)   According to Rhonda, how many years has the college had seismographs in Perfection Valley?

39)   When we first meet the Gummers, Burt is talking about a specific type of ammunition with Walter.  Name it.

40)   When Earl asks Mindy, how many jumps is she up to on her pogo stick?

41)   What is the name of the doctor's wife?  (It's never spoken, but is listed in the credits.)

42)   The Gummers use a wide variety of guns.  What is the so called Elephant Gun that Burt uses?

43)   Earl and Val speculate on what caused the worms to be, and come up with three.  Name them.

44)   True of False?  The bad "f"  curse word is never spoken in the movie.

45)   Where are Melvin's parents, or parent?  (Somewhat conjectural.)

46)   So who are the actual residents of Perfection?  The numbers don't add up.  (Somewhat conjectural.)

Answers:

1)    V and E   Odd Jobs

2)    Valentine McKee, and Earl Basset.  We hear Val mention Earl's surname once, and it's written on the sign outside their trailer.  But it's misspelled as "Bass" in the credits.

3)    Val says he just made bologna and beans, and Earl claims he made eggs, over easy.

4)    $3, as the $50 Nestor will pay them for the garbage removal will give them $47 more than they currently have.

5)    Monday.  Earl thinks.

6)    Long blonde hair, big green eyes, world class breasts, an ass that won't quit, and legs that go all the way up.

7)    Earl says geography, Val says geology, but Rhonda corrects them by saying seismology.

8)    Her name was Tammy Lynn Baxter, although Earl thought it was Bobby Lynn Dexter.

9)    1902.  A later prequel shows their was a town in the same area named "Rejection" in the late 1800's, though.

10)   14.

11)   Mesa State University.  The college's initials are written on some of her seismology equipment, and it's written on the side of her truck.  This is a fictitious university.  Although during the time of filming there was a Mesa State College in Colorado, which since has renamed itself Colorado Mesa University.

12)   Bixby.  Also a fictitious, made up name for the state Perfection is in (see Question #14).  Although there are many real states with a Bixby, such as Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and a creek in California.

13)   38 miles.

14)   Nevada.  Several license plates are seen, and Walter's store is a listed post office with the state included.

15)   Carmine and Howard.

16)   Edgar Deems.

17)   Fred, often referred to as Old Fred.

18)   The NBA's Atlanta Hawks.

19)   He's a cattle rancher.  He mentions this at one point.

20)   $15.  He then charges $3 per photo with the snake monster.

21)   It has cliffs to its north, and mountains to the east and west.  And it's far from any other town.

22)   Swiss cheese.

23)   3.

24)   Pleistocene alluvial.

25)   The mountains to the west.

26)   Talcum Lane.

27)   UZI 4U.

28)   Free Afghanistan.

29)   22.

30)   30.

31)   9 miles.

32)   Food for five years, 1000 gallons of gas, air filtration, water filtration, Geiger counter, and bomb shelter.

33)   9.  Val, Earl, Rhonda, Burt, Heather, Nancy, Mindy, Miguel, and Melvin.

34)   10.  Edgar, Fred, Dr. Jim, the doc's wife (see Question #41), Carmine, Howard, the 2 unidentified additional road workers, Nestor, and Walter.  Edgar is killed indirectly, as he dies from dehydration up on the electric tower, and Howard the road worker appears to be killed by the rockslide that occurs when Carmine is dragged up slope.

35)   The first one dies after burrowing into the concrete culvert at full speed chasing Earl and Val.  The second one is shot dozens (hundreds?) of times by Burt and Heather Gummer.  The third one is blown up by the Gummer's pipe bomb when Earl "fishes" with it.  The fourth one is panicked by the final pipe bomb thrown by Val, and accidently goes off the cliff before splatting on the rocks below.

36)   They first do this to decide whose turn it is to make breakfast at the start of the film.  Earl wins.  The second time is to see who has to climb the tower to check on Edgar.  Val again loses.  The third time is to see who gets Edgar's rifle when they ride away on the horses.  Val "wins" but then Earl wins by getting Heather's superior gun on loan.  Finally, to decide who runs for the Cat, Val again loses, but cheats and elbows Earl away and runs off himself.  Incidentally, I always thought the game they were playing was "odds and evens," but most viewers think it's "rock-paper-scissors."

37)   They're seen putting up the fence for Miguel, hauling away trash for Nestor, and emptying the Plug's (Melvin's family) septic tank.  They discuss laying linoleum for the Gummers, and consider building a pottery kiln for Nancy.

38)   3 years.

39)   Hydra-shok hollow point bullets.  I looked it up, and these are real, and were even released in 1989.  Their full name is Federal Hydra-shok.

40)   640.

41)   The credits list her name as being Megan.

42)   Gun enthusiasts on the internet say it's the Belgian-made William Moore & Co. 8 gauge shotgun, which Burt fires solid slugs from.

43)   Val thinks they might be mutated from radiation, or made by the government.  Earl thinks they're aliens ("no way these are these local boys.").  And Rhonda notes that they predate the fossil record.

44)   False.  Val yells it at the first killed worm's corpse.

45)   Early versions of the script, and a deleted scene, indicate that Melvin's parents are degenerate gamblers, who often leave their son alone when they go to Las Vegas for days at a time.  But the version released to theaters doesn't provide an explanation.

46)  They don't really.  We can be sure that Nancy, Mindy, Walter, Burt, Heather, Nestor, Miguel, Melvin, Earl, and Val are definitely included in the count of 14 on the town sign.  That's 10 people.  But, we also have Edgar, Fred, Dr. Jim, and Megan.  Plus Melvin has to have at least 1, if not 2 parents, which would be 15 or 16.  Rhonda doesn't count, presumably, since she's only there temporarily, for the semester.  So, either Fred and/or Edgar live too far out of the town proper to count, or Dr. Jim and Megan just moved in (they're building their house, after all) and so aren't counted yet.

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Vietnamese/American Fruit Drink

     After I bought this one, and drank it, I had some misgivings.  Had I posted about soursop before?  The picture of the fruit on the label looked vaguely familiar, and one of its alternative names, guanabana, seemed familiar as well.  I went through my blog's history in its entirety, scrolling through all 830 of my previous posts.  I clicked on many, all the ones that mentioned something Mexican or Central American, or anything fruit-related.  Long story short, I couldn't find a previous post on it.  So I'm writing this one.  If any reader lets me know of a post that I somehow missed, well, I'll just have to acknowledge that it was a reprint of sorts.  Finally, the drink that I got was the soursop juice from the IOS Natural company, based out of New Jersey in the U.S.  But the fruit itself was cultivated in Vietnam.

     Here are some of soursop's aliases:  guanabana, guybana, graviola, paw-paw, and sirsak.  Its point of origin was Mexico and other parts around Central America.  However, it was transported to many other places in the world with suitably tropical environments.  In some areas too well, as now it's considered an invasive species, like in portions of India.  The soursop plant grows into a small, evergreen tree, which can top out at a height of about 10 meters (or 33 feet).  The fruit can get quite large, sometimes reaching a length of 35 cm. (about 14 inches), and a weight of up to 4 kilos (8.8 pounds).  It's dark green at first, but it changes to a yellowish-green as it ripens.  Its exterior is quite leathery, with spiky protrusions.  The inner pulp is a white color, with black, inedible seeds.  The taste of the fruit is often said to be a combination of several other fruits.  Many consumers believe its texture is reminiscent of a banana, while its flavor is thought to be akin to a strawberry mixed with an apple, with perhaps a hint of a sour citrusy taste.  Most folks consume it as a drink, or as a candy, or as a flavoring for sorbets or ice cream.

     I already covered the IOS Natural company's background before, in my post on November 30th, 2024, about watermelon juice that was grown in Turkey.  So if you're interested, head on over to that article.  I won't repeat its information here.

IOS Natural 100% soursop juice:  The color of this juice was mostly clear--just a hint of yellow.  It had a slightly sweet odor.  The texture was thickish, with some pulp in it.  The taste was okay.  It was sweet and tangy.  Not a really bold flavor, but alright.  I would recommend this one slightly.  Maybe people who've never had soursop might be intrigued by its newness, as well.

     Soursop is a favorite of the alternative medicine crowd.  It's said by them to be able to lower high blood sugar, lower high blood pressure, and to act as an antibiotic.  But, most dramatically, soursop is posited to be an effective cancer treatment.  Alas, as is pretty much always the case with these alternative medical claims, these haven't been proven scientifically to date.  So don't substitute a fruit for your doctor-proscribed actual medicines just yet.

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Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Cooked Cheese Snack

      When I happened to see this on the shelf in the snack section at my local grocery store, I assumed it was just a cheese-flavored cracker.  But a closer inspection revealed that it wasn't--instead it was a snack composed solely of grated and baked pieces of cheese.  Literally.  The ingredient lists for these snacks are just the cheeses themselves, with nothing else, not even preservatives.  Anyway, I got two types of the Whisps snacks--the asiago & pepper jack kind, and the parmesan one.

     As has become the norm lately, I couldn't find out who created the Whisps brand, and when, from their official company website.  Fortunately though, I was able to learn some details from other online sources, which I think are accurate.  According to these, Whisps was founded by Ilana Fischer, an executive of Schuman Cheese, based out of New Jersey.  Schuman specializes in selling imported cheeses from various places around the world, including South America, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Israel, Greece, Belgium, France, and especially Italy.  Fischer started the Whisps line in 2015.  In either 2018 or 2019 (sources differ), Whisps left Schuman and became independent.  In particular, Whisps was hoping to capitalize on the keto and low carb diet trends, by putting out a snack that qualified for both of these.  John Ghingo, formerly of Applegate Farms, took over as the CEO in 2023.  And in August of 2024 Whisps was acquired by The Farmer Company, led by founder/CEO Adam Farmer.  The Whisps brand is quite small, consisting of only three products.  Aside from the two that I sampled, there is a cheddar cheese variant.  In addition to being appropriate for keto and low carb dieters, Whisps also proudly touts that its wares lack gluten and rBST.  (If you're like me and didn't know what rBST is, it stands for recombinant bovine somatotropin.  It's a synthetic hormone that's given to cows to increase milk production.  It's banned in places like New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the European Union because it can have adverse health effects on the cows.  There's no evidence that its use causes health problems for humans consuming the dairy products, though.)  They're also free of nuts, although they are made in a facility that processes nuts.  The location where the Whisps are made is a bit spread out.  The cheese is made in Wisconsin, and my product labels mention that they were distributed from an address in Burlington, Vermont.  However, the Whisps headquarters are reportedly in New York City.

Whisps parmesan cheese crisps:  These were disc-shaped, about 1.25 inches (about 3 cm.) in diameter, with a yellowish white color and a rough, uneven exterior.  No real odor to speak of.  The texture was dry, and crunchy, which makes sense, since they're dried pieces of cheese, and are called "crisps."  They tasted like parmesan, which again makes sense, as that's what they were.  The flavor was very good to excellent.  I enjoyed these immensely, and would readily recommend them.

Whisps asiago & pepper jack cheese crisps:  These were the same size and shape, and outer appearance  as the parmesan ones, but their hue was a light orange instead of being yellow-white.  Again, not much of a smell at all.  And they were similarly dry and crunchy.  The flavor was very impressive.  There was a decent amount of spice bite--not overpowering, but enough to make it a bit zesty and interesting.  The parmesan ones were top notch, as I said, but these were maybe slightly better.  Or excellent.  I highly recommend these too.  If you like these kinds of cheese in general, I think you'll really like them in dried baked form as well.  I'll try to locate the cheddar kind, too, and report back here if I do.

     The official company website invited satisfied customers to "become a Whisperer."  I guess I am now, since I very much enjoyed these snacks.  But, contrary to the more common definition of whispering, I WILL EXTOLL MY LOVE AND ADMIRATION OF THESE DRIED CHEESE SNACKS THIS WAY, THE WRITING EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING.

Great Writing News!

      A while ago I teased a bit about an upcoming acceptance of mine, and now I'm able to be more detailed about it.  An essay of mine, "Blood Lines," will be a part of the eleventh issue of Morbid Curiosity.  Morbid Curiosity is published and edited by Loren Rhoads.  Whose name should be familiar to my readers, since she was also the publisher and editor of 2022's "Death's Garden Revisited," the book that explores all aspects of cemeteries.  (And I had an essay in that one, too.)  Additionally, I did an interview with Loren on this blog back on April 9th, 2022.  The tentative publication date for Morbid Curiosity #11 is October of this year, and a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is planned for the near future.  Obviously I'll include more information about this upcoming  magazine issue in the coming weeks and months, including the cover art, synopses, and the list of contributors.

     Now I'd like to explore Morbid Curiosity in more depth.  Because I have quite a history with this publication.  I was fortunate enough to have stories included in Issues 7, 8 and 9.  These were some of my earlier publishing credits, so they're special memories.  But, first off, what was, and now is, Morbid Curiosity about?  It lived up to its title, as it featured confessional, first person, non-fiction essays which explored, "The unsavory, unwise, unorthodox, and unusual:  All the dark elements that make life truly worth living."  Through most of its run, Morbid Curiosity mainly focused on survivor narratives.  These described folks' experiences with "sexuality, birth, modern healthcare, illicit substances, natural disasters, UFO encounters, humanity's inclination toward violence, as well as homicide, serial killers, and ghosts."  Morbid Curiosity was an annual magazine, and was published between 1997-2006.  All told 310 survivor narratives were featured.  Some of the more famous contributors were, in alphabetical order:  

Michael Amzen, Maurice Broaddus, M. Christian, Alan M. Clark, Aaron Comethus John Everson, Ray Garton, Rain Graves, T.M. Gray, Michael Hemmingson, Brian Hodge, Charlee Jacob, Brian Keene, Nancy Kilpatrick, Jasmine Sailing, Julia Solis, Jill Tracy, V. Vale, Don Webb, and David Niall Wilson.

     Morbid Curiosity attracted a fair bit of attention, too.  Two museums featured it as part of a display.  A copy of an issue can be seen on Mulder's desk in an episode of "The X-Files."  It's been cited in at least four books-- "Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck: Why We Can't Look Away" by Eric G. Wilson, "Death: An Oral History" by Casey Jarman, "Encyclopedia Gothica" by Lisa Ladouceur, and "The Goth Bible" by Nancy Kilpatrick.  Finally, when it closed in 2006, Peter Carlson of The Washington Post wrote a long, passionate obituary for it.  (Which can still be found online.)

     Loren Rhoads ceased Morbid Curiosity to focus on her writing career.  Which has been prolific--she's penned short stories, nonfiction books, and novels.  Included in this output is the "As Above, So Below" set ("Lost Angels" and "Angelus Rose"), the "In the Wake of the Templars" trilogy ("The Dangerous Type," "Kill By Numbers," and "No More Heroes"), and the nonfiction "199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die," and its later companion, "222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die."  Also both the book I mentioned previously, "Death's Garden Revisited," and its predecessor, "Death's Garden."  She later condensed the highlights of Morbid Curiosity into the book, "Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues."

     However, it's back from the dead.  Presumably the zombie form of Morbid Curiosity will be even more disturbing, fascinating, alarming, and interesting than it was before, if that's possible.  I hope this post has whetted your appetite for Issue #11.  It can't come soon enough!  Much more to follow.      

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Two Canadian Soft Drinks

      This was a case when I didn't really need to check the "Product of (whatever country it was made in)" section on the label.  The overall name of the product, in clear, large letters told me that it was an import--"Clearly Canadian."  I did check, later, just to make sure it wasn't a geographical ruse, but it wasn't:  Clearly Canadian is indeed made in Canada.  I tried a couple of their sparkling water beverages--their mountain blackberry kind, and the wild cherry one.

Clearly Canadian is neither an ancient company, nor a very recent one.  It started in 1987, founded by Gordon Sim, Doug Mason, and a few other, unidentified folks.  The original water source for their drinks was the Tillicum reservoir, located on Silver Star Road, in the Monashee Mountains, overlooking the British Columbian community of Vernon.  Sim, Mason, and their cohorts decided to add some flavoring to their spring water, and they were off.  Clearly Canadian beverages were a hit after only a short time, as the 1990's was a prolific decade for the company.  Their wares were even featured (not in ads, but in the hands of the characters) on several famous television programs of the era, such as "Sex and the City," "Friends," and "Seinfeld."  Alas, in the aughts the business began to falter due to mismanagement.  This got so severe that Clearly Canadian shut down for a while, starting in 2010-11.  The leader of an investment firm, Robert R. Khan, of 4N Capital Partners, acquired Clearly Canadian in 2012.  Around the same time, a crowdfunding campaign was done, which attracted over 14,000 fans/investors, who pre-bought over 40,000 cases of the beverages.  This money was used to get the business up and running again, and Clearly Canadian was active and successful once again.

     Clearly Canadian just makes beverages, all based on Canadian spring water, although the sources have expanded from only the Tillicum spring.  They make four basic sorts of beverage--the originals, zero sugars, the sparkling essences, and the Clearly sparkling line.  These drinks are flavored with four natural ingredients.  (Which they didn't reveal--I suppose they're company secrets.)  All are fruit-flavored, but no actual fruit juice is used.  Not shockingly, since their products are mostly made from water, all are vegetarian-appropriate, and free of GMOs and gluten.  Some of their drinks do contain cane sugar as the sweetener, and not the common high fructose corn syrup.  (Their zero sugar drinks don't use sugar, obviously, substituting stevia instead.)

Clearly Canadian sparkling water beverage, wild cherry flavor:  Had a cherry-ish odor, and, as the name suggests, was a clear color.  It was carbonated, i.e., sparkling.  The taste was also noticeably cherry-ish.  Or like a typical cherry soda/soft drink.  It was good--fizzy and fruity.  I would rate it good to very good, and would recommend it.

Clearly Canadian sparkling water beverage, mountain berry flavor:  This one was also clear in color, and once again had the advertised fruit odor.  Carbonated too, of course.  It had a pleasant black berry-like flavor.  Not a super strong taste, but pretty good.  Maybe a tad less tasty than the wild cherry kind, but still respectable.  I would also recommend this one.  And I will try other Clearly Canadian beverages if/when I encounter them.

    

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Mexican/American Fruit Gummy

      This week's topic was a complete happy accident.  I had a coupon for CVS that was about to expire, so I was browsing their small selection of food, searching for something that would be free, or almost so.  I happened to spy a new-to-me kind of fruit gummy--the mango and passion fruit flavor from the Solely line.  So it all worked out.

     The official Solely company website has next to no information about the founder, and company history.  Fortunately, an online interview with Forbes was much more detailed.  Back in 2000 a 17 year old Mexican boy named Simon Sacal abandoned his engineering training to try to create a fat free potato chip at an unnamed company.  However, the Atkins Diet fad of 2009-10 essentially ended the point of fat-free foods, so Sacal switched to a spin-off company that was initially called IHS, and eventually Fruitex.  Now his goal was to help Mexican school children get more, and healthier fruit products.  At first this was in the form of an apple fruit bar.  However, growing seasons meant their apple sources weren't available year round.  Fruitex developed a special drying machine for the fruit, which solved the availability problem.  Sacal's brother Gabriel, working with the company's research & development section, then designed a way to make pasta from pineapple, with no additives.  In 2014 the fruit industry became intrigued, and focused on "clean" fruit, meaning fruit products made from organic fruit, with no preservatives or additives.  So Sacal split off from Fruitex to create the Solely company and brand.  In 2018 Solely relocated over the border, into Southern California.  Solely products, as the name suggests, are made from fruit alone.  The line has three different categories--fruit jerky, fruit gummies, and dried fruit.  There are several different variants and combinations, but many have mango in them, and some have chocolate drizzling, or even spices like chili.  Solely also makes pasta, although I couldn't find this on the official website.  I'm not sure of the exact distinction between the product types, since all of them appear to be kinds of dried fruit.  Also, not shockingly, Solely wares are made exclusively from organic fruit, and are all free of GMOs.  They're all vegan-appropriate, and certified Kosher as well.  Although some contain gluten, and all are made at facilities that also process soy, peanuts, and tree nuts, so those with allergies to any of these should take note.

Solely organic fruit gummies, mango & passion fruit flavor:  These were small, twisted squares, about 1 cm. by 1 cm (about .5 inch by .5 inch).  The texture was chewy.  I couldn't really detect the separate mango and passion fruit flavors.  They were sweetish, but a little bland.  I would have preferred a stronger, sweeter fruit taste.  Also, I don't know if these qualify as "gummies," since they're just dried fruit, without the usual (mostly artificial) gummy ingredients.  Most of the gummies I've had are candy, so full of sugar and/or corn syrup, meaning they're probably terrible for you, but they taste good.  These are undeniably healthier for you, but the taste suffers.  So I don't really know how to rate these.  I would recommend them as a healthy snack, since they are, but I wouldn't recommend them purely on taste.  Finally, from a shallow, aesthetic viewpoint they uncomfortably remind me of rabbit turds, which didn't help the experience, even if it was just a coincidence.

 

 

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--A Couple of Italian Potato Snacks

      Today I'll represent my home area a bit, and do a post about an Italian food.  As I've surely mentioned before, there is a fairly large Italian-American population in South Jersey, so the local supermarkets often have products from this country.  It'll be two potato snacks from the D'amo Matera brand--their pomodoro piccante kind, and their mix legumi one.

     D'amo, which, confusingly, is also sometimes rendered as Damo (no apostrophe) or as Da.Mo in their full business name, Da.Mo. Industria Alimentare SRL, was started by two men--Danilo D'Amario and Paolo Moliterni.  Both of these guys had been heads of food companies before, and wanted to begin a new company.  Their goal was to make a healthy, non-fried potato chip.  They included the city where the product would be made, Matera, in their brand name.  Also, the symbol of this town, an ox with some wheat in its mouth, was used as a cartoon logo for their wares.  The entire D'amo/Damo line is sparse, consisting of only five products, all potato-based chips.  The flavors are legume, spicy tomato, lemon, oil and salt, and protein.  (The ones I had were the legume and the spicy tomato.)  And that's about all I can say about the company--there's next to nothing online about its history and background.  It was one of those companies that seem to want to remain mysterious and mostly anonymous, save from what they're selling.  (With one weird exception to this, which I'll mention at the end.)  I couldn't even find out what year the business started.  The company does talk about the city of Matera a lot, on both the official website and on the product labels, so after I review the chips I'll do a paragraph or two about that.

D'amo Matera snack alle patate, mix legumi (legume) flavor:  These were light yellow/whitish discs, with some visible green splotches, that had a diameter of about 4.5 cm. (about 1.75 inches).  They were light, crunchy, and airy.  And kind of bland tasting.

D'amo Matera snack alle patate, pomodoro piccante (spicy tomato) flavor:  These were also yellowish white discs, although these had red dusting on them.  Their size was the same as the previous ones.  And these were once again light, crunchy, and airy.  They had a recognizable tomato flavor, which was a little stronger than the legume kind.  Which meant they tasted better.  Still not great, but alright.  The pieces were oddly inconsistent--some had more of the red dusting on them, and thus more flavor.  Overall this type was kind of good.  So I'd recommend the spicy tomato ones a little, but not the legume ones, since they were rather boring.

     The city of Matera is located in Southern Italy, in Basilicata.  Just how long people have been living there is disputed.  Some posit 3000 years, others say that it's 10,000.  Whichever date is accurate, it's been a long while.  Matera is known for its unusual set up, being located in three deep valleys, with correspondingly high rocky mountains in between.  The citizens early on started carving buildings into the rock, often resulting in cave-like dwellings and rooms.  This picturesque, but odd quality has led to the city being declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1993, and it was named the European Capital of Culture in 2019.  Its unique rocky streets and buildings have made it a popular setting for movies.  Some that have filmed there include "The Demon" (1963),"King David" (1985), "The Passion of the Christ" (2004), "Mary" (2005), "The Omen" (2006 remake), "Wonder Woman" (2017), and "No Time to Die" (2021).  This community, with a current population of just over 60,000, has produced a few famous folks.  Matera-born actor Cosimo Fusco is arguably best known (at least to Americans) for playing Paolo on the "Friends" television program in 1994-95.  He also appeared in the 2008 television movie "Coco Chanel," and in movies such as "Gone in 60 Seconds" (2000), "The Card Player" (2004), "Angels & Demons" (2009) and the HBO Europe series "30 Coins" (2020-21).  Another famous Matera-born man was St. John of Matera (1070-1139), the Benedictine monk who was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1177.  Finally, Matera produced a very successful paralympion, Enzo Masiello.  Made a paraplegic at age 18 in a traffic accident, Enzo competed in both the Summer and Winter Paralympian Games.  For the 1992 Summer Games he won bronze in the 5000 meters.  In the 2010 Winter contest he won a silver in the 10 km. classic style sitting event (skiing), as well as a bronze medal in the 15 km. sitting (skiing) event.

     I'll end on something I found weird on the official Damo/D'amo website.  As I said, it was very terse on the company's history and background, but, at the same time it provided phone numbers for the two founders.  Presumably they're secondary, and business-only numbers, handled by receptionists, but what if they're not?  What if they just answer questions and comments from any random person?  Maybe I should call and ask them when the company was founded, and such.  Of course, their English might not be great, and my Italian is non-existent save for a few random words, mostly food names, so that conversation might be futile.

  

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Two Protein Bars

      Today I'll be returning to the subject of protein bars.  The ones I'll be talking about are candy bar-ish, while purporting to be healthy snacks.  These are both from Chef Robert Irvine's Fit Crunch line--their chocolate chip cookie dough kind, and their mint chocolate chip variant.

     I had to look up who Robert Irvine is, which just goes to show that I don't watch the Food Network channel.*  Anyway, Robert Irvine was born in England.  In his late teens he joined the country's Royal Navy, becoming a chef for a military ship.  After his service time was over, he became a celebrity chef.  While he's appeared as a guest on several cooking shows, such as "Iron Chef," he's best known for hosting several different programs, mostly on the Food Network.  Probably the best remembered ones are "Restaurant Impossible" (2011-16), and for his two seasons of "Worst Cooks in America."  He also had a stint as the host of a regular (i.e., not cooking based) talk show on the CW channel in 2016, but this one seems to have been short lived.  He's also owned at least two restaurants.  One, which was within the Las Vegas Tropicana hotel and casino, lasted from 2017-24, and the other, Fresh Kitchen, still exists, operating within the U.S. government's Pentagon building.  Irvine also has an ownership stake in a Pennsylvania-based distillery, named Boardroom Spirits.  It sells Irvine's vodka, and Irvine's dry gin, among others.  And he's written, to date, six books--"Mission: Cook!" (2007), "Impossible to Easy" (2010), "Fit Fuel" (2015), "Blend Anything Machine Recipes" (2015), "Family Table By Robert Irvine" (2018), and "Overcoming Impossible" (2023).  Staying on the written word, since 2016 Irvine has his own digital magazine, the creatively named "Robert Irvine Magazine," which is still active.  He's made some other notable biographical claims as well, such as that he earned a degree in food and nutrition from the U.K.'s University of Leeds, that he's a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, he helped make the wedding cake for the Royal union of Charles and Diana, and that he was employed as a chef at the American White House.  Some folks questioned these accomplishments, but Irvine maintains that they're true.  More relevant to this blog post, Robert Irvine started Fit Crunch in 2012 in a partnership with Bakery Barn.  The company was owned by Irvine's Pervine Foods, LLC originally, but it was acquired by 1440 Foods in 2024.

     Fit Crunch makes various kinds of protein bars.  Some, like the two I sampled, are part of their baked bar line.  Other bar types include wafer bars, and Delight bars.  Customers can also buy several kinds of protein powder.  Somewhat surprisingly, the company's wares contain some of the common "controversial" ingredients.  As in, some of their products have soy, and some contain gluten.  All of them contain dairy, and several also contain nuts.  And, although Fit Crunch's official website notes that their bars aren't technically made with any declared GMOs, they admit that some of them are produced with genetic engineering, whatever that specifically means.

Chef Robert Irvine's Fit Crunch high protein baked bar, chocolate chip cookie dough flavor:  The bar measured about 3.5 inches by 1.5 inches (or about 9 cm. by 4 cm.).  It had a very rough-looking appearance, with many bulges and nuts barely covered by the outer coating.  The color was a dark brown.  The flavor was very chocolate-y, and the texture was crunchy.  It was really tasty--it was like a good candy chocolate bar.  I don't recall detecting much of a cookie dough taste, but it was so good otherwise that I didn't care.  So it didn't taste like a typical disappointing healthy snack, it tasted like a fun, decadent candy.  I'd recommend this highly.  My only very minor complaint was that it was a little messy to eat, as it was starting to melt in my hand quickly.

Chef Robert Irvine's Fit Crunch high protein baked bar, mint chocolate chip flavor:  This one was the same size and shape as the previous one, and also had a rough outer appearance and a very dark brown color.  The only real difference was this bar had white streaks going across it.  The texture was once again crunchy.  The taste was pleasantly bold--I could detect both the chocolate and mint flavors.  So I really enjoyed this kind a lot, too.  I would strongly recommend this one as well.  It was a bit melty, like its kin, to pick out and identify one tiny nit.

     In case you're wondering, I looked up Robert Irvine's books on Amazon, to check out the general consensus on them.  And with one exception, they're well regarded.  "Impossible to Easy" had a rating of 4.3 out of 5, both "Fit Fuel" and "Mission: Cook!" were at 4.4, "Family Table" was at 4.5, and "Overcoming Impossible" was a robust 4.7 out of 5.  The exception was one that wasn't as well publicized, and seemingly was a smaller release, called "Blend Anything Machine Recipes" (2015).  It only had a 3.0 out of 5.  Although, this was only based on one review, so that should be kept in mind.  (All the well rated ones had a good number of reviews, some over 100.)

*   Which makes sense, because why would I?  I hate cooking, and most competition/reality type programs, so there's nothing there for me.  It'd be like if I voluntarily watched a network devoted to knitting, or NASCAR, or Medieval romantic poetry.

 

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Norwegian/Polish Sardines

      This is another example of a product I've been eating for decades, but didn't think to post about it until now, when I realized I'd overlooked it.  King Oscar sardines are one of the most common canned sardine brands in the U.S., at least in the stores that I've visited.  For today's post, I'll be discussing King Oscar's wild caught sardines in water.

     The history of the company that makes King Oscar seafood is a bit convoluted.  But here goes.  In 1873 the Stavanger Preserving Company was founded by four (unnamed) men in the Norwegian town of Stavanger.  They, and some other canneries in this city/region were reportedly the first ones in the country to develop oil packed, canned, smoked brisling sardines.  In 1880, Norway, and especially these Stavanger canneries, began exporting their canned sardines.  In 1882 a man named Christian Bjelland started his own sardine cannery business.  Some Norwegian smoked sardines were enjoyed at the 1893 World's Fair, held in Chicago, Illinois that year, helping the industry get further attention.  By the turn of the century Norway had become the sardine industry leader.  Then, in 1902 the ruler of Norway and Sweden, King Oscar II, tried some sardines made by the Stavanger-based Christian Bjelland company.  The sovereign was so impressed that he allowed the business to use his name and image as a brand.  A year later the new King Oscar sardines were first exported to the U.S.  And in 1907 (or 1908 according to some sources) Christian Bjelland was knighted for his business innovations and success.  Two years later his company aired the first commercial in Norway, a 10 minute short film about their products.  Over the next few decades the brand, and the manufacturer, continued to flourish.  In 1981 11 Norwegian canneries joined together to form (the imaginatively named) Norway Foods.  This new conglomerate included the King Oscar brand.  In 2008 the facilities for canning the King Oscar fish (and presumably other canned fish brands) were moved to Poland.  Norway Foods was acquired and then sold off several times, the final time to date to the Thai Union firm.  Currently King Oscar products are exported to the U.S., Japan, Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Canada, South Africa, and Australia.  Aside from sardines, King Oscar also markets salmon, mackerel, kipper snacks, anchovies, yellowfin tuna, cod, and fish pate.  Their wares are wild caught, and contain no GMOs or gluten.

King Oscar wild caught sardines in water:  There were at least eight fillets in the can, with silver scales and brownish-white meat.  There wasn't much of an odor, and the texture of the sardines was soft and chewy.  The taste was slightly oily, although that was from the fish themselves, since they were packed in water and not oil.  The taste was a bit bland--obviously because the sardines were in water, and not oil and with no spices.  But still, they were a decent example of the style.  They just needed a bit of a condiment to help them out.  I think they would also make for a decent sandwich, if that's your thing.  So I would recommend them, but the oil-packed or spicy King Oscar ones are surely better, and if you get the water-packed kind like me, grab your favorite sauce, too.

     I found it a little weird that a king or queen (even one that was a constitutional monarch by that point in history) would give their name and likeness to a product.  But evidently King Oscar had some company--The U.K.'s Queen Victoria allowed her image on many products, as did Queen Elizabeth II, who lent her name and coat of arms to products like Heinz ketchup and Cadbury chocolates.  Apparently it ran in the family, as Victoria's uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium reportedly allowed his name and image for some commercial photography products.  We should also keep in mind that these rulers almost certainly got some financial kickbacks for doing this, I would think.  Call me cynical, but I doubt it was just that they were so dazzled by these products, and allowed their names and images for free.  

  

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--An English Beer Cheese

      I've obviously done many posts about various beers, and various cheeses.  But I think this is the first one that's a combination of the two.  Thinking about it, I'm kind of surprised it's taken so long.  I mean, I've done weird alcoholic combos like "hard" iced teas, "hard" popsicles, and even "hard" candies, but not cheese.  Anyway, today's cheese is the Challenger IPA from the English Somerdale company.

     Given England's extensive history, I halfway expected the maker of this cheese to have been around for over a century, or possibly several centuries.  But no--Somerdale International has only been active since 1990.  It was founded by two men--Stephon Jones and Ernie Waldron.  Its current headquarters are in the town of Wellington, in Somerset.  They sell cheese that are from various farms, although all are either in the U.K. or Ireland.  They make or distribute quite a few kinds of cheddar, a blue cheese, white Stilton, and several sorts of Wensleydale cheeses.  They even make a 1776 aged cheddar, to celebrate the United States' 250th anniversary.  Which seems a tad odd, since America achieved their independence by fighting the English.  But, it has been a long while, and they're clearly over it.  And, one of Somerdale's best customer bases is the U.S., so maybe that's part of it.  The Challenger IPA cheese isn't even the only one that includes some booze in it, as there are two Claddagh Irish Cheddars with some--one with an Irish porter, and the other with Irish whiskey.  I was further surprised to see a section on the official company website titled "Modern Slavery Transparency Statement."  This statement is nicely progressive--Somerdale is against forced labor (or as they spell it, labour), and child labor/labour, and human trafficking in general.  All good stuff, obviously, but it made me cynically wonder, how many foods and drinks have I bought that do support (or at least turn a bling eye to) human slavery and trafficking?  It's more than a little unsettling.

Challenger IPA:  It had an off white/pale yellow color.  I had some plain at first.  It had a crumbly texture, and tasted a bit sour, maybe a tad bitter like an IPA.  But this last bit wasn't that strong, or completely evident.  If you'd given this to me and not mentioned it was an IPA-infused cheese, I don't know if I would have determined or detected that.  Still, it was tasty.  I also had some on crackers, and the taste was pretty much the same.  Or once again, very good.  So, overall I didn't really recognize the IPA beer in this, but it was nevertheless a more than respectable cheese.  Not shockingly, to any of my previous readers, I would highly recommend this, even if the beer taste isn't necessarily there.

     I don't believe I've discussed this before, but if I did, forgive the repetition.  Eating this cheese made me ponder--can foods with alcohol in them affect the consumer?  Or, more bluntly, can eating a cooked dish with booze in it affect someone, or even make them intoxicated?  I've heard that alcohol in food is cooked off, and evaporates, meaning it shouldn't really affect the consumer.  However, that's not entirely true.  Alcohol that is cooked does dissipate, and evaporate, but it's a bit slow, and certain cooking methods or the time spent cooking, can produce very different results.  For example, if booze is added to a boiling liquid  briefly it may maintain 85% of its potency.  Alcohol added to food and flambeed may be 75% retained.  If baked for about fifteen minutes, about 40% of the alcohol will remain.  Increased this baking time to 60 minutes and the amount of alcohol left drops to about 25%, and after 120 minutes or so it decreases to about 5-10%.  Now, this remaining amount probably won't mean much--even if you have some briefly baked dish, for example, 85% of an amount of alcohol equivalent to about a shot of liquor, or a glass of wine, or about 12 ounces of beer probably won't affect a normal person.  Especially if this dish was eaten by more than one person.  So, for most folks eating something made with alcohol probably won't be a big deal, but it you're a teetotaler, or are pregnant, or are a recovering alcoholic if might be significant, and a problem.  If you're a member of these groups you should be very strict--it might not just be harmless flavoring.