Smoof Blog

feedshow.com

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:51:52 GMT

If you know anything about this website please send me an email and tell me about it. Thanks.

Tuber Indicum

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:40:03 GMT

I gave some canned Chinese truffles the same treatment as the Oregon blacks. Don't bother with these. They have almost no smell and no taste at all.

Kototbuki again

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:08:40 GMT

Kotobuki is tiny. It's a converted townhouse that maybe seats 25 people. There's a stairway from the entrance up to the restaurant. This stairway is filled with people waiting to get in. If you don't want to wait, or if you have a big group, don't go here; but believe me the food there is worth waiting for. Once you get in the service is quick. There were four sushi chefs behind the counter and they were constantly busy, because there's also a constant stream of people picking up takeout orders. Except for a few appetizers (which are great), all kotobuki serves is sushi and sashimi. You can order a combo plate with some pre-chosen selection of sushi, but I really suggest you just get everything a la carte. They give you a little menu and you just mark down what you want on that. Most nigiri here are only one dollar. The uni and toro are $2.50. It's all super-fresh and delicious. The only thing I really didn't like was the crab, which was "krab". My favorites were the eel, the toro, the scallop and the monkfish liver. But really it was all great (except the krab). Like I said, the best sushi I've had. Also the cheapest; which is kinda strange.

Truffles

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:27:40 GMT

I went to Whole Foods and bought an ounce of Oregon black truffles

I sliced 'em as thin as I could and tossed them with some linguine, butter, olive oil and Parmesan.

The were, ..., nice. I wouldn't say they knocked my socks off with truffleiciousness. They had a very strong smell when you held the whole ones up to your nose. Once they were in the pasta they had a very subtle effect. Mostly in smell and not taste. It was hard to describe, and nothing at all like truffle oil. It was kind of musky, maybe mushroomy, i can't really describe it. Truffly i guess. Meghan thinks they smell like bad button mushrooms. All in all, I can't say I was really impressed. I've had more delicious things in my time. For something that costs $30 an ounce, and whose exalted cousins cost ten times as much or more, I can't say I see the point. Perhaps it wasn't truffles in general, but these truffles. I don't imagine the best truffles in Oregon wind up in the mushroom case at whole foods next to the criminis. Perhaps next winter I'll mail order some and try them again.

kotobuki

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 03:41:59 GMT

There may be better sushi places than kotobuki, but I wouldn't know because I've never been to one. Seriously. This place is awesome. Go there. It rocks.

Great Moments in Trolling Presents:

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:14:45 GMT

where can obtain I fresh white truffle?

It's the username that made me laugh out loud.

Redneck Extension Cord

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:22:43 GMT

leg of lamb

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:35:37 GMT

awesome

Bread

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:34:50 GMT

This is a great book. It tells you how to make bread.

Awesome Couscous

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:55:14 GMT

Couscous

1 cup couscous
1 cup broth
salt
1 t grains of paradise, ground
1/2 t cassia buds, ground

Zereshk

1 cup currants
1 t saffron
1 T lemon juice
1 T sugar
a touch of turmeric
olive oil

Steep the saffron in a little boiling water. Saute the Zereshk ingredients for a few minutes. (stolen from here) Bring the broth to a boil, combine all couscous ingredients and cover for 5 minutes or so. Fluff up the couscous with a fork and top with the Zereshk (probably not all of it) . Perhaps it's better to add the spice to the couscous after it is fluffed. I'm not sure yet which approach is optimal. Some butter in the couscous is also nice.

Almost Vegetarian Thai coconut soup

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:42:01 GMT

some button mushrooms
olive oil
eggplant, cut into pieces
green onions, chopped
2 12 oz cans of coconut mil
2.5 cups of chicken broth
2 stalks lemongrass, crushed
20 thin slices of galangal
two crushed handfuls of kefir lime leaves
2 T fish sauce
zest and juice of one lime
some pepper corns
some tiny Thai peppers. some crushed, some thinly sliced.
cilantro.
salt, to taste

Salt the eggplant heavily and leave it sit for a while. Squeeze it dry and rinse the salt off. Fry the mushrooms in the olive oil. Put everything in the pot (except cilantro) and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Garnish with the cilantro when you serve it. Don't eat the leaves, galangal or lemongrass.

"Afghan" stew

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 01:27:34 GMT

the stew

lamb shank, de-boned, trimmed, cut into pieces
half an onion
mushrooms
half a cup of lentils
stock
olive oil
garlic, chopped
turmeric
cinnamon (ceylon), ground
chilis de arbol, ground
cardamom, ground

yogurt topping

thick Greek style yogurt
dried shallot, ground
olive oil
salt

Brown the bone under the broiler. Fry the onions and garlic with the spices. Fry the lamb pieces. Throw it all in a dutch oven and put it in the oven at 350 for an hour and a half.

It turned out pretty good. Maybe use leg meat next time though.

Fuck 'em

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:11:10 GMT

In 2006 I didn't even consider voting for any Republican. They had both houses of congress, they had the white hose, and they were being evil just as quick as they could manage. They showed remarkable solidarity and refused to even mildly criticise the most egregiously evil and illegal things their Leader was doing. They all deserved to loose, just because they were Republicans. I was actually overjoyed to see the Dems win congress. I even hoped they'd impeach the bastard.

Well that was then and this is now.

My attitude towards the Democrats today is: Fuck 'em. I don't care if they keep congress. I don't care if they elect a president. They're no better than the Republicans. They're every bit as culpable for the war. They're protectionist, populist, socialist fuckers. They kiss religions ass almost as much as the Republicans. They hate freedom and liberty and they love government. Their policies are designed only to sound good as sound-bytes and attract special interests to fund their campaigns. They don't give a shit about the constitution or human rights. In this election I have nothing to hope for.

I suppose I can hope Kucinich or Paul will get nominated and shake things up. But I know it's not going to happen. The least noxious result I can really hope for is Obama or Richardson, and a divided congress. It'll probably be Rudy v. Hillary.

Things look pretty fucking bleak.

Marketing Words

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:58:56 GMT

One of the most effective means that marketers and propagandists have to control how you think about something is to set terminology you use to talk about it. Words have more than a literal meaning. They also have emotional connotations. You can't help but feel more negative about a "death tax" than an "estate tax" even though you know they literally mean the same thing. I'm going to make a concerted effort not to use terms invented by propagandists. A few I can think of are

Terrorist: Every rebellion under the sun gets called a bunch of terrorists by their enemies. Were the contras terrorists? Was night-bombing the Nazis terrorism? Are the Tamil Tigers terrorists? Are the Taliban? Tribal militias in Iraq? Israeli settlers? Who cares. Terrorist is a market-word and I'm not going to use it. I'll them what they are: gorillas, militias, armies, soldiers, rebels, enemies, or whatever.
Liberal and Conservative: The media loves this one-dimensional caricature of politics because it fits into a 15 second sound-byte. Partisans love it because, well, they're partisans. But it's bullshit. Although there's an easy to identify "liberal" and "conservative" position on just about every issue, neither group has any coherent principles or ideology. Rather, the positions they take are a random collection of historical accidents. The only constraint seems to be that they stridently disagree. Conservatives aren't for torture because sat down and thought about it and concluded that torture was justified. They're for it because their Leader went ahead and did it and the idea that the Leader is a war criminal is unthinkable. The Department of Education used to be liberal, not it's bipartisan. Segregation used to be conservative, now it's taboo. Deficits used to be liberal, now liberals want to cut spending. Under Clinton, foreign military interventions weren't conservative, now they are. "conservative" and "liberal" aren't ideas, they are tribes. And they're both fucking nuts. I think I'll just call them "red" and "blue" from now on.
Enhanced Interrogation: It's called torture.
African Americans: They're black.
Hate Speech: It's called bigotry. They call it "hate speech" to make censoring it sound more justifiable.
Hate Crime: They use this term to lump bigotry and vaguely implied intimidation in with lynching.
Piracy: It's copyright infringement.
Statutory Rape: Illegal, consensual sex with a post-pubescent minor.
Sex Crime, Sex Criminal: They use this to lump flashers and "statutory rapists" in with child molesters and real rapists so they can justify harassing them after they've served their time.
Pro-life, Pro-choice: The dispute is about abortion. Some people are for it, some are against.
Originalist: red jurist.
Judicial Activist: blue jurist.
Progressive: blue.
Undocumented Immigrant: illegal immigrant.
Support Our Troops: support the war.
Gun Nut: someone who advocates gun rights.
Conspiracy Theorist: Someone who doesn't trust the government. This term is often used to disparage mundane and plausible conspiracy theories by comparing anyone who entertains them to nutters that think the moon landing was faked. It fosters a greater level of trust in government, police, and corporations because anyone who thinks they might be acting out of base motives, conspiring against the public to further their private interests is by definition a conspiracy theorist, and nobody wants to be that.
Faith: irrational belief.
Faith-based: religious. church-organized.
Assault Weapon: a weapon the blues would like to ban.
Homeland Security: I don't even know what this is supposed to mean. But I sure know it's market-speak.
Cut and Run: end the Iraq war. Obviously the purpose of this term is make that course of action seem cowardly.
Islamo-fascist: an islamist, an advocate of Islamic politics and government. Used to identify "the terrorists" with Nazis.
Homophobic: bigoted with respect to gays. Used to make bigots seem weak and frightened.
WMD: chemical, biological or nuclear weapon. This term is used to identify chemical and biological weapons with nuclear bombs, in order to make them seem far worse than they are.
IED: bomb. I really have no idea why we need a fancy market-word for bomb, but there it is.
Affirmative Action: discrimination against whites or men.
Atheist Fundamentalist: an atheist. Used to make atheism sound like a religion, or an ideology, or a system of belief. It portrays religious moderation as the rational, reasonable middle and atheists as fanatical extremists similar to Pat Robertson and Osama Bin Laden.
The Middle Class: almost everyone.
Organic Food: Food produced according to a somewhat arbitrary set of rules. Obviously this term has no connection to the technical meaning of "organic". It is meant to make "organic" products seem more natural and traditional, less processed and fake.
Family Values: red values.
Sexual Harassment: A large range of offenses that can expose an employer to liability under sexual harassment laws. Like "hate crime", or "sex crime", this term lumps relatively trivial offenses in with extremely serious ones.
Fiscally Conservative: Most politicians claim to be fiscally conservative. It either means they want to cut spending, or cut the deficit, or cut taxes, depending on whats convenient.
Zero Tolerance Policy: the policy of enforcing harsh, fixed sanctions on absolutely anyone who breaks a particular rule, regardless of the circumstances or malicious intent. The rule itself is often overly broad. Examples include schoolchildren banned from hugging their friends, drug-trafficing convictions for chronic pain patients, students being expelled for bringing toy weapons into school, or DUI convictions for .01% blood alcohol content. The idea seems to be that applying some common sense in these situations would constitute "tolerance" of sexual harassment, illegal drugs, school violence, and drunk driving.
Intelligent Design: creationism.

Great Little Programs

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:45:12 GMT

I often discover some opensource utility that solves a problem I've had for years, and I just say to myself "wow. why didn't i know about this already?" there's so much stuff out there it's easy to overlook great programs even when they're exactly what you need. Here are a few that come to mind

xargs: move strings from it's standard input to the argument list of a command
filelight: visualize disk usage
apt-file: search for .deb packages that contain certain file names
Mercurial Queues: manage and version control a set of patches against an upstream codebase
k3b: burn a cd without having to think about it
amarok: manage your music collection

Bible Bar

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 04:20:47 GMT

I found this at a Korean grocery store:

It contains the "seven foods of Deuteronomy 8:8", which are apparently wheat, barley, raisins, honey, figs, pomegranates, and olive oil. On the back it quotes Deuteronomy, which says "A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey." It's actually not bad. Tastes like a hippy energy bar, but with more dried fruit than usual. The ingredients are: brown rice syrup, organic brown rice, figs, organic wheat flakes, organic barley flakes, organic raisins, organic honey, almond butter, extra virgin olive oil, raspberry fruit powder, pomegranate concentrate, and sea salt. I can't think of anything I could say that would make this product any more amusing, so I'll just leave it at that.

Awesome

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:44:02 GMT

Pictures of my awesome new car. It's shiny.

Launcher

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 07:29:04 GMT

Firefox should have a way to launch an external application on a link from the context menu, but it doesn't, so I made a extension: launcher-1.0.xpi. The source is at http://elder-gods.org/~larry/repos/launcher/.

It doesn't have a user-friendly dialogue box to configure it yet. To use it you create a file called link-handlers.js in your firefox profile directory. It should contain a javascript hash table like this one:

{"seeurl" : "gnome-terminal -x sh -c \"echo url: %r | less\" ",
 "links"  : "gnome-terminal -x links %r "  }
// make sure  there's a newline after the expression because mozilla's stream interface is retarded

Best. Printer. Ever.

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 05:04:39 GMT

The Photosmart C6180

Everything just works. In linux. Printing. Scanning. Faxing. WIRELESSLY.

lol

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:30:09 GMT